CHAPTER 177
### Li Shan's Model
The model arrived at the second hour of the night.
He was still holding the thread when the relay message came.
He read it one-handed.
*The twenty-one generating sections are distributed across the network in a pattern I have been mapping for three months. They are not evenly distributed. They cluster in four regional concentrations.*
*If the hollow's continuous frequency is disrupted, the network's between quality propagation will develop a gap at the source point.*
*The twenty-one generating sections will attempt to fill the gap through the network's conducting pathways. This is not a decision — it is physics. Generating sections produce output. Output conducts through available pathways. If the primary pathway is disrupted, the output seeks secondary pathways.*
*Here is what I did not expect.*
*The secondary pathways through the twenty-one generating sections do not converge on the hollow. They converge on twenty-three additional developing sections that are currently in the forty to sixty percent threshold range.*
*The faction's disruption of the hollow does not reduce the propagation reaching those twenty-three sections.*
*It redirects it.*
*The propagation reaching those twenty-three sections through the secondary pathways is stronger than what the hollow was providing directly.*
*Forty to sixty percent becomes seventy to eighty-five percent within seventy-two hours of the disruption.*
*The faction wants to slow development. The disruption will accelerate development in twenty-three sections.*
*This is the model.*
*I want to be clear: the model assumes the disruption occurs. I am not recommending the disruption occurs. I am documenting what happens if it does.*
*What you do with this is your decision.*
He read it three times.
He looked at the thread.
At the hollow.
At the grey blade.
He thought about the faction standing at the hollow's edge in three days believing they were buying time.
He thought about twenty-three sections hitting seventy to eighty-five percent within seventy-two hours of the disruption.
At those development levels, with the simultaneous calibrated application he could now provide —
He counted.
He stopped counting.
He committed.
He looked at Lin Mei.
She had been reading over his shoulder.
"The twenty-three sections," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"When the faction disrupts the hollow," she said.
"If the faction disrupts the hollow," he said.
"They are going to," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She looked at the thread.
At the ninety-li connection to the hollow.
"Wang Fei," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"She is at the hollow's eastern boundary," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"She cannot stop them," she said.
"No," he said.
"But she can document the disruption the moment it begins," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"And you need to know the exact moment it begins," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"Because the moment it begins," she said, "you need to apply to the twenty-three sections simultaneously."
"Before the development acceleration reaches its natural ceiling," he said. "If I apply the calibrated technique at the peak of the acceleration—"
"The twenty-three sections cross threshold," she said.
"Not twenty-three," he said. "The model shows seventy to eighty-five percent. At calibrated simultaneous application—"
He counted.
He stopped.
He thought about the grandmother's frequency. The military collective's twelve voices. The calibration to specific development characters.
"Eighteen," he said.
She looked at him.
"Eighteen of the twenty-three would cross threshold within forty-eight hours of the disruption if I apply the calibrated simultaneous technique at the peak of the acceleration," he said.
She was quiet.
"The faction wants to buy two to three years," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"They are going to generate eighteen new sections instead," she said.
"Possibly," he said.
"You are not certain," she said.
"No," he said. "Li Shan's model is accurate. My application capacity at that scale is untested."
"Twenty-three simultaneous calibrated applications," she said.
"Simultaneous," he said. "With specific frequency calibration to each section's development character."
"You have done eleven simultaneously," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"And twelve simultaneous frequency calibrations," she said. "At the military section."
"Yes," he said.
"Twenty-three is more than eleven plus twelve," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She looked at the grey blade.
"The undocumented stage," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"You do not know if it is enough," she said.
"No," he said.
She was quiet.
Then: "Tell me what you need from me."
He held the thread.
He held eighteen breaths.
"Stay beside me when I apply," he said. "The calibrated simultaneous application to twenty-three sections will require everything the loop can produce. The dantian, the sword, the domain. The crack will be under more pressure than anything I have attempted."
"I will monitor the crack," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"I will tell you if anything destabilizes," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"And if something destabilizes," she said.
"You pull me out," he said.
She looked at him.
"I cannot pull you out of the application," she said. "The mechanism is yours."
"You tell me," he said. "Immediately. The moment you read something wrong."
"Yes," she said.
"And I will pull myself out," he said.
She was quiet.
"That is the plan," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"That is the plan where I sit beside you and watch and tell you if something is wrong and trust that you will hear me," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She looked at him.
He could not read her expression.
He looked at her face without trying.
"The thing you do alone instead of asking," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"You are asking," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She was quiet.
"That is different," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She looked at the thread.
At the hollow.
At the grey blade.
At him.
"Yes," she said.
He held the thread.
Three days until the faction reached the hollow.
Three days to prepare.
He committed.