147: Chapter 147 The Realm of Flame: Return

After the bell toll faded, every streetlamp in Linhai lit up.

It was no ordinary light.

The streetlamps in the Old Port District, the hospital corridor lights, the harbor navigation lights, the fire truck roof lights, the light box that had been broken for half a year in front of the convenience store, and even the malfunctioning voice-activated lights in the apartment stairwells—all of them simultaneously began to glow with a layer of grayish-white light.

This time, no one received a new task prompt.

The Torch Domain did not just issue a weapon to anyone. It was like a roadmap unfurled by lines of fire, returning the reality obscured by the sea, inch by inch, to those who were still walking.

[Return Voyage.]

Standing in the dispatch vehicle, Tide saw at first glance the newly appeared paths of light between the twelve anomaly points. Those paths were not all straight; some bypassed sunken garages, some cut through hospital back doors, and others veered out from the middle of the old pier storage yards. Yet, every single one led to a refuge point in reality, a Lamp-Keeping Zone, or a doorway where someone was still waiting.

She took over the broadcast almost immediately.

"Everyone in the Old Port District, listen up: do not enter elevators, do not go underground. If you see white lights, follow them. From the Seventh Pier, head east; leave the hospital through the back door; take the second-floor skywalk in the shopping mall. Do not trust your phone's navigation; trust the path of light before your eyes."

She repeated this over and over until her voice quickly grew hoarse.

Space Venerable and his engineering team were guarding three load-bearing nodes, and only one Boundary-Setting Ruler remained. He used the ruler to pin down a wall that was on the verge of collapsing; behind it, the Black Sea lashed out violently, but the spray was blocked mid-air by the Guardian Lamp screen.

"How many minutes left?" he asked.

"Don't ask about time," Bai Ya said. "Ask which line is the brightest."

Bai Ya's Patrol Lamps had already blanketed the port area. He was no longer just watching. He made every Patrol Lamp bite into ticket stubs, entwine water lines, and illuminate a real exit for those who were lost. Sparks of fire were constantly extinguished in the Black Sea, and new ones kept flying out from the anchor points. Bai Ya's face was deathly pale, but his fingers never stopped moving.

Zhao Ye was guarding the innermost part of the Seventh Pier.

The Suppression Domain was on the verge of shattering. Two of the five Fire Nails had already split in half, and the columns of fire were being bent by the pressure of the Black Sea. He saw an old man clutching a Return Voyage ticket standing before the yellow line; his son's name was on the ticket.

The old man looked at the path of light, then at the elevator door, crying like a child.

Zhao Ye did not take the ticket for him, nor did he say, "You should go home."

He simply drove a Fire Nail into the ground at the old man's feet.

"The door is over there," Zhao Ye said. "The path is over here."

The old man stood for a long time, and finally placed the ticket beside the Fire Nail.

The ticket did not burn.

In the Purifying Flame, it slowly faded into a blank sheet of paper.

Cao Gui stood before another path of light and finally saw his older brother.

Cao Zheng stepped out of the elevator, still looking like he was in his twenties, just as he appeared in the photos; his hair was tousled by the sea breeze, and he was carrying two cans of soda. He smiled at Cao Gui: "Why are you late again?"

Tears instantly fell from Cao Gui's eyes.

He wanted to rush over, but his feet did not move.

"Brother," he said, his voice hoarse, "Mom always kept an extra pair of chopsticks out after you left."

The smile on Cao Zheng's face slowly faded.

"I know."

"When she passed away, she kept calling your name."

"I know."

"I didn't take good care of her."

Cao Zheng did not walk forward any further; he only raised the can of soda and clinked it against the empty air, just as he had done many years ago.

"As long as you're still alive, that's enough."

The sound of the Tide grew heavier behind the elevator door. Cao Gui cried as he placed his ticket under the light.

"I remember you," he said, "but I'm not going with you."

The ticket split, and Cao Zheng's shadow slowly dissipated within the light.

The Tide-Reversal Bureau stood on the Black Sea, watching as more and more tickets were laid down. Its register pages began to curl at the edges, and the water-written characters faded line by line. For the first time, it realized that Torch was not forcing people to stay by using stronger rules.

That fire simply laid out the path.

But once people see the path, they are not necessarily willing to be taken away by it anymore.

The surface of the sea began to recede.

But in the deepest part, three black tickets did not fall.

They passed through the paths of light and attached themselves to three different directions.

The directions in which the three black tickets flew were the dispatch center of Tide, the load-bearing point guarded by Space Venerable, and the elevator shaft on the Nameless Floor that had not yet fully closed.

They were not ordinary tickets.

Each one carried the final downward route of the Tide-Reversal Bureau; as long as one of them landed securely, the newly lit Return Voyage path of light would be severed in the middle.

Tide saw her own first. The black ticket stuck to the dispatch console, and a line of text emerged on its surface.

[Fellow Passenger: Tide's Father]

Her father had died in a maritime accident ten years ago, and his body was never recovered. Tide had never really talked about it, only glancing at the old port a little longer whenever the sea conditions were particularly bad.

This ticket struck exactly where she least wanted to be touched.

A familiar male voice came through her headset: "Xiao Xi, the ship is about to dock."

Tide's hands were shaking violently. She saw the white path of light beside the dispatch console, and she saw the damp characters on the ticket. She did not touch the ticket, but instead pulled the microphone closer.

"Attention, entire port area," she said, her voice trembling yet still very clear, "the white path of light is confirmed to be valid. Everyone, evacuate according to your actual location; do not listen to any private calls."

Using her most familiar professional tone, she drowned out that voice.

It was more direct on Space Venerable's end. The black ticket landed on the Boundary-Setting Ruler, and the ticket read "Fellow Passenger: Mother." His expression changed instantly, and he almost let go of the ruler in his hand. But behind the load-bearing point were two more engineers and a path of light leading to the hospital.

He gritted his teeth and pressed the ticket against the wall.

"My mother hated it when I was late when she was alive," he said. "I can't leave now."

The Boundary-Setting Ruler lit up, and the black ticket was crushed by the real wall.

On the Nameless Floor, Wu looked at the last ticket. There was no fellow passenger on the ticket.

There was only one line of text.

[Passenger: Wu]

He stared at that line of text and, instead, gave a small laugh.

"You don't even know who I am."

He pressed the ticket against the blank wall. The Fire Nail was still embedded in the wall, and the grayish-white Purifying Flame burned across the ticket's surface. The black ticket did not immediately turn to ash, but instead tried to write Wu into the register. But Wu's identity was already too fragmented to be fully recorded; the Tide-Reversal Bureau would write one character, and the Fire Nail would strike it out.

Outside, the Return Voyage path of light grew brighter and brighter.

Jiaoyue led the medical team to evacuate from the hospital back door, the tempering records on all the patients' wrists like tiny little lights. Bai Ya's Patrol Lamps formed a net over the port area, blocking every path forged by the Tide outside the net. Zhao Ye stood before the Sea Gate, the Suppression Domain having only a flicker of fire left, yet still pressing the most dangerous yellow line under his feet.

Cao Gui stood at the end of the path of light, no longer holding a ticket. He looked at the place where his brother had disappeared, his tears not yet dry, but he took the initiative to help an old person who could not walk.

"Go this way," he said.

The old person asked: "Aren't you waiting for someone?"

Cao Gui shook his head.

"I've already waited."

The water level of the Black Sea finally began to drop.

The Tide-Reversal Bureau's register was blown open by the wind, and many names inside faded away on their own. It looked up at Linhai, for the first time not continuing to ask questions.

The Return Voyage Domain connected the lights of the entire port area into one whole.

It was not the fire that was helping people go home.

It was all the people who were still willing to walk toward reality who had lit the path themselves.