Blue Alert

Time waited for no one.

Xu Feng read with utmost concentration. Once a stretch of focused study was done, he relaxed by pacing back and forth.

He knew a person's attention was limited.

Mental work done beyond that limit took twice the effort for half the result.

For Xu Feng, he might as well rest.

The more urgent it was, the more he had to keep himself from rushing!

After resting, Xu Feng resumed studying.

It did not quite count as burning the midnight oil.

He studied one section at a time.

Even in this short span, Xu Feng could tell that studying had begun to feel as though he was hitting his stride.

He did not know where the "wide learning" part of Wide Learning and Rapid Recall would come from.

But he could already feel the rapid recall.

Xu Feng remembered that in his previous life, someone had proposed that abilities like memory could be trained.

At any rate, he was training his memory now, and it was working.

Even his Corpse Stitching was moving from (Basic Understanding) toward (Proficiency) as he read the books before him carefully and combined what he learned with knowledge and practice.

It was advancing another step!

And while he read,

Xu Feng used a printer to print out the Human Meridian Diagram.

It was unquestionably a good find.

Xu Feng figured he could probably find a meridian chart in Luoyin County if he looked.

But it would not be complete.

Such charts were no secret, but they were not lying around on every street corner, either.

Complete meridian charts had changed over time. Xu Feng did not know how far those changes had progressed over there, but he was in a small, run-down county town. Its bookshops might not carry much in the way of specialized medical texts.

Besides, in the game, Xu Feng had no money.

His master fed and clothed him, but gave him no spending money.

He had little chance of traveling to a bigger city. He might be able to reach Dayuan Town, but Dayuan Town was unlikely to have what he needed.

The great thing about a teaching meridian chart was its completeness.

Xu Feng had combined several versions.

There were no secrets on a meridian chart.

The things worth keeping to oneself were taught in person.

They lay in the handling, the pressure, the precise timing, and the acupuncture Needle Method.

Those were the things that truly had to be taught face-to-face.

A meridian chart alone could not teach them.

During a break,

Xu Feng held out his hand and tried to copy the "hand gesture" his master had used to smooth the flow of his qi, checking the acupoints against the meridian chart.

"Like this."

"Then this."

"And then this."

Xu Feng studied it for quite a while. Unfortunately, though he could imitate the movements, he had no idea whether he had the inner workings right.

After his break, Xu Feng went back to studying hard. And before tomorrow's mountain patrol, he would enter the game once more.

He would complete the third act.

Even though he still did not know what the third act was.

He would get in first and find out.

Qu City.

Qu City styled itself the capital of six provinces, a city that held the north in check and barred the south, embraced the east and watched the west, had historical ties to the southwest, and drew economic resources from the northeast.

It was an "extra-large city."

At that moment, inside the extra-large city, there stood a rather inconspicuous building.

In an office,

Analyst Xiao Zhang stood before the team leader, walking him through a PowerPoint presentation. "There were three abnormal deaths. We can't determine the cause of one, so that case remains in doubt.

"But the others should all be related to the objects used to suppress what lies beneath. None of the victims were possessed, of course. Specialists have already recovered their bodies.

"The unit didn't notice the first death at the time. After all, he fell into the water by accident. But when the remaining three also died in accidents over the next six months, it caught our attention.

"Look, Team Leader. Compared with the preceding year, the frequency of accidents has clearly risen.

"The same holds true when we compare it over three-year, five-year, and ten-year periods."

"Accidents?" the team leader asked.

"Yes, accidents," Analyst Xiao Zhang said. "But when they happen one after another, we should raise the alert level even if we can't find a lead."

The team leader looked at the computer.

The PowerPoint was well made. At the very least, its key points were clear at a glance.

After studying it for a moment, the team leader said, "So what you're saying is—"

"That's not my opinion," the analyst said at once. "I'm just going by the data.

"According to the data, a frequency this high is indeed concerning. And look here, Team Leader."

Another press of Enter brought up a map.

The team leader sat up straight. "The incident sites form a line."

"Yes," Analyst Xiao Zhang said. "They form a line."

Of course, the line they meant was not what most people would think of as a line.

It was an Earth Vein.

"Are you saying these deaths trace all the way from Yunjia Mountain down to Longevity Grotto?" the team leader asked. "If this keeps up, which site is the source of the problem?"

"At present, we don't know," Analyst Xiao Zhang said. "Nothing like this has happened before. But accidents mean danger, and the unknown brings fear."

"Issue an internal blue alert," the team leader said. "Be ready to raise it to yellow at any time."

In their unit, alert colors worked like weather warnings: the deeper the color, the more serious the situation.

Above blue, yellow, orange, and red, there was also a black alert.

Their unit differed from others in another respect.

For alerts like these, even a black alert, someone who was not a team leader could issue one directly.

Of course, issuing an alert was one thing. Whether they would be held accountable afterward was another.

Xiao Zhang gave no indication of whether he agreed with the team leader's order.

"How are the forest wardens at Yunjia Mountain and Longevity Grotto?" the team leader asked.

"No problems at present," Analyst Xiao Zhang said.

"Xu Feng, the mountain warden at Yunjia Mountain, checked in on time at six thirty this evening.

"So did Wang Wu, the mountain warden at Longevity Grotto."

"Keep watching."

"If necessary," the team leader said, "tell them to withdraw early."

"Understood."

The analyst nodded.

The team leader took a sip of water. "Oh, right. What was the warning sign of an anomaly at Longevity Grotto?"

"Thick fog," Analyst Xiao Zhang answered promptly.

"And at Yunjia Mountain?"

"A torrential downpour." Xiao Zhang had the details at his fingertips.

"Right, right. Torrential rain and thick fog."

The team leader nodded. "Here's what we'll do. Send a notice in the group tonight—no, make it a safety bulletin. Have everyone in the group copy out the safety rules for their own area by hand. That should make them remember.

"Call Xu Feng and Wang Wu personally.

"Make sure it sticks with them.

"As for an excuse, that's easy enough to find.

"It's Safety Month. Pick any representative case and tell them it's a Safety Month inspection. Understood?"

"Understood."

With that, Analyst Xiao Zhang left the office. The team leader had troubles of his own.

"Accidental deaths."

His head ached. Even as team leader, he understood some things only vaguely. As he saw it, information was power. Clearly, he did not have enough power to access much higher-level information.

Take himself, for instance.

He did not know what, exactly, was being held down beneath those places. All he knew was that something was!