166: Chapter 166 Hidden Lamp

At midnight, all regular shipping routes in the Linhai Port Area were forced to shut down.

In the thick fog of the outer channel, that unbranded freighter lay silently across the sea—not docking, not approaching, and not sending out any communication calls, like a stagnant ghost of the sea.

Its hull was rusted and mottled, its original color long since unrecognizable, and a string of black buoys dragged behind the stern rose and fell with the Tide, gently colliding with each other and emitting dull, fragmented clinking sounds.

Every time the buoys collided, the lights across the Linhai urban area would shudder, flickering between brightness and darkness, unstable and uncertain.

Tide stood before the port dispatch console, tense throughout the night, her voice already dry and hoarse.

"Zoom in on the buoy list on the full screen."

As the light and shadow on the large dispatch screen danced, Bai Ya identified and transcribed the names on each black buoy one by one.

The list was scattered and chaotic, encompassing on-duty workers in the port area, hospitalized patients, and bereaved families who had lost loved ones at the settlement sites; among them even lay two names that had long been officially announced as deceased and entered into the death register—Liang Cheng and Lu Chengzhi.

Tang Zhiwei's fingertips suddenly hovered over the desk, the chill in her eyes deepening.

"It is testing."

"Testing what?" Zheng Xiang asked in a deep voice beside her.

"Testing human obsession." Tang Zhiwei's gaze remained locked on the screen, her words cold and clear. "Testing who will lose their mind for a name or an old memory, and light a lamp to lead the way for it."

Lu Chen was not in a hurry to order the burning of the ship or a forced expulsion.

Inside the Xinhuo Hall, all Fire Beacons across Linhai were lit, and the Fire Map of the entire city was spread out without reservation.

The Black Shore on the sea surface faced them from afar, locking firmly onto this piece of human starlight.

The Fire Map clearly reflected every Guardian Lamp position and every material transport route, also completely exposing everyone's defensive network and survival trajectory.

The brighter the lights, the clearer the trajectories, and the more dangerous everyone's defense became.

But if they were to extinguish all the lights and plunge the entire region into darkness, it would be equivalent to cutting off the city's lifeline, causing people in desperate straits to completely lose their direction and fall into disorderly chaos.

Lu Chen gazed at the Fire Map for a long time, then slowly covered the connected starlight positions of Linhai with his palm, reaching a decision.

"The lights will not be extinguished."

Tang Zhiwei raised her eyes to meet his gaze.

"Hide the fire."

This was not a brand-new secret technique, nor was it a rule made up on the spot.

This was the first time Lu Chen had fully retracted the continuous Fire Map that spanned three cities, pulling back its sharp edge.

The dazzling, intense light atop the towering beacon towers in the port area faded layer by layer, with the starlight shrinking entirely into the ancient carvings of the bases, restrained and unreleased.

The emergency Guardian Lamps in the hospital corridors were all covered with frosted lamp shades, the faint light only bright enough to illuminate an inch of the ground at the pedestrians' feet, no longer diffusing outward.

Inside the settlement sites, Lin Zhao led people to pull up thick, dark curtains, firmly trapping every lamp's light within the rooms, the warmth staying on the ground, never leaking a fraction through the window gaps.

Linhai still had points of starlight, and the warmth of humanity was not extinguished.

But standing on the Black Sea and looking out at the entire urban area, above the vast sea of fog, there was no longer any exposed edge.

The whole city was like someone clutching the lights of the sky firmly in their palm, hiding all traces.

By the window of the dispatch center, Xingkong stood silently, staring intently at the distance scale between the Black Shore and the urban area on the sea.

"It has stopped."

Bai Ya's expression did not relax, and the vigilance in his eyes did not diminish by half. "Stagnation does not mean retreat."

"I know." Xingkong's voice was low, hiding the memories of past desperate situations. "In the past, when it stopped, it was counting. Counting the lights of the human world, counting the obsessions of the living."

When the starlight in the city retracted and hid its edge, the first things to face turmoil were never the anomalies on the sea, but human hearts and order.

Nighttime material transport completely abandoned high-brightness light guidance, and the intelligent navigation of all operational vehicles in the port area failed, forcing a switch to purely manual mode.

Tang Zhiwei's dispatch team abandoned electronic routes, hand-archiving every transport route, verifying the driver's name, starting point, destination, and accompanying personnel for each vehicle, confirming layer by layer, and implementing it step by step.

It was tedious, inefficient, and clumsy, like suddenly retreating to a barbaric era without satellite positioning, yet it was also the safest lifeline at the moment.

Tyrannosaurus King drove a heavy trailer, repeatedly shuttling through the outer ring roads, the warning lights on the roof covered by his own hands, leaving only a faint residual glow.

He complained in a low voice into the team's walkie-talkie, full of awkwardness: "Is this even considered rescue and disaster relief? It feels like we're sneaking around."

Tang Zhiwei's cold voice came from the other end of the communicator, every word solemn: "If you dare to speed and expose the trajectory, someone will really be stolen by the things in the sea."

Tyrannosaurus King instantly fell silent, subconsciously releasing the accelerator by half an inch, his speed steady and heavy, no longer daring to be reckless.

At the outermost defensive line of the settlement site, Lin Zhao kept his post.

The Guardian Lamp light in front of him was pressed to the extreme, the warm light low and faint, only covering the square inch of land at his feet.

Several children curiously gathered around, reaching out to touch the flickering flame, but were gently stopped by him one by one.

"Don't get too close."

A childish voice carried fear: "Brother, is the lamp about to go out?"

Lin Zhao lowered his eyes to gaze at that cluster of restrained starlight, his tone gentle yet firm.

"It hasn't gone out. It's just hidden."

The child seemed to understand but not quite, and uneasiness still lingered in their eyes.

Lin Zhao thought for a moment, then took a piece of bright red seal from his pocket and carefully tied it to the edge of the lampshade, striking and secure.

"See this touch of red? The lamp is always there, and the protection is always there."

The children looked at that spot of bright red and finally settled down, no longer terrified.

In the temporary observation room, Wu sat in a corner, the Fire Seal in his palm even paler and more blurred than usual.

With the city's lights all pressed down and retracted, and the world's noise fading away, his ears became increasingly clear, and he could clearly capture the movements deep within the sea fog.

Across the entire distant sea, it was as if some colossal creature was breathing slowly and lengthily.

He closed his eyes and slowly spoke, pointing out the crisis in one sentence.

"The Black Shore is listening to names."

Xingkong turned back upon hearing this.

Wu slowly raised his palm, and pieces of fine, blurry short lines emerged on the surface of the Fire Seal, layered and arranged in a scattered manner.

"We hid the lights, cutting off its reliance for seeing and finding the way; it cannot see the city's location and trajectory."

"But it can still hear human hearts. It can hear who harbors a longing for home, who harbors attachments, and who harbors the obsession to return."

After the order to hide the lights was issued, the entire city of Linhai was forced to switch its survival rhythm, learning to breathe silently in another way.

Port drivers abandoned precise electronic navigation, holding handwritten route notes, memorizing the road section by section, turning corner by corner; night shift nurses in hospitals shielded the ward windows layer by layer, pushing hospital beds through corridors with only a faint light at their feet to guide the way; Zheng Xiang took a group of collaborators to go upstairs building by building, reminding every household, strictly forbidding anyone from using mobile phone flashlights to film or shine light toward the sea.

Many residents were puzzled, feeling that the black fog was far away on the sea, and that the light of a mere camera lens was not enough to be feared, assuming everyone was overly tense and worrying about nothing.

Zheng Xiang had no intention of arguing, simply inviting an elderly person who had almost been lured away by a strange phone call, but had fortunately been stopped in time, to the stairwell entrance.

The old man began to recount the bewitching voice on the phone that sounded so much like an old friend, and before he could finish, his voice choked up, his whole body turning cold.

The surrounding crowd listened quietly, the discussion gradually dissipated, leaving only full hearts of chill and awe.

At the inner street transfer point, Chen Jue stood his post.

He did not have the Heaven-Defying Ability Seed, nor did he have the Heaven-Defying capability to forcibly break the situation, only guarding the most clumsy and basic of tasks: registering the license plates, drivers, accompanying passengers, and transfer destinations of passing vehicles one by one.

After recording each order, he would have the most clear-headed person on the vehicle repeat and verify it to ensure there was no error.

At first, he was full of impatience, feeling it was tedious and useless.

It wasn't until he finished registering the thirtieth vehicle, his fingertips sore and numb, that the restlessness in his heart gradually settled.

An old collaborator beside him saw him lowering his eyes to write and asked in a low voice: "Is it annoying?"

Chen Jue lowered his head and finished writing the last name, his handwriting neat and forceful, without any perfunctoriness.

"Annoying."

"If it's annoying, why write it so seriously?"

His pen tip paused, and he suddenly recalled the past, his voice slightly stalling.

"If someone had forced Han Yue to write down his destination clearly and verify his trajectory before he set out, perhaps he wouldn't have gone missing inexplicably, and wouldn't have been left with no path to follow."

He suppressed his emotions, handed over the registration slip, his tone firm.

"Therefore, everyone must write it clearly."

At the dispatch desk, Tang Zhiwei's desk was soon piled high with thick handwritten route sheets.

She reviewed the registration photos sent back by Chen Jue, without any extra praise, simply adding a line of small, neat text at the end of each route: Confirmed by: Chen Jue.

Not for leaving merit, not for showing traces.

Only so that every trajectory heading toward a lifeline would have someone to witness it; so that every person who left and returned would have someone to remember them.

The moment Lu Chen gathered the Linhai Fire Map and retracted the city's starlight, the anchor points of the three cities simultaneously bore the pressure, their load increasing sharply.

The outer flames of Linhai faded completely, and the connected Fire lines of Jiangbei and Qinghe dimmed and weakened accordingly.

The operation of the Grey Net experienced a brief lag, and Bai Ya saw several times as the raven shadows that broke through the air reached halfway, their power dissipated, silently dissolving into the fog.

Zhao Ye looked at the increasingly dark Fire Map and asked in a low voice: "Can you hold on with such forced suppression?"

Lu Chen's gaze was calm, staring intently at the fluctuating starlight network.

"Even if I can't hold on, I must hold on."

"Exposing it to the outside and letting it pry into the guidance trajectory will only lead to more deaths."

Zhao Ye did not ask further upon hearing this.

He suddenly understood that Lu Chen's action was never a retreat or a passive defense.

This was a trade-off and a transformation—changing the mission of every lamp from illuminating the sea routes and guiding people, to guarding people closely and protecting the living.

By the window, Xingkong gazed at the starlight in the city that was retracting and dimming one by one, his fingertips dropping a brand-new trajectory line on the log.

The line wound and twisted, weaving and shuttling between the hospital, settlement sites, port warehouses, and temporary transfer stations, circling in a closed loop; from beginning to end, not a single stroke was directed toward the sea.

"It cannot find this road." Xingkong said in a low, certain voice.

Wu looked over from the side: "Why?"

"Because this road has no outward destination." Xingkong's fingertips brushed over the lines. "It only circulates in the human world, only circling around the living."

Wu gazed at that simple yet secure trajectory, and in his heart, he suddenly understood the true deep meaning of Lu Chen's hiding of the lights.

Some starlight does not need to shine through the distance or pierce through the fog.

As long as it can illuminate the people around it and guard the peace before one's eyes, it is enough to resist the boundless darkness.

At the very instant the city's lights were retracted and the human trajectories formed a closed loop, above the sea, the freighter that had been dead silent for a long time suddenly moved.

There was no roaring engine sound, no sound of water breaking.

The entire ship slid silently, dragging a string of black buoys, slowly turning its bow, and quietly veering half its hull toward the direction of the Linhai urban area.

The two black buoys at the very front of the fleet collided heavily, splashing water.

The writing on the surface of the buoys, soaked in the Tide, slowly dissolved, and the two characters "Liang Cheng" appeared and disappeared in the gloomy seawater, floating clearly.

Inside a settlement site in the city, a middle-aged woman suddenly stiffened and stood up, her eyes empty and dull, staring straight in the direction where the black fog was churning at the port.

Her lips kept opening and closing, repeatedly murmuring a strange name that no one heard and no one knew, her tone empty and eerie.

The low Guardian Lamp light in Lin Zhao's hand suddenly shook violently, the warmth turned cold, and the flame was in imminent danger.

Wu's face turned pale in an instant, the chill in his heart bone-deep, and one sentence shattered everyone's luck.

"It hasn't been counting for a long time."

"It is—taking roll call."