199: Chapter 199 Battle Reports Pile Up, Deep-Rooted Secrets Begin to Emerge (1)

Central Army tent of the Zhenhai Fortress. Before dawn—the sea breeze blew in from the east, carrying the salty, fishy scent unique to the receding tide.

In the four corners of the tent stood cold-light stone pillars—the spiritual light on the pillars automatically shifted from dark blue to bright white at the Mao hour.

Commander Tie Zhan sat on a tiger-skin chair. In front of him was a low table—spread across the surface were at least seven or eight battle report Jade Slips.

Each one was sent back from various strongholds on the left flank over the past day. The colors of the Jade Slips varied—from dark green to gray-white, but each one had the military department's emergency report mark engraved on the top.

He was reading the third one on his left. The surface of that Jade Slip had a hairline crack—caused by spiritual power overload during transmission.

Commander Tie Zhan raised the Jade Slip to his eyes—the writing on the Jade Slip reflected a faint white light under the cold light. He read for about twenty breaths, then placed the Jade Slip on his left side—as he set it down, the edge of the Jade Slip bumped against the stack of battle reports already piled up.

That stack of battle reports—on the left side—each had similar content: casualties over half, requesting withdrawal.

The one on top was the death notification of the stronghold's commanding officer—the name on the notification was circled in red ink, and after circling it, Commander Tie Zhan flipped the notification over and pressed it face down on the table. After flipping it over, his hand paused on the edge of the table.

There were two more on the right side—the outer warning line had been directly breached. Casualties were even higher than those on the left. One of them included a final transmission from the stronghold's defenders—the transmission had only one line of text, the handwriting so scribbled it was almost unrecognizable: "They came from underwater—we were unprepared."

Commander Tie Zhan put this transmission down. He tapped his fingers on the edge of the low table twice—after tapping, he picked up the next one.

Adjutant Tie walked in from outside the tent. He was holding a dark green Jade Slip in his hand—the top of the Jade Slip was engraved with the number for Blue Moon Island. Adjutant Tie walked to the low table—and handed the Jade Slip to Commander Tie Zhan's hand.

"Blue Moon Island battle report. Contact made at the third quarter of the Mao hour—just arrived."

Commander Tie Zhan took the Jade Slip. The surface of the Jade Slip was still warm—the residual heat from the transmission array path having just been activated. He raised the Jade Slip to his eyes.

There were only five lines of text on the battle report. The handwriting was extremely neat—the end of every stroke was clean and crisp, without a hint of sloppiness.

Contact time—third quarter of the Mao hour. Enemy scale—two False Core, over a hundred Foundation Establishment Abyssal Beasts, three lines of assault. Kills—two False Core fled, approximately eighty Foundation Establishment Abyssal Beasts killed. Own casualties—three dead, eleven injured. Geng Metal Sword Intent Killing Array consumption—thirty percent.

Commander Tie Zhan read for about ten breaths. Then he placed the Jade Slip on his right side—separating it from the stack of heavy casualty reports on the left. After separating it, he picked up the Blue Moon Island battle report again—to read it a second time.

After finishing the second reading, he called Adjutant Tie over. Adjutant Tie walked to the low table—and took the Jade Slip handed back by Commander Tie Zhan.

"Three dead—" Adjutant Tie paused after reading out the casualty number. He flipped the Jade Slip to the back—the back contained detailed notes on the kill list. The notes listed the estimated size of each killed Abyssal Beast and the method of killing—among which the killing method for the two False Core Commanders was marked as "forced back by Geng Metal Sword Intent Killing Array."

Commander Tie Zhan stood up from the tiger-skin chair. He walked to the sea map—the sea map hung on the stone wall on the left side of the tent.

The sea map marked the locations of the twenty strongholds on the left flank—each stronghold was pinned at the corresponding location with a small piece of spirit light stone. The color of the spirit light stone indicated the current status of the stronghold: green meant normal, yellow meant under attack, and red meant contact lost.

Commander Tie Zhan stood in front of the sea map. Of the twenty strongholds—only Blue Moon Island was green. The other strongholds were either flashing yellow, had already turned red, or simply weren't lit at all.

The green spirit light stone of Blue Moon Island was isolated at the outlet of the Dragon Burial Trench—surrounded by a field of friendly light points that had already gone dark or were turning dark. The nearest green light point was at least three hundred miles away.

He stood in front of the sea map for about ten breaths. Then he turned and walked back to the low table—picked up a red brush from the corner of the table. The tip of the brush was dipped in cinnabar ink—the cinnabar ink had been mixed with Spirit Beast blood, and after drying on the paper, the color was a shade deeper than ordinary cinnabar.

Commander Tie Zhan wrote on a blank military supplies requisition form. The brush tip pressed onto the paper—the characters were not large, and each character was pressed within the grid.

Additional distribution: three crates of array base repair Materials. Sixty sets of standard armor plates. Two crates of military injury medicine. Raw Materials for purification liquid—thunder-struck wood shavings—a batch. The total amount is nearly double the monthly quota.

After writing, he started a new line at the bottom of the requisition form—and wrote a postscript. The characters of the postscript were one size smaller than the main text, but the brush tip was pressed heavier.

"Repair as much as you can—fight another battle, and I will apply to the military department for a Rank upgrade for your stronghold."

He placed the red brush back on the brush rack. Then he handed the requisition form to Adjutant Tie.

"Dispatch it from the right wing warehouse. Send it out today—use a military spirit boat, and have it delivered to Blue Moon Island within two days."

Adjutant Tie took the requisition form—glanced at the postscript. Then he folded the requisition form and stuffed it into the leather pouch at his waist—the outside of the leather pouch was stamped with the mark of the Zhenhai Fortress Central Army tent. He turned and walked out—when he reached the tent entrance, Commander Tie Zhan spoke again.

"Wait—" Commander Tie Zhan picked up the Blue Moon Island battle report Jade Slip from the low table. He clutched the Jade Slip in his hand for a moment—then handed it to Adjutant Tie. "This one—archive it. Also, make a copy and send it to the duty officer at Command Headquarters. Let them see—not every stronghold on the left flank is crumbling."

Adjutant Tie took the Jade Slip—nodded. Then he lifted the tent flap and walked out. After the tent flap fell, the tent became quiet again—the green light point on the sea map was still flashing.

That evening.

Blue Moon Island Lord's Mansion. Lu Changyuan stood at the sea map table—on the table, the fragmentary map, the Leng Feng rubbing Jade Slip, the Su Qingli fluctuation source distribution map, and the military department distribution standard list—these four things were still spread out.

From the moment Leng Feng emerged from the water until now—these things had been laid out on the table for nearly a whole day. The position of each item hadn't changed—but Lu Changyuan had stood at the sea map table at least seven or eight times during this day.

Su Qingli walked over from the Formation Affairs Room—in her hand, she held a newly received transmission Jade Slip. The top of the Jade Slip was engraved with the mark of the Grain Supervision Office of the Royal Capital military department—the encryption level was the same as that one.

"Chu Yunfei."

Lu Changyuan took the Jade Slip. The surface of the Jade Slip was cool—the transmission had traveled for at least two days, from the Royal Capital to the Zhenhai Fortress transfer station and then to Blue Moon Island. He inserted the Jade Slip into the receiver next to the sea map table—the three circles of relay Array Patterns at the bottom of the receiver lit up.

Chu Yunfei's voice came from the Jade Slip—the voice was a bit hoarser than last time, but the speaking speed was nearly a gear faster than last time.

"I searched through all the remaining pages related to the Sealing Pattern in the old archives of the Grain Supervision Office—the core explanation section was torn off, you know that. I searched until the third day—and found a sentence in the marginal notes of another completely unrelated old file."

"That old file was the last maritime survey report written by a retired old surveyor sixty years ago—the report itself had nothing to do with the Sealing Pattern. But the old surveyor had scribbled a line of text with a charcoal pencil in the blank space on the corner of the report. The handwriting was so sloppy that the archivist at the Grain Supervision Office probably didn't recognize it at all—when filing, they skipped it directly, thinking it was useless notes."

Chu Yunfei paused. Then he read out that line of text:

"abyssal vein—the root of deep-sea Spiritual Veins. Seal it and the Abyssal race declines, open it and the Abyssal race prospers. Ancient cultivators sealed the veins to control the Abyssal."

Lu Changyuan did not speak. He pulled the Jade Slip out of the receiver—clutched it in his hand for a moment. Then he inserted it back in.