The eye floated without wind.
Three feet from the curved glass flank of Conduit Four, the starmetal sphere rotated on an internal gimbal, emitting a faint, high-pitched clockwork whine like a mosquito trapped inside a copper kettle.
Its central golden lens—faceted like a dragonfly’s eye with ninety-six quartz segments—dilated and tightened in rhythmic sweeps.
Behind the stone sarcophagus of Azure Cloud’s Seventh Patriarch, Lin Ke lay flat in the dust.
His ears were still buzzing with ear-splitting static. His trembling hands were clamped over Shen Yue’s mouth and nose. Shen Yue’s heart was hammering against his forearm like a trapped bird, but her eyes were steady. He was locked on the glowing machine.
The Golden Eyeball completed its first check pass.
It beamed a wide-band golden tracking data ping directly at the junction pylon.
The transducer Lin Ke had soldered into the casing caught the ping in mid-air. The four blood-forged spirit pins absorbed the hum, modulated the waveform. Then it returned the forged packet: Flow: 100.00% Nominal.
