Blackwater Ravine

Early the next morning, the medicine chest was gone.

The dry leaves wedged behind the chest had fallen inside the hut, and the pebble beneath the door had been dragged half a foot. Whoever had come for the goods had opened the door but left the two bundles of new ironwork untouched, taking only the medicine.

Helian Yuan crouched in front of the door and examined the footprints.

The person in the boots from last night had not returned. The new footprints were deeper, with heavy wear along the outside of the right foot, indicating that the newcomer tended to lean right while walking. After leaving the north shed, the footprints did not follow the trade route away, but went straight onto the stone road to the east.

Helian Yuan did not give chase.

He waited half a shichen and checked every exit around the camp before slinging his short spear across his back and setting foot on the stone road.

There were no weeds on the road. Not because people traveled it often, but because a layer of black fragments was mixed into the soil, killing grass roots as soon as they grew into it. Square holes stood every thirty paces along both sides of the road, probably once holding wooden stakes or iron frames.

When he reached the first collapsed shed, Helian Yuan caught a faint whiff of rotting flesh.

The shed had only three walls, but its floor was more level than the old camp. Claw marks covered the stone slabs: wolf, bear, and broad paw prints he could not identify. All the claw marks were concentrated along the side by the wall, as though something inside had repeatedly charged in the same direction.

Half a length of iron chain was still fastened to the base of the wall.

Helian Yuan took out the length from the bear's den, first comparing the links, then the broken ends.

When he joined the two lengths of chain, the broken edges fit together perfectly.

His hand dipped slightly.

The chain from the bear's den was not another piece of the same kind of ironwork.

It was the very chain that had broken off from here.

The chain was about three zhang long in total. One end had been fastened inside the shed, while the other had been severed for some unknown reason and later dragged dozens of li away by the level-three Ironmane Bear. The old ring of chafed skin on the bear's neck might not have been left by a fight with another demonic beast.

Helian Yuan separated the two lengths again and took only his own. He left the portion on the wall as it was.

If anyone came back to inspect it, he did not want them to know immediately that the missing chain had been found.

There was also a rusty iron plaque behind the collapsed shed. The writing on its front had been worn away, and only a recessed frame remained on the back. Helian Yuan ran a finger over it and found that a replaceable small plate had once been fitted inside. Perhaps the numbers had not been engraved directly on the facilities, but changed along with the demonic beasts held there.

The stone road continued onward, ending beneath a cliff.

There was a cave entrance in the cliff face, concealed by a jumble of rocks. Wind blew through the gaps, much colder than the air outside and carrying the smell of old blood and wet iron.

Helian Yuan did not move the rocks.

There was a set of fresh claw prints in the mud to the left of the entrance.

The front paws had sunk deep, the hind paws slightly less so, and the strides were long. Tiny scorch marks surrounded the claw tips, as if each step carried a faint electric current. Helian Yuan had seen Lightning-Patterned Leopard pelts brought back by hunters and knew what those scorch marks meant.

A level-four Lightning-Patterned Leopard.

More troublesome still, the claw prints did not lead out of the cave. They came from outside, followed the stone road to the entrance, then turned back into the forest. It treated this place as a patrol point.

Helian Yuan crouched on the ground, used a twig to measure the width of a paw print, and memorized the direction it had turned back. Entering the cave now would put him between an unknown area and a level-four demonic beast.

He retreated to the collapsed shed.

As the sun climbed, the fog in Blackwater Ravine thinned a little. Helian Yuan searched the perimeter for other traces and found a dry drainage ditch north of the stone road. The ditch led beneath the cave entrance. It was not wide enough for a person to stand upright in, but might serve as an escape route in an emergency.

He did not crawl inside, only placed a thin twig at the entrance.

If the level-four Lightning-Patterned Leopard or something else passed through, the twig would break.

That afternoon, Helian Yuan returned to the old camp. One length of chain and four door hinges were missing from the new ironwork in the north shed, but the remaining iron nails had not been touched. The person collecting the goods had not come to repair the hunting shed, but was repairing some kind of facility that needed chains.

Helian Yuan could not be sure whether the old hunter knew about any of this.

He spread out the map and drew in the stone road, collapsed shed, and drainage ditch between the old camp and the cliff. With each place he marked, the next steps became clearer: first work out the level-four Lightning-Patterned Leopard's patrol times, then prepare torches and enough escape routes, and finally enter the cave.

Helian Yuan did not wait in the middle of the camp. He left his scent behind a collapsed wall, while he himself withdrew to a crooked tree upwind. His pack was braced in front of him and his short spear lay against the ground, positioned so that no movement as he rose would make its tip touch a branch first.

If the level-four demonic beast was merely passing through, he should not expose himself with Tiger Shadow; if it approached along his scent, the rapids and the drainage ditch were his escape routes. While waiting, Helian Yuan walked both routes once, stepping on every stone to check which ones were loose.

By sunset, he no longer expected the Lightning-Patterned Leopard to stay away. What he truly needed to establish was whether the demonic beast regarded the old camp as a den, a feeding ground, or a facility that needed regular inspection.

As darkness approached, a low rumble of thunder came from the eastern forest.

Helian Yuan put out the fire and lay down behind the collapsed wall.

A level-four Lightning-Patterned Leopard emerged from the fog. It did not approach the camp, only patrolled slowly along the stone road. The lightning patterns across its shoulders and back flickered, and each time they lit up, the surrounding insects fell silent for a while.

It went to the collapsed shed Helian Yuan had inspected during the day and brought its nose close to the iron chain by the wall.

Then it raised its head and looked straight toward the old camp.

Helian Yuan did not move.

The two places were more than a hundred paces apart, and the fog was thick, but he could still feel those eyes resting on him.

The Lightning-Patterned Leopard did not pounce.

It turned and walked back into the forest, its tail sweeping across the half-length iron plaque beside the road and knocking it halfway around.

A number that had not been completely eaten away by rust appeared on the back of the plaque.

Seven.

Helian Yuan waited until the thunder had faded completely into the distance before walking over.

There was also a fresh scratch along the plaque's lower edge. It had not been made by the Lightning-Patterned Leopard. It looked as though someone had recently tried to remove the small plate from the recessed frame but had not had time to finish.

Helian Yuan tapped the iron plaque lightly with the back of his knife. The sound was dull. A layer of new oilcloth had been stuffed behind it to keep the wind from knocking it against anything and making noise. If it were merely a discarded plaque from ten years ago, no one would have made such a small repair. Whoever maintained it wanted the number to remain visible, but did not want it giving away its position at night.

Someone was still maintaining the numbers at the old camp.

And the level-four Lightning-Patterned Leopard knew this road.

While inspecting the collapsed shed during the day, he had also found several pieces of paper that had rotted from soaking in water. Most of the ink had run, leaving only three kinds of marks that appeared repeatedly: horizontal lines, circular frames, and arrows pointing east. Helian Yuan had pieced the scraps together by their edges and found that they had originally been a record divided into columns, not a letter.

Each column was the same width. The one on the far left had room for only one or two digits, the middle one could hold a longer place name, and the right side had been deliberately torn away. The old camp, the recessed frame on the iron plaque, and the chain on the wall thus formed parts of the same system: the demonic beasts had not been confined there temporarily, but registered, transferred, and then sent elsewhere from here.

The strangest thing was that the record bore no signature.

Who was responsible, who received them, and on what day it happened were all missing. Only the command-like arrows and numbers remained. It looked orderly, but gave anyone who came later no way to pursue the question of responsibility.

Helian Yuan stuffed the scraps of paper back into the crevice as they had been, taking only the smallest corner. Half a circular frame remained on it, and its paper could be compared with records found later.

Helian Yuan turned the iron plaque back to its original position and retreated into the darkness. He would not enter the cave tonight, but he could not keep waiting at this pace either.

The person who had taken the medicine had already come. The ironwork for repairing the chains had also been taken.

This abandoned camp had not truly been abandoned.