Escape

The first iron nail saved Helian Yuan's leg.

It had been driven into a crevice at a bend in the stream bank, originally just a marker he had left before entering the cave. After the water rose sharply, a whole section of earth slid off the bank. Helian Yuan reached out and grabbed at nothing, but his fingertips caught the hemp rope tied to the nail.

The knot had softened in the water.

Rather than put his full weight on it at once, he drove his short spear into the earth above him, then used both the rope and the spear to bear his weight as he climbed back onto the rocky slope inch by inch.

The water spewing from the drainage outlet behind him grew muddier, carrying splinters and broken chains. The level-four Azure-Scaled Water Python did not pursue him outside, but it churned up the old facilities inside the mountain, causing the already unstable tunnels to keep collapsing.

Helian Yuan followed the eastern passage map upward.

The second iron nail marked a fork. The stone steps on the left were wider, but fallen rocks had blocked them. The right passage was narrow, with grooves worn into the walls when goods had been carried through years ago. The arrow on the map pointed right.

He did not doubt the map, but neither did he trust it completely.

He first threw a stone to test the ground, then probed the ceiling with his short spear. Only after confirming there were no traps did he enter. With each step completed, there was one fewer decision he had to make on the spot. His injuries, missing boot, and the cold were already wearing down his judgment. A fixed routine was more reliable than courage.

At the third iron nail, a rotten wooden door blocked the passage. Water sounded behind it, but faint daylight showed beneath the planks.

Helian Yuan did not ram the door. He looped the rope around the latch, retreated around the corner, and pulled. When the rotten wood fell, loose stones did indeed come crashing down from above. Had he charged straight through, he would have been buried beneath the door.

Once the dust settled, he climbed out past the side of the rubble.

Outside was a mountain gully concealed by shrubs.

Dawn had already broken.

Helian Yuan lay on the wet ground. The first thing he did was not catch his breath, but take out all the oilpaper packets tucked against his chest. The edges of the Sunken Bone Slope map had soaked through and fallen apart, but the main route remained intact. Only one character on the No. 7 transfer sheet had smudged. The gray-stamped iron token and the iron key were undamaged.

What truly proved it was not that the papers were still in his possession, but that several pieces of evidence matched one another: the spring on the transfer sheet, the exit on the eastern passage map, the bone-white slope on the Sunken Bone Slope map, and the holes in the gray-stamped token. Any one of them could have been fake, but the four came from different places and pointed to the same transport route.

Helian Yuan committed the result of that cross-check to memory. Even if he later lost one of the pieces, he would not be back where he had started, with "just a guess."

He had saved the most important things.

A continuous rumbling came from the direction of Blackwater Ravine. Part of the mountainside containing the cliffside cave entrance had collapsed inward, and a haze of dust rose above the forest. Even if the main entrance had not been completely sealed, it would be impassable for the near future.

Helian Yuan pressed the wet papers between two flat stones to dry while he checked his injuries. His left foot was rubbed raw, a python's fang had grazed a shallow cut into his left leg, and the old wound on his right arm was heating up again. His medicine packet had gotten damp, leaving only a little usable hemostatic powder at the bottom.

He applied the medicine to his leg wound first, not to his side.

Wounds that could become infected took priority. Painful wounds that were not bleeding could be endured.

While the papers dried, Helian Yuan examined the iron key. Fresh wood shavings and a little black wax clung to its teeth, indicating that someone had recently opened the sealed box in the old research shed. The transfer sheet inside had not been forgotten for ten years, but might have been deliberately kept by the gray-robed organization for retrieval personnel to check.

There was likewise no thick rust on the surface of the gray-stamped iron token. Unlike the "seven" token from the stone house in Blackwater Ravine, it had a ring of tiny holes around its edge through which thread could be passed. It looked like an authorization token meant to be carried, rather than a numbered token nailed to a facility.

Helian Yuan distinguished between the two kinds of token: the genuine seven token represented a facility or target, while the gray-stamped token might represent people authorized to enter, transfer, or retrieve them. The next time he saw the gray-robed people, he would only need to see whether they carried the same gray stamp to tell who was an ordinary hand and who truly understood the old ground's rules.

He also overlaid the eastern passage map with the Sunken Bone Slope map. The springs on the two maps lined up, while the place where the carts had stopped lay on the outer edge of the Fourth Hunting Ground. Blackwater Ravine was not an isolated secret, but an old entrance to Sunken Bone Slope and a repository of records.

These preliminary answers changed his next step from "continue exploring the caves" to "first work on the hunting ground aboveground." With the main passage collapsed, there was nothing more to be taken from underground for the time being. Staying by the ruins would only mean waiting for the gray-robed people to come and cut him off.

He divided his remaining food into two portions, ate one immediately, and kept the other wrapped. Right after escaping the cave, it was easiest for the body to mistake being "alive" for being "safe." If he ate all his dry rations now, he would grow weak and summon a shadow again before reaching Greystone Town.

Before getting up, Helian Yuan walked backward twenty paces along the gully, making sure the stream would cut off his footprints. He also tied the cloth from his ruined boot to a piece of driftwood and let it float south with the current. If the gray-robed people checked the drainage outlet first, the cloth would lead them to believe the escapee had been swept downstream.

After resting for half an hour, Helian Yuan made his way out along the gully. He had expected it to lead straight to Sunken Bone Slope, but at the edge of the forest he saw two fresh wheel ruts.

The ruts were deep, and the wheel spacing was close to that of the gray-robed people's black-cloth-covered carriages. The cart had come from the west, stopped at the gully's exit, then turned north. When its wheels passed over the mud, a length of chain without a number engraved on it had fallen off.

Helian Yuan wrapped the end of the chain in cloth and examined it carefully.

The chain was the same size as the old chains in Blackwater Ravine, but the break was fresh, and the oil had not dried. It was not junk left behind ten years ago, but a replacement part dropped during a recent transport.

The gray-robed organization knew about the eastern exit.

They might even have been the ones who had recently reopened and used the passage.

There were no hoofprints from ridden horses beside the ruts, indicating that the three carts had been pulled on foot by the same group of people for at least part of the way. The mud also showed where wheels had suddenly sunk and been propped up with planks. The people handling the transport knew the route well, and had even brought short planks suited to wet ground in advance.

This was not a single exploration undertaken after an old exit was discovered by chance, but a supply line that was still being maintained. If Helian Yuan followed the ruts, he would only run into a full party while he had neither medicine nor shoes.

Helian Yuan did not follow the ruts. He first went west against their direction, confirming that the carts had come from the direction of Greystone Town, then returned to observe from the high ground to the north. The ruts finally disappeared before a bone-white slope, with a spring at its foot and several new wooden stakes planted at its crest.

The terrain on the map matched what lay before him.

Sunken Bone Slope.

The "reward" from the old site at Blackwater Ravine was not an underground warehouse full of secrets, but a map that led him to a new hunting ground that was still in operation.

Helian Yuan put the map away and circled around the outskirts without venturing in. He had no torch, medicine, or intact footwear, and Tiger Shadow had also fallen silent after the collapse. Discovering a new hunting ground did not mean he was qualified to claim it.

He hid the unnumbered end of the chain beneath a dead pine, taking only a small piece of oilcloth for comparison. Then he turned toward Greystone Town to resupply.

After he had gone a li, another collapse sounded from Blackwater Ravine behind him.

A great flock of birds burst from the forest.

When Helian Yuan looked back, all he saw was a haze of dust rising above the treetops in the direction of the old entrance. That underground route was closed for the time being, while the wheel ruts on the bone-white slope to the north were still fresh.

Someone had already gotten there first and was waiting at Sunken Bone Slope to retrieve No. 7.