The outer perimeter of Zone Zero was as silent as a tomb forgotten by time.
The air was filled with a peculiar smell, a mixture of dust and some kind of metallic rust.
Lin Yi squatted down, picked up a pinch of black soil, and felt a cold and sharp sensation on his fingertips.
This is not soil at all, but countless tiny black crystals as fine as sand.
"Captain, look at this!" A volunteer lowered his voice and carefully pried up a palm-sized piece of debris from the soil with an entrenching tool.
Lin Yi took it, his pupils suddenly contracting.
He was very familiar with this material; it was exactly the same as the oil lamp that had accompanied him through countless nights at the letter-burning station.
These crushed black crystals were once lamps.
Countless lamps.
A thought struck him, and he immediately ordered, "Spread out and find larger pieces to try and piece them together!"
Three volunteers sprang into action, searching for historical remnants in this land of death like the most meticulous archaeologists.
Soon, fragments of black crystal of varying sizes were gathered in front of Lin Yi.
Their broken edges are as sharp as knives, as if silently telling the story of how they were instantly destroyed by some terrifying force.
Lin Yi held his breath, his hands as steady as a rock, and put the fragments together one by one.
Click.
With the last fragment inserted, half of the outline of the black crystal nameplate, which was being attempted to be restored, finally appeared.
The words are engraved on it using an ancient etching technique: Unit 95 - The Lamp Keeper.
The lamplighter?
Lin Yi's brows furrowed tightly.
This word never appeared in any of the survivor accounts he had read.
Just then, deep within his cochlea, the long-silent whisper that belonged to Ivan rang out again. This time, the intermittent signal seemed to penetrate even deeper interference, carrying an unprecedented tremor.
"...If the light goes out, the road will be cut off...You...have been cut off for seventy-two years..."
Seventy-two years!
A thunderbolt exploded in Lin Yi's mind!
He always believed that the “return journey” was a physical path that needed to be rediscovered, a migratory route leading to the origin of humankind.
Only now did he suddenly realize the truth!
The so-called "return journey" is not a geographical path at all, but a collective memory migration that has been forcibly interrupted for seventy-two years!
Each lamp is a node of memory; when the lamp goes out, the transmission of memory is interrupted!
"Go! To the depths of the rift!" Lin Yi's voice carried an barely suppressed excitement and urgency. He grabbed the half of the "Guardian of the Light" plaque and rushed towards the huge rift that resembled a scar on the earth not far away.
As they penetrated deeper into the fissure in the earth, the light was quickly swallowed by darkness.
The volunteers turned on their tactical flashlights, but then a bizarre scene unfolded.
Those powerful beams of light shot into the darkness ahead, only to be absorbed as if by an invisible sponge. As soon as they left the light source, they were quickly pulled and twisted, eventually turning into wisps of dim blue smoke and disappearing silently.
"It's a 'light erosion zone'!" an experienced volunteer exclaimed in horror. "All light sources are broken down by the spatial laws here!"
Losing the light in this bottomless chasm is tantamount to losing one's eyes and life.
The group was caught in a dilemma, unable to move forward or backward.
Lin Yi's gaze, however, fell on the rusty wheat ear that he used as a token at his waist.
Listening to the Night Walker's coded message... Ivan's voice... the light... it was as if a thread was quietly connecting them in his heart.
He took down an ear of wheat and gently shook it three times in the absolute darkness that swallowed all light.
Ring—ring—ring—
The crisp sound of the bell didn't travel far, but the moment it rang, it stirred visible ripples in the air around the wheat ears.
Even more astonishingly, as the bell vibrated, countless tiny specks of light, emitting a soft glow, condensed out of thin air. Like tamed fireflies, they briefly formed a light shield about two meters in diameter, keeping the invisible devouring force at bay.
Lin Yi understood perfectly!
He understood that the code passed down through generations of Nightwalkers was not just a simple signal, but a kind of "light trace stabilizer"!
Its sound wave frequency can calibrate the laws of light in this distorted space!
"Everyone, heed my command!" Lin Yi's voice echoed within the light shield, clear and powerful. "Use your weapons to mimic the rhythm of my bell ringing, gently tapping the ground. Remember, the rhythm must be perfect, not a single step off!"
Thump...thump thump...thump...
A steady, rhythmic tapping sound echoed from the crack in the ground. Each tap seemed to resonate with Lin Yi's bell, stabilizing the fragile light shield a little more.
The four formed a mobile island of light, advancing step by step towards the deepest part of the rift, the core area that even light could not reach, with an extremely slow but determined pace.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, when the ground beneath their feet became flat and solid, a faint outline finally appeared in the darkness ahead.
It was a giant plant that had long since died. Its trunk was as thick as a tower, and countless withered vines hung down from the rock wall above like a frozen waterfall, covering the entire rock wall of the core area.
And in the very center of that main structure, a rusty metal lamp stand is stubbornly embedded.
This is it!
Lin Yi's heart began to pound.
He strode forward and carefully placed the oil lamp he carried with him, which came from the burning station, into the lamp holder.
Size and bayonet fit perfectly!
He struck a match and lit the wick.
boom--!
The moment the orange-yellow flames ignited, a sudden change occurred!
The giant Wall Whisperer plant, which had been determined to be dead, seemed to be injected with a current of soul. On the withered vines that covered the entire core area, the silver veins hidden under the bark suddenly lit up!
The light, like a bursting dam of stars, spread wildly along the vines, upwards and outwards, like an awakened dragon vein, instantly piercing through the thick rock layers and accurately connecting to the locations of the thirty-seven ruins on the surface!
The entire underground core area was as bright as day!
“…The well…is awake…” Ivan’s voice came again, this time not as a whisper, but with a tremendous, shocking tremor.
Immediately afterwards, a deep and powerful pulse came from the depths of the earth, thump... thump... thump... like the heart of a giant that had been asleep for thousands of years beginning to beat again.
Countless rays of light spread out from the revived withered vines, weaving a path of light in front of Lin Yi that led to the unknown depths.
However, after extending for more than ten meters, the light path seemed to run out of steam and stopped, its light flickering intermittently.
Lin Yi immediately realized that the lights were on and the road was visible, but a beacon to guide the way was missing.
One is missing... a "memory coordinate"!
Without the slightest hesitation, he drew his dagger and slashed his left palm!
Blood gushed out, and he covered the flame of the oil lamp with his palm.
With a hiss, a drop of blood dripped into the flame.
The orange-yellow flame suddenly shot up, instantly turning into an eerie and deep blood red.
The light shone out, forming a clear three-dimensional image in the air in front of Lin Yi—it was his mother, who looked to be no more than twenty years old, standing here, in the same posture, dripping her blood into the flame of the same lamp. Her eyes, like Lin Yi's at this moment, were filled with determination and hope.
The image flashed by in an instant.
But the stagnant path of light surged instantly after receiving this drop of "coordinates" containing the memory of bloodline!
A trail of footprints made of light emerged from the depths of the earth, traversing the distance of time and space, extending all the way to Lin Yi's feet, where it quietly stopped, like a guide who had been waiting for nearly a century.
Lin Yi took a deep breath, gripped the rusty wheat ear in his hand, and said in a deep voice to the volunteers behind him who were staring blankly, "I will lead you through this section."
Having said that, he resolutely stepped into the path of light.
One step in, and the world changes.
Everything around him turned into streams of light, and countless fragmented images flashed rapidly before his eyes.
He saw a weary but determined team, dressed in old-fashioned protective suits and wearing badges that read "Unit 95" on their chests.
They were not deserters who fled in fear as recorded in history books, but rather a rearguard that voluntarily stayed behind at the last moment of the Great Migration!
They arrived at the core of the earth and, using the enormous wall-talking plant as a base, lit the lamp called "Memory".
They meticulously etch their identity information, life imprints, and even their very existence into the roots of the wall-talking plants, using themselves as fuel to sustain the light path and preserve a final hope for those who come after.
At the end of the scene, only one person remains.
He used up his last bit of strength and slowly extinguished the oil lamp.
In the last second before darkness engulfed him, he whispered with all his might to the empty space ahead.
"Tell those who come after... the way is in the lamplight."
As the light and shadow faded, Lin Yi found himself still standing in the same spot, as if everything that had just happened was merely a dream.
But in his hand was a warm, gently beating black crystal, like a heart.
That is the wick formed from the lives and memories of all the "lamp keepers" in Unit 95.
Just then, the malt flower seed in his chest pocket, the seed that had absorbed all the light at the Burning Letter Station, flew out automatically.
Like an iron bead attracted by a magnet, it flew straight towards the black crystal lamp wick in Lin Yi's hand.
The moment the two touched, there was no earth-shattering noise, nor any dazzling light.
They merged together silently, and then a silent wave of light, centered on Lin Yi, swept out with a roar!
The light waves penetrated the rock layers, swept across the surface, and engulfed the entire abandoned city.
The next second, in all thirty-seven ruins across the city, the silver veins of all the silent wall-whispering plants flashed three times in unison at the same moment!
That was the "confirmation signal" representing the highest authority during the era of the Night Listeners!
For the first time, Ivan's voice broke free from all distractions and noise, sounding in his mind like a real person standing beside him—clear, solemn, and with a hint of relieved excitement.
"The guide has been chosen... For the next leg of the journey, call his name."
Lin Yi raised his head, his gaze piercing through the cracks in the ground, looking towards the gray sky in the distance.
He knew that a new era was about to begin with him.
He spoke softly in a calm yet infinitely powerful voice:
"Then let's call it... The Road to Returning Lights."
The moment the words fell, an indescribable sense of resonance spread throughout the entire land.
The four words Lin Yi uttered seemed to contain some ancient power that made words come true, lingering in the air.
The winds of the entire world seemed to pause for a moment because of these four words.
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