230: Chapter 230 The Account Books Across the Abyss, the Fleet Presses the Sea

The Hour of the Rabbit. The sky was not yet fully bright, but the Royal Capital Fleet on the horizon had already carved out nearly a third of its silhouette in the morning mist.

Lu Changyuan emerged from his bedroom, his sleeves concealing Shen Qinghan's ledger and the Soul-Searching Image Bead.

The two items were stacked together, their thickness just enough to create an inconspicuous rigid edge inside his sleeve.

He walked into the Chart Room; Su Qingli had already been sitting in front of the Receiving Formation for an hour.

Her fingers pressed simultaneously on two fluctuation sources on the Formation Plate—the main force and the flank.

The flank direction was completely dark; the Haiyuan Clan's flanking assault team had retreated completely into the depths of the Dragon Burial Trench last night and had shown no further movement.

As for the main force, the distance between the fluctuation sources had shrunk from last night's wide dispersion to a dense Formation, with the spacing between them less than five miles.

A five-mile interval was the Formation spacing for a shallow shoal assault.

"They are forming an attack Formation." Su Qingli lifted her fingers from the Formation Plate; having pressed them there for two hours, the tips bore circular indentations from the copper guard ring around the plate.

"After the main force descended below four hundred zhang last night, they reorganized their Formation. Now they have surfaced again, returning to within fifty miles of the reef wall."

"The frontal reef wall—how many more times can it hold?"

"The first company of the Sin Battalion can still fight, but there aren't many shields left. At least eighty were shattered in the four hours last night."

Before dawn, Commander Cai had the last batch of spares from the old warehouse at the Pier sent up. By the time they reached the third line of defense, the men carrying the shields couldn't even straighten their backs.

It wasn't from injuries, but from muscle exhaustion after guarding the reef for nearly an entire day."

Su Qingli pushed the draft battle damage report resting beside the Formation Plate toward Lu Changyuan. On the draft, two marks from Commander Cai's pipe ash were pressed.

One was on the casualty list for last night—eight men. The other was on the shield list—eighty-seven shields shattered, eleven repairable, and the rest of the iron rims sent to be melted down.

Lu Changyuan set the draft down. He then took Shen Qinghan's ledger and the Image Bead from his sleeve and placed them on the chart table. "Look at this first. The Royal Capital Fleet will arrive at dawn. Someone on the ships will come to Blue Moon Island first. They aren't coming to fight; they are coming to find something."

Su Qingli looked at the first page of the ledger—the vermilion official seal. Her finger traced a line back and forth between the first row's material identification number and the seal. "I have seen this seal. Not this person, but this style of seal."

She pulled the rubbing of the Dragon Burial Trench sealing Main Hub that Leng Feng had brought back three months ago from her Storage Pouch and flipped it to the back.

On the bottom right corner of the back, when Leng Feng made the rubbing, he had incidentally also rubbed a line of tiny markings carved into the Formation Platform.

The characters of the marking were worn extremely shallow, but the seal format was clearly visible. A round seal—a single line on the outer ring, and three water ripples on the inner ring. It was exactly the same format as the seal on the first page of the ledger.

"The markings on the Formation Platform are from two thousand years ago. This seal format is at least two thousand years old. The person in the ledger uses the same seal format as the person who carved the seal two thousand years ago."

"The same seal format—either it is a family heirloom passed down from that period, or someone later specifically studied this seal-making format to stamp it on documents related to the seal."

Lu Changyuan turned the ledger to the second page. On the registration column of the second page was a date—three and a half months ago.

Before the outer Restriction of the seal had begun to accelerate its wear, someone from the Royal Capital had already organized three exploration teams to secretly investigate the Deep Water Zone of the Dragon Burial Trench.

The first page registered personnel—seven Spiritual Vein prospectors, three Formation apprentices, and twelve guards.

In the signature column, the person who signed fourth had two characters noted under their name: "Entering the Abyss." The person who signed fifth had the note: "Touching the Wall."

"Three and a half months ago. At that time, Blue Moon Island had not yet reached the Dragon Burial Trench."

Su Qingli flipped the ledger from the second page onward until she reached the sixth page. Starting from the sixth page, the date jumped to one month ago.

One month ago—this was exactly the time when Leng Feng completed his fourth abyss exploration reconnaissance and brought back the rubbing data of the sealing Main Hub.

The registration from a month ago no longer wrote specific names. They were changed to code names. The first code name: "Recording Patterns." The second code name: "Probing Veins." The third code name: "Marking Openings." The fourth code name: "Controlling the Gate."

Lu Changyuan tapped his fingertip under the two characters "Controlling the Gate."

"Controlling the Gate. They are looking for the abyssal vein—they want to control the gate. Once the abyssal vein is released by the seal opened by the Haiyuan Clan, a massive amount of deep-sea water spiritual energy will surge up from the abyssal vein."

"Before this spiritual energy reaches its peak, if a gate-controlling Formation is set up at the opening of the abyssal vein, they can keep the spiritual energy output under their own control."

"Controlling the abyssal vein means controlling the direction of the entire deep-sea water spiritual energy flow for at least the next few decades. The direction of water spiritual energy flow is the key to the redistribution of all Spiritual Veins in this sea area."

Su Qingli looked at the ledger, her finger stopping at the blank column next to "Controlling the Gate." "The Formation needed to control the gate is at least Tier 4. Tier 4 Formation Masters—there are no more than three in the entire Zhenhai Fortress."

"The Royal Capital's advance party—I fear what they want is not to win the war. What they want is to seize control of the abyssal vein before the war ends."

Leng Feng entered from the corridor, holding an observation scope. The gray stone dust on the tube had been wiped clean.

He placed the observation scope on the edge of the chart table and stood by the bed. "Shen Qinghan's injury—I had Gu He stop the bleeding. A burn on her left rib—a mid-tier fire spell grazed her at close range, scorching two layers of skin at the edges of the wound."

"She said she wants to talk to Lu Changyuan before dawn."

"Let her come up."

When Shen Qinghan walked into the Chart Room from the corridor, the injury on her left rib had been sealed with a layer of gray-green medicinal film using Gu He's hemostatic powder.

After the hemostatic powder congealed on the wound, her walking speed was nearly half as fast again as when she had climbed through the window.

She stood still opposite the chart table, glanced at the ledger on the table, and then spoke.

"I am giving you the ledger for two reasons. First, if I hold onto it, I die. If you hold onto it, you might be able to keep a group of people who shouldn't be swallowed up from being swallowed."

"Second, after the people in the Royal Capital Fleet who are eyeing this ledger arrive at Blue Moon Island, they won't just come looking for me."

"You have Leng Feng's rubbing data—the complete structure of the sealing Main Hub—and this data corroborates the exploration targets in the ledger. The person who gets the ledger must get your original rubbing. He cannot leave it behind."

"The buyer has already sent someone once before regarding the fact that your rubbing data is still on Blue Moon Island." Lu Changyuan took the Image Bead out from an inner pocket in his sleeve and placed it beside the ledger.

The miniature recording Formation path on the surface of the Image Bead shimmered with a faint silver-gray under the cold light stone lamp. "Last night, I searched that person's Divine Sense."

"The information in the soul-searching fragments—the mastermind buyer has an old burn scar on his left hand and handed him a copy of your rubbing in a dark alley outside the fortress's Central Army main tent."

"The copy was transcribed from the battle report's excerpted diagrams. This buyer has already obtained a copy of the sealing intelligence."

Shen Qinghan glanced at the Image Bead but didn't speak. However, her breathing frequency decreased from three times per breath to once per breath.

"A burn scar on the left hand—I have seen this person. Three and a half months ago—the person in charge of the handover in the last column on the first page of the ledger."

"He didn't leave his full name, only a seal and half a page of handwritten notes. There was a sentence in the handwritten notes—'Once the seal is opened, the abyssal vein can be drawn. Draw it to obtain water; obtain water to obtain the sea.'"

"The words he wrote—they weren't written by a soldier. Soldiers write densely, small, and fast, with strokes meant to prevent others from seeing or understanding."

"The characters he wrote—the strokes open outward; it's a style of writing meant for others to see. That person—he has a burn scar on the web of his left hand."

"The name—you wouldn't want to know it."

Su Qingli stood up from in front of the Formation Plate. "How long until the Royal Capital Fleet reaches port?"

Leng Feng raised the observation scope and aimed it at the horizon. "At normal cruising speed, they will reach the Outer Port of Blue Moon Island in less than an hour."

"There are about a dozen ships in the fleet. The three at the very front—I can already clearly see the triangular flags on their masts. On the flags—the seal of the Royal Capital Military Department."

"The person from the ledger—which ship are they on?"

Shen Qinghan didn't answer. Her fingertips pressed on the chart table—the position she pressed was exactly on the extension line of the observation scope's direction.

"On the first ship. The military Inspectorate ship—specifically carrying officers and full-time investigators from the Inspectorate to inspect the outpost's defenses."

"I lived on that ship for seventeen days. After seventeen days, I discovered that the military supply records on the ship were fake."

"The investigators sent by the Military Department make up less than a third of the people on that ship. The rest—they are all the code names filled in the registration column of the ledger."

"The people behind the code names—they don't wear military uniforms. They wear civilian clothes. But all the civilian clothes bear the cloud-pattern armbands of the Inspectorate."

Shen Qinghan withdrew her fingertips from the chart table—a very thin layer of charcoal powder was stuck to her fingertips.

"With the Inspectorate armbands on that ship, it means they have the right to directly enter and inspect all Class-D outposts. The Formation defenses, military supplies, and accounts of Class-D outposts—they can inspect all of it."

"The reason they tried to kill me last night—I opened this ledger in my cabin and confirmed the true identities of three of the code names. Kill me to silence me—burn the ledger—and no one would know their true purpose."

Lu Changyuan didn't speak. He flipped the ledger to the last page—below the registration column was a horizontal bar about two fingers wide, with a line of blue-green official notes printed on it.

The content of the note was: "This volume contains seventeen pages—recording eighty-seven entries—including twenty-seven special entries. This volume is sealed and stored in the Royal Capital Military Department Inspectorate Foreign Affairs Archive Room—Class-2 Secret Level—sealing period tentatively set for three years."

But the sealing stamp below the horizontal bar had been broken. More than half of the seal wax was shattered.

"The sealing stamp—was it broken by you?"

"No." Shen Qinghan turned her face over. "When I got it, the sealing stamp was already broken. The fragments were still fresh. Someone had read this ledger before me—after reading it, they didn't reseal it."

Lu Changyuan closed the ledger.

The silence in the Chart Room lasted for about ten breaths. Within those ten breaths, the shadow of the fleet on the horizon became increasingly solid.

The first ship of the Royal Capital Fleet could already be seen clearly through the observation scope, with the white foam splashed by the bow breaking the waves—the ship's speed was increasing. It was accelerating from cruising speed to approach speed—the front mast sail at the bow tilted by about fifteen degrees.

"Leng Feng. Pass the order—from this moment on, all external gaps of Blue Moon Island are to be completely sealed. Block four channels at the Outer Port Pier—leave only the last one at the north corner for the Royal Capital Fleet to dock."

"Keep all Formations in a standby state—no preheating, no lighting up—but ensure all Spirit Stone slots for the Formation paths are fully loaded."

"Have Commander Cai move the first company of the Sin Battalion from the third line of defense toward the Pier—less than one hundred men. Do not withdraw the rest of the reef-guarding forces."

Leng Feng turned and walked out.

Lu Changyuan stood up and walked to the window. He pushed the window shutter open a palm's width—the morning wind poured in from the direction of the reef wall, blowing the charcoal powder on his sleeve and the tiny scattered light from the Image Bead toward his back.

"Shen Qinghan—if you leave Blue Moon Island now, you will die if you are found. Staying here—it is the same. Stay—at least one less person will die."

Shen Qinghan looked at him for a breath. Then she nodded at the table—stepped back one step—and retreated to the wall of the Chart Room. She stood against the wall—her left hand pressing on the medicinal film bandaged by Gu He.

Outside the window, the masts of the Royal Capital Fleet had pierced through the last layer of sea mist—the Military Department emblem on the ship hulls reflected a brilliant bronze metallic light in the morning sun.

A dozen ships accelerated simultaneously—the sound of the bows breaking the waves could already be heard from the direction of the Blue Moon Island Pier.

Su Qingli shifted the observation focus of the Receiving Formation from the main underwater fluctuation source toward the sea surface—marking a new observation point in the direction of the fleet's entry into port.

The new observation point flickered on the Formation Plate—then stabilized—with less than sixty miles of side-by-side distance between it and the main force's dense Formation point. The horizon was about to become the first collision line of the battlefield.

The first batch of Royal Capital Fleet military boots—were about to step onto the Blue Moon Island Pier.

The sky was fully bright.