Chapter 30 Summoned

By early afternoon, Zone Two was finished in the ugliest sense of the word. The clearvein patches nearest the posts had been cut down to scattered stems and overturned soil. Fourteen bundles had become sixteen. The quota was still two short, and every remaining clump looked either half dead or close to the richer growth claimed by the other team.

Shen Li stared across the post line for a long moment, then made the decision he had been resisting all morning.

"Contested edge," he said. "In order. No one crosses beyond the outer markers. If a fight starts will report both teams."

The junior exhaled hard. "They’re doing it on purpose."

"I know," Shen Li said. "Now move."

The other team noticed them approaching and adjusted immediately, spreading wider along the dense strip.

"Lin Feng," Shen Li said without turning, "harvest."

"Harvesting."

The next stretch of work was more like a collision. Both teams reached for the same dense clumps. Their knives started cutting close dangerously. Shen Li’s people were more desperate and the other team was more possessive. Neither side wanted to be the first to create a reportable incident. Lin Feng used that.

When two opposing disciples contested a thick patch, he did not grab for the center. He cut the side roots cleanly, shook the soil free in one practiced motion, and bundled half the yield before the other side finished arguing. Clearvein Grass lost grade if the pale center bruised, so he handled the stems lightly and forced the opposing pair into the uglier work of yanking leftovers.

Suddenly there’s a commotion started between the Junior and a disciple from other group. The junior immediately snapped, "He pushed!"

"I did not!"

"Enough!" Shen Li’s qi flared. "One more raised voice and I end the task."

They worked for another stretch of sun and mist. Lin Feng’s sack filled faster than others around him. He tracked stem thickness, vein brightness and moisture. When the seventeenth bundle was tied, the thin faced disciple from their team actually looked at him with reluctant relief. When the eighteenth knot pulled tight, the whole group exhaled.

"That’s enough," Shen Li said. "Withdraw."

The other team was not short and t hat made their anger worse. They had dominated the richer ground and still watched Shen Li’s side leave with a completed quota.

The return path felt shorter once they finished the quota. At East Post Gate, the receiving clerk inspected each bundle. Shen Li stood through the process without expression. Only when the clerk marked the quota complete did the team’s shoulders completely lowered.

"Stipend will be split by recorded contribution," Shen Li said. "No one underperformed enough to get zero. No one overperformed enough to get anything more.

His eyes landed on Lin Feng.

"You did good."

Lin Feng accepted the small resource stipend tablet and contribution mark without argument. The credit was modest, but it was the first mission conversion under conditional clearance. That mattered more than the stipend.

Lin Feng had just stepped beyond the gate arch when a plain robed attendant intercepted him.

The attendant had a token at his waist that shown he’s serving the sect master directly. He looked at Lin Feng’s face, then at the pale restriction token, then bowed with precision.

"Disciple Lin Feng."

Lin Feng stopped. "Yes."

"You are summoned," the attendant said. "The Sect Master requests your presence. Now."

Lin Feng studied him and found no extra answer.

"Fine. Lead the way," he said.

They left the gate behind and climbed.

The first stretch was still familiar sect stone, broad and worn by daily traffic. Then the path narrowed into pale steps cut directly into the ridge, and the air began to change. Ambient qi thickened by degrees,and even the mist behaved differently here, thinner around the path and heavier beyond the barrier stones. Disciples became fewer.

The ones they did pass wore better robes and better posture, and their eyes paused on Lin Feng’s pale token. His conditional clearance was visible and so was the fact that an attendant of sect master was escorting.

The attendant did not converse.After a covered bridge and a second gate marked with layered seals, the sound of the outer sect fell away completely.

The chamber stood at the end of a stone corridor lined with dark wood pillars. From outside, it did not look extravagant. The doors were tall but plain, reinforced by metalwork so fine it disappeared unless one looked for it. When the attendant placed a hand against the door plate, the seals recognized him and loosened with a muted glow. Air exhaled from within, cool and clean, carrying the scent of old incense and mountain spring water.

"Enter," the attendant said. "Do not touch the side arrays."

Lin Feng stepped through.

The difference was immediat. The floor stones were seamless. The light came from neither open window nor ordinary lamp, but from pale formation veins running through the walls in restrained patterns. At the far end, a low platform held a single wide desk and a back screen painted with wind lines so minimal.

Someone was already there.The Sect Master stood beside the desk, one hand resting lightly on the wood. He appeared much as he had in the Reception Hall, yet the chamber altered him. There, he had been authority entering a dispute. Here, he belonged to the room so completely that the walls seemed arranged around himself.

The attendant bowed and withdrew. And the door seals reformed behind Lin Feng.

For a heartbeat, there was only the quiet pressure of the chamber. Then the Sect Master looked up.

His gaze landed on Lin Feng with no visible surprise.

For the first time since arriving here, he felt something akin to nervousness.

What does the sect master want to talk to me about?

"You came quickly," the Sect Master said. "Good."

Lin Feng cupped his fists, ready to face whatever it is coming.

"Lin Feng," he said. "I have been expecting you."