Chapter 676: Observation and Probe

Xijing, a secret chamber in the imperial city.

The energy crystals set into the stone walls emitted a steady soft light, illuminating several solemn faces.

Chen Wen gently pushed a briefing document to the center of the long table.

"The Jing'an Bureau has confirmed it."

His voice sounded especially clear in the enclosed space.

"Huai Xi, Haozhou, the Zhongli refugees, Zhu Zhongba."

"He is about twenty years old, with Xu Da, Tang He, and over thirty others gathered around him."

"His conduct differs greatly from that of ordinary rebel leaders; he emphasizes organization, excels at improvement, and has forged a path to survival in dire straits, showing considerable method."

Zhang Cheng picked up the document and skimmed it quickly, his brow twitching slightly.

"Zhu Zhongba… that name is common in Huai Xi; there are probably not a hundred but eighty of them."

"Are you sure it's him?"

"Seventy percent confidence."

Chen Wen said slowly.

"The Jing'an Bureau's scouts observed him up close for three nights."

"He led people to improve tools, attempting to compost on frozen ground; his methods were crude, but his thinking was clear."

"More importantly——"

He paused.

"He can get those who follow him to act according to his methods and achieve results."

"This is not just courage, but also capability."

Qian Gui nodded from the side and added:

"We tried secretly passing his foraging method to two other nearby refugee groups."

"None succeeded."

"It's not that the method fails; it's that the leaders fail."

Zhao Lao Nian, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke:

"My lord, the Resonance Experiment…… should we still carry it out?"

Everyone's gaze turned to Chen Wen.

The so-called Resonance Experiment is a special signal transmission scheme designed by Zhao Lao Nian according to Chen Wen's request.

It does not transmit specific text or images.

Instead, it sends, via temporary stations along the light curtain, an encrypted energy fluctuation representing 'basic geometry and mechanical principles' carefully arranged, toward the Huai Xi direction.

Essentially, it is a thought‑provoking 'frequency broadcast'.

Its purpose is to test whether the other side can perceive it, understand it, and how they will react.

The risk lies in possibly exposing the existence of the Chen dynasty, or being detected as an anomaly by the Iron Crow Army's nether energy network.

"Do it."

Chen Wen's answer had no hesitation.

"But we must control the intensity, reducing it to the minimum."

"The signal content also needs adjustment."

He looked at Zhao Lao Nian.

"Do not directly transmit the laws of geometry."

"Instead, transmit the core imagery of 'structure' and 'stability'."

"Use energy waves to simulate fluctuations of basic structural concepts such as 'arched load‑bearing' and 'triangular support'."

"The more abstract, the better."

Zhao Lao Nian's eyes lit up.

"My lord, you are brilliant."

"Sent this way, even if the Iron Crow Army detects it, they will only think it is some natural energy disturbance or an irregular fluctuation of the light curtain itself."

"But if that 'Spark' truly possesses an extraordinary nature, perhaps we could catch a hint of 'regularity' from it."

Chen Wen nodded.

"Exactly so."

"We don't need him to understand anything right now."

"We only need to know——whether he can sense the 'anomaly' and how he will treat this 'anomaly'."

"Whether it is neglect, fear, or……"

A hint of deep meaning flashed in his eyes.

"Try to understand."

Zhang Cheng pondered for a moment.

"My lord, is this move intended to probe the depths of his character?"

"Not bad."

Chen Wen said.

"In chaotic times, those with courage can dominate for a while, those with ambition can carve out a fief."

"But those who can perceive 'regularity' and attempt to comprehend and employ 'regularity'……"

He slowly scanned the crowd.

"Only then might they leap out of this mire before them and see a farther road."

The secret chamber fell silent for a moment.

Everyone understood the weight of those words.

"When will it be carried out?" Qian Gui asked.

"Three days later, at midnight."

Chen Wen set the time.

"At that time the celestial phenomena will shift, the moon will occult Venus, and the heaven-earth energy field will naturally fluctuate, which can serve as cover."

"Zhao Lao Nian, you personally go and preside over it."

"The three stations must operate in sync; the signal error must not exceed one-thousandth of a breath."

"Understood."

Zhao Lao Nian solemnly obeyed the order.

"Zhang Cheng, coordinate between Bei Jing and the frontier defenses, raise alertness those few days to prevent the Iron Crow Army from taking advantage to cause trouble."

"Qian Gui, temporarily withdraw the Scouts in Huai Xi to avoid being affected by any possible energy fluctuations."

"Wang Ru, inside Xijing, especially along the Works Bureau and the light curtain line, strengthen covert posts to eliminate any possibility of leakage."

Orders were issued clearly, one after another.

The air in the secret chamber seemed to solidify somewhat.

This is not a military operation.

Yet it could bring a more profound impact than a single military strike.

Three days later.

Midnight is approaching.

Huai Xi, Zhongli.

Zhu Yue lay on the cold bedding, eyes open.

He couldn't sleep.

His daytime attempts hit a bottleneck; the compost temperature wouldn't rise, and the micro‑environment needed for seed germination was hard to maintain.

He repeatedly pondered possible solutions in his mind: adjust the organic material ratio? Increase the covering insulation layer? Or perhaps introduce some simple fermentation starter?

Knowledge swirled in his mind, but was limited by the extreme scarcity of real‑world materials.

Just as he was pondering—

He suddenly felt a faint itch at the spot between his eyebrows.

It was not a physical touch.

But rather an extremely slight, almost illusory "throb".

It was as if an invisible thread of wind had passed through his skull, lightly brushing a dormant region deep in his thoughts.

He bolted upright.

What's going on?

Hallucination? A nerve reaction from low blood sugar?

He held his breath and focused his perception.

Around him were his companions' snoring and teeth‑grinding in sleep, and in the distance the cold wind howled.

There was nothing abnormal.

But that sensation just now was too clear.

It did not come from inside his body.

It was more like… something external gave a very weak "resonance".

He instinctively touched his forehead; the feeling was normal.

Could it be a side effect of time travel? Or is this world……

A thought flashed through his mind.

He recalled the faint sensation of being watched when he first woke up.

He recalled that these past few days, when he was intensely focused, he sometimes felt a slight discordant "viscosity" in the surrounding environment.

At the time he attributed it to bodily weakness or mental stress.

But now……

Zhu Yue's heartbeat quickened slightly.

He is not a materialist who believes in gods and spirits.

But as someone who has studied spacetime theory, he clearly knows that the universe contains countless forms of energy and interactions unknown to humanity.

If this world possesses some unknown, perceptible "background energy field"……

If his time travel, or his very consciousness, has formed a special coupling with that energy field……

Then could that earlier "throb" have been a weak resonance triggered by some external energy fluctuation?

This hypothesis is bold.

But it is not impossible.

He needs to verify it.

The method of verification……

Zhu Yue drew a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He lay down again and closed his eyes.

He no longer thought about compost or seeds.

Instead, he focused all his attention on his own conscious perception, trying to catch any unnatural, regular "fluctuation" in the environment.

It was like listening in the silent deep sea for an extremely distant voice signal.

The night, deep as ink.

Exactly at the zi hour.

Along the light curtain, three concealed stations simultaneously flickered with a barely perceptible pale blue glow.

Zhao Lao Nian stood inside the main control station, his finger steadily pressing the center of a metal disc engraved with intricate patterns.

On the disc, the force-energy encoding representing the concepts of "structure" and "stability" had been fully loaded.

"Synchronized countdown."

The assistant called out the numbers in a low voice.

"Three, two, one……"

"Send."

Zhao Lao Nian's fingertip sank slightly.

The patterns on the disc flared bright for an instant, then quickly darkened.

An extremely subtle, special-frequency force-energy fluctuation was synchronized, amplified, and focused by the three stations into an invisible "needle" that pierced the tiniest crack in the light curtain and shot toward the Huai Xi firmament.

The fluctuation's intensity was kept at the edge of natural energy disturbances.

Even the most sensitive yuan-energy monitoring network would only record it as a slightly regular "geomagnetic micro-tremor."

The signal crossed the vast sky, swept over mountains and rivers, and finally, like a fine rain, scattered onto the wilderness outside Zhongli County.

One strand of it happened to brush over the young man lying in a tattered tent, straining his senses to the utmost.

Zhu Yue's breath halted at that moment.

He "heard" it.

No, it wasn't hearing.

It was perception.

An ineffable, order-filled beauty of a "rhythm."

It was composed of a cycle of several simple yet stable "patterns," like the most basic mathematical beat, and also like a silent chant of some perfect structure.

Brief.

Vague.

Yet utterly real.

Not an illusion.

Zhu Yue jerked his eyes open, sat upright in the darkness, his heart pounding.

In his eyes there was no confusion, only the sharp, intensely focused light of a researcher.

This world……

Indeed, there was something.