86: Chapter 85 Turbulence and Relics

The first large-scale cargo transport test for the "Sky-Reaching" channel, codenamed "Maiden Voyage," began under the gaze of the masses.

Seven ground resonance towers were running at full power, and the global consciousness network was providing unprecedentedly precise harmonic tuning.

Above the equator, the pale blue "psionic supercurrent beam" was more solid and stable than ever, like an energy river stretching directly from the surface to synchronous orbit.

The receiving ring array of the "Tian-Shu" station flickered with a soft yet powerful light, preparing to receive the "Xuan Niao-class" heavy cargo pod launched from the Jiuquan Base in the Dragon Kingdom—it was loaded with modular reactor core components urgently needed for the construction of the Lunar Fortress.

"All parameters normal, supercurrent stability at 99.998%."

"'Xuan Niao' pod detached from the atmosphere, entering the guidance window."

"Traction field established, acceleration commencing..."

In the main control center, Zhou Zhe stared intently at the screen.

This test was not just about logistics transport efficiency; it was a crucial step in testing the infrastructure of the Star Ring Era plan.

Success would mean the gates to space industrialization had truly opened.

Wrapped in the psionic supercurrent, the "Xuan Niao" pod rose steadily along the invisible orbit, quickly breaking through the first cosmic velocity.

Everything seemed incredibly smooth.

However, just as the cargo pod crossed the 30,000-kilometer altitude mark and was about to enter the most stable segment before synchronous orbit, the anomaly occurred!

On the monitoring screen, the curve representing the supercurrent stability began to jitter violently without warning!

In a local area, the originally straight energy beam path developed visible "turbulence" and "vortices," like a water flow encountering a reef!

"'Tian-Shu' station reporting, local field strength of the supercurrent is disordered! Cause unknown!"

"Ground harmonic network feedback is normal! The source of interference is external!"

"Abnormal microgravity fluctuations and spatial curvature disturbances detected! Right near the supercurrent path!"

Zhou Zhe's heart sank.

The thing he feared most had happened—near-Earth space was not empty; it contained complex environmental factors not yet fully understood by humanity.

It could be an abnormal aggregation of thin plasma, residual geomagnetic disturbances, or perhaps... some unknown, hidden structures interacting with the psionic field.

"Stabilize the harmonics! Attempt dynamic frequency adjustment to bypass the disturbed area!" Zhou Zhe ordered urgently.

But the disturbed area seemed to move and spread.

The "Xuan Niao" pod began to bump in the chaotic force field, and the internal precision components emitted teeth-gritting stress alarms.

Even worse, the turbulence of the supercurrent began to spread to both ends, threatening the stability of the ground resonance towers and the "Tian-Shu" station's receiving ring.

"Forced separation! Activate the 'Xuan Niao' backup thrusters and break away from the supercurrent!" Zhou Zhe made a decisive, painful, but necessary decision.

Continuing to force the tow might lead to the destruction of the pod or even the collapse of the supercurrent.

Propelled by the backup thrusters, the cargo pod struggled to break free from the now-dangerous supercurrent, but it was also thrown off its intended orbit, requiring more fuel and time for correction.

The first large-scale cargo transport test ended in partial failure.

"Find out the reason!" Minister Li Weimin said sternly over the communication line.

"The Star Ring Era plan cannot have such great uncertainty!"

Zhou Zhe's team and Nuwa immediately threw themselves into data analysis.

At the same time, the Gardener Representative was urgently consulted.

"This phenomenon... we have some impression of it."

The light and shadow of Gardener Representative Qi wove through the data stream.

"Around highly developed psionic technological civilizations, 'spatial memory turbulence' sometimes appears."

"Simply put, past high-intensity psionic activity or spatial manipulation leaves a kind of 'imprint' or 'inertia' in space-time. When a new psionic field passes through in a specific way, it can trigger a brief resurgence or interference of these 'imprints.'"

"Near-Earth space... during the era when the builders were active, or even earlier, some large-scale psionic events we don't know about may have occurred."

It was another "historical problem" left behind by the builders.

"Can it be predicted and avoided?" Academician Chen Qiming asked.

"It requires a large amount of detection data to build a model."

"I suggest launching a dedicated psionic environment detection satellite network to map the 'topography' of the psionic field in near-Earth space, especially in synchronous orbit and along the 'Sky-Reaching' path."

The Gardener Representative suggested, "This will take time and consume resources."

The Star Ring Era plan had encountered an unexpected technical bottleneck just as it was starting.

Almost at the same time, Earth, near the designated coordinate point on the East Sea continental shelf.

The "Jiaolong" deep-sea mother ship, specially modified and looking like an ordinary marine research vessel, was suspended in the dark seawater.

It was not carrying traditional deep-sea detectors, but a non-invasive "psionic harmonic resonance scanning array" designed based on experience from the Cradle and γ-07 anchor point interactions.

Chu Yunshen sat in the command cabin on the ship, flanked by the psionic physics team responsible for technical operations.

Their target was the East Sea Node—a place described in mythology as the "Undying Lamp on the Seabed."

"Scanning array deployed, depth 1520 meters, 300 meters from the seabed."

"Initiate minimum-intensity background harmonic scanning, frequency offset by 30% from the safe interaction band of the Gabon γ-07 anchor point."

The array activated, and the invisible psionic harmonics swept over the cold, dark seabed and sediment layer below like the gentlest of tentacles.

Data began to transmit back.

At first, there were only normal geological echoes.

But a few minutes later, at the edge of the scan coverage area, an extremely weak but regular signal response was captured.

It was not a distinct "honeycomb structure" like γ-07, but more like a... "layered diffraction grating" feedback pattern.

"Abnormal structure discovered! Buried depth is about 800 meters below the seabed, the shape is stacked in multi-layered thin sheets, the overall scale is estimated to be... very huge, the lateral extension may exceed ten kilometers!"

The operator's voice was filled with shock.

"Energy characteristics?"

"Extremely weak, almost integrated with the environmental background radiation."

"But there is an extremely slow... 'breathing' pulsation, the period is about one-third of the Earth's rotation period, which does not match any known geological or marine activity cycle."

"The psionic characteristic spectrum... has a similar basic encoding to γ-07, but the specific structure is very different."

Chu Yunshen immediately pulled up the global mythology database for comparison.

"East Sea... 'Undying Lamp'... The 'Classic of Mountains and Seas: Classic of the Regions Beyond the Seas, East' records: 'There is a god, human face and snake body, holding a lamp to illuminate the Nine Netherworlds'..."

"Could it not refer to a glowing lamp, but to some kind of regular energy pulsation like a breathing light?"

"'Illuminate the Nine Netherworlds', could it mean it can probe or affect extremely deep strata or even the mantle?"

"Attempt a 'protocol handshake' pulse similar to the one used when establishing a connection with γ-07, with the intensity reduced by another order of magnitude." Chu Yunshen ordered.

A psionic pulse, softer than a whisper, carrying the "friendly visit" basic protocol encoding summarized from the interactions with the Cradle and γ-07, was fired toward that huge layered structure.

Waiting.

After a long thirty seconds, the feedback came.

It was not a clear "status report" like γ-07, but a more abstract, more... "ancient" information stream.

Nuwa assisted in the analysis, converting the information into symbols and imagery that humans could understand:

That was a dynamic "star map," but what was marked were not stars, but material flow, energy transfer, and... "pressure nodes" at different depths within the Earth.

The image kept changing, showing the movement of crustal plates, the rising of mantle plumes, and changes in the magnetic field during Earth's billions of years of geological evolution...

Finally, the image froze on a few specific "pressure nodes," one of which was right below where they were scanning.

Immediately following was a simple "warning" symbol, and a rhythmic fluctuation that was hard to understand but felt full of "worry."

"It is showing us... the 'geological pulse' of the Earth?" Chu Yunshen guessed.

"Warning... is it warning us that the geological structure below this node is unstable? Or warning us not to interfere with its 'monitoring' function?"

"Second piece of information received!" The operator shouted.

"This time it is... a 'countdown'? Or rather, a 'period peak' prediction marker!"

On the image, at the location of the East Sea Node where they were, a curve similar to energy accumulation was climbing, and next to it was a constantly jumping timer symbol, converted into Earth time... pointing to approximately 117 days and 3 hours later.

"It is predicting that this node will reach some kind of energy or activity 'peak' at a certain time in the future?"

Chu Yunshen felt a palpitation.

"Is this a natural cycle, or... because of something triggered by our scanning pulse just now?"

Unknown.

This anchor point in the deep sea seemed different from γ-07, which was responsible for defense and regulation; it was more like a huge "Earth monitoring station" or "geological sensor."

And the peak it predicted 117 days later, was it a blessing or a curse?

Moon, inside the "Cradle."

Lin Shen had recovered most of his energy and was familiarizing himself with the functions alongside Sarah at the newly opened "Sanctuary Protocol Basic Console."

The console could display the overall energy status of the Moon, the strength of the defense field, and the weak connection status with the Earth's "Sky-Reaching" channel and the γ-07 anchor point.

They had also received information from Earth about the "Sky-Reaching" turbulence and the discovery of the East Sea Node.

"'Spatial memory turbulence'... 'Earth monitoring node'..." Lin Shen rubbed his temples.

"Every step we take forward, we discover more 'legacies' left by the builders and encounter more unknown risks."

"It's like clearing a path in a minefield."

"But this also shows that what the builders left us might be a complete 'civilization startup kit,' not just scattered technologies."

Sarah's voice carried thought.

"Defense (γ-07), monitoring (East Sea Node), and the 'knowledge inheritance and civilization acceleration' represented by the 'Cradle' itself... these might all be part of a set."

"We need to understand the connections between them to use them safely and effectively."

"Connections..." Lin Shen looked at the coordinates of the seven Earth anchor points displayed on the console.

"Chu Yunshen and the others found that the East Sea Node predicts a peak in 117 days."

"What about the other nodes? Could there be similar cycles? Are there connections between these cycles? Is there a potential link to the turbulence of the 'Sky-Reaching' channel, or even the threat cycles of the 'Pruning Faction' and the 'Reapers'?"

This thought made him shudder.

If human activities (such as the "Sky-Reaching" harmonics) inadvertently interfered with the cycles of these ancient facilities, the consequences could be far beyond imagination.

"We need data, more data."

Lin Shen made up his mind.

"Sarah, can you try to establish a 'sensory link' with other anchor points that is deeper than Earth's scanning but still safe, through the connection between the 'Cradle' and the 'heart crystal'?"

"Not trying to control or wake them up, just 'listening' to their status and 'pulse'."

"I can try, but it requires being very careful, and it also requires the 'Cradle' to provide additional energy support." Sarah said cautiously.

"Moreover, this might once again attract the attention of the 'Pruning Faction' or... other observers."

"Can't worry about that much."

"We must figure out the 'circuit diagram' of our home as soon as possible, otherwise, building blindly might be digging a hole for ourselves."

Lin Shen pulled up the communication interface.

"At the same time, I need to have a three-party emergency meeting with the Gardener and the Earth side."

"Regarding the 'Galactic Council Liaison', regarding spatial turbulence, regarding the Earth anchor point cycles... We need to share all information and re-evaluate our timeline and risks."

He paused and looked at the pale golden light shield outside the console that symbolized the "Sanctuary."

"The calm before the storm might be shorter and more complex than we imagined."

"We must find that correct channel amidst the turbulence."