Chapter 335 Deep in the Moon's Back, There's More Than Just Minerals

The darkness remained in the center of the main screen, like a well that had been suddenly closed. The probe image that had been flickering, the cold white light, and the dark red fibers had all vanished completely.

Only one cold, impersonal message remains.

[Low-frequency probe signal interruption]

"Slice out the last two seconds of the buffered frame," Wang Mingyuan's voice broke the silence. "Zoom in and compare frame by frame."

The operator immediately entered the instructions on the control panel.

The incomplete image was cut into 120 frames. As the image was magnified layer by layer, the dark red, dried tissue deep in the seams was fixed in the center of the screen with extremely coarse pixels.

"Compare the fourth-to-last frame with the last frame." Lin Feng stared intently at the physical coordinate grid on the screen, his voice hoarse. "The displacement is 0.04 millimeters. It's not a visual error caused by camera shake."

He raised his head and looked at Wang Mingyuan.

"It moved."

"After being dormant for countless millions of years, the moment we fired the probe... it exhibited a biomass contraction response."

The old president of the court's hand, which was holding a cane, trembled slightly.

Even those who have witnessed life and death and transcended the barriers between cultivation and science still felt a tremor deep within their genes when faced with this "revival" that spanned millions of years.

"Retract all previous assumptions about 'associated mineral veins' and 'geological activity'."

Without any hesitation, Wang Mingyuan pressed the red master control button on the control panel.

"Immediately issue the highest-level command to all channels of the Guanghan Base."

"From now on, treat the deep regions on the far side of the moon as the highest level of void pollution sources."

On the screen, the holographic model of the Aitken Basin quickly turned red.

Wang Mingyuan's voice was cold and flat.

"Stop all deep drilling in Mining Area No. 1."

"The gravity array link is suspended. All heavy-load transportation exposed to outer space is halted."

"The Taiyi Furnace has reduced its load by forty percent. The Great Sun Spirit Guiding Array has switched to low-power concealment mode."

The logistics minister's expression changed, and he suddenly stood up.

"Professor Wang, once the furnace's load is reduced, the production of lunar rough blanks will be halved. The Wan Jian main control array disk on Earth and the expansion materials for the lunar orbit defense station are all waiting—"

"If you lose your life, what will you use to forge a sword?" Wang Mingyuan coldly interrupted him. "That thing is already reacting. Every high-frequency drilling sound now could completely wake it up."

Wang Mingyuan turned to look at the huge holographic model of the moon.

"The entire Guanghan base has entered a state of silence and combat readiness."

……

380,000 kilometers away.

Guanghan Base.

A piercing buzzing sound echoed inside the ecological bunker.

One by one, the eerie blue work lights went out, replaced by low-slung gray warning lights. The entire underground base seemed to have been suddenly choked, and all the roaring sounds rapidly diminished.

Inside the No. 2 expansion area, Ma Cheng, the deputy team leader, is leading a team to weld the load-bearing frame.

This was originally Lao Liu's job.

Since the lunar exploration team lost contact, the engineering team left behind by Lao Liu was like a pillar missing. No one yelled anymore, and no one dared to say things like "it's good enough." Every weld and every anchor was made better than before, subconsciously.

Because everyone knows that if Lao Liu were still alive, he would definitely scold them.

The familiar Taiyi Furnace beneath my feet trembled and suddenly lowered.

Ma Cheng suddenly looked up.

"Who reduced the furnace load?"

A hurried female voice quickly switched into the channel.

"Stop construction immediately in Expansion Zone 2."

The speaker was Xu Zhao, the person in charge of remaining at the Academy of Sciences.

After Li Xiang went missing, she temporarily took over the shadow zone project and the Taiyin diversion project at the Guanghan base.

Ma Cheng frowned: "Engineer Xu, we're still missing the last section of the load-bearing frame here."

"stop."

Xu Zhao's voice left no room for negotiation.

"All deep drilling operations are suspended. Drilling rigs are powered off. Anchor winches are locked. Extension work is temporarily halted."

The work area was quiet for a moment.

Ma Cheng gripped the plasma welding torch, the veins on the back of his hand slowly bulging.

He didn't ask why.

Before Lao Liu went missing, he left a message.

On the moon, the shorter the command, the bigger the matter.

Ma Cheng turned around and kicked open the cover of the energy box.

"Second team, cut the main drill's power line!"

"Team Three, stop the spiritual pressure pumps!"

"Team Four, all personnel on the outer armor should retreat to the inside of the safety ropes!"

Someone instinctively asked, "Horse team, the foundation piles are still a bit short."

Ma Cheng suddenly turned around.

"Stop even if it's just a little short!"

His voice was much deeper than usual, as if he were deliberately imitating someone who had lost contact.

"Didn't you hear the order?!"

The entire work area quickly fell silent.

The heavy drilling rig stopped.

The conveyor belt stopped.

The flames of the Taiyi Furnace were suppressed layer by layer by the array. The dark blue light that originally beat like a heart on the moon slowly shrank into a dim flame.

A few minutes later, Xu Zhao arrived at the work area.

She was pale, clutching a newly issued set of blueprints in her hand.

"Pull out the Taiyin drainage tube."

Ma Cheng took the blueprints and glanced at them.

"What is this?"

"Space shielding array".

Speak like a human.

Xu Zhao looked up and gazed at the far side of the moon.

"Give the base a shell."

She kept her voice very low.

"Use the Yin Cold Pressure to infuse the outer armor, sealing off heat sources, spiritual energy fluctuations, array echoes, and mechanical vibrations."

Ma Cheng fell silent.

He folded the blueprints and stuffed them into the tool bag on his chest.

"How long will it take?"

"The sooner the better."

"What about the materials?"

"Remove the spare condenser pipe. Remove the outer shielding plate of Expansion Zone 3. Do not touch the area around the teleportation array; gather resources elsewhere first."

Ma Cheng nodded.

"Did you hear me?"

He turned and yelled at the work area.

"Don't just stand there! Demolish it!"

Hundreds of engineering cultivators and formation masters immediately sprang into action.

The Taiyin diversion pipes were pulled out from the pipelines in the shadow area and connected one by one to the outer layer of the base. Grayish-white cold pressure flowed along the array patterns, like a layer of invisible frost, slowly climbing up the metal skeleton of the Guanghan base.

The psionic antenna descends.

The outer lighthouse went out.

The mine's transport line stopped halfway.

After receiving the synchronization command, Lunar Orbit Station 1 also reduced its ground signal power, retaining only the most basic short pulse response.

From orbit, the light at the Guanghan base is gradually fading.

It no longer resembles a blue nail embedded in the moon's surface.

Instead, it slowly sank into the gray-black lunar soil.

……

Deep inside the ecological bunker, in the temporary command center.

Chen Ge stood in front of the holographic monitoring console, his tactical exoskeleton still on.

"The shielding array is now fully covered. The spiritual pressure signal from the Guanghan base is approaching background radiation in external detection." Xu Zhao checked the various data. "However, the interstellar teleportation array cannot be completely shielded. Once activated, the phase tearing fluctuations cannot be hidden at all."

"The teleportation array should retain a minimum amount of emergency communication and core material transfer, and be locked down at other times." Chen Ge looked at the deployment map on the screen, his eyes sharp as knives.

He looked at Xu Zhao and the silent Jiang Xiu beside him.

"What exactly are we guarding against?" Chen Ge asked.

Jiang Xiu shook his head.

"I don't know what's down there."

Jiang Xiu's voice sounded like sandpaper being rubbed.

"But I know it's huge. Bigger than we define 'life' or 'magic weapon'. For the past few hours, I've been in the bottom of the bunker, and I've been able to feel an extremely subtle resonance."

"It's not the resonance of a machine in operation. It's a...structural sense of oppression."

Jiang Xiu raised his eyelids and looked at Chen Ge.

"It's like a group of ants building a nest on the back of an elephant. Now the elephant's skin is trembling slightly."

Chen Ge didn't speak, but stared intently at the red dot on the map marked "Unknown Deep Rift Valley".

Suddenly, the high-precision seismograph on the table emitted an extremely muffled "hum".

On the waveform graph, an extremely smooth oscillating line appeared, but without any aftershocks.

This is an extremely regular physical vibration that is transmitted upwards from the very deep mantle of the moon.

Xu Zhao lunged at the monitoring console, his back instantly soaked with cold sweat.

"The focal depth is...9,800 meters or less."

"Coverage area..." Xu Zhao swallowed hard, "It almost runs through the bottom rock strata of the entire Aitken Basin."

Chen Ge slowly tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword at his waist.

The tremor lasted for less than two seconds before it completely disappeared, and everything returned to silence.

......