High in the stratosphere, seventy thousand paces above the mortal continent, the azure canopy didn’t remain a flat, passive ceiling.
Lin Xiao felt the wild squirming of eight point five million void locusts and the heavy thrumming of the three forward Void Dreadnoughts embedded within his outer hydration layer. To the hive mind, this was a nearby tactical engagement against an anomalous physical barrier. To Lin Xiao, however, this was simply raw dough that had not yet been properly wrapped into a bun.
“Leaving fresh ingredients exposed to the elements is how food spoils,” Lin Xiao mused inwardly, sending a wave of warm ancient life-force rippling through his outer edge. “If you leave dumplings out in a dry draft, the edges crack and all the savory juices leak onto the cutting board. We can’t have that. A proper chef always seals the parcel.”
“Host is formulating an enclosure protocol,” the Omniscient Dao Spirit observed, its tone cool and analytical. “Water-flow models indicate that curving the outer edge inward by forty-two degrees will produce a sealed ball-shaped pouch across four thousand miles of the upper high sky. Inversion set calculated. solid strength guaranteed by Primordial Chaos holding power.”
“Good,” Lin Xiao whispered aloud, his voice shaking through the thin air with melodic cheer. “Let’s fold the corners and tuck in the sides.”
