CHAPTER 190
### Three Weeks
The work had a different quality with five.
Not more powerful in the simple sense.
More complete.
Each morning they separated to their five sections and applied for ninety minutes and each afternoon they read the development rates and Li Shan updated the cascade data and each evening Bing Xi gave the numbers.
Day one: forty to sixty-eight percent increase.
Day four: forty-five to seventy-three percent.
Day seven: fifty-one to seventy-nine percent.
The sections were responding faster as the calibrated applications accumulated. Each session building on the previous. The pathway structure becoming more organized around each sword's frequency with each application.
On the seventh evening Xian Yue said: "The sections are learning us."
He looked at her.
"The pathway structure," she said. "It is not just receiving the application. It is anticipating it. The frequency organization is oriented toward the sword's contribution before I apply. Like it is ready."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"The grandmother's frequency in the sixty-two percent section," Lin Mei said. "You said the section knew the frequency because of two months of passive domain contribution."
"Yes," he said.
"These sections have had seven days of direct calibrated application," she said. "They are learning faster because the direct application produces faster orientation than passive contribution."
"Yes," he said.
Feng Luo was looking at his section in the domain.
"The section organized around my sword's combination contribution," he said. "It is not just the frequency from the combination day. It has my frequency from the past seven days of direct application."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"It knows more of me than it did a week ago," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"And next week it will know more than it knows today," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
Feng Luo looked at the section.
"The sections will know us," Feng Luo said. "Long after we have moved on. The pathway structure will carry our frequencies."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"The way the grandmother is in the sixty-two percent section," Feng Luo said. "Thirty years of frequency in the pathways."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"We will be in these sections," Feng Luo said. "After we leave."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
Feng Luo was quiet.
Then he looked at Xian Yue.
She was reading the development data from her section.
She felt him looking.
She looked back.
"Yes," she said.
He had not asked a question.
She had answered it anyway.
He looked at the fire.
He looked at his hands.
He looked at the Flame Blade's resting fire.
"The next wielder," he said. "In forty to sixty years. If they come to this territory—"
"They will find five sections," Jian Yu said. "Organized around five sword frequencies."
"Our frequencies," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"And our frequencies will have been in those sections for forty to sixty years," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"Building," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
Feng Luo was quiet.
"One continuous project," he said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
Feng Luo looked at the fire.
At the section in the domain.
At Xian Yue.
"Don't waste it," he said.
Quietly.
To the section.
To the frequency he was leaving in it.
To whatever practitioner forty years from now would stand at the section's edge and read the Vermilion Flame Blade's combination contribution in the pathway structure and feel something they could not yet name.
"Don't waste it," Jian Yu agreed.
The fire burned.
The five swords were on the road.
Three weeks until threshold.
The work continued.
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