The mining town of the Western Spur fell into a deep, exhausted slumber under the cold light of the twin moons. The rhythmic drone of the grinding array was the mountain's ceaseless heartbeat, a sound so constant that it was the same as silence. In his dusty courtyard, the 'Young Lord from the capital' was believed to be resting, a soft light glowing from his window.
But the room was empty. Jian Feng, cloaked in the deep shadows of the moonless night, moved like a wisp of smoke through the settlement. He had left a simple light-refracting formation active in his room, a trick of a quality no one here would ever detect. His true destination lay deep in the belly of the mountain.
He slipped into the main entrance of the mine, his movements silent. The handful of guards stationed there were lax, their senses dulled by the same oppressive lethargy that afflicted all the miners. He passed them without notice, his path leading him away from the active tunnels and towards an area marked on the maps as 'Collapsed Vein 07', abandoned for over a century.
The air grew colder as he ventured deeper, the faint, sweet smell of decay clinging to the damp rock. He followed the almost imperceptible hum of the hidden power conduit he had detected earlier. It was a thread in the darkness that only his perception could follow. The parasitic grey threads he had seen with his Star-Chart grew thicker here, coiling around the walls like ghostly, cancerous veins. He passed the desiccated corpses of cave rats and giant insects, their bodies not wounded, but simply hollowed out, their life force drained to the last drop.
The tunnel, long abandoned, should have ended in a rockfall. Instead, it opened into a vast, unnatural cavern.
The sight that greeted him would have frozen the blood of a lesser man. The cavern was not made of stone, but seemed to be a grotesque fusion of rock and living tissue. The walls pulsed with a faint, sickly light, and in the center stood the source of the corruption: a colossal, fleshy array. It was a ten-meter-wide monstrosity of corrupted, weeping jade, pulsating purple veins, and dark, biological matter, all woven together in a blasphemous mockery of a grand formation.
This was the Flesh-Vessel Array. It was alive. And it was latched onto the very heart of the mountain, its tendrils extending for miles, siphoning the pure, nascent life essence directly from the Spirit-Jade veins. The stolen energy was being drawn to a large, obsidian-like crystal at the array's center, which pulsed with a malevolent, dark light. This was not a technology of any righteous clan; it was a demonic art of the highest, most forbidden order.
As Jian Feng watched from the concealing darkness of the tunnel mouth, a figure entered the cavern from another hidden entrance. It was the stoic, silent supervisor, Elder Bao.
Bao moved with a practiced familiarity. He approached the Flesh-Vessel Array and placed his hand on its pulsating surface, his expression unreadable. He began to channel his own Qi into it, not to power it, but to regulate it, like a gardener tending to a carnivorous plant. Jian Feng's Star-Chart analyzed the interaction with cold precision. He saw that Elder Bao was not the master of this abomination; he was its caretaker.
After several minutes, the central crystal glowed intensely. Elder Bao then produced a small, obsidian key and placed it into a socket on the array. A secondary formation, hidden within the flesh and bone of the primary one, flared to life. With a silent, spatial warp, the vast ocean of life essence stored in the crystal simply vanished. It had been teleported away. The destination was unknown, the transmission deliberately one-way.
The truth crystallized in Jian Feng's mind. This mine was not just being robbed. It was a farm. A tithe of pure life essence was being systematically harvested and sent to an unknown, powerful third party. Elder Bao was their agent, and the nervous Elder Jin was likely nothing more than a terrified pawn used for misdirection.
Suddenly, Elder Bao, his task complete, stiffened. His head snapped up, his powerful Spiritual Sense sweeping the cavern like a physical force. "Who's there?" he called out, his voice sharp and dangerous.
A loose pebble, dislodged by the faint vibration of the teleportation array, had clattered to the floor near Jian Feng's position.
In his hiding spot, Jian Feng's presence seemed to dissolve into nothingness. He held his breath, his heartbeat slowed to one beat per minute, and his Origin Qi created a perfect, invisible shield that bent light and spiritual sense around him. He became one with the rock and the shadow.
Elder Bao's senses swept over his location once, then twice. Finding nothing but cold, dead stone, he frowned, the suspicion lingering in his eyes. After a long, tense moment, he concluded it must have been a tremor from the mining operations. He gave the cavern one last look before departing through the hidden passage, the heavy stone grinding shut behind him.
Jian Feng remained motionless for a full ten minutes after the elder had gone. He did not emerge to destroy the array. That would be a fool's move, akin to burning a single web while the spider remained free. It would alert the true masterminds and sever his only lead.
He had the 'what' and the 'who' of the local operation. Now he needed the 'where' and the 'why'.
He silently retreated, taking with him a single, small stone from the cavern floor. It was unremarkable, save for the faint, almost undetectable trace of the Flesh-Vessel's unique, corrupted energy signature. He now possessed the scent of his true enemy. His investigation of a simple production decline had just become a hunt for a parasitic, shadow organization that had infiltrated the very heart of his clan's territory.