Broken Dam

Since the night that Bai Shuixian had fallen asleep, a week had passed. Normally, she would have woken up after a few days. Xuan Yueji had expected the same to happen, but somehow she was sleeping for much longer than anticipated.

He had already taken care of all business with the military after just three days of recruitment and thought her to wake up once they passed. For some reason though, even after five days she still did not wake up. This surprised Xuan Yueji, but he stayed calm and continued about his business while letting Lu Lianhua take care of Bai Shuixian.

Though they all expected her to wake up after a short period of time, there are chances that she could be asleep for a long while. Although it did not happen much, once in a while Bai Shuixian would sleep for much longer than what they estimated. Actually, when this first happened, all of them were shocked and scared for her except for Lu Lianhua.

It was as though he had expected it to happen. At the time, Xuan Yueji had questioned Lu Lianhua since he was so calm despite all of them freaking out like mother chicks. When he asked, Lu Lianhua did not give a straight out answer but talked in rounds.

Lu Lianhua had said, "This is expected."

When he asked for more information, Lu Lianhua refused to give more. This response had stayed with Xuan Yueji since then until now and he would always remember it. The reason why this would stick forever was because it would remind him that Lu Lianhua knew more than he let on.

As more days had passed by than Xuan Yueji expected, he decided to remain in the city of Yuezhong. Becoming friendly with the troops of the 17th regiment and even meeting the priests once in a while, he was a famous figure among the soldiers now. Previously, he was only being treated nicely for having the green token, but now he was being accepted by everyone due to his strengths and the help that he has been providing them.

Entering the barracks that was situated right next to the Shanyang River, Xuan Yueji watched as the soldiers trained in the water. A few of them were training on their swordsmanship on the dummies while others were doing chores like washing their armor at the river bank. Some were also shooting arrows using the nearby animals as prey to use for their next meal or feast.

It seemed as though life was going on normally. At the very least, this was what every felt like or thought. This included Xuan Yueji and many others that maintained important positions in the regiment.

The barracks seemed to be loud enough with the grunts and shouts of the men, but then another fellow popped up from nowhere screaming out loud frantically, "Dam! Dam! The dam has broken! Hurry! Hurry! The river is about to flood the bank! Soldiers! Leave now! The dam has broken!"

Though it was all peaceful and the soldiers were at rest, they all immediately got into action as soon the man started screaming and grabbed their things. The ones who were swimming in the river also swam back to the bank and despite having no clothes on their top, they ran along with the other training men. With the speed they ran at, even the screaming man was surprised seeing that the soldiers had long passed him.

At the same time, the man was shocked that the soldiers had reacted in such an orderly and organized form as though this was a regular thing. Maybe it was because he was new to the city, so he did not know about the frequent times of which the dam broke. Aside from that, the dam broke for multiple reasons so the soldiers had gotten used to it, leaving many others to learn to adapt over the years.

Xuan Yueji was a new person to the city and did not know about the dam at all. Even though he visited the city once in a while, he stayed at the barracks most of the time. Not only that, he did not go up or down the river and stayed at the bank that the barracks was connected to.

When the shuzhu for the 17th regiment stated that they were at a safe area, Xuan Yueji asked, "The dam breaks?"

Turning to him as more soldiers fled into the courtyard, the shuzhu answered, "Yes."

"Frequently?" Xuan Yueji continued to ask with a frown.

"It breaks once a year. It is customary now," the shuzhu said.

His browning scrunching up in deep thought, Xuan Yueji asked, "You guys have not tried to find out why it breaks every year?"

"Well, we have, but the priests stated that it would be better to just repair the dam," the shuzhu replied.

Frowning even more, Xuan Yueji asked, "Why?"

"According to them, fixing the dam will disturb the natural currents of the area," the shuzhu explained.

"Natural currents?" Xuan Yueji questioned with a raised brow.

Coughing in embarrassment at the repeated words, the shuzhu said, "Actually, we don't understand ourselves. I'm just the new shuzhu for the regiment. The previous shuzhu was the one that understood all the philosophical things that the priests said."

Despite being in a completely spiritual body, Xuan Yueji was still not a heavy believer of the spirits so he asked, "Where are the priests right now?"

"The priests said that they would be divining within the light of the sun in the green forest," the shuzhu said.

"Alright," Xuan Yueji nodded and ordered, "Handle the matter with the dam. Use new materials and don't use recycled material."

"Uh… That will be tough," the shuzhu spoke out.

"What's the matter?" Xuan Yueji asked, staring at the shuzhu.

Under the deep stare of him, the shuzhu explained, "Though this city is famous since the priests live here… the emperor really gives us no money… the nobles of this city also do not like to spend money… and-"

"No need to continue," Xuan Yueji interrupted. "Buy the best material you can for repairing the dam. I'll handle the payment. No need to be self-conscious about the cost. Safety and long-term is better."

"Uh, yes, I understand," the shuzhu nodded and bowed immediately to set off for his task.

Despite both of them being of the same ranks, Xuan Yueji had the green token so he was of higher status. This enabled him to be able to command the shuzhu of the 17th regiment to take tasks that page boys would do instead. In fact, had it been another ordinary shuzhu commanding the 16th regiment shuzhu, there would have been a heavy fight and argument between regiments.

Ignoring how he did not fit to the normal though, Xuan Yueji used his qinggong to travel to the green forest that the shuzhu was talking about. Outside the city, a couple of miles away, there was a small green forest full of bamboo. With the forest, there was an empty area or circle that was shined on brilliantly by the sun and he had managed to take notice of this when passing by not too long ago.

Although Xuan Yueji did not find anything suspicious about the location at first, Lu Lianhua stated that he should investigate more since there was a heavy presence that could be felt. He did not know what the presence was, but Lu Lianhua had specifically said that this could help Bai Shuixian so he started to pay more attention to the place. Though, he still did not know what was so important and powerful that even Lu Lianhua was being supremely secretive.

Xuan Yueji was the one controlling the physical movements of the body, but Lu Lianhua was the one currently doing all the investigative work and thinking. Xuan Yueji always hated having to think much, so to have Lu Lianhua doing all the hard work made him happy. Only, when it came to Bai Shuixian, he would rather do all the thinking.

In this perspective, Xuan Yueji tried many times to find something within the circle. However, no matter how many times he went over secretly, overtly, or covertly, he found nothing of importance. Perhaps it was because he did not have the ability to sense light or dark presences like Lu Lianhua?

Actually, as soon as Xuan Yueji thought that, Lu Lianhua had responded immediately with, "That's not the reason why."

Xuan Yueji was a bit shocked to have his thoughts interrupted abruptly by Lu Lianhua, but he still gave what he was saying with his full attention. It must be known that Lu Lianhua wasted no words unless it was with Bai Shuixian. Even if he spoke, they were important words or sentences that needed to be interpreted and comprehended fully before being able to understand the coded messages behind them.

"You, yourself, do not have your memories," Lu Lianhua said.

As soon as Xuan Yueji dropped from the bamboo branch in shock while saying, "What?"