Douluo: Martial Soul White Tiger, I am the White Emperor of Heaven

Lin Xue nodded, stepping aside to let Su Chen pass. As Su Chen walked past her, he heard her say behind him, "Strategist, if we go to destroy the base again next time, I want to participate in the battle."

Su Chen paused, turning to look at her. Lin Xue's gaze was earnest; the wavering in her eyes was gone.

“I want to destroy those containers with my own hands,” she said. “And burn those bodies, leave not a single one alive.”

Su Chen looked into her eyes and then said, "Okay."

He turned and went upstairs. Qian Renxue's office was on the fourth floor, at the far east end. The door was ajar, and warm yellow light shone from inside. He knocked on the doorframe, and Qian Renxue's voice came from inside: "Come in."

He pushed open the door and saw Qian Renxue sitting behind her desk, a stack of documents piled in front of her, and a cup of tea that had gone cold beside her. Her long hair was loose, not tied in her usual ponytail, which made her face look even thinner. Hearing Su Chen's approaching footsteps, she looked up, her gaze lingering on him for a moment.

"You changed the dressing on your hand?"

“It’s not time yet.” Su Chen sat down opposite her and handed her the page of notes. “Lin Xue found this while organizing the materials. Take a look.”

Qian Renxue took the notebook and glanced at the page. Her brows furrowed quickly, and her fingers traced the word "migration."

“I hadn’t noticed this before.” She put down her notebook and took another jade talisman from the drawer. “But I’ve seen a similar statement in another record. Look.”

She activated the jade talisman, and several lines of text appeared in mid-air. It was an experiment progress report, one line of which read: "The results of the third phase will be transferred before the scheduled date, and the target location will be personally designated by the High Priest."

"The two sets of data corroborate each other, indicating that the experimental results from the Qingfeng Valley base would be transferred two months later. But now the base has been destroyed by us." Qian Renxue tapped her fingers on the table. "But this information may point to a larger operation—the experimental results from all core-level bases may be transferred around that time. What are they preparing?"

Su Chen leaned back in his chair, the soul-guided support on his right arm reflecting a cold white light under the lamp. His mind raced through a multitude of possibilities. Two months later—if the Void Cult was indeed preparing for a large-scale transfer of its research findings, it meant they had some kind of centralized destination. Gathering the most elite experimental products from all the core-level bases could only have a few uses: either to create an unprecedented army, to cultivate an extremely powerful individual, or to launch an ultimate project requiring immense energy support.

“We need to know where the target relocation site is,” Su Chen said.

Qian Renxue shook her head: "That black jade talisman might contain that information, but even I can't break that seal. I've already sent someone to deliver it as fast as possible to the sealing master at the Martial Soul City headquarters, but it will take at least seven days round trip. If their operation is scheduled for two months from now, a seven-day time difference is already the limit."

Seven days. Su Chen mentally calculated. The news of the destruction of the Qingfeng Valley base should have already reached the ears of the Void Cult's higher-ups. They will definitely accelerate their actions, and the original two-month timetable may be compressed. The window of opportunity left for them may only be one month, or even less.

“Lady Qian Renxue,” Su Chen said, “I have an idea.” Qian Renxue looked up at him.

"Instead of waiting for headquarters to decipher the jade talisman and then notify us, let's take action ourselves. You are now an elder of the Spirit Hall and the highest-ranking official of the Heaven Dou City branch. You have the authority to access records of all abnormal energy fluctuations throughout the Heaven Dou Empire. Although the Void Cult's core base is well-hidden, it requires a vast amount of resources. The cultivation and modification of spirit beast embryos generate intense spirit power fluctuations and spatial distortions. If we can find the patterns in these fluctuations, even without knowing the exact location, we can pinpoint a general area."

A glint flashed in Qian Renxue's eyes. She was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Continue."

"We have the known locations of two bases—the far north and Qingfeng Valley. We'll input the data from these two locations into the energy fluctuation monitoring network for comparison, identify areas with similar energy characteristics, and then send people to scout them. This is essentially using the known to deduce the unknown. While it can't be guaranteed to be 100% accurate, it's at least better than being completely clueless."

Qian Renxue leaned back in her chair, her hands clasped on the table, her gaze fixed on Su Chen. After a long while, she said, "This plan is feasible only if the Heavenly Dou Empire's energy monitoring network is still functioning normally. But since the Void Cult began its activities, they have been targeting and sabotaging the monitoring nodes. In the past three months, eleven of the seventeen monitoring nodes in the border region have been paralyzed. The remaining six have extremely limited coverage."

Su Chen frowned: "Can paralyzed nodes be repaired?"

"Yes, but it will take time. Maintenance and calibration of each node will take at least three days, and it must be done on-site. With six nodes distributed in six different directions, even if we work separately, the fastest repair will take at least ten days."

Ten days. Time had come again. Su Chen felt as if time was choking them with every step they took. The Void Cult was calmly laying its plans in the shadows, while they were running around frantically in the open. This feeling was suffocating.

“Let’s start with what we can do,” Su Chen finally said. “Send people to repair the nodes, and at the same time, send people to scout the already identified suspicious areas. Even finding just one core-level base is better than us sitting here waiting.”

Qian Renxue nodded, picked up a pen, quickly wrote something on a piece of paper, and then handed it to Su Chen: "These are the locations of the six monitoring nodes that are still running, and the locations of the eleven paralyzed nodes. Take a look."

Su Chen took the paper and quickly scanned it. The map on the paper was very detailed, with each node having a number and status description. He noticed that there was a paralyzed node three hundred miles west of Qingfeng Valley, marked "damaged three weeks ago".

“This node,” Su Chen pointed to the location, “its monitoring range covers a large area west of Qingfeng Valley. If we repair it, we might be able to detect energy traces from other nearby bases.”

“I’ve already sent people,” Qian Renxue said. “They set off this morning, a total of four Soul King-level combatants escorting two maintenance stewards. They should arrive and begin work as early as the day after tomorrow.”

Su Chen folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket. He looked out the window; the sky had completely darkened, and countless lights were lighting up in Tian Dou City, like a fallen starry sky. The distant sounds of a night market drifted in; someone was singing an unknown ballad, its melody melodious and gentle, sounding somewhat unreal as it came through the window. (End of Chapter)