168: Chapter 168 Deciphering the Fragmented Map: Reusing an Old Formation (1)

Chu Yunfei's attendant waited outside the cabin door for about three breaths.

"Lord Lu—Lord Chu also asked me to pass on a message. He said that although the location of the Grain Supervision Office is not on the front lines—wherever military provisions are transported, the Grain Supervision Office knows about it. As long as military provisions have been transported by water on the battlefield—the Grain Supervision Office will have at least one record of it. In the future, if you want to check the old accounts of any route on the battlefield—the records of the Grain Supervision Office might be able to help."

Lu Changyuan turned away from the porthole.

He placed the jade plaque flat into the Storage Pouch—the Storage Pouch now contained three things stacked together: the pass jade plaque, the animal skin fragmented map, and the military merit bronze medal that Commander Tie Zhan had sent over last night.

The face of the bronze medal pressed against the face of the jade plaque, with the fragmented map stacked at the very bottom—the three faces in contact with each other, clinging to the inner side of the bag wall within the hidden layer of the Storage Pouch.

He tightened the opening of the Storage Pouch.

"The Royal Capital is preparing for a larger-scale decisive battle—Blue Moon Island cannot just serve as logistics."

He pulled the fragmented map from the bottom of the pouch and spread it out on the table.

The marked line on the fragmented map extended southeast from the Zhenhai Fortress—first passing through the left flank front line, passing through the outer waterways of the Storm Gorge, passing through that ring of reefs at the mouth of the Dragon Burial Trench—and extending to the very bottom edge of the fragmented map.

At the break at the bottom edge, the marked line extended downward for less than half a finger's width—outside the broken line was a hand-drawn circle, the ink of which was dark red.

The dark red ink was mixed with extremely fine dark brown particles—old blood from three years ago mixed into the ink; the person who wrote it had a wound on the back of their hand that was oozing blood.

There were no known place names marked there—only a circle, and a small, blurry patch of dark red that had seeped out underneath the circle after being soaked by seawater.

The fragmented map was spread out on the cabin table.

Moonlight shone in from outside the porthole—shining onto that dark red circle on the map.

The dark brown particles in the dark red ink looked even darker under the moonlight—old blood from three years ago mixed into the ink, the particles left after the blood cells had dried embedded between the animal skin fibers.

Lu Changyuan put away the Storage Pouch—the three items in the pouch stacked together, and after tightening the opening, he hung it at his waist.

The cabin door was pushed open.

The movement of pushing open the cabin door was not heavy—the door hinges had been newly oiled by the ship's carpenter, and as it opened, it emitted a faint, lubricated turning sound.

The Old Formation Master stood at the doorway—his right hand still leaning on that half-broken old formation ruler.

The broken end of the formation ruler was a beveled surface—the beveled surface had a scorched black color from being burned by high heat.

He stood at the doorway for about two breaths—his gaze swept from the cabin door to the fragmented map spread on the table, and then swept to the moonlight outside the porthole.

His eyes stopped on the fragmented map.

"This map—" He walked into the cabin.

His walking posture was characteristic of someone who had spent a long time crouching beside Formation foundations—the ball of his foot touched the ground before the heel pressed down, and his knees bent half an inch deeper than when walking normally.

He stood by the table—he did not sit.

He placed the formation ruler beside the fragmented map—when he set it down, the broken end of the formation ruler aligned perfectly with the broken line at the bottom edge of the fragmented map.

The two broken lines were on the left and right—one was the frayed edge where the animal skin had been torn, and the other was the scorched black beveled surface where the formation ruler had been melted by high heat.

"Who gave this to you?"

"A friend at the Grain Supervision Office of the Royal Capital's Ministry of War." Lu Changyuan did not sit down.

He stood on the other side of the table—the fragmented map was between him and the Old Formation Master.

"He dug it out from the old archives—a route map reported by an exploration team before they entered the Dragon Burial Trench three years ago. Not a single person from the exploration team came out alive."

The Old Formation Master picked up the formation ruler.

He used the broken end of the formation ruler to slowly move down along the marked line on the fragmented map—starting from the position of Zhenhai Fortress, passing through the left flank front line, passing through the outer waterways of the Storm Gorge, and passing through that ring of reefs at the mouth of the Dragon Burial Trench.

The formation ruler moved to the break in the marked line—and stopped.

The break was exactly at the location of that dark red circle.

The Old Formation Master did not look at the circle—he was looking at the path of the entire segment of the marked line from the fortress to the circle.

He used the formation ruler to measure the distance of the marked line from the Storm Gorge to the red circle—after measuring, he flipped the formation ruler over and used the other end (the unbroken end) to measure the distance from the red circle to the edge of the fragmented map.

Then he turned the formation ruler horizontally—and measured the curvature of a segment of the marked line near the left flank front line.

He placed the formation ruler on the fragmented map.

The formation ruler pressed down on the middle section of the marked line—the position it pressed was exactly the waterway between the Storm Gorge and the mouth of the Dragon Burial Trench.

"This is not a natural terrain."

Lu Changyuan watched his fingers.

The Old Formation Master's fingers moved away from the formation ruler—moving to the red circle.

His fingernail pressed against the edge of the red circle—the indentation turned white on the old animal skin for a breath.

"It is a Formation foundation route map."

He removed the formation ruler from the marked line—using the beveled tip of the broken end to point at the red circle.

"Look at the path of this marked line—from the fortress to the southeast, passing through the left flank front line, passing through the outer waterways of the Storm Gorge, passing through the reefs at the mouth of the Dragon Burial Trench—the curvature of each segment is not the curvature of a natural waterway."

He used the formation ruler to gesture along the marked line—the straight edge of the formation ruler followed the curve of the marked line, and every turn of the marked line formed an angle with the straight edge of the formation ruler.

The angle was not large—each deflection was about five to eight degrees.

"Natural waterways are influenced by the seabed terrain and tidal trends—the curvature of the turns is gradual and smooth. The turns of this line are broken lines—broken lines mean that the person who drew the map was marking the route along the direction of the underground Formation veins."

"Formation veins will bend when crossing the boundary of different geological layers—the size of the angle of deflection depends on the difference in hardness between the two layers."

He lifted the formation ruler from the marked line—moving it to that dark red circle outside the edge of the fragmented map.

"This red circle—" The tip of his formation ruler tapped on the circle.

The force of the tap was extremely light—a few extremely fine black dots of scorched powder from the broken end of the formation ruler fell onto the animal skin.

"Is a convergence node for Formation foundations. It is the location where several Formation veins converge underground. The person who drew the map marked this node—because it was the target of the exploration team. They did not enter the Dragon Burial Trench to draw a map—they went to find the convergence node of this set of old Formation foundations."

Lu Changyuan pressed his hand against the edge of the table.

"Does this set of old Formation foundations—have any relation to the warning Formation net that the Ministry of War buried in the waters around the Dragon Burial Trench three years ago?"