After Mu Huang finished speaking, he lifted his teacup, his tone like he was announcing that the foundation of his old family home had cracked on its own—beyond saving, so they might as well accept it.
Xiao Cheng was somewhat lost in thought. The last time he had come to the Body Sect, he had soaked in Yang Spring once. Back then, he had found the water pleasantly warm; after soaking, his whole body felt clear and refreshed, as if every pore had been through a sauna. He had thought Yang Spring lived up to its reputation. Now his grandfather was telling him that this Yang Spring was actually a crippled version that had been declining for three thousand years?
"Grandpa," Xiao Cheng said, setting down his teacup, "has Yang Spring's decline always been this slow, or has it accelerated recently?"
Mu Huang raised his eyelids, somewhat surprised by the angle of the question. "According to the sect's records, the decline was not obvious during the first two thousand years. Over the past few centuries, especially after several major expansions of Heaven Dou City, the rate of decline clearly accelerated. In the last few decades, it has basically been in a state of spending more than it takes in."
"Heaven Dou City's expansion." Xiao Cheng repeated the words, an unpleasant suspicion surfacing in his heart.
He remembered something mentioned in the original story: beneath Heaven Dou City, the Tang Sect had long hollowed out the underground and turned it into a massive secret factory. The Tang Sect's core research into high-level mecha and Soul Tools was all conducted underground, completely unnoticed by outsiders.
The Yang vein where the Body Sect's Yang Spring was located connected to the entire network of earth veins beneath Heaven Dou City. Once the underground had