190: Chapter 190 The Eve of the Storm, Three Lines Converge (2)

Four items were laid out side by side.

He placed Chu Yunfei's communication Jade Slip on top of the four items—pressing it down onto the position of the red circle on the incomplete map.

The Grain Supervision Office military seal on the Jade Slip reflected a faint, dark cyan light in the morning sun.

Red circle on the incomplete map = Sealing Pattern's Lock Core node.

Dark red protrusion on the altar = Sealing Pattern's lid node.

Newly added fluctuation source in the middle = Sealing Pattern's Connection Node.

The distance between each of the three nodes was twenty-five miles—at the very center, two thousand five hundred zhang deep in the Dragon Burial Trench, was the main hub.

Six fluctuation sources were spreading outward from the main hub—spreading westward, directly toward Blue Moon Island.

The Haiyuan Clan was prying the lock layer by layer from the outside—starting from the lid, moving inward layer by layer.

After all three nodes were activated—the main hub would be forcibly opened from the outside.

Once opened—the abyssal vein would surge out.

This was one line.

From the total annihilation of the exploration team three years ago, to the incomplete map lying mixed in old archives for three years, to Leng Feng discovering the altar during his first exploration of the abyss, to the Old Formation Master interpreting the incomplete map and confirming the ancient formation's base layout, to Su Qingli's Receiving Formation capturing the forty-breath cycle fluctuation, to the Spirit Mouse bristling and biting Gu He's finger, to Leng Feng confirming during his second and third explorations that the stone patterns were moving, patrols were increasing, and the center was rising—all the clues were connected from beginning to end.

One line from beginning to end—with the other end at the bottom of the water, two thousand five hundred zhang deep.

Lu Changyuan stacked the four maps together.

After stacking them, he looked up out the window—outside was the sea surface in the direction of the Blue Moon Island Outer Port.

The tide had receded on the sea—after the ebb tide, the outermost row of the Ring Reef was exposed above the water in the morning light.

Induction Formation Plates were embedded on the reef wall—the induction Formation Plates were transmitting signals to the boundary suppression stele.

The number of fluctuation sources shown by the signal was still six—but the amplitude of the sixth fluctuation source had increased by nearly ten percent in the last three hours.

Leng Feng walked back from the outer perimeter of the reef wall—in his hand, he held the induction record from the sentry post closest to the Dragon Burial Trench.

The record was written down when the Old Veteran was on duty—the record paper had the changes in the repeater's light drawn on it.

From the hour of the Rat to the hour of the Rabbit—the green light had been on for nearly two hours, then the yellow light flashed once.

The flash was extremely short—less than one breath.

The Old Veteran had drawn a circle where the yellow light flashed on the record, and next to the circle, he had written four characters: "Something is moving underwater."

Leng Feng placed the record on the nautical chart table—next to the position of the sixth fluctuation source.

"Early this morning—" He pressed his finger on the spot on the record where the yellow light had flashed.

The force of his finger pressed a tiny indentation into the surface of the record paper.

"The sixth fluctuation source has pushed forward nearly ten miles. It is now less than one hundred and ten miles from the Ring Reef."

He removed his finger from the record paper—then pulled another rubbing Jade Slip from the waterproof bag at his waist.

This Jade Slip was one he had brought when he went down for a solo reconnaissance dive early this morning—the dive depth was not great, only reaching four hundred zhang.

In the cold water layer of the Outer Port at four hundred zhang—the cold light of the Starlight Coral mother branches spread out across the bottom of the water like a pale blue carpet of light.

Schools of Silver-Scaled Moon Fish were swimming in the carpet of light—the bellies of the female fish were more noticeably swollen than three days ago.

The mother cold marrow jade shell outside the coral was secreting the third layer of cold jade marrow—the speed was faster than the second layer.

The temperature of the cold water layer had dropped by nearly half a degree again—but this time the temperature drop was not because of the coral.

Leng Feng used his Divine Sense to scan outward in the four hundred zhang water layer—when he scanned in the direction of the sixth fluctuation source, his Divine Sense encountered a cold water source that was moving forward.

The temperature of the cold water source was nearly one degree lower than the surrounding seawater—it was moving very slowly but in a stable direction—from deep within the Dragon Burial Trench toward Blue Moon Island.

The cold water source was mixed with extremely faint spiritual power fluctuations—the frequency of the fluctuations matched the frequency of the sixth fluctuation source on the Receiving Formation.

"It's not a living creature—" Leng Feng placed his palm flat on the nautical chart table.

His fingers were still covered by the surface of a Water-avoiding Talisman—the seawater on the surface of the talisman had not yet dried.

"It's the seawater pushed by a living creature as it moves. The amount is large enough to lower the temperature of the cold water layer at four hundred zhang by half a degree—which means the amount of water being pushed is at least several times the entire cold water layer of the Outer Port."

"The direction of the push is toward Blue Moon Island—and the moving speed is exactly the same as the advancement speed of the sixth fluctuation source."

He removed his palm from the nautical chart table—a ring of faint water vapor had been warmed out on the surface of the nautical chart by the temperature of his palm.

"While they push forward, they are pushing the water forward first—" Su Qingli stood opposite the nautical chart table.

She placed Leng Feng's record and Chu Yunfei's communication side by side.

Both items had arrived early this morning—one from the Grain Supervision Office of the Royal Capital's military department, and one from four hundred zhang underwater on the outskirts of Blue Moon Island.

Both items pointed in the same direction.

"The amount of water pushed is enough to lower the cold water layer temperature by half a degree—the thing following it won't be small."

—The green light was still on at the Old Veteran's sentry post.

The Old Veteran stood at the sentry post—holding an observation lens in his hand.

He raised the observation lens—aiming it at the sea surface in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench.

The morning light spread over from the east—spreading over the Ring Reef, then the Outer Port sea surface, and then the jade ears of grain currently heading in the old fields of the Spirit Plant Garden.

The sampan sailed out beyond the outer perimeter of the Ring Reef—Leng Feng flipped over the gunwale and submerged into the water.

His movement entering the water was nearly half as light as it had been three months ago—his feet entered the water first, and after his soles pressed against the surface, his knees bent to cushion the impact, and almost no splash was kicked up when his body entered the water.

A ring of extremely fine ripples spread out from the spot where he entered the water—the ripples spread less than two feet outward before being shredded by the morning breeze.

Then the water surface returned to calm—it was completely impossible to see the four figures accelerating their descent underneath.

Su Qingli stood on the Pier—clutching the real-time monitoring Jade Slip of the Receiving Formation in her hand.

The number of fluctuation sources on the Jade Slip changed from six to—she counted on the surface of the Jade Slip with her finger.

One, two, three, four, five, six. Six confirmed.

Plus one more—her finger stopped.

On the Formation Plate of the Receiving Formation, between the sixth fluctuation source and the center of the triangle, a new signal lit up.

The seventh fluctuation source.

The position of the new fluctuation source was further ahead than the sixth—from deep within the Dragon Burial Trench toward Blue Moon Island—about sixty miles from the center of the triangle, and from the Blue Moon Island Ring Reef—she pressed a formation ruler onto the Formation Plate to measure.

The scale on the formation ruler aligned with the nautical chart paper—less than one hundred miles.

She tucked the formation ruler into her sleeve—then looked up at the sea surface in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench.

The water surface at the spot where Leng Feng had entered had already returned to calm—the green light was still on at the Old Veteran's sentry post on the Ring Reef.