CHAPTER 176
### The Thread
Holding the thread was the strangest work he had done.
Not difficult in the way of the formation platform. Not demanding in the way of the simultaneous application to eleven sections.
Thin.
The thread required not force but precision. The between quality at ninety li through two conducting bridges needed to be maintained at exactly the right intensity. Too much and it became disruptive to the hollow itself. Too little and the thread dissolved.
He sat at the second generating section's edge.
He held the thread.
Lin Mei monitored.
Bing Xi read the hollow through the thread alongside him.
Li Shan tracked the faction through the extended pattern-reading.
"Three days until the faction reaches the hollow," Li Shan said on the first evening.
"Wei Han," Jian Yu said.
"One day behind the faction," Li Shan said. "He cannot close the gap."
"Wang Fei," Jian Yu said.
"She is at the hollow's eastern boundary," Li Shan said. "She has been documenting section readings and monitoring the faction's approach. She is alone."
"Can Wang Fei do anything," Jian Yu said.
"Against forty-seven Shadow Sect practitioners," Li Shan said. "No."
He held the thread.
He thought about Wang Fei holding the perimeter for two hours alone.
She had done that because the outpost had needed time.
The hollow needed time too.
Not time to be defended.
Time for something.
He could not identify what the something was.
He held the thread and thought.
The faction's goal was to disrupt the hollow's continuous frequency.
The disruption would reduce the between quality propagation rate.
A reduction in propagation meant slower section development across the network.
But it would not reverse the generating sections.
The six original generating sections would continue generating regardless of what the faction did to the hollow.
The two new generating sections — the ones he had just pushed to threshold — would continue.
The hollow's disruption would slow new development.
It would not undo what was already done.
He held this.
"Li Shan," he said.
"Yes," Li Shan said.
"The generating sections," he said. "All of them. How many total now."
"Twenty-one confirmed generating," Li Shan said.
"And if the hollow's continuous frequency is disrupted," he said. "What happens to the twenty-one generating sections."
"They continue," Li Shan said. "The generating sections produce their own frequency independently. The hollow's propagation contributed to the network's general between quality level. A reduction in the propagation affects the developing sections — the ones still building toward threshold. Not the generating sections."
"How many developing sections," he said.
"Currently forty-one in various development stages," Li Shan said.
"And the faction's disruption," he said. "How much would it reduce the development rate for the forty-one developing sections."
Li Shan was quiet.
"Estimated twenty to thirty percent reduction in development rate," Li Shan said. "Depending on the disruption's depth."
"Which means," he said.
"Which means sections that would reach threshold in six months would take eight to ten months instead," Li Shan said. "Not permanent. A delay."
He held the thread.
A delay.
Not destruction.
Not reversal.
A delay in development rate for forty-one sections.
"The faction," he said. "They understand this."
"Yes," Li Shan said. "They understand their operational territory is narrowing as sections generate. The disruption buys them time in which the narrowing is slower."
"How much time," he said.
"Two to three years of reduced development rate," Li Shan said. "If the disruption is sustained."
He looked at the thread.
At the hollow's continuous frequency through the thread.
At the distance.
Two to three years.
He thought about what two to three years meant for the forty-one developing sections.
He thought about what two to three years meant for the faction.
He thought about Mo Xuan adapting.
He thought about the oversight cultivator at the formation site asking: may I enter.
He thought about Pei Song in the fringe section staying because it felt right.
He thought about the third practitioner finding his own section without being told to.
Two to three years.
The faction wanted two to three years.
He held the thread and thought about what the between quality did in two to three years when it had access to everything that had accumulated in the past fourteen months.
He thought about Wei Lan carrying the complete sequence for sixty-seven years.
He thought about Shen Bo's wife twice a year for thirty years.
He thought about eight children watching a different dawn.
"Li Shan," he said.
"Yes," Li Shan said.
"The generating sections," he said. "Twenty-one of them. What happens if the twenty-one generating sections are used as conducting bridges the way the two sections here are being used."
Li Shan was quiet.
A long quiet.
"The pattern-reading extension through two generating sections already reaches the hollow from ninety li," Li Shan said slowly. "Twenty-one generating sections distributed across the network—"
"Could they bridge the full reach of the between quality propagation," he said.
"The twenty-one sections are not in a line," Li Shan said. "They are distributed. But the network's pathways connect them. The generating sections' output conducts through the network's connecting pathways—"
He was computing.
Jian Yu held the thread.
He waited.
"Yes," Li Shan said. "At maximum. Through twenty-one generating sections using the network's conducting pathways as bridges. The between quality propagation could extend significantly beyond the hollow's current reach."
"How significantly," he said.
"I need to model this," Li Shan said.
"How long," he said.
"Tonight," Li Shan said.
"The faction reaches the hollow in three days," he said.
"I will have the model tonight," Li Shan said.
He held the thread.
Eighteen breaths.
Lin Mei sat beside him.
She was not writing.
She was looking at the grey blade.
"You are thinking about how to use the faction's attempt as an opportunity," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"If the hollow's continuous frequency is disrupted," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"And if the disruption triggers something in the network," she said.
"The twenty-one generating sections are already conducting the between quality through the network's pathways," he said. "They have been since they crossed threshold. The hollow's disruption would create a gap in the propagation."
"And the twenty-one conducting sections would fill the gap," she said.
"If the between quality can use the gap as a direction," he said.
She was quiet.
"The between finds the between in every structure," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"The gap is the between in the propagation structure," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"And the between quality conducts into the between," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"The faction's disruption would become the pathway for the between quality to distribute more completely through the network than the hollow alone could produce," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She was very quiet.
"They are going to do exactly what you need them to do," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"Without knowing it," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She looked at the thread.
At the hollow's direction.
At the grey blade.
"The between," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"It finds the between in everything," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"Including the faction's attempt to disrupt it," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She picked up her documentation.
She began writing.
He held the thread.
Eighteen breaths.
He waited for Li Shan's model.
The faction was three days out.
The work was in the between.
The between was in the work.
Don't waste it.