194: Chapter 194 A formidable array, the vanguard breaks through the water (1)

Lu Changyuan walked from the Lords Mansion to the Outer Port Pier.

On the Pier, the morning light had already spread from the east side of the Ring Reef—spreading all the way to the stone platform at the outermost end of the jetty.

The cold light stone wick beside the Receiving Formation plate on the stone platform had been replaced—after Leng Feng finished his report, Su Qingli had changed it for a new Spirit Stone wick, and the cold light jumped back from dark blue to bright white.

He handed the duty roster to Old Mai Liu.

The new assignments for the twelve sentry posts were already marked on the roster—three shifts compressed into two, with one extra person added to each post.

The sampan patrols in the fourth sector were increased from four squads to six.

All three sampans were transferred to the sector closest to the Dragon Burial Trench.

Old Mai Liu took the roster—glancing at the numbers of the three sampans in the fourth sector.

Then he folded the roster and tucked it into his sleeve—turning to walk toward the jetty where the sampans were docked.

The sampan oarsmen were already waiting on the gunwales.

Old Mai Liu jumped onto the first sampan—the sampan wobbled against the jetty.

He read out the sector assignments from the roster to the oarsmen—the helmsmen of the three sampans each confirmed their patrol lines and waterways.

At the sentry post on the easternmost edge of the Ring Reef.

Old Veteran adjusted the observation scope from long-range to mid-range by one notch—pressing the scope barrel down by two degrees.

The green light of the repeater at the sentry post next to him was still on—the light from the green lamp shone through the stone wall of the post.

He set the observation scope into the groove on the front side of the sentry post's stone platform—the groove had been chiseled three months ago, and the stone at the bottom of the groove had already been worn into a shallow ring by the iron rim of the observation scope's base.

Old Veteran untied the emergency talisman from his waist—clutching it in the palm of his left hand.

A small part of the emergency talisman's paper was soaked by the sweat in his palm—the cinnabar markings on the edge of the talisman were a shade deeper where it was wet than where it was dry.

He pressed his right hand onto the focusing ring of the observation scope—resting his thumb on the outer edge of the ring.

Leng Feng walked from the Pier onto the stone platform halfway up the Ring Reef.

The stone platform was a natural protruding reef rock on the inner side of the Ring Reef—the surface had been leveled, with an area of about three paces square.

A socket for a Formation Flag had been chiseled into the stone platform—the edge of the socket was inlaid with three circles of bronze patterns.

Leng Feng drew the Formation Flag of the Geng Metal Sword Intent Killing Array from his waist—inserting the flagpole into the socket.

The moment it was inserted, the Array Pattern at the bottom of the flagpole touched the bronze patterns—triggering a ring of extremely fine dark golden spirit light.

The temperature on the handle of the Formation Flag was higher than usual.

It was the Killing Array warming up—the residual heat from the Array Pattern drawing spirit energy from the earth veins traveled all the way from the bottom of the flagpole to the handle.

Leng Feng pressed his hand onto the handle—tightening his fingers on the layer of non-slip fine hemp rope on the surface of the handle.

Beneath the stone platform—the water surface in the shallow area on the inner side of the Ring Reef was as flat as a mirror in the morning light.

There were no waves.

The ebb tide had not yet begun.

The Pier warehouse area.

Commander Cai pushed open the warehouse door—the door hinge turned once in the stone groove, emitting a very dull sound.

Twelve rattan weapon crates were stacked in the warehouse—each crate contained ten spare shields.

The shields had been collected from the fortress military supplies three months ago—standard armored shields, the shield surface had a very thin layer of sheet metal, with a hard wooden board underneath the metal.

Half of the shields still had rust stains on them—caused by being stored in the warehouse for too long and corroded by the humid sea air.

The people from the second page formed two lines at the warehouse entrance.

Commander Cai handed the shields out from the crates—writing the recipient's name on the back of each shield with a charcoal pencil as he handed it over.

The sound of the charcoal pencil scratching across the sheet metal was a very faint rustling sound.

After receiving the shield, each person touched the spot where their name was on the back—confirming their name was on it.

Then they strapped the shield onto their left arm—the straps on the inside of the shield tightened against their arms.

"Second page—" Commander Cai handed the last shield to the person at the end of the line.

Then he tucked the charcoal pencil behind his ear—the rust powder from the sheet metal on the pencil smeared onto his earlobe.

"You are not people at the sentry posts. But you have shields in your hands. When the people at the sentry posts see you have shields in your hands—they will know there is backup behind them."

Ye Zhe pushed the last cart of stored grain from the direction of the Spirit Plant Garden toward the inner side of the Ring Reef.

The cart was loaded with spare grain that had been cleared out from beside the purification liquid shed—ten bags of spirit grain, five bags of dried vegetables.

When the cart wheels rolled over the Pier's stone slabs, they crushed out a trace of extremely fine stone powder—the dust that had accumulated in the cracks of the stone slabs for three months was crushed out by the cart wheels.

The emergency cellar was dug under the stone wall on the inner side of the Ring Reef.

The cellar entrance was a set of stone steps sloping downwards—the stone steps went down about three zhang deep.

The stone walls of the cellar were part of the Ring Reef itself—the thickness of the reef wall at the entrance was about five zhang, which could block a wave of spirit energy impact.

Ye Zhe moved the grain bags down from the cart one by one—carrying each bag on his shoulder and walking down.

After moving them all, he covered the cellar entrance with a stone slab—the edges of the stone slab were embedded with waterproof tarpaulin strips.

Then he leaned the cart against the reef wall—blocking the wheels with stones.

The old field area of the Spirit Plant Garden.

The temperature control Array Patterns for the four pots of purification liquid had all dimmed.

The spirit fire under the pots had already been extinguished—the five circles of temperature control Array Patterns on the pot surfaces dimmed in sequence from the outer circle to the inner circle, the order of dimming being exactly the opposite of when the fire was started.

The raw paste in the pots had been poured into storage barrels—a layer of moisture-proof sand was pressed onto the lids of the storage barrels.

The people from the old field area withdrew from the Spirit Plant Garden—each person carried a rattan basket on their back, filled with half-ripe spirit grain rushed from the fields.

The spirit grain ears were still green—not fully ripe, but they could not wait any longer.

They walked along the stone path on the inner side of the Ring Reef toward the Inner Harbor shed area—the gaps between the stone slabs on the path had been worn smooth by the sea breeze, and walking on them, their footsteps were nearly half as quiet as usual.

Su Qingli was in the Formation Affairs Room.

The door of the Formation Affairs Room was open—outside the door was a stone-paved path extending from the Pier toward the Lords Mansion.

The Formation Plate was placed on the stone platform in the center of the Formation Affairs Room—the stone platform was built from three dark cyan reef rocks, with a layer of moisture-proof oilcloth padded between the platform surface and the ground.

The signals from the four sensor array chips on the Formation Plate were clearly visible in the morning light.

Each sensor array chip corresponded to a small fan-shaped area on the Formation Plate—the crystal surface of the sensor array chips had dense fluctuation lines floating on them.

The density of the fluctuation lines was changing—the densest positions were concentrated in the fan-shaped area corresponding to the sensor array chip at the far east.

That area was directly facing the mouth of the Dragon Burial Trench.

Su Qingli adjusted the sensing range of the Receiving Formation to the maximum—about seventy li.

After the adjustment, a new boundary line appeared on the Formation Plate—the boundary line was drawn with extremely faint blue spirit light, which lit up on the surface of the Formation Plate for a moment before stabilizing.

She held the array brush in her hand—the brush tip paused on the stack of rubbing paper beside the Formation Plate.