Chapter 296 Gathering Star Platform

"Click".

The magnetic boots landed heavily on the outermost titanium crystal truss of the main platform of the synchronous orbit. In the vacuum, this step was silent, only a dull tremor traveled along the metal frame and the heavy protective suit, reaching Qin Lie's eardrums.

"This is already the outermost edge of the main platform. Beyond that, it's just a vacuum."

To the left, the azure mother planet, occupying half the field of vision, slowly rotated its massive body; to the right, a blinding sun, yet devoid of any warmth. Qin Lie, Lin Feng, Lao Liu, and the other eight skilled engineering and security personnel were like eight ants clinging to the edge of a cliff.

"All units, internal communication check. Life support system stable, pressure shield in standby mode."

Qin Lie's emotionless voice rang out in the channel. As the core of this squad's protection, his mission wasn't to repair anything, but to ensure that these most precious minds in the entire alliance wouldn't be torn to shreds by a sudden high-orbit micrometeorite or spiritual pressure storm.

"Number one in position," Lin Feng's voice came, accompanied by heavy breathing.

"Old Liu, get in position, lock the toolbox." Old Liu, the old high-speed rail operator, followed closely behind.

This time, their target was no longer the distant ruins, but the hidden nodes on the periphery of the main platform that had been dormant for years and were once regarded by everyone as "scrap metal counterweights".

In the joint control room on the ground, Wang Mingyuan was staring intently at the area in front of him through the camera on Qin Lie's helmet.

"Listen, we can't possibly light up all 108 nodes at once."

Wang Mingyuan's hoarse but steady voice came through the communication channel: "The main platform's energy redundancy is insufficient to support a full startup, and the risks are uncontrollable. Today's task is to repair and activate only the innermost thirty-six nodes. In this vacuum, we must first build the first ring of the [Star Gathering Platform]. Don't be greedy, hold your ground."

"Understood." Lin Feng took a deep breath, unfastened the safety buckle on his waist, and slid down the truss toward the first target—the hidden node numbered "Tian Shu-01".

From this distance, it appears to be merely a hemispherical metal protrusion, less than half a meter in diameter, embedded in the main frame.

Old Liu floated over and pulled a specially made psionic welding torch from his toolbox. A ghostly blue plasma cutting beam silently lit up in the vacuum, precisely slicing through the outer protective armor of the node.

The moment the armor plating was ripped open, the breaths of several array engineers paused.

The situation inside is even worse than what the supercomputer simulation showed.

Exposed year-round at an altitude of 200 kilometers, subjected to cosmic rays and solar storms that are not attenuated by the atmosphere, the superconducting titanium crystal framework inside the node has developed severe "cold embrittlement." The surface is covered with extremely fine ice cracks, and the spiritual energy circuits engraved on it resemble an old circuit board corroded by strong acid, with the array patterns showing severe physical displacement.

"More than 70% of the spiritual energy channels are broken, and there are traces of micro-meteorite impact at the core of the node."

Lin Feng hovered above the node, synchronizing the scan data with everyone. "We can't inject energy directly. Lao Liu, cut off the damaged outer loops, and I'll re-engrave the array patterns."

The construction of elevated railway tracks does not involve the large-scale, sweeping methods used on the ground. It is an extremely delicate and meticulous surgical procedure.

Holding a miniature cutter, Old Liu moved with the steadyness of a rock, gradually smoothing out the misaligned and hardened old patterns. The debris, barely lifted by the microgravity, was immediately collected by the electrostatic collector beside him.

Lin Feng then pulled out a specially made micro-carved array pen. A needle of spiritual energy, as thin as a spider's thread, emerged from the tip of the pen.

He had to re-engrave the "gathering without locking" flow patterns on a titanium crystal base no larger than the palm of his hand, despite the cumbersome nature of his protective suit in a weightless state. Even the slightest tremor in his hands or instability in his true energy output would render the array plate unusable.

Group 1, repair successful.

The second group successfully replaced the core module.

The third group has completed the physical calibration.

As time ticked by, the team, like silent worker ants, slowly advanced along the outer edge of the main platform.

When he reached the fifteenth node, Lao Liu suddenly stopped working after peeling off a thick layer of insulation.

"Mr. Lin, come and take a look at this." Old Liu pointed to a very hidden groove on the side of the node base.

Lin Feng leaned closer and saw that the pupils under the mask contracted slightly.

That wasn't a crack or breakage. It was a pre-installed, standard physical connection port. It was cleverly hidden beneath the main array pattern, in a state of physical disconnection. Unless you cut through the armor, you couldn't detect it from the outside.

"Physical bypass interface..." Lin Feng muttered to himself.

It turns out there's no need to completely demolish and rebuild the old array. Simply inserting the new miniature array plate into this groove allows them to bypass the surface loops damaged by cosmic rays and instantly take over the underlying control of the entire node!

The person who left this system not only predicted that these nodes would age, but also prepared the "sockets" for future maintenance.

He predicted that humanity would eventually reactivate it.

"Don't just stand there, use the spare array plate to go straight in! This will save us half the time!" Lin Feng immediately changed the plan.

The repair progress accelerated dramatically.

However, the vacuum of high orbit is never a safe haven. Just as the team reached the twenty-seventh node, an unexpected incident occurred without warning.

Engineer Xiao Chen, who is in charge of replacing the array disk in position two, has just pushed a new miniature array disk into the reserved groove.

"Click".

Physical locking mechanism.

In that instant, the spiritual pressure detector on Xiao Chen's wrist suddenly emitted an extremely sharp beep. Immediately afterward, the numbers on the device's surface jumped wildly like garbled code, and finally the screen went black.

"How do I get back—" Xiao Chen hadn't finished speaking.

The newly connected node suddenly emitted a strange, dark blue light!

It resonated ahead of time!

Without network connection or instructions from the main control room, this node experienced a brief loss of frequency control due to the instantaneous connection between the old and new array patterns, directly resonating extremely strongly with the stellar source energy diffused in the vacuum background!

An invisible cold pressure, like a flood bursting its banks, surged out from the node!

"Click-click-click—"

A series of teeth-grinding icing sounds came from the metal frame.

Xiao Chen gripped the array plate's robotic arm, and within half a second, a thick layer of dark blue frost covered it. The terrifying sense of stagnation traveled along the robotic arm, directly impacting the main body of his pressure suit. To his horror, he discovered that his arm had lost all feeling, and the micro-circulation array inside the protective suit was being forcibly "crushed" by the high-dimensional cold.

"retreat!"

A furious roar erupted over the communication channel.

Qin Lie made a move.

He didn't pull Xiao Chen with his hands because he knew very well that under this level of cold pressure backflow, any physical contact would lead to complications.

The specially made flying sword at his waist was suddenly drawn.

Qin Lie planted his feet firmly on the magnetic grid, pouring his late-stage Foundation Establishment true essence into the sword without reservation, transforming it into a dazzling pale golden sword light that fiercely slashed towards the gap between Xiao Chen and the out-of-control node!

"Zheng—!"

The moment Qin Lie's sword light struck the dark blue light, it was as if he had struck an invisible iron mountain.

The sword energy did not dissipate, but was firmly "clamped" in mid-air!

The surge of stellar energy, carrying a terrifying mass that seemed to compress everything, spread wildly upwards along the sword's edge. Dark blue frost instantly climbed the sword's blade, and the web of Qin Lie's right hand, gripping the sword, cracked instantly.

"I can't hold on much longer! This thing is too heavy!" Qin Lie gritted his teeth, his entire right arm creaking under the strain. He wasn't fighting against an energy source; it was as if he was using a sword to forcefully hold back a falling meteorite.

"Five seconds!"

Lin Feng remained calm and slid along the truss like an eel, almost touching the node that was flashing with an eerie light.

Instead of using sophisticated tools, he pulled a heavy psionic cutting saw directly from Lao Liu's waist and aimed it at the physical main connection axis on the side of the node.

"laugh--!!!"

The plasma saw blades rubbed violently against the high-orbit titanium crystal, producing large bursts of sparks.

three seconds.

Four seconds.

"Break!"

Lin Feng pressed down hard with both hands, and the cutting saw severed the physical bypass interface that caused the resonance.

Without the support of the circuit, the dark blue light that surged back instantly lost its anchor.

Qin Lie felt the pressure on the sword suddenly vanish, and he staggered back two steps. He gasped for breath and glanced at the flying sword in his hand. This magical artifact, crafted by the world's top artisans, was now covered with irreversible erosion cracks on its blade, rendering it completely useless.

Xiao Chen, who was standing next to him, was pulled back by Lao Liu. The front end of the robotic arm had become a lump of brittle, dead iron that would crumble into powder with the slightest tap.

"We were just a hair's breadth away from pushing the pipes into the main platform." Old Liu's voice trembled as he looked at the truss covered in dark blue frost.

This wasn't a battle of magic between cultivators; it was a pure, ruthless high-orbit industrial construction accident. In this deep space, the price of a single mistake is turning a person, bones and all, into a sculpture in the vacuum.

"Switch to a backup node and reconnect." Qin Lie sheathed the broken sword without saying another word and returned to his post.

Construction continues.

At the remaining nine nodes, everyone became more cautious and restrained. Each connection was accompanied by repeated frequency calibrations.

Three hours later.

When the thirty-sixth node, which is the last array plate in the inner ring, was firmly locked in the groove by Lao Liu, everyone's physical strength and true energy were already close to their limit.

"All 36 nodes of the inner ring have been repaired and calibrated. Physical connections are normal."

Lin Feng hovered in the void, looking at the thirty-six metal protrusions evenly distributed half a kilometer around the main platform, and exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

"Surface control room received."

Wang Mingyuan's voice came through the distant ionosphere, carrying a hint of barely concealed excitement: "Lin Feng, connect to the main platform's power supply. Prepare for the first trial run."

"No need for full power, just use five percent of the low-noise spiritual energy as bait to attract attention," Wang Mingyuan instructed.

"clear."

Lin Feng opened his personal terminal and inserted the highest-level key into the communication interface.

"Internal link group, network integration."

"Charging begins. 1%...3%...5% . Locked."

In the pitch-black vacuum, the thirty-six nodes flickered with an extremely faint, deep blue halo.

To the naked eye, the outer side of the main platform still appears as a desolate, empty expanse of space.

But on Lin Feng's spiritual pressure filtering radar, the image was undergoing a dramatic change.

"The peak is dropping..." A monitor in the surface control room stared at the frantically refreshed data stream and couldn't help but clench his fist.

The violent, disordered, and sharp starlight background radiation that originally filled the periphery of the main platform was smoothed out little by little by a comb as it passed through the invisible net composed of these thirty-six nodes, just like tangled hemp threads.

The nodes are not locking in energy. They are simply changing the frequency of the environment.

Five minutes later.

Qin Lie, who had been gripping the sword hilt tightly, suddenly raised his head and looked at the central area surrounded by thirty-six nodes.

"Lin Feng...look over there."

Lin Feng followed Qin Lie's gaze.

In a vacuum less than 300 meters away from them.

In the originally empty darkness, a different texture appeared. The vacuum there seemed to have become "viscous".

As the thirty-six nodes continue to act as "speed bumps" and "buffers," the cold pressure diffused across the vast background is weakened and concentrated.

Gradually, in that vacuum center where there was no cover whatsoever.

A wisp of extremely thin, dark blue "cold mist," visible to the naked eye, appeared like a ghost.

It is no longer that ferocious beast that could instantly burst the titanium crystal can.

Within this man-made array of giant nets, it was combed out, slowed down, and stripped of its most deadly edge, transforming into a dark blue cold mist whose sharpness had been smoothed out, at least no longer ready to explode at any moment.

Gather without locking, slow down without stagnation, and use only after settling down.

"The first ring of the Gathering Star Platform has successfully completed its trial operation." Lin Feng looked at the cold mist that resembled liquid moonlight, his voice dry yet heavy as a thousand pounds.