51: Chapter 51 Analysis of the Longevity Lamp

On the third morning, the news of the underground auction in the west of the city was still tucked away in a corner of the local section.

The headline was very restrained: "Electrical Accident Occurs at Illegal Secondhand Goods Trading Venue, Multiple Minor Injuries, Relevant Personnel Under Investigation."

Lu Chen sat in front of the computer in his rented apartment. After reading those few lines, he fell silent for two seconds and closed the page.

An electrical accident.

If something like the longevity lamp could be considered an electrical accident, then the "partial experience optimizations" he used to write in game version announcements would be considered excessively honest.

Half a box of cold takeout still sat by the desk. Lu Chen did not pick up his chopsticks again. Instead, he pressed the Mark of the Torch on the inside of his wrist. In the next moment, the real-world computer screen went dark, and only the Xin Huo Interface spread out before his eyes. Grayish-white firelight floated along the edges of the interface, and modules like Mission, Containment, Contribution, and Grey Net expanded one by one.

In the deepest part of the containment column, the longevity lamp wick suspended quietly.

It no longer emitted a dark green firelight like it did on the auction stage; only a shadow resembling a dried blood vessel remained, suppressed layer by layer in the center of the containment slot by the Torch Purifying Flame. Yet Lu Chen could feel that it was unwilling. Those thin, weak longevity threads were still trying to crawl outward, only to be turned to ashes by the Purifying Flame the moment they touched the edge of the containment slot.

Zero's voice rang out.

"The analysis of the longevity lamp has entered a stable phase."

Lu Chen raised his hand, and several analysis results emerged next to the containment slot.

[Rule Sample: Life State Transfer]

[Pollution Model: Longevity Thread Extraction]

[Convertible Directions: Life State Warning, Extraction-type Anomaly Suppression, Medical Tool Enhancement]

[Prototype Technique: Guardian Lamp]

[Containment Optimization: Improved suppression effects against anomalies of life-transfer, life-stealing, and disaster-substitution types]

Lu Chen looked at the words "Guardian Lamp," his eyes flickering slightly.

The essence of the longevity lamp was not extending life, but stealing life. It drained the life states of the people around it and transferred them to the lamp lighter. Something like this could never be used as an Ability Seed by the Xinhuo Council; otherwise, the entire System would be polluted by it.

But the rules themselves could be dismantled.

Since the longevity lamp could use the lamp as a medium to steal life states, Torch could do the opposite: use the lamp as an anchor to stabilize the injured, isolate pollution, and protect the minds and life echoes of ordinary people.

"We are not borrowing its filthy things," Lu Chen said softly. "We are dismantling it and using it the other way around."

Zero responded, "Judgment confirmed. The Guardian Lamp prototype can serve as a low-tier standard technique sample in the medical and protective directions. Currently, the conditions for full release are insufficient; a trial rule can be generated first."

Within the Xin Huo Interface, a faint lamp icon lit up. It was not dark green like the longevity lamp; instead, it held only a wisp of warm, restrained Purifying Flame, like a small lamp just lit in the dark of night.

Lu Chen did not immediately open it to everyone.

The first reason was permission level. Although the Guardian Lamp came from a low-tier analysis, it involved life states. If abused, members could easily misunderstand that Torch could extend people's lives. The second reason was control. It could only stabilize, not resurrect; it could only protect echoes, not create life out of nothing.

These boundaries had to be written down clearly before release.

Out of habit, he broke the rules down into several items, just like he used to design Systems, adding supplementary explanations line by line on the Xin Huo Interface.

Usage Conditions: Anomaly injuries, pollution echoes, low-tier mental erosion.

Scope of Effect: Small safe point, short-term stabilization.

Risk Warning: High-risk anomalies can pierce through the Guardian Lamp; users must bear the mental load.

Only when he finished writing did Lu Chen stop.

He suddenly realized that he was doing something his predecessors had never achieved.

In the old era, there were also people who raised fire to fight anomalies, and people who left fire seeds in ruined stone tablets, trying to let those who came after them extend the defensive line. But they were mostly blocking, sealing, and defending. Wherever the fire burned, that place was temporarily safe; once the fire died, the old law would sweep back.

But Lu Chen was different.

He wasn't just pressing the longevity lamp into the containment slot.

He was dismantling this anomaly into rules, transforming it into tools, techniques, warnings, and Systems that the Xinhuo Council could use.

Predecessors used fire seeds to save a single place.

He wanted to use fire seeds to build a net.

The Purifying Flame emerged in his palm, quieter and brighter than before. It was no longer just a flame; it was more like a beam of light that could illuminate anomalous structures. Within this beam of light, the remaining longevity threads of the longevity lamp revealed their layers bit by bit: where the inducement lay, where the extraction occurred, where the transference happened, and where the core was.

Lu Chen raised his eyes and looked in the direction of the Xinhuo Hall.

That small hall, which initially could only accommodate ten stable projections, had already completed a basic expansion before the Spark Release. The training ring, the outer ring seats, and the Grey Net map area were all in trial operation, but it had not truly stabilized yet.

There were more Candidates now.

Anomalies in the Outer City were also starting to light up.

Ten seats were no longer enough.

Zero's prompt quickly emerged.

[Current progress of the Xinhuo Hall's first expansion: 72%]

[The newly added Candidate outer ring and training ring are in trial operation]

[It is recommended to invest analyzed source essence to complete the spatial shaping]

Lu Chen looked at that number and let out a soft breath.

"Then let's shape it."

He raised his hand and threw part of the source essence obtained from the analysis of the longevity lamp into the hall's core.

Deep within the Xin Huo Interface, the central stone tablet vibrated gently.

Grayish-white firelight spread from the bottom of the containment slot like thin threads, spreading along the floor of the unknown space.

The Xinhuo Hall was about to truly become a council.

Lu Chen did not immediately leave the core area.

He temporarily locked the Guardian Lamp prototype in the medical trial column and copied the containment record of the longevity lamp to the deep archives of the Grey Net. Every anomaly analysis had to have a source, limitations, and corresponding release conditions. Otherwise, if they could extract the Guardian Lamp from the longevity lamp today, someone might mistakenly believe tomorrow that Torch could borrow life.

This was precisely what he was most vigilant about.

The Xinhuo Council was not an antique black market, nor was it the Longevity Society. It could not dismantle anomalies into enticing commodities, nor could it let members feel that anything could be exchanged as long as it was useful. Torch's rules had to be harder than anomalies, descending earlier than the greed in human hearts.

He re-checked the analysis entries and added a new restrictive explanation after "Guardian Lamp."

[This technique is only used to stabilize pollution echoes]

[No life extension, no life substitution, no resurrection]

[For violators of the rules, relevant permissions will be frozen immediately]

After the text settled, the longevity lamp wick in the containment slot suddenly vibrated gently, as if unwilling to have its rules written backward into the Torch System. Lu Chen looked at it, the Purifying Flame at his fingertip lighting up slightly.

"You used to rely on human lives to light the lamp."

"From now on, you can only teach Torch how to protect people."

The containment slot fell completely silent.

Once all entries were archived, Lu Chen copied the analysis results into the explanation column visible to official members, keeping only the shallowest layer. Members only needed to know what limitations and tools the longevity lamp brought; they did not need to know how the Core of the Torch dismantled the longevity threads, and they certainly did not need to know how many traces of the old law the Purifying Flame had seen in that instant.

Permission layering was not only to protect secrets, but also to protect people.

Lu Chen knew very well that the truth itself was sometimes a form of pollution. Letting members see it step by step was far more stable than uncovering the abyss all at once.

He recorded this judgment in his private notes: Every time Torch opens up, we must first ask if it will push people toward anomalies, rather than just looking at whether it is strong enough.