211: Chapter 211 The slope slows down, and an unpleasant guest arrives (1)

In the Formation Affairs Room, Su Qingli sat in front of the Receiving Formation—from the moment Leng Feng and the other three entered the water until now, she had not risen from that low rattan stool.

Beneath the four legs of the low stool was an old sea chart—the chart had been ground back and forth by the stool legs for nearly half a day, wearing out four shallow indentations.

On the Formation Plate of the Receiving Formation—the spiritual power waveform curve in the direction of the Connection Node was being pressed down by a thin charcoal pencil.

The charcoal pencil pressed onto paper—the paper was a blank page torn from an old ledger.

Before Leng Feng entered the water, Su Qingli had drawn a baseline: using the average of the spiritual power fluctuation data of the Connection Node from three days ago, she drew a straight dashed line.

Above the dashed line was today's real-time waveform—a curve that had once climbed steeply.

Now, this curve had changed.

From the moment the twelfth Formation Stake was driven in—Su Qingli's charcoal pencil had been tracing it on the Receiving Formation paper for nearly an hour.

The curve began to turn less than a cup of tea's time after the Formation Stakes were in position.

The angle of the turn was extremely gradual—slowly veering to the right from the steep ascent, until finally—the climbing angle, which had originally been so steep it seemed ready to slant off the paper, was lowered by nearly thirty percent.

Su Qingli used the charcoal pencil to mark the angle between the baseline dashed line and the real-time curve.

The angle had become smaller—by how much?

She used the charcoal pencil to write three characters next to the angle: "Approximately thirty percent."

Just as she finished writing these three characters—Leng Feng pushed the door open and entered.

He placed the rubbing paper on the sea chart table next to the Receiving Formation.

Twelve coordinate points were arranged in a uniform arc on the paper—the arc almost perfectly coincided with the deployment trajectory Su Qingli had pre-marked on the sea chart.

"All twelve are in position."

Leng Feng completely unfastened the waterproof bag from his waist and placed it next to the low basket—the empty spaces in the low basket where the Formation Stakes had previously been were still there.

"When the eighth one was driven in, a patrol passed by less than three miles above our heads."

"They were looking at bone tablets—watching the flow of spiritual power. No one looked into the silt."

Su Qingli nodded.

She took the rubbing paper to the side of the Receiving Formation Plate—comparing the actual points on the paper with the magnitude of the waveform changes on the Formation Plate.

The twelve points were spread out along an arc—one every five miles, covering an arc of about sixty miles in the direction of the Connection Node.

The interference field between the stakes appeared on the Formation Plate as twelve tiny depressions in the waveform curve—each depression corresponding to the interference radius of one Formation Stake.

There were overlaps and gaps between the depressions.

The net interference efficiency—she traced a line from left to right along the arc direction on the Formation Plate with her finger—was approximately thirty percent.

It was consistent with what she had calculated before he went into the water.

"The spiritual infusion speed in the direction of the Connection Node—has been suppressed."

Su Qingli put the charcoal pencil back into the pen slot.

Next to the pen slot was the real-time data of the fluctuation sources she had copied for Leng Feng that morning—the positions of the sixth to ninth fluctuation sources on the paper had not changed since the morning.

But the waveform amplitude in the direction of the Connection Node—from the hour of Chen to the hour of Wei, the rate of decline in the amplitude peak was accelerating.

"After The Lid was worn through, they were originally putting all their effort into patching the gap in the Connection Node. Now, not only has the gap not been patched—it is still expanding."

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

He had watched Leng Feng and the other three come ashore at the Pier just now—he had seen Gu He hang the unopened black iron medicine gourd back onto his waist.

Now he walked into the Formation Affairs Room and stood in front of the Receiving Formation Plate—his gaze sweeping across the waveform curve.

He did not ask, "Is it confirmed?"

Su Qingli had already calculated the angle marking and the net interference efficiency.

He picked up the rubbing paper—the twelve coordinates were arranged in an arc on the paper.

Next to each coordinate, Ma Yuan had used a charcoal pencil to note the water depth and the texture of the silt.

Next to the eleventh one, a line of small text was noted: "There are remnants of an ancient sealing formation base at the bottom, a corner of a square pedestal, rusted for at least a hundred years."

"The eleventh one was driven in twenty zhang away from the remnants."

Leng Feng said.

He stood on the other side of the sea chart table—the seawater on his armor plates had mostly dried, leaving dark gray salt frost in the gaps of the armor.

"It avoided the metal's interference with the disturbance."

Lu Changyuan placed the rubbing paper back on the sea chart table.

He glanced at Su Qingli—she was still staring at the Receiving Formation.

The waveform amplitude in the direction of the Connection Node on the Receiving Formation was still falling.

It was not falling quickly—the peak of each fluctuation cycle was less than half a percent lower than the previous cycle.

But it was continuously falling.

"The spiritual infusion speed of the Connection Node has been suppressed by thirty percent."

Lu Changyuan's finger tapped the location of the Connection Node on the sea chart table.

"The spiritual infusion speed of the Lock Core jumped after The Lid was worn through—the Connection Node cannot keep up."

"The fuller the Lock Core, the larger the gap in the Connection Node."

"If the Haiyuan Clan wants to patch the gap, they must divert spiritual power from the direction of the Lock Core—however much they divert, the Lock Core slows down by that much."

"The three circles must be filled simultaneously."

Su Qingli took the triangle diagram from the Receiving Formation.

The distance between the dark red mark of the Lock Core and the silver-gray mark of the Connection Node on the triangle diagram—was nearly a finger's width wider than it was three days ago.

"The greater the progress difference—the more extra time they need to patch the gap in the Connection Node. The window is still there."

The window was still there.

At least two more days gained.

Leng Feng stood up.

His left shoulder armor plate brushed against the edge of the sea chart table as he turned—emitting a very faint metallic friction sound.

He picked up the waterproof bag from next to the low basket.

"The stakes are buried very shallowly—the top of the Formation Stake is less than half a foot from the surface of the silt."

"The micro-formation circuit on the top of the stake lit up with a circle of dark cyan after being triggered—and then went dark."

"The interference fluctuations are mixed with the fluctuations of the seawater itself."

"Unless the Haiyuan Clan takes bone tablets specifically for detecting formation circuits and scans the silt inch by inch—they won't be able to see it."

Lu Changyuan nodded.

He turned and walked out of the Formation Affairs Room.

The wind on the Pier had grown stronger—blowing from the Outer Sea toward Blue Moon Island.

The sea surface was pushed by the wind into a layer of choppy waves, and the white foam splashing on the crests of the waves shone in the sunlight.

The sea surface had been relatively calm when Leng Feng and the other three entered the water—the water flow after the ebb tide was flowing back towards the Dragon Burial Trench, and compared to the abnormal backflow in the morning, the speed of the backflow was nearly half as slow.

The abyssal vein was absorbing water—after The Lid was worn through, the speed at which the sealing base absorbed seawater had not yet returned to a stable state.

The reefs that had newly emerged from the water about three miles outside the Ring Reef—their area had not expanded further.

But they had not yet been submerged back into the water either.

Lu Changyuan stood on the Pier and looked toward the horizon.

The dark shadows of the Royal Capital Fleet were closer than they had been in the morning—over twenty black silhouettes were arranged in a horizontal line on the horizon.

The edges of the silhouettes were clearer than in the morning—the proportions of the masts and hulls could be distinguished.

But they were still over a hundred miles away—it would take at least three more days before they entered the visible range of Blue Moon Island.

He shifted his gaze away from the horizon—toward the sea behind Blue Moon Island.

A black dot.

It did not have the hard-edged silhouette of the Royal Capital Fleet.

The hull had the narrow, long shape of a spirit boat—the hull was long and narrow, with a very shallow draft, and the bottom of the boat was almost touching the water surface.

There were no flags or signals hanging from the bow.

There were no military markings on the hull.

A dozen or so people were sitting on the deck—wearing fortress military uniforms.

It was too far away to clearly see the color and degree of damage to the uniforms—but one could see that the uniforms were patchy, with dark and light areas, as if they had been torn apart by something and then sewn back together.

There was no distress signal.

There was half a signal flag on the mast—the flag was torn, and the edges of the tear had been shredded into fine threads by the wind.

But the signal flag was not emitting any spiritual light—distress signals would emit spiritual light—this flag was not lit.

It was just an old flag with the spiritual light extinguished.

Lu Changyuan stood there for three breaths.

Then he turned and walked toward the Formation Affairs Room.

"Su Qingli. Mark the position of that ship."

Su Qingli shifted the observation direction of the Receiving Formation from the Dragon Burial Trench to behind Blue Moon Island.

On the Receiving Formation Plate—about thirty miles behind Blue Moon Island, a weak spiritual power fluctuation of a spirit boat was moving toward the island.

The fluctuation was not strong—the spiritual power output of the spirit boat's own formation circuits was suppressed to an extremely low level.

The people sitting on the deck—were all cultivators, but their spiritual power fluctuations were scattered and chaotic, lacking the resonance of a formed formation.

"The spirit boat has a very shallow draft. The deck is full of wounded soldiers."

Su Qingli pulled the detection range of the Receiving Formation to twenty miles—the outline of the spirit boat became clear.

"The spiritual power fluctuations are scattered—it doesn't look like a properly organized unit."

"Can you distinguish the style of the armor plates?"

"The uniforms and armor plates look like the issue style of the Zhenhai Fortress left flank."

Su Qingli adjusted the Receiving Formation toward the direction of the left flank stronghold.

"Routed troops."

Routed troops.