Lin Xue nodded, hugging the notebook as she stepped aside to let him pass. As Su Chen walked past her, he heard her say from behind: "Strategist, if we go to destroy another base next time, I want to participate in the battle."
Su Chen's footsteps paused for a moment. He turned back to look at her. Lin Xue's gaze was very earnest; that pair of eyes no longer held the hesitation from before.
"I want to destroy those containers with my own hands," she said. "Burn those corpses, not a single one left."
Su Chen looked into her eyes, then said: "Alright."
He turned and went upstairs. Qian Renxue's office was at the easternmost end of the fourth floor. The door was half-closed, warm yellow light spilling out from within. He knocked on the doorframe, and Qian Renxue's voice came from inside: "Come in."
He pushed open the door and entered, seeing Qian Renxue sitting behind the desk. A stack of documents was piled before her, and a cup of tea that had long gone cold sat at her hand. Her long hair was let down, not tied into her usual ponytail, making her face appear even more slender. Hearing the sound of Su Chen's approaching footsteps, she raised her head, her gaze pausing on him for a moment.
"Have you changed the medicine on your hand?"
"Not yet." Su Chen sat down across from her and handed over that page of notes. "Lin Xue discovered this while sorting through the materials. Take a look."
Qian Renxue took the notes, her gaze sweeping across the page. Her brows quickly knitted together, her fingers tracing over the word "migration."
"I hadn't noticed this before." She set down the notes and took out another jade talisman from the drawer. "But I've seen similar phrasing in another record. Look."
She activated the jade talisman, and several lines of text appeared in mid-air. It was an experimental progress report, and one line read: "The results of the third stage will be transferred before the scheduled date; the target location will be personally designated by the High Priest."
"These two sources corroborate each other, indicating that the experimental results of the Qingfeng Valley base would be transferred in two months. But the base has already been destroyed by us." Qian Renxue's fingers tapped against the desktop. "But this information may point to a larger operation—all the experimental results from the core-level bases might be transferred around that same time node. What are they preparing?"
Su Chen leaned back in his chair. The soul tool brace on his right arm reflected cold white light under the lamplight. Various possibilities raced through his mind. Two months—if the Void Cult was indeed preparing for a large-scale transfer of results, that meant they had some centralized destination. Gathering the most essential experimental products from all core-level bases in one place could only serve a few purposes: either creating an unprecedented army, or catalyzing some extremely powerful individual, or initiating an ultimate plan requiring massive energy support.
"We need to know where the migration target location is," Su Chen said.
Qian Renxue shook her head: "That black jade talisman might contain this information, but even I cannot break that seal. I've already sent someone to deliver it to the sealing arts masters at Spirit Hall headquarters in Spirit City by the fastest horse, but the round trip will take at least seven days. If two months from now is when they act, a seven-day time difference is already cutting it close."
Seven days. Su Chen calculated silently in his heart. The news of the Qingfeng Valley base's destruction should have already reached the ears of the Void Cult's upper echelons. They would definitely accelerate their pace of action next. The original two-month timetable might be compressed. The window of opportunity left to them might only be one month, or even shorter.
"Lady Qian Renxue," Su Chen spoke, "I have an idea."
Qian Renxue raised her eyes to look at him.
"Rather than waiting for headquarters to crack that jade talisman and then notify us, we should act on our own. You are currently an Elder of Spirit Hall and the highest authority at the Tian Dou City branch. You have the authority to access all abnormal energy fluctuation records within the entire Tian Dou Empire. Although the Void Cult's core-level bases are hidden, they need to consume massive resources. The cultivation and modification of soul beast embryos will produce intense soul power fluctuations and spatial distortions. If we can find the patterns of these fluctuations, even if we don't know the exact locations, we can lock down a general area."
A glimmer of light flashed in Qian Renxue's eyes. She was silent for a few seconds, then said: "Continue."
"We have the locations of two known bases—the Extreme North and Qingfeng Valley. Input the data from these two locations into the energy fluctuation monitoring network for comparison, find areas with similar energy characteristics, then send people to scout. This is equivalent to using the known to deduce the unknown. Though it can't guarantee one hundred percent accuracy, it's at least better than us groping in the dark."
Qian Renxue leaned back in her chair, her hands folded on the desktop, her gaze fixed on Su Chen. After quite a while, she said: "The prerequisite for this plan to work is that the Tian Dou Empire's energy monitoring network is still operating normally. But ever since the Void Cult began its activities, they have been targeting monitoring nodes for destruction. Over the past three months, eleven of the seventeen monitoring nodes in the border regions have been paralyzed. The remaining six have extremely limited coverage."
Su Chen frowned: "Can the paralyzed nodes be repaired?"
"They can, but it takes time. The maintenance and calibration of each node requires at least three days, and it must be done on-site. The six nodes are distributed in six different directions. Even if we split up, the fastest repair would still take at least ten days."
Ten days. Time again. Su Chen felt that every step they took was being throttled by time. The Void Cult laid out its plans leisurely in the dark, while they rushed about exhaustedly in the light. This feeling was suffocating.
"Let's start with what we can do," Su Chen finally said. "Send people to repair the nodes, and at the same time send people to scout already identified suspicious areas. Even if we only find one core-level base, it's better than sitting here waiting idly."
Qian Renxue nodded, picked up a pen and quickly wrote something on a sheet of paper, then handed it to Su Chen: "These are the locations of the six currently operational monitoring nodes and the eleven paralyzed nodes. Take a look."
Su Chen took the paper, his gaze quickly scanning over it. The map on the paper was marked in great detail, with each node accompanied by a number and status description. He noticed that three hundred miles to the west of Qingfeng Valley was a paralyzed node, marked as "Destroyed three weeks ago."
"This node." Su Chen pointed at that location. "Its monitoring range covers the large area west of Qingfeng Valley. If we repair it, we might be able to capture the energy traces of other nearby bases."
"I've already sent people," Qian Renxue said. "They set out this morning—four Soul King-level combat personnel escorting two maintenance deacons. At the earliest, they can arrive the day after tomorrow and begin work."
Su Chen folded the paper and tucked it into his bosom. He looked out the window. The sky had completely darkened now, and the lights of thousands of homes in Tian Dou City were lighting up one after another, like a fallen starry sky. In the distance came the clamor of the night market, someone singing an unknown song, the melody melodious and lingering, drifting in through the window, sounding somewhat unreal.
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