Chapter 18: Old Affairs of Lengshan County
The third day of the third month.
Inside the aerial mansion above Lengshan County.
"How is your wife's health recently?" The Changle Marquis asked, with an air of passing inquiry.
Fang Xun visibly hesitated then bowed repeatedly, a cold sweat beginning to form. "The Marquis is too kind to ask. I have engaged a reputable physician to attend her. She is resting in bed and being carefully looked after."
The Changle Marquis spoke in a mild, unhurried tone. "I have heard that the two of you met when you were both at your lowest, and faced hardship together. Especially now that she carries your child, do not fail her.
"I, for one, despise those without feeling who abandon those who stood beside them."
The smile on Fang Xun's face was more painful than weeping. He put on a performance of principled righteousness: "The Marquis worries unnecessarily. As an official of the Great Qian court, I should serve as a model for the people. How could I ever do something so conscienceless and contemptible?"
"Very well." The Changle Marquis glanced at him with a look that suggested she understood far more than she said.
Then she came to the point.
"I have asked you here today because there is something I require."
Before Yu Niang's reappearance, hearing that the Changle Marquis had a request of him would have sent Fang Xun into a state of barely contained elation. But after the steady series of cold reminders she had delivered, whatever unrealistic fantasies he had been nursing had been thoroughly extinguished.
Before she had even finished speaking, Fang Xun immediately cupped his hands in a solemn bow. "The Marquis does me too much honor. Whatever you require, so long as it falls within the scope of this subordinate's authority and does not transgress the laws of Great Qian, I will throw myself into it without reservation."
But the Changle Marquis did not immediately state her request.
Instead, in that voice of hers, clear and cool as spring water, she posed a question that appeared entirely unrelated. "You have served as an official here for many years. Do you know why this land and mountain are called 'Lengshan'?"
Having spent ten years as the parent official of this place, this was basic knowledge Fang Xun had long since committed to memory. "Because this area is the most profoundly yin terrain within ten thousand li, perpetually touched by the cold radiance of the yin moon, bone-chilling in its cold. Hence the name."
The Changle Marquis gave a slight nod and continued without hurry. "And do you know why this place became one of the rarest concentrations of extreme yin energy in the known world?"
This lighter question left Fang Xun entirely at a loss. He furrowed his brow and thought for a long while, coming up with nothing. He could only shake his head in awkward admission.
The Changle Marquis supplied the answer herself. "It is said that in ancient times, a being of tremendous power fell here. Though the body rotted away, the dark soul refused to disperse. It is the long, slow erosion of that force across the ages that created today's Lengshan.
"This concentrated, undissipating power of extreme yin, before the Great Qian was even established, made this one of the finest places in the world for the tempering of swords."
Fang Xun had not expected that the county he had spent years governing concealed such unknown and ancient secrets. He was genuinely taken aback.
"Ancient times..." He murmured the words over and over, a faint awe seeping into his expression.
After the founding of Great Qian, the Grand Historian had composed the Emperor’s Records to record the events of the age.
As for the long span of history before Great Qian's establishment — the bloody chaos of the Eight Kingdoms, and the even more distant dark age that had lasted for thousands of years before that — every written record, every surviving text that touched on that era, had been erased from the world by the Qian Emperor through means that defied understanding. Not a page remained. The only glimpses anyone could catch of those hidden ages came from the word of mouth of those who had actually lived through them.
"What I came here for is to make use of the extreme yin energy of Lengshan." The Changle Marquis finally revealed the true purpose of her visit.
Fang Xun gave an inward nod. Now it made sense.
Her earlier explanation of a passing whim, wanting to have a look had obviously been nothing but a pretext.
With this layer of the picture clear, Fang Xun collected himself and asked with grave attentiveness: "In that case, how may this subordinate be of service?"
The Changle Marquis's voice remained level and untroubled. "The extreme yin energy of Lengshan all originates from that fallen ancient soul. But this 'Lengshan Soul' does not lie dormant in any fixed location. It wanders, like a living thing, through the deepest reaches of the mountain's underground, year after year."
"The underground of Lengshan?"
A specific location surfaced in Fang Xun's mind. "Marquis, do you perhaps mean... the old Lengshan mine vein outside the city walls? The one that was sealed and abandoned many years ago?"
"Correct."
Fang Xun's expression took on a note of difficulty. "Marquis, as the records show, the mineral deposits beneath Lengshan were exhausted over two hundred years ago. The entire mine vein was subsequently sealed and decommissioned by the government.
"Furthermore, the Lengshan mine was originally founded in the era of the Xu Kingdom and was worked by Great Qian for a further three hundred years after its founding. By now the underground is an enormously complex, labyrinthine network of passages dug to depths that cannot be measured. A person could easily become lost without the slightest warning...
"This subordinate truly has no means to assist the Marquis in entering."
The Changle Marquis smiled. "You are the parent official of this land, I would certainly not ask you to risk your own person."
Her manner shifted. "Let me ask you this, among the corvée laborers here, how many have skill in cultivating Lengshan Grass?"
Fang Xun was momentarily thrown by the abrupt change, one moment the Marquis had been discussing the deep Lengshan mine, and the next she was asking about the cultivating habits of labor conscripts. But he had spent too many years in the courts of power to let the confusion linger. His mind turned quickly, and something came to him.
"The Lengshan Soul. The Lengshan Vessel. The Lengshan Grass."
"Could it be..." A light came into Fang Xun's eyes.
As if she had read exactly what was passing through his mind, the Changle Marquis gave a small nod of confirmation. "All that is Lengshan traces back to the Lengshan Soul.
"Or more precisely, back to that fallen ancient being. Its soul, though extinguished, would not disperse. It seeks rebirth through the cold radiance of the yin moon.
"Therefore, wherever the Lengshan Soul wanders and its extreme yin energy seeps into the earth, Lengshan Grass will invariably grow in its wake.
"Though the underground mine's geography is extraordinarily complex, a true maze, a party of people with a keen sensitivity to the scent of Lengshan Grass, leading the way ahead and following the trail of the grass's growth ever deeper, could approach and potentially locate with precision the Lengshan Soul's true position.
"The people I wish to borrow are those same laborers. Upon completion of the task, there will be generous compensation."
The Changle Marquis laid out her plan in its entirety, unhurried and complete.
When their eyes met for an instant, the heart that Fang Xun had only just succeeded in quieting down, after the upheaval of Yu Niang's return, began to pound again like a war drum.
"The Marquis may rest assured. This subordinate will see it done."
He bowed deeply, swallowed down the wild elation clamoring in his chest, and excused himself with brisk steps from the aerial mansion, returning at speed to the county Magistrate office below.
He sat at his desk with his brow knit. "Those with skill in cultivating Lengshan Grass..."
After a brief moment of deliberation, he summoned Lengshan County's labor overseer, Sun Wu.
"Draw up for me a list of laborers who have never once failed to deliver their Lengshan Grass quota on time, over the past ten years. No, make that twenty. And who have also managed to trade the surplus freely."
"This subordinate will attend to it immediately."
Sun Wu knew the situation of the laborers under him thoroughly. It was, by this point, essentially an extension of his own knowledge. Before long he had returned with a freshly written list, presenting it respectfully with both hands.
Fang Xun's eyes moved intently across the twenty-three names on the paper.
"Bring all of them."
Sun Wu was just turning to leave when Fang Xun lowered his voice. "Quietly. No word of this is to leak out."
A chill moved through Sun Wu's spine. He bowed his head without a word.
And so, an hour later, Li Shun who had been enjoying a rare moment of peace in his own courtyard found himself being escorted into the heavily guarded rear hall of Lengshan County's Magistrate office.
He looked at the familiar faces around him, every one of them pale with apprehension and trembling. He quietly thought to himself.
...