Chapter 134: The Landlord Sect Also Enters Ten

Nie Bo's broom swept from the east side of the Mountain Gate to the west. At the threshold he lifted the tip, stepped it over, then let it fall again. Xu Yan stood on the stone steps watching the mountain path below the slope. The pines came into view section by section, appearing and vanishing again.

At the Dragon hour, three people came up around the bend in the path. The one in front wore a gray-green robe with bound cuffs; behind her, one carried a wooden box, the other a register slung over his shoulder, the cloth strap digging into the hollow of his collar.

Xu Yan went down to meet them at the foot of the gate. "Rank Evaluator."

Wen Su nodded. "Sect Master Xu." Her eyes moved past his face, past the gate, and settled on the eaves of the Main Hall, then came back to him. "Nothing new on the gate?"

"No."

"Let's go."

Qian Duoduo came over from the Kitchen with a wooden tray, three coarse clay bowls steaming on top. He got halfway before the clerk with the wooden box raised a hand to stop him. "The Rank Evaluator won't be taking any."

Qian Duoduo looked at Xu Yan. Xu Yan said, "Take it back." Qian Duoduo drew the tray against his chest and retreated under the eaves, standing there without returning to the Kitchen.

Wen Su had already crossed the threshold. "The gate first."

Through the Front Courtyard, around the Main Hall, past the Ancestral Hall. The Ancestral Hall door stood half open; the corner of that old wooden box beneath the offering table showed from inside. She paused at the doorway and looked in at the row of ancestral tablets, but did not enter. She continued north.

Behind the Ancestral Hall, Cheng Banshan stood by the roadside, wine gourd in one hand. A dozen paces farther, Huo Qing and Shi Po stood at the fork, letting the road clear, waiting for the three to pass before falling in behind. Xu Yan did not send them back.

Two li of mountain road, two quarter-hours. The stone platform on the Back Mountain's halfway slope lay across the path, five Formation Stones arranged according to the Five Elements upon it: Metal west, Wood east, Water north, Fire south, Earth center. Wen Su stopped at the platform's edge and studied it for a while.

"This is the Formation Eye?"

"It is."

"After the earth tremor on the ninth day of the Fourth Month, who inspected the Formation Stones?"

"Bai Xiaoman. She checked every slot one by one. Said not a single stone was cracked and no slot had shifted."

"The Sect-Protecting Formation—can Qingya raise it?"

"Raised it at the Autumn Evaluation on the ninth day of the Ninth Month, Alliance Year 300. It held for a full shichen."

Wen Su looked at the five stones without reaching out to touch them. The clerk opened the register halfway and dipped his brush. "Rank Evaluator."

"Record: Formation Eye intact, five Formation Stones, slots not displaced; the Great Formation can be raised." She spoke and then continued upward.

A few zhang higher, the two stone slabs on the cliff face came into view. The grass beside the crack leaned outward in the wind. A faint line had been worn into the ground by feet; three paces beyond it stood Jiang Wan, hand on her sword hilt. Bai Xiaoman stood half a step behind her.

"The gate hasn't moved," Xu Yan said.

Wen Su walked past Jiang Wan and stopped only a step from the gate. Her eyes went over the stone surface of the two slabs first, top to bottom, then traced both sides of the crack, checking the edges for rings, for bolts, for any marks of axe or chisel. At last she raised her hand, palm inward, and held it half a hand's width from the stone, motionless.

Her sleeve stirred.

Wind came through the crack in gusts, lifting the hem of her sleeve and letting it fall again. Her hand hung in the air a moment longer, then withdrew. She rubbed two fingers against the palm of her other hand.

"It's cold," she said.

The clerk set his brush down. No sound in front of the gate but the wind rushing out and being pushed back again. No one spoke.

Wen Su bent down and picked up a pebble by her foot, the size of a fingertip. She held it directly above the mouth of the crack and let go. The pebble vanished inside without a sound. The crack was black within; its depth could not be judged.

Everyone waited.

Shi Po's head tilted toward the crack. Jiang Wan's hand never moved on the hilt. Only after a long while did a soft "ta" sound come from below—light, distant, like it had landed somewhere very deep.

"Record: stone thrown, sound came after a long interval." Wen Su straightened.

"How long?" The clerk's brush hovered.

"A long interval."

The clerk wrote it.

She extended a hand again. "The box."

The clerk carrying the wooden box set it on his knee and opened it, taking out a small folded brass ruler. He shook it open and handed it to her. Wen Su held the ruler across the crack, half a fen from the stone surface, and leaned close to read it. "One inch."

"Crack: one inch," the clerk wrote.

Wen Su glanced back at Bai Xiaoman. "You inspected the Formation Eye?"

"I did."

"Did you measure the crack that day?"

"I compared it. One finger wide. Didn't measure."

"Today it's measured. One inch."

Bai Xiaoman made a soft "mm" sound and looked down at her own index finger, her hand still hanging at her side. She did not extend it.

"Has anyone shined a light inside?" Wen Su asked.

"They have," Xu Yan said. "The night of the ninth day of the Fourth Month, during the night watch, a lantern was raised to the mouth of the crack to shine on it, but not into it."

"Has anyone reached a hand inside?"

"No."

"The wind?"

"Those few nights after the ninth, when a lantern was brought near the crack, the flame blew flat outward. Last night it only leaned to one side, and only at times."

"How much weaker?"

Xu Yan thought for a moment. "Never measured. Wind can't be measured."

"Record: wind weaker, unmeasured," Wen Su said. She turned and saw Cheng Banshan standing half a step away. "You're from the mountain?"

"Medicine Hall, Cheng Banshan."

"Were you here on the ninth day of the Fourth Month?"

"I was."

"Did you smell this wind?"

"I did. That day it was sharper than today—sharp enough to chill the nose."

Wen Su's eyes rested on his face for a moment. "Record: on the ninth day of the Fourth Month, Cheng Banshan of the Medicine Hall was present and smelled the wind; stronger than today."

The clerk's brush scratched across the page. Cheng Banshan pressed the stopper on his gourd's mouth and hung it back at his waist.

"Sect Master Xu," Wen Su said, "we'll talk further down."

Jiang Wan spoke. "I go down too?"

"Everyone who falls under the rules goes down." Wen Su started toward the path, then stopped after two steps and looked back at the two people standing before the stone gate. "Leave two at the gate."

"Huo Qing, Shi Po," Xu Yan said. "Guard until the Horse hour. Stand three paces out."

Shi Po acknowledged. Huo Qing nodded once, and only after Wen Su was well gone did he pull his gaze back and rest it on the crack in the gate.

Snake hour, Main Hall.

The long table had been moved against the wall. No lamps were lit; daylight came through the doorway and the two windows, scattering bright patches across the floor. Xu Yan stood by the table. Jiang Wan and Bai Xiaoman came in and stood on the west side; Cheng Banshan stood against the east side. Shao Ming and Du Xiaochuan were behind, Qian Duoduo and A He and A Sui crowded at the door. Qi Qi had just come off the Zi-to-Yin shift and leaned against the doorframe.

Nie Bo was at the Mountain Gate, the distant sound of his broom sweeping once, twice. Huo Qing and Shi Po were at the stone gate.

Wen Su did not sit. She drew a page from the clerk's register, unfolded it, and held it level with both hands.

"Alliance regulations: 'Unclaimed Secret Realms.'" She read. "One: old Hidden Realms and old storehouses revealed within the bounds of a Mountain Gate Deed, but not recorded on the deed, are Unclaimed Secret Realms. The sect in question reports them to the Branch."

Xu Yan heard this and remembered what he himself had said in the Branch public office on the twelfth day of the Fourth Month: the deed is the Alliance's paper, and what isn't written on the paper is not for Qingya alone to claim. Today those words had become, in her mouth, the first article of the regulations.

"Two: the date of opening is set by the Branch. It opens for one month. At the end of the term, the Branch seals the gate."

Qian Duoduo's mouth twitched at the door, then closed again. One month. Thirty days. The mountain's cooking pot would still need to be fired, and rice would still need to be measured out.

"Three: each of the Eight Great Sects may enter ten people. The sector whose boundaries contain the gate is the Landlord Sect, and it also enters ten people, to guard the gate. Only those below Foundation Establishment may enter."

A Sui's hand stirred inside her sleeve, folding down one finger after another. A He turned his head to look at her; her lips moved soundlessly. She ran out of fingers and started over from the beginning.

Jiang Wan's chin came up.

"Four: within the Hidden Realm, each keeps what they gain. No one may seize what another has already taken in hand, and no one may take another's life. At the gate, only the headcount is checked; nothing is inspected, nothing reported."

"Five: old items bearing the name or mark of a particular sect belong to that sect."

"Six: anyone still inside at the sealing of the gate will not be let out."

After she finished this last line, the Main Hall fell silent for a moment. The daylight shifted an inch across the floor. A He turned to find A Sui's hand. He found it. Neither made a sound.

Wen Su brought the lower half of the page into view and read the closing line: "Disputes over gains shall be filed as petitions at the Branch after the gate is sealed."

She lowered the paper slightly and raised her eyes.

"The stone gate on Qingya's Back Mountain lies within the four boundaries of the Qingya Mountain Gate Deed and is not recorded on the deed. Under Article One, it is an Unclaimed Secret Realm. Under Article Two, it opens at the Dragon hour on the fifth day of the Fifth Month, remains open for one month, and is sealed at the Dragon hour on the fifth day of the Sixth Month. Under Article Three, each of the Eight Great Sects may enter ten people; Qingya, as Landlord Sect, also enters ten, to guard the gate."

"Does the mountain still cook meals?" Qian Duoduo got the question out, then ducked his neck.

"The regulations say nothing about cooking," Wen Su said.

"We'll bring our own," Xu Yan said.

Jiang Wan stepped forward half a pace. "Qingya's own land, and Qingya only gets ten?"

Wen Su looked at her. "Jiang Wan, the Landlord Sect enters an additional ten, separate from the Eight Great Sects' count. That's what the regulations say."

A Sui pulled her hand out of her sleeve. Ten fingers spread, then closed, then pressed twice against her knee. She stopped halfway through the calculation and glanced up at Jiang Wan, then at Wen Su.

Wen Su glanced at her, then gave no answer.

Xu Yan had remained silent the whole time. He arranged the articles in his mind: at the gate, only the headcount, no inspection, no reporting—so they would count them one by one at the gate. Open for one month, the Branch seals it at term's end—so on the sealing day it became a simple ledger entry whether a person was inside or out. Old items bearing a sect's name or mark belonged to that sect—so their own things would have to be recognized by their own people. He filed Article Three first in his mind: those who enter may only be below Foundation Establishment.

"Rank Evaluator," he said.

Wen Su looked up.

"Guarding the gate—until which day?"

"The day it opens," she said. "You guard the gate. The seal strips are not to be touched by anyone, including Qingya's people."

Jiang Wan's chin did not lower.

"The seal goes on, and Qingya's people go up to watch the gate—watch what?" she asked.

"Watch that it's still there," Wen Su said. "Whether the crack has widened, whether the stone face has been touched, whether anyone has pried at it. If you see anything, report to the Branch. For this month, every matter concerning this gate must have somewhere to be recorded."

Cheng Banshan spoke from the east side. "The paper for the seal strips—Branch paper?"

"Branch paper. Dated. Stamped."

"Good," Cheng Banshan said. "If the date's written on the paper, anyone who touches it afterward will show."

Wen Su looked at him, folded the page in half, folded it again, and tucked it into her sleeve. She turned and took two steps toward the door, then stopped and looked back at Xu Yan.

"Horse hour. The seal goes on."

Xu Yan assented.

"Before the Horse hour, don't add anyone at the gate," she said. "Two standing there now is enough."

With that she left the Main Hall. The two clerks followed, one with the box, one with the register, their footfalls going down the stone steps one after the other.

In the courtyard the daylight had reached the eaves, pulling the threshold's shadow into a single line. A Sui stood motionless by the door, one hand still hidden in her sleeve, counting, having forgotten to take it out.