88: Chapter 88 Law Instruments Table of Contents

When the phantom of the black bronze bell emerged, the air in the underground passage felt as if it had been gripped by someone.

Zhao Ye rushed to the edge of the old track. Before his short staff could strike down, the Mark of the Torch on the inside of his wrist suddenly stung. He stopped abruptly, the tip of the staff hovering half an inch from the bell's phantom.

"Can't strike it?"

The fire in Shen Qinghe's eyes had not yet extinguished, and her voice was taut.

"If you smash it, the boy's ticket might shatter along with it."

Zhao Ye gritted his teeth.

"Then hurry up and think of a way."

"I'm thinking."

Shen Qinghe squeezed these words out from between her teeth.

She couldn't provide an answer immediately every time. Pure Flame Vision allowed her to see the traces of rules, but seeing them didn't mean she could handle them. At this moment, she could see a thin line connecting the bell toll, the ticket, the ticket gate, and the boy's name, but the line was tangled too messily. A slight misstep could push him onto the bus.

The clown sat behind the ticket gate, his laughter growing increasingly shrill.

"That's the second toll."

He extended a finger covered in greasepaint and tapped the tabletop lightly.

"Once the third toll rings, the late passenger will have to pay for their ticket."

Shen Qinghe did not respond.

She stared at the black bronze bell's phantom, searching for a real opening within the layers of red lines.

This bell was not a complete anomaly entity.

It was more like a piece of a high-level rule fragment that had been dismantled and grafted onto the Night Bus rules by the Longevity Society. The bell toll wasn't responsible for killing; it was responsible for confirming the time. Once the third toll finished ringing, the boy's "passenger confirmation" would close.

"Fire Seal." Shen Qinghe raised her hand.

A grayish-white fire mark landed on the edge of the old track.

It wasn't an attack.

It was a marker.

As soon as the Fire Seal landed, several old files in the Sealing Corridor within Xinhuo Hall lit up.

Black bronze bell core.

Bell-type remnants.

Night Bus time dislocation records.

The sound of a cabinet opening in the third audio recording on Luo Wei's phone.

These originally scattered anomaly samples were pulled into the same analysis zone by the Core of the Torch.

In Lu Chen's field of vision, the dense lines of rules began to reorganize.

He did not issue an order immediately.

source essence balance, sealing stability, Shen Qinghe's adaptation status, and on-site risks were all flashing in the background. Forcibly cutting off the third bell toll would not be low in consumption, and it would very likely shatter this high-level rule fragment.

Shattering it was easy.

Taking it back was hard.

Lu Chen stared at the black bronze bell's phantom, suddenly recalling the main cycle he had written when he first built the Torch system.

Discover anomalies, handle anomalies, recover source essence, and craft abilities and items.

But back then, his thinking was still shallow.

Low-level anomalies could be dismantled into spirit sight talismans, protective plates, and sealing tools. But the thing before him was different. It wasn't a simple mass of pollution, nor was it a monster hiding in a corner. Behind it were rules, triggers, closures, and a set of old order that was incomplete yet still trying to function.

Lu Chen looked at those lines, realizing for the first time that perhaps "anomaly" was merely the manifestation of them entering reality.

What was truly hidden behind them was some kind of law that had long since rotted and shattered, yet was still forcibly running.

They resembled laws, but they did not belong to the current world.

He slowly typed two characters in the background file.

[old law]

old law kills.

Torch seizes the law to forge instruments.

Zero's notification appeared at this moment.

[High-level old law fragment analysis in progress.]

[Law Instrument Catalog: Pre-analysis complete.]

[Currently moldable remnant law instrument: Fate-Illuminating Bronze Bell.]

[Uniqueness: Yes.]

[Redemption conditions: Permission, contribution, and adaptability all met.]

[Adaptation direction: Investigation, sealing, rule interruption.]

Immediately after, the risk notification jumped faster.

[Current source essence reserves are insufficient to complete full remodeling.]

[Suggestion: Perform temporary interruption only; do not perform formal binding.]

Lu Chen's lips tightened.

The source essence balance jumped in the corner of his vision, glaringly low.

For a moment, he even had a very undignified thought: If this were just a game, he would definitely save the file first and come back to trigger this mechanic once he had enough resources.

But reality wouldn't wait for him to grind.

He certainly knew the risks.

The problem was that there was no second option on the scene.

If he waited for the third toll to ring, the boy would be written into the passenger list, one of the first batch of clue-holders in Jiangbei would be lost, and Lin Zhao might also be dragged into the rules.

He was not a god; he couldn't calculate everything perfectly every time.

But as a Fire Keeper, he had to choose a plan that could still keep people alive, amidst imperfect resources, incomplete analysis, and the countdown at the scene.

"Only perform a temporary test ring," Lu Chen said.

"Interrupt the third toll; do not aim for complete suppression."

Lu Chen did not open the Law Instrument Catalog to all members.

The scene was not a teaching session.

He only pushed the most critical permission into Shen Qinghe's Fire Seal.

[Temporary test ring authorization.]

A very faint bell toll suddenly rang in Shen Qinghe's ears.

It was not the black bronze bell on the old track.

That sound was cleaner, as if washed by fire, leaving only the core beat of the rule.

She was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood what Lu Chen meant.

"Before the third toll, I can interrupt it."

Zhao Ye asked: "For how long?"

"I don't know."

"Is it enough for me to pull the person out?"

Shen Qinghe gritted her teeth: "You'd better run fast."

Zhao Ye smiled.

"That's more reliable than what you said before."

The clown seemed to sense something was wrong and stood up abruptly.

"Passengers are not allowed to change their tickets without authorization!"

The lingering sound of the second bell toll began to slide toward the third.

The boy in the observation point suddenly covered his ears as the phantom of the ticket emerged from the window, as if to stick to his forehead. Lin Zhao lunged over, using his body to block the ticket, and goosebumps instantly broke out on his arm.

"Hurry!"

He roared.

Shen Qinghe raised her hand, and the Fire Seal lit up.

In Xinhuo Hall, Lu Chen consumed source essence to forcibly perform a test ring of the unfinished Fate-Illuminating Bronze Bell.

A very faint bell toll suppressed the third toll of the old bell.

It wasn't loud.

But it was like a thin needle, forcibly driven into the rules that were about to close.

The third toll was interrupted for half a breath.

Half a breath was very short.

So short that a normal person wouldn't even hear the difference.

But Zhao Ye had already rushed out.

Sparks exploded from beneath his feet as he crossed the ticket checking line, grabbed the phantom of the ticket corresponding to the boy's name, and pulled it back along with that red line.

The smile on the clown's face cracked for the first time.

"You… you turned the old law…"

His voice was dry.

"...into your own thing?"

Zhao Ye kicked over the ticket gate.

"Less nonsense."

This move didn't solve all the problems.

When Lin Zhao dragged the boy away from the glass window, his own hands were still shaking. The boy was clutching his sleeve, his lips pale and bloodless, but his first words were: "Did I almost get on the bus?"

Lin Zhao wanted to say no.

But he saw the ticket phantom that hadn't yet dissipated on the window, and in the end, he only managed to choke out: "Almost."

The boy sniffled, didn't cry, but grabbed the sleeve even tighter.

The residual sound of the black bronze bell was still there, the Night Bus route was still there, and the clown hadn't been truly caught. But the red line on the boy's name had indeed been forcibly pulled out of the passenger list.

Lu Chen sat on the Fire Keeper's seat, his back already covered in a layer of cold sweat.

Deep within the Core of the Torch, the information that had just been named old law was still being reorganized by the flames. The incomplete bell tolls, incorrect arrival times, sign-off rules, and passenger lists were being dismantled one by one and forcibly pulled back to the order side by Torch.

This was not creation.

It was more like taming a bone of rules that could bite.

Lu Chen realized for the first time that law instruments were not rewards.

Every single one of them would be something snatched from the mouth of the old law.