121: Chapter 121 Targeting the High-Ranking Officials, On the Eve of the Storm (2)

Luo Qingcheng picked up the three items one by one to examine them. She turned the Jade Slip over—the two lines of calligraphy written in a firm hand seemed to float in the moonlight. After reading the second line, she placed the Jade Slip back onto the stone table.

"Are you going to give this to Commander Tie Zhan?"

"I will. But before I do—I need to calculate exactly how strong the recoil will be once he brings his hand down."

"The Unified Coordination Department manages the fortress's supplies—the purification liquid you send to the fortress every month all has to pass through his hands."

"So, starting tomorrow—we will begin stockpiling the military-grade purification liquid. We won't send it to the fortress; we'll hold it in the Blue Moon Island public treasury first. If the Unified Coordination Department blocks Blue Moon Island's shipments after we submit the secret order—this batch of military-grade stock in the treasury will be our bargaining chip. As for Manager Wei in the military—I can use this stock to go directly through the Logistics Department, bypassing the Unified Coordination Department."

Luo Qingcheng turned the array map over—the back depicted the detailed layout of the Qixia Peak's ley lines, with the capacity of the Spirit Stone slots noted beside each branch. She tapped her finger on the location of the third branch descending from the peak.

"The Spirit Stone slots on the third branch have the largest capacity—they can hold the most Geng Metal Sword Intent. I'm placing the strongest defense on this branch."

"Why the third branch?"

"The third branch runs east from the waist of the peak—all the way to the Inner Harbor. The shantytown where you've settled the veterans and Loose Cultivators is entirely covered by the third branch. If anyone tries to infiltrate from the Inner Harbor to harm your witnesses—they'll be sliced into a dozen pieces by the Geng Metal Sword Intent in that third branch first."

Lu Changyuan looked at the array map—the moonlight turned the cinnabar lines on the paper a deep brown. Three lines extended outward from the peak of Qixia Peak, weaving an incredibly fine net over the outline of Blue Moon Island.

"When you lay the array—don't disturb the people in the shantytown."

"I won't. The array veins are buried within the ley lines—they'll only feel the stones beneath their feet warm up by a degree."

Lu Changyuan stood up from the stone platform. The horizon was already turning gray—in half an hour, it would be dawn. He had to draft the message for Commander Tie Zhan before daybreak.

In the Lords Mansion study, the oil lamp had been burning for half the night—most of the oil in the lamp base was gone. The cold light of the Starlight Coral on the sea surface outside shone through the paper windows, casting a faint blue hue across the desk.

Lu Changyuan sat at the desk, a blank message talisman spread out before him. Su Qingli had drawn the talisman—it was a Second Grade High Grade, capable of transmitting sound across districts within the Zhenhai fortress, unaffected by the fortress's Array Pattern.

He picked up his brush—the tip hovered over the talisman paper for a long while.

The content of the message could not be too explicit. Although Commander Tie Zhan's message talisman used an encrypted frequency for the Deputy Commander level of the Zhenhai fortress—the Unified Coordination Department managed all military supplies for the fortress, including the allocation of communication talisman frequencies. If the person surnamed Han had arranged for someone to monitor the message array station, any open communication sent from Blue Moon Island to the Deputy Commander's residence could be intercepted.

He crumpled up the wording of his first draft. The brush tip wrote three lines on the second message talisman—

"The fish has returned to the harbor. The hook has barbs—keep your hand steady when you pull."

"Is the net for you ready?"

"This batch of fish has old wounds. Old injuries from ten years ago—a piece of broken fishing line is still stuck in the wound. The other end of the line is tied to a post marked with the character 'Tong'."

After writing these three lines, he paused—and added one more line at the bottom:

"I've laid a layer of gravel under my own courtyard wall—the gravel is sharp underfoot, but it's steadier than stepping directly in the mud. On your end—why not lay a layer too?"

Lu Changyuan folded the talisman and sealed it with a sound-sealing talisman drawn by Su Qingli. The Array Pattern on the seal glowed briefly at his fingertip—the talisman was locked tight, and only Commander Tie Zhan's own spiritual aura could open it.

Outside the window, the morning light was already pushing across the horizon where the sea met the sky.

Footsteps could be heard from the direction of the Pier—Leng Feng was already moving Spirit Stones from the public treasury. One could hear the sound of wooden crates opening and closing—Spirit Stones were being moved from the treasury onto a cart at the Pier, the wheels rumbling dully as they rolled over the stone path. The first section of the Geng Metal Sword Intent array vein that Luo Qingcheng laid—work could begin as soon as it was light.

Su Qingli walked back from the shantytown. Her registry had an extra page—the settlement record for Warehouse Chief Cui. The columns for settlement shed number, shift Dao soldier number, daily ration standard, and future work assignment were temporarily blank. She had filled in every blank on the page—leaving only the "work assignment" column empty.

"Warehouse Chief Cui is settled in. Zhou Laogen brought him a bowl of hot porridge—the two of them were sitting at the door of the shed drinking it. Zhou Laogen asked him if it was cold on Broken Star Reef—he said it wasn't cold, just too quiet." Su Qingli flipped the registry to the previous summary page, "There are now over fourteen thousand people on the island—the food and Spirit Stones in the public treasury are enough to last eight months. But if we factor in preparations for war—purchasing array materials, stockpiling Spirit Stones, and storing military-grade supplies—it's enough to last four months."

"Four months is enough."

"As for Manager Song Yuan from Jubao Pavilion—when do you plan to notify him?"

"I'll send the message at dawn. Tell him to prepay for the civil-use purification liquid for the month after next—and double the prepayment amount. Use the usual channels—but have the prepayment sent to Blue Moon Island's account first." Lu Changyuan smoothed his cuffs, "If the person surnamed Han really tries to tamper with Blue Moon Island's shipments—the prepayments from the civil-use channels will be our backup cash flow."

Su Qingli noted this down on a blank page of the ledger. She dipped her brush in ink and wrote two lines on the paper—the first line was 'Military-grade Stockpile', and the second was 'Double Civil-use Prepayment'.

The wind picked up on the sea. The mounts of the cavalrymen unloading Spirit Stones at the Pier circled in the water—the spray stirred up by their ray-like fins was swept by the wind onto the Pier bridge, splashing onto the wooden planks that Warehouse Chief Cui had walked on yesterday. The water droplets dried quickly on the planks.

Night fell. The first batch of Spirit Stone slots on the third branch of Qixia Peak began to be filled. Luo Qingcheng had Leng Feng lead his men to break the Spirit Stones into fragments the size of a fingernail—the Geng Metal Sword Intent array vein could not handle whole Spirit Stones; the release of spiritual power from whole stones was too abrupt and would crack the ley lines. The crushed stones were buried inch by inch along the waist of the peak toward the east, and the soil layer over every inch was smoothed over again, leaving not a trace.

That same evening. At the bottom of the Cold Dragon Abyss.

The giant beast turned over.

A turn in its sleep. Its massive back pressed an arc into the mud at the bottom of the water, and the resulting water pressure wave pushed outward in a circle along the seabed. Where the water pressure wave passed—tiny shellfish on the reefs were shaken off, the roots of seaweed were loosened, and a few small sea beasts burrowing in the mud poked half their heads out of their holes to sniff the direction of the current.

The water pressure wave slammed into the shell of the Sea-Covering Xuan Turtle egg.

A very faint sound came from the surface of the eggshell—like the sound a thin piece of ice bent by the wind makes just before it cracks.

The outermost layer of the eggshell—the semi-transparent calcified membrane covering the surface—cracked with an incredibly fine line under the impact of the water pressure wave from the giant beast's turn. The line extended about two inches from the middle of the eggshell toward the top—in the pitch-black deep water, this crack would be impossible to see unless one looked at it point-blank.

The pulsation of spiritual aura inside the eggshell remained stable—every ten breaths or so, a very faint dark green light would brighten inside the eggshell and then fade. It was consistent with the pulsation frequency from half a year ago when it was first placed at the bottom of the Cold Dragon Abyss. The crack did not penetrate the inner layer of the eggshell—the crack in the outer calcified membrane was not enough to affect the circulation of spiritual aura inside the shell.

The giant beast turned over again. Its massive tail swept across the mud on the seabed, brushing away a few pieces of rubble next to the eggshell—the rubble rolled a few times on the seabed before slowly coming to a stop. Under the effect of the low temperature in the deep water, the crack on the eggshell began to slowly self-repair—a very fine, grayish-white mucus oozed from the edges of the crack, spreading along the fissure. Upon contact with the water, the mucus solidified rapidly, blocking most of the opening of the crack.

But the crack did not close completely. The solidified mucus left a hair-thin opening in the middle of the fissure—it was too fine for almost any water to seep in. But in the lightless deep waters of the Cold Dragon Abyss, the eggshell now had an extra line—not on the original surface of the shell, but in that new opening cracked by the water pressure wave of the outermost layer.

The Xuan Turtle was still sleeping inside the eggshell. The spiritual aura pulsation remained the same—once every ten breaths, neither fast nor slow. The day of hatching was still far off.

The giant beast's breathing echoed at the bottom of the abyss. After turning over, it sank into an even deeper sleep—completely unaware that a single turn in its dream could create such a huge wave on the surface of the sea.

The bottom of the abyss became quiet again. The dark green spiritual light brightened and dimmed inside the eggshell—shining on the semi-solidified grayish-white mucus at the edge of the crack, like a lamp covered with a thin veil.

The storm was still looming beneath the distant horizon. But now—the wind was already beginning to rise on the sea.