Yin Wujou used his short knife to cut through the thorns, barely clearing a narrow path. The two descended to the bottom of the ditch and found that the ground had completely changed. The bottom of the ditch was covered with a thick layer of silt, and the surface of the silt had cracked lines, as if there had been water and then it had dried up. A Yao searched through the silt for a while and found a few pieces of broken pottery and a piece of rotten wood.
"The pottery shards are from the Han Dynasty." She pointed out the patterns on the shards to Yin Wujou, "This shows that people were active here during the Han Dynasty. The rotten wood is canal timber, probably buried during the construction of the canal. Just as I guessed, someone used to work on water conservancy projects here."
Where is the spring?
A Yao walked back and forth at the bottom of the ditch several times, finally stopping at a depression in the ditch wall. The soil in the depression was a different color from the surrounding soil; it was dark black and very wet. She dug a few times with her hands and pulled out a handful of wet mud. The mud was mixed with very fine sand grains, which shimmered slightly in the sunlight.
"The spring is here," she said, pointing to the bottom of the depression, "But it's blocked by silt. Not by human intervention, but by natural accumulation. Perhaps after the canal was abandoned, the silt slowly filled it back in."
Yin Wujou used a shovel to clear the mud from the depression. After digging about two feet deep, water began to seep from the bottom of the pit. The water was clear and seeped out quickly, accumulating to half a foot deep in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. A Yao squatted down, tasted it, and nodded. "Sweet. Earth vein water."
"Same as the first one," Yin Wujou said.
A Yao stood up, patted the mud off her hands, and looked at the cleared water surface at the bottom of the ditch. Her expression was complex, a mixture of excitement and confusion. "There are three springs. The first was blocked by humans, the second revived naturally, and the third naturally silted up. But the water in all three is from the earth's veins, and they are all concentrated in this small area east of the Hetao."
What do you think this means?
A Yao thought for a long time. "My father's notes said that ley line water isn't ordinary groundwater. It comes from very deep places and is a manifestation of ley line energy on the surface. The appearance of ley line water in a place indicates that the ley lines in that place are active. Three places appearing simultaneously, and so close together..."
She looked up at Yin Wujou, her eyes reflecting the sunlight filtering through the ditch wall. "This indicates that the earth's veins in this area are undergoing significant changes. It could be that new veins are forming, or it could be that old veins are being reopened."
Yin Wujou planted the shovel in the mud and sat down against the ditch wall. He suddenly remembered something. In the old storeroom of the Spirit Vein Bureau, Zhou Yan sorted out a batch of tattered files, one of which was an early general map of the earth veins of the Spirit Vein Bureau. On that map, the area east of the Hetao was marked as the "Earth Vein Blind Zone," meaning that the earth veins broke here and could not be traced.
" Blind Zone," he said softly.
"What?" A Yao didn't hear clearly.
"On an early master map of the Spirit Vein Bureau, this area was marked as Blind Zone for the earth veins," Yin Wujou said. "This indicates that the earth veins here were broken a long time ago. But now, all three springs are flowing water, and the earth veins are reconnecting."
A Yao's eyes widened slowly. "So these springs are reviving not because the earth's veins are active, but because the earth's veins are repairing themselves?"
Yin Wujou nodded. He stood up and looked at the newly seeped water at the bottom of the ditch. The water was calm, reflecting the sky above the ditch wall. He suddenly felt that the land beneath his feet was undergoing a very slow but profound change. This change began before the establishment of the Spirit Vein Bureau and has continued until now. It was interrupted by human intervention, but the earth veins found their own way out.
"We have to go back," he said, "And tell Snow Empress what's going on here."
It took the two three days to return to town from the bottom of the ravine. When they got back to the inn, they were both exhausted, but A Yao still managed to compile a detailed report on the three springs. Yin Wujou wrote a short message and sent it, along with the report, back to the capital by express horse from the post station.
In the days he waited for a reply, Yin Wujou went to the first spring again by himself. The water under the stone slab was more than when he last came, and it had accumulated to a depth of half a foot. The earth's energy was seeping out faster, and the water droplets on the grass were denser. He sat on the edge of the depression for a long time, watching the green grass sway gently in the autumn wind.
He recalled that night at the old headquarters of the Spirit Vein Bureau, when Snow Empress sat under the lamp looking at A Yao's father's album. She said the earth veins were moving, and that the Spirit Vein Bureau had been dissolved for ten years, and the earth veins themselves were changing. At the time, he only thought it was Snow Empress's intuition, but now he saw concrete evidence. The earth veins were indeed moving, repairing, and reconnecting. And what the people of the Spirit Vein Bureau had to do was keep up with this change.
On the fifth day, a reply arrived. The Snow Empress's letter was short, containing only a few sentences: "Report received. The situation at the three springs is very important. I have had Zhou Yan search the old files of the Spirit Vein Bureau to see if there are any records regarding the Blind Zone in the Hetao ley lines. You will remain in Hetao and continue to observe the changes at the first spring. I will send someone to relieve you in half a month. Also, there is news from Vice Minister Pei; Meng Qi's family has been released. We will discuss the details upon returning to the capital."
Yin Wujou showed the letter to A Yao. After reading it, A Yao was silent for a while, then said, "Half a month. That's a good time to take a closer look at the first spring. I want to know if its water flow rate is increasing."
For the next two weeks, the two went to the first spring almost every day. A Yao made a simple measuring tool with a rough porcelain bowl and measured the water depth in the pit at the same time every day. Yin Wujou walked all over the land around the depression and drew a detailed sketch of the terrain and vegetation distribution.
Over the course of more than ten days, A Yao's measurement records showed that the water in the pit was indeed increasing slowly but steadily. From just above her finger joints at the beginning, to half a foot deep, and finally to nearly a foot deep. Moreover, the water temperature was also rising slightly, from the initial coolness to lukewarm. The rate of seepage from the ground was faster, and the patch of green grass in the depression had expanded to twice its original size.
On the fifteenth day, their replacement arrived. It was a former member of the Spirit Vein Bureau, surnamed Sun, in his fifties. He used to be an external affairs officer for the Spirit Vein Bureau, and after the Spirit Vein Bureau disbanded, he had been farming in the Hetao region. The Snow Empress somehow found him and summoned him back.
Deacon Sun was not tall and had a slightly hunched back, but his eyes were very bright. After reading Yin Wujou and A Yao's records, he squatted on the edge of the depression for an entire afternoon, checking every single detail.
"That's right," he concluded. "This is the ley lines reactivating. I've worked at the Spirit Vein Bureau for over twenty years and have witnessed similar situations twice, both in the south. Once a ley line is severed, it takes a very long time to reopen it—decades or even centuries. But once it's open, it won't be severed again."
He put his hand into the pit to test the water temperature, then nodded. "The water temperature is rising, which means the earth's veins are sending more energy here. In another year or two, this spring might gush forth on its own."