Zhang Boyuan had only sat on the steps for a moment when night had completely swept over from the east. Dusk on the T-09 Star Realm was brief—so brief that the orange-red band of light at the horizon had not fully faded before the ink-blue vault had covered the entire sky. He lifted his hand from his knee and pushed the door. The hinges gave a faint creak. Then he went inside and closed it behind him.
He sat at the table without turning on the lights. Starlight filtered through the thin window paper, casting a blurred patch of silvery white over the tabletop. He sat quietly for a while, closed his eyes, and sensed the scattered warm golden points of light throughout the clan residence. The young cultivators had already dispersed and returned to their rooms, but the air still held the residual echoes left behind by their Core Synchronization, like tiny ripples slowly settling after water had been stirred.
Within those residual echoes, he sensed something. The signal traces left by Ji Tang's core during that period of meditation had changed from before. In the past, the edges of Ji Tang's signal had been blurry, like a sketch being copied—the overall shape was roughly right, but the details carried awkward deviations. Tonight, however, the signal's edges had become much clearer, its outline distinct, as though the thing being copied was gradually revealing its true appearance within his perception.
Zhang Boyuan opened his eyes. He sat in the darkness for several breaths, then reached across the desk for the Data Pad, lit the screen, and wrote a line in the log: "Clarity of Ji Tang's core signal continues to improve. He can now independently maintain directional perception of the network for approximately one and a half hours. Recommend prioritizing