229: Chapter 229 Coral Blind Box, Sealed with Restriction

Su Qingli stored the coral box inside the restricted items cabinet in the deepest part of the Formation Affairs Room. After closing the cabinet door, she used a charcoal pencil to write a character on it: "Unopened."

Then, she returned to the front of the Receiving Formation—the old cushion on her rattan stool had collapsed by nearly half. The sensing range of the number three formation eye on the flank had climbed from twenty-some li last night to nearly forty li—the newly applied old sand sealing layer had been replenished during high tide, and the cracks had been filled with shell powder mixed into the seawater. Shell powder becomes sticky when it meets seawater—sealing the loose gaps in the layer.

Outside the Formation Affairs Room—the midday sun was so bright that the salt frost accumulated on the windowsill turned from white to translucent. After the disturbances on the flank—Blue Moon Island did not immediately face a new attack. After being repelled before dawn, the main force of the Haiyuan Clan was temporarily staying in the Deep Water Zone about fifty li outside the Ring Reef—on Su Qingli's Receiving Formation, the main fluctuation source had remained in the same position for nearly three hours. Beside the Formation Plate, she had drawn a new movement trajectory map of the main force—the trajectory line from last night was a solid line pushing toward the Ring Reef, but today's line stopped in place, with a circle at the end. The circle was small—about three li in diameter. The Haiyuan Clan was reorganizing their formation.

Leng Feng wrote the progress report for the cleanup of the flank battlefield on the back of a nautical chart—and handed it to Lu Changyuan. The progress report was divided into three parts. First part: Bone armor fragment cleanup—the remains of forty-seven Haiyuan Clan elites had been dragged in batches by the second squad of the Sin Battalion on sampans to the Deep Water Zone of the Outer Sea and discarded. Second part: Private Soldiers remains—eleven bodies had been registered as "suspected casualties of routed troops," listed on a separate page, to be verified and canceled according to the "wartime casualties" procedure by the fortress after the war ends. Third part: Flank formation base repairs—two reef bricks split by bone spears in the narrow alley stone wall had been replaced, the crumbling mortar on the outside of the stone wall had been reapplied, and seven old reinforcement formation talismans had been retrieved from the mud and sand.

Lu Changyuan finished reading it—flipped the progress report over, and wrote four words on the blank space on the back of the nautical chart: "Well done." Then, he returned the paper to Leng Feng.

Leng Feng took the paper—glanced at it—folded it, and tucked it into the inner layer of his belt.

—Blue Moon Island was forming a scab over its wounds.

Su Qingli kept watch in the Formation Affairs Room for the entire afternoon. The warm yellow sunset slanted in from the west window—casting a faint orange glow on the marked light points on the Formation Plate in front of her. The main fluctuation source moved at the beginning of the Shen hour—it shifted about ten degrees east from its original position and descended nearly a hundred zhang into the Deep Water Zone. The descent was for regrouping—the Haiyuan Clan had not retreated. The depth of the regrouping was just slightly beyond the deepest effective detection range of the underwater sensing Formation Plates of Blue Moon Island. The Haiyuan Clan was testing the bottom line of the early warning formation layer.

Su Qingli recorded the new data in the monitoring log—using a charcoal pencil to mark a question mark next to "New regrouping depth of main force." Then, she continued to watch the Formation Plate.

Night fell. The night on Blue Moon Island was quieter than the previous one. Last night's sounds of exchange of fire and golden light had been exploding ceaselessly day and night—but tonight, there were only the occasional short password calls from sentries changing shifts in the direction of the Ring Reef and the low-frequency friction sounds of pulley rollers as fishing nets were reeled in at the Inner Harbor Pier. The main force of the Haiyuan Clan did not charge again under the cover of night—they were saving their strength for the next wave.

Lu Changyuan was meditating in his bedroom on the second floor of the Lords Mansion. The prayer mat was placed by the window—which faced the Inner Harbor. A very thin layer of mist had risen on the sea surface—the mist blurred the light from the cold light stone lamps into circles of pale cyan light spots. His eyes were closed—his Divine Sense was in a semi-open state. In the semi-open state, the Divine Sense of a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator could capture the spiritual energy fluctuations of the entire floor of the Lords Mansion—Leng Feng wiping his sword in the next room, Su Qingli flipping through formation papers in the Formation Affairs Room, the light tapping of the casserole lid being pushed up by steam on the kitchen stove downstairs—every sound corresponded to a spiritual energy fluctuation that was present.

The wind outside the window shifted by nearly forty degrees from the southwest—blowing from the direction of the Ring Reef toward the Inner Harbor Pier. When the wind shifted—the crown of the dwarf pine tree at the corner of the outer wall of the Lords Mansion was pressed down. After the crown of the dwarf pine returned to its normal height—Lu Changyuan's Divine Sense captured a very slight scraping sound coming from the third reef brick on the west side of the outer wall. The scraping was a single, dry sound—metal sliding quickly over a rough stone surface. It was different from the sound of the wind—which was a continuous low frequency. Then, it stopped. It stopped for about three breaths—and then a gap less than half a palm wide was pushed open at the mortar joint of the window lattice.

—Lu Changyuan's eyes remained closed. His breathing did not change. His cross-legged posture did not change. His left fingertips rested on his knee—his right palm faced upward in front of his Dantian. If a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator suddenly interrupted their breathing while meditating—the sudden change in spiritual energy fluctuations would be perceived by external forces.

The gap in the window lattice widened inward—in less than a breath, it expanded to a width just enough for a person to crawl through. A figure silently flipped in through the gap in the window lattice—when flipping in, their soles did not touch the windowsill. The figure landed—their heels stepped on the bluestone slab paved in front of the prayer mat—and the moment their feet stepped down—three concentric Killing Arrays lit up from beneath the bluestone slab.

The first circle—the outermost layer. A silver-gray cold light expanded outward from the wall base on the bluestone floor—forming an extremely bright ring with the prayer mat as the center and a radius of about one zhang. After the ring rose—sixteen semi-transparent Sword Qi blades condensed within the light. The form of the Sword Qi was the same as Luo Qingcheng's Geng Metal Sword Intent—silver-gray sword threads slowly rotating in the air.

The second circle—the middle layer. The ring retracted by about one foot—then floated up from the floor by about three inches—after floating up, it formed a dark golden semi-transparent light wall at waist height. The light wall did not block vision—but it blocked physical passage. For anyone below the Late Foundation Establishment Stage—hitting it was equivalent to hitting a reef brick wall.

The third circle—the innermost layer. The ring rose from the waist to above the head—after rising to the top, it folded inward—folding toward the figure's position. At the same time it folded in—three silver-white sword threads sprang out from the inner side of the ring—the tips of the sword threads locked onto the figure's glabella, throat, and Dantian, respectively.

Three arrays nested within three arrays—all activated within one breath of landing. No sound. No alarm. No warning talisman light.

Lu Changyuan opened his eyes. His meditation posture on the prayer mat remained unchanged—his left hand still rested on his knee. He glanced forward—the figure dared not move anymore. Their heels remained on the inch of the bluestone slab they had stepped on—they did not lift them forward.

The figure—a blue-clothed female Cultivator soaked to the bone. Her hair was plastered to her face by the rain—water droplets dripped from the tips of her hair onto the bluestone slab. Her blue clothes were torn on the left rib side, a rip about a palm long, and the edges of the rip were charred—it was a wound grazed by a mid-grade fire spell at close range. On the skin beneath the rip was a burn that was still oozing blood—the blood flowed from her ribs to her waist—diluted by the rain from the outer layer of her blue clothes.

Her left hand gripped the hilt of the short knife at her waist—her right hand was open, placed at her side. She held the hilt for about half a breath—then she released her left hand from the hilt. Then she slowly squatted down—using two fingers to pinch the end of the hilt—and placed the short knife flat on the bluestone slab. The movement was extremely slow—perfectly synchronized with the moving speed of the silver-white sword light of the three-circle Killing Array that was locked onto her glabella.

"I—am not here to kill." She stood back in her original position—her hands hanging at her sides. Her voice was kept extremely low—the tail end of every sentence sank downward. After losing too much blood, she could not catch her breath—the sinking tail end was because she lacked breath, not because of fear.

Lu Changyuan looked at her for a breath. Then he lifted his right hand from in front of his Dantian—and pointed toward the window frame. Outside the window—Leng Feng's footsteps had already appeared at the end of the corridor. In less than two breaths—Leng Feng pushed open the bedroom door—his right hand gripping his unsheathed long sword. After entering, he pointed the tip of the sword toward the female Cultivator—confirming the position of the three-circle Killing Array—then pressed the sword tip down by half an inch.

"How did you get in?"

"Outer wall—reef bricks. There is a gap in the mortar joint of the third brick—when I crawled in, the old talismans outside the wall did not activate." She tilted her head one degree toward the window frame. "I checked before I flipped in—there were no visible sentries on the four sides outside the window. But I guessed—there should be hidden sentries. The hidden sentries did not call me out—which means your people will not open fire before you speak."

Leng Feng glanced at Lu Changyuan. Lu Changyuan nodded.

Leng Feng urged the spiritual energy on the sword body—the dark cyan spiritual light on the sword body climbed from the sword guard to the sword tip—its frequency locked with the rotation rhythm of the third circle of sword threads of the Killing Array. As long as Lu Changyuan nodded again—the sword threads and the sword body would retract inward simultaneously.

Lu Changyuan did not nod. He stood up from the prayer mat—walked to the desk—picked up a small cup of cold water on the table. He took a sip. "What is your name?"

"Shen Qinghan."

"Where are you from?"

"The Royal Capital."

Leng Feng's gaze swept over the female Cultivator's blue clothes—sweeping to the inside of the right cuff. A circle of miniature cloud patterns was embroidered with extremely fine dark gold thread on the inside of the cuff—the pattern was the emblem of the Inspectorate of the Royal Capital Military Department. The color and thread spacing were all correct—it was genuine. "An undercover agent from the Inspectorate—wearing plain clothes. The Military Department's Inspectorate is only directly subordinate to the Royal Capital—it does not communicate with the fortress."

"An undercover agent from the Inspectorate comes to Blue Moon Island—flipping through windows instead of knocking on doors." Lu Changyuan put the water cup back on the desk. "The account—"

"I am being hunted."

"Why?"

Shen Qinghan reached her right hand into her collar—and pulled out a roll of paper booklets that had been nearly half soaked by the rain from the innermost pocket of her lining. The cover of the booklet was dark blue hard leather—the vermilion official seal of the Royal Capital Military Department was printed on the hard leather—the words under the official seal were "Material Dispatch Ledger." She placed the booklet on the desk—after the booklet was placed on the table, the back cover, soaked with rainwater, exuded a very faint dark red layer—that was an old bloodstain that had diffused out after being soaked through from the inside by blood, having nothing to do with ink.

"What is recorded in here—is not material dispatch. It is the financial flow and personnel mobilization of someone who, in the nearly three months after the Restriction loosened, bypassed the military and the fortress, and privately organized people to investigate the abyssal vein in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench. After I intercepted this ledger—I saw the signature of a very high-ranking person on the first page. Then, on the night before the fleet set sail, I was followed from my cabin—and attacked after being followed to the deck."

She withdrew her hand from the booklet—her fingertips pressed on the edge of the desk for nearly half a breath—her fingertips turning white. "There were two who attacked—both were people from the Inspectorate itself."

"Did you see the signature clearly?"

"I saw it clearly. The moment I saw it clearly—I knew why the people hunting me came so quickly." She was silent for a moment. "The Royal Capital's fleet will arrive tomorrow. The person in the ledger—is also in this fleet. Before the ledger flows out from me—I will not die at sea; but if the ledger arrives—then everything will change. There is someone on the ship waiting."

Leng Feng sheathed his long sword. The Killing Array was not put away—the three circles of sword threads were still suspended in the air—not rotating, but not disappearing either.

Lu Changyuan picked up the ledger from the table—and flipped to the first page. The first page—the vermilion signature of the chief official—the signature was extremely cursive, but the patterns of the seal were carved extremely deeply. He hadn't finished reading the name—he closed the ledger.

"Leng Feng. Find her an—empty shed." He put the ledger into his sleeve. "Turn off the Killing Array. If she wanted to run—she would already be dead. She is still standing here now—which means she cannot run, and she knows she cannot run."

Leng Feng nodded. The three circles of sword threads of the Killing Array began from the top—disappearing layer by layer. The speed of disappearance was exactly the same as the speed at which they had lit up just now—only in the opposite direction.

Shen Qinghan left the short knife on the bluestone floor—she did not pick it back up. She walked three steps toward the door—stopped at the door—and tilted her head to glance in Lu Changyuan's direction.

"You are very much like the lord of the island."

"I am."

She didn't speak again. Leng Feng took her down the corridor.

The night wind from outside the window blew in from the direction of the Ring Reef—the moisture in the wind was even heavier. On the horizon—the mast tip lights of the Royal Capital Fleet had turned from the dark blue of the extreme distance into a string of elongated pale cyan light spots. The fleet was getting closer and closer. The people on the deck—no matter what they wanted to do—would arrive by daybreak.