CHAPTER NINETY SIX
### The Arranged Section
They stayed in the high mountain valley for three days.
The first day was the initial application — the domain providing the frequency the arranged pathways needed. Development resumed at approximately three times the standard passive rate. The arrangement was precise.
The second day Bing Xi read the arrangement's details at close range with the full Frostbite Edge sensitivity.
"The direct pathway technique," she said. "The application is consistent throughout the section. Not a single application at one edge and then nothing. Multiple applications across the full section's pathway structure." She paused. "This took significant time. Not one morning. Multiple visits."
"Multiple visits," Jian Yu said.
"Yes," she said. "The pathway arrangement has layers. The outer layer first. Then the middle. Then the core. Three distinct application stages separated by time — the pathways had to stabilize between stages."
"Three visits minimum," Lin Mei said.
"Yes," Bing Xi said. "Spread over at minimum two to three weeks given the stabilization requirement between stages."
"Someone spent three weeks in this valley," Jian Yu said.
"Possibly longer," Bing Xi said. "There is a fourth quality in the core arrangement. Not part of the standard direct pathway technique structure. Something additional that is specific to this section's particular pathway geometry." She paused. "Someone customized the arrangement for this section specifically."
Customized.
Not just applied the technique. Learned the technique from the clearing's record and then modified it for the specific conditions of this section.
"They studied this section before applying the technique," Jian Yu said.
"Yes," Bing Xi said. "They were here before they applied anything. Probably weeks before. Reading the section's specific pathway geometry and then working out the appropriate modification."
He looked at the valley.
"This is not the work of someone who learned the technique and immediately applied it," he said.
"No," Bing Xi said. "This is the work of someone who has been thinking about this for months. Who came here with a specific plan for this specific section."
"Who knew the section existed," Jian Yu said.
"Yes," Bing Xi said.
"Shen Bo's records," Lin Mei said. "The section was in Shen Bo's sixty-year archive as a precursor observation. Someone with access to Shen Bo's records and access to the clearing's practice documentation and time to spend in this valley."
"Mo Xuan," Bing Xi said.
They were quiet.
"Mo Xuan has had access to Shen Bo's network for thirty years," Jian Yu said. "Not the current archive. But the network's territory data. This section is in the territory his agents operated in."
"He would have encountered the precursor observation in his own research," Lin Mei said. "He spent thirty years studying the combination's effects. He would have noticed a section with unusual pathway organization."
"And when the combination occurred," Bing Xi said. "When Mo Xuan gave his research archive to Li Shan's project. He would have seen the River-Stone reconstruction developing. He would have recognized what the direct pathway technique could produce."
"And he had access to the clearing's records," Jian Yu said. "He has been in contact with the clearing practitioners since the combination's aftermath. His network's coordination work brought him into contact with practice communities across the region."
"He could have requested the full practice documentation from the clearing as part of the coordination work," Lin Mei said. "Without it appearing unusual."
Jian Yu looked at the arranged section.
He thought about Mo Xuan at the formation's edge. The grief. Thirty years of being wrong. Giving his full research archive to Li Shan without conditions. Note what is wrong. That is more useful.
He thought about an old man spending three weeks in a high mountain valley applying a technique he had recently learned to arrange a section for the Lost Blade's specific frequency.
He sent a message to Mo Xuan directly.
*The high mountain valley section. The direct pathway technique application. Three stages. Customized for the section's specific geometry.*
*Was this you.*
The response came back the following day.
*Yes.*
*I spent four weeks in the valley in late summer. The section was in my research archive from seventeen years ago — one of the precursor observations I documented and filed. When the River-Stone reconstruction began and the direct pathway technique fragments appeared I understood what the section needed.*
*I had the clearing's full practice documentation from the coordination network's access. I learned the technique. I worked out the modification for this section's geometry. I applied it.*
*I did not tell anyone because I was not certain it would work correctly. If it had not worked I would have sent the data to Bing Xi for analysis and tried again.*
*It appears to have worked correctly.*
*I am glad it worked.*
He read the message to the group.
Lin Mei was quiet.
Bing Xi looked at the section.
Then she said: "He has been doing the work."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"Not coordinating the work," she said. "Doing it himself. In a mountain valley alone for four weeks."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"He is seventy years old," she said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
She looked at the arranged section.
"The thirty years of prevention," she said. "The network he built for the wrong purpose. The grief." She paused. "He is using what he knows for the right purpose."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"The direct pathway technique," she said. "He could teach it. Through the coordination network. To practitioners who have the cultivation level to use it."
"That would accelerate the growing season work significantly," Lin Mei said.
"Yes," Bing Xi said.
Jian Yu sent a message to Mo Xuan.
*The direct pathway technique. Can you teach it?*
Mo Xuan's response: *Yes. I have been thinking about who to teach first. The clearing practitioners are the natural inheritors but they already have the technique through their historical records. The hub's network practitioners — Shen Bo has identified several with sufficient cultivation level.*
*I have not asked because I was not certain the technique application in the valley had worked. Now I am certain.*
*Tell me who to contact and I will begin.*
Jian Yu sent him Shen Bo's relay address.
Li Shan's message arrived shortly after.
*The direct pathway technique in the archive. Adding to the growing season methodology section. Application requirement: late Burning stage minimum cultivation level. Mo Xuan's modification for valley-type pathway geometry — also adding.*
*Growing season methodology is now three tiers: passive domain contribution, active cross-absorption application, direct pathway arrangement. Three different tools for three different section conditions. Each more effective than the last and requiring progressively higher cultivation level.*
*The methodology is complete.*
*For now.*
He read the last two words.
For now.
He counted his breaths.
One through twelve.
"For now," he said.
"It will grow," Lin Mei said.
"Yes," he said. "It always does."
He looked at the arranged section developing under the domain's passive input. Three tiers of methodology now. The archive building. The network distributing. Mo Xuan teaching. The sixteen-year-old finding fragments. The school practitioners submitting records. Wei Han applying in the southeast. Feng Luo and Xian Yue in the northeast.
The work large.
Always larger than the work he could see.
He put the sword away.
He counted to twelve.
He stayed at twelve.
He started walking north.
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