Chapter 59: The Price of Information

# Chapter 109: The Price of Information

Shen Ru held the formation tablet for approximately thirty seconds before she said: "This is the original placement record."

She said it the way someone says a thing they'd prepared themselves not to expect.

"This is—" She turned the tablet over. Ran her thumb along the notation on the upper third. "This is the unmodified Heavenly Sword seal record. The initial formation layout from the original sealing ceremony." She looked up. "Do you understand what this means? Every modification the Warden has made to the waterfall seal—I can detect them precisely. Not probably. Precisely. This is the reference document."

"Good," Zhao Feng said.

"It's better than good." She put the tablet flat on the cave desk beside her three months of remote assessment work. Started cross-referencing immediately, the way she cross-referenced things, which was with the intensity of someone for whom the academic problem was the most interesting thing in the room.

Lin Yue was watching Zhao Feng. He'd come back two days later with the pack on his back and Xiao Bai in his hood and a tail he'd lost in a covered market, and her expression had done the specific thing it did when she was processing both relief and analysis simultaneously.

"You picked up a tail," she said.

"I lost it in the market."

"But someone is now aware that someone went into the collector's estate and took a formation artifact."

"Yes."

"Local Ghost Market operation," she said. She'd worked through the same logic he had, faster. "Someone with established Wansong connections who monitors the collector network." She looked at the cave opening. "They followed you north?"

"I don't know. I checked the road twice. Nothing visible."

"Ghost Market operators don't follow people. They ask questions and get answers." She turned back to Shen Ru. "How long do you need with the tablet?"

"Two days for a thorough cross-reference. One day if I don't sleep." She was already writing.

"One day," Lin Yue said. "And then we attempt the waterfall."

Wei Changshan was on his second day of Shen Ru's preparation. The physician had given him enough for four days, and he'd burned one in the hut before they'd moved to the cave. His face had stopped doing the thing it did when he was managing pain—the micro-expression that he was very good at suppressing but which Zhao Feng had learned to read anyway—which meant the medication was working and the wound was actually closing rather than being managed.

"The river approach," Wei Changshan said to Zhao Feng. They were at the cave mouth, watching the gorge in the cold. "Lin Yue said it's cold."

"She said the mist zone suppresses qi-sensing formations."

"She said cold first."

"Winter river approach. Yes."

Wei Changshan took a drink from his jug. "Did I ever tell you about the time I swam the Azure Cloud's inner moat in November? No? Well. There was a merchant's daughter who had apparently told three different young nobles that she was betrothed to each of—" He stopped. Started again. "The point is that cold water is not pleasant but it's not prohibitive." He drank again. "The physician's preparation has an effect on temperature sensitivity. I may need more of it before the river."

"I'll ask Shen Ru," Zhao Feng said.

They watched the gorge for a while. The iced edges of the tributary below, the open center running dark over stone.

"The Azure Cloud record," Wei Changshan said. "Qing Shuoyan."

"Yes."

"Shen Ru was right to take it." He said it flat, without drama. The same register he used for facts that weren't in dispute but needed to be said aloud anyway. "The family of the sect master who made that choice—I know who they are. They're Azure Cloud now. Main family, not a branch." He paused. "When this is over—when there's a version of after—that information should be made public. Not as punishment. As record."

"You could do that without waiting for after," Zhao Feng said.

"I know." Wei Changshan looked at the gorge. "I'm waiting because doing it now draws attention to my presence and I'm not ready to be noticed by Azure Cloud leadership yet. When I am—" He stopped. The drunk's usual ease had gone somewhere for the moment. "There are a lot of things that should happen after. I've been keeping the list."

Zhao Feng looked at him.

Wei Changshan noticed. "What."

"Nothing. You're keeping a list."

"Everybody keeps a list," Wei Changshan said. "Some people keep it in their head and some people pretend they don't have one. I'm just acknowledging mine." He took a drink. "It's a long list. Very long. I've been building it since I was sixteen and I discovered that the Azure Cloud's good reputation was primarily a reputation rather than a practice." He put the jug away. "How's the arm."

"Moving," Zhao Feng said.

"Deliberately?"

"Sometimes."

Wei Changshan nodded. "Good." And didn't say anything else about it, because that was the correct amount to say.

---

The Ghost Market operator made contact that evening.

He arrived at the cave mouth in the way that people who were very good at arriving places arrived: without audible approach, without announced intention, already there when you turned around. Xiao Bai had known he was coming for about three minutes before he appeared—had communicated this to Zhao Feng with a very still posture and a slight ear-forward position—but the cave group had been waiting, which meant when he appeared at the mouth and said "Good evening" in the specific register of someone who expected to be welcomed, they were not surprised.

He was thirty, maybe. Well-made clothes with nothing that identified his affiliation. The kind of face that you could describe accurately in the moment and would struggle to reconstruct an hour later. A professional's face.

"Ma Guolin," he said. "I run the Black Wind Branch's Wansong operation." He looked at Zhao Feng. "You took something from the Leng collection this morning. I was hoping we could discuss it."

"Sit down," Zhao Feng said.

Ma Guolin sat. He looked around the cave with the interest of a man who had been in many unusual situations and found them informative. His gaze passed over Shen Ru at her formation tablet, Lin Yue's position in the cave—standing, not sitting, the Jade Maiden preference when an unknown person was present—Wei Changshan with his jug, Xiao Bai on the supply shelf.

"The Black Wind Branch," Lin Yue said.

"A local operation," Ma Guolin said. "Not affiliated directly with any of the twelve major sects. We provide services." He looked at the chain guard. Not the way most people looked at it—the surprised or awed reaction to the crimson glow. He looked at it the way someone looks at a piece of information they've been trying to identify. "We've been contracted by certain parties to monitor the Leng collection. The tablet you took is one of several items on a standing acquisition list."

"Contracted by whom," Zhao Feng said.

"That I can't say." Not apologetic—factual. "The contract has a confidentiality provision. What I can say is that the acquiring party has a long-standing interest in Heavenly Sword archive materials and is willing to pay significantly for the original placement records."

"The tablet is not for sale," Zhao Feng said.

"I expected that answer." Ma Guolin settled back slightly, the posture of someone who had not expected a quick transaction and was adjusting to the negotiation that was actually going to happen. "Let me put a different question. You're in the gorge range. You need access to the waterfall area. The Heavenly Sword outer perimeter is between you and the waterfall." He looked at Zhao Feng. "The Black Wind Branch has a relationship with the families that supply the outer perimeter patrol roster. We know which watch slots are maintained by which families, who those families owe favors to, and how those favors can be activated." He paused. "We can clear a two-hour window in the patrol coverage on the west side of the waterfall. The mist zone, specifically."

Lin Yue's expression didn't change. "What do you want for it."

"A copy of the tablet's content. Not the tablet—you keep the tablet. We want to know what the original formation layout says. The acquiring party wants the documentation, not the physical object." He looked around the cave again. "And a future consideration. When you've completed what you're doing here—when the Crimson Blade Immortal's carrier has broken the first seal—the Black Wind Branch wants a sitting. A discussion of mutual interests."

Zhao Feng looked at Lin Yue. She was looking at Ma Guolin.

"Why would you care about the Crimson Blade Immortal's carrier," she said.

"I said the acquiring party has an interest in Heavenly Sword archive materials. The acquiring party also has an interest in the carrier." Ma Guolin looked at Zhao Feng. "Not a hostile interest. An interested interest." He smiled, which was the first expression that had moved his professional's face. "The Black Wind Branch does not work for the Shadow Emperor. We're aware of the Shadow Emperor's network and we stay out of its way. But we're also aware that what you're doing is going to significantly rearrange the martial world's power structure, and we'd like to be on record as having been cooperative early."

"Smart positioning," Wei Changshan said, with the tone of someone who recognized the move.

"We try," Ma Guolin said.

The cave. The gorge outside. Shen Ru at her tablet, not looking up but clearly listening to every word.

"The patrol window," Lin Yue said. "When."

"I can arrange it for two days from now. After that, the roster changes and I'd need to renegotiate."

Two days. Shen Ru's one-day cross-reference plus one more day for approach planning. It worked.

"The copy of the tablet content," Lin Yue said. "Shen Ru."

The scholar looked up. Met Lin Yue's eyes. A question in Shen Ru's face: is this person trustworthy?

Lin Yue's answer, slight: I don't know. But the deal is functional.

Shen Ru nodded. "I can prepare a notation copy. Not a rubbing—my notation. The content will be accurate but it'll require someone who can read formation script to interpret."

"The acquiring party can read formation script," Ma Guolin said. "That's not a concern."

"The future consideration," Zhao Feng said. "After the seal is broken. A discussion of mutual interests. What does that actually mean."

Ma Guolin looked at him directly. "It means that when you've broken all twelve seals and you're the Crimson Blade Immortal's full inheritor—when you have enough power that the major sects need to decide whether to fight you or negotiate with you—we'd like to be someone you've met before. Someone who helped." He paused. "That's all. We're not asking for oaths or alliances. We're asking for a conversation at a time when conversations matter."

*He's not lying,* the Immortal said. *The water attunement reading—his qi is steady. Not the specific pattern of someone actively concealing.*

"Not lying doesn't mean transparent," Zhao Feng said to the Immortal. Quietly.

*No. It means the stated purpose is genuine. What he isn't saying may be significant. But what he is saying is true.*

Zhao Feng looked at Ma Guolin. "Two days. The west side of the mist zone. Two hours."

"Two and a half if you need it."

"Two," Zhao Feng said. "And the future consideration—I'll meet with you. No promises beyond that."

"That's all we're asking." Ma Guolin stood. He looked at the cave, at the group, at the chain guard's steady crimson glow. "Good luck with the waterfall." He said it with the quality of someone who meant it genuinely, which was interesting.

He left. The approaching sound was the same as the arriving sound: nothing.

"He's reporting to his handler tonight," Lin Yue said. "Whoever the acquiring party is."

"Yes," Zhao Feng said.

"The handler might have connections to people we don't want informed."

"Yes."

She looked at him. "And you still agreed."

"Two and a half days until the patrol window. One day for Shen Ru's cross-reference, one day to plan, one day to execute." He looked at her. "The alternative is going to the waterfall without knowing the watch pattern, which means the approach has a specific kind of risk that this arrangement removes." He paused. "The future consideration is easy—a meeting after the first seal is broken is not a significant cost."

"The tablet content," Lin Yue said.

"Goes to someone who wants to study the formation. Not destroy it. Not trap it." He looked at Shen Ru. "Your read of him?"

Shen Ru turned around on her stool. "He's been watching the Leng collection for at least a year. He went to the trouble of finding us in the gorge—which means he has resources in this territory. He made the approach immediately rather than waiting to see what we did next, which means he's working to a timeline."

"He wants the seal broken," Wei Changshan said. "Before someone—the Warden, the Shadow Emperor's people—can modify the waterfall seal the way the Iron Mountain seal was modified."

"That's my read," Shen Ru said.

"The acquiring party," Wei Changshan said. He looked at Zhao Feng. "Someone who benefits from the seals being broken. Someone who has been studying this long enough to have a standing acquisition list for Heavenly Sword archive materials." He drank from his jug. "Did I ever tell you about the merchant in Luoyang? The one with the fish? No, I already told that one. Different story. Different merchant." He thought for a moment. "The point of this one would be: sometimes the most helpful person in the room is the one with the most to gain from the outcome."

Zhao Feng looked at the chain guard. At the Immortal's steady warmth.

*I don't know who the acquiring party is,* the dead man said. *But the arrangement is what it appears to be. Take the window. Do the assessment. We're running out of time to be careful.*

Two days. Shen Ru's notation copy. A patrol window in the waterfall's mist zone.

The first seal, and what the Immortal called the beginning.

Almost.