201: Chapter 201 Countdown Hangs in the Balance, Deep Dive Makes a Decision (1)

Early morning. The cold light stone lamp in the Formation Affairs Room of the Lords Mansion had been lit for an entire night.

Su Qingli sat before the Formation Plate, a new piece of animal hide paper spread out in front of her.

On the paper were six wavy lines she had drawn after re-aggregating all the fluctuation source data from the past three days.

Each line corresponded to a fluctuation source—from the first to the sixth, plus the two newly added seventh and eighth ones.

She re-sampled the raw data recorded by the Receiving Formation and copied it onto the animal hide paper—taking twenty sampling points for each waveform line, with a time interval of half a shichen between each sampling point.

After taking the samples, she used a formation ruler to measure the amplitude height of each sampling point on the paper—pressing the scale of the formation ruler onto the paper and pricking a tiny ink dot for every point measured.

The twenty ink dots connected to form a line.

Six lines—the line for the sixth fluctuation source was the thickest.

The amplitude had risen by nearly 40% from the baseline three days ago.

But the key was the slope.

Su Qingli used a formation brush to mark three time periods on the line for the sixth fluctuation source: three days ago, two days ago, and the last half day.

The speed of amplitude change for the three time periods was completely different—the increase in the last half day was almost equal to the sum of the increases from the previous two days.

Accelerating. It was accelerating.

She pressed the formation brush onto the paper—starting from the latest sampling point of the sixth fluctuation source, she drew a dashed line forward along the current slope.

The end point of the dashed line—was the major emergency threshold set by the Receiving Formation.

That was the spiritual power magnitude that would only be triggered when the outer layer Restriction of the sealing was completely worn through.

The formation brush stopped at the intersection of the dashed line and the emergency line—Su Qingli wrote four characters next to the intersection.

"Two days—four days at most."

She rested the formation brush on the animal hide paper.

Then she looked up—towards Lu Changyuan, who was standing at the sea chart table.

"Calculating based on the current slope—the outer layer Restriction of the sealing will be completely worn through from the outside in at most four days, or at least two days.

Once the outer layer Restriction is worn through—the main hub will be exposed.

The Haiyuan Clan will activate the three circles of sub-patterns simultaneously from the directions of the lid, the Lock Core, and the Connection Node.

Once all three circles are filled—the center opening will open—and the abyssal vein will be restored."

She picked up another rubbing paper from beside the Formation Plate—on the paper was a comparison of the fluctuation intensity of the three nodes (altar, red circle, Connection Node) over the past half day.

Three bar charts side by side—the highest in the direction of the lid, followed by the direction of the Lock Core, with the direction of the Connection Node being the lowest.

"The lid direction has accumulated for the longest—its Restriction has already been worn to a critical point.

Once the lid is worn through—the Haiyuan Clan will transfer the released spiritual power to the Lock Core and the Connection Node.

The spiritual infusion speed in both directions will jump up simultaneously.

By then, the remaining window—might be even shorter than what we calculated now."

Leng Feng walked to the Formation Plate.

He looked down at the acceleration curve Su Qingli had drawn—his finger paused on the waveform line for the Connection Node direction.

Then he took his fourth reconnaissance rubbing out of the waterproof bag—and spread it out next to the animal hide paper.

The rubbing was marked with the distribution of the Haiyuan Clan patrol forces that he had scanned while diving through the safe passage.

In the direction of the lid (altar)—a patrol group every twenty zhang, randomized shift changes, at least thirty people.

In the direction of the Lock Core (red circle)—the density was close to that of the lid direction, with symmetrical troop deployment.

In the direction of the Connection Node—the patrol density was only nearly half that of the other two directions.

There was only one group every forty zhang—the shift change time was fixed, and the number of people per group was less than half of that in the lid direction.

"Their Golden Core Stage High Priest and main combat generals are all in the direction of the lid and the Lock Core—fully activating the Sealing Pattern lines.

More than half of the guards in the direction of the Connection Node have been drawn away to support the other two directions."

Leng Feng's finger drew a line along the marker line for the Connection Node direction—after drawing, he moved his finger back to the dark current marker line.

"This dark current—I followed it for nearly three li downwards from fifteen hundred zhang during my last reconnaissance.

The flow direction of the dark current is exactly the same as the orientation of the main hub—pushing diagonally from bottom to top.

The water current itself can cover the sound of paddling.

Following the dark current—we can bypass the heavily guarded areas in the direction of the lid and the Lock Core."

Su Qingli called up the real-time coverage range of the four sensor formation pieces on the Formation Plate.

Each sensor formation piece corresponded to a small sector on the Formation Plate—the four sectors combined to form a surveillance zone of about seventy li extending from the Ring Reef towards the Dragon Burial Trench.

She overlaid the coverage range of the sensor formation pieces with the safe passage marked by Leng Feng—the passage was within the coverage range from beginning to end.

"For every li you move—I can see your position and the relative distance to the Haiyuan Clan patrol lines on the Formation Plate.

I can provide you with real-time navigation.

The direction and speed of the patrol lines' movement—I can see here.

Once I see it, I will transmit it to you directly."

Leng Feng took the elite guard roster from his waist.

The names of the ten people on the roster were listed in a row—he had taken each of them on underwater missions at least three times.

He looked for about three breaths—then pointed his finger at three names.

Deng Yue. Ma Yuan. Tian Qi.

The new wound on Deng Yue's left shoulder was caused by the shockwave from a False Core Commander—the wound was less than half a rice grain deep, and it stopped bleeding within ten breaths after Gu He's hemostatic powder was applied.

The white gauze currently wrapped around his shoulder had already been changed to a new one—the gray-green color of the hemostatic powder beneath the gauze showed through the mesh.

But when Leng Feng called his name, Deng Yue had already taken his shield down from the weapon rack—he slotted his left hand into the strap on the inside of the shield and bent his arm.

His movement was not even a beat slower because of the injury to his left shoulder.

"I can move."

Ma Yuan and Tian Qi—the two had used their shields to block at least five Abyssal Beasts trying to crawl in from the breach in a V-shape formation.

The white scratches on the shield faces were still there—carved into the iron plating by the bone spurs of the Abyssal Beasts.

Ma Yuan flipped the shield over to check the groove on the inside—the edge of the groove was not cracked.

Including Leng Feng—four people.

The equipment was laid out on the Pier.

Leng Feng's waterproof bag already contained three items: Bone-Repelling Paste (two pills replenished by Gu He, the surface of the dark brown medicinal pills was covered in extremely fine granular particles), Water-avoiding Talisman (a thin layer of salt frost had formed on the edges of the talisman surface after repeated use underwater—Leng Feng used his finger to scrape the salt frost off), and the Jade Slip (the spiritual patterns on the surface were brighter than usual—the water pressure in the Deep Water Zone pressed the spiritual patterns tighter than usual).