Volume 3 — The Era of Convergence
Chapter 4: The City That Sold Secrets
Morning arrived at Three Stones Station without bringing peace.
A gray mist covered the rooftops, concealing the towers and reducing visibility along the outer streets. The bell in the northern district remained silent, and the guards responsible for the city's security resumed their positions as though nothing extraordinary had happened.
Yet the settlement had not returned to normal.
Shop doors remained closed longer than usual. Merchants spoke in hushed voices, and small groups of cultivators gathered at street corners to exchange rumors that contradicted one another with every retelling.
The Station Council had issued an official announcement shortly after dawn.
The previous night's disturbance, it claimed, had been caused by a temporary malfunction in an underground formation. The problem had been contained, no immediate danger threatened the population, and all commercial activities could resume as normal.
Residents were instructed to avoid the northern district until repairs were completed. Merchants transporting materials discovered in regions affected by the Convergence were reminded that such items had to be registered before they could be traded.
It was a convenient explanation.
It did not explain the nature of the formation, why the bells had rung three times, or why guards had spent the entire night preventing anyone from approaching the northern district.
Nor did it explain why two Council employees had disappeared from the administrative offices shortly before dawn.
But complete explanations were rare in this world.
Most people would accept the announcement because they needed to buy food, sell goods, and find somewhere to sleep. Truth did not feed anyone by itself. When the price of asking questions became too high, even the curious learned to keep their mouths shut.
Han Feng observed the settlement from a low rooftop across the street from the inn.
He had not returned to his room after leaving it the previous night. Instead, he had spent several hours resting inside an abandoned warehouse, never allowing his vigilance to lapse for long.
Now he wore the same gray clothes, but he had changed the position of his travel bag and removed anything that might identify him as a member of a particular caravan.
The stone tablet remained hidden beneath his clothing.
He had not taken it out since the previous night.
Prudence suggested leaving Three Stones Station immediately. The tablet attracted attention, the underground formation was more dangerous than it appeared, and someone had already searched his room.
Remaining in the settlement would increase the chance of being identified, especially if the people looking for him had access to the arrival records.
Yet leaving without understanding what had happened would mean abandoning information he might never encounter again.
Han Feng disliked unnecessary risks.
But he did not confuse prudence with retreat.
There was a difference between abandoning a situation because it had become dangerous and abandoning it because someone wanted him to leave. The latter might be precisely what his adversaries expected.
He needed to discover who had searched his room, what the Council knew about the tablet, and why the underground door had begun responding the previous night.
For that, he did not need to fight anyone.
He needed to listen.
Han Feng climbed down from the roof and entered the market as the first stalls began opening. The growing crowd offered sufficient cover for anyone who knew how to move without attracting attention.
He passed between porters and merchants, studying faces, insignias, and the subtle signs of authority people displayed without realizing it.
Council guards wore white stones.
Commercial officials carried sealed wooden identification plaques.
Cultivators affiliated with major sects preferred discreet insignias, usually concealed beneath their clothing. Independent groups seeking to display their strength, by contrast, tended to flaunt expensive weapons, rare ornaments, or conspicuous Gu.
Scarcity had changed even the way people displayed their power.
Before the Convergence, a powerful cultivator might openly release their aura to intimidate the weak. Now, doing so without a compelling reason could attract dozens of adversaries eager to discover what resources they possessed.
Many of the truly dangerous had learned to look insignificant.
Han Feng understood that principle well.
He had survived for years precisely because he rarely allowed others to see more than necessary.
As he passed a food stall, he overheard two merchants arguing.
"They say the formation nearly broke apart," the first man said.
"They say a lot of things."
"My cousin works in the Council's warehouses. He heard the alarms and saw guards removing crates from the underground district."
The second merchant glanced around.
"Keep your voice down."
"Why? Everyone already knows something is wrong."
"Knowing there's a problem isn't the same as knowing which problems you can discuss without losing your head."
The first merchant looked irritated but lowered his voice.
"They say the disturbance began when someone tried to use a material recovered from a convergence zone."
"And who told you that?"
"A refiner."
"A refiner who wants to sell something, most likely."
Their conversation ended when a guard passed close to the stall.
Han Feng continued walking.
The rumor was consistent with what he had witnessed in the underground chamber, but it provided little useful information. The Council probably possessed numerous materials recovered from convergence zones, and the crystal used by the researcher might have been only one among many.
The problem might not have been the object itself.
It could have been the way it was used, the formation surrounding it, or the nature of the door.
He needed someone with access to information who was not directly involved in the investigation.
An intermediary.
Someone who understood the city's secrets and had reasons to sell them.
Three Stones Station possessed exactly that kind of person.
The place was known as the Shadow Market.
The Shadow Market did not appear on official maps.
It operated through a network of old warehouses beneath the commercial district, connected by narrow passages that had once been used to transport goods before the Convergence.
Some entrances lay behind abandoned workshops. Others were concealed inside shops that sold ordinary merchandise during the day.
Access was not entirely illegal.
The Council simply pretended the market did not exist whenever the transactions conducted there failed to threaten the settlement's stability.
That arrangement suited everyone involved.
The Council could deny knowledge of inconvenient dealings, while merchants and information brokers could conduct business without submitting every transaction to official scrutiny.
Han Feng found an entrance behind a shop specializing in secondhand tools.
The owner was a short man with an uneven beard and an artificial eye made of dark metal.
He did not ask what Han Feng wanted.
Instead, he studied the young man's clothes, watched how he examined the shop, and finally pointed toward a curtain made from thick, faded fabric.
"If you've come to sell something, the appraisal costs two primordial stones. If you've come to buy, that depends on what you want."
"I'm looking for information."
The man laughed.
"Then you've come to the right shop. Information costs more than tools, but weighs less and can kill much faster."
Han Feng placed two primordial stones on the counter.
"I want to know who's searching for objects found near the fissures."
The shopkeeper's smile disappeared.
He collected the stones and slipped them into a drawer.
"That question costs more than two stones."
"How much more?"
"Depends on how much you already know."
Han Feng said nothing.
The man studied his face for several moments, deciding whether continuing the conversation was worth the risk.
Finally, he pulled aside the curtain and revealed a staircase descending into the basement.
"Third room on the left. Ask for a woman named Mei Qiu. Don't tell her I sent you."
"And if she asks?"
"Tell her you don't know me."
Han Feng stepped through the curtain.
The staircase ended in a corridor illuminated by small oil lamps. Voices mingled behind the walls with the sounds of objects being moved and weighed.
The air smelled of damp wood, metal, dried herbs, and smoke.
In one open room, two men negotiated over a Rank One Gu whose shell had developed an unusual deformity. In another, a blue-robed cultivator examined a stone covered in inscriptions while a short-haired merchant insisted that it had been recovered from a ruin predating the Convergence.
Nobody seemed particularly concerned about the moral origins of the merchandise.
If an object could be sold, someone was willing to buy it.
If someone was willing to buy it, someone else would find a way to obtain it.
Han Feng reached the third room.
The door stood open.
Inside, a dark-haired woman was arranging small wooden plaques across a table. She wore simple clothing without insignias, and her expression was so composed that it seemed out of place in the surrounding market.
No weapons were visible within easy reach of her hands.
Han Feng nevertheless noticed a small formation carved into the underside of the table.
She looked up as he entered.
"You don't look like a merchant."
"And you don't look like an informant."
"That's because people expect informants to look desperate, greedy, or suspicious. Negotiations are easier when the customer believes they've already understood the person sitting across from them."
Han Feng closed the door.
"I was told you sell information."
"I sell information, verify rumors, and occasionally purchase objects whose owners would prefer to conceal their origins. Everything depends on the price."
"I'm looking for information about an underground formation in the northern district."
Mei Qiu stopped arranging the plaques.
The change was slight, but Han Feng noticed it.
"Many people are looking for information about the northern district today," she replied.
"Then there must be plenty of supply."
"There are plenty of rumors. Reliable information is much rarer."
She gestured toward the chair opposite her.
Han Feng remained standing.
Mei Qiu did not insist.
"The formation was built over an anomaly discovered eight years ago," she began. "The Council believes it's connected to the convergence zones, but no one has been able to determine its nature. For a time, the researchers thought it was an incomplete fissure. Later, they discovered that their detection methods consistently failed whenever they attempted to determine what lay beyond it."
Han Feng kept his expression neutral.
"And the door?"
Mei Qiu became still.
This time, her reaction was unmistakable.
"Who told you about the door?"
"Is that part of the price?"
"It's part of ensuring that neither of us gets killed unnecessarily."
"Then let's discuss security. You can tell me what you know, or we can end this conversation without either of us discovering whether the other possesses useful information."
Mei Qiu studied him for several seconds.
Then she rested both hands on the table.
"The door wasn't built by the Council. It was already there when the first explorers discovered the anomaly. During the first few years, nobody managed to activate it. The formations installed around it served only to prevent the surrounding area from being affected by irregular energy fluctuations."
"Until they began experimenting."
"Exactly."
"What changed?"
Mei Qiu took a slow breath.
"Four years ago, a cultivator from another system attempted to use a spatial perception technique near the structure. We don't know precisely what he did because he died before completing the experiment. But for several moments, the door responded. The inscriptions on the arch illuminated, and every measuring instrument in the chamber recorded a simultaneous alteration."
"What was on the other side?"
"Nothing the instruments could identify."
Han Feng narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Nothing?"
"There was no landscape, no concentration of energy, no recognizable life signature, and no identifiable coordinates. The instruments registered space, but they couldn't determine its extent. It was like trying to measure the distance to something that had no defined position relative to the observer."
The description matched the records Han Feng had found.
"And afterward?"
"The Council took control of the area. The researchers received funding, the guards began preventing curious people from approaching, and the reports were classified. Since then, the door has responded on three occasions."
She paused.
"The last was last night."
Han Feng remained silent.
Mei Qiu noticed that he did not appear surprised.
"You've been there," she concluded.
It was not a question.
Han Feng neither confirmed nor denied it.
"Why is the Council hiding what happened?"
"Because the settlement depends on the formation remaining stable. If people discover that an unknown structure exists beneath the northern district, many will try to exploit it. Independent cultivators, sects, merchants, and organizations that don't even recognize the Council's authority. A race for resources could destroy the city before anyone understands what the door actually is."
"Or the Council wants to be the only one allowed to exploit it."
Mei Qiu smiled without humor.
"Both can be true."
It was the first answer in their conversation that Han Feng considered entirely honest.
He took another primordial stone from his pouch and placed it on the table.
"I want to know who's searching for objects found near the fissures."
Mei Qiu did not touch the stone.
"Is this connected to the door?"
"Perhaps."
"That word tends to be expensive."
"Then charge an appropriate price."
She examined him again.
"There is an organization operating across several regions affected by the Convergence. It has no known headquarters and rarely uses the same name for long. Here, some people call it the Void Collectors. In other cities, it's known as the Threshold Society."
Han Feng listened without moving.
"Its members search for objects that react abnormally near fissures, particularly those that cannot be classified by traditional appraisal methods."
He thought of the stone tablet hidden beneath his clothing.
"Do they buy these objects?"
"When they can. When they can't, they try to steal them."
"Why are they interested?"
"That's the part nobody knows for certain. Some believe they're searching for a way to cross the fissures. Others claim they want to build formations capable of extracting energy from convergence zones."
She paused before continuing.
"There are also rumors that their leaders are developing techniques capable of combining the two cultivation systems."
That caught Han Feng's attention.
He concealed his reaction.
"Combining the two systems?"
"The idea sounds absurd to many cultivators. Gu Masters depend on their Gu, primordial essence, and the interactions between their tools. Cultivators from the other world follow different paths, refining energy and comprehending laws through methods that aren't entirely compatible with ours."
Mei Qiu leaned back slightly.
"However, since the Convergence, certain anomalies have produced results that fit neither traditional system."
"Stable results?"
She gave a short laugh.
"If they were stable, they wouldn't be sold in a black market."
Han Feng understood the implication.
The world was beginning to experiment with new forms of cultivation, but it lacked the foundations needed to distinguish genuine discoveries from dangerous mutations.
A Gu that absorbed unfamiliar energy might develop an extraordinary ability—or simply die.
A cultivator who attempted to incorporate an unknown law might advance in an unexpected direction or destroy their own foundation.
Scarcity made these experiments even more tempting.
When traditional resources disappeared, people searched for alternatives. When those alternatives proved dangerous, some abandoned them.
Others continued because they had nothing left to lose.
And there was always someone willing to profit from the difference.
"How do I find this organization?" Han Feng asked.
Mei Qiu leaned back in her chair.
"You don't find it. It finds you, if it believes you possess something valuable."
"And how do I know when it's interested in me?"
"If someone begins asking questions about objects you never mentioned, consider that a warning."
Han Feng put away his remaining primordial stone.
"You've been useful."
"We're not finished."
Mei Qiu opened a drawer and removed a small sheet of paper.
A symbol had been drawn upon it: three curved lines converging around an empty space.
Han Feng recognized the style of the inscription.
It was not identical to the symbol on the door, but the similarities were sufficient to attract his attention.
"This appeared in a storage facility confiscated by the Council," Mei Qiu explained. "The facility belonged to a group of explorers who disappeared during an expedition. Officially, they were victims of an unstable convergence zone."
"And unofficially?"
"I believe they were searching for something."
"What?"
"I don't know."
"Then why show me?"
Mei Qiu retrieved the paper before Han Feng could study it for too long.
"Because you asked about the door, and I suspect you didn't come here out of curiosity. I don't know what you've found, but I recognize someone trying to decide whether information is worth the risk of possessing it."
She placed the paper back on the table.
"If you see this symbol somewhere, don't try to activate the object it's engraved upon. Don't touch it with your primordial essence. And, above all, don't attempt to combine it with a formation that's already operating."
Han Feng studied the drawing.
"What happens if someone does?"
"Someone tried."
"And?"
Mei Qiu hesitated.
"For three seconds, every instrument in the facility registered a complete absence of energy. Then the instruments disappeared."
"Were they destroyed?"
She took a moment to answer.
"No. They disappeared."
The silence that followed carried more weight than any additional explanation could have.
Han Feng memorized the symbol.
He left without asking further questions. Mei Qiu did not attempt to stop him, but as he reached the door, she spoke once more.
"If you truly found something connected to the underground door, don't trust the Council."
Han Feng glanced back.
"But don't trust anyone who claims to be fighting against it, either."
"Why?"
"Because in this era, people have learned to call any opportunity to replace those in power freedom."
Han Feng left without replying.
The black market seemed busier when he returned to the main corridor.
A group of merchants had just received a sealed wooden crate. Two private guards protected the shipment while a blue-robed man argued over its price with an appraiser.
Near the staircase, a young man was selling information about a newly discovered spiritual vein, claiming it contained enough energy to sustain a small sect for decades.
Nobody appeared convinced.
The last spiritual veins that had promised abundance had attracted so many cultivators that, within a few months, they had either been completely drained or transformed into battlefields.
The new era had turned resource discovery into a race against time.
The more valuable a location became, the greater the chance that its own explorers would become its first enemies.
Han Feng left the market without purchasing anything.
His conversation with Mei Qiu had confirmed several suspicions, but it had also revealed something more important.
The underground door was not an isolated phenomenon.
Other regions contained similar anomalies, and people were actively searching for ways to exploit them.
If the tablet he carried belonged to this network of phenomena, keeping it hidden would not be enough forever.
He needed to discover how it reacted, what conditions triggered those reactions, and whether there was a way to prevent others from detecting its presence.
However, he had no intention of conducting experiments in a crowded settlement.
He would find a safer location first.
As he emerged from the market, Han Feng noticed a man standing across the street.
He was thin, dressed in brown clothes, and carried a basket of dried herbs.
At first glance, there was nothing remarkable about him.
Yet his eyes followed Han Feng for a brief moment before shifting toward a small shop.
Han Feng continued walking.
He did not quicken his pace.
He did not look back.
He turned two corners, crossed a busy street, and entered a workshop where a blacksmith was working on a piece of metal.
He spent several minutes pretending to examine tools before leaving through a side door.
The man with the basket was no longer visible.
Han Feng did not conclude that he had lost a pursuer. The man might simply have been a merchant, and interpreting every unfamiliar face as a threat could be just as dangerous as ignoring them all.
Still, he committed the man's appearance to memory.
In Three Stones Station, even an absence of evidence could prove useful.
He headed toward the outer district, where the buildings were lower and patrols less frequent.
He intended to leave the city before sunset, but first he needed supplies. He purchased dried food, a small water container, and a few ordinary materials for repairing his spear.
He avoided shops displaying spiritual merchandise and asked no questions about maps of convergence zones.
Every purchase was simple.
Every question could become a clue.
After finishing his preparations, he crossed a square where dozens of people had gathered outside an administrative building.
A man was reading a new Council announcement while the others listened.
The containment formation in the northern district had been stabilized.
Commercial activities would remain open.
Residents were ordered to avoid spreading rumors.
Anyone concealing objects recovered near spatial anomalies would be subject to investigation.
Han Feng heard the final statement and continued walking.
The Council was expanding its search.
He did not know whether they were specifically looking for the tablet, but he had no intention of remaining in the settlement to find out.
By the time he reached the outer gate, afternoon was already fading.
The guard responsible for inspections examined his belongings without showing much interest. Han Feng presented the entry record he had received with the caravan and paid the departure fee.
Nobody detained him.
Nobody asked about the tablet.
And nobody seemed to notice that the gray-clothed traveler leaving Three Stones Station carried an object that might be connected to one of the most dangerous discoveries of the new era.
Outside the walls, the wind swept across the dry plains.
Han Feng continued walking until the settlement disappeared behind a series of low ridges. Only then did he choose a secondary route and leave the main road.
He had no intention of heading directly toward the next city.
He needed a place where he could examine the tablet without risking observation.
By nightfall, he found a rocky outcrop that offered shelter from the wind.
He inspected the entrances, searched for signs of animals, and examined the surrounding terrain before settling down.
After preparing a simple meal, he waited until darkness had completely covered the region.
Only then did he remove the tablet.
It appeared inert.
Han Feng placed it on a flat stone and studied the four characters engraved on its reverse.
Then he took out the paper bearing the symbol he had copied in the market and placed the two objects beside one another.
The inscriptions were not identical.
Yet when examined closely, the curved lines of the symbol seemed to follow an arrangement similar to the markings surrounding the tablet's characters.
There was insufficient evidence to conclude that they belonged to the same system.
But the coincidence deserved to be recorded.
Han Feng closed his eyes and turned his attention toward the Celestial Diagram.
He did not attempt to force it to activate.
He simply waited.
For several moments, nothing happened.
Then a faint vibration passed through his consciousness.
The tablet remained motionless, but one of its characters appeared to darken.
The change lasted less than a second, disappearing before Han Feng could determine whether it had been real or merely an effect of the light.
He opened his eyes.
The Celestial Diagram had returned to silence.
Han Feng put the tablet away without conducting another test.
The reaction was insufficient to establish a definite connection. It might indicate a relationship between the object and the Diagram, or merely a shared sensitivity to certain anomalies.
Any stronger conclusion would be premature.
Nevertheless, a possibility began to take shape in his mind.
Perhaps the remnants discovered in convergence zones were not simply fragments left behind by the collision of two worlds.
Perhaps some were remains of far older structures, awakened when cultivation systems that had once been unable to reach one another came into contact.
Han Feng did not know whether the hypothesis was correct.
But for the first time since the Convergence, he began to suspect that the catastrophe had done more than bring two realities together.
It might have revealed something that both had kept hidden.
The wind passed between the rocks, producing a sound like a distant whisper.
Han Feng raised his head.
For an instant, he felt that same immeasurable distance again.
He saw no black door.
He heard no voice.
No image appeared before his eyes.
He merely sensed that something existed far beyond the reach of his perception.
Then the sensation vanished.
Han Feng remained seated, staring into the darkness.
Ten years earlier, when the heavens had collided, countless cultivators had looked toward the sky and tried to understand what was happening.
Some had found partial answers.
Others had discovered only the limits of their knowledge.
The most powerful had erected formations, established boundaries, and prevented reality from completely tearing itself apart.
But no one could claim to understand every consequence of that event.
Not even those who had helped stabilize the heavens.
Han Feng extinguished the fire and began preparing his shelter for the night.
The following day, he would travel to a less populated region where he could study the tablet more safely. Afterward, he would investigate the Threshold Society and the missing explorers.
He did not intend to chase every mystery that appeared before him.
He would pursue only those that offered enough knowledge to justify the risk.
That was how he had survived until now.
And that was how he intended to continue.
As Han Feng fell asleep beneath the rocks, far from Three Stones Station, someone examined a newly delivered report.
The document contained a brief description of a traveler who had arrived in the settlement with a caravan, fought off a group of raiders, visited the Shadow Market, and departed shortly afterward.
The description did not reveal his true cultivation level.
It contained insufficient details to identify the nature of his Gu.
And it said nothing about the object hidden beneath his clothes.
At the bottom of the report, however, someone had added a handwritten note.
The individual displayed unusual interest in the events surrounding the northern district. Discreet surveillance is recommended.
The reader closed the report.
On the table beside a collection of convergence-zone maps lay a stone tablet resembling the one Han Feng carried.
The difference was that this tablet bore only three characters.
The Door Has Awakened.
The man remained silent for some time.
Then he opened a drawer and removed a small metal case.
Inside lay a black fragment, perfectly smooth and incapable of reflecting light.
When the case was opened, the fragment remained motionless.
The man brought it closer to the tablet.
Nothing happened.
Then he spoke three words in a language that did not belong to the Gu World.
The fragment trembled.
And somewhere far away, beneath the foundations of Three Stones Station, the black door answered with a single pulse.
This time, no formation registered the phenomenon.
No instrument detected the change.
Nobody heard the sound that crossed the space between the two locations.
But the vertical line at the center of the door shifted again.
A little farther than before.
As though whatever waited on the other side was slowly learning how to find its way back.