bioinnovel Chapter 397 The Sixth Gate!
Chapter 397 The Sixth Gate!
28.7%.
Zhang Yan stared at that number for three seconds.
He picked up his phone and dialed. Qin Xiao answered quickly.
How long will it take to get the detailed coordinates of the sixth gate?
"It's already being adjusted. The military's raw data on radar penetration needs to be declassified, which will take at least two hours."
"Not fast enough."
Qin Xiao paused for a moment. "I'll have the Great Wall team proceed with the highest priority. One hour."
"Okay. Also, send over all records of abnormal activity within a 300-kilometer radius of the sixth gate's coordinates, for the past month."
"clear."
Zhang Yan hung up the phone and looked at the stars.
"What would happen to the other six if any one of the seven gates were completely breached?"
Guan Xing's expression hadn't recovered. "The network is down. The shielding efficiency of the remaining six gates will drop sharply—by at least 30%."
Zhang Yan did the calculations.
第四道门37%，降30%就是7%。第七道门35%，降完只剩5%。等于没有。
One door breaks, the whole internet collapses.
Nie Qingcheng remained silent, but she had already brought up a map of Siberia on her tablet.
Zhang Yan walked to her side.
The map shows a red coordinate point located in the northern part of the Sakha Republic, in a desert near the Arctic Ocean coast.
"It's less than 300 kilometers away from the mining area where we last extracted the Void Crystal."
Nie Qingcheng nodded. "I know the route well. Old Liu is in Vladivostok, and Zhao Hong is still usable."
Zhang Yan looked at her.
She has already started arranging logistics.
"I know you're going." Nie Qingcheng said without looking up. "The question is, should we go to the sixth gate first, or repair the second fracture of the first gate?"
This is also a question that Zhang Yan is thinking about.
The first gate is the main control gate. Repairing the second break can improve the efficiency of the entire network and fundamentally solve the problem. However, the construction period is twenty-five days.
The sixth gate may fall below the critical value in twelve days.
I can't wait.
"Let's go to the sixth gate first," Zhang Yan said. "We won't do a complete repair, but an emergency reinforcement. We'll temporarily inject energy using the Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship to raise the shielding efficiency above the safety line."
The stargazer asked, "What is the safety line?"
"Over 35%. It will last at least until I finish repairing the second fracture and come back."
Guan Xing estimated in his mind, "The energy infusion from the Heart of Heaven's Craftsmanship will have limited effect if not combined with rune re-engraving. At most—sixty days."
Sixty days.
Repairing the second fracture will take twenty-five days. Adding the time for travel to and from Siberia, that's ten days. The total is thirty-five days.
That's enough. Just enough.
Zhang Yan turned to Nie Qingcheng. "I need to complete a round trip to Siberia within ten days."
Nie Qingcheng put down the tablet. "Fly to Vladivostok, Lao Liu will meet us, and the off-road vehicle will head north. Follow the same route as last time; the fastest one-way trip will take three days."
"Six days round trip, four days for underground operations."
"Three days," Nie Qingcheng said. "Give me one day to allow for a buffer."
Zhang Yan didn't argue. "Three days."
Nie Qingcheng picked up her phone and started making a call. Her voice was flat, and she spoke very quickly, delivering a series of instructions as fluently as if she were reading from a script.
Zhang Yan looked back at the screen. The data for the sixth gate was still slowly decreasing. 28.6%.
Guan Xing walked over to him and lowered his voice. "The sixth gate is 1800 meters deep. That's 600 meters deeper than the first gate. If you use the Black Scorpion to go down, the environmental pressure you'll face will be much greater."
"I know."
"Moreover, the structure of the permafrost layer is completely different from that of the Shennongjia karst caves. Once the permafrost layer is drilled through, the backfilling speed is extremely fast, and the evacuation passage may be blocked."
Zhang Yan didn't respond to the question. He was looking at the system panel.
The completeness of the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart is 99.2%.
Temporary reinforcement does not require 100% integrity, but large-scale energy injection will consume the reserve energy of the Heart of the Creator.
He had to precisely control the output – he had to maximize the shielding efficiency to 35% without exhausting himself, as there would be a second break to repair upon his return.
Qin Xiao called.
"Brother Yan, the data analysis is complete ahead of schedule. The coordinates of the sixth gate have been confirmed: 71 degrees north latitude, 138 degrees east longitude. Northern Sakha Republic, about 200 kilometers north of the Lena River Delta. Approximately 1800 meters below the permafrost."
"Surrounding area."
"A wasteland. There are no settlements within a radius of 150 kilometers. The nearest town is Tiksi, with a population of less than 5,000. The average winter temperature is minus 40 degrees Celsius, and even now, in late summer, the surface temperature is only a few degrees Celsius above zero."
"Underground structure?"
"The radar scan revealed that the permafrost layer is about 400 meters thick, below which is hard rock, and further down there is a spherical cavity about 300 meters in diameter. The structure is almost identical to that of Shennongjia."
Zhang Yan wrote it down.
Qin Xiao continued, "Also, regarding the abnormal activity within a 300-kilometer radius that you asked us to investigate—"
He paused for a moment.
There's something there.
Zhang Yan waited.
"Three days ago, a satellite captured images of tire tracks about 80 kilometers southwest of the sixth gate. They were not from civilian vehicles, but from heavy off-road vehicles and armored personnel carriers. The number is estimated to be four to six."
Zhang Yan frowned.
That wasteland had no settlements within a radius of 150 kilometers.
The roads are impassable in winter, and only a very small number of scientific research teams can enter during the summer.
Four to six heavy off-road and armored personnel carriers; not a scientific expedition team.
"Can you identify whose it is?"
"The tracks are coming from the southeast, that is, from the direction of Yakutsk. But the vehicle type is not the standard type used by the E country's military. The intelligence department is making comparisons."
Zhang Yan hung up the phone.
Nie Qingcheng had just finished playing too. Seeing Zhang Yan's expression, she asked, "What?"
"A convoy appeared three days ago, about 80 kilometers from the coordinates of the sixth gate. It consisted of four to six heavy off-road vehicles and armored personnel carriers."
Nie Qingcheng's finger stopped on the screen.
"identity?"
"unknown."
She was silent for two seconds.
"Last time you went to Sahar to mine Void Crystals, you encountered more than thirty mercenaries when you came out."
Zhang Yan remembered. Those people came for the minerals, not for the door.
But this time is different. The coordinates of the Sixth Gate have no record of any mineral resources, and that wasteland is of no value to any commercial force. The presence of an armed convoy in such a place can only mean one thing—they know there's something underground.
"Stargazing," Zhang Yan called out.
Guan Xing walked over.
"Besides your Guantian Pavilion, are there any other organizations that know the location of the gate?"
The stargazer's expression changed.
She did not answer immediately.
Zhang Yan waited five seconds. "Speak."
Guan Xing took a deep breath. "I'm not sure. But the earliest manuscript mentions a word—'gatekeeper'."
"What?"
"The gatekeeper," the stargazer repeated. "The original manuscript only contained one sentence: 'The celestial observer carries a lamp, the gatekeeper carries a lock. Each has their duty, and none may overstep their boundaries.'"
Nie Qingcheng then asked, "So, there's another organization?"
"That's possible," said Guan Xing. "The function of Guantian Pavilion is monitoring and recording. If there are 'gatekeepers,' their function should be maintenance and defense—guarding the lock."
Zhang Yan's mind works very quickly.
Guantian Pavilion has been monitoring the gate for three hundred years, but has never personally repaired it.
They lack the heart of a divine craftsman, and also the ability to repair.
They are "lights".
What about the "lock"?
If gatekeepers really exist, what do they have?
Nie Qingcheng was clearly thinking the same thing. She looked down at something on the tablet, then looked up.
"The convoy entered the wasteland three days ago."
Zhang Yan looked at her.
"Three days ago," Nie Qingcheng repeated. "That was exactly the point in time when the sixth gate began to exert continuous pressure."
Right.
If they are gatekeepers, and there's a problem with the gate, they go to check it. The logic makes sense.
But it could be something else entirely.
"We can't draw conclusions yet," Zhang Yan said. "No matter who they are, ten days isn't enough time for me to investigate before taking any action. I'll go directly there and see what happens when I get there."
Nie Qingcheng stood up. "I'll arrange the flight path for you. Old Liu will provide support in Vladivostok, and Zhao Hong will prepare the vehicles and supplies." She paused, then pulled out a document from the tablet. "This is what Qingcheng International Intelligence Network intercepted two hours ago."
Zhang Yan took it.
The file was very short, only a few lines long. It originated from an encrypted channel run by an Eastern European intelligence broker and was intercepted by Nie Qingcheng's people.
Content: A team of at least forty private military contractors departed from Yakutsk three days ago, bound for coordinates north of the Lena Delta. The employer's information is obscured through at least five layers of shell companies. The equipment list includes deep drilling equipment.
Zhang Yan put the document down.
Forty people. Deep drilling equipment.
They weren't on patrol. They were digging.
Nie Qingcheng looked at him.
"Last time you went to Siberia, you encountered more than thirty armed men. This time, the situation there will only be more complicated."
Her voice was flat, but Zhang Yan understood the underlying meaning.
"I'll bring the White Tiger and the Black Scorpion."
"not enough."
That's enough.
Nie Qingcheng stared at him for three seconds.
"Where is Suzaku?"
"Stay in Jinghai and await orders. The modified Suzaku can provide energy support remotely; it doesn't need to come with me."
Nie Qingcheng withdrew her gaze and lowered her head to write a few lines on the tablet.
"Ten days. If it's been more than ten days, I'll send someone to find you."
"It won't exceed that."
She closed the tablet and walked up to him.
"Zhang Yan".
"Um."
"That convoy had forty people, and deep drilling equipment." Her voice was flat. "You're alone."
Zhang Yan reached out and took her hand.
"I am not alone."
Nie Qingcheng didn't pull her hand away, but her gaze didn't soften.
"You always say that."
She pulled her hand away from his, picked up her phone, and walked towards the door.
"I'll arrange the flight path. You list the equipment."
As she reached the door, she glanced back.
"I'll prepare the food. I don't want to know what you ate in Siberia last time."
Zhang Yan watched her figure disappear down the corridor.
In the corner of the system panel, the number for the shielding efficiency of the sixth door jumped again.
28.4%.