Fate's Choice: Livestream at the Start Summoning Billions of Ravens

Drilling site in Xianyang.

As Zhou Dazhuang jumped off the helicopter, the moment his combat boots touched the yellow earth, the tiger tally brand on his right hand ignited intensely.

It's not the gentle warmth of before.

The temperature soared to near scorching levels.

He looked down at his palm, where a dark red brand was emitting a visible light. The rhythm of the light was not the frequency of his own heartbeat; it was much slower and deeper.

It felt as if a giant heart was beating deep beneath my feet, and the tiger tally was resonating with it.

Academician Qi spoke through a walkie-talkie from inside the command vehicle at the scene.

"Dazhuang, how are you feeling?"

"hot."

Zhou Dazhuang clenched his fist and then relaxed it, the light of the brand flickering once with his movement.

"It's hotter than before, and the beating is different. It's not my heart beating; it's something else beating underneath."

"Okay, come over here and direct the vehicle."

Academician Qi laid out the borehole profile diagram on the folding table inside the command vehicle.

"The Daqin alloy layer is 54 meters deep and 14 meters thick, which modern drill bits cannot penetrate."

He pointed to the area marked in red on the cross-section diagram with the tip of his pen.

"You don't need to put your hand in; it's 54 meters deep, beyond the reach of a human arm."

Zhou Dazhuang squatted next to Academician Qi, looking at the cross-sectional diagram, the heat in his right palm still rising.

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"Try channeling the energy of the tiger tally downwards."

Academician Qi spoke slowly, and each word was pronounced very clearly.

"You've done something similar before next to the map, the long-distance resonance of the brand and the star point. Now the target has become the homogeneous alloy 54 meters below your feet."

Zhou Dazhuang nodded and followed Academician Qi to the borehole.

He knelt down on one knee, placing his right palm down about ten centimeters above the borehole opening.

Close your eyes.

The method came from his experience of exploring maps: instead of commanding the tiger tally, invite it.

The temperature of the palm imprint rose two degrees within three seconds, and a dark red light overflowed from the surface of the imprint, condensing into a visible crimson-gold ray.

The light spirals downwards along the inner wall of the borehole.

The surveillance camera captured the entire process. The reddish-gold light traveled down the borehole wall at a speed of about ten meters per second, with almost no attenuation when it passed through the first thirty meters of mixed soil and granite layers.

Upon reaching the top of the Daqin alloy layer at a depth of 54 meters, the light diffused, forming a reddish-gold spot about 30 centimeters in diameter on the alloy surface.

Zhou Dazhuang felt the response.

A deep, resonant metallic sound penetrated the 54-meter-thick rock layer and traveled upwards.

"It is responding."

The doctoral student in charge of earthquake monitoring looked at the extremely faint but highly regular micro-seismic waveforms on the screen and murmured to himself.

"The frequency is half that of the Tiger Symbol, a perfect multiplier."

Academician Qi stood behind the doctoral student and stared at the waveform for ten seconds.

"Dazhuang, stop and rest for twenty minutes."

Zhou Dazhuang opened his eyes, and the temperature of the brand on his palm slowly subsided.

"There's something waiting for us down there."

Academician Qi glanced at him.

"How did you know?"

I can't explain it.

Zhou Dazhuang clenched his right fist, and the frequency of the brand's pulse increased by about 20 percent after the channel opened.

"My hand told me."

Twenty minutes later, the miniature camera was inserted into the bottom of the borehole.

The image shows that the top surface of the alloy layer has changed. Within the 30-centimeter area covered by the light spot, the alloy has not melted or broken, but has expanded outwards, forming a circular opening with a diameter of about 15 centimeters in the center.

Academician Qi stared at the screen and remained silent for nearly half a minute.

"Solid metals have become fluid without any temperature increase."

He turned around and said something to Engineer Zhao.

"Stop the mechanical drill bit; we won't be using it anymore."

Engineer Zhao was taken aback.

"All thanks to him?"

"It's all thanks to him."

Academician Qi picked up the walkie-talkie.

"Dazhuang, each energy transfer should not exceed thirty seconds, and the interval between two transfers should be at least twenty minutes. Take it one step at a time, don't rush it."

Zhou Dazhuang performed twelve energy transfers over the next six hours.

After each conduction, the opening range of the alloy layer expands outward by about five to eight centimeters.

The twelfth conduction ended, and the diameter of the opening had reached approximately 110 centimeters.

The miniature camera probed to the bottom of the opening, and the image it transmitted made everyone in the command vehicle hold their breath.

A semi-circular passage, about four meters high and three meters wide, extends diagonally downwards. The walls of the passage are polished to an extremely smooth finish, reflecting the light from the camera's LED lights and displaying a dark red metallic luster.

The passage seemed to have no end.

Zhou Dazhuang squatted beside the drill hole, the brand on his palm throbbing incessantly.

........

Ocean floor.

Nine thousand five hundred and fifty meters below the water surface.

Funinga hovered about fifty meters above the outer wall of the black crystal cocoon, having completed a full circumferential scan around the cocoon.

She focused all her attention on the location of the reddish-gold light source in the lower part of the cocoon.

The light source was extremely weak even after passing through the tens of meters thick black crystal layer, but her perception could penetrate the crystal layer and directly touch the essence of the light source.

She touched it.

Then he paused for a moment.

The aura emanating from that crimson-gold light source contained an element that she intuitively felt familiar with. It wasn't a correspondence from her memory, nor was it a specific person or thing; it was an affinity at an essential level.

She tried to define the precise origin of this affinity.

It was unsuccessful.

She could only use a metaphor to explain this feeling to herself.

The residual energy of that existence was the color of a raven's feather.

Black, glossy, light and silent.

Raven feathers.

Funina's brows furrowed slightly.

In her last memory before the collapse of the Mirror World, there was a figure rushing backwards into the exploding Holy Grail. Before the destruction, that figure's clothes were indeed black, like a shadow formed by the fusion of ten thousand ravens.

She couldn't be sure if what was below was related to that figure.

But the aura was too similar.

Funina closed her eyes, sealing this judgment deep within her consciousness.

She wasn't sure.

You shouldn't say things you're unsure about.

Besides, no one would hear it even if I said it.

She readjusted the shield parameters and began assessing feasible paths to cut into the cocoon's surface.

.........

Rome.

Jiang Ming opened the Raven God Remodeling Panel in his hotel suite.

The latest depth data for Fulina remains at 8,212 meters, after which there is no further direct information from underwater sources on the surface.

But the redesigned panel itself is providing the answer.

The progress bar edge trembled three times in the past hour, each fluctuation being less than 0.1 percent, similar to the previous jitter.

The system notification text for "Waiting for Anchor Point Event" is two color levels brighter than yesterday.

Based on Fu Ningna's sinking speed before entering the water and her last known depth, Jiang Ming calculated that she should have reached about 9,500 meters at this moment, which is right near the cocoon.

He wrote a note in his diary.

"The remodeling panel is responding to her approach; she is now standing in front of the wreckage, but physical contact has not yet occurred—the final step in the locking condition."

He closed the panel, poured himself a glass of red wine, and stood by the window.

The night of Rome stretched out beneath my feet, while in the distance, the Vatican's dome was outlined by lights.

Jiang Ming held his wine glass, his gaze passing through the glass window and landing on the endless dark horizon.