bioinnovel Chapter 404 Footprints!
Chapter 404 Footprints!
After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yan sat in his study for five minutes.
170 kilometers. Southward. Then vanished in an instant.
It's not that it's lost track.
It means that the thermal characteristics of the target itself return to zero.
Two possibilities: the other party has the ability to erase its own traces, or the other party can "disappear" on a physical level—leave this dimension.
Regardless of the type, it means that the other party's abilities far exceed those of B+ or even A-rank family members.
We'll deal with it after daybreak.
He went back to the bedroom and lay down. Nie Qingcheng stirred slightly but didn't wake up. He glanced at her sideways, then closed his eyes again.
Eight o'clock in the morning.
When Zhang Yan woke up, Nie Qingcheng was no longer in bed. He heard a soft sound downstairs—she was making tea.
As they went downstairs, Nie Qingcheng pushed a cup of hot tea in front of him.
"I heard Qin Xiao's phone call in the early hours of the morning."
Zhang Yan picked up the teacup. She was indeed not sound asleep.
"Disappeared after 170 kilometers. What do you think?"
"We need to confirm one thing first." Zhang Yan opened his phone and sent a message to Qin Xiao: "Send me the exact coordinates of the vanishing point."
The reply came quickly. A string of latitude and longitude coordinates.
Zhang Yan input the coordinates into the system.
The system processed the results in about ten seconds and then displayed them.
He stared at the screen for two seconds. Then he turned the phone around to show Nie Qingcheng.
"The vanishing point is 173 kilometers directly south of the surface entrance to the Sixth Gate. Underground at that location—is the thinnest edge of the outer shielding layer of the Sixth Gate's spherical space."
Nie Qingcheng put down her teacup.
"It didn't go far. It went down."
"It didn't go down." Zhang Yan shook his head. "It went directly back to the vicinity of the door from the ground. It didn't go through a physical passage."
"It penetrated 1,800 meters of permafrost."
"Or it didn't penetrate at all. Instead, it used some kind of—"
Zhang Yan paused for a moment and pulled up the system scan records. He had been in the spherical space of the sixth gate for nearly an hour, with the Heavenly Craftsman's Heart operating the entire time. All energy fluctuations within the space were recorded.
He flipped to the very beginning of the timeline. Six hours before he arrived in the spherical space—an extremely faint energy pulse.
"This." He zoomed in on the record.
The frequency characteristics of the pulse are highly similar to, but not exactly identical to, the fundamental frequency of the gate itself. The difference is approximately 29%.
The energy fingerprint outside the door matches 71%.
Conversely, 100 minus 71 equals 29.
"It's mimicking the frequency of a door," Zhang Yan said. "It's 29% off, but that's enough for it to use the door's network to move short distances."
Nie Qingcheng's expression remained unchanged. But her fingers tapped lightly twice on the table—a habit she had when thinking quickly.
"If it can move using a network of doors, does that mean it can go to any door?"
"In theory."
Nie Qingcheng stood up.
"Investigate the third door."
Zhang Yan glanced at her.
"Why is it the third door?"
"The meteorite fragment from the third gate is in Helios's hands; you took a sample. If that thing can sense changes in the gate network, your act of taking the sample might have left a trace. It will look for it."
Zhang Yan retrieved the monitoring data from the third gate.
The Sahara. The Helios facility has five underground levels.
The data stream has been stable over the past 72 hours. The shielding efficiency is 39%, with no fluctuations.
No.
He flipped forward.
Four days ago.
A very small fluctuation. Duration: 0.3 seconds. Efficiency dropped from 39% to 38.7%, then recovered.
Ordinary monitoring would ignore this level of jitter. But Zhang Yan wouldn't ignore anything now.
He compared the 0.3-second fluctuation timestamp with the heat dissipation time given by Qin Xiao.
Forty-seven minutes off.
Not a perfect match.
However, considering the distance between the sixth and third gates—from Siberia to North Africa—it would take some time to transmit data through the gate network.
Forty-seven minutes may be the "transfer time" it needs to move within the gate network.
Zhang Yan saved screenshots of all the data and sent them to Qin Xiao, adding the message: "Compare these two timestamps. Tell Guan Xing."
He then sent the locksmith a encrypted message: "Surface patrol of the sixth door increased to once every six hours. Notify me immediately of any unusual heat sources."
The locksmith's reply was concise: "Received."
Zhang Yan put away his phone.
Nie Qingcheng stood by the window, her back to him.
"It's testing the waters."
"right."
"Just like the approach taken with the ruins back then. First infiltrate, then expand."
"But it's faster than the Ruins. The Ruins took countless years to seep out from the cracks. This thing—the Sixth Gate's shielding efficiency has only just dropped below 30%, and it's already able to project some of its power onto the surface."
Nie Qingcheng turned around.
"Further compress the timetable."
Zhang Yan knew what she was going to say.
"The second fracture. When will it be repaired?"
"The original plan was for 25 days. The locksmith needs three days to recover his stamina before he can cooperate with the cooperative mode."
"Did you discover the collaborative mode through the Sixth Gate?"
"System compatibility is 97.3%. Efficiency is improved by 2.4 times."
"Could we also use collaborative mode to repair the second break in the first gate?"
"Locksmiths don't need to be at the same door to cooperate. The collaborative mode uses the underlying protocol of the door network. He initiates the locking protocol at the sixth door, and the resonance is transmitted to the entire network."
Nie Qingcheng processed this information.
"In that case, how much can the repair time be reduced?"
"Six hours of high-power output. The modified power furnace in Zhuque can handle it. Plus the collaborative efficiency—fifteen days."
"Fifteen days," Nie Qingcheng repeated. "Not fast enough."
Zhang Yan looked at her.
"How fast do you want it to be?"
"That thing has already moved within the gate network. With each passing day, it figurees out a little more about the network's structure."
She walked to the coffee table and opened a notebook—not the one from 1943, but her own. It was filled with dates and tasks.
"How long will it take for the energy link of the Vermilion Bird to be pre-connected in Shennongjia?"
"long time."
"The stargazing confirmed the safety protocols for spherical spaces."
"It's already been confirmed. The process was completed when we repaired the first fracture last time."
"The locksmith will be back in three days. Add to that the time you need to prepare—"
"Make your move on the fourth day."
"Then the fourth day." Nie Qingcheng closed her notebook. "I can get all your logistics in place within twelve days."
Zhang Yan stood up.
"There's one more thing."
He took a palm-sized metal box from the cabinet. The locksmith had given it to him. Inside was the gatekeeper's energy shielding module—technologically similar to the lock, but with a simpler function: defense.
"This is installed at your command post. If something outside the door launches an impact during the repair process, the shielding module can hold it off for twenty seconds."
Nie Qingcheng looked at the metal box.
"You're giving me more insurance again."
"I'm used to it."
She didn't refuse. She reached out and took it, weighed it in her hand, and placed it on the coffee table.
"I'll arrange the installation. You contact the locksmith to confirm the time."
Zhang Yan walked towards the study.
After taking a few steps, Nie Qingcheng's voice came from behind.
"Zhang Yan".
He turned around.
Nie Qingcheng stood in the center of the living room. Morning light streamed in through the window, illuminating her. The silk fabric of her pajamas reflected the light slightly. Her expression was calm, but her eyes held something he had only seen in two moments—the night of the sealing battle, and the moment she put on the ring.
"Whether it's the Seven Gates or not, it doesn't matter if it's not on Earth."
Her voice was soft, but every word was clear.
"Wherever you build, my logistics will follow."
Zhang Yan looked at her for three seconds.
"understood."
He went into the study.
Open the system and create a repair task list for the second fracture.
Below the task, the system automatically synchronized the real-time status of the global gate network. He glanced at it—the efficiency numbers of the six gates fluctuated slightly, like six breaths rising and falling.
My gaze fell on the data at the third door.
39%. Stable.
He zoomed in on the timeline to that 0.3-second fluctuation four days ago.
The frequency characteristics of the fluctuations are completely consistent with the energy pulse at the vanishing point of the sixth gate.
It did not disappear.
It went to the third door.