Dispersal ☞
Everyone in the stone house slept very lightly that night.
The fire had gone out before dawn. Yu Jin added more firewood, clearing away the Yu Jin to reignite the embers beneath. As he squatted by the fire watching the flames lick the edges of the new firewood, Shen Mo emerged from the inner room and sat down at the table. The two remained silent for a moment, separated by the firelight. When Shen Mo spoke, his voice was lower than usual. "They withdrew from Deer Cry Gully this morning. The camp was packed up, all traces were wiped clean, and only a ring of flattened grass remained at the foot of the slope."
Yu Jin paused for a moment with the fire tongs in his hand. He put the last piece of firewood into the stove, stood up, and walked to the door. The sky outside was turning from deep blue to light white, and the outlines of the treetops were gradually becoming clear in the morning light. He looked south for a while, but couldn't see anything. However, the stagnant feeling in the air, which had been continuously pressed down by a certain fixed direction, had indeed dissipated.
Long Tian opened his eyes only after Yu Jin left. He had been awake for a while, but lay still, circulating his energy through the Origin Return Pearl and the new core in his dantian. The new core was harder and more solid than yesterday, and the pulsations on its surface maintained a uniform gap with the Origin Return Pearl wall. The rotation rhythms of the two had formed a fixed phase difference, and each time they intersected, the patterns on the scales on his back would light up slightly. When he sat up, the back of his hand brushed against the rough wooden surface of the bed, the scale patterns flashed under his skin and then disappeared, and a brief warmth seeped through his knuckles.
At breakfast, everyone sat around the table. Shen Mo recounted the news of the withdrawal from Deer Cry Gully again. After listening with her bowl of porridge, Mu Shuang asked, "Where did they withdraw to? Back to Spirit City or did they relocate and set up camp again?"
"The information isn't detailed enough. All we know is that the camp has been cleared and the men have headed south. The informant hasn't yet relayed their specific route."
Long Tieshan put the bowl on the table and looked at Long Tian. Long Tian was slowly and deliberately eating the porridge in the bowl, as if listening to a trivial, everyday matter. After finishing the porridge, he put the bowl down, wiped his mouth, and spoke in a casual tone, "He won't be back anytime soon. He can't cross that line from yesterday, and he can't find a more advantageous position by taking a detour. He needs to find another way to approach us."
Shen Mo leaned back in his chair, watching him until he finished speaking, "Which way?"
"He won't directly attack me and Yu Jin anymore. He'll find a way in elsewhere—the supply line of the Ore Core Stone, our communication channels with the outside world, or use his authority to pressure the Spirit Hall and force us to go out on our own."
Shen Mo did not refute. He reached into his clothes and touched the ring mark left by the broken bronze ring, rubbing his fingertip over the light-colored mark as if confirming something.
Yu Jin stood up and took the empty bowl away. As he squatted by the stove washing the pot, Long Tian came over and squatted down beside him to help him take the bowl. The two squatted side by side by the water basin next to the stove. The heat from the newly added firewood in the stove rushed in from the side, carrying smoke and residual heat, and left a layer of the unique smoky aroma of burning firewood on their sleeves.
Long Tian took the last bowl, wiped it clean with a dry cloth, and put it back on the shelf. He didn't stand up immediately, but squatted down next to the stove and touched the edge of the new iron pot with the back of his hand. The pot had been used several times, and the quenching color of the edge had changed from bluish-gray to a dark color that had naturally formed after being thoroughly heated. When you touched it with your fingertips, you could feel a fine texture that had been worn smooth by daily use.
"I want to go back to Bluestone Town in a few days." Long Tian said this without looking up at anyone. "Zhao Xiaopang, Chen Hao, Mr. Wang, and those things at the academy—I didn't explain them clearly when I left. They should at least know I'm still alive."
Yu Jin took the dry cloth from his hand and draped it over the stove without looking up. "I'll go with you. There's nothing urgent here for now. Uncle Tie Shan and Shen Mo can just guard the stone house and the Ore Core Stone."
Long Tieshan heard their conversation from inside the house but didn't come out. However, he pushed the chipped bowl on the stove further in, moving it to the bottom of the bowl stack. Mu Shuang drew her short blade from her boot and honed it one last time on the whetstone. The sound of metal rubbing against the scabbard's opening as she sheathed the blade echoed briefly in the room before stopping, like the sound of a piece of paper being pulled from a book and the pages closing.
The next morning, Long Tian and Yu Jin packed a small bundle and left the stone house. The bundle contained only two changes of clothes, a water bag, dry rations, and the gray iron token they always carried close to their clothes. The crystal was left in the stone house for Long Tieshan to keep, Yu Jin's dark gray bead still hung around his neck. The two descended the mountain along the hunter's path they had taken on their first ascent. Newly sprouted pine branches brushed against their clothes, carrying the dampness of dew, leaving several dark and light stains on their shoulders.
After traveling most of the way, they rested at the fork in the main road outside Soul Hunting Town. Long Tian sat on a roadside Shitou and tightened his boot laces, while Yu Jin leaned against the trunk of an old elm tree, unscrewed his water bag, and took a sip. A few pedestrians passed by on the main road—some driving donkey carts, some carrying bundles of firewood, and some carrying two empty baskets—and no one gave them a second glance as they passed. Long Tian sat on the Shitou for a while, watching the pedestrians pass by on the main road, some carrying empty baskets, some driving donkey carts, and some carrying half-full sacks of grain, each going in a different direction. Yu Jin's gaze followed one group of people heading towards the town for a moment before returning to his seat, and he tightened the water bag and placed it on his lap.
Long Tian stood up and dusted his hands off. Yu Jin also stood up, and the two walked along the official road towards Bluestone Town. The late spring breeze blew from the fields, carrying the refreshing scent of grass and trees, and the faint aroma of cooking fires in the distance. The wheat on both sides of the road was growing rapidly, a lush green stretching towards the distant horizon. The two figures appeared small on the wide official road, one tall and one short, walking side by side. After a while, their pace gradually synchronized, step by step leaving the mountain shadows and stone houses behind them as they rounded the bend in the road.