CHAPTER 189
### The Nineteenth Section
On the third day with the five swords together they reached a section that Bing Xi flagged immediately.
She flagged it before they were in visual range.
"This one is different," she said.
"Different how," Jian Yu said.
"Read it," she said.
He extended the domain.
The section was standard seeded territory. The outer range of the combination's outer range. One of the sections in the developing category — not the sixty to seventy percent range. This one was at twenty-three percent.
Young development.
He read the character.
And he stopped.
"What is it," Feng Luo said.
"The frequency," Jian Yu said.
"The development character," Bing Xi said. "Tell them."
He looked at the section.
He looked at the grey blade.
He counted nothing.
He looked at Xian Yue.
"The Dragon Roar Fang," he said. "Extend the geometric compression toward the section."
She drew the Dragon Roar Fang. She extended the compressed geometric precision.
She read the section.
Four seconds.
"It is reading the Dragon Roar Fang's frequency," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"Specifically," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"It knows the Dragon Roar Fang," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"How," she said.
He looked at the section.
He read the character of the twenty-three percent development.
The pathway structure was young — recent development from the second combination's seeding. But the organization within the development was specific. Not the random organization of a section receiving general between quality propagation.
A specific organization.
The organization of a section that had received a specific frequency input.
He read the specific frequency.
He knew it.
He had read it before.
Not this section.
The formation site.
The combination.
The Dragon Roar Fang's contribution to the combination — the compressed power, the seventh movement sequence releasing at the combination's peak — had reached this section at range.
Not the seeding effect.
The combination's actual frequency.
The Dragon Roar Fang's specific contribution.
At the combination's outer range.
"The combination's frequency contributions," he said. "Not the overall seeding effect. Each sword's specific contribution to the combination produced its own frequency signature at range."
Bing Xi was reading.
"I see it," she said. "The section is organized around the Dragon Roar Fang's frequency."
"And that section," he said. He looked further east. "Read that one."
"Vermilion Flame," Bing Xi said after three seconds. "The section is organized around the Vermilion Flame Blade's combination contribution."
Feng Luo drew his sword.
The fire rose.
"That section knows me," he said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"How many sections," Xian Yue said.
He extended the domain.
He read.
He read past the standard range.
At full undocumented stage capacity.
He read the territory around them.
The sections organized around specific sword frequencies from the combination.
"Five," he said.
Everyone was quiet.
"One for each sword's combination contribution," he said. "Five sections. Each one specifically organized around one of the five frequency signatures."
"Li Shan," Bing Xi said.
"Already on the relay," she said.
Li Shan's response came back in one minute.
*I see them in the cascade data. I attributed the specific organizations to natural variation. I was wrong.*
*Five sections. Five sword frequencies from the combination. Each section's pathway structure organized around one specific sword's contribution.*
*The combination did not just produce a general seeding effect.*
*Each sword contributed a specific seeding frequency.*
*Each specific seeding frequency produced its own section.*
*The five swords are in the land.*
He read the message.
He looked at the five people standing at the five sections' edge.
At Feng Luo with the Vermilion Flame Blade at his section.
At Xian Yue with the Dragon Roar Fang at her section.
At Bing Xi with the Frostbite Edge at her section.
At Lin Mei with the documentation and the grey journal and the other half of what the sword waited for.
At himself with the grey blade and eighteen breaths and the between quality in the dantian and the sword and the domain.
Five swords.
Five sections.
"The calibrated application," he said. "Each wielder to their own section."
"The five of us," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," he said.
"Each of us applying to the section organized around our sword's combination contribution," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," he said.
"The calibration would be complete," Xian Yue said. "The section is already organized around our frequency. The application meets it exactly."
"Yes," he said.
"What happens when the application and the section frequency are a perfect match," she said.
He thought about the grandmother's frequency.
The military collective's twelve voices.
The calibration finding the exact development character.
He thought about perfect match.
He had never tested perfect match.
"We find out," he said.
He looked at each of them.
They looked at him.
Five swords.
One continuous project.
"Together," Feng Luo said. Not a question.
"Together," Jian Yu said.
He stepped to his section.
He drew the grey blade.
He reached from all three directions.
He calibrated.
The section was organized around the Lost Blade's combination contribution.
The between quality.
He applied.
The section responded.
Not four point three times standard.
Not six point two.
He counted the development rate.
He stopped counting.
He committed.
The section responded like something that had been waiting.
Twenty-three percent to thirty-one in the first minute.
Thirty-one to forty-two in the second.
He held.
Around him he could feel the other four swords applying to the other four sections.
Feng Luo's fire.
Xian Yue's compressed gold.
Bing Xi's directional cold.
Lin Mei's Flowing Hand disruption applied as cultivation medicine rather than combat.
Five applications.
Five sections.
Five perfect calibrations.
The between quality connecting all five through the network's pathways.
The five swords in the land responding to the five swords on the road.
He held eighteen breaths.
He stayed.
At the end of the session Bing Xi read the development rates.
"Forty to sixty-eight percent increase across all five sections," she said. "Perfect calibration accelerates development beyond anything I have read before."
"How long to threshold," Li Shan said through the relay.
"At this rate," she said. "Three weeks."
"Three weeks for five sections simultaneously," Li Shan said.
"Yes," she said.
He looked at the grey blade.
At the five people.
At the five sections.
At the five sword frequencies in the land.
"Three weeks," he said.
"Three weeks," Feng Luo said.
They committed.
They worked.
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