325: Chapter 323 The Complete Outline

When Lu Qing fully spread out the comparison chart in the center of the platform, Shen Nian was standing beside the Core of Tiangong, his fingertips still retaining the tactile sensation of the spiral pattern on the surface of the fine crystal.

He walked over and squatted down in front of the comparison chart.

Lu Qing had already connected all the marked points with fine lines, from the ring to the nest, from the nest to the steps, from the steps to the Heluo Arch, from the arch to the wall arc, from the arc to the end of the Gray Path, and then from the end back to the hollow center.

Those lines intersected with each other, forming a nearly closed ring.

Shen Nian's gaze moved slowly along those lines. His fingers did not touch the surface of the chart, but merely hovered above the connecting lines, as if using his body temperature to sense whether those paths had left any deviations during the prolonged measurements.

"The Disciple's preliminary judgment is," Lu Qing spoke, her voice very soft, "that the distance errors between all the marked points and the hollow center are extremely small. The smallest deviation is less than one-thousandth, and the largest is less than one-hundredth."

"This degree of precision," she paused, "does not seem to be naturally formed."

Shen Nian did not respond immediately, merely letting his gaze continue to travel across the comparison chart.

Rings, nests, steps, arches, walls, the end of the Gray Path, the hollow center—he had personally visited every single marked location, and at every place he had squatted down, pressing his palms close to the ground to feel those extremely faint auras.

At this moment, they were connected on the same chart, like letters scattered in different drawers finally arranged neatly by date, and the spaces between the handwriting began to reveal a certain readable outline.

"How many times did you measure?" Shen Nian asked.

"Three times. The first time was connecting the lines directly according to the original coordinates captured by the recording talisman; the second time was having each marked point individually calculate its distance from the hollow center before repositioning; and the third time was incorporating the spacing between various marked points into the calculation as well."

Lu Qing retrieved three stacked sheets of draft paper from the side, each covered with dense numbers and annotations.

"The results of all three times," she placed the three sheets of draft paper side by side next to the comparison chart, "were completely identical."

Shen Nian looked at those numbers.

Those numbers were extremely close, so close that he could almost be certain they came from the same ruler.

"What is the source of the error?" he asked.

"It is mainly the range of the marked points themselves. Some ruins—such as the nests and steps—have a certain degree of fuzziness in their central positions themselves, unlike rings or arches which have clear geometric boundaries."

Lu Qing pointed to the location of the nest, "Therefore, the Disciple's calculation takes their centroid as the reference point rather than the edges. Even so, the error remains within an acceptable range."

Shen Nian nodded.

He cast his gaze back onto the complete comparison chart.

Those lines converged at the hollow center, like countless rivers flowing into the same body of water at an estuary.

The center was empty—without any notes or any markers, featuring only an extremely faint gray outline, resembling a base color left behind after repeated wiping.

"If these marked points were meticulously arranged," Shen Nian began, "then they should conform to certain definite geometric laws. It is not a random site selection, but a conscious calculation."

Lu Qing did not speak, simply pushing another rubbing gently in front of Shen Nian.

Drawn on that rubbing was a dodecagon—twelve vertices evenly distributed on the circumference centered on the hollow center.

Each vertex corresponded to a marked point.

"The Disciple compared the position of each marked point with the vertices of this dodecagon, and their angles and distances basically match, with negligible errors."

Shen Nian looked at that dodecagon.

Twelve vertices, twelve ruins.

He counted the marked points he had recorded—the ring, the nest, the steps, the Heluo Arch, the wall arc, and the end of the Gray Path—a total of six places.

But there were still six places he had not yet confirmed.

"Among the twelve vertices you annotated," Shen Nian asked, "how many have we already confirmed?"

Lu Qing placed her finger on the comparison chart, pointing to those marked points one by one.

"The ring, the nest, the steps, the Heluo Arch, the wall arc, and the end of the Gray Path—we have already confirmed the coordinates and forms of these six places."

Her finger stopped at the other six vertices of the dodecagon, "For these six positions, we do not yet have corresponding ruin records."

"But according to the geometric relationships of this dodecagon," she added, "their coordinates can be deduced."

Shen Nian was silent for a moment.

Twelve vertices, six already confirmed, six not yet confirmed.

But the six already confirmed were enough to outline the direction of the entire pattern—they were evenly distributed on the circumference, with equal spacing and consistent angles.

Like six links on the same chain, although the remaining six had not yet been salvaged, the size and shape of the links had been precisely measured.

"Can you deduce the positions of the other six based on these six known points?" Shen Nian asked.

Lu Qing nodded, "Yes. If they truly belong to the same dodecagon, then their coordinates are definite. As long as we substitute the existing data into the circle equation, we can calculate the positions of the remaining vertices."

She took out a new blank scroll and began to quickly make annotations on it.

Shen Nian did not disturb her, just quietly sitting beside her, watching her pen tip move across the scroll.

Under her hands, those lines gradually took shape, like a slowly awakened outline finding its own place on the blank paper surface.

After about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Lu Qing put down her pen.

That dodecagon was completely annotated on the scroll.

All twelve vertices were clearly visible, six of which had been personally confirmed by Shen Nian, while the other six were marked with dashed lines—the deduced positions, awaiting on-site verification.

"The positions annotated by the Disciple," Lu Qing turned the scroll toward Shen Nian, "are the most probable coordinates calculated from the existing data. If the results of on-site exploration match these coordinates, then the geometric relationship of this dodecagon can be officially confirmed as the design intent."

Shen Nian looked at those positions marked with dashed lines.

They were distributed on the same circumference as the known ruins, with uniform spacing and precise angles.

Like chess pieces measured in advance but not yet placed, waiting for someone to arrange them in their proper order.

"The Disciple will verify these positions," he said, "but not now."

"The Disciple wants to first organize the distance data between the six already confirmed marked points and the hollow center into a complete sequence, to see if there is some kind of progressive relationship in their numerical values."

Lu Qing put away the dodecagon scroll: "The Disciple can assist in organizing them. If there is a fixed proportional relationship among those distances, it indicates that the design basis of this System might not be a simple equidistant distribution, but rather contains a deeper mathematical structure."

Shen Nian nodded.

He walked over to the crystal core, picked up that piece of fine crystal from the platform, and held it in his palm to feel its temperature for a moment—still stable, still uniform, like an anchor that had dropped and was waiting for the cable to be tied tight.

He sat down in front of the crystal core, and marked the coordinates of those six marked points one by one with the Sixteen-Color Power within the overall outline of the Land of Origin.

The ring, the nest, the steps, the Heluo Arch, the wall arc, and the end of the Gray Path—every single place overlapped in his consciousness with the vertices of the dodecagon deduced by Lu Qing.

Six known places and six unknown places together formed a complete annular outline.

Like a circular window composed of twelve puzzle pieces, six of which were already in place, while the positions of the other six had already been determined, waiting only to be truly embedded.

And the vacancy at the center always maintained an outline waiting to be completed.

Shen Nian put the fine crystal back onto the platform, his gaze falling upon that complete outline, and he spoke softly: "The geometric structure of that dodecagon is perhaps the underlying framework used by the Creator to calibrate the Land of Origin."

"Every ruin is not just an independent creation; they are part of the System, a scale graduation on a giant ruler."

He paused for a moment, as if confirming whether what he had said had landed precisely in its proper place.

"And we have just confirmed six of those graduations."