59: Chapter 59 The Fire Seed Ascends

Deep within Xinhuo Hall, the lights in the Sealing Corridor flickered on one by one.

The longevity lamp wick, the remnants of the old mirror, the contaminated fragments of the crying face copper coin, the torn pages stripped from the Red Line Catalog, and the faint voiceprints left behind by the wall lamp calling event, along with the out-of-town reports on the Jiangbei paper sedan and the driverless night bus, were sent one by one into the depths of the stone tablet by Zero.

Lu Chen stood before the Fire Keeper seat, not speaking immediately.

Viewed individually, each of these items seemed like an isolated anomaly.

The mirror reflected people, the copper coin mourned, the lamp stole lifespan, the paper sedan collected a bride, and the Night Bus returned people to a time they shouldn't return to. But when they were organized together by the Grey Net, what Lu Chen saw was not a collection of ghost stories, but tattered rules reaching out from the sea of the old law.

They were incomplete.

Yet they could still bite.

The Core of the Torch began to vibrate.

Purifying Flame rose from the bottom of the central stone tablet, no longer just a flicker of flame, but like a beam of light shining up from the deepest depths. Those sealed anomalous remnants gradually stratified within the Purifying Flame; the surface of the old objects, contamination paths, rule traction, and victim status were dismantled, recorded, and archived one by one.

Zero's prompts constantly appeared.

[ longevity lamp rule sample: Life state transfer. ]

[ Paper sedan remnants: Path deviation, red line traction. ]

[ driverless night bus remnants: Time displacement, road memory. ]

[ Wall lamp calling echoes: Sound induction, response binding. ]

[ Comprehensive analysis in progress. ]

Lu Chen closed his eyes.

The next instant, he saw images that did not belong to the present.

In a nameless old city, someone stood on the city wall holding a fire. Outside the city, the black tide surged; inside the city, the common people knelt on the ground, praying that the fire could last through the night.

In front of another ancestral hall, an old man sealed the Torch into a stone tablet, behind him were countless figures being dragged away by paper figures. He looked back, as if confirming whether those who came after would still be able to find this tablet.

There were also those who divided a fire among seven night watchmen, but after dawn, only two empty, burnt robes remained of the seven.

All those people had once touched the Torch.

They used it to guard cities, seal halls, protect people, and expel anomalies.

But they did not have the Grey Net, no Xin Huo Interface, no contribution points or Rank, no Sealing Corridor, training areas, or task system, nor a set of rules that allowed those who came after to continuously inherit it.

They had fire.

But they did not let the fire become a net.

He also saw a more blurred image.

Countless people gathered around a dying fire, carving their names into stone slabs. They wanted to pass the fire to those who came after, but had no way to make them understand how to use it. Some used the fire as a weapon and died from the anomaly's backlash; some treated the fire as a miracle and were eventually dragged into sacrifice by believers; others tried to guard the Torch alone until the entire city behind them went out.

Lu Chen watched for a long time.

He suddenly understood that the Torch never lacked brave users.

What it lacked was someone who could turn bravery into a system.

Therefore, the Xinhuo Council could not rely solely on passion.

Contribution points, authority, audits, exchanges, training, logistics, medical care, archives, the Grey Net, and the Sealing Corridor—these seemingly trivial things were the reason why the Torch had not truly been swallowed by the old law.

When Lu Chen opened his eyes, the Purifying Flame had already covered the surface of the stone tablet.

He finally understood more clearly why the Core of the Torch had chosen him.

It was not because he was the best fighter.

Nor was it because he was the least afraid of anomalies.

But because he knew how to dismantle chaotic things into rules, turn rules into a system, and hand that system over for more people to use.

The predecessors lit a fire, but could only last through one night.

What he had to do was ensure that every fire had coordinates, authority, recovery, and Legacy.

Zero's voice echoed in the hall.

[ Core of the Torch first-stage upgrade complete. ]

[ Fire Keeper authority increased. ]

[ Grey Net observation range expanded. ]

[ Purifying Flame analysis depth increased. ]

[ High-order Starfire: Cross-city projection, exclusive to Fire Keeper. ]

[ Great Sun Purifying Flame prototype: Not fully open. ]

The Mark of the Torch of every member in the hall grew slightly warm.

Shen Qinghe looked up and saw that Lu Chen's silhouette behind the stone tablet was clearer than ever. It wasn't that his features had become clearer, but rather that the firelight behind him was heavier, like a Great Sun that had yet to rise, pressed beneath the horizon by grey fog.

Zhao Ye gripped the evil-breaking short staff, feeling for the first time that the Starfire within him had been recalibrated by some higher source of fire in the distance.

The Grey Net before Bai Ya flickered briefly; the residual lines of the Old Object Chain in Jiangbei, Linhai, and Qinghe lit up simultaneously, only to be suppressed by a layer of Purifying Flame.

Lin Zhao and Xu Minglan sat in the trainee seats, feeling only a warmth in their chests. It was not pressure, but a very clear sense of direction.

Tang Zhiwei stood before the logistics corridor, seeing the Safe House, medical stations, and vehicle transfer routes rearranging themselves within the Grey Net.

The remaining pages of the local gazetteer in Zhou Yan's hand fluttered without wind, and a few lines about "sending people via the old road" were illuminated by the Purifying Flame.

Lu Chen stood on the high platform, overlooking the entire hall.

At this moment, he finally felt a little like he was truly standing above the Council.

It was not the satisfaction of power, but the weight of responsibility.

The brighter the Torch, the further it could illuminate anomalies.

And to illuminate meant that one must respond.

Lu Chen raised his hand, and the Xin Huo Interface unfolded before his eyes.

He was not in a hurry to delegate all the new authority. The greater the power brought by the upgrade, the more boundaries were needed. Pure Flame Vision and Fire Seal could be given to official members, the Guardian Lamp prototype could be tested by the medical line, but cross-city Starfire had to remain within Fire Keeper authority for now.

It was not that he was reluctant.

But because the Torch did not yet have enough external anchor points, nor enough members to withstand the tearing of the old law during cross-city paths. Forcing it down would only turn members into sparks on the road of anomalies, extinguished by a single gust of wind.

This time, he had to go personally.

Below the high platform, Shen Qinghe seemed to sense something and looked up at Lu Chen. Zhao Ye gripped the evil-breaking short staff, his lips moved, but he didn't speak. Bai Ya looked at the Jiangbei node, unusually silent.

They all understood that this was not an ordinary support mission, nor an ordinary firefighting operation.

For the first time, the Torch was going to fall outside of Qinghe.

This time, he had to go personally.

Just then, a harsh low hum came from the Grey Net map area.

In the direction of Jiangbei, an anomaly node turned from red to dark red.

Zero's prompt had only one line.

[ Precursor to a quasi-city-destroying level anomaly appearing. ]

All sounds in the hall stopped simultaneously.

Lu Chen looked at that dark red node, his fingertips slowly rising.

This time, it was not members going on a mission.

Nor was it an anomaly in Qinghe.

There was a fire about to fall in a distant city.