At twenty-four minutes past midnight, the final threshold was reached.
Across fifty li of front, the ten thousand copper mirrors continued their relentless, machine-like flashing. In the cold mountain trenches, mortal hands moved with the steady discipline of master clockmakers, pumping the star-iron levers in perfect exact timing with the chiming water-clocks. everyone could feel the scent of ozone, hot copper, and damp earth.
Lin Tao raised his left hand. He tapped his temple to watch the final digits tick upward on his test sight display.
Three hundred and seventy-six slots leftover, Lin Tao counted in silent focus. Two hundred... One hundred... Forty-two... Twelve... Zero.
The counter struck sixteen million seven hundred and seventy-seven thousand two hundred and sixteen.
At that exact heartbeat, the heartbeat of the Nine-Dragon Barrier stopped.
The ear-splitting, shrieking shriek that had filled the valley for the past twenty minutes cut off with unnatural, total abruptness. Silence crashed down over the Desolation of the Nine Pillars—a heavy, choking silence broken only by the whistling of the cold mountain wind.
High in the sky, the nine huge golden dragons froze mid-motion.
