Chapter 9: The Unseen Current
The world had shifted. The whispers and threats no longer found purchase on Li Wei's mind. They were like rain on stone, washing over him and leaving no mark. His focus had narrowed to two points: the dawn training with Old Sweeper and the humming energy inside him.
It was during one of these training sessions that he noticed a change in his perception. As he and the old man sparred amidst the bamboo, Li Wei wasn't just seeing the broom handle anymore. He was seeing the air currents it disturbed. He felt the subtle shift in the ground beneath his feet as Old Sweeper moved. He could almost predict the attacks not by sight, but by the tiny kinetic whispers that preceded them.
"You are learning to listen," Old Sweeper grunted, deflecting a controlled push of energy from Li Wei's palm. "Not with your ears. With your entire being."
This heightened awareness bled into his daily life. As he scaled the cliffs, he could feel the minute tremors in the rock, knowing which handholds were stable and which were loose before he put his weight on them. He could sense the approach of other herb-gatherers by the vibration of their footsteps long before he saw them.
It was this new sense that alerted him to the watcher.
He was in a secluded part of the western ridge, a place of sharp cliffs and deep shadows, searching for a rare herb known as the Shadowed Vein Lily. The air was still. Yet, a faint, rhythmic tremor reached him, a pattern that was too deliberate to be the natural settling of the mountain.
Someone was following him.
He didn't turn. He didn't change his pace. He continued his search, all the while stretching his new sense outwards, painting a picture in his mind from vibration alone. The steps were light, careful. They maintained a fixed distance. This was not one of Zhang Feng's clumsy lackeys. This was someone skilled in stealth.
The interface in his mind, ever-alert, offered a cold analysis.
Stealth-based surveillance detected.
Pattern suggests professional observation, not hostile engagement.
Recommend continued monitoring.
Li Wei agreed. He would not reveal that he knew. He finished gathering his herbs and began the descent back to the sect, his mind racing. Who was this? An assassin sent by Zhang Feng? An Elder's spy? Or... could it be the person who left the note?
The thought sent a jolt through him. *Your secret is safe.*
He needed to force a reaction. To turn the hunted into the hunter.
Instead of taking the main path back, he led his shadow on a winding route, towards the Thunderfall Gorge—a place where a raging waterfall crashed into a deep pool, its thunderous roar drowning all other sound. It was the perfect place for a conversation no one else could hear.
He stepped into the mist-filled air at the gorge's edge, the roar of the water a physical force. He waited, his back to the forest, feeling the watcher halt at the tree line, hesitant.
Li Wei turned slowly, his eyes scanning the dense foliage. He saw nothing. But he felt the presence, a mere twenty paces away, hidden behind a thick fir tree.
He spoke, his voice calm but cutting through the waterfall's din with focused clarity, a trick he'd learned by pushing a thread of kinetic energy into his vocal cords.
"You have been following me since the ridge. Show yourself."
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, a figure detached itself from the shadows of the fir tree.
It was a young woman.
She wore the simple, grey robes of a sect scribe or archivist, her hair pulled back in a severe but practical style. Her face was pale and sharp-featured, her eyes a startling shade of grey that held no fear, only a deep, analytical curiosity. She moved with a fluid grace that was neither cultivator nor servant.
"You can sense me," she said. It wasn't a question. Her voice was low and measured, like a scholar stating a fact. "The reports were correct. Your perception is atypical."
Li Wei tensed, his energy coiling. "What reports? Who are you?"
"My name is Lin Yao. I am an archivist in the Scroll Pavilion," she said, her gaze sweeping over him as if he were a fascinating text. "And I am here because the numbers are wrong."
"The numbers?" Li Wei echoed, bewildered.
"The energy signatures. The Qi flow of this mountain." She took a step closer, her grey eyes intense. "For years, I have recorded the sect's energy patterns. They have been slowly, steadily decaying. A loss so minor the Elders dismiss it as seasonal fluctuation." She pointed a slender finger at him. "But since your... change... the decay rate near you has altered. It fluctuates. Your presence introduces a variable my equations cannot solve."
Li Wei stared at her, his suspicion warring with a dawning understanding. This wasn't about politics or revenge. This was about the sickness. The Entropy.
"You feel it too," he whispered.
Lin Yao's composed mask cracked for a single second, revealing a flash of profound relief. "So you *know*. You are not just a anomaly; you are an observer." She glanced around, ensuring they were still alone. "The Starlight Elixir is the epicenter of the decay. It is not a treasure; it is a symptom. Winning the tournament and acquiring it is the most logical course of action. But you cannot do it alone."
She met his gaze, her offer clear and direct. "You have the power to interact with the decay. I have the data to understand it. We want the same thing."
Li Wei studied her. An archivist. A data-keeper. The last person anyone would suspect. She was the earth's ears.
"The note was from you," he stated.
She gave a single, sharp nod. "It was a test. You passed." She produced a small, rolled scroll from her sleeve and tossed it to him. "Zhang Feng's Flowing Cloud Sword Art. Every stance, every weakness. The numbers do not lie. Use it."
Li Wei caught the scroll, his mind reeling. He was no longer just a soldier with a strange weapon. He was part of a conspiracy. A conspiracy of one old sweeper, one data-driven archivist, and a man who wielded physics as a sword.
He looked from the scroll in his hand to Lin Yao's determined face.
"The tournament is in ten days," he said.
She nodded. "Then we have no time to waste."