56: Chapter 56 Where the Fire Seal Lands

Inside the training ring of the Xinhuo Hall, a circle of fine, dense fire patterns emerged on the outer side of the stone stele.

It was not the trajectory from Torch training, nor the residual light left by the Pure Flame Vision, but a finer, more stable mark. The fire patterns landed on the ground like a stamp pressed into the stone surface, shining briefly before fading into the grey-black texture.

Lu Chen sat on the Fire Keeper seat, his fingertips resting on the edge of the armrest.

Below the high platform, Shen Qinghe, Zhao Ye, and Bai Ya stood in the inner ring of official members. Further out, Lin Zhao and Xu Minglan sat in the trainee seats, Tang Zhiwei's figure stopped in front of the logistics corridor, and Zhou Yan stood in the archives assistance area, holding a newly projected remnant page of a local gazetteer.

Zero's voice rang out from the central stone stele.

[Core Standardized Technique: Fire Seal, finalized.]

When Zhao Ye saw the words "Fire Seal", his brows twitched slightly.

It was not the first time he had seen something similar.

During that wall lamp mission, he had just completed the Torch descent, and the residual heat brought by the Torch was still flowing in his blood. A familiar voice came from the wall lamp, trying to lure him into responding. Zhao Ye did not reply, only pressing the evil-breaking short staff against the wall, leaving a very faint fire mark through the Mark of the Torch.

The prompt Zero gave at the time was very simple.

Temporary Coordinate Response.

That was not a formally released Core Standardized Technique, nor was it a complete anomaly marking art; it was just a marking aid included in Torch training, used to synchronize encountered anomaly coordinates to the Grey Net and teammates during emergency missions.

But now, the explanation on the stone stele was much more complete than it had been then.

[Source: Torch training Temporary Coordinate Response, Old Object Chain marking rules, Grey Net coordinate synchronization module.]

[Usage: Marking anomaly cores, contamination boundaries, evacuation routes, Torch landing points, Grey Net coordinates.]

[Learners: Official members.]

[Restrictions: Cannot be used in non-mission states; cannot be implanted into ordinary people; high-risk anomaly cores must be confirmed by a Fire Keeper or someone with higher authority before marking.]

Zhao Ye stared at those lines of text and said in a low voice, "So that temporary mark in training is called Fire Seal in the official version?"

Zero responded quickly.

[Yes.]

[Temporary Coordinate Response only has single-point marking and mission synchronization functions. Fire Seal is a Core Standardized Technique after formal finalization, which can be used for multi-type anomaly marking, Torch landing point calibration, and continuous Grey Net tracking.]

Bai Ya stood nearby, his tone very light.

"Congratulations, you were using the trial version before; now you've finally seen the full manual."

Zhao Ye glanced at him.

"No one will think you've disconnected if you don't speak."

Shen Qinghe did not join their bickering. She raised her hand to touch the Xin Huo Interface, carefully reviewing the authority boundaries of the Fire Seal.

Fire Seal was not an attack technique, nor was it a sealing technique. It was more like a coordinate jointly recognized by the Purifying Flame and the Grey Net. Official members could use it to synchronize anomaly locations, contamination ranges, and evacuation directions to the squad. Anomaly traces marked by the Fire Seal would briefly remain highlighted on the Grey Net map.

More importantly, the Fire Seal could provide landing points for Torch.

This meant that in the future, not everyone had to arrive at the scene at the same time. Investigation members would first discover the rules and leave a Fire Seal; action members would then arrive via Torch descent; intelligence members would track the Old Object Chain based on the Fire Seal; and medical members could place low-level marks at the location of the wounded to request logistics support.

Lu Chen looked at the explanation on the stone stele and knew very well that this was what organizational techniques should look like.

No matter how cool a single ability was, it was only an individual performance.

After the Fire Seal and Torch linked up, the Xinhuo Council truly began to take the shape of a "system".

Inside the training ring, Zero generated a simulated scene.

An old building corridor, dim wall lamps, damp wall plaster, and a half-open security door. The anomaly traces were hidden in three different locations, visible only as faint black lines after activating Pure Flame Vision.

Shen Qinghe stepped forward first.

Her eyes shimmered with faint Purifying Flame, and the colors of reality faded slightly in her vision. A moment later, she reached out and pressed her hand against the inside of the stair railing.

A Fire Seal landed silently.

[Rule weakness marked.]

Zhao Ye subsequently activated the Torch training path. Above the simulated space, a point of starlight streaked across, and the next instant, he landed heavily near the Fire Seal left by Shen Qinghe, his evil-breaking short staff precisely pinning the corner of the wall.

Bai Ya watched the residual lines synchronized by the Grey Net and tapped his fingertip.

A second Fire Seal landed behind the security door.

[Old Object Chain trace marked.]

Lin Zhao sat in the trainee seat, watching very carefully.

In his Xin Huo Interface, the Fire Seal explanation was fully expanded, but the status at the bottom remained clear.

[Insufficient authority, temporarily unavailable for learning.]

He did not speak, only memorizing the four words "official member" in his heart once more.

Xu Minglan noticed another detail.

Fire Seal could mark not only anomalies but also the wounded.

She asked in a low voice, "If there are contaminated ordinary people at the mission site, can we use Fire Seal to mark medical priority?"

Zero paused for a moment.

[Yes.]

[After the medical role authority is upgraded, the wounded marking branch can be opened.]

Tang Zhiwei immediately looked up.

"Then can logistics synchronize evacuation routes?"

[Yes.]

[After the logistics Seal Keeper authority is upgraded, the Fire Seal evacuation branch can be viewed, but there is no authority to actively mark high-risk anomalies.]

Lu Chen listened to this feedback, his fingertips tapping lightly on the armrest.

Fire Seal was originally just a coordinate technique. But as different roles began to integrate, it became a common language between action, medical, logistics, and intelligence.

The fire patterns on the stone stele lit up again.

[Fire Seal finalized.]

[Core explanation updated: Where the Fire Seal falls, Torch can arrive.]

Zhao Ye looked at that sentence and suddenly smiled.

"This line is not bad."

Bai Ya said, "Better than your landing posture."

Zhao Ye gripped the evil-breaking short staff tight.

"You really talk a lot today."

Lu Chen did not close the training immediately.

He had Zero project the Temporary Coordinate Response from the wall lamp mission onto the side of the stone stele as well. It was an incomplete record: Zhao Ye's Torch landing point was too hasty, there were calling echoes in the corridor, and the fire mark only stabilized for less than ten seconds, yet it was enough for Shen Qinghe and Lin Zhao to receive the synchronized coordinates.

After the record was broken down, everyone could see it very clearly. The advantage of temporary marking was speed, while the disadvantage was its shallowness. It could only tell teammates "the anomaly is here", but it could not distinguish between cores, boundaries, evacuation directions, nor could it continuously track Old Object Chain traces.

The significance of Fire Seal lay in turning this kind of temporary reaction into a rule.

Zhao Ye looked at the record and finally stopped bickering with Bai Ya. That fire mark he had once pressed down casually was, at this moment, officially incorporated into the system by the Core of the Torch.

Outside the training ring, in the outer ring of Candidates, several third-generation Candidates could not see the specific contents of the inner ring; they could only see from afar the firelight falling again and again, only to be absorbed into the stone stele by the Grey Net.

They did not know what technique that was.

But for the first time, they understood that official members of the Xinhuo Council did not rely on luck to handle anomalies.

Every spot of firelight was a rule.

Every Torch had a landing point.

And the figure standing on the high platform was writing these rules into the Torch, one by one.