237: Chapter 237 Leveraging Central Forces and Applying Information Pressure

Adjutant Tie's reply arrived early the next morning.

The message was delivered by a personal guard on a fast horse—the horse had run all the way from the Zhenhai main port, along the stone path outside the Ring Reef to the Blue Moon Island Pier, its neck covered in sweat.

The guard dismounted and handed a folded slip of paper to Leng Feng.

There was only one line of text on the slip—in Commander Tie Zhan's own handwriting: "Noon. Central Army main tent."

Lu Changyuan finished reading the note, folded it, and tucked it into the inside of his belt.

Then, he picked up two bamboo tubes from the chart table. The first tube contained Leng Feng's latest rubbing data of the Seal Main Hub.

It did not include the ledger—only the position, depth, and spacing of the Haiyuan Clan's main dense Formation, as well as the continuous change curve of the Lock Core's spiritual energy injection rate after the connecting pipeline was blown up.

The second tube contained a copy of the Seal from the first page of the ledger, rubbed by Su Qingli.

It was only the first page—it only contained the vermilion Seal that matched the format of the Seal Formation Platform's Seal from two thousand years ago perfectly.

Two bamboo tubes. One contained real intelligence—the other contained a fuse.

At noon, Lu Changyuan rode alone to the Central Army main tent of the Zhenhai Fortress.

The Central Army main tent was located on the mountainside of the fortress's main mountain range—nearly three li up from the foot of the mountain.

Outside the main tent was a perimeter wall built from rows of flattened reef stone bricks—a personal guard stood every ten paces on top of the wall, wearing the standard heavy armor of the Command Headquarters direct guards, with Commander Tie Zhan's personal commander's Seal engraved on the armor plates.

Lu Changyuan dismounted at the gate of the wall, handed his horse to the sentry at the entrance, and was then personally led inside by Adjutant Tie.

Adjutant Tie was a middle-aged Cultivator almost half a head shorter than Leng Feng—at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, with no expression on his face—and when he spoke, the interval between every word was exactly the same.

"Lord Lu—the Deputy Commander is in the main tent."

The curtain of the main tent was a single piece of thick, dark gray felt—once lifted, the light inside was nearly half as dim as it was outside.

In the center of the tent was a dark wooden desk about two zhang long—spread across the desk was a complete nautical chart of the three hundred li surrounding the Zhenhai Fortress.

The chart marked the locations of all Ding-level strongholds, the direction of the defensive lines, the known activity areas of the Haiyuan Clan—as well as the protruding position of Blue Moon Island on the easternmost side of the Ring Reef.

A person sat behind the wooden desk. Commander Tie Zhan.

The feeling of a False Infant Cultivator sitting there was completely different from a Golden Core Cultivator. It wasn't Spiritual Pressure—a False Infant Cultivator's Spiritual Pressure was completely restrained while at rest.

It was presence. He sat in the chair—without releasing any spiritual power fluctuations—but the air density inside the entire main tent felt nearly five percent higher than outside.

Commander Tie Zhan was not tall—nearly an inch shorter than Lu Changyuan. His shoulders were not broad—his hands rested on the desk—the skin on the back of his hands was already loose.

A man in his fifties—his hair half black and half white, his lips extremely thin—so thin that the movement of his lips when speaking was almost imperceptible.

But his eyes—when a False Infant Cultivator looked at someone, there was an extremely faint silver halo on the outer ring of his pupils.

The thickness of the halo was less than one-tenth of a strand of hair—you wouldn't notice it without looking carefully.

That silver light was the projection of the nascent False Infant in his Dantian onto his pupils—the silver light would flicker slightly when a False Infant Cultivator scanned the spiritual power fluctuations of the person in front of him.

Commander Tie Zhan looked at Lu Changyuan—the silver light flickered. It scanned the thickness of the Late Foundation Establishment Stage spiritual shield and the residual spiritual power mark bound to the Killing Array's eye.

"Sit."

Lu Changyuan sat down in the chair opposite the wooden desk. He placed the first bamboo tube on the desk—and pulled out the latest rubbing data of the Seal Main Hub.

The data spread out on the desk—the area from sixty to one hundred and twenty li underwater in the direction of the Dragon Burial Trench, directly opposite Blue Moon Island, was completely covered by the rubbing data.

"The Haiyuan Clan's main force—is currently fifty-five li from the reef wall. The assembly depth is two hundred zhang underwater. The Formation density—"

Lu Changyuan drew a line with his finger along the marked line of the rubbing data. "Is nearly twenty percent looser than when the dense Formation first formed five days ago."

"The distance between individual units has stretched from three zhang to nearly five zhang—they are making space to accelerate for a large-scale water-breaking assault."

"At the same time, the main force as a whole is shifting towards the east—the shifting speed is less than three li per day. The east side is the firepower connection gap between Blue Moon Island and the Royal Capital Fleet's artillery array—the Haiyuan Clan is looking for that."

Commander Tie Zhan looked at the rubbing data—he didn't speak. He waited for Lu Changyuan to continue.

"The connecting pipeline—four days ago, my people blew up the interface between the main pipeline and the first branch pipeline underwater."

"The gap in the pipeline is nearly two zhang—the spiritual energy injection rate towards the Lock Core has dropped by nearly twenty percent. The window has been extended by at least three days."

"But—" Lu Changyuan pulled out the spiritual energy injection rate curve drawn by Su Qingli from the bamboo tube—the end of the curve marked the data from the most recent day.

"Yesterday—the spiritual energy injection rate began to recover. The extent of the recovery is extremely small—less than half a percent."

"The location of the recovery is about three li downstream from the pipeline gap—indicating that the Haiyuan Clan has already temporarily connected an external pipeline downstream of the gap."

"The efficiency of the external pipeline is less than half of the original pipeline—but they are repairing it. After it is repaired—the spiritual energy injection rate of the Lock Core will recover to at least eighty percent of the original. The window—might only have less than two days left."

Commander Tie Zhan picked up the spiritual energy injection rate curve—and held it up to the cold light stone lamp on the tent ceiling to look at it. He wasn't looking at the curve itself—but at the turning point of the recovery at the end of the curve.

He looked for about ten breaths—then put the paper down.

"The timing of you blowing up the pipeline—was right before the fleet arrived at the port. So during those few days the fleet was at the Pier—the Haiyuan Clan's main force did not launch a full-scale assault."

"Yes. They are waiting for the pipeline to be repaired. Every bit of spiritual energy injection rate in the pipeline—corresponds to the progress of the Lock Core injecting spiritual energy into the Seal."

"Once the injection is full—the Seal will be burst open from the inside. After the Seal is burst open—all the abyssal vein water spiritual power in the deep sea area of the Dragon Burial Trench will leak towards the outlet."

"The Haiyuan Clan's breeding areas and spiritual power collection areas outside the Seal—will be refilled."

Commander Tie Zhan's hand paused on the desk. He didn't ask "How do you know this"—because the layout of the connecting lines and the Lock Core structure marked on the rubbing data already indicated how deep the Blue Moon Island underwater exploration team had reached.

"Continue. After the fleet arrived at the port—the Haiyuan Clan's reaction."

"On the day of arrival—a probing assault. Thirty Late Foundation Establishment Stage Abyssal Beasts separated from the dense Formation—and were jointly repelled by the fleet's spiritual cannons and Blue Moon Island's Killing Array."

"It lasted less than half an incense stick of time. The Haiyuan Clan is recording the firing interval of the fleet's spiritual cannons—about twenty breaths from the first shot to the second. Since then—the main force has not launched any frontal assault."

"What are they waiting for?"

"They are waiting for two things. First—the pipeline to be repaired. Second—" Lu Changyuan reached out and pointed to the location deep in the Dragon Burial Trench on the nautical chart.

"Second—something that hasn't surfaced yet. On the Receiving Formation—starting from last night, an intermittent, extremely low-frequency spiritual power fluctuation was detected in the deep water layer about one hundred and twenty li behind the main Formation."

"The fluctuation is not an Abyssal Beast—the frequency is too low. Nor is it any kind of Formation Platform known to the Haiyuan Clan—Formation Platform fluctuations are stable, this one is intermittent."

"The time interval of each intermission is shortening—the first intermission was nearly four hours, the second was less than three hours. It's like something is transitioning from a dormant state to a waking state."

Commander Tie Zhan circled the area deep in the Dragon Burial Trench on the nautical chart with his finger. The circled position—was at a depth that the Blue Moon Island underwater exploration team had never reached. Over two hundred li. That was the original location of the Seal Formation Platform's main base—the core area of the Seal from two thousand years ago.

"Your report this time—is more detailed than any previous one." Commander Tie Zhan withdrew his hand from the nautical chart—and leaned back against the chair. His eyes looked at Lu Changyuan—the silver light on the outer ring of his pupils flickered again. "It's not just to report enemy intelligence. You have something else."

Lu Changyuan pulled out the rubbing copy of the first page of the ledger from the second bamboo tube. He placed it on the desk—and pushed it nearly a foot towards Commander Tie Zhan.

On the rubbing paper—the vermilion Seal emitted an extremely faint metallic reflection under the cold light stone lamp in the tent. The Seal's pattern—the trend of every line, the curvature of every corner, the back-hook of the blade at the end—perfectly matched the format of the Seal marked two thousand years ago on the base of the Seal Formation Platform in the rubbing data.

Commander Tie Zhan took a look. Just one glance—and then his gaze locked. He was not looking at the content of the Seal—but at the format of the stamp. With the keen eyes of a False Infant Cultivator—he recognized this format in less than half a breath.

"This Seal—" Commander Tie Zhan's voice remained unchanged. But his hand lifted from the back of the chair—and placed it on the desk—his fingertips pressing against the edge of the rubbing paper. "Where did this come from?"

"A ledger. The cover of the ledger reads 'Material Dispatch Log'—that is a fake title. The real content is—from three and a half months ago to one month ago, after the Seal loosened, someone bypassed the military and the fortress to privately organize an exploration team to investigate the abyssal vein in the Deep Water Zone of the Dragon Burial Trench. Eighty-seven entries—including twenty-seven special entries. The composition of the exploration team—Spiritual Vein surveyors, Formation apprentices, guards—all switched to code names in the later stages. The final rank of the code names—is called 'Gate Controller'."

"Gate Controller—" Commander Tie Zhan repeated these two words. As he repeated them, his finger pressed down on the rubbing paper—pressing on the line of blue-green official notes beneath the Seal.

"Establishing a Gate Controller Formation at the opening of the abyssal vein—locks the spiritual power output of the abyssal vein—and controls the flow of deep-sea water spiritual power. This is equivalent to controlling the redistribution of the Spiritual Vein for the entire sea area. The format of the Seal—is exactly the same as the markings on the Formation Platform of the Seal from two thousand years ago. The person holding this Seal—can directly invoke the hereditary Seal authority passed down from the era of the Seal. And the person who stamped this—" Lu Changyuan withdrew his finger from the rubbing paper. "Is in this fleet. Right at the North Corner Berth opposite Blue Moon Island."

Commander Tie Zhan was silent for a moment. Inside the tent, one could only hear the extremely low-frequency friction sound of the thick felt door curtain being pushed outward by the sea breeze blowing in from the direction of the mountain top.

Then Commander Tie Zhan flipped the rubbing paper over—and pressed it to the very bottom of the desk. He placed it underneath the sea chart of the three-hundred-mile radius around the fortress—the sea chart covered the entire rubbing paper.

"I see."

He did not ask for the name. He did not ask about the source of the ledger. He did not ask Lu Changyuan why he had this ledger in his hands. He only said three words—"I see"—but the trailing sound of these three words, under the resonance of the False Infant Cultivator's Dantian spiritual power, pressed into the air inside the tent with a lingering echo lasting nearly one breath.

Lu Changyuan stood up—and took a step toward the tent entrance. Then he stopped.

"Deputy Commander Tie—there is one more thing. The Seal on the ledger—had already been broken by someone else before it reached my hands. The Seal was the sealing stamp of the Foreign Affairs Archives of the Inspectorate of the Royal Capital Military Department. The person who broke the Seal—was not the person who gave me the ledger. Someone had read this ledger at an even earlier time—and after finishing it, they did not reseal it."

Commander Tie Zhan did not answer. But his fingers, which were pressing on the bottom layer of the desk—moved slightly when he heard "Foreign Affairs Archives of the Inspectorate"—the movement was extremely small—his knuckles retracted inward by less than half an inch.

Lu Changyuan exited the Central Army tent.

The sea breeze on the mountainside was nearly twice as strong as at the foot of the mountain. The wind blew down from the top of the mountain—blowing the fibers of the sea chart paper that had rubbed onto his cuffs in the Central Army tent, making them flutter behind him. He got on his horse—the horseshoes trotted down the stone road—after traveling nearly three miles—he arrived at the foot of the mountain.

By the time he returned to Blue Moon Island—it was already the Shen hour.

Leng Feng was waiting for him at the entrance of the Lords Mansion. His standing posture was the same as when he delivered the urgent report last time—his center of gravity shifted to his left foot—his right thumb hooked inside his belt. But this time, he was not delivering an urgent report. Leng Feng's expression was even less than usual—so little that the lines on his face seemed to have been stiffened by the sea breeze.

"Special Commissioner Wei Yuan received an official notification from the fortress Command Headquarters this afternoon." Leng Feng handed a message slip to Lu Changyuan. "The content of the notification—the Foreign Affairs Archives of the Inspectorate is required to submit all records of dispatched missions to the Dragon Burial Trench from the past six months to the Command Headquarters before noon tomorrow. This includes the issuance date of the exploration permits, the recipients, the purpose of the missions, and the personnel lists. For review."

Lu Changyuan took the note—and glanced at it. The note was stamped with the vermilion official Seal of the Command Headquarters—Commander Tie Zhan's official Seal. It was not an "investigation"—it was "for review." But a notification for review issued with a vermilion official Seal—meant that this was an administrative order too formal to be ignored.

"After Special Commissioner Wei Yuan received the notification—he stayed on his ship for nearly an hour and did not come out. The people in plain clothes all withdrew from the warehouse area and the Pier area back to the ship this afternoon—they did not move around on the island anymore."

"He is calculating." Lu Changyuan folded the note—and tucked it into his inner sleeve pocket. "Calculating who is watching him—from which direction they are watching—and how deep they want to look. The two words 'for review'—make him more uncomfortable than 'investigation.' In an investigation, he knows who is coming to investigate—he can prepare. For review—he doesn't know who is watching, what they are looking at, or when they will finish looking."

In the Chart Room. Su Qingli was sitting on a low rattan stool—the stool had broken another rattan strip—she temporarily tied it three times with Formation thread. She recorded the latest data from the Receiving Formation into the monitoring log—the location of the main fluctuation source was about fifty-four miles from the Ring Reef. The spiritual injection speed curve—had recovered by less than one percent.

Shen Qinghan pulled a new sheet of paper from under the chart table—and drew a vertical line on the paper. On the left side of the vertical line, she wrote "Special Commissioner Wei Yuan—Calculating," and on the right, she wrote "Commander Tie Zhan—Pressing."

"Commander Tie Zhan's 'I see'—is pressing. Special Commissioner Wei Yuan's 'for review'—is being pressed. But after being pressed, Special Commissioner Wei Yuan will not sit and wait—he will act." Shen Qinghan tapped the pen on the right side of the vertical line. "His next step—will be to test you. Not investigate—but test. Test what you have in your hands besides defense intelligence. The method of testing—he will take the initiative to find you. He will not bring official business—he will use a private method. Through a private method—he can see things that cannot be seen on official documents."

"For example."

"For example—he will come to Blue Moon Island again. He won't wear his military uniform. He won't bring official documents. He will only bring one person—or simply come alone. Then he will use a very simple excuse—such as wanting to see a ledger you have already shown him. It's not really to investigate—it's to see if you blink—when you face him."

Lu Changyuan pressed his hand on the edge of the chart table—looking at both sides of the vertical line Shen Qinghan had drawn. "Then let him come."

Early the next morning. Just as the sky brightened—a calling card from Special Commissioner Wei Yuan was delivered to the Pier.

The calling card was a piece of extremely thin, dark gray paper—in Special Commissioner Wei Yuan's own handwriting. The strokes on the paper all splayed outward—exactly matching the "style meant for others to see" that Shen Qinghan had described. There was only one line of text on the card.

"Lord Lu—if it is convenient, I would like to take another look at your island's Formation base Spirit Stone ledger."

The phrasing was official—but the wording was "would like to take another look." Compared to the official inspection order stamped with the Inspectorate's official Seal yesterday—this calling card had no official Seal, no countersignature Seal, and no document format of "in accordance with Article so-and-so." There was only one piece of paper—one line of text—one person's name.

A private calling card.

Lu Changyuan turned the calling card over—the back was blank. He placed the card on the chart table—and pushed it half an inch toward Shen Qinghan.

"You were right. He came. Private method. Only bringing one attendant—or simply coming alone."

Shen Qinghan glanced at the handwriting on the card—and pressed her fingertip on the three words "take another look." "He did not write 'requires review'—the wording for an official re-examination by an inspector is 'review.' 'Take another look'—is what he would only write when he is not using his official status. He is already following the path you laid out for him."

Lu Changyuan stood up from the chart table—and walked to the window. Outside the window—the mast lights of the Royal Capital Fleet at the North Corner Berth were extinguishing one by one in the morning light. The seventh Inspectorate special ship was still docked there—on the deck, a person was looking down from the side of the ship. The distance was too far—it was unclear who it was.

But the position where that person stood—was exactly facing the window of the Blue Moon Island Lords Mansion.