Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Way of Victory — Strategy of the Dual Fires
Section One: Starfire Buried in Soil, Not to Hide, But to Take Root
Jason gazed at the map, speaking slowly: "The enemy we face now is not a single force, not a group of people, but—an entire, overwhelming old world."
He looked at the group, his eyes devoid of passion, only a calm as sharp as a blade. "Do you think numbers alone can win?"
Zhao Mingxuan answered instinctively: "Isn't strength in numbers?"
"It is," Jason nodded, "when the forces are equal."
"But right now, we're wielding a torch to ignite an armed helicopter doused in gasoline."
He swept his gaze over the room.
"Numbers just make a bigger target, quicker to be blown apart."
Lisa spoke, her voice low: "Then what can we do? Skulk in corners like rats?"
"No." Jason picked up a pen, marking different points on the map.
"We become—'Fire.'"
He looked at them, posing the first question slowly:
"How do you want to live?"
No one answered. He continued:
"What kind of life do you want?"
"Is the you now the you you want to be?"
"If not, who made you this way?"
"Was it you? Society? Them?"
Jason's eyes burned. "Do you want to change?"
"Yes."
"Then will you act?"
Silence.
"If you don't, who will?"
More silence.
"If no one does, what happens?"
Zhao Mingxuan murmured, "Nothing… nothing changes."
"Is that the ending you want?"
He didn't reply. Jason scanned the room.
"We take these questions—to every person. Especially the poorest, the most desperate, and ask: 'Do you want to live like this forever?'"
"Then we ask the capable, the kind: 'You know what needs to be done—why aren't you doing it?'"
"And finally, those who just want stability: 'Are you truly secure now?'"
Jason paused. "Not to accuse them, but to—ignite them."
—
The Fuxi System prompted simultaneously:
[Cognitive Disruption Field × Faith Trigger Mechanism × Logical Resonance Infection Initiated]
[Keywords: "Who are you × What do you want × Why aren't you moving?"]
—
"Fireseeds can't be concentrated," Jason returned to the map.
"Gather them, and one strike from the enemy wipes them out."
"But scatter the Fire—one person per city, one idea per school—how do you extinguish that?"
He gave a cold smile:
"Can you carpet-bomb an entire continent?"
—
"And when these people, facing death, walk away smiling, dragged off or arrested—that fear no longer belongs to them. It belongs to the enemy."
"They're not dying. They're telling the world: 'The life I chose, you dare not let me live.'"
—
John Welles spoke softly: "What if no one sees their execution?"
"Someone always sees," Jason said firmly. "The more the enemy fears being seen, the more frantic they hide, and the more they hide, the more attention they draw."
"Do you dare stage a public trial for ten thousand? You don't. The more you kill in secret, the more the people grow curious. The more you kill, the brighter the Fire burns."
—
Lisa's eyes lit up. "So… their reaction itself becomes propaganda?"
"Yes," Jason said. "Every move the enemy makes advertises for us."
"The more they fear, the fiercer the Fire grows."
"The more they suppress, the wider it spreads."
"The more brutal their hand, the more the world asks—'What are you so afraid of?'"
—
"That's why I say," he enunciated each word, "when the old Fire dies, the new Fire reignites."
He spun the pen lightly.
"This Fire, we scatter across the nation."
"Tell me, how does the old Empire extinguish it?"
—
"Who is Fire? Who isn't?"
"Kill whom to stop it? Kill whom and it persists?"
"If they dare slaughter the entire nation—the Empire will be left with only themselves."
—
Finally, he said softly:
"We don't win by concentrating. We win by—seeming unconnected yet unified in thought, seeming structureless yet aligned in purpose."
"The enemy can't catch us, but they see us."
"The people don't know where we are, but one day—they'll think, 'They're right.'"
—
He rose slowly, as the Fuxi System prompted:
[Strategic Module: 'Dark Fire Thousand Cities × Open Conspiracy Ignition' Activated]
[Projected Impact: Old Empire Surveillance System Fully Passivized]
—
"This isn't hiding," Jason said quietly.
"It's sowing."
Section One (Continued): Starfire Buried in Soil, Not to Hide, But to Take Root
—
Jason looked down at the map, asking softly: "Do you know what color Fire is?"
Zhao Mingxuan blinked. "Red, yellow?"
"Wrong." Jason raised his eyes, a sharp glint within. "The color of Fire is black."
"When it burns too faintly, too weakly, it consumes grease, wood, blood, dreams yet to awaken."
"Then, it's black—invisible, ignored, mocked."
He tapped the map:
"But just because you can't see it doesn't mean it's not burning."
—
"You think when someone is taken, executed, the Fire dies?"
"You're wrong."
"When they smile walking to the guillotine, stare calmly into the barrel, shout at their end, 'You can't dictate my life'—you think that's the end?"
—
Jason scanned the room.
"It's the beginning."
"Because the onlookers see."
—
Lisa said softly, "But some of these people are too ordinary. They have no cause, no beliefs—just passersby."
"Exactly because they're ordinary," Jason said coldly. "That's why they'll believe."
"Because they're as poor as us, as desperate as us, as afraid of death as us."
"When someone 'like them' dares to smile in the face of death, that impact—outweighs ten thousand slogans."
—
"Do you think the people fear death?"
"Then tell them someone faced death with a smile."
"Do you know how terrifying that smile is?"
—
Jason's voice deepened: "It doesn't urge you to die."
"It says—your current 'life' is worse than death."
"It asks: 'Are you truly alive?'"
—
The Fuxi System activated a philosophical prompt:
[Xunzi: Those who know they can die fear no life; those who know their purpose fear no end.]
—
"If just one person," Jason said slowly, "in the face of death, chooses not despair but to question—"
"The entire world—will tremble."
—
Zhao Mingxuan's throat tightened, his voice low: "So the point of all this… is to make the enemy tremble?"
"No," Jason shook his head. "We don't want them to tremble."
"We want them to admit."
"Admit this world is no longer theirs to command."
—
He walked to the map's edge, pointing to a blank area: "You think this is a Fireless zone?"
"No."
"It's the starting point of the next wildfire."
—
"Fire isn't propaganda leaflets, isn't philosophical slogans."
"Fire is a man in a cell telling the executioner: 'You know you're wrong.'"
"It's a mother on the street telling her child: 'Remember, those who killed your uncle fear you'll be like him.'"
"It's a deserter carving ten words in a cave—"
He paused, reciting slowly:
"'Live for yourself once—even just once.'"
—
Lisa's eyes reddened, her voice soft: "Do you really think these people can all become 'Fire'?"
Jason didn't answer, only turned to the names:
Mark, Emily, Maria, John, Kyle…
Countless unfamiliar.Concurrent, fragile names.
—
"They're not Fire," he said quietly. "They're just—possible."
"And we turn that 'possible'—into 'inevitable.'"
—
The Fuxi System prompted:
[Propagation Mechanism × Human Nature Trigger Structure × Ignition Probability Factor Evolving]
[Current Simulation: Target Consciousness Group Perception Path → Propagation Rate Surge +20.3%]
—
Jason gave a low chuckle: "Do you know what happens when a crowd, carrying this faith, walks to the gallows?"
"The enemy panics."
"The masses weep."
"And the children, in their diaries, will write of that smile."
"That smile will become history."
—
"You think we're Starfire?"
"No—we're memory."
"We're not burning the world with torches."
"We're making the world—ignite itself."
Section One (Final): Starfire Buried in Soil, Not to Hide, But to Take Root
—
At the old Graywing command center, Jason said softly:
"You think they kill to extinguish the Fire?"
"No."
"They're not extinguishing Fire—they're delivering it."
—
Zhao Mingxuan frowned. "Delivering?"
"Yes."
"Fire burns only when seen."
"A fireseed that burns for ten seconds and dies, unknown, dies in vain."
"But if you see someone—standing there—bloodied, eyes resolute, shouting 'You know you're wrong' before a bullet takes them—"
"You can't forget."
—
"That image is Fire."
"That voice is Fire."
"That—impossible yet existent defiance—is Fire."
—
Jason's tone sharpened: "The enemy thinks they've won by capturing and killing us."
"They think killing the Fire ends it."
"But they forget—in the act of killing, they're 'tainted' by us."
—
Lisa whispered, "'Tainted'?"
Jason smiled: "Ever seen a place Fire has touched? It doesn't leave emptiness—it leaves ash, char, traces."
"Each time they kill 'us,' they carve us into the world."
"They're not purging heretics."
"They're building monuments."
—
His eyes were blades: "Kill one 'heretic,' he's a madman."
"Kill ten, still madmen."
"But kill a hundred, a thousand—you're not fighting madmen."
"You're fighting a god."
—
The Fuxi System prompted:
[Logical Chain Convergence Path Activated × Martyr Faith Intensity Feedback Building]
[Simulation: When enemy public executions exceed X, public subconscious faith trigger rate reaches 67.4%]
—
Jason said softly: "Do you know what it means to 'kill until a god emerges'?"
"The more you kill, the more 'divine' it becomes."
"The more you capture, the more you reveal your fear."
"The more you suppress, the more you prove—you've lost control."
—
"They don't understand."
"When we 'madmen' can die standing—"
"All their living become kneeling slaves."
—
Lisa murmured, "If the enemy heard this…"
"It wouldn't matter."
"Because they're out of options."
—
Jason took a deep breath: "The enemy isn't afraid of dying."
"They're afraid that, in killing, they too are seen."
—
"They become the medium of Fire's spread."
"Every bullet, every interrogation, every torture tape—will be shared, spread, mimicked, annotated."
"They're not just killing us—they're aiding us."
—
"You think we lack a broadcast station?"
"You're wrong."
"Every enemy interrogation tape is our faith propaganda film."
"Every purge is our Fire sacrifice ceremony."
—
Zhao Mingxuan looked down, his expression complex. "How do we win?"
Jason's gaze settled on him, each word deliberate:
"We don't defeat them."
"We—make it impossible for them to end."
—
"Kill, and they can't kill enough."
"Control, and they can't control it."
"Cover up, and they can't hide it. Block, and they can't stop it."
"The Fire doesn't die—because we've planted it in their hearts."
—
The Fuxi System's final prompt:
[Starfire Ignition Rate Enters Self-Sustaining Loop × Simulation Feedback: Enemy Current Narrative Control Strategies Fully Collapsed]
[Predicted Outcome: Under non-extreme lockdown conditions, Dark Fire thought spread becomes irreversible × Victory is inevitable]
—
Jason closed his eyes, his voice a proclamation:
"The old Empire won't fall under our blades."
"It will rot in its own heart, seared by 'us.'"
"They can only watch themselves die slowly."
"All their so-called solutions merely delay the inevitable."
Section Three: Dark Fire as Soul, Bright Fire as Blade
Jason gazed at the dawn's first light on the horizon, his voice low like the ancient drumbeat of a pre-battle conspiracy:
"Dark Fire as soul, Bright Fire as blade. We're not two teams, but a dual-layered campaign."
His eyes swept over the Nearshore think tank, each listener's gaze sinking deeper.
"From now on, Dark Fire has three tasks—ignite, corrode, reap."
He tapped the briefing terminal, pulling up an ARGUS-generated social psychology map. A vast web of data nodes blinked, representing potential groups across regions.
The Fuxi System prompted in Jason's mind:
[System Prompt] ☵ Kan Wei Shui (Abyss as Water) — Entering hearts formlessly, nourishing silently. To transform the enemy is not to attack, but to erode their bones unheard.
Jason pointed to a ring of red dots:
"These are the 'screws' of the Empire's old order—local overseers, intelligence operatives, enforcers' lackeys. They won't be easily swayed, but they can be slowly corroded."
Zhao Mingxuan asked, "How do we corrode them?"
"Feed their resentment with faith. Expose their despair with hope," Jason said coldly. "Say he's been exploiting civilians. When he sees them under Bright Fire's protection—fed, safe, living like humans—he'll grow jealous."
"When that jealousy festers, he'll wonder if he should 'get a piece' too."
"Dark Fire won't offer direct trust, just a crack in the door for him to step through—corrosion isn't brainwashing, it's inducing 'self-detachment.'"
The Fuxi System prompted:
[Philosophical Fragment Loaded]
[Guiguzi, Resonance: Do not let others know I seek to turn them; use their own heart to reverse their strength.]
Lisa asked, "And the second task—ignite?"
Jason tapped the yellow dots: "These are the masses in the wavering zones—apathetic, numb, trusting no one."
"But we show them stories. Let them see real people—like the Bright Legion burying bodies to save a mother in ruins, delivering grain to the hopeless."
"Or a boy, killed by his own group for saying 'to live is to be free,' only to be saved by us."
"We let them see 'Fire,' feel its 'warmth,' but don't force them to join. Let a thought take root—'The world could be different.'"
"Fire must spark in their hearts, not be shoved down their throats."
Zhao Mingxuan grinned: "That's the real brilliance. We don't persuade anyone, yet we might change everyone."
Jason nodded: "Fire isn't won by debate, but by living a life they want to emulate."
"Finally—reaping," his expression turned icy. "Not everyone who wavers or flees the old system can be accepted."
"We screen them. Through trials, tasks, hardships, we expose their true nature. The true believers stay. The self-serving are discarded. The betrayers are dealt with."
The Fuxi System prompted:
[I Ching Loaded]
☶ Gen Wei Shan (Mountain as Stillness) — Stop where one must stop. Those unfit to join us shall not enter our ranks.
"And behind all Dark Fire's work—Bright Fire must stand as the martial backbone."
Lisa interjected: "So, Dark Fire carves the heart, Bright Fire breaks the bones?"
"Exactly," Jason said softly. "When Dark Fire stirs unrest in a place—Bright Fire appears, like salvation."
"Imagine a village oppressed for years. Suddenly, a group arrives, fending off raiders, clearing sentries, fixing wells, building shelters—who do you think they'll trust?"
"This strike doesn't just kill an enemy—it kills the legitimacy of the entire old order."
Zhao Mingxuan said gravely: "This isn't war—it's a battle to carve out faith and interests."
"We don't take heads. We cut their roots."
"When the enemy realizes, they'll find—no loyalty remains, no land to hold, no direction for their guns."
The System prompted:
[Fuxi System Sync]
☷ Kun Wei Di (Earth as Receptivity) — The terrain is Earth; the noble bear all with virtue. When Fire burns the Earth, all grass and trees turn to kindling, and the mighty must burn.
Jason gave a cold smile:
"This is our plan."
"Dark Fire as soul, splitting the enemy's heart. Bright Fire as blade, severing their bones. When the Dual Fire converges—the old Empire won't even have bones left."
Section Four: When Dual Fire Converges, The Empire Falls
"When Dual Fire converges, the Empire falls."
This seemingly poetic maxim, Jason didn't proclaim loudly. He spoke it softly three times—before the Nearshore think tank, before the Bright Legion's core.
The first time, to inform.
The second, to clarify.
The third, to pronounce judgment.
Zhao Mingxuan frowned: "It sounds like a manifesto, but is this a prophecy or a logical projection?"
"A prophecy? No," Jason replied calmly. "It's the 'fate execution plan' they wrote themselves."
Zhao Mingxuan leaned closer to the screen. "So we make them read it to the end?"
"We are—the final page," Jason said.
[1] Enemy Faith · Corroded by Fire
The old Empire's strength lies not in guns but in "order fabrication."
—They tell the masses: Obey, and you live. Rebel, and you die.
—They tell subordinates: Obey, and you're rewarded. Betray, and you're erased.
—They tell the world: We are the only controllable order.
But as "Fire" spreads, as ordinary people believe there's more than one way to live, their myth crumbles.
In a simulated future—
TRACE's South District data censor, Ambrose, trembled faintly after the seventh "Fire spread incident" report:
"Who authorized the network lockdown?"
"Sir, it's Central's 'narrative interruption order.'"
"Do they know this isn't something a cable can cut—it's a thought in people's hearts?"
That night, he dreamed—a dream he hadn't had in a decade.
He wasn't an official, but a boy yearning to run free.
Waking, he saw children in the streets mimicking the Bright Legion's raised-fist gesture.
He remembered: as a child, he too dreamed of "saving the world."
The Empire began to rot.
[2] Enemy Structure · Severed by Fire
In a simulated future, the Bright Legion launched chained raids.
Their targets were never city cores, but—
🔹 Granaries
🔹 Weapon transport hubs
🔹 Medical reserves
🔹 Communication relays
Never attacking cities, never killing officials, only striking "lifelines."
"This isn't guerrilla warfare," TRACE senior officer Vaughn said, face ashen.
"It's a scalpel, cutting our tendons."
"Worse still—" his trembling finger circled seventeen points on the intelligence map, "these attacks had 'leaks.' Our people are wavering."
"Signal operators delayed alerts, causing pursuit failures."
"Logistics staff vanished after swapping supplies."
"Managers openly suggested 'talking with the Fire' in meetings."
Faith crumbling was one thing. Now even their profit structure shook.
"We must crush them," an aide roared.
"But the worst part?" Vaughn stared coldly. "We don't know who to crush. We don't even know who isn't Fire."
[3] People's Will · Drawn to Fire
The Empire issued bounties, hunting the Bright Legion across regions.
Yet over six thousand people wrote on underground networks:
"If you are Fire, I won't extinguish you; if you seek Fire, I'll shield you."
In a slum district, an old woman hid three hunted Fireseed warriors.
When the investigation team arrived, she was calm as water:
"I heard them speak of freedom, and I knew—my life wasn't lived in vain."
"You know, my only son died in your Empire's so-called 'population optimization' that year."
"Now, I just want to watch you—burn."
[4] Dark Fire × Bright Fire × Logical Endgame
After the simulation, Zhao Mingxuan murmured: "So this Fire… we didn't light it. They ignited themselves?"
Jason replied: "We just—tossed the first stick."
At the console, he said slowly:
"If the enemy seizes a thousand of me, I become ten thousand Fires; if they extinguish ten thousand, I burn their borders."
Lisa added softly:
"If they mass troops, I scatter like stars. If they divide, I ignite points. If they slaughter, I take their hearts."
Jason looked at each person, saying slowly:
"When Dual Fire converges—the Empire will surely fall."
Section Five: The Will of the Masses, A Furnace to Burn Division
Night pressed in, the temporary strategy command post unyielding. At the central sand table, the Nearshore think tank gathered, undispersed.
"Jason," John Welles spoke, his voice blunt, "should we consider the worst possibility—"
His gaze swept the room: "What if, in the future, someone sees what you're doing and covets it. Wants to mimic you. Wants to… surpass you."
Zhao Mingxuan frowned: "The next Jason?"
Jason didn't answer immediately, his eyes on the floating Starfire coordinate points, his expression as calm as ever. He spoke slowly:
"It's not strange for someone to want to take my place."
Lisa said quietly: "But if they don't want to ignite faith, only exploit it; don't want to sustain the Fire, only wield it for power—what then?"
Jason paused.
The Fuxi System responded, projecting a philosophical loop:
[Among myriad Fires, those who seek private Fire will burn themselves.]
Jason read it softly, then continued:
"Such people will be consumed by Dual Fire."
Zhao Mingxuan looked up: "Why are you so sure?"
"Because they're not firelighters," Jason turned to them. "They've never endured a night of flayed skin, never heard a child's cry behind a broken wall, never fought an old man for a dose of medicine at midnight."
"They want power, territory, resources, commands."
"But 'Dual Fire' isn't an organization, a legion, or a domain."
"It's a group of people, igniting a wish with their lives."
"That wish can't be 'represented' by shouting slogans."
Lisa nodded: "If they try to 'claim the throne,' they'll find—the people's hearts won't follow."
"And if they steal equipment, build bases?" Zhao Mingxuan pressed.
"Then they're just another version of the old Empire," Jason said coldly. "And the people will light the Fire again."
He scanned the room: "If, in the future, a band of 'warlord heroes' tries to rise on this—"
"I'll burn them to ash myself."
The Fuxi System lit another line:
[The great tide is not controlled by one; the Fire belongs to no private purse.]
[All are but shadows before the Fire, moving once, then gone.]
John muttered: "This Fire… isn't anyone's. It's everyone's."
Jason's tone was iron: "It's the people's shared will. Not something to be traded, not something I can claim."
"Not even me."
He paused, adding calmly:
"If one day, I stray too—"
"I'll burn in this Fire as well."
A brief silence fell.
Lisa took a deep breath, saying softly:
"Then we know… this Fire isn't to light one person's path."
"It's to light the entire world."
Section Six: Nameless Fire, All Enemies Lost
"The information must spread."
Jason stood before the temporary comms console, his gaze on the ARGUS node network, segmented into dozens of encrypted layers by the Fuxi System.
Zhao Mingxuan frowned: "You mean… release our 'strategic framework'? Including the Dual Fire theory?"
"Including," Jason said firmly.
Lisa's eyes flickered: "Then… the enemy will see it too?"
"That's the point," Jason looked up, his gaze sharp. "Haven't you realized?"
"What the enemy fears most isn't our weapons, our expanding territory."
"It's that they don't know who's lighting the Fire."
He pointed to the screen: "They can crush an organization, besiege a legion. But they can't eradicate a mindset."
"Call this Fire 'Bright,' they hunt it; call it 'Wildfire,' they track it."
"But what if it has no name?"
Zhao Mingxuan's eyes lit: "Then—anyone could be."
"Exactly," Jason smiled faintly. "Once a thought spreads, who do you arrest? Once a theory becomes consensus, how do you block it?"
Lisa said softly: "But there's a risk… aren't we afraid someone will hijack our strategy, misuse our 'name,' and go astray?"
"I'm afraid," Jason nodded. "So we leave no 'name.'"
"We leave only a thought, a set of questions, a dialogue script, a path choice table."
"We spread not 'Fireseeds,' but—the way to ignite."
The Fuxi System prompted:
[Constructed: Three-Tier Distributed Propagation Program × Omitting Bright Legion + Wildfire Names × Template Open × Conceptual Link Sharing]
[Diffusion Tag: "If you've ever suffered, questioned, longed to live another way—you are already us."]
John Welles laughed: "If they dare arrest people by this strategy—they'd have to jail half the Empire."
Jason's gaze was deep:
"Let them try."
"We don't hide. But we don't show ourselves."
"This Fire, henceforth, has no name, no stronghold, no center."
"Only you—at some moment, in some place—asking yourself that question."
"How do you want to live?"
The Fuxi System whispered:
[Nameless Fire × Borderless Enemy × Leaderless War × Endless Burn]
[This is the ultimate open conspiracy: You don't know who the enemy is, yet find enemies all around.]
Jason turned, and the system began executing the diffusion command.
From the ARGUS node hub, in a radial pattern, dark-wave signals surged through the South District, East District, Western Ruins, and the old education belt of the mid-tier wastelands.
Each fragment of speech was a covert seed.
Each recipient would see—how to ignite themselves.
And the Empire?
It would face an ultimate paradox:
—Who is the enemy?
—Everyone seems unlike an enemy.
—Everyone seems like an enemy.
—Act, and the enemy becomes boundless; stay still, and the Fire spreads everywhere.
Jason smiled faintly.
"If the Empire deems someone Dark Fire, that person is forced to become Dark Fire.
If the Empire suspects an organization is the Bright Legion, that organization must become the Bright Legion.
Because if the Empire doubts you, labels you, guesses you—you are, with no choice.
Unless you slaughter civilians to prove your innocence, losing the people's hearts, their support. The Empire need not destroy you—you'll destroy yourself.
You become the people's enemy.
The question is, do you dare? Is it necessary?"
"Enough."
"Let it spread."
Jason gave a wry smile: "I'd love to know how they crack this open conspiracy. I'm curious myself."