Seven months later, Bai Jin stood on a stone road washed out by mountain rain and finally saw the entrance to the old Medicine Cavern.
The rough mountain map had drawn the ridge wrong. The old Branch Hall had moved more than once, and the place names used by the cargo owners had fallen out of use. Several patrol teams had searched their assigned stretches, but it was not until Xie Yue found a collapsed stone bridge that they pieced together the old road near the exit. Merchants still traveled below; farther in, even herb gatherers refused to go.
Three carts waited beside the broken bridge, and the driver refused to leave. The detour would take most of a day, and there was an injured passenger in the last cart. He pointed at the bridge and asked the patrol Soul Masters whether they could wait for it to be repaired. Bai Jin went down to the bridgehead, pressed a hand against the crumbling old stone, and held up the swaying span.
The driver spotted the elder's insignia on him and hurried down from his seat. Bai Jin told him to stop dawdling and lead the horses while the others pushed the carts. Azure drew the loose stones together to bridge the two-zhang gap for the moment. All three carts crossed one after another without a single stone falling from the bridge.
"I'm not letting you in," he told the patrol Soul Masters. "Let the people on this side cross first. Everyone behind them takes the outer road."
The injured passenger in the last cart raised a hand in thanks. Bai Jin only tapped the cart bed and told the driver to keep it steady. Once the three carts had gone, he set the bridge's loose stones on the bank. The