It had not spread evenly.
In several places, the ink had clearly detoured, as if something had blocked its path.
In several others, the ink had seeped through unusually fast, as though grooves beneath the paper were guiding the liquid.
Su Li leaned close to the drawing.
It was even more obvious up close. Along the edge of the core area that had been blacked out, the ink's flow revealed indentations invisible to the naked eye.
Someone had once carved lines into this sheet of paper with great force.
Though the surface contents had later been covered with ink, the grooves remained in the paper fibers, altering the direction in which the liquid seeped.
"Su Li?" Saina noticed that something was off about his expression.
Su Li did not answer. He grabbed a clean fine-tipped pen from nearby and began tracing, bit by bit, along the directions where the ink had flowed abnormally.
One line, then another. They intersected, branched apart, then converged again.
Five minutes later, half of a hidden circuit diagram had emerged in the right half of the blacked-out area.
"Energy channels."
He straightened up, pointing his pen at the newly revealed lines.
"This isn't the main channel. The main channel runs through the center—the route the grand array uses in normal operation. This is a second set of channels."
Elonore leaned closer, keeping her two ink-stained hands behind her back, afraid to touch the table. "A backup energy-release channel?"
"That's right." Su Li nodded. "An emergency outlet for when the grand array goes out of control. If the main channel overloads, aether automatically shifts into this route and vents outward, preventing the core from exploding."
"Why didn't it work in the previous life?" Elena came over with the cat in her arms.
Su Li tapped the