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Chapter 396 What is it waiting for?

Arrive in twenty minutes after stargazing.

She was wearing a black coat, carrying a metal box, and looked unwell.

Zhang Yan invited her into the study.

Three people are surrounding the screen.

Guan Xing spoke first. "In the three hundred years of monitoring records of Guantian Pavilion, the knocking outside the door was not continuous."

She retrieved the data.

"There is an active period roughly every sixty to eighty years, lasting from a few months to a year, before it subsides. During the quiet period in between, there is almost no signal outside the door."

Nie Qingcheng asked, "When was the last time you were active?"

"Seventy-three years ago. It lasted for eight months."

Zhang Yan stared at the timeline. "And then?"

"Then it was quiet for seventy-three years. Until this year."

The stargazing paused for a moment.

"The start of this active period coincides precisely with the time when you sealed the Ruins."

No one spoke in the study.

Zhang Yan was already putting together a jigsaw puzzle in his mind.

The passage that seeped into the ruins was through three cracks in the door. It was like a worm that crawled in through the cracks and had been lingering on this side for thirty thousand years.

It is not just an intruder.

It is also a stopper.

Occupying the ruins of the crack, it objectively blocks something even bigger from behind.

The energy intensity of the Ruins was only one-forty-seventh of that of the main body, blocking the passage, so the giant outside could only probe in through the gaps.

So it strikes, concentrating its strength to strike once every few decades.

However, the ruins blocked the passage, significantly weakening the impact.

Then Zhang Yan arrived.

Sealing Ruins. The ruins were completely forced back into the sealing layer from the crack.

The passageway has been cleared.

"It's not waiting for the conditions to be met." Nie Qingcheng's voice turned cold. "The conditions have already been met."

Zhang Yan nodded.

Guan Xing's face turned pale. "The Sealed Ruins... have actually helped it."

Zhang Yan said, "That's not accurate. If the Ruins aren't sealed, this side will be doomed first. Sealing it is essential."

Nie Qingcheng continued, "The issue isn't whether or not it should be sealed off, but that once it's sealed off, the passage is clear, and things outside have gained the best window in seventy-three years."

Guan Xing looked down at the data. "Then why doesn't it just go all out? It has 47 times the power. Even if the doors block most of it, and it finds the weakest point, the sixth door, and focuses its attack, the 29% shielding efficiency might not be enough to withstand it."

Nie Qingcheng looked at Zhang Yan.

She already asked that question last night.

Zhang Yan pulled out all the data for the seven gates.

First gate: 54% (one break has been repaired).

The second threshold: 41% (data anomaly).

The third layer: auxiliary maintenance container stability.

The fourth gate: 37%.

The fifth gate: 43% (there have been spontaneous responses recently).

The sixth gate: 29%.

The seventh gate: 35%.

He stared at it for a long time.

"Because it hasn't figured out the structure of the entire gate network yet."

Look up at the stars.

Zhang Yan continued, "The seven gates are a whole. Destroying one gate does not mean the whole thing is broken. If it rashly tries to force its way through the sixth gate, the other six gates will automatically compensate and contract to close the gap."

"It doesn't need to find the weakest door. It needs to find the collapse threshold of the entire network."

Nie Qingcheng tapped the screen. "So it's collecting data."

"Yes. Every tap is a test. We're looking for the patterns in how the doors work together, the delays in the compensation mechanisms, and the critical points where the network breaks down."

The stargazer's voice tightened. "Then your repairing the door is also providing it with data."

"Each time a repair is performed, the linkage parameters of the door network will change. It infers the structure by observing the changes."

The study was quiet for a few seconds.

Nie Qingcheng broke the silence first. "The conclusion."

Zhang Yan said, "Repairing the gates can't stop. Every time a gate is repaired, the overall strength of the network increases, and the collapse threshold rises. No matter how much data it collects, it's useless as long as the threshold remains above its upper limit."

"But what if it calculates the failure point before you finish fixing it?"

Zhang Yan looked at her.

Nie Qingcheng refused to back down. "You can't gamble that it can't calculate it."

Zhang Yan remained silent for three seconds.

"So we need to be quick."

He pulled up the repair schedule. "Second fracture, 25 days. Vermilion Bird's modification is complete, energy is sufficient. But the situation with the sixth gate cannot be ignored; 29% is too low."

Guan Xing said, "The sixth gate is beneath the Siberian permafrost. You went to that area before looking for the Void Crystal."

"The locations are different. The mining area is in the Sakha Republic, while the coordinates of the Sixth Gate are deeper, along the Arctic Ocean coast."

Nie Qingcheng pulled out a satellite map. The coordinates were beneath a desolate, uninhabited tundra.

"Is it possible to get there?"

"Yes, but not now," Zhang Yan said clearly. "The first site has just been completed, and the second is scheduled for 25 days. We can't divide our forces during this time."

"What about the sixth door?"

"Monitor it. Have the Great Wall team keep a close eye on it. If the thrust doesn't increase dramatically, I'll go after I finish repairing the second site."

Nie Qingcheng added this to the plan. "What if the thrust increases dramatically?"

Zhang Yan paused for a moment.

"Then let's go to the sixth gate for emergency reinforcement first. The second one will be postponed."

Nie Qingcheng wrote two lines on the tablet.

"Option A: Proceed with the original plan to repair the second site. Option B: Emergency intervention at the sixth gate. Trigger condition: The shielding efficiency of the sixth gate drops below 25%."

She turned the screen around. "Agree?"

Zhang Yan nodded.

Guan Xing watched the interaction between the two, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back.

Nie Qingcheng glanced at her. "Speak."

Guan Xing opened the metal box and took out a stack of photocopied documents.

"Guan Tian Ge has found a record. It is very old, written about eight hundred years ago during that crisis."

She turned to one of the pages.

"The recorder at the time mentioned that the entity outside the door was not a single person."

Zhang Yan's gaze sharpened.

"The original text he used was—'It's like the tide, not like a stone.'"

Nie Qingcheng frowned. "What do you mean?"

The stargazer said, "A stone hitting a door will retreat if it can't break it. The tide is different. It doesn't need to break it. It just needs to keep rising until it covers the top of the door."

Zhang Yan slowly clenched his fist.

"The recorder came to a conclusion," Guan Xing said, looking at Zhang Yan. "The door isn't meant to block it forever. The door is meant to buy time."

"What are we buying time for?"

Guan Xing turned to the last page. The text was severely corroded, with only one line barely legible.

Zhang Yan leaned closer to take a look.

The text read:

"Find the source and turn off the tide."

None of the three spoke.

In the corner of the system interface, the real-time data for the sixth door quietly fluctuated.

The shielding efficiency decreased from 29% to 28.7%.

It's falling.