Jiang and Li Yuan did not leave the workbench that night after completing the topology mapping. They stood before the screen and checked the results three times, confirming that the new light cluster's position on the tree trunk aligned exactly, at the logical-node level, with the groove's newly calibrated coordinates. The discovery meant two things: first, the Tree-Shaped Silhouette in the T-09 Star Realm was no illusion of Ji Tang's perception, but a real mapping within the network structure; second, the groove at the bottom of the Metal Box had not shifted at random. It had been drawn by some signal from the direction of the T-09 Star Realm.
Li Yuan picked up the Data Pad and held it for a while. His gaze remained on the overlaid topology map on the screen, but his fingers had begun tapping slowly on the input keys along the Data Pad's edge, an unconscious motion, as though he were turning a deduction over and over in his mind. Jiang stood beside him without urging him, waiting quietly.
"The groove calibrated toward the T-09 Star Realm," Li Yuan finally said, his voice slightly lower than usual. "The new light cluster corresponds to a logical node in the network topology. If that node has a location in physical space, it should lie in the direction of the T-09 Star Realm. The tree Ji Tang perceived may not be a mapping that exists only in his perception. It may be an extension of the network itself in that direction."
Jiang called up the spatial distribution data for the network's main nodes on the Data Pad and marked the direction of the T-09 Star Realm. He then overlaid the Metal Box groove's calibration vector on the distribution map. There was an angle between the vector's direction and