My SSS-Rank Skill and System is too OP in Modern Cultivation world-Chapter 169: Quiet Calculations and An Unscheduled Patrol

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"Anything unusual, you tug on my sleeve," Lumo said. Raka swallowed, nodded. They sat side-by-side at the rim, companions forged in Nima's peculiar heart black-hole, now guardians on a cliff.

Kent could not sleep. He and Jade knelt over parchment, sketching possible rune matrices. Jade's earlier theatrics had apparently cost him that shard, but he now radiated professor-like calm. He murmured comparisons of line curvature, hypothesized that the shard formed part of a "keystone coil" channeling raw spatial turbulence into harmonic flux.

Kent mostly listened, ears tuned equally to the scholarly murmur and to the distant warden camp. Twice patrol torches swept the slope below, but nothing climbed higher. Somewhere below, a herd wolf howled, another answered farther west, then silence.

Between equations Kent glanced at Nima. She was curled in her quilt, Auri resting on her hip. A faint spider-sigil glowed once on her chest and faded. Spidey was awake, he guessed, but on good behavior.

Shortly after the second dog-watch, Lumo's low growl rumbled. Raka nudged Kent.

"Torches, coming upslope."

Kent and Jade crawled to the rim. Orange dots, three of them swayed along the goat track, closer than any patrol earlier. Warden silhouettes plate-armored, heavy boots scuffing screen. One carried a dog-sized spiritual hound beast on a rune leash.

Kent hissed. "That Dog looks like a spiritual energy tracker."

Jade cursed under breath. "Not a standard beast. They suspect spies."

Kent scanned the slope, no easy diversion. A mis-step would rain shale onto the patrol, drawing eyes. They needed misdirection away from this ledge.

He tapped Lumo's forearm. "Remember your old roar?"

Lumo flashed a grin on all teeth. He inhaled deeply, air whooshing into lungs that could once send mountain goats tumbling and loosed a low, guttural bear-bellow that vibrated the cliff. But it was precisely controlled, pitched upward so echoes bounced off the far ridge, not their own.

Down below the spirit-hound yelped, torches spun. One warden shouted, pointing away from the ledge toward a spur of pine. They turned, chasing shadows, leaving the path completely.

Kent clapped Lumo's shoulder. "Perfect."

Raka exhaled so hard his knees gave out. He sagged against the stone parapet, muttering thanks to every ancestor.

Second bell. Kent woke Nima, who stretched catlike. Spidey materialized in a vapor wisp, a towering black outline with four angry eyes. Nima snapped the leash-light around his wrists.

"Welcome to the third watch," she said brightly. "First chore, scrub the chamber pot. I want to pee."

Spidey hissed, but the leash yanked him toward the portable chamber pot at the rear of the recess, something Raka had crafted from bark and a lined clay bowl. Kent, weary, still managed a chuckle. The demon bent, grabbed a cleaning rag, and obeyed under protest. Even Jade, reorganizing scrolls, allowed himself a thin smile.

"Discipline," Nima told Kent. "Consistency builds character."

Kent rolled his blanket, lay down, shaking silent laughter.

Kent was midway through a dream of flying carrot dirigibles when the mountains rumbled. A low, resonant voooom vibrates every rock and bone. He jerked upright, frost crystals drifted from the cave ceiling flash-frozen dew.

Nima stood at the ledge, hair whipping, scarf half pulled up. "Look!"

Across the basin the mist column that marked the spatial anchor had risen higher, brightening from pearly white to crackling violet. Lightning filaments spider-webbed inside, silent but furious. Ground wind reversed, pulling dust inward.

Jade scrambled beside Kent, eyes gleaming. "Gate's breathing."

On the valley floor, warden camps erupted into motion. Horn blasts, blue flares, soldiers forming perimeter arcs. Even at half a kilometer, Kent could feel the static prickle.

Auri hopped onto the parapet, phoenix fire dancing along its tail. For one second his bird disguise dropped, flame-crystals shimmering before he muted them again.

Kent's rune coin burned hot against his chest harness. He pulled it free, rune lines glowing bright silver. The Sun-Disk, still nested behind padded linen, pulsed in time.

Raka swallowed. "Do we… move closer?"

Jade measured the gap between patrols, wind, and swirling energy. He shook his head. "Too bright. Warden eyes everywhere. We wait for lull, likely just before dawn when the surge rests. Second pulse will widen the fissure enough to approach."

Kent exhaled carefully. "Then we sit tight."

Gray predawn spread behind ridges. Spidey, finished with chores, curled sulking in the cave recess, four eyes dim. Nima munched pepper buns with gusto; Raka dozed against Lumo's shoulder. Kent inventoried gear, mind snapping between excitement and caution. Jade finalized a three-phase infiltration plan:

Phase One, Descent: Kent, Jade, and Lumo to slip down the ridge's back trail during the warden shift change at sixth bell.

Phase Two, Entry: Kent uses coin-disk resonance to test outer turbulence. Jade logs glyph positions.

Phase Three, Extraction: Signal Nima via flare if turbulence spikes; she and Raka keep lookout and provide crow overwatch for retreat.

Spidey's role? Emergency muscle if wards collapsed. Nima enjoyed reminding him.

Kent handed Nima the spare sparker beacon. "If wardens sniff our track retreat upslope, you vanish. Raka and Lumo can guide you north."

Nima saluted. "Yes, Captain Cringe."

He rolled eyes. "Only at home."

She winked.

Sixth bell approached. Kent activated his spiritual cloak, readied climbing picks. Jade adjusted his own belt, padding gone; he'd removed the comedic plump stuffing at some point during the night. Stones lay silent; mist funnels around the anchor shimmered calmer but still bright. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

Then: footfalls on the goat track. Not warden boots, it was soft, hurried, almost hopping. Kent tensed. Raka reached for the saber.

Into view popped a round merchant in silk-patched robes, eyes bulging in terror. Behind him stumbled two more foreigners, one clutching a box of glass flasks. They skidded onto the ledge uninvited.

The merchant flung himself at Kent's feet. "Help! Wardens confiscated goods, saw me leave camp!"

Nima's jaw slid sideways. "Is that… popcorn dealer?"

It was the very hawker she had bought popcorn at the market. The guy gave Nima some extra popcorn. So, for Nima he is a good guy. Jade groans. Kent exchanged glances with Lumo. The last thing they needed was a civilian panic magnet.

But down-slope, torches snaked closer, clearly chasing the merchant.

Kent weighed options faster than heartbeats. Leave them, wardens climb straight to the hide. Shelter them, risk exposure. Force them onward, maybe lead the patrol away.

He looked at Jade. Jade sighed. "We ghost them north along the ledge and cut the patrol trail. Lumo blocks scent. Raka sweeps prints. We lose five minutes but keep the cave secret."

Kent nodded. "Move."

What followed was a frenetic quarter hour of silent choreography:

Lumo hefted merchants and crates like sacks of rice, padding upslope along an elk path that curved away from base camp.

Raka, nimble despite nerves, brushed tracks with pine bough.

Nima, with Spidey's reluctant help, wove a low-grade confusion veil behind them, just enough spiritual energy to tangle lesser detection spells without lighting beacon flares.

Kent and Jade shadowed the rear guard, ready to intercept.

Wardens reached the ledge, found nothing but faint pepper bun crumbs and an impossibly clean chamber pot (Spidey's pride). They cursed, turned south.

When the merchant and his friends had been deposited behind a sandstone outcrop one and half metres away, Kent hissed: "Stay silent till dawn, then head downridge. Patrol routes push east mid-morning."

The merchant squeaked gratitude, pressing a small paper twist of candied ginger balls into Kent's palm. Then he crawled out of sight.

Kent checked the eastern sky. It was pale gold. They'd eaten half their launch window. Mist around the anchor pulsed slower; time to move before the next swell.

He, Jade, and Lumo returned to camp. Nima crunched ginger candy in victory. Raka flopped in exhaustion. Spidey muttered about wasted intimidation potential.

Kent strapped the Sun-Disk under his cloak. Auri settled on his pack flap, feather sparks restrained.

"Ready?" Jade asked.

Kent inhaled the cold, ozone-tinged air. "Ready."

Below, real dawn was finally reaching Star-Wall Basin. The pocket gate slumbered, quiet for now but in its heart something vast and antique waited for the right touch of a thirty-three-sigil coin.

Kent placed the coin over the hidden Sun-Disk. The runes resonated a soft, promising chord. Time to see what secrets sang back.

The nickel cold dawn off Star Wall Basin felt thin as eggshell. Kent could almost hear it crack when he pressed the 33-rune coin to the hidden Sun Disk under his cloak. A pure bell note thrummed through stone and marrow. In the basin below, the violet mist column folded in on itself like a fist, a heartbeat's pause then burst outward in a corolla of shimmering shards.

Jade Monroe's breath hissed. "Dimensional hull just punctured."

"Translation: window's open," Nima muttered, bouncing on her toes. Spidey glowered over her shoulder, broom still in ghostly hands. Lumo's fur shaded arms flexed. Raka clutched his sabre so hard the leather creaked. Auri puffed, flames peeking beneath soot.

"Descending," Kent ordered.

They threaded the back trail in single file. Lumo first to break fallen scree silently, Jade behind charting flux readings, Nima in the middle chewing candied ginger, Kent at rear with Auri as aerial.