CHAPTER 216
### What Li Shan Said
The message from Li Shan arrived the next morning.
*The faction leadership: two members initiating archive access. Mo Xuan has been contacted. He says: I was waiting for this.*
*The third member: moving north. Still moving. No contact with Mo Xuan or the archive or Rong Yan.*
*I am not able to predict what the third member does when the inert territory becomes too small.*
*But I want to note something.*
*The faction started as eighteen practitioners who left the hollow. Rong Yan and six stayed. Twelve left. Of the twelve: seven contacted Mo Xuan. Three sent false messages and then contacted Rong Yan after the counter-distribution. Two are adapting after the fringe encounter today.*
*That is twelve of eighteen.*
*Fourteen of eighteen including Rong Yan's original six.*
*The faction is nearly dissolved.*
*The last remaining non-adapting member: one practitioner in the deep inert territory.*
*One.*
*Fourteen months of work. The combination. The archive. The growing season. The hollow. The option three adaptation. The One Continuous Project.*
*One person still choosing the shrinking space.*
*I am documenting this because I want the archive to have the accurate count.*
*Fourteen of eighteen adapted or are adapting. Not fifteen. Not eighteen. Fourteen.*
*The accurate count is necessary.*
He read the message.
He read it to the group.
"Fourteen of eighteen," Feng Luo said through the relay. He had been connected since the cluster encounter.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"The one in the deep inert territory," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"You are not going after them," Feng Luo said. Not a question.
"No," Jian Yu said.
"Because," Feng Luo said.
"Because the hollow will be there when they decide," Jian Yu said. "The door stays open. We do not close it by chasing."
Feng Luo was quiet for a moment on the relay.
"Xian Yue's father visited the eastern sections," Feng Luo said.
He had not been expecting that.
"Yes," he said. "I know."
"He walked through the merchant family's junction section," Feng Luo said. "The generating section. The one the merchant family has been maintaining for three generations."
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"He stood in it for twenty minutes without speaking," Feng Luo said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"I was there," Feng Luo said.
Jian Yu held the relay.
"You were there," he said.
"Xian Yue guided him," Feng Luo said. "I was at the northern edge. Reading the northeastern sections I had finished."
"He saw you," Jian Yu said.
"Yes," Feng Luo said.
"What did he say," Jian Yu said.
Feng Luo was quiet.
"Nothing," he said. "He looked at me. He looked at the Flame Blade. He looked at the section."
"And," Jian Yu said.
"He went back to Xian Yue," Feng Luo said. "He said: show me the other sections."
"He asked to see more," Jian Yu said.
"Yes," Feng Luo said.
"How many did he visit," Jian Yu said.
"Four," Feng Luo said. "In one day. He did not speak much. He just walked through them and read what was there."
"What did he read," Jian Yu said.
"I do not know," Feng Luo said. "I am not the Dragon Roar Fang's wielder. I cannot read what he reads."
"But Xian Yue can," Jian Yu said.
"Yes," Feng Luo said.
"What did she say," Jian Yu said.
Feng Luo was quiet for a long moment.
"She said he was reading the frequencies like someone who was trying to understand a language they had heard before and could not quite place."
Jian Yu held that.
"Before the words," he said quietly.
"Yes," Feng Luo said.
The relay was quiet.
The road was west.
The door was open.
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