That night, Yin Wujou didn't sleep well. He had a dream in which he was standing on a vast expanse of water, the surface of which was transparent, and he could see the earth veins extending in all directions like tree roots. Some of these veins were glowing, while others were darkening. He saw a person in a gray robe squatting at a node of one of the veins, covering it with their hand. He tried to shout, but no sound came out. Then he woke up; it was just getting light outside the window.
A Yao was already up and was fetching water to wash her face in the courtyard. The two ate a simple breakfast, then took the shovel and crowbar they had borrowed from the inn and set off eastward again. This time they walked very quickly and reached the depression in less than an hour.
Yin Wujou inserted the crowbar into the edge of the stone slab and pried it open with force. The slab made a dull sound and a crack appeared. A damp smell wafted out from the crack, carrying a very faint, indescribable sweetness. A Yao leaned over to smell it, and her expression changed.
"This is the smell of ley line water," she said. "My father wrote in his notes that ley line water has a sweet smell. Ordinary spring water doesn't have this smell."
Yin Wujou pried the stone slab completely open and moved it aside. Beneath the slab was a dark, deep pit, about a foot square, with smooth rock walls. There was water at the bottom, but it was very shallow, only reaching above the knuckles. A thin layer of mist floated on the surface of the water, slowly rising in the sunlight.
A Yao reached into the pit and scooped up a handful of water. The water was so clear that you could see the lines on your palm. She brought it close to her nose, then carefully tasted it. Yin Wujou wanted to stop her, but she had already swallowed it.
"It's sweet," she said, her voice trembling slightly, "It really is ley water."
Yin Wujou also put his hand into the pit to test it. The water was cool, but not the bone-chilling coolness of well water; rather, it was a very gentle coolness, as if the temperature was brought up from the depths of the earth. He pulled his hand out and watched the water droplets drip from his fingers. The water droplets landed on the gravel at the edge of the pit, and where the gravel was wet, a very fine layer of white mist actually rose from the surface of the gravel.
"Brother Yin," A Yao's voice suddenly became tense, "Look over there."
Yin Wujou raised his head. On the east side of the pit, at the edge of the patch of green grass, he saw a layer of extremely fine water droplets condensed on the grass blades. The water droplets glistened in the sunlight, but the soil around the grass blades was dry. These water droplets did not seep from the soil, but condensed from the air.
"The earth's veins are seeping outwards," A Yao said. "This spring isn't just producing water; it's releasing earth energy. This energy overflows from the pit and condenses into water droplets when it encounters cold air."
Yin Wujou stood up and looked around the entire depression. He suddenly realized that the shape of the depression itself was unnatural; it was too round, as if it had been dug out by human hands. And the stone slab sealing the spring was located right in the center of the depression. If the spring had flowed naturally, the water should have filled the entire depression, forming a pond. But someone had blocked the spring, and the water had seeped into the surrounding soil, turning the depression into what it is now.
" A Yao," he said, "How long has this depression been there?"
A Yao flipped through the picture book. "In my father's picture book, the third spring is labeled 'Ancient Spring, Long Abandoned.' But he didn't mark the shape of the depression. However, judging from the distribution of the surrounding vegetation, this depression has existed for at least several decades."
Decades. Yin Wujou did the math in his mind. The Spirit Vein Bureau had been dissolved for ten years, the depression had existed for decades, and the spring had been sealed for decades. If the person who sealed the spring was related to the decline of the Spirit Vein Bureau, then the timeline would match up.
"We'll take the stone slab back," he said.
A Yao was taken aback. "Move back?"
"Move it back, but don't seal it off." Yin Wujou squatted down and turned the stone slab over to look at it. There were some shallow symbols engraved on the back, like some kind of mark. He looked closely and recognized a few of them. They were the early earth vein symbols of the Spirit Vein Bureau, used to mark earth vein nodes. But these symbols were different from the ones Snow Empress taught him. They were older and simpler.
"This stone slab was placed there by the Spirit Vein Bureau," he said, "But not by the Snow Empress's generation. It was placed by someone much earlier."
A Yao recognized the symbols as well. She gently touched the back of the stone slab, her fingers trembling slightly. "These symbols... there's a drawing in my father's notebook. It's a picture of a stone tablet with similar symbols engraved on it, labeled 'Remembering the Former Bureau Chief Feng Quan.' My father said it was left by the earliest group of deacons of the Spirit Vein Bureau."
The two placed the stone slab back over the pit, but did not completely cover it. Yin Wujou used his short knife to carve a new mark on the edge of the slab, the kind of mark Snow Empress had taught him, a simple symbol indicating "to be investigated." Then they filled the pit with the excavated soil, covering most of the slab, leaving only a narrow crack for the earth's energy to continue seeping out.
By the time they finished, it was already afternoon. The two sat down to rest at the edge of the depression, eating the dry rations Zhou Yan had given them. A Yao wrote down everything she had seen that day in her notebook and drew very detailed diagrams. Yin Wujou leaned against the slope, gazing at the green grass shimmering warmly in the setting sun.
"Brother Yin," A Yao closed her notebook, "Do you think the other two springs might be blocked?"
"I don't know," Yin Wujou said. "Let's go check out the second location tomorrow."
The second spring was about ten miles north of the depression. The two set off early the next morning and walked for nearly two hours before arriving. It was an even more desolate slope, with the ground almost entirely covered in gravel and very little wild grass. A Yao searched for a long time with the map and finally found traces of the spring in a small pit that was almost completely covered by gravel.
The pit was small, only about the size of a washbasin. There was water at the bottom, but it was murky, with a layer of grayish-white film floating on the surface. A Yao squatted down to take a look and shook her head. "This place hasn't been disturbed. The water seeped out naturally; the earth's energy is very weak."
Yin Wujou squatted down to test the water temperature; it was much cooler than the first spot, almost ice water. He pulled his hand out, and the water droplets were quickly dried by the wind, without any white mist. The concentration of earth energy was much lower than at the first spot.
"This area hasn't fully recovered yet," A Yao said. "My dad marked it as 'suspected,' which means there were only faint signs last spring. Now it seems it's still slowly recovering."
Yin Wujou nodded. He sat by the pit for a while, observing the surrounding terrain. This spring was located at a lower elevation than the first one, and the surrounding soil layers were thinner, with only a few inches of soil beneath the gravel. If the earth veins continued to revitalize and the water pressure increased, the gravel layer here might be washed away.
"Write it down," he said. "Come back next spring."
The third spring was further north. It took the two three days to reach it. The terrain there was even more complex, with hills upon hills and ravines crisscrossing the area. A Yao had to consult the map several times to pinpoint its location. It was at the bottom of a deep ravine, its walls covered with thorns and vines, making it almost impassable.