Standing upon the windswept granite shelf of the signal bluff, Lin Tao prepared the master injection packet.
To take control of twelve hundred and fifty independent receivers at the same time, he couldn’t transmit single commands one by one. The latency of sequential addressing would allow the Ghost Sect Elders time to identify the source of the rogue signal and sever their own carrier lines.
He needed a global broadcast override.
Lin Tao manipulated the brass fine-scale collar on his land-mapper metal pen, engaging the wideband modulation circuit of the Precursor Relic.
The payload was built with exact elegance: 1. Broadcast Prefix: 0xFFFF (ALL_CALL_INTERRUPT). 2. Target Range: 0x0F40 to 0x1421 (ORPHANED_BLOCK). 3. Main Opcode: 0x00 (CLEAR_PREVIOUS_VECTOR). 4. Backup Opcode: 0x01 (ENGAGE_LOCAL_POWER). 5. Tertiary Opcode: 0x08 (LOCK_PHALANX_STANCE).
Lin Tao drew a slow, deliberate breath of freezing northern air. At his core, the permanent zero-byte dantian buffer remained fully calm. An unmoving anchor of physical sanity that shielded his mind from the roaring static of five thousand warring spiritual signed names below. His left collar bone bridge, forged from hardened bone marrow in his first year of training, felt dense and iron-hard against his collar.
“Tie Shan,” Lin Tao said, his voice quiet, steady, and resolute. “Brace the ground anchor.”
