The strongest intermediary in all realms

Zhou Ming woke up before dawn.

For the first time ever, he went out for a proper breakfast—a meat bun with soy milk from a corner bun shop, and sat on a small plastic stool by the roadside, watching the morning street scene of Yuecheng District slowly awaken.

An old man walking his dog, a young sword cultivator rushing to his early class, and the engines of hover motorcycles rose and fell in a cacophony. He stuffed the last bite of his steamed bun into his mouth, clapped his hands, and stood up.

There are two things to do today: First, go to Shen Qinglan's music room to inspect the musical crack; second, help Fang Xiaotang confirm the assessment information for the Tianyan Realm's Tianji Pavilion.

Let's go to the music room first.

Shen Qinglan lives in the old faculty dormitory area of ​​Yuecheng District Conservatory of Music, a three-story red brick building with half-withered ivy climbing all over the walls.

Zhou Ming rang the doorbell. When Shen Qinglan opened the door, she was wearing an apron and holding a violin cloth, clearly practicing the violin.

"Perfect timing." She stepped aside to let me pass. "I was just about to try again."

The music room was located at the far end of the second floor. It wasn't very big. An upright piano was placed against the wall, and several potted green plants were on the windowsill. The most eye-catching thing was the wall opposite the piano—Zhou Ming noticed the crack at a glance.

The crack was about half the length of a chopstick and two fingers wide, with a faint silvery-blue halo around its edges. The plaster on the wall had peeled up around the crack, as if it had been baked by some kind of heat source.

Shen Qinglan used a bookcase to block it, but after moving the bookcase, the silvery-blue light was still clearly visible in the morning light.

"Has anything changed recently?" Zhou Ming asked, moving closer to observe.

"The crack was about two millimeters wider the night before last than it is now," Shen Qinglan said truthfully. "But I didn't dare play it again yesterday."

Zhou Ming switched his phone to night mode, took a few photos, and sent them to Xiao Qi.

After remote scanning, Xiaoqi reported: "The dimensional energy concentration at the edge of the gap has increased by 17% compared to the data recorded by the system last time; it is indeed expanding on its own."

"The good news is that the expansion is slow, and it will be some time before it's fully activated. The bad news is that without musical guidance, the location and direction of the cracks are random; who knows if the other side is a beautiful, pristine plane or a magma planet."

Is there a way to control it?

"Playing music from sheet music can guide the direction of energy. If you can decipher the melody corresponding to the 'introductory section' in the sheet music, you can artificially control which plane the rift opens towards."

Zhou Ming turned to look at Shen Qinglan, who had already taken off her apron and was sitting at the piano with her fingers on the keys.

"Mr. Zhou, could you tell me the true meaning of the sheet music my grandfather left me?" she said. "I want to know what my music is saying to every time I play it."

Zhou Ming walked over and sat down next to her, then pulled up a photo of the sheet music he had taken on his phone and placed it on the music stand.

Xiaoqi has marked some key paragraphs, one of which is labeled "Resonance Paragraph" and the other is labeled "Anchoring Paragraph".

"Your musical score is essentially a tool for using the vibration of musical frequencies to resonate with the barriers between planes," Zhou Ming explained in the simplest terms possible. "When you play the 'resonance section,' the sound resonates with the energy field of a certain plane on the opposite side, just like two tuning forks of the same frequency influencing each other."

"The 'anchor segment' is the coordinates for locking onto the resonance target—this is equivalent to sending a 'handshake packet' after the signal lock."

"So every time I play a specific passage, I'm actually sending a signal to an unseen world?"

"Yes. And because you kept playing the same melody, the signal strength kept building up, eventually tearing a crack in the wall."

Zhou Ming pointed to the silver-blue light slit on the wall, "This crack is responding to your signal—the world on the other side has been listening to you play the piano."

Shen Qinglan remained silent for a long time, her gray-blue eyes fixed on the piano keys, her fingers unconsciously stroking the edges of the keys.

Then she chuckled softly: "I've been playing this piece for three years, and it turns out there's always been an 'audience' on the other side."

Zhou Ming looked at her: "Would you like to see what's on the other side?"

Shen Qinglan looked up. Without hesitation, she nodded.

"Okay. But I need your cooperation." Zhou Ming turned to the page of the sheet music marked by Xiao Qi as the "introductory section" and placed his phone upright on the music stand.

"I've translated it into simplified musical notation and marked it below. You can play it according to this. I'll monitor the crack's reaction. If the direction of the crack and the energy flow are stable, I'll make a preliminary judgment that the other side is safe."

Shen Qinglan glanced at the sheet music and then placed her fingers on the piano keys.

When the first note was played, Zhou Ming felt a very subtle vibration in the air.

Like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, ripples spread from his skin. As the melody progressed, the silver-blue light at the edge of the crack began to pulsate, perfectly synchronized with the rhythm of the music.

The crack widened slowly at a visible rate, expanding from two fingers' width to three or four fingers' width.

Shen Qinglan's fingers flew across the piano keys, the rhythm of the score grew faster and faster, and the melody climbed to a high note—pop.

A soft click, like a cork being pulled from a bottle.

The crack suddenly widened to the size of a fist, and a cool, moist wind gushed out from its edge, carrying a strong smell of sea salt. Zhou Ming could smell the salty fishiness of the sea and the bitterness of some deep-sea plant.

Within the silvery-blue halo of the crack, a faint, shimmering blue light could be seen rippling.

"An ocean plane." Xiao Qi's voice betrayed surprise. "The system's initial location indicates that the opposite plane is a low-magic plane dominated by the ocean."

"There is almost no land; water covers over 97% of the land. Creatures are primarily intelligent marine species. The energy fluctuations sensed so far are mild and non-aggressive."

Zhou Ming leaned closer to the crack and looked through the silvery-blue halo. He could indeed see a deep blue sea surface undulating, with huge coral structures protruding from the sea in the distance, their tops reflecting strange light.

Shen Qinglan lifted her hand from the piano keys, her fingertips trembling slightly. "Is...the sea across the way?"

"An ocean world." Zhou Ming took a step back. "Your music has been resonating with it for three whole years. They probably thought you were greeting them."

Shen Qinglan stood up and walked to the crack. She reached her hand closer to the edge, her fingertips still an inch away from the silver-blue halo, when a warm, moist breeze brushed against the back of her hand.

"Can I go over and take a look?"

Zhou Ming looked at her, this young woman who taught piano, who had devoted three years to a single piece of music without ever giving up, and who had simply covered the first crack in the wall with a bookshelf.

She possessed a rare calmness and steadfastness.

"Sure. But not today. I need to confirm first that the environment there is suitable for humans to stay," Zhou Ming said. "I need to conduct a preliminary reconnaissance mission. Wait for my news."

Shen Qinglan nodded, closed the sheet music, and hugged it to her chest.

As Zhou Ming was leaving, she suddenly spoke up: "Mr. Zhou, if there really are intelligent beings in that ocean world across the water, they haven't shown any hostility after listening to the music for three years... I think they must be friendly."

Zhou Ming stood by the door and looked back at her. Shen Qinglan stood beside the crack, holding the sheet music; the silvery-blue light stretched her shadow long.

"I will handle it as soon as possible," he said.

It was 10 a.m. when Zhou Ming came out of the music room. He took a motorcycle taxi directly to the place he had arranged to meet Fang Xiaotang—the entrance of the Yuecheng District Library.

Fang Xiaotang arrived early, carrying a bulging backpack and waving the bronze plaque around in her hand.

"Here it comes!" She jumped over as soon as she saw Zhou Ming. "I've already made contact with the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion! Last night I tried injecting spiritual energy into the token, and they sent back a string of divine sense information—the assessment starts in three days, and the content is to deduce the deconstruction of a 'complex nested formation' on the spot."

"Mr. Zhou, do you know what a complex nested formation is? It's when at least five basic formations are stacked together and interfere with each other. When deconstructing it, you have to identify the patterns in each layer at the same time! I've been practicing on Earth for three years and can only dismantle three layers at most!"

Zhou Ming patted her on the shoulder: "Perfect timing. A friend of mine will be sending over a batch of 'array deconstruction case studies' in a couple of days. There might be some practice materials you need in them."

Fang Xiaotang's eyes lit up: "What friend?"

"A new channel. It's not fully operational yet, but it'll be soon," Zhou Ming said. "Go back and prepare well. I'll try my best to get the case studies to you before the assessment."

Fang Xiaotang cheered and ran off. Zhou Ming watched her disappear behind the library gate, then turned and walked towards his office. The sun was blazing, and his shadow was compressed into a short ball on the sycamore-lined road.

The threads connecting the five planes—the Ocean Plane, the Celestial Realm, the Divine Condor World, Elderland, and the Azure Sky Realm—intersect in his hands.

Meanwhile, the liquidators are preoccupied with repairing the damaged transmission system and troubleshooting internal problems, and are unable to launch any new operations in the short term.

As he walked in the afternoon sunlight, he suddenly felt that his title of "Odd Jobs Broker" was becoming more and more fitting.

Back in his office, he filed out his findings for the day. The coordinates of the ocean plane were marked, the requirements for the Tianji Pavilion's assessment case were noted, and the status of the crack on Shen Qinglan's side was updated.

The notebook was filled with dense writing, and three treasures each occupied a corner of the drawer.

Gulu climbed down from the windowsill and rubbed against the back of his hand. Zhou Ming looked down at it, picked it up, and placed it in his palm.

The crystal salamander gurgled softly, and the warm, refreshing air pressed against his palm, rising and falling gently and rhythmically.

On the sycamore-lined road outside the window, the late summer wind swirls fallen leaves. In the distance, to the west of the city, the courtyard of Sihaitong should still be busily under repair, but that no longer matters.

Supply line number twelve was cut off, and a new world was opening up to him.

He patted Gulu's head, put it back on the windowsill, and opened his notebook to start writing tomorrow's plans.