209: Chapter 209 The outer fortifications are worn through, and the clouds press down on the sea line (2)

Lu Changyuan folded the messaging Jade Slip and tucked it into his sleeve.

He stood on the Pier, looking at the abnormal ebb tide and the backflowing seawater in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench.

Then, he looked toward the horizon in the direction of the fortress.

On the horizon, in the extreme distance, a row of tiny black silhouettes appeared.

The spacing between the silhouettes was uniform, approximately one every half-li.

Looking toward the horizon from the Pier, that line had about twenty-something dots.

The edges of the silhouettes were extremely clear, like hard edges carved out with a knife.

Clouds would not have such boundaries.

Those were ships.

The vanguard fleet of the Imperial Capital Battle.

They would arrive in four days.

Blue Moon Island needed to hold on for four more days.

Lu Changyuan turned and walked back to the Lords Mansion.

He walked to the sea chart table, where six items were still spread out.

The remnants of the map were curled at the corners of the table; the edges of the animal hide had curled up after being repeatedly dampened by sea breeze and moisture and then dried.

The rubbings from Leng Feng's four deep-sea explorations were in the center of the table; a thin layer of the grayish-white formation ink powder on the surface of the Jade Slip had been blown away by the sea breeze.

Su Qingli's fluctuation source distribution map was on the far right, with the locations of nine fluctuation sources densely marked on the paper.

He picked up the formation brush and filled in the final piece of data on the timeline Su Qingli had drawn.

The Lid's Restriction had been worn through.

The Lock Core was expected to be fully charged in four days.

The window was still there, but it was tighter than previously calculated.

Leng Feng walked back from the Pier and stood opposite the sea chart table.

He unhooked the observation scope from his waist and walked to the entrance of the Lords Mansion.

He aimed the observation scope toward the Dragon Burial Trench.

The channel where the tide was backflowing was getting wider and wider; the area of exposed reef on the periphery of the Ring Reef had nearly doubled in the past half an incense stick of time.

Seawater was flowing backward from the periphery of the Ring Reef toward the Dragon Burial Trench.

The speed of the backflow was not fast, and the water surface looked almost flat.

However, the speed of the undercurrents was accelerating; the water flow data marked by Su Qingli on the Receiving Formation had nearly doubled in the past incense stick of time.

Leng Feng adjusted the focal length of the observation scope from long-range to mid-range by one notch and tilted the lens barrel down by two degrees.

The lens barrel was aimed directly at the center of the Dragon Burial Trench mouth.

The sea surface of the Deep Water Zone began to churn.

The scale of this water-breaking was completely different from the vanguard team; large areas of water columns surging up from the extreme depths replaced small-scale assaults.

The diameter of the water columns expanded from three zhang to at least thirty zhang.

The water columns pushed up from the Deep Water Zone, and when they reached the surface, the water exploded.

Interspersed between the water columns was grayish-white silt brought up from the deep water layer; the silt spread across the water surface, dyeing the entire stretch of seawater a grayish-blue.

There was more than one water column.

Leng Feng counted at least five in the observation scope; five water columns exploded simultaneously on the sea surface in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench mouth.

The water mist overlapped, covering the entire sea surface.

Inside the mist, something was moving.

The reflection of bone armor was larger, denser, and brighter than that of the vanguard team.

The direction of movement was consistent: toward Blue Moon Island.

"They have started to come out."

Leng Feng lowered the observation scope and pressed his hand against the Grand Commander's seal at his waist.

The engraving on the seal face, depicting a sword tip plunged into the sea, reflected a deep blue in the morning light.

Lu Changyuan stood beside him, clutching Commander Tie Zhan's messaging Jade Slip in his hand.

The characters on the Jade Slip reflected a very faint cinnabar red in the morning light.

"Four days."

He tucked the Jade Slip into his sleeve.

Then he looked up at the row of black ship silhouettes on the horizon that were growing larger.

The outlines of the ships became increasingly clear in the morning light: the masts, the hulls, the arcs of the prows breaking through the waves.

In four days, these ships would enter the visual range of Blue Moon Island.

But within these four days, the Haiyuan Clan would have already emerged from the trench mouth.

Leng Feng raised the observation scope again, aiming it toward the trench mouth.

On the grayish-blue water surface, more reflections of bone armor were moving within the mist.

Water columns were still exploding outward; the position of each new water column was closer to the Ring Reef than the previous one.

Beneath the water surface, the signal of the tenth fluctuation source on Su Qingli's Receiving Formation flickered at the edge of the Formation Plate, then stabilized.

On the Blue Moon Island Ring Reef, the green light of the repeater in the Old Veteran's hand was shining, but the emergency talisman beside him had been clutched in his palm for three whole days.

His palm was not sweaty.

He stared at the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench and silently counted a number.

On the outer side of the Ring Reef, the ebb tide was pulling the seawater outward.

But in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench, the water was still backflowing.

Chen hour.

Less than an hour after The Lid was worn through.

Inside the Formation Affairs Room of the Lords Mansion, Su Qingli crouched beside a low wicker basket.

Stacked in the basket were twelve black formation stakes, each about the length of a forearm and less than three fingers thick.

The surface of the stakes was not engraved with any lethal Array Pattern; only a circle of extremely fine disturbance patterns was engraved in the middle of the stake body.

The direction of the disturbance patterns was exactly the opposite of the sealing Array Patterns Su Qingli usually drew; the sealing Array Patterns locked spiritual power, while the disturbance patterns scattered it.

The lightning-struck wood shavings—the batch sent in Commander Tie Zhan's additional support supplies—were ground into powder by Su Qingli.

The powder was so fine that rubbing it between her fingertips would embed it into the grooves of her fingerprints.

She mixed the powder with crushed old sand in a two-to-one ratio and then filled it into the pre-reserved grooves at the top of the formation stakes.

The moment the grooves were sealed, a faint ripple appeared in the air around the formation stake.

The ripple was not strong; placed on a table, it would not disturb any Formation Plate.

But after being buried on the seabed, the residual thunder aura in the lightning-struck wood shavings would resonate with the trace amounts of thunder-attribute spiritual power naturally present in the seawater.

The resonance would emit chaotic low-frequency fluctuations.

The Haiyuan Clan's spiritual power transmission in the direction of the Connection Node relied on a stable spiritual power frequency.

Once covered by chaotic fluctuations, the transmission efficiency would be suppressed.

"Effective radius—" Su Qingli sealed the groove of the last formation stake.

She picked up a formation stake from the low basket and held it up to the cold-light stone lamp; the disturbance patterns on the surface of the stake revealed circles of extremely fine shadows under the light.

"A single one is about eight li. Twelve of them—nailed one every five li—will cover an arc of about sixty li in the direction of the Connection Node. The interference fields between the stakes will have overlaps and gaps. The net interference efficiency is about thirty percent."

She put the formation stake back into the low basket.

Then she stood up, her knees stained with the blackish-gray powder of the lightning-struck wood shavings.

She did not brush it off.

"The spiritual power injection speed in the direction of the Connection Node—if it is suppressed by another thirty percent from the current less-than-thirty percent, the progress gap between the Lock Core and The Lid will widen even further. All three rings must be fully injected simultaneously to open the Main Hub. The larger the progress gap, the more extra time the Haiyuan Clan will need to fill the gap in the Connection Node."

Lu Changyuan stood at the entrance of the Formation Affairs Room.

He did not walk in; a faint knuckle print remained on the door frame where he had tapped his finger the day before.

He glanced at the twelve formation stakes in the low basket, then looked at Su Qingli.

"After The Lid is worn through, the Haiyuan Clan's attention will be entirely on the Lock Core direction. In the direction of the Connection Node, how much more can the guard density be reduced?"

"When Leng Feng scouted last time, there was one group every forty zhang in the direction of the Connection Node, and the number of people in each group was less than half of that in The Lid direction."

Su Qingli pointed with her finger at the location of the Connection Node on the Formation Plate.

The patrol trajectories for that area on the Formation Plate had been marked for at least three days; the trajectory lines had changed from dense horizontal movements three days ago to sparse dotted lines now.

"After The Lid is worn through, the High Priest will divert all spiritual power from The Lid direction to the Lock Core. The guards will also follow the spiritual power. There will be even fewer patrol soldiers left in the direction of the Connection Node. If we go to nail the formation stakes now, there is almost no possibility of encountering a patrol team."

Lu Changyuan nodded.

He turned and walked out of the Formation Affairs Room, walking toward the Outer Port Pier.