Chương 29: "That requires you to deliver"

Ch 29: "That requires you to deliver" Zhen had gambled everything on a guess, but the fact that Ruo-Chen hadn't laughed him out of the room told him he might be onto something.

"I know the Thirsting Veins are failing." He kept his voice steady despite the spiritual pressure from Ruo-Chenbearing down on him.

"I spotted it from the plains as we approached. The flow felt wrong. Then I saw the ore veins in your walls. Some of the qi flows are sluggish, blocked even. I can trace them back to fix it." Ruo-Chen's eyebrow lifted, and with it, the pressure from her intent disappeared.

"Let us ignore for now your absurd assertion that you can sense qi flows and focus on the more ludicrous claim. Find it and fix it? Just like that?" Zhen took a deep breath to recover then frowned, confused by her tone.

"Well, I'll need to get down there to work out exactly what to do, but I can just trace the sluggish qi flows back." Ruo-Chen didn't respond immediately. Instead, she gestured broadly toward the shelves in her study.

"Do you know what this represents?" Zhen shook his head.

"It is the record of a century's worth of disappointment." Her voice was clipped.

"Once I had observed that the plains around the Thirsting Veins were fading, I set out to discover why. The only success in my research was to determine that it was occurring because the mountains themselves were drawing in too much qi. Beyond that, trying to identify what in the Thirsting Veins was causing it has been an exercise in frustration and unmitigated failure." Her voice grew louder with each word.

"It took me decades to convince Baolao and Jue Shi Long that our mountain was eating itself. Even now, we're nowhere near being able to identify what the specific problem is, never mind solving it." She stood abruptly and began pacing.

"And now a child turns up claiming to not only know there is a problem, but that he has the ability to fix it." She whirled to face him.

"Shuo put you up to this, didn't he?" Zhen shook his head quickly.

"I haven't discussed this with Shuo at all." Ruo-Chen paused mid-stride. Some of the fire left her expression.

"Well, perhaps not. Shuo never believed it was a problem either." She took a breath, and when she spoke again, her tone was businesslike.

"Right. Fine. We have a deal. I've been working on this for decades, so why not waste a few hours entertaining this madness? I'll come with you. I'll even help you. If you can do this, you can leave and, for all our sakes, I'll find a way to keep the fact you were here from The Order."

"Chul and Shuo as well," Zhen interjected. Ruo-Chen waved a hand impatiently.

"Assuming Chul is the horse, then yes, what do I care? Jue Shi Long may take some persuading not to kill Shuo, but he can leave as well. I certainly don't want him here a second longer than necessary." She crossed back to the table and leaned forward on her knuckles.

"But that requires you to deliver. I want you to walk me through everything you know. In detail." Zhen swallowed. This was it. If he couldn't back up his claim, she would hand him over to the Order without a second thought.

"When we were crossing the plains, something felt wrong. The qi was thinner than it should be. It was like the ground had been drained. Then whenever I looked up at the mountains themselves, I sensed some kind of blockage there." Ruo-Chen's eyes narrowed, but she didn't interrupt.

"When I arrived here." Zhen gestured toward the walls.

"It was clear that these ore veins are pulling qi from everywhere around them, but some of the flows aren't moving right. If I can get under the mountain, I can work out where the problem is."

"Do you have any concept of how vast this range is?" She shook her head impatiently.

"Of course you don't. Not even I know the full extent of what is under the peaks. You could lose yourself for lifetimes and still not have explored a fraction of what is there."

"It won't be at random. When I was out on the plains I could tell the problem was under the second-highest peak. The qi flows down from the summit, but something isn't right deep in the centre. That's creating issues throughout the entire range. I can follow the qi flows that aren't right to pinpoint the problem." Ruo-Chen studied him for a long moment.

"You're telling me you looked at a few walls and diagnosed a century-old problem I've been trying to solve. Prove it." Ruo-Chen led them back inside and strode to the glass cases lining the walls. She pulled down a chunk of rough, reddish stone that Zhen recognized as copper ore.

"Tell me what qi is in this." Zhen hesitated. Showing her the Eye's full capability meant exposing himself, but the alternative was capture. The Order was hunting him, and they were prepared to kill his parents to get to him. While it may not be the case, it felt as if the Eye was at least part of the reason they wanted him. Ruo-Chen might be ruthless, but she was ultimately pragmatic and she seemed the sort to keep her word.

Exposing the Eye might get her to let him go, and that was far better than anything the Order might have planned for him. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He activated the Eye. Threads of qi wound through the crystalline structure, earth-aligned but with streaks of fire running alongside.

"The earth qi is stable, but there's fire qi threaded through it. Not naturally, I don't think. Something forced it in during its formation." Ruo-Chen's expression didn't change. She set the copper down and retrieved another sample, this one dark and metallic that was obviously iron ore.

"And this?"

"Pure earth alignment. The qi flows cleanly through it. No impurities." She moved faster now, pulling down sample after sample. Some ores Zhen knew from working at the forge, while others were new, but the Eye didn't care. He was able to identify the flows of qi in each one regardless. Finally, she set the last sample down.

"You really can do it." For the first time Ruo-Chen sounded uncertain.

"I have no idea how, but you can." She gestured toward the door.

"Find a vein with sluggish qi flows. We'll follow it upward first. I want to see if your theory holds." They moved through the villa's corridors, and Zhen spotted an exposed vein of tin ore where the flow of qi was thin and slow. He tracked it upward through the walls. As they climbed higher, the qi flow strengthened.

"It's stronger here," Zhen said after the first staircase.

"The higher we go, the better the flow as it draws in more ambient qi."

"One example proves nothing." Ruo-Chen's tone was brisk.

"We have to check enough to confirm the hypothesis." Over the next hour, Zhen traced multiple separate vein networks through the villa. Each time, the pattern held with stronger flows higher up, and weaker and more sluggish as they descended. After the sixth vein, Zhen turned to her.

"Surely we've confirmed it. Can we move on?" Ruo-Chen's jaw tightened.

"Six samples is hardly rigorous." She started muttering, more to herself than Zhen.

"Shoddy research practices. This is how errors propagate. Should be checking at…" She caught Zhen's expression and sighed.

"Fine. We'll proceed. But if this turns out to be wrong because we rushed, it's on your head." She started down the corridor.

"Come on." They descended several long flights of stairs and ended in a series of storage rooms. She stopped at a steel door set into the back wall, its surface covered in intricate runes that pulsed with qi. She pressed her palm against it, and the runes flared once before the door swung open. Beyond lay a tunnel carved into the stone. Ruo-Chen reached into a rack mounted beside the door and pulled down two crystal torches, each the length of her forearm.

She channeled qi into both, and as they flared to life, they cast white light across the passage. She handed one to Zhen.

"Over to you. Let's see what we can find." The Eye mapped the qi in the surrounding veins instantly, and Zhen immediately picked out a thick iron vein with a weak qi flow that snaked downward through the stone. Even without the torches, the tunnels weren't entirely dark. Patches of luminescent moss clung to the walls, and clusters of glowing crystals jutted from the ceiling at irregular intervals, casting everything in a dim, greenish-blue light. The air grew cooler as they descended.

As they descended, the vein's qi flow grew increasingly sluggish, confirming Zhen's theory. They had been walking a little over an hour when the vein took a sharp turn to the left. Zhen rounded the corner and stopped. The passage opened into an enormous, dimly lit cavern. Thousands of figures moved through the space, organized into crews working across different sections of exposed ore. Picks rang against stone in a steady rhythm. Carts rattled along metal tracks toward a central processing area.

The operation was disciplined and efficient. It would have appeared entirely normal. Except that every worker had the head of a wolf. Zhen automatically dropped into a fighting stance. Langren. Creatures from legend. He had never seen one, or even met anyone who had before. By reputation, Langren were vicious, territorial creatures that attacked travelers and dragged them back to their lairs. The tales never ended well for the humans involved. But Ruo-Chen seemed entirely unfazed.

She strode past him into the cavern without hesitation, her torch held high. One of the miners glanced up, then froze. It dropped its pick with a clatter and bolted toward a larger figure near the center of the camp. This one wore a leather vest and a wide-brimmed hat, clearly a supervisor of some kind. The supervisor looked up from his clipboard, irritation flickering across his lupine features. Then his gaze tracked to where Ruo-Chen stood at the cavern's entrance. His mouth dropped open.

The supervisor grabbed the miner by the shoulder, pointed frantically toward a cluster of permanent-looking buildings at the far edge of the mining camp and shoved him on his way. He then bounded toward Zhen and Ruo-Chen. Zhen tensed in his stance, ready to defend himself, but the creature skidded to a halt and immediately dropped into a kowtow, pressing his snout to the stone.

"Lady Zie! How may I serve?" Ruo-Chen gestured graciously as Zhen straightened with a look of incredulity.

"Rise." The supervisor scrambled to his feet, and Zhen revised his initial impression of how large it was. The creature towered over them both, easily seven feet tall with broad shoulders and arms corded with muscle. Yet his tail drooped as he yanked the hat from his head and twisted it between paw-like hands.

"We…Lady Zie, we weren't told to expect an inspection, though of course you don't need to give notice." The words tumbled out in a rapid, nervous stream.

"Is there trouble? We've been meeting quotas, I swear it."

"No problems." Ruo-Chen cut him off with a raised hand.

"We're passing through. Though I would like a brief meeting with the Clan Matriarch before we leave." The supervisor's relief was visible.

"Of course! Yes. I've already sent word. I'll take you there immediately. Right this way." He jammed his hat back on his head and gestured toward the permanent structures. As they walked, Zhen noticed the other langren had stopped working. Every pair of eyes tracked Ruo-Chen's progress through the cavern, and the workers whispered to one another in low growls that he couldn't follow. Zhen remained alert, and Ruo-Chen glanced over at him.

"Relax, they won't attack. These clans have worked these mines under contract for generations."

"Contract?"

"I pay them well, but also provide protection and access to the richest veins in the range. They mine, process, and deliver ore on schedule." Her tone was matter-of-fact.

"It's a mutually beneficial arrangement." Zhen watched a crew load a cart with refined iron ingots.

"The stories about Langren don't describe them as anything like this."

"Those stories are about the wild tribes." Ruo-Chen continued with a hint of amusement.

"The Duskmane langren are civilized and more reliable than most human miners." The building loomed ahead, its entrance marked by stone columns. Before they reached it, the door swung open, and a small delegation emerged. Two langren stepped into the cavern's light. The first walked with the help of a cane and wore robes of a deep purple silk embroidered with silver thread. Grey streaked her muzzle but her eyes were a bright amber and held a distinct twinkle. The second was even larger than the supervisor.

He wore lacquered armor, its metal plates a deep crimson that gleamed in the light from the crystals. This langren looked to be in his prime and he moved with a confident, watchful gait. A long war hammer with a head as large as his own was strapped to his back. The robed langren stepped forward, her ears pinned back respectfully. Despite her cane she executed a respectful bow that was echoed by the armored langren.

"Mistress Zie. An unexpected pleasure." Ruo-Chen inclined her head.

"Clan Matriarch Kylane." Kylane straightened, then turned to the supervisor who still hovered anxiously at Ruo-Chen's shoulder.

"You may return to your duties." The supervisor's relief was immediate. He bowed so quickly he nearly toppled forward, then spun, his tail perking up again as he rushed back toward his work crew. Kylane's attention shifted to Zhen briefly, her gaze assessing, before returning to Ruo-Chen.

"Lady Zie, what brings you down here? I suspect this is not a social call. Rest assured, I and all of my staff stand ready to assist you in any way we can."

"I appreciate that." Ruo-Chen gestured toward the wide iron vein threading through the cavern wall.

"I will not keep you. I have a simple question. Do you know where that ore vein ends?" Kylane's expression shifted. The twinkle vanished from her eyes. She glanced at the armored langren, and a grim look settled over both their faces. Kylane slowly turned back to Ruo-Chen and gestured toward the building's arched entrance.

"A simple question, but not one with a simple answer. Would you care for some light refreshments? This could take some time."