The corruption stopped spreading.
Li Wei noticed it because the pocket watch stopped fighting him.
The internal spring relaxed, tension bleeding off in a way it never should after Abyss exposure.
That was the first problem.
The second problem followed immediately.
People noticed.
—
By dawn, the border village was intact.
Buildings stood where they should not have stood.Soil retained moisture where Abyssic drain should have sterilized it.Livestock lived.
Containment without aftermath always drew eyes.
Li Wei stood at the edge of the main road and counted carts.
Six supply wagons.Two militia patrols rotating on an unnecessary schedule.One clerk from the county office pretending to inspect grain weights.
Order had arrived too fast.
That meant attention.
—
He adjusted the broken pocket watch.
The needle drifted, then stabilized at a value that should have indicated residual corruption.
But there was none.
The Abyss had been rerouted cleanly.
Too cleanly.
—
"Inspector Li."
The voice came from behind, neutral and practiced.
A local authority. Low-tier, but trained to smell irregularity rather than blood.
Li Wei turned.
The man wore the sigil of the Border Infrastructure Office.Ink-stamped authority.Paper-based power.
"Containment report," the inspector said. "Your name is on the road requisition."
Li Wei nodded once.
"The road absorbed the pressure," he said.
Literal truth.Incomplete explanation.Acceptable lie.
The inspector frowned.
"Roads don't absorb corruption."
Li Wei looked past him, toward the drainage channels.
"They do if they're already broken."
The inspector followed his gaze and saw nothing.
That was expected.
—
They walked.
The road stones were mismatched.The mortar ratios were wrong.Every construction error had been logged, complained about, and ignored months earlier.
Infrastructure incompetence was easy to dismiss.
Weaponized incompetence was harder to see.
—
At the eastern culvert, Li Wei stopped.
The inspector leaned down, peering into the runoff channel.
Clear water flowed.
Too clear.
"Where did it go?" the inspector asked.
Li Wei checked the watch again.
The needle flickered.
"Elsewhere," he said.
—
The word carried weight.
Elsewhere implied jurisdictional problems.
The inspector straightened, suddenly cautious.
"We'll need a formal assessment," he said. "A report to—"
The ground pulsed.
Not violently.Not dramatically.Just enough for a trained body to register inconsistency.
The inspector froze.
Li Wei did not move.
The pulse traveled along the road stones, dispersed at junctions, and vanished into the surrounding fields.
Cause and effect.
The corruption had not been destroyed.
It had been redistributed.
—
A cold sensation brushed Li Wei's spine.
Not fear.
Recognition.
—
[SYSTEM STATUS: EVENT LOG UPDATED]
—
The inspector's breath hitched.
"You felt that," he said.
"Yes," Li Wei replied.
"Was that… aftershock?"
Li Wei considered the phrasing.
"No," he said. "That was stabilization."
The inspector stared at him.
Stabilization meant design.
—
A second pulse followed, weaker.
The watch needle dipped below baseline.
Li Wei's thumb tightened on the casing.
That should not be possible.
—
[SYSTEM STATUS: UNORTHODOX RESOLUTION CONFIRMED]
—
No explanation followed.
There never was.
—
The inspector stepped back.
"I'll escalate this," he said. "This is beyond roadwork."
Li Wei inclined his head.
"As procedure dictates."
The inspector hesitated.
"Who authorized this design?"
Li Wei looked at the culvert again.
"The land," he said.
The inspector left shortly after.
Paper authority retreated when faced with unfiled outcomes.
—
By midday, rumors replaced reports.
The corruption had vanished.The village was "blessed."Someone had interfered.
All incorrect.
Li Wei watched from a shaded overhang as militia patrols doubled.
Containment without spectacle was worse than failure.
Failure could be buried.
Success demanded explanation.
—
He traced the road network in his head.
Each faulty joint.Each misaligned channel.Each "mistake" that redirected mana pressure incrementally.
Individually meaningless.
Together, a grid.
The Abyss had followed the path of least resistance.
Li Wei had given it one.
—
A courier arrived at dusk.
Not official.
Underworld ink marked the seal.
The Knight's method.
Li Wei broke it.
No greeting.
Just a single line:
They noticed the absence.
Li Wei folded the note and burned it.
Absence was harder to justify than presence.
—
He returned to the culvert alone.
The water reflected the sky.
Too shallow.
Too stable.
Li Wei crouched and dipped two fingers in.
No corrosion.No memory distortion.No lingering desire amplification.
Clean.
He withdrew his hand.
The pocket watch ticked once.
Not time.
Pressure.
—
That was when he understood.
The System had not logged containment.
It had logged classification.
—
[SYSTEM STATUS: PARAMETER SHIFT RECORDED]
—
Li Wei exhaled slowly.
The Abyss had learned the infrastructure.
The System had learned him.
Unorthodox resolutions were not errors.
They were markers.
—
If local authorities escalated, it would invite the Marquis.If the Marquis reviewed records, he would see anomalies.If anomalies accumulated, patterns would form.
Li Wei straightened.
Containment without exposure had been a victory.
But victories altered the board.
—
He checked the watch one final time.
The needle pointed inward.
Toward him.
Li Wei frowned slightly.
For the first time since arriving at the border village, the System was no longer watching the land.
It was watching the engineer.