Don't go to the moon, there are gods on the far side of the moon.

"Borrowing the darkness?" Qin Lan asked immediately, "What do you mean?"

No one could answer immediately.

The spark is not a sacred altar; it won't provide a complete instruction manual. It only offers four words, like a child just awakened from a long slumber, laboriously uttering the only request it can bear.

Lin Xiaoman stared at the DreamNet.

Within the fragmented clouds, the charred little bird curled its wings, avoiding the beams of sunlight. It didn't want to burn, nor did it want to retaliate; it was searching for shadows. But there were no real shadows in near-Earth orbit. The verification light from the nine sun fragments swept in from multiple directions, illuminating the Xuan Niao III wreckage, leaving it nowhere to hide.

"It should be darker," Xiaoman said.

Lu Chengong coughed up a mouthful of blood, then leaned on the edge of the table and laughed.

"That's a pretty simple request."

Xu Wangshu quickly retrieved available resources.

"There are no adjustable obstructions in near-Earth orbit. The debris from the Tianheng maintenance satellite is too small, the Xuan Niao-3 debris is unstable, and conventional satellites cannot change their orbits in time."

Wen Zhaolin suddenly spoke.

"There is one."

Everyone looked at him.

He paused for half a second and then said, "The solar sail of the Tianheng Earth-Moon Ladder test section."

The main control room fell silent.

Although the Tianheng Earth-Moon Elevator project has suffered several setbacks, some test sections remain in high orbit to verify material deployment, attitude control, and deep-space communication relay. Those solar sails were originally intended to power the Earth-Moon Elevator and calibrate its orbit; once deployed, they can create a massive signal shadow in a short time.

The problem is that it is one of Tianheng's most core assets.

Wen Qingyue connected almost at the same time.

[Refused. The solar sail test section is not part of the joint human command sequence. No one may use it without authorization from the Group's Board of Directors.]

Wen Zhaolin looked at her handwriting, his face expressionless.

How many people on the board are left who can sign off?

Wen Qingyue said coldly: "Asset rights do not automatically disappear due to a crisis."

Xu Wangshu said calmly, "You don't recognize my personal rights, but you remember my property rights very well."

Wen Qingyue was not provoked.

Once the solar sail is deployed, it will reveal the precise location of the Tianheng Earth-Moon Elevator test section, potentially triggering a multi-party struggle among Zhurongtai, the Deep Space Divine Court, and the Nine Suns Fragments. Furthermore, damage to the test section will result in the permanent loss of subsequent orbital obstruction capabilities.

This time, she wasn't talking about pure self-interest.

Qin Lan frowned.

"She's right about one thing. Deploying the solar sail is like revealing another trump card."

A slight noise came from the toolbox.

Xu Wangshu immediately leaned down: "Lin Jibai?"

Several words slowly appeared on the screen.

Even if you don't use your trump cards, the old system will reveal them.

After a brief pause, another line appeared.

Whose sail is it?

Wen Zhaolin stared at the words, as if he had been stung by something.

Whose sail?

Tianheng has always maintained that it is a group asset. However, the solar sail project utilized the national orbital window, connected to the public aerospace network, and its early materials testing even involved multiple research institutes and countless ordinary engineers. It was named, financed, and acquired by Tianheng, ultimately becoming part of the Earth-Moon Ladder project.

But does it truly belong only to Tianheng?

Xu Wangshu made the issue public.

[Review of ownership and requisition of the solar sail test section initiated.]

[Current Purpose: To provide non-weaponized camouflage for the Spark, avoiding forced verification by the Nine Suns Fragments.]

Wen Qingyue immediately objected: "The process doesn't have enough time."

Qin Lan responded: [An emergency public review has been initiated, and all responsibilities will be clearly stated by name.]

The public channel exploded again.

This time, opinions were more complex than before. Some supported forced requisition, while others worried that setting a precedent would lead to unlimited corporate assets; some condemned Tianheng for privatizing public resources, while others warned that if the solar sails were taken away by the remnants of the nine suns, the ground-based energy grid might be subjected to reverse radiation.

Xu Wangshu did not suppress these arguments.

She only pinned the four words "fire seed" to the top.

[Fire wishes to borrow darkness.]

It's not fire that's trying to steal the sail.

It is not human beings who need to use fire.

It was just a faint spark being hunted by the ancient sun arrows, trying to use a bit of darkness to evade the verification.

Lin Xiaoman suddenly said, "It will pay it back."

Wen Qingyue sneered: "How can you prove it?"

Xiaoman thought about it carefully.

"I can't prove it."

She paused for a moment.

"But we don't have to write 'borrowing' as 'occupying'."

Xu Wangshu immediately followed up.

[Call Definition: Temporary Darkness Borrowing.]

[This will not change the ownership dispute over the solar sails, nor will it grant any organization permanent control.]

[Expand Duration: The window will collapse after nine days of verification.]

[The costs are disclosed: increased exposure and damage probability of the test section, and reduced subsequent orbital obstruction capability.]

[Disclosure of Responsibilities: Joint Interim Review Panel]

After reading it, Wen Zhaolin said in a low voice, "I will provide the highest level key."

Wen Qingyue's channel displayed red text almost simultaneously.

[Wen Zhaolin, you will be held accountable by the group.]

Wen Zhaolin smiled.

"I've taken on quite a lot."

He dragged an encrypted access key into the verification interface. That was one of the highest permissions he had retained as the founder of Tianheng, allowing him to deploy the solar sail test section in extreme circumstances. But he alone wasn't enough; a public space network was needed to confirm that it wouldn't endanger the ground.

Qin Lan takes over the security review.

"The orientation and angle must not be towards the ground, towards the Zhurong Terrace, or towards the moon's far side lighthouse. It should only provide shade, not spotlight."

Lu Chengong suddenly added a sentence.

"And don't look at me."

No one laughed.

But the tense air eased by half an inch.

The countdown to the deployment of the solar sail has begun.

On the near-Earth orbit map, a previously dormant thin-film structure slowly lit up. It was enormous, much larger than the debris of the Xuan Niao III spacecraft, resembling a silver paper wing folded for many years, slowly unfolding at the edge of Earth's shadow.

The fragments of the Nine Suns reacted immediately.

The three sun stripes simultaneously turn towards the solar sail.

The Deep Space Divine Court sent a notification.

[Human beings are accessing celestial ladder assets, suspected of restarting an unreliable connection.]

Xu Wangshu replied directly.

[Not connected. Only blocks light.]

Zhu Rongtai also showed a deficit.

[Using darkness is not fleeing from fire. 】

The fragment of Nuwa added a sentence.

[You can still choose even in the dark.]

As the solar sails fully deployed, the light in the main control module finally returned to normal. On the orbital chart, a huge shadow covered the Xuan Niao III debris cloud. The faint red light hid in the shadow, like a charred little bird finally burrowing under a roof tile.

Lin Xiaoman breathed a long sigh of relief.

"It doesn't hurt anymore."

The aiming line behind Lu Chen's bow had also faded a bit. The broken bow fragments, relying on the old silver light of Lin Wangchuan's work badge, barely managed to remain in a temporary state as "human witnesses".

But Xu Wangshu did not relax.

Because after the solar sail deployed, another coordinate that had been silent for a long time lit up.

It is not a fragment of the Nine Suns.

It is not the Zhurong Terrace.

It is the signal source from Beitianmen.

For the first time, that signal from a higher orbit and a colder border actively sent complete text to the human world.

[The patrol log at Beitianmen has been updated.]

[A hidden curtain has been erected in the human world to obscure the sun's verification.]

Please submit your reason for crossing the border.

A flashlight flickered slightly in Lin Jibai's toolbox.

He sighed from the deepest part of his being.

Xiaoman looked at the words and asked in a low voice, "Another door?"

Xu Wangshu looked up, her gaze calm to the point of being sharp.

"Not again."

"It has been waiting for us to reveal the border."

After those words were spoken, no one in the main control room regarded Beitianmen as a simple new enemy. It was more like a calm pen, waiting for humanity to make a mistake in the chaos, and then expanding that one word into a whole set of reasons for jurisdiction.