248: Chapter 248 The Rules of Sanctuary, Exploring the Abyss and Returning

By that evening, nearly forty wooden sheds had been erected on the Pier. Commander Cai led the men of the Sin Battalion's second page to haul the spare palm-leaf roofs out of the warehouse. The roofs had been battered by sea winds for months, and their edges had grown brittle, crumbling at a touch. They laid the roofs over the wooden frames, securing the four corners with old formation lines, then added a second layer. The sea winds on Blue Moon Island intensified towards evening; a single layer of roofing wouldn't last the night.

Before nightfall, at least eight hundred people were crowded onto the Pier. Cargo ships and sampans continued to dock. The routed soldiers and Loose Cultivators fleeing from the lateral Grade-Wu strongholds surged toward Blue Moon Island in waves, like seaweed swept into the crevices of reefs during an ebb tide. In front of the bulletin board, two long lines formed before Commander Cai: the line on the left exchanged Ore and Spiritual Plants for entry passes, while the line on the right signed the abyss exploration contracts. The line on the left was longer; most people chose to hand over what little they had left, just to survive the night.

Old Mai Liu's crumpled map of the mineral vein was copied into three sets. Su Qingli placed thin carbon paper over the original to trace the lines, preserving the locations of the safe passage entrances and the mineral vein markers noted by Leng Feng. The three copies were distributed to the second, third, and fourth squads; each squad leader was an old partner of Old Mai Liu from Shark Tooth Reef. The departure time was set for the Mao hour tomorrow, taking advantage of the moment when the main force of the beast tide was gathering at the reef wall and the patrols in the lateral waters were at their thinnest to enter the water.

That night, Lu Changyuan summoned Special Commissioner Wei Yuan to the Chart Room. When Special Commissioner Wei Yuan entered, he was not wearing the gray robe with the epaulets removed, but had changed into the cloth garment issued by the island. The cuffs of the garment were a size too large, so he rolled them up twice, revealing the press-burn scar on his left wrist, which glowed with the waxy white characteristic of old wounds under the light of the cold light stone.

"Liaison Officer—you spent nearly ten years in the Foreign Affairs Archives of the Capital Inspectorate. Can you see the connection between this intelligence?"

Lu Changyuan pushed the results of Shen Qinghan's work over the past two days toward him. Shen Qinghan had transcribed all the fragmented information from the refugees' accounts regarding the Haiyuan Clan's movements onto a large sheet of paper: the left column was the sighting time, the middle was the sighting location, and the right was the content of the sighting. The handwriting was extremely small and dense—the habit of a secret agent writing intelligence. In the upper right corner of the large paper lay a Recording Orb, which contained the footage from Leng Feng's observation scope over the past few days.

Special Commissioner Wei Yuan studied it for nearly half an incense stick's time. Then, he pressed his left hand onto the paper—the leather of his glove made a faint friction sound against the surface—and his knuckles stopped on the words "Dragon Burial Trench Deep Water Zone Troop Density."

"The lateral troops are being pulled out. It's not a retreat—they are shrinking the outer patrol lines deeper. Three days ago, the Haiyuan Clan had at least four patrol lines between the mouth of the Dragon Burial Trench and Shark Tooth Reef; only two remain in the refugee sighting records. The other two have been withdrawn." He moved his finger down and to the right by nearly three inches. "Here—the direction of the Connection Node. The spiritual power transmission pipeline that Leng Feng blew up in the direction of the Connection Node last time—the Haiyuan Clan has shown no signs of repairing it in these three days. They don't care that the spirit-filling speed of the Lock Core has been slowed down; they are concentrating their forces toward the direction of The Lid and deeper."

Lu Changyuan looked at the spot his finger was pointing to. "The innermost layer of the Seal. The Lid is the outer layer—the Lock Core is the transfer point—the innermost layer is the true keyhole of the Seal. The Haiyuan Clan is currently putting all their effort into ramming the keyhole."

"Blood Prohibition. Once the keyhole is breached—that is the door to the ruins." Special Commissioner Wei Yuan removed his hand from the paper—his fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of his glove. "The Haiyuan Temple marked on the Jade Slip—it is directly below the keyhole."

The Chart Room fell silent for about five breaths.

"Lord Lu—" Special Commissioner Wei Yuan raised his head. He was not looking at Lu Changyuan—he was looking at the defense map of the Dragon Burial Trench on the chart table. "If the keyhole is rammed open—the first thing to be stormed will no longer be Blue Moon Island. It will be those ruins. At that time, everyone will rush into the ruins—the Capital, the Haiyuan Clan, and something else."

Lu Changyuan rolled up Shen Qinghan's large sheet of paper again and pressed it under a paperweight. "Then we don't have much time left."

The next day, at the Mao hour.

Old Mai Liu stood at the north corner of the Pier with the six men of the first squad. Each carried a waterproof bag stuffed with three underwater illumination talismans, a small jar of Bone-Repelling Paste, a small packet of emergency hemostatic powder, and two portions of dry rations. The Bone-Repelling Paste had been freshly prepared by Gu He last night—it was packed in an old clay jar, with the words "For Bone Fish" written in charcoal on the wall of the jar. Leng Feng had drawn the detailed location of the safe passage entrance in charcoal on a piece of waterproof tarpaulin—the front of the tarpaulin showed the mineral vein coordinates, and the back showed the retreat routes. The retreat routes indicated three alternatives—by bypassing the Haiyuan Clan's patrol lines and drifting upward along the undercurrent, they could save nearly half their energy.

"First abyss exploration—there are no requirements for depth or quantity. Come back alive. Any Ore you bring back counts."

Old Mai Liu stuffed the tarpaulin into the innermost layer of the waterproof bag and patted the opening. "I've spent decades fishing on the seabed in my life—this time is just fishing a bit deeper." He turned his right hand over to look at the layer of calluses worn onto his knuckles by Ore under the morning light. "Enter the water at the Mao hour—return before the Wu hour."

The six men jumped into the water from the north corner of the Pier. The spray kicked up as they entered the water was dyed a pale gold by the morning light—then the surface closed up again—leaving only Su Qingli on the Pier, using a six-sided water-viewing mirror to track the six shimmering points of spiritual power as they dove deeper layer by layer. The light points moved from the north corner of the Pier toward the east-northeast—the movement speed was steady—the direction was the entrance of the Dragon Burial Trench's safe passage.

At the same time, at least three more squads had signed up in front of the bulletin board. The second batch—three squads, each ranging from five to eight people. The squad leaders were all Loose Cultivators who had fled from Shark Tooth Reef in the first batch yesterday—after seeing Old Mai Liu sign the first abyss exploration contract, they had squatted on the Pier discussing it all night—and decided to sign at dawn. The third batch—was currently forming—the leader was a Foundation Establishment Early Stage Formation Master, the former Formation Affairs Manager of the Shark Tooth Reef stronghold, whose left leg had a half-foot-long wound slashed by a shard of Abyssal Beast bone spike, causing him to drag his left leg as he walked—but he had at least three different types of underwater sensing Formation Plates in his Storage Pouch.

"I'll go explore the abyss—let my wife and son stay on shore." He pulled the sensing Formation Plates out of his Storage Pouch—the surface of the plates had a layer of oxidation marks from being repeatedly soaked in seawater, but the formation paths could still conduct. "I have laid sensing formations in these waters at least dozens of times—I could draw the path of the Spiritual Vein on the seabed with my eyes closed."

Commander Cai wrote his name on the second page of the register. "Zhang Shouyuan—former Shark Tooth Reef Formation Affairs Manager. Left leg injured—leader of the third batch of the abyss exploration team. Providing three of his own sensing Formation Plates."

Before the Wu hour—the first squad returned.

Old Mai Liu was the first to surface—his waterproof bag was so bulging the zipper wouldn't close. He dumped the waterproof bag onto the stone slabs of the Pier—dark gray deep-sea Cold Iron Ore spilled out with a clatter, spreading nearly half a zhang. The broken edges of the Ore all shimmered with a very faint silver-blue—the quality was almost exactly the same as the sample Leng Feng had collected from a depth of two thousand five hundred zhang in the Dragon Burial Trench, only these pieces were lighter in color—indicating the mineral vein was located closer to the shallower layers.

Old Zhao, who followed behind him, dumped out the second bag—the quantity of Ore was nearly half less than Old Mai Liu's, but it was mixed with two fist-sized dark red Ores. The surface of the Ore had star-like golden patterns—the patterns were not dazzling under the sunlight, but if you stared at them for too long, your eyes would involuntarily shift to the side—as if the stone itself was pushing your gaze away.

"This is—" Old Mai Liu squatted down to pick up one of them—turning it over to look at the back—the golden patterns on the back were nearly twice as dense as those on the front. "We knocked this off the end of the mineral vein. That section of the stone wall was cracked open by a tremor—the crack was less than two feet deep—this kind of stone was embedded in the very back, not in the same layer as the Cold Iron Ore. The color is wrong, the patterns are wrong, and the weight is wrong—it's nearly half as light as the Cold Iron Ore."

Su Qingli took the Ore—she scratched her fingernail across the golden patterns. There were no scratches on the surface of the patterns—her nail couldn't penetrate it. She brought the Ore close to the Receiving Formation plate—the spiritual power fluctuation value on the Formation Plate jumped up by nearly half a notch. It was not the low-temperature metal fluctuation of Cold Iron Ore—it was a kind of spiritual power pulsation that was lighter, more scattered, and had a frequency almost identical to the cold light of Starlight Coral.

She looked up at Lu Changyuan. "It's not Cold Iron Ore. This spiritual power frequency—it's in the same frequency band as the residual fluctuations of the outer Array Pattern of the Seal."

Chu Yunfei walked out of the Chart Room—took the Ore and turned it over a few times—then gasped. He placed the Ore in the sunlight—the golden patterns did not reflect light or heat up in the sun, but the patterns themselves appeared clearer in natural light—clear enough to see that every pattern was an extremely thin metal wire embedded in the stone core, and the arrangement direction of the metal wires all pointed toward the center of the stone core.

"star-patterned gold. This kind of mineral vein could absolutely not form naturally in the shallow water zone—it was turned up from the depths of the abyssal vein by crustal movements. The last time someone discovered star-patterned gold in the Outer Sea was nearly two hundred years ago—the transaction price at that time was at least five times that of Cold Iron Ore of the same weight. Artifact Refiners use it as the core spiritual-conduction layer for High Grade Formation Plates—the spiritual power conduction efficiency is nearly half higher than ordinary copper sheets."

The Pier was silent for less than three breaths. Then, it exploded into chaos.

The Loose Cultivators who were still watching—those squatting by the Pier holding onto their last belongings, refusing to hand them over, and those leaning against the wooden shed pillars waiting for others to move first—all stood up.

The crowd at the sign-up spot for the third batch of Abyssal Exploration Teams in front of the bulletin board was pushed back at least one step—Commander Cai tapped his pipe against the stone slab three times— "Queue up! One by one—queue up for Abyssal Exploration registration!"

By that evening, at least a dozen Abyssal Exploration Teams had registered on the bulletin board.

The number of people in each team ranged from five to ten—the captain's name, number of team members, estimated time of descent, and target Ore vein area—Commander Cai registered them line by line using a charcoal pencil.

The registration book had been turned over several pages—the corners of every page were curled up by the sea breeze, so he used his pipe to press down on the corners as he continued to write.

In the Formation Affairs Room, Su Qingli adjusted the Receiving Formation Plate to full-frequency monitoring mode.

The descent positions and movement trajectories of all Abyssal Exploration Teams were displayed on the Formation Plate as pale blue light spots—the light spots spread from the north corner of the Pier toward the Dragon Burial Trench, with each light spot representing a Cultivator working underwater.

She was also watching the Ore grading platform on the Pier—which she had set up temporarily that morning.

A large wooden board stood next to the bulletin board on the Pier—with the grading standards written in charcoal: Tier 3 Ores were divided into High, Medium, and Low Grades—High Grade was worth ten people's shelter for one day per catty, Medium Grade was five people for one day per catty, and Low Grade was three people for one day per catty; Tier 2 Ores were uniformly valued at one person's shelter for one day per three catties; special Ores like star-patterned gold and mutated spiritual Ores were priced individually based on appraisal results—with no price suppression.

The grading was done personally by Su Qingli—the Ore would be placed on the grading platform, and she would give a grade determination within three breaths—Loose Cultivators could dispute it on the spot; if the dispute was successful, the Ore would be settled according to the grade the Loose Cultivator claimed.

No one had ever disputed it.

Su Qingli's appraisal speed was even faster than the Loose Cultivators' own judgment—she only looked at the density of the silver patterns at the Ore's fracture and the amount of residual spiritual power—scanning those two indicators was enough to determine the grade.

That evening, the emergency allocation of Spiritual Rice sent by Commander Tie Zhan from the Zhenhai fortress arrived.

A military logistics ship flew just above the sea surface into the Outer Port of Blue Moon Island—with the blue triangle mark of the Right Wing Warehouse printed on its hull.

The Quartermaster escorting the ship handed a transfer list to Lu Changyuan—on the list were only two words: "Spiritual Rice"—one thousand shi.

In the remarks column was a line of cinnabar red text: "Approved by Commander Tie—emergency rations for refugees in the flank war zone, allocated from the Right Wing Warehouse, not going through the Unified Coordination Department."

Lu Changyuan signed the list—the Quartermaster did not disembark, instead turning around and flying back to the fortress.

The one thousand shi of Spiritual Rice were moved by the second page of the Sin Battalion into a newly built temporary grain shed in the Outer Port—the shed roof was covered with three layers of waterproof tarpaulin.

Su Qingli recorded an entry in the ledger—one thousand shi of Spiritual Rice allocated by the military had been put into storage; added to the rations brought by the refugees and the existing grain stored on the island—the current population of over sixteen thousand on Blue Moon Island had enough to eat for at least one and a half months.

The grain self-sufficiency rate had fallen from nearly eighty percent before the war to less than sixty percent—the matter of expanding the planting of earth vein jade spikes for the next season was noted in the to-do column at the very bottom of the ledger.

After nightfall, the Abyssal Exploration Teams were still returning to the port one after another.

Every time a team surfaced, their waterproof bags were bulging—bulging so much that the zippers were stretched white.

Cold Iron Ore, fragments of Starlight Coral, mutated black mother-of-pearl shells, and unknown deep-sea spiritual Ores were sorted into at least four piles by grade next to the grading platform.

Commander Cai led his men to weigh the baskets one by one—his pipe was clamped in his mouth, but the tobacco was never lit—from the early morning until now, he had already changed the tobacco at least twice, but he forgot to light it every time—the tobacco in the copper bowl was dried out by the sea breeze and then dampened by the night dew.

In the side hall of the Lords Mansion, Shen Qinghan transcribed the fragmented intelligence brought back by the Abyssal Exploration Teams onto a large sheet of paper one by one.

Her writing speed was nearly twice as fast as it had been during the day—the intelligence network on the paper spread from the top left corner to the bottom right, with three connecting lines drawn for each piece of intelligence: timeline, location line, and credibility line.

The credibility labels were divided into three tiers—witnessed in person, heard from others but with high information content, and too fragmented to be trusted for now.

After she drew the third connecting line on the last piece of intelligence, her pen tip stopped on the paper.

In the bottom right corner of the large sheet—three different Abyssal Exploration Teams had each witnessed the same thing at approximately the same location: in the deep northeast direction of the Dragon Burial Trench, at a depth of about two thousand zhang—Haiyuan Clan soldiers were pouring a kind of dark red liquid onto a stone wall—it was more viscous than seawater.

After each pouring, dark golden patterns would flash briefly on the stone wall—the location and frequency of the flashing patterns were consistent with the pulsation of that new main wave source on the Receiving Formation.

She stood up and flipped the large sheet of paper over.

On the back, at least six or seven fragments of intelligence were drawn—all regarding that direction.

She circled the three eyewitness clues together with a red line and wrote two words next to the circle: "Gate."

"They are pouring—the Gate."

Meanwhile, on the Pier, Chu Yunfei spread the star-patterned gold Ore received during the day on the chart table—arranging them into five pieces by size.

The smallest piece was only the size of a thumb nail, and the largest one was knocked down by Old Zhao from Old Mai Liu's team—it was the size of a fist, with golden patterns so dense they almost covered the entire surface of the stone.

He aimed the image-recording bead at these five pieces of Ore, recording each one for at least half a stick of incense—capturing all the changes in the patterns under different angles and lighting conditions.

"The quality of this batch of Ore is enough to make the Artifact Refiners in the Royal Capital break their heads over it."

He tucked the image-recording bead back into his sleeve—"I'll record it first. When the second batch comes back, I'll send a message to several business association contacts in the Royal Capital. They need time to break through the blockade from the Royal Capital to Blue Moon Island—the sooner they are notified, the sooner they will arrive."

Lu Changyuan stood in the Chart Room, looking through the stone window at the piles of Ore growing higher and higher on the Pier.

The dark grey Cold Iron Ore shimmered with a very faint silver-blue under the light of the cold light stone lamps—just like the Abyssal Exploration registration column on the bulletin board filled with charcoal writing; the color was cold, but the pile was rising.

At daybreak the next day, two more waves of probing attacks from the beast tide outside the reef wall arrived.

But the defensive line of Blue Moon Island was no longer as stretched thin as it had been a few days ago—the Core Formation Puppet stood at the highest point of the reef wall, and the low-frequency pulsation of the core drive formation in its chest cavity pressed on the sea surface in front of the reef wall like an invisible hand.

The bone spears of the Golden Core level Abyssal Beast stopped when they advanced to nearly eight li from the reef wall—stopping for nearly ten breaths—and then retreated.

The Puppet did not fire—it just stood on the stone platform, emitting pulsations without moving.

This pulsation frequency could travel at least tens of li underwater—it was the same frequency as the spiritual power fluctuation of a Late Stage Golden Core Cultivator.

In the Formation Affairs Room, Su Qingli drew the Puppet's spiritual power consumption curve on a new sheet of paper.

In the active state, the Spirit Stone consumption was nearly twice that of a standard Core Formation Cultivator, perfectly matching the estimated data given by Elder Wei Changfeng; in the silent deterrence state, it only maintained the minimum conduction of the core Array Patterns, and the consumption dropped to less than one-tenth of the active state.

She labeled this curve as "Standby—Deterrence Effective."

At noon, two teams from the third batch of Abyssal Exploration Teams returned.

One of the teams brought back at least thirty or forty catties of Cold Iron Ore and a small piece of dark green crystal embedded in quartzite—the crystal glowed in the dark, with a greenish and cold light, and when it shone on the palm, the general outline of the palm bones could be seen.

After appraising them, Su Qingli sorted them into the special Ore pile—the dark green crystal was priced individually as a mutated spiritual Ore, and the converted contribution points were enough to exempt the entire team of five from the city entry fee for seven days.

The other team did not bring back any Ore.

They brought back a piece of intelligence.

The captain was a Foundation Establishment Loose Cultivator who was missing half of his left ear—he had previously worked in the fortress reconnaissance battalion, and his left ear had been bitten off by a Bone Fish.

He had reached the periphery of a temporary assembly point of the Haiyuan Clan at a location nearly forty li north-northeast of the shallow layer of the Dragon Burial Trench.

He lay in the undercurrent for nearly half a stick of incense—counting the number of patrol shift changes and the number of Abyssal Beasts entering and leaving the assembly point—and recorded these numbers on an oilcloth.

The handwriting on the oilcloth was somewhat blurred from being soaked in seawater—but the sequence of numbers was complete.

Shen Qinghan took the oilcloth and redrew the troop deployment network she had marked on her large sheet of paper.

The location of the assembly point was exactly at the intersection of the two patrol lines that had previously disappeared—the Haiyuan Clan had not withdrawn those two patrol lines—they had concentrated them closer to the depths of the Dragon Burial Trench.

"They are contracting their perimeter—concentrating their forces to protect the direction of the Seal Lock Core. The activity space left for Blue Moon Island on the flank is expanding."

She marked the location of the assembly point on the defense map—the location was less than forty li away from the direction where Old Mai Liu discovered the star-patterned gold Ore vein.

"This Ore vein—is in the patrol blind spot of the assembly point. If the Haiyuan Clan continues to contract deeper—the Abyssal Exploration Teams can advance at least another fifty li deeper."

Lu Changyuan looked at the Haiyuan Clan troop distribution constantly being updated and marked by Shen Qinghan on the defense map.

The perimeter was shrinking—the core was becoming dense—and the activity range of the Blue Moon Island Abyssal Exploration Teams was exactly stuck in the gap between the perimeter and the core.

This gap—about forty to sixty li wide—was enough for more than a dozen Abyssal Exploration Teams of five to ten people to shuttle back and forth.

"Tell Commander Cai to organize at least ten more teams to descend before this evening. While the gap is still there—scout all the Ore veins within these forty li. Once the shallow layer is scouted—push deeper."

Leng Feng turned the observation telescope nearly twenty degrees toward the Dragon Burial Trench.

In the telescope tube—the dark purple corrosive mist was no longer spreading outward.

The Haiyuan Clan had stopped clearing the surrounding strongholds—they were contracting.

All their forces were converging into the depths—converging toward the direction of the Seal Lock Core.

The quiet would not last.

But what Blue Moon Island needed right now was not quiet—it was time.