The day Yin Wujou and A Yao left Hetao, the weather was beautiful. The autumn sky was clear and blue, like a freshly washed cloth. Deacon Sun saw them off at the town entrance, and before parting, he took out a small cloth bag from his pocket and handed it to A Yao.
"I've seen your father's catalog before," he said. "He was a meticulous man. Take this; it's an old file from the Spirit Vein Bureau I copied back then, about the Hetao ley lines. There are some things in it that your father probably didn't have time to memorize."
A Yao took the cloth bag, opened it, and glanced inside. There were several yellowed papers, densely covered with writing. Her eyes were a little wet, but she held back and just nodded vigorously.
The two rode back. The return journey was faster than the way there, as there was no need to scout the route again. Yin Wujou rode in front, with A Yao following behind. The autumn wind blew on their faces, carrying the scent of ripening crops. After two days of riding, A Yao suddenly spurred her horse to catch up, and they rode Yin Wujou by side.
"Brother Yin," she said, "What do you think the Spirit Vein Bureau will be like in the future?"
Yin Wujou thought for a moment. "The same as before," he said. "Observe the earth's veins, record the changes, and pass on the direction of the world's spiritual veins to future generations."
"Will we continue doing this?"
"Yes," Yin Wujou said, "As long as the earth's veins are still moving."
A Yao didn't ask any more questions. The two walked in silence for a while, and at the end of the official road in the distance, the outline of the capital city gradually emerged from the horizon. The clouds above the city wall were dyed gold by the setting sun, spreading out layer by layer, like a huge map of the earth's veins.
Yin Wujou gazed at the cloud, he suddenly recalled that morning at the old office of the Spirit Vein Bureau, when he carried his bundle out of the backyard and saw the Snow Empress sitting at the stone table in the courtyard looking at a map. The Yezi of the old locust tree rustled gently in the wind, and the plaque under the eaves of the main hall shone brightly in the sunlight. That scene remained in his mind, as clear as a painting.
He spurred his horse to quicken its pace. A Yao followed. The two horses galloped one after the other along the official road toward the capital. The Hetao Plain behind them gradually receded into the twilight, while the city gate ahead drew ever closer.
Yin Wujou knew that the lights in the old office of the Spirit Vein Bureau were still on. Snow Empress must still be in the main hall, with a map and list spread out in front of her, a lantern illuminating her profile. Zhou Yan was probably working on the abacus again, or brewing medicine. The gray magpies in the old locust tree should have returned to their nests, the Yezi rustling in the night wind.
However, at the same moment the Hetao ley line water surged to the surface, the lights in the old Spirit Vein Bureau went out.
The moment Snow Empress's fingertip touched the words " Blind Zone," the black-scaled Demonic Beast crashed through the west wall and pounced in, a stench swirling through the scrolls. Zhou Yan coughed up blood to block the attack, Yin Wujou drew his sword, A Yao retreated, clutching the scrolls. Snow Empress rose and drew her sword. "Suppress."
Before the light of the sword arrived, the sound fell first. A circle of faint blue ripples swayed between the beams and pillars of the main hall. The monster's attack stopped, and the red earth vein mark on its forehead suddenly lit up, as if it was stabbed by the word "Zhen". It roared like gravel rubbing together, swept its giant tail, swept Zhou Yan and his chair more than ten feet away, and hit the medicine stove. The medicine jar shattered, and the hot medicine juice was splashed on the ground, white steam steaming.
" Zhou Yan!" A Yao cried out.
Yin Wujou's short knife was already extended. He had just returned from the Hetao, and his robes were still covered in mud from the ditch, yet the blade remained steady. The short knife pierced the gap in the scales of the Demonic Beast's right forelimb, penetrating three-tenths of an inch into the flesh. The Demonic Beast cried out in pain, turning its head to exhale a breath of dark red air. Yin Wujou rolled to the side to avoid it, the breath grazing the threshold, instantly cracking the bluestone threshold.
The Snow Empress took a step forward, her blade slashing horizontally. A cold, eerie blue light flashed across the Demonic Beast's neck, shattering its scales and sending up a spray of dark red blood. The Demonic Beast's massive body was jolted backward, crashing into half of the east wall. The branches of the old locust tree swayed violently outside the wall, and startled magpies took flight, their cries mournful. Moonlight streamed in through the breach, illuminating the Demonic Beast. It was covered in black scales, with seven bone spurs on its back and a three-pronged tail, the tip of which burned with eerie blue flames. The crimson earth vein mark on its forehead was exactly the same shape as the cinnabar circle in the " Blind Zone " on the earth vein map.
Snow Empress's pupils contracted slightly.
"It didn't come from the Hetao," she whispered. "It came from Tuli."
Zhou Yan struggled to sit up from beside the medicine-breaking furnace, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but he stared at the crimson seal. "The old Earth Vein Map... was drawn using the earth veins as ink when the Spirit Vein Bureau was first established. If the earth veins harbor resentment, the map is the outlet for that resentment."
The Demonic Beast gave them no more time. Its three-pronged tail lashed out simultaneously, and a net of ghostly blue fire swirled in the air, enveloping the Snow Empress. The Snow Empress did not dodge; her blade touched the ground, and she spun around, using her body as an axis. A blade of light, like a Leng Yue, rose from the fire net, severing all three Dao Fire. The severed flames did not extinguish upon landing; instead, they seeped into the blue bricks, and fine crimson lines immediately appeared between the brick seams, spreading like living things towards the earth vein map in the center of the main hall.
"It's drawing upon the earth's veins!" A Yao, clutching the map, retreated to the doorway, suddenly realizing, "It's trying to awaken the old government's earth veins, turning this place into Blind Zone too!"
The Snow Empress's sword stance shifted from a slash to a press. She plunged the blade into the central blue brick of the main hall, the hilt completely submerged. A dark blue light barrier expanded outwards from the blade, forcing back the spreading crimson markings inch by inch. The Demonic Beast roared in resentment, its crimson mark on its forehead throbbing violently, its scales standing on end. It leaped up suddenly, its massive body crashing through the roof, tiles raining down. The Snow Empress drew her sword and gave chase, but in the moonlight, only a dark shadow could be seen flashing past the top of an old locust tree, disappearing northwards. The dark blue flames at the tip of its three-pronged tail drew three arcs in the night sky, quickly vanishing behind the roof ridge.
The main hall was a mess. Zhou Yan stood up, bracing himself against the table leg, his left arm hanging limply, clearly dislocated. Yin Wujou sheathed his dagger and went to help A Yao. A corner of the picture book in A Yao was broken by a tile, revealing a thin piece of paper tucked inside. She pulled it out and her expression changed drastically.
" Snow Empress, look."
It was a fragment of a general map of the earth's veins from when the Spirit Vein Bureau was first established, different from the one hanging on the wall of the main hall. On the fragment, next to the " Blind Zone earth's veins" east of the Hetao bend, a beast was drawn in very light ink. There was a dot of cinnabar on the beast's forehead, exactly the same as the red mark on the forehead of the Demonic Beast earlier. Next to it was a line of small characters, blurred by water stains, but A Yao could make out a few words: "... resentment manifests as a beast, dissipates when the veins are open, and..."
"What does it mean if the pulse stops?" Yin Wujou asked.
A Yao shook her head. "The words at the end were torn off."
Snow Empress sheathed her sword and walked to the tattered page. She looked at it for a long time, then suddenly said, "When the veins are severed, they devour." She looked up at the north, the direction where the Demonic Beast had disappeared, and also the direction of the Hetao. "The earth's veins have been severed for ten years, and the resentment has been nurtured for ten years. Now that the water in the earth's veins is beginning to repair, the resentment refuses to dissipate, so it has transformed into a beast to block the spring. It wants the earth's veins to remain severed forever."
Zhou Yan endured the pain as he put his dislocated arm back in place, letting out a muffled groan. "Then why did it come to the old office?"
"Because the old headquarters was the central hub of the Spirit Vein Bureau." The Snow Empress folded the tattered page and put it into his robes. " The Spirit Vein Bureau has been dissolved for ten years, but the ley line nodes beneath the old headquarters are still connected to the ley lines of the entire world. Its arrival is to sever the possibility of the Spirit Vein Bureau being re-established from the root."
Yin Wujou silent for a moment. "Three springs in the Hetao..."
"It's gone." Snow Empress turned around, her gaze sweeping over the three of them. " Deacon Sun can't hold it alone. Let's leave now."