191: Chapter 191 The Eve of the Storm, Three Lines Converge (3)

Lu Changyuan looked at everything on the sea chart table—the fragmented map, the rubbing, the fluctuation source distribution map, the military list, Chu Yunfei's message, and Leng Feng's early morning record. Six items in total.

The exploration fragment from three years ago pointed to the Sealing Pattern; the altar discovered three months ago confirmed the existence of the Sealing Pattern; today's message confirmed that what was sealed beneath the Sealing Pattern was an abyssal vein; and the early morning record confirmed that the Haiyuan Clan was clearing the field as they advanced.

He picked up the straight-line chart Su Qingli had drawn; it marked the distance from the sixth fluctuation source to Blue Moon Island: approximately 110 li.

Beside the 110-li marker line, he added a line of text with a formation pen; the characters were written very small, the tip pressed onto the paper occupying less than half a line.

"If the advance speed remains unchanged, the sixth fluctuation source will enter the perimeter of Blue Moon Island's warning line in approximately two days."

Su Qingli stared at that line of text. Two days. The military distribution standards and outpost qualifications had only arrived yesterday; Blue Moon Island had officially become a D-Rank frontline outpost. Two days later, she might have to prove that she was worthy of this outpost designation.

She took the formation pen from Lu Changyuan's hand and drew a new line on the other side of the straight-line chart.

The new line extended eastward from Blue Moon Island, pointing toward Zhenhai Fortress.

She marked the transmission time on the line: Chu Yunfei sent the message in the early morning, it relayed through the Fortress, and was received at Blue Moon Island, taking approximately three hours in total. The reply would follow the same path, taking three hours to return to the Fortress.

It would take time for the Fortress to mobilize troops; the fastest they could reach Blue Moon Island was one day. If they were to engage the enemy in two days, she had to send a reply to Commander Tie Zhan now. She needed to let Commander Tie Zhan know the advance speed of the Haiyuan Clan's main force and let the Fortress know when the first wave from the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench would emerge.

Lu Changyuan nodded. Su Qingli turned and walked into the Formation Affairs Room to begin drafting the reply using the Receiving Formation.

The encryption level of the reply was the same as the message from Chu Yunfei: Level 2 internal military.

The body of the reply was very short, stating only four things: the sixth fluctuation source was approximately 110 li from Blue Moon Island, the advance speed was approximately 50 li per day, it was expected to enter the warning line in two days, and she requested that the Fortress include Blue Moon Island in the first-wave response plan.

After finishing, she fed the reply into the Receiving Formation; the encrypted Array Patterns locked layer by layer, and then the transmission Array Pattern on the Formation Plate lit up. The reply had been sent.

Leng Feng stood in the Lords Mansion for about ten breaths, then turned and walked out. When he reached the door, he paused and looked back at Lu Changyuan.

"Two days." He straightened the Commander-in-Chief seal at his waist. The sea-pattern stone on the face of the seal reflected a faint, deep blue light in the morning sun.

"It's enough for me to go underwater one more time. Four hundred zhang is not enough; I need to see what is actually beneath the sixth fluctuation source. Not by looking from directly above, but by circling from the side. I will cut out diagonally from the east side of the Ring Reef, take the safety passage to 1,200 zhang, and then move horizontally toward the sixth fluctuation source. At a depth of 1,200 zhang, it will be enough for me to observe from below without my Divine Sense being blocked by the water-pushing layer above."

"1,200 zhang of horizontal movement?" Lu Changyuan walked from the side of the sea chart table to stand in front of Leng Feng. He stopped at the edge of the sea chart table, his finger pressing down on the safety passage Leng Feng had marked.

The marking for the safety passage extended from the Outer Port of Blue Moon Island toward the east-southeast, first passing through the cold water layer of the Outer Port, crossing the area where the black fish school had already dispersed, and passing the Cold Dragon Abyss Mouth, reaching 1,200 zhang.

Moving horizontally from 1,200 zhang toward the sixth fluctuation source was outside the scope of the safety passage. Leng Feng had not explored that water layer before. "An unexplored water layer; what is the return route?"

"A diagonal ascent. After reaching the area directly beneath the sixth fluctuation source, I won't return the same way. I will ascend diagonally directly toward Blue Moon Island, surfacing near the sentry post on the east side of the Ring Reef. The route is within the coverage range of Su Qingli's sensor array discs; she will be able to track my position the entire time."

Leng Feng used his hand to draw an arc on the sea chart table that extended horizontally from the 1,200-zhang mark of the safety passage toward the sixth fluctuation source, and then ascended diagonally toward Blue Moon Island. The end of the arc was on the east side of the Ring Reef, beneath the veteran's sentry post.

"If there is anything unusual about the sixth fluctuation source, I won't stop; I will ascend at full speed immediately. Ascending at full speed from 1,200 zhang to the surface—" His voice did not change. "It's fast enough."

Lu Changyuan looked at Leng Feng for three breaths. Then, he took a spare emergency talisman from the corner of the table and handed it to Leng Feng.

The face of the emergency talisman was drawn with three red circles; it was from the same batch that Su Qingli had made for the sentry posts. However, the patterns on this one were denser, with a layer of extremely fine Spirit-locking Array added inside the third red circle. Once torn, the signal would not be transmitted to the Pier, but directly to Lu Changyuan.

Leng Feng took the emergency talisman and tucked it into his waist. After securing it, he patted the face of the talisman; the force was not great, but the slap on the talisman produced a short, muffled sound. Then he turned and walked out of the Lords Mansion toward the Pier.

At the Pier, Deng Yue, Ma Yuan, and Tian Qi were already waiting. The Water-avoiding Talismans of all three individuals had already been activated, the pale blue light on their surfaces flickering once in the morning mist.

Before boarding the sampan, Leng Feng squatted at the water's edge and tested the water temperature with his hand. The water temperature was lower than yesterday, by probably less than half a degree. He pulled his hand out of the water, and water droplets dripped from his knuckles onto the bottom of the sampan.

"Let's go."

The sampan pulled away from the shore. On the sampan, Leng Feng looked back at the Ring Reef; the green light on the veteran's sentry post was still lit. The veteran stood at the sentry post, holding an observation scope. He raised the observation scope, aiming it at the sea surface in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench.

The morning light spread over from the east, coating the Ring Reef, then the sea surface of the Outer Port, and finally the jade ears of grain that were just beginning to head in the old fields of the Spirit Plant Garden.

The sampan sailed outside the perimeter of the Ring Reef, and Leng Feng flipped over the gunwale and submerged into the water. His entry into the water was nearly twice as light as it had been three months ago; his feet entered first, and after his soles pressed against the water surface, his knees bent to absorb the impact, and his body splashed almost no water as it entered.

At the spot where he entered, a ring of extremely fine ripples spread out; the ripples dispersed less than two feet before being shredded by the morning breeze. Then the water surface returned to calm; it was impossible to see the four figures accelerating downward beneath the surface.

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 had changed from six to—she counted them on the surface of the Jade Slip with her finger. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six confirmed. Plus—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 had lit up. A seventh fluctuation source.

The position of the new fluctuation source was further ahead than the sixth—from the depths of the Dragon Burial Trench toward Blue Moon Island—approximately 60 li from the center of the triangle, and from the Ring Reef of Blue Moon Island—she pressed the formation ruler onto the Formation Plate to measure it.

The scale of the formation ruler corresponded to less than 100 li on the sea chart paper.

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 was already calm again, and the green light on the veteran's sentry post on the Ring Reef was still lit.