185: Chapter 185 The Far Sea Clock Tower

The mark looked like a closed eye.

Needle-thin etchings were embedded behind the black clock face, their edges shimmering with a layer of cold mist, like salt frost rising from the sea surface late at night, carrying a lingering, damp chill.

As soon as Bai Ya's crow shadow drew near, fine black threads began to seep out from around the mark, as if something alive were squirming within the patterns.

When Lin Zhao retreated to the side of the street, his legs nearly gave out.

Chen Jue reached out to steady him, but Lin Zhao instinctively dodged.

After dodging, he felt it was too deliberate, so he stiffly added, "I'm fine."

Chen Jue stared at his pale face: "Say that again?"

Lin Zhao shut his mouth.

Xu Minglan knelt down to treat the blisters on the back of his hand. When the iodine swabbed across the wound, Lin Zhao's fingertips trembled, but he didn't make a sound.

After finishing the treatment, she shoved a nutrient pack toward him. Just as Lin Zhao was about to stand up, a single sentence from her nailed him back to his chair.

"If you dare move an inch right now, I'll call Zhao Ye over to hold you down."

Lin Zhao instantly stopped moving.

Chen Jue muttered from the side, "That trick really works."

Bai Ya did not return to Qinghe.

He sat in the outer ring of light in Xinhuo Hall, the Patrol Crow Lamp suspended before his knees, its flame flickering on and off.

The three crow shadows split into three paths: one landed at the old clock shop in Qinghe to keep watch, one stopped at the Linhai Fire Beacon to reinforce the defenses, and the last one followed the remnants left by Rhine's letters, flying deep into the Distant Sea.

The third one flew extremely slowly.

It wasn't that Bai Ya didn't want to go fast; it was that there was simply no path over there.

The Grey Net could only provide a vague direction. The light from the Linhai Fire Beacon shone toward the sea surface like it was cast into a piece of light-absorbing black cloth; the beam of light had barely extended half a nautical mile before it was gnawed away bit by bit by the darkness.

The crow shadow could only inch forward, hugging the remaining signal fragments, like walking along a wall in a room without lights; one wrong step would mean disappearing completely.

Zhao Ye stood to the side, watching with growing impatience: "Are you actually capable of this? If not, I'll do it."

Bai Ya closed his eyes, his complexion paler than the lamp wick: "Fine, you do it."

Zhao Ye looked at that delicate black-feathered lamp and gritted his teeth, holding back.

Shen Qinghe held the fragment of the clock face brought back from Qinghe, cradling the fate-reflecting bronze bell - fragment in her palm.

The small bell was quiet, not making a single sound, only when it got close to the mark did faint ripples seep out from the bell body, as if it were resisting something.

"This isn't Liuxia's method, nor is it ordinary Black Shore pollution." She traced the patterns on the clock face with her fingertips. "It's more like a prohibition."

Tang Zhiwei connected from the reality channel: "Who imposed the prohibition?"

"I don't know yet." Shen Qinghe paused. "But it's not targeting ordinary bell sounds; it's targeting any sound that could signal 'time is up,' 'the boundary is reached,' or 'it's time to depart.'"

Zhao Ye scoffed: "In other words, it wants to control anything that reminds people 'what they are supposed to do'?"

"Pretty much."

"What a nuisance."

Bai Ya suddenly raised his hand, signaling them to be quiet.

The third crow shadow passed through a layer of thick black fog.

The scene from the other side of the Distant Sea was transmitted back to Xinhuo Hall, intermittently.

It wasn't the sea.

It was a city.

At least, it once was.

The streets were as narrow as if they had been carved out by a blade; the buildings on both sides were tall and old, their windows mostly nailed shut with thick wooden boards, dead silence seeping through the cracks.

The streetlights were all extinguished. Nailed along the base of the walls were strings of stopped clocks—pocket watches, ship clocks, church clocks, electronic alarm clocks—hanging all over the wall in various sizes, like some kind of eerie trophy.

At the end of the street stood a clock tower.

The clock tower was very tall, but it had no clock face, leaving only a round, hollow opening that looked like a blinded eye.

A piece of black cloth hung from the opening, swaying gently as it was lifted by the wind.

Below the black cloth stood a group of people.

Everyone was holding a clock in their arms, their heads buried very low, daring not to look at each other, nor at the clock tower.

Rhine stood at the front of the crowd, her left hand wrapped in blood-stained bandages, her right hand clutching an old, polished brass key, her back held very straight.

She seemed to sense the crow shadow and suddenly looked up.

"Don't get close to the clock tower." Her voice was kept extremely low, as if afraid of startling something.

Bai Ya used the crow shadow to transmit his voice, which landed by her ear: "We are on the other side of the sea."

There was not a hint of surprise on Rhine's face, only a trace of exhaustion after being stretched to the limit, as if the breath she had been holding had finally been released a fraction.

"Finally connected."

Her Chinese was still a bit stiff, but much smoother than in the recording; she had clearly practiced for a long time.

"I don't have much time. After nightfall on the Clockless Shore, all clocks must be handed over to the clock tower. Whoever hides one will be taken away. We originally thought that as long as we didn't let the clocks ring, we could survive."

"Later, we realized that was wrong."

She turned and glanced at the shivering crowd behind her, her eyes darkening.

"They aren't afraid of the clocks ringing."

"They are afraid of a different clock ringing."

Bai Ya frowned.

"What clock?"

Rhine didn't answer immediately.

Inside the clock tower's hollow opening, the hanging black cloth suddenly moved.

Everyone on the street lowered their heads simultaneously, clutching the clocks in their arms tighter.

Someone began to tremble uncontrollably; a child pursed their lips, wanting to cry, but was tightly gagged by their mother, whose knuckles turned white.

Rhine lowered her voice, speaking much faster: "The elders here say there is a great bell on the other side of the sea. Once it rings, all the old things will know where there are still people who refuse to 'file.'"

Zhao Ye's expression instantly darkened.

Shen Qinghe turned abruptly to look at Lu Chen.

Lu Chen stood before the three-city fire map, his face showing no ripples, but his fingertips were gently pressing against the pattern of the Law-Suppressing Bell Shadow deep within the Fire Map.

The Clockless Shore knew about the Law-Suppressing Bell Shadow.

Or rather, they had sensed the existence of the Law-Suppressing Bell.

Rhine continued: "Don't let it ring. At least not now. Inside the clock tower... there is something waiting for it."

Bai Ya was just about to press for details when a very faint click suddenly came from the clock tower.

It wasn't a bell ringing.

It was the sound of a key turning in a lock.

Everyone holding a clock knelt down simultaneously.

Rhine's expression changed drastically.

"The Clock Collector is here."

She quickly shoved the brass key into her sleeve, took one last look in the direction of the crow shadow, her tone very light but without a hint of hesitation.

"If I get disconnected, don't try to save me."

Bai Ya's eyelids twitched.

Rhine had already turned around, following the crowd, walking step by step toward the clock tower.

The crow shadow wanted to follow.

Inside the clock tower's hollow opening, a hand wearing a white glove gently lifted a corner of the black cloth.

That hand did not touch the crow shadow.

It simply made a gentle "shh" gesture toward the void.

The image from the third crow shadow instantly extinguished.

Bai Ya opened his eyes abruptly, a sweet, fishy taste surging in his throat; he turned his head and coughed up a mouthful of blood, which splattered onto the grey-white floor, stinging the eyes.

Zhao Ye stepped forward to steady his shoulder: "You..."

Bai Ya waved his hand, wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, his voice hoarse.

"I saw it."

The atmosphere in Xinhuo Hall instantly sank.

The moment the scene from the Distant Sea was transmitted back, many people realized for the first time that the world Torch was facing was growing larger and larger.

Qinghe, Jiangbei, and Linhai were already chaotic enough, but on Rhine's side, they didn't even have basic Safe Houses, and whether they could speak loudly or even mention the time depended on the weather.

That was not a new dungeon waiting to be unlocked.

It was a group of people truly living in the darkness, gasping for air while walking on the edge of a knife.

Tang Zhiwei quickly began to organize the list of available resources for the Rhine line: the number of shelters, the number of people who could be transferred, medical shortages, food reserves, communication methods... The data was pitifully scarce, and most of the entries could only be marked with a question mark.

She stared at those question marks, feeling terrible.

Behind those question marks were people.

People whose names were unknown, whose locations were unknown, and who didn't know how much longer they could hold on.

"Let's not rush to talk about crossing the sea yet." She tapped on her keyboard, synchronizing the list with everyone. "But we must prepare the supply plan first. On the day there is a path, let's make sure we don't let them survive only to starve to death."

Zhao Ye stared at the frozen clock tower in the image, his fingers pressing against the hilt of his blade, his knuckles turning white.

He didn't like this feeling of being separated by the sea, watching helplessly as others were beaten.

Enemies that could charge over were simpler; smash them, drag them back, seal them—there was always something to do.

But that street in the Distant Sea was like being separated by a thick sheet of glass; the people were running inside, afraid inside, and he could only watch, unable to touch them.

This sense of powerlessness made his expression increasingly sour.

Lu Chen was in no hurry to define everything in the Distant Sea.

A name could stabilize a situation, but it could also awaken it.

The tentative name "Clockless Shore" had already caused the three-city fire map to dim once; if they were to write the Clock Tower, the Clock Collector, and the prohibition into the Grey Net, no one knew if it would conversely help the other side complete their "registration."

Torch was becoming stronger, and also increasingly unable to speak casually.

This caution made Zhao Ye feel stifled, but it made Shen Qinghe secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

When facing things one didn't understand, the most terrifying thing was never slowness; it was the rush to force it into a familiar framework, only to end up falling into a pit without even knowing how it happened.

Lu Chen looked at the edge of the Fire Map, at that faint light from the Distant Sea, like a candle in the wind, flickering, but not extinguished.

He spoke softly, his voice clear in the quiet hall.

"There are people over there collecting lamps, too."

Taking away all the clocks that could ring, hiding all the lamps that were lit, gagging everyone, and letting the darkness slowly swallow the entire shore.

It was a different method from the Black Shore, but just as cold.

The Law-Suppressing Bell Shadow deep within the Fire Map trembled slightly.

It didn't ring.

It was still waiting.

Waiting for a moment when it could truly ring.