He turned to glance at Old Ford.
Old Ford's expression darkened. "The royal family treated the discharge vents as their highest secret. Fewer than five people knew about them, and they're all dead."
Su Li slipped his hands back into his pockets. "According to the timeline of my previous life, in another three or four years, the royal family will go to war with you. In his excitement, the old prince will flip the array around and use it as a weapon, and this whole thing will blow."
No one answered.
The stone chamber fell silent for several seconds, broken only by the soft scratch of Elonore's charcoal pencil across paper.
Su Li returned to the toolbox, crouched down, opened it, and took out three fragments of fifth-tier armor.
"Three days." He arranged the fragments on the floor. "Day one, stabilize the main array. Day two, divert the flow. Day three, seal the main blast point. Elena, the three streets south of here must be cleared by tomorrow morning."
Elena was already writing in her schedule book.
"Old Ford, how many households can your people evacuate?"
Old Ford thought for a moment. "We can handle eight hundred households by tonight."
"Enough."
Su Li picked up an armor fragment and weighed it in his palm.
Fifth-tier aether seeped from his fingertips into the fragment, brushing through it lightly as though testing its temperature.
A faint, dark-red glow lit up on the fragment's surface.
"Get to work."
At the entrance to the passageway, Saina heard the dull clang of metal coming from inside. Silver yawned in her arms, rolled over, and went back to sleep.
She lowered her head to glance at the cat, pulled out a strip of dried meat from her pocket, and took a bite herself.
There was nothing