Chapter 675: Locking onto the Star Spark

Night, Huai Xi, outside Zhongli County.

The cold wind swept over the wilderness, kicking up sand and stones that struck the rotting wooden stakes of the makeshift camp, producing a rustling sound.

Most of the refugee camps had already fallen into dead silence, with only a few dying embers of campfires and suppressed groans and sobs.

Only a camp situated downwind of a slope still showed faint signs of activity.

It was not arguing, nor wailing.

It was a rhythmic, low thumping sound, and deliberately hushed conversation.

Two black figures lay hidden in a earthen ditch a hundred paces outside the camp, covered in dry grass, blending almost perfectly with the surroundings.

They were the finest Scouts of the Jing'an Si, having lain hidden in Huai Xi for many years.

At this moment, they were ordered to observe at close range the target named Zhu Zhongba.

"At the third quarter of the xu hour, the target leaves his tent."

The Scout on the left whispered a report, his voice as faint as a mosquito, yet clearly reaching his companion's ear.

He held a monocular fitted with a crude energy crystal chip—the Night Peeking Mirror—its lens faintly glowing blue, bringing the distant dim scene closer and illuminating it.

In his view, a thin young man in tattered short robes led seven or eight people, busy on a newly leveled patch of frozen ground at the camp's edge.

They held strange tools.

They were not farm implements, but rather crude objects lashed together from wooden sticks, broken iron sheets, and vines.

Some resembled rakes, some hoes, others were utterly unidentifiable in purpose.

"What are they doing?" asked the Scout on the right.

"It looks like they're… working the soil."

The Scout on the left adjusted the lens focus.

"Look, that dark‑faced man (Xu Da) is using that wooden stick with iron sheets to smash the frozen soil clods."

"The target (Zhu Zhongba) is giving instructions, as if saying something like 'granules,' 'breathability'…"

"Someone nearby is gathering the broken soil and piling it to one side."

"Someone else is mixing something into the soil… like rotted grass leaves, and perhaps the ashes swept from the camp?"

The movements were orderly.

Although the tools were crude and the environment harsh, those seven or eight people had a clear division of labor, with nobody idle or panicking.

Such a sight was almost unimaginable in a refugee camp.

What further caught the Scouts' attention was Zhu Zhongba himself.

He spoke little, but whenever he opened his mouth, his gestures were clear, and the others immediately complied.

When problems arose—for example, the frozen ground too hard to break—he did not lose his temper; instead he squatted, pinched a clump of soil with his fingers to examine it, then spoke a few low words, whereupon someone fetched heated water and carefully poured it on the crucial spot.

An almost instinctual, problem‑solving mindset.

"Record: The target shows clear organizational ability, adept at using existing resources to solve problems, in a manner…… pragmatic and peculiar."

The Scout on the left observed while jotting notes with a charcoal pencil on specially made thin skin paper.

"His improved tools, though crude, fit actual needs; they are not idle fantasy, suggesting a foundation in craftsmanship or a strong ability to imitate and modify."

The night grew deeper.

That patch of frozen ground had been cleared in a small section.

Zhu Zhongba seemed to say something; the people stopped, put away their tools, even fetched some water to simply rinse the mud off the implements, then returned to their respective huts.

The camp fell silent again.

Yet that subtle sense of order, utterly unlike other camps, lingered in the cold air.

"Let's go."

The two Scouts withdrew silently, like nocturnal civet cats, vanishing into the darkness.

They needed to send out tonight's observations, together with the other information gathered over the past few days, all encrypted.

Xijing, the Jing'an Si's secret chamber.

Qian Gui finished reading the detailed observation report that had just been delivered.

And also an additional preliminary feedback concerning the spread‑experiment of Zhu Zhongba's method.

Three days earlier, he had directed another group of Scouts to furtively pass on Zhu Zhongba's set of "modified tools for harvesting river clams" to two other nearby small refugee groups that still retained a shred of cohesion.

The results were starkly different.

The first group's leader was brutal, merely ordering his subordinates to work; the tools were haphazardly made, they went into the water without regard for depth, toiled all day for a meager haul, and several fell ill with cold, while internal complaints ran rampant.

The second group's leader had a bit of wit, imitating the tools but not grasping the technique; harvesting efficiency was low, they soon gave up and rejoined the ranks of plunder.

Only Zhu Zhongba, this "source", not only persisted but also seemed, on the original foundation, to have begun a new, more complex attempt (such as that act of treating the frozen ground).

"Without his method, it cannot be done."

Qian Gui set down the report, his fingertips lightly tapping the tabletop.

"It is a difference of people."

"The method is merely a tool; those who can wield it well are people."

"This Zhu Zhongba…… is the key."

He hesitated no longer.

He picked up his pen and wrote the conclusion on the brief to be presented to the sovereign:

"The target has been preliminarily locked."

"The Zhongli County refugees of Haozhou, Zhu Zhongba, about twenty years old."

"Traits: extraordinary organizational ability, pragmatic improvement capacity, and a stabilizing effect on the people. His modus operandi differs markedly from that of ordinary refugee chieftains or ambitious warlords, being closer to a 'builder'."

"Preliminary judgment: the 'star‑spark' sensed by the sovereign is very likely this person, with a probability exceeding seventy percent."

Although its power is still small and has not yet shown its sharpness, the Iron Crow Army side has taken no direct action against it; only the Hidden Power Network maintains basic surveillance of its area.

Next, await the lord's indication.

The brief was sealed with wax, stamped with a confidential seal, and immediately sent by a dedicated person to Huangcheng.

Almost at the same time.

Huangcheng Observatory.

Chen Wen stood alone in the cold wind, his gaze directed toward the western night sky.

Tonight, that speck of silver‑white "star‑fire" is, in his perception, clearer and more stable than ever before.

It is no longer the initial kind of sudden, brilliant burst.

but has transformed into a continuous, moist rhythm, like a seed deep underground stubbornly breaking through the soil to grow.

More importantly, around this thread of star‑fire, extremely faint breaths similarly inclined toward "order" and "growth" have begun to appear, drawn to and gathered by it.

Although faint, it is a harbinger of a prairie fire.

His judgment is correct.

This is indeed a cluster of fire unlike any other.

Not destruction, but creation.

Not the destruction of the old world, but the sprouting of an attempt to build a new order upon the ruins.

"Zhu Zhongba..."

He softly spoke the name just confirmed by the Jing'an Office.

An extremely ordinary name.

Yet it carries a variable that could change the future landscape.

He needs to make a decision.

Should he continue to observe from afar, waiting for its natural growth?

Or… begin to try, carrying out the first "contact"?

Risk and opportunity coexist.

Premature contact might frighten this sapling, or it might expose the existence of the Chen Dynasty, inviting a more direct strike from the Iron Crow Army.

But if left unattended, under the pressure of the Iron Crow Army's accelerated catalysis and the Yuan Court's indifferent yet still immense pressure, this thread of star‑fire could also be extinguished at any moment.

Chen Wen closed his eyes.

In his consciousness, the System Interface appeared, the experience bar still overflowing, within the storage space the thread of national fortune that had been guided in during the Heaven‑Offering ritual quietly coiled.

He already had the confidence to carry out "that thing."

Perhaps, before carrying it out, he could first use some gentler, more covert methods.

For example… a one‑way "information transmission"?

It involves no specific content and does not reveal himself.

It merely transmits a "frequency," an "intention," like dropping a specific sound pulse into the deep sea and observing the pattern of the echo.

He opened his eyes; his mind already made up.

He turned and walked down from the observatory.

He needs Zhao Lao Nian's side to prepare to send the "Resonance Experiment" signal.

And in Huai Xi.

In the cold morning, Zhu Zhongba (Zhu Yue) crouched before that treated frozen soil, using his fingers to pull back the surface and carefully observe the minute changes in the earth.

He did not know that he had already been "locked on" by someone far away.

He was simply fully focused on the most immediate practical problem before him:

How, on this frozen land, using limited organic matter and heat, to create a micro‑environment that would allow even the hardiest seeds to germinate.

This is a field of knowledge he is familiar with.

It is also the first "scientific" fire he has ignited in this strange and cruel era, belonging to himself.