The work of filling the trenches wasn't finished until evening. Deacon Sun left one diversion trench each on the west and south sides, and filled the rest back in. After the trenches were filled, Yin Wujou's Earth Vein Compass stopped jumping around much, and the indicator steadily pointed to the direction of the third trench bottom, without moving.
"It's stable." Yin Wujou put the compass back into his robes. "The ley line water is no longer flowing through the Blind Zone; it's circling back into the depths of the ley lines. The concentration of resentment in the Blind Zone is decreasing."
A Yao probed the soil at the bottom of the dry ditch with her bamboo cane. "The bluish light on the bamboo cane is starting to dim. Once it's completely dark, the earth's water will be fully stabilized. It will probably take another two or three days."
Snow Empress glanced at the sky. "We'll camp by the Qian Gou tonight. We'll head back to town tomorrow. The Vein Guardian will come with us; we'll discuss things once we get there."
The old man found a sheltered spot by the dry ditch and sat down. He took the short knife with the old emblem of the character "Ling" from his belt and examined it for a long time. A Yao walked over and sat down beside him, taking out a piece of dry food from her backpack and handing it to him. The old man took it, took a bite, and chewed for a while before swallowing.
"I haven't eaten outside food in forty years," he said. "This pancake is softer than the ones I used to eat."
"What's your name?" A Yao asked.
The old man thought for a moment. "I forgot. No one has called me that in forty years. Just call me the Vein Guardian."
Snow Empress walked over and squatted down opposite her. "You just said that a man with a red ribbon on his sleeve came here last year. He went north. Did he say anything? Not even a single word?"
The old man swallowed the last bite of his biscuit. "He said something. He thought I wouldn't understand, but I did. He said, 'The main control node is below the radar station to the north. We have to find it before the Spirit Vein Bureau.'"
Snow Empress and A Yao both looked up at the same time.
"A radar station?" Snow Empress asked.
"There's an abandoned radar station outside the northern Blind Zone boundary. The tower is very tall, with a broken sphere on top. That young man was heading that way."
Snow Empress stood up and walked to the edge of the dry ditch. It was already dark to the north, with faint lights visible from the direction of the sea. She glanced back at A Yao. " Old Dao's men have already made their way to the north. If they know the main control node is below the radar station, they might already be inside."
A Yao planted her bamboo cane in the ground; the blue light had dimmed considerably, but it still illuminated the path three feet in front of her. "Let's go back to town first. Settle things with the Vein Guardian, then we'll go to the radar station."
Snow Empress nodded. She glanced at the old man sitting by the dry ditch. The old man was looking down, playing with his old dagger, his gray hair disheveled by the wind, and his feet still covered in mud from the Blind Zone. Forty years, she thought. Forty years of holding onto the idea that he didn't want the Spirit Vein Bureau to get involved anymore, but the Spirit Vein Bureau didn't come; instead, it was Old Dao's men who came. Sometimes things in this world just turn out the opposite of what they seem.
" Vein Guardian," she called out.
The old man looked up. "Hmm?"
"You'll come back to town with us tomorrow. Once we're there, tell us everything about the radar station in detail. What did the man with the red ribbon look like? What did he say? Which direction did he go? Don't leave anything out."
The old man tucked the dagger into his belt, stood up, and dusted himself off. "Alright. But you'll have to find me a pair of shoes first. I haven't worn shoes in forty years; my feet hurt from walking on gravel."
Snow Empress's lips twitched slightly. "I'll buy it for you in town."
That night, several people lit a fire by the dry ditch. Yin Wujou placed the Earth Vein Compass next to the fire, and the indicator quietly pointed to the bottom of the third ditch. A Yao placed her bamboo staff across her knees, the blue light on the staff had dimmed to just a thin halo. The Vein Guardian lay on the haystack on the east side of the fire and quickly fell asleep, snoring loudly.
Snow Empress sat by the fire, wiping her knife with a cloth. A Yao leaned closer and whispered, "You really believe him?"
"I only believe half of it." Snow Empress didn't look up. "He's been guarding the Vein Eye for forty years; he knows the Blind Zone better than we do. But I don't quite believe him when he says he doesn't know what Old Dao's men look like. At least he saw the red ribbon clearly, which means he remembers the details. He just said that the young man said the words 'master node.' Someone who's been guarding the Blind Zone for forty years shouldn't remember such a term so easily. Unless he'd heard it before."
A Yao thought for a moment. "You mean he might have had more dealings with Old Dao's people?"
"Possibly. Take him back first and have Deacon Sun keep an eye on him. If there's anything wrong with him, Deacon Sun will be able to spot it."
The fire crackled. The Vein Guardian turned over in his sleep, mumbled something, and then started snoring again. A Yao propped her bamboo cane up against her shoulder and stared blankly at the firelight.
"The three Vein Eye are open," she said. "I've completed half of what Master wrote in his notes. The rest I need to investigate at the radar station. Old Dao's people are looking for the master control node, and so are we. But what exactly is the master control node? And what is its connection to the Spirit Vein Bureau?"
Snow Empress sheathed her sword. "We'll talk about it when we get back to town tomorrow. Deacon Sun is in charge of the Spirit Vein Bureau's old files in this area; he might have the radar station's blueprints."
She lay down, placed the knife beside her, and closed her eyes. The water from the earth veins in the dry ditch was still flowing, the sound very soft, like someone beating a small drum in the distance. The snoring of the Vein Guardian blended with the sound of the water, so it wasn't too noisy.
The next morning, before dawn, Deacon Sun arrived from the east with his men. After filling the trough the night before, he went back to town to fetch a cartload of supplies and returned before daybreak. When the Vein Guardian woke up, Deacon Sun was unloading shoes from the cart. There were shoes of all sizes, all old stock stored in the town's warehouse.
"Try them," Deacon Sun tossed a pair of thick-soled cloth shoes to the Vein Guardian. "Size 42, that should be about right."
The Vein Guardian wiped his feet on his trousers, put on his shoes, stood up, and took a couple of steps. "Fine. Better than me going barefoot."
After breakfast, the group packed up and headed back. The Vein Guardian walked in the middle of the group, looking around at the wasteland on both sides. When they reached the entrance of the town, he suddenly stopped.
"Over there," he pointed to the north side of the town, "That guy with the red ribbon from last year ran away in that direction. He didn't enter the town; he went around the north side. I chased him to the town entrance but stopped. There are too many people in the town; I was afraid of getting into trouble."
Snow Empress glanced in the direction he pointed. To the north of the town was a dirt road leading to the old dock by the sea. The grass on both sides of the dirt road grew very tall, with several trampled marks, but it was dry and hard to tell whether it was new or old.
"Let's go back to the station first," she said, "And get the files out first."
The Spirit Vein Bureau's office in town was an old two-story building, with offices on the first floor and living quarters on the second. Deacon Sun cleaned up an empty room on the second floor for the Vein Guardian to live in, and then spent the whole morning rummaging through the archives, finding a roll of yellowed blueprints. The blueprints depicted a radar station, labeled "Hand-drawn by Meng Qi, Spirit Vein Calendar Year 32".
A Yao spread the blueprints on the table. The radar station's tower, base, and auxiliary buildings were all drawn in great detail.