The Hundred Refinements Pavilion's Scrutiny

Jin Rui, the shopkeeper of the Hundred Refinements Pavilion, rubbed the green jade thumb ring on his finger, his small eyes narrowing to slits.

"Brother Sun," he said smoothly, "has that student of yours settled down since then?"

Teacher Sun sat opposite him, his back rigidly straight. "He was punished. Copying books and sweeping the storeroom."

"Young people." Jin Rui smiled. "Having lots of ideas is a good thing. But some ideas aren't to be entertained lightly."

He picked up his teacup and blew on it.

"The Triangular Buffer Array is the standard established by Spirit Hall. It's been in use for thirty years without a single mishap." He raised his eyes. "A work-study student, seven years old, with level-two Soul Power, dares to say the structure is risky, and wants to add some kind of... feedback nodes?"

Teacher Sun's Adam's apple bobbed.

"Shopkeeper Jin, what are you..."

"I don't mean anything by it." Jin Rui set down his cup. "I just find it interesting. A child with a Blue Silver Grass Trash Martial Soul and innate Soul Power of half a level-where did he get these ideas? Is someone guiding him from behind the scenes?"

The room fell silent.

The bustle of the street outside only made it seem quieter indoors.

Beads of sweat appeared on Teacher Sun's forehead.

Jin Rui leaned back, tapping his fingers lightly on the tabletop. "The Hundred Refinements Pavilion accounts for seventy percent of low-level Soul Tool sales in and around Nuoding City. Why? Because we play by the rules."

He paused.

"But if someone came up with a simpler, cheaper method..." He fixed his eyes on Teacher Sun. "Brother Sun, tell me, whose products would the commoners who can't afford good lamps choose?"

Teacher Sun had no answer.

Jin Rui smiled again and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't be nervous. I'm just chatting." He changed the subject. "By the way, I hear that child often goes to the old workshop district in the west of the city? There's a man named Mo Chen there who used to work in the Spirit Hall Technical Department. He got into trouble later on."

Teacher Sun jerked his head up.

"How do you know that?"

"When you run a shop, you have to keep your ears open." Jin Rui smiled. "One of my shop assistants will be spending some time around the academy over the next couple of days. Children love to show off. He might be able to ask around and find out something interesting."

With that, he got up and went downstairs.

Teacher Sun sat alone, staring at his stone-cold tea without moving for a long time.

Mo Chen hurled the file to the floor.

Clang! Sparks flew.

Wang Shuo huddled by the door, afraid to make a sound. Lu Yuan stood beside the workbench, looking down at several new sketches on the table.

"Someone came asking about you." Mo Chen turned around, his eyes sunken and bloodshot. "The afternoon before last, a stranger was hanging around the mouth of the alley. He said he wanted a special Soul Power lamp made to order, and the price was negotiable."

Lu Yuan's fingers stopped on the sketch.

"He came to me, and I told him I wasn't taking orders." Mo Chen walked over, reeking of alcohol. "He lingered at the door, peering inside. He came again yesterday in different clothes, saying he wanted a drink of water."

He sneered.

"A drink of water? There are thirteen wells in the old workshop district, and he just happened to make his way to my door?"

Lu Yuan put down the sketch. "What did he ask?"

"First, he asked if I still made Soul Tools. I said I'd stopped long ago. Then he made small talk, saying he'd heard there was a work-study student at Nuoding Academy who had quite a few ideas about Soul Tools, apparently named Lu." Mo Chen licked his cracked lips. "I said I didn't know anything. Then he asked if anyone who looked like a student had been here recently. I said no."

The oil lamp flickered.

Mo Chen's voice grew hoarse. "Ten years ago, when the Spirit Hall Technical Department came to arrest me, they first sent a 'curious' fellow just like that to stake out the place across the street for three days!"

He kicked aside the scraps at his feet.

"Now they're back! The same old trick!"

Lu Yuan walked to the door and pushed it open a crack.

There was no one in the alley. Afternoon sunlight slanted across it, and a stray cat darted past the corner of a wall.

Too normal.

He closed the door and turned around.

"The Hundred Refinements Pavilion," he said.

Mo Chen stared at him.

"Teacher Sun is acquainted with the shopkeeper of the Hundred Refinements Pavilion." Lu Yuan walked back to the workbench. "Teacher Sun must have told him how I questioned the Triangular Array in class. The Hundred Refinements Pavilion monopolizes the low-level Soul Tool trade. Any technology that could simplify production and lower costs is an enemy."

He raised his eyes.

"Ten years ago, you were driven out because you wanted to simplify the Soul Power lamp circuit, weren't you?"

Mo Chen's expression changed.

He didn't deny it.

"Now a work-study student has come up with a similar idea and is in contact with an 'old offender' like you." Lu Yuan continued, "Of course the Hundred Refinements Pavilion would come to take a look-to see whether this kid is talking nonsense or really knows a thing or two, and whether you, Mo Chen, are up to something again."

Mo Chen clenched his fists.

His knuckles turned white.

"Then... then what do we do?" Wang Shuo panicked.

"They won't make a move against me for now." Lu Yuan shook his head. "I'm just a work-study student, with level-two Soul Power and a Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. In their eyes, I'm a child who's 'a little clever' at most. You're the one they're really wary of."

He looked at Mo Chen.

"When you were driven out, what was the official finding in your case?"

A rasping sound came from Mo Chen's throat.

"An unauthorized experiment caused a Soul Tool to explode, resulting in property damage," he said hoarsely. "They never mentioned the simplified circuit. The explosion... a protective array I designed myself went out of control and blew up my own workshop. They insisted on calling it improper handling and endangering public safety."

Lu Yuan nodded.

"So what they have on you is 'a dangerous experiment that caused damage,'" he said slowly. "If they find out you're doing similar research again, or might even be teaching it to a student... I'm afraid next time they send someone, it won't just be a shop assistant."

Mo Chen swayed.

He caught hold of the workbench to keep from falling.

Ten years. The chill of the interrogation room, the averted eyes of his colleagues, the endless wasteland on the road into exile.

He was afraid.

Truly afraid.

"Then... then I'll stop." Mo Chen's voice shook. "I'll burn all these sketches. Don't come here again, either."

Lu Yuan said nothing.

He looked at Mo Chen. The little flame that had just reignited in the eyes of this once-gifted researcher wavered violently in the gusts of fear.

Several seconds passed in silence.

Lu Yuan suddenly spoke. "How much did the simplified circuit you designed back then reduce consumption?"

Mo Chen was taken aback.

"...Thirty-five percent. But brightness dropped by twenty percent, and it was unstable and prone to flickering."

"What if you added feedback nodes?"

"What?"

"Use the 'gentle and soothing' characteristic of the Moonlight Orchid Martial Soul, or a Soul Tool structure that simulates it, to place miniature feedback nodes at key points. They could regulate Soul Power output in real time and offset fluctuations." Lu Yuan spoke at a steady pace. "That way, consumption could be reduced while keeping the brightness stable. It might even improve."

Mo Chen opened and closed his mouth.

The tangled mess in his mind seemed to have had one loose thread teased out by those words.

"But... how can a Soul Tool simulate it..."

"Specific etched patterns on the metal circuit, combined with low-level Calming Crystal powder, can produce a similar effect," Lu Yuan said. "The exact parameters need to be calculated, but it's feasible in principle."

Mo Chen's eyes widened.

Lu Yuan took his notebook from his cloth bag and turned to the last page. It contained a structural diagram of the "Moonlight Stabilization Ring" that he had redrawn based on Bai Zhi's description, with a mathematical model of Soul Power circulation noted beside it.

"Take a look at this."

Mo Chen lunged at the workbench and snatched up the notebook, his eyes almost touching the page.

He studied it for a long time.

His breathing grew heavier and heavier.

At last, he raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot, but the fear had been suppressed by something far more burning.

"...Where did you get this structure?"

"From a classmate's family notebook," Lu Yuan said. "Her great-grandmother was a Moonlight Orchid Soul Master. She used this method to stabilize her Soul Power and treat internal injuries. I converted it into a model usable in Soul Tools."

Mo Chen's fingers trembled as he traced the lines on the paper.

"Genius..." he murmured. "No, this is... this is reinterpreting a Martial Soul's characteristics in the language of Soul Tools!"

Lu Yuan took back the notebook and closed it.

"Now, do you still want to burn the sketches?"

Mo Chen froze.

After a long moment, he rubbed his face hard.

"Burn them, my ass!" he rasped. "I've been bottling it up for ten years, waiting for something like this!"

But he immediately lowered his voice, his eyes flicking toward the door.

"But... what about the Hundred Refinements Pavilion..."

"They won't make a move against you for now," Lu Yuan said. "You've kept your head down all these years. This time, they're only probing. If we panic and stop the research ourselves, that would only confirm we have something to hide."

He paused.

"Keep doing what you should. But be careful. Don't leave the sketches lying around, and keep the records safe. If anyone comes asking again, tell them you stopped researching that stuff long ago and now only take the odd repair job to make ends meet."

Mo Chen stared at him.

"What about you?"

"Me?" Lu Yuan stuffed the notebook back into his cloth bag. "I'm a work-study student. I attend class, clean, and cultivate. Soul Tools are just an elective. I occasionally have an idea or two, but that's all they are. Teacher Sun has already punished me, and I know I was wrong."

He spoke calmly.

Mo Chen understood what he meant.

Show weakness, play dumb, and hide beneath the skin of a "child who didn't know any better."

Make those important people too disinclined to let their gazes linger for long.

Mo Chen's throat bobbed.

In the end, he only patted Lu Yuan's shoulder hard.

"Kid," he said hoarsely, "you're a lot smarter than I was back then."

By the time Lu Yuan and Wang Shuo returned to the academy, it was completely dark.

There were no lights in the work-study students' dormitory area; only a faint glow from the Soul Tool streetlamps in the main campus filtered over from afar.

Wang Shuo asked quietly, "Will the people from the Hundred Refinements Pavilion... really come looking for trouble?"

Lu Yuan didn't break his stride.

"Not for now," he said. "But it's hard to say what'll happen later."

As they neared the dormitory entrance, the door was suddenly flung open from inside.

Li Shitou from the next room rushed out, panic written all over his face, gasping for breath.

His eyes lit up when he saw Lu Yuan, but then he suddenly stepped back, as though he had seen something terrifying.

"Lu, Lu Yuan!" His voice trembled. "Where... where did you go this afternoon?"

"The old workshop district. What's wrong?"

Li Shitou's face grew even paler.

Hurried footsteps sounded in the distance.

Several people in academy deacon robes were striding toward them with Soul Power lamps. The light dazzled the eyes, illuminating the stern expressions on their faces.

The one leading them was the older deacon who had handled the Zhang Hao incident last time.

He walked up to the dormitory entrance and fixed his gaze on Lu Yuan's face.

"Lu Yuan," he said in a grave voice, "where were you this afternoon, between three and seven?"

"In the old workshop district, at Mo Chen's workshop. Wang Shuo was with me."

The older deacon nodded.

A young deacon behind him stepped forward and barked, "The academy storeroom was robbed! A batch of Soul Beast materials intended for the annual assessment was stolen! They were worth more than five hundred Gold Soul Coins!"

He stared at Lu Yuan.

"Someone saw you hanging around the storeroom yesterday evening!"

In the courtyard, the other work-study students poked their heads out of their rooms, their faces filled with alarm, suspicion, and fear.

The lamplight swayed, and shadows twisted.

The older deacon raised a hand, signaling the young deacon to calm down.

He looked at Lu Yuan and said slowly, "Lu Yuan, we need you to cooperate with the investigation. All work-study students, especially those who have recently been to the storeroom, must be questioned."

He paused.

"Come with me to the deacons' office now."