The Wind Rises
The news spread faster than expected.
Long Tian didn't pay attention to how it got out. Maybe someone saw the trail of light and dust along the way that day, maybe someone in the Iron Guard camp passed the word out, or maybe it was just that a place like Spirit City couldn't hide anything big—a two-headed Dragon Shadow walking in and out of the main gate, leaving a trail of gray-gold light that covered the main street, if even one pair of eyes saw it, half the city would know before sunset that day.
On the third day, someone went into the mountain.
The man who arrived was alone, without any attendants, dressed in a dark gray robe, the hem of which fluttered slowly in the wind. He stopped at the edge of the open space in front of the stone house, gazing at the gray-gold Dragon Shadow hanging above the door frame for a long time from a distance, before bowing slightly towards the door, as if greeting something that had come of age.
Long Tieshan came out of the house and stood at the doorway. After recognizing the person's face, he neither moved aside nor retreated, but simply stood on the threshold with his hands at his sides, speaking in a calm tone honed from years of blacksmithing, "The fact that the Chief Judge of the Spirit Hall has personally come into the mountains is more significant than my son going to the city."
The newcomer pulled back his hood. A face in his fifties, with graying temples, high brow bones, and slightly sunken eyes, revealed a gaze as deep and unwavering as tempered iron. He looked at Long Tieshan Long Tieshan, their eyes meeting for about two breaths, then he nodded slightly. "Tie Shan, it's been many years."
Long Tieshan didn't respond to the greeting. He stepped aside to let the man pass through the doorway, and the man paused for a moment before crossing the threshold. As he passed the doorway, he slightly tilted his head to glance at the Dragon Shadow floating above. Two of the Dragon Shadow's four eyes briefly opened and closed again as he passed. The man's steps paused almost imperceptibly for that instant.
The fire burned, but Tie Shan didn't add any new firewood. He simply let the small iron pot on the stove slowly heat its bottom. The visitor sat down at the table, and Long Tian walked from the inner room to the table and stopped beside him. The distance between the two of them was less than two steps. He was standing, and the other was sitting. The height difference when their eyes met was about half a head. The visitor's gaze moved from Long Tian's chest to the lines of his shoulders and back, and then to the open door behind him, where the silhouette of Dragon Shadow continuously hovered above the door frame.
"Your Dragon Shadow has been hovering outside for three days now," the visitor said. "There's no sign of it dissipating. It continues to exist on its own without you needing to maintain it, like a cicada that has shed its shell and continues to fly outside, no longer needing to return to its shell. There isn't a single record in the Spirit Hall's nearly three hundred years of history that corresponds to this phenomenon."
Yu Jin entered from the side of the room and leaned against the doorframe. He stood at the edge of the man's line of sight, not near the table. The man's gaze lingered for a moment on the faint, dark gray light emanating from Yu Jin's collarbone before returning to Long Tian. He placed his hands on the table, palms down, and two deep red Soul Ring briefly appeared on his wrists before retracting. The moment those two Soul Ring appeared, the air in the room thickened, like an invisible lid descending from above, but it was only half-covered before being stopped at the threshold by the tip of Dragon Shadow's drooping wing.
Long Tian didn't look at the two deep red Soul Ring. He stood by the table, his hands hanging at his sides, his gaze lingering on the angle between the person's palm and the tabletop. After a moment, he spoke, "The Chief Judge didn't come here just to see if my Dragon Shadow is still hanging in the balance."
The man withdrew his hand from the table and placed it on his knees. His posture was slightly more relaxed than before, as if he had sheathed his probing blade after confirming what needed to be confirmed. He looked at Long Tian, his gaze moving more slowly than before, as if rereading a passage he had already skimmed, not in a hurry. Meng Changyuan had been dismissed. The experimental system he had run within the Iron Guard was being emptied layer by layer, starting from the third basement level of the main building; all live data had been sealed and awaiting investigation. He was currently in the Spirit Hall's confinement room awaiting trial, but he hadn't uttered any testimony that could prove he had higher-ups behind him, taking all the blame himself.
"He can't do it all by himself for ten years," Long Tian said.
"I know." The visitor stood up, walked to the door, and stared at the lingering gray-gold dust on the open ground outside, his back to those inside. "But I'm not here to discuss Meng Changyuan's case. That matter will be investigated internally by the Spirit Hall, and the timeframe is uncertain—maybe three years, maybe five, maybe no results. I'm here on behalf of the highest levels of the Spirit Hall to confirm one fact—your existence has reached the point where the entire Soul Master system of the continent must record it."
He turned around to face Long Tian, standing with his hands behind his back on the inside of the threshold. The Dragon Shadow above the door frame adjusted the angle of its wing membrane slightly after he stood still. As he turned around, the wind blowing in from outside stirred up the outermost layer of light dust on the open ground. Those tiny particles of light floated in the air for a while before falling back to their original positions.
"From this day forward, all the Soul Master across the continent will know your name."