## CHAPTER 192
### The New Road
The five sections stopped generating on their own in the first week.
Not permanently. The generation was intact. But the rate dropped when the five of them moved away from the sections and the calibrated applications stopped.
He read it through the domain on the third morning after they left.
"Bing Xi," he said.
"Reading it," she said. She had the Frostbite Edge out.
"The generation rate," he said.
"Down thirty-two percent from peak," she said. "Still generating. Still permanent. But the calibration we provided was augmenting the natural rate significantly."
"So the sections need us," Feng Luo said.
"The sections function without us," Jian Yu said. "The calibrated application made them function better. Like the passive domain contribution versus the active application."
"We improved them," Xian Yue said.
"Yes," he said. "And when we left, they returned to their natural rate."
"Which is still above threshold," Bing Xi said.
"Yes," he said.
Lin Mei was writing. She had been writing since the morning camp. She looked up. "The five sections are in the land permanently. The calibrated application made the generation quality richer during the application period. When we are in range — through future travel — the application continues naturally."
"Future travel," Feng Luo said.
"The road continues west," Jian Yu said. "And north. And east. Wherever the growing season work requires. We will pass through this territory again."
"When we do," Xian Yue said, "the sections will be waiting."
"Yes," he said.
Feng Luo looked at the Flame Blade at his hip.
The fire was at resting height.
"The sections know us," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"And we are leaving them," Feng Luo said.
"For now," Jian Yu said.
Feng Luo looked at the road west.
The Flame Blade's fire rose one inch.
Not agitation.
Something between leaving and returning. The fire of someone who understood they would be back.
"The growing season sections," Feng Luo said. "Which ones need us next."
He reached for the domain.
Extended.
The section map in his awareness — thirty-one li of precise reading at Sovereign range plus the undocumented stage's broader sensing capacity for the outer edge.
Three sections west.
Two developing toward threshold at standard rate.
One at ninety-one percent.
Ready.
Waiting.
He counted nothing.
"West," he said. "One day."
They walked west.
Five people. Five swords. The road ahead.
The five sections generating behind them.
They were already in those sections. Their frequencies in the pathway structures.
Building.
Long after they had left.
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