Threads Chapter 409-Development 1

The journey south was much longer than she had grown used to. When she soared in the air, she forgot things like the twists and turns roads followed to pass between the mountains. She forgot that when traveling with mortals and low cultivators, she could not feel the wind scream past her. There was a plodding pace to travel on the road that Ling Qi found herself fretting over as the snow capped peaks out beyond the window of her carriage passed at what felt like a glacial pace.

It did, however, give her time to focus on the slow and meticulous repair of her meridians, cleansing them of the last fires, reconnecting channels where they had been blocked, and carefully nursing the spiritual health of the meridians where they had withered under the heat. Every shade of qi she used—ice, darkness, wind, music—had to be carefully realigned with her emptied meridians. But every time she felt her power flowing properly or felt a pattern come back into sync with her spirit, the rush was indescribable.

It was amusing to watch everyone step respectfully around Zhengui. Hanyi often stayed in the carriage with her, but Zhengui stayed steadfastly on the road, trundling along and clearing obstacles where they cropped up. Gui chatted freely with everyone who would speak with him, and as the days passed, that number grew.

Soon enough, the train of wagons and carriages rounded the last of the bends in their path, bringing Snowblossom into view.

The lake was a clear blue mirror reflecting the sky, and the mist and thunder of the falls were visible even from so far away. At the base of the cliff, small plumes of dust and smoke rose from work and habitation. Hugging the hills by the lake, harvested fields lay clear and ready for the next year’s planting, and little homes dotted the spaces between. On those same hills, a drifting splotch of white like a cloud on the ground roamed in land closed off by barely visible fences.

The treeline had been trimmed back a good distance from the settlement, and a wall had been raised, closing off a crescent of land by the lakeside behind wood and earth. Behind it and the distant, swarming figures of workers laying foundations and digging into the earth, a small palace with curved, blue tiled roofs and clean white walls was being worked on, flush against the stone of the cliff. It lay shrouded in the mist at the base of the waterfall, glittering colors reflecting from damp tile, but the mist circled outside the manor walls and spilled from the roofs to flow down invisible barriers protecting the streets and inside of the space from the damp.

This was what the funds of the Cai could do when bent to Renxiang’s purposes.

She remained there at the window of the carriage, head leaning out as the caravan made its way down the final stretch toward the burgeoning settlement.

***​

“Welcome, Miss Ling!” Gan Guangli’s booming voice carried across the open space outside the simple gates of the palisade.

The gravel laid down in the preparations to pave a path from the tentative city gates out to the Wang-built road crunched under his boots as he strode out

“Thank you, Sir Gan. It is good to see you’ve all been hard at work.” Ling Qi was in her chair for now; she was not so far along in her recovery that she was able to forgo its use entirely yet

“Yeah! There’s so much stuff now!” Hanyi looked around. She was behind Ling Qi, ready to move her. “Though everything feels kind of empty…”

“We have stretched the population thinly in arranging for all the infrastructure to be ready before the next stage,” Gan Guangli answered.

“It is fine. People will come to where the stuff is,” Gui said with great certainty, stomping up from where he had been conversing with the caravaneers.

Those were now being ushered toward the manor in the distance. Already, wagons packed with building materials were splitting off, moving toward the many building sites within the walls where the foundations for the first homes and buildings in their city center were being laid out along the gridlike lines of the streets being prepared on the newly flattened and cleared ground.

“Still, I’m impressed with the work,” Ling Qi complimented.

“And you have not even seen it all yet! Come, Miss Ling, let me show you around the manor.”

Ling Qi bowed her head. “Please.”

Soon, the wheels of her chair were turning with Hanyi trotting behind, pushing. The cushioning arrays prevented the ride along the gravel path from being too bumpy.

“While we have not yet received our honored guest from the Meng, the promised geomancer whose services you acquired, there has been some correspondence and self study. We are making some effort to incorporate the waters even now, as you can see,” Gan Guangli announced, marching on ahead of them.

Indeed, Ling Qi could see that channels had been dug through the planned streets and were steadily being lined with clean stone. The stone of the cliffs had been carved and shaped so that the waters would pour down and fill these channels, stretching off toward the lakeside. Though most of the dug canals were narrow, here and there, she saw places for pools and gardens.

“I am sure we will have adjustments to make, but I can picture this turning out beautifully.”

“It is pleasing. Designs for roof-installed sluices are common in wetter portions of the empire. We will find uses here.” Xia Lin’s crisp voice joined them as they passed the work crews and came to the outer wall of the central manor itself.

True to her word, Ling Qi could see the places where some of the falling water was channeled to fall in pleasing patterns from the high roof, pouring into pools in the manor’s grounds, which, in turn, flowed out toward the lake. The constant pounding noise of the falls was reduced to a distant comforting rumble, and light shone through the falling waters and curling mist in pleasing patterns.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“You’ve been here as well then?” Ling Qi asked. “What have you been up to?”

Xia Lin was fully armored, save for her helm, and her halberd swayed behind her back, blade flashing in the filtered light. “Imparting drill and organization as much as possible. Riding the periphery has also been necessary to keep the wilds at bay.”

“And a fine job Captain Xia has done! Between the two of us, our small passel of guards is growing quite skilled for their level!” Gan Guangli praised.

“… Yes,” Xia Lin agreed reluctantly.

“I, Zhen, will have to test their mettle. It is no good if the ones who will protect home are too weak.”

“Where are you getting guard guys anyway? Do you just, like, buy them?” Hanyi asked. “Could I buy one?”

“No,” Ling Qi scolded. “They come with the other settler groups, though their lords must give permission. That is one of the requests I have been writing to others for.”

“Ooooooh.” Hanyi nodded as if she had not just asked something absurd. “So it’s okay if I…”

Ling Qi sighed. “Leave staff hiring to myself or Bao Qian.”