355: Chapter 356 Crack Growth and the "First Law of the New Home"

Seven days after the Scavenger fleet left, the echo telescope captured the first truly "abnormal signal."

That day, Senior Brother Zhang was having lunch—a rare occurrence to eat on time, and the cafeteria lady had specially given him an extra scoop of food. He had just taken a bite of a rainbow potato when the alarm went off. He dropped his chopsticks and rushed back to the technical center. On the screen, the energy anomaly zone marked as "Rift" was... squirming at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"It's not expanding, nor is it shrinking," Aila Xinghen - Deputy Captain had already pulled up all the data, her indigo eyes reflecting the flowing waveforms. "It's 'splitting.' Look, there was originally only one main rift, but now three thinner branches have appeared at the edges, spreading deep into the energy network like tree roots."

Senior Brother Zhang pushed up his glasses, the data stream on the lenses flashing crazily: "Propagation speed... 0.3 light-years per day. Direction... pointing toward three core hubs of the Creation Heavenly Court: the Central Law Hall, the Pool of Reincarnation, and... the Total Library of Heavenly Mandate Annotations."

The technical center fell silent for a few seconds.

"They are 'finding a way,'" Silver Thorn's voice rang out. "After those memory fragments entered the Scavenger System, they didn't dissipate, nor were they cleared. They are lurking, observing, and analyzing the topological structure of the Creation Heavenly Court's energy network, and then... finding the easiest parts to disintegrate and slowly infiltrating them."

Wen Youyi stared at the three growing "tree roots" on the screen and suddenly thought of a programmer term: "worm virus."

Not the kind of malicious code that destroys a System, but the kind that lurks deep within, slowly replicating and waiting for its chance. Now, the three hundred Scavengers were three hundred "infection nodes," carrying the memories of countless rebels, silently moving through the Creation Heavenly Court's energy network.

"When will they 'break out'?" he asked.

"Uncertain," Senior Brother Zhang shook his head. "Maybe months, maybe years, or maybe... they'll never break out. It depends on when the Creation Heavenly Court's defense System discovers them and whether they can find the 'trigger conditions' themselves."

"Trigger conditions?"

"For example, a specific time node, a specific sequence of commands, or..." Senior Brother Zhang looked at the rift on the screen, "a specific 'resonance signal.' Like the relationship between a key and a lock."

Wen Youyi was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly said, "Then let's send another key."

"What do you mean?"

"What the Scavengers took back were 'memory fragments'—raw Materials, not triggers," Wen Youyi's mind raced. "We need to create a signal source that can awaken those fragments and make them 'break out' collectively. When this signal is sent, three hundred Scavengers will activate simultaneously, pouring those memory fragments into every core node of the Creation Heavenly Court."

Silver Thorn's "eyes" brightened: "A large-scale distributed coordinated attack. Theoretically feasible. But the location of the signal source must be extremely hidden; otherwise, it will be destroyed prematurely. Moreover, the signal frequency needs to be precise enough to penetrate the Creation Heavenly Court's seventeen layers of firewalls—this will require at least six months of spectrum analysis and simulation testing."

"Then six months it is," Wen Youyi said. "In any case, we still have... over three hundred days."

He spoke nonchalantly, but everyone present heard the weight behind those words.

In over three hundred days, the three-year limit would be up. The boundary stele signal would be restored, and the armies of the Creation Heavenly Court would surge in like a tide.

These three hundred-plus days were their final preparation time and their only window for a counterattack.

In the days that followed, the New Homeland entered an unprecedented "double rhythm."

On the surface, everything continued as usual: rainbow potatoes in the fields kept growing, children in the schoolhouse kept studying, the town's scale kept expanding, and the contribution point System kept running. There were even a few weddings—young people who had met and fallen in love in the New Homeland, becoming Dao Companions or partners in front of everyone.

But in secret, all core resources were tilting toward a project codenamed "Project Rift."

The echo telescope ran twenty-four hours a day, capturing every bit of fluctuation from the heavenly dao law layer. Senior Brother Zhang led his technical team, like a pack of hungry wolves eyeing their prey, categorizing and analyzing all data to find the "optimal frequency" to penetrate the Creation Heavenly Court's firewalls.

Silver Thorn transformed into a massive silver disc, hovering above the technical center, using its symbiotic computing power to process three hundred and seventy-two spectrum models simultaneously. It had worked continuously for forty-three days without rest or food—though it didn't need to eat, the high-intensity calculation consumption had dimmed the silver luster on its surface.

Aila Xinghen - Deputy Captain was responsible for coordinating all data interfaces, sleeping only four hours a day, her eyes dark-circled but her spirit high. Luo Chen tried to make her rest several times, but she brushed him off, saying, "The Sky Patrol Physique is much stronger than you humans."

Lin Jiang joined in as well. She didn't need to participate in the technical work, but she was the only one who had seen the Scavenger's internal operations firsthand. She sat in a corner of the technical center every day without saying a word, but whenever someone asked about the details of the Creation Heavenly Court's defense System, she could accurately recall those blurred memories from three hundred years ago.

"When my Master taught me, they said that the Creation Heavenly Court's firewalls fear 'resonance' more than brute-force cracking," she suddenly spoke up one day. "Because the essence of the firewall is also a type of consciousness network, sharing the same 'underlying emotion' with all networked units. If we can make this underlying emotion produce a resonant 'doubt'..."

She didn't finish, but Senior Brother Zhang already took over: "Then the entire defense System will jam from the inside! It's like ten thousand people simultaneously starting to think, 'Why am I executing this command?'"

A burst of cheering erupted in the technical center.

Wen Youyi stood at the edge of the crowd, watching these companions whose eyes were bloodshot but whose spirits were still high, and a strange feeling suddenly welled up in his heart.

It wasn't touched, nor was it pride.

It was... absurdity.

A group of "livestock" escaped from a Ranch World, a renegade Observer who had "died" three hundred years ago, a silver tentacle monster from a symbiotic civilization, and a group of rebels regarded as "error codes" by the Creation Heavenly Court, were now squeezed into a small hut on a primitive planet, trying to write a "fatal bug" for the Creation Heavenly Court, which had ruled the Universe for tens of thousands of years, using a pile of scavenged junk equipment.

This plot, no one would believe it even if it were written in a novel.

But it was happening.

On the sixty-seventh day of Project Rift, a minor accident occurred.

Little Girl went missing.

She wasn't truly missing—she had just snuck into the technical center while everyone was busy studying the firewalls, attracted by the dark green lens of the echo telescope.

"Master Yun said I can't look at that directly with my eyes," she said to Zhao Iron Pillar, who had stopped her. "So I'm using this to look."

She held up something.

Zhao Iron Pillar took a closer look and almost lost his footing—it was a "telescope" Little Girl had folded from a few Silver-Blue Tree leaves. It was as crude as could be, but there was actually light inside the tube.

"How... how did you make this?" His voice changed.

"I folded it," Little Girl said matter-of-factly. "Bright Fur Ball helped me bite the leaf edges neat, and then I aimed it at that green mirror, and it lit up."

The symbiotic unit split off from Silver Thorn—the silver little beast called "Bright Fur Ball"—was squatting on Little Girl's shoulder, licking its paws with an innocent look.

Senior Brother Zhang rushed over upon hearing the news, took the leaf telescope, his hands trembling. He tested it with professional instruments for a long time, and finally said with a complex expression:

"This thing... can refract and focus specific frequencies of consciousness waves. The principle is exactly the same as the echo telescope, but the Materials are ten thousand times cruder, and the efficiency is lower by... about three million times."

The whole place went silent.

Everyone looked at Little Girl. Little Girl held Bright Fur Ball, blinking innocently.

Wen Youyi walked over, knelt down, and looked her in the eye: "Little Girl, tell Uncle Wen, how did you know the leaves could be folded like this?"

Little Girl thought for a moment: "Because the leaves wanted to be folded like this."

"..."

"They said this way I could see 'interesting things.' I tried it, and then it lit up."

Silver Thorn suddenly chimed in: "This unit suggests listing Little Girl as a 'New Homeland Strategic Resource.' Protection Rank: Highest."

No one objected.

After this incident, the council passed a decree that later became known as the "First Law of New Homeland":

**Any research project involving memory, consciousness, or energy resonance must include the participation of at least one "New Generation" member. Not to guide them, but to learn from them.**

Someone questioned: Is it too risky to let a group of children who have just learned to read participate in top-secret research?

Wen Youyi's answer was: "They understand this world better than we do. Because our minds are stuffed with 'how it should be,' while they only know 'how it is'."

On the ninety-third day of Project Rift, the first major Breakthrough appeared.

Silver Thorn finally completed the simulation tests of all spectrum models, filtering out three "optimal Seeds" from the three hundred and seventy-two candidate frequencies that could penetrate the Creation Heavenly Court's firewalls.

"It's not a unique solution," it emphasized. "These are the three paths with the highest probability. They correspond to the three core nodes of the Creation Heavenly Court's energy network: the Central Law Hall, the Pool of Reincarnation, and the Total Library of Heavenly Mandate Annotations."

Senior Brother Zhang stared at the paths marked "A-7," "B-3," and "C-11" on the screen, his hands trembling slightly: "If we can trigger resonance at these three nodes simultaneously..."

"The Creation Heavenly Court's entire underlying consciousness network will fall into a 'logic deadlock' for at least three minutes," Silver Thorn took over. "Within three minutes, the autonomous consciousness of all networked units will be temporarily released, and they will 'see' those memory fragments blocked by the firewall—including the final cries of countless civilizations they personally harvested."

No one spoke in the technical center.

Three minutes. For a war, three minutes was enough to change everything.

But the premise was—they needed three independent "triggers" placed near those three core nodes. And they had to be activated at the same moment.

"We can't do it," Luo Chen analyzed calmly. "The Central Law Hall, the Pool of Reincarnation, and the Total Library of Heavenly Mandate Annotations are all in the core area of the Creation Heavenly Court. The defense density is a hundred times that of the periphery. We can't even get close, let alone send triggers in."

Wen Youyi looked at those three coordinates and was silent for a long time.

Then he spoke:

"Then let the triggers grow from the inside."

Everyone looked at him.

"Three hundred Scavengers have already gone in," he said slowly. "They are the best trigger carriers themselves. What we need to do now is not send new ones in, but awaken them—using a special signal, triggered remotely from the outside."

"The success rate of remote triggering is extremely low," Silver Thorn said, "and it's easy to be intercepted and reverse-tracked by the Creation Heavenly Court."

"Then let's make it so they can't 'understand' what we're sending," Wen Youyi pointed to Little Girl—she was holding Bright Fur Ball, sitting in the corner folding leaf telescopes. "Send it in a way she can think of."

Senior Brother Zhang was stunned for a moment, then his eyes behind his glasses lit up.

"Consciousness resonance! Not an energy signal, but pure, unstructured consciousness fluctuations! No matter how strong the Creation Heavenly Court's firewall is, it can only intercept structured information flows. It allows these 'meaningless' natural consciousness waves to pass—because they come from the original lives of countless civilizations, and they simply can't block them all!"

Cheering erupted in the technical center again.

Little Girl was startled by the commotion, and Bright Fur Ball bristled its silver fur, looking around warily.

Wen Youyi walked over, knelt down again, and looked her in the eye:

"Little Girl, do you want to help everyone out?"

Little Girl blinked: "Help with what?"

"Use your leaf telescope to send a message to that invisible 'interesting thing' in the sky."

"What message should I send?"

Wen Youyi thought for a moment and said:

"Just say... 'Long time no see, do you still remember us?'"

Little Girl nodded seriously, picked up Bright Fur Ball, and ran outside.

Three days later, on the screen of the echo telescope, the three growing rifts flashed simultaneously.

It was faint, but clear.

They had "heard" it.

Day 127 of Project Rift.

Two hundred and thirty-eight days left in the three-year countdown.

Wen Youyi stood by the window of the technical center, watching Little Girl and Bright Fur Ball chasing glowing butterflies on the grass in the distance.

Senior Brother Zhang was beside him, holding the latest monitoring report.

"The rifts have grown another 17%," he said, his voice carrying uncontrollable excitement. "The energy flow between the three nodes is accelerating, like three blood vessels starting to connect into a network."

Wen Youyi didn't turn around, just asked softly:

"What do you think it will look like the day they 'break out'?"

Senior Brother Zhang was silent for a few seconds, then said:

"I don't know. But it will definitely be quite a show."

Wen Youyi smiled.

Outside, the sunlight of the New Homeland was just right.

In two hundred and thirty-eight days, whether they live or die, win or lose, it will all be decided.

But at this moment, the sunlight on his face was warm and real.

"Then let's wait and see the show."

(End of Chapter)