The journey to the Western Spur was a stark contrast to the grandeur of the Sky-Ark. There was no fanfare. Jian Feng was assigned a single, swift-footed Cloud-Chaser bird, the standard transport for clan members on official business. It suited him perfectly. The solitude of the week-long journey gave him ample time to absorb every detail from the records his father had provided on the Spirit-Jade mines—production ledgers, geological surveys, and personnel files.
By the time the jagged, windswept peaks of the Western Spur appeared on the horizon, he had already identified seventeen inconsistencies in the official reports.
The mining settlement was a grimy, functional town, carved into the base of a massive mountain. A fine, pale dust coated everything, and the air hummed with the monotonous drone of massive formations grinding away at the rock face deep within the mountain. The atmosphere was sullen and oppressive. The miners he saw moved with a listless exhaustion that went beyond simple physical labor. Their gazes were dull, their shoulders slumped.
He was met at the entrance by the two supervisors of the operation, Elder Jin and Elder Bao. Elder Jin was a thin, weaselly man with darting eyes, who offered fawning, overly effusive greetings. Elder Bao was a stout, stone-faced man who remained silent, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression unreadable.
"Young Lord Jian Feng! What an unexpected honor!" Elder Jin exclaimed, his smile not reaching his eyes. "We were not aware you would be gracing our humble operation with your presence. Had we known, we would have prepared a proper welcome!"
"There is no need," Jian Feng said, his tone polite and neutral. His suppressed aura made him appear as nothing more than a mid-level disciple, and he could see the flicker of condescension behind Elder Jin's fawning. "I am here on behalf of the Grand Elder to observe and understand the recent production decline. Please, lead me to your offices. I wish to review the recent output logs."
In their office, they presented him with the same ledgers he had already memorized. They spoke of difficult new veins, unexpected geological shifts, and equipment malfunctions. Their excuses were plausible, well-rehearsed, and utterly false.
While they spoke, Jian Feng's attention was elsewhere. His Star-Chart was active, his perception extending deep into the mountain. He saw the great veins of Spirit-Jade, pulsing with a gentle, green light. He also saw something else. A faint, almost invisible network of parasitic grey threads, coiling around the jade veins like strangler figs. They were siphoning the purest spiritual energy directly from the raw jade before it was even mined. The process was slow, subtle, and fundamentally poisonous. It left the remaining jade duller, harder to extract, and of lower quality, perfectly explaining the production decline.
This was no simple matter of mismanagement. This was a sophisticated, large-scale theft of the very essence of the mine's resources.
He also turned his perception on the two elders. Elder Jin's aura was chaotic, tinged with the grey of deceit and the yellow of fear. Elder Bao's, however, was a fortress. His Qi was placid, his spirit guarded, but Jian Feng could detect a faint, coiling darkness deep within him, expertly concealed.
"The equipment malfunctions you mentioned," Jian Feng said, looking up from a ledger. "I am somewhat versed in formations. Perhaps I could inspect the primary grinding array?"
Elder Jin paled slightly. "Ah, there is no need to trouble the Young Lord! It is a complex and dangerous environment…"
"I insist," Jian Feng stated calmly, leaving no room for argument.
They led him deep into the mine, to a vast cavern where a colossal formation was etched into the floor. As it droned, Jian Feng walked its perimeter, seemingly observing the runes. In reality, he was tracing the flow of power. He saw the main power conduits, but he also detected a minuscule, secondary conduit, almost perfectly hidden, branching off from the main array. It wasn't drawing much power, just enough to avoid detection, and it led deeper into an abandoned tunnel.
The array wasn't malfunctioning. It was being used as a power source for something else.
"Everything appears to be in order," Jian Feng announced, turning back to the supervisors. "Your reports on the array's integrity seem accurate."
He saw a flicker of relief in Elder Jin's eyes. He had given them a false sense of security, letting them believe their deception had worked.
That evening, he was shown to a small, dusty courtyard prepared for his stay. He politely dismissed the elders, stating he needed to rest after his long journey. But he did not rest. He sat in the darkness, his mind a silent, whirring engine of deduction.
A sophisticated siphoning system was stealing the essence of the jade. A hidden formation, powered by the main array, was operating in a forgotten tunnel. The supervisors were lying, and one of them was a far more dangerous and capable actor than the other. The miners were not just tired; their vitality was being slowly eroded by the poisoned environment.
This was not just corruption or smuggling for profit. This was something more sinister. The stolen energy wasn't being stored; it was being channeled somewhere. This investigation had just become far more complex than a matter of missing jade. He was standing on the precipice of a conspiracy that ran far deeper than the mountain itself.