CHAPTER 188
### Five Swords Again
The first evening together Feng Luo built a fire that was the correct size.
Not excessive. Not barely sufficient.
Correct.
Jian Yu noticed this and said nothing about it.
Xian Yue had been reading the archive sections on her relay since they joined. Eighteen months of updates she had not had time to read while running the eastern liaison office.
She was on the hollow documentation when she stopped.
"River-Stone's clearing," she said.
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"Twenty li east of Shen Bo's hub," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"The continuous frequency in the lower layer," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"I have been within domain range of that clearing three times in the past eighteen months," she said.
He looked at her.
"Dragon Sect's cartographers documented that valley," she said. "The specific quality of the terrain. It was flagged as an anomaly. I read the flag. I filed it."
"You filed it," he said.
"I was running a coordination office," she said. "Every section that was not immediately relevant got filed."
"Yes," he said.
"The clearing was relevant," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She was quiet.
"Three times within domain range," she said. "The Dragon Roar Fang's cross-absorption. The Frostbite precision quality. I have been able to read cultivation conditions at elevated sensitivity for eighteen months."
"Yes," he said.
"And I read the anomaly flag and filed it," she said.
"Yes," he said.
She looked at the Dragon Roar Fang.
At the gold energy moving in its compressed geometric precision.
"Before the words," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"I felt something real three times and filed it," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"Add me to the section," she said.
"What," he said.
"The Before The Words section," she said. "Add me. An entry. Felt something real three times in eighteen months and filed it because the work was immediate and the something was not."
"Shen Bo's wife," he said.
"She came back," Xian Yue said. "Twice a year. I filed it and did not come back."
"The liaison office," he said.
"Yes," she said. "The right reason."
"And the Dragon Roar Fang," he said.
She looked at the sword.
"The sword needed to keep moving," she said. "I knew that. I built the office and I ran it and I did the work. And I did not go back to the clearing three times when I had the chance."
"You are here now," he said.
"Yes," she said.
"The fourth time," he said. "You came back."
She was quiet.
"The door was still open," Feng Luo said.
She looked at him.
"You told me that," she said. "In a letter."
"Jian Yu told me," he said. "And then I told you."
"And Shen Bo's wife told Shen Bo," Jian Yu said. "And the hollow told Rong Yan. And the section at the river crossing told the third practitioner." He paused. "The door stays open until someone walks through."
"Shen Fei walked through on the fourth attempt," Bing Xi said from the fire's far side.
Everyone looked at her.
"She passed the hollow three times in her lineage's travels," Bing Xi said. "Wei Lan documented it. The lineage's travel routes cross the hollow's territory every three years. Shen Fei was on her fourth pass when she felt the between quality clearly enough to identify it."
"How do you know that," Xian Yue said.
"I read the full lineage documentation," Bing Xi said. "It arrived in the archive last week."
"Four passes," Xian Yue said.
"Fourth time," Bing Xi said.
Xian Yue looked at the fire.
She looked at the Dragon Roar Fang.
"The clearing," she said. "When we are in range—"
"Yes," Jian Yu said.
"I will read it," she said. "Properly this time."
"Yes," he said.
She looked at the archive section on her relay.
She looked at Feng Luo.
Something passed between them. Not words. The specific communication of two people who had been corresponding for nine months and building something that neither of them had named and that did not need naming yet.
Feng Luo's fire was at the correct size.
She went back to reading the archive.
He went back to the fire.
Jian Yu counted the people at the fire.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
He stopped at five.
He committed.
He stayed in the between.
The road was long.
The work was large.
The five swords were on the road again.
Don't waste it.
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