The leader hesitated a moment. "I don't know whether word simply hasn't reached us yet, but Wei River Water Fort doesn't seem to have reacted at all. We've only just received orders ourselves to report immediately if there's any news from Wei River Water Fort."
Zhu Gaoyang thought for a moment. "Where is that fort now?"
"They've always been on the Wei River. They seem to be moored upstream at the moment." The leader paused. "By rights, Wei River Water Fort should have received the message around the same time we did. But there's been no word of them burning their bait. Some even say the sacrifices over there have never stopped... They're the only Water Fort on the upper Wei River, so we don't know what's going on."
"All right, understood. The two of us will go take a look." Zhu Gaoyang smiled and cupped his fist. "May good fortune flourish for you all!"
With that, he gathered his reins, and the two riders galloped away down the road.
"Wei River Water Fort is the largest of the forts," Zhu Gaoyang said, his smile fading. "We can guess how deeply they're bound to Mirage City. But with things as they are, and all the Eight Waters Wind Envoys dead, are they still going to fight with their backs to the wall?"
"Perhaps that just shows how important feasting the Water Master is to them." Pei Ye considered it. "And from the look of things, it might not be a ritual that needs to be complete."
"Hmm?"
"The sacrifice in Fenghuai was like that," Pei Ye said. "It had to be performed step by step, from beginning to end. If anything went wrong, they had to do everything possible to remedy it. If a hole appeared that couldn't be patched,