The morning sun rose over Iron-Willow City, promising a day of clear skies and gentle breezes. It was the perfect weather for travel. Li Yu stood at the East Gate. His pack slung over one shoulder, Tekton resting comfortably as a bracelet on his wrist and a map to the Bamboo Wine Village clutched in his hand.

  He was ready. His stomach was ready. The road beckoned.

  "Halt!"

  Two spears crossed in front of him with a metallic clang.

  Li Yu blinked. He looked at the spears, then up at the guards holding them. These weren't the usual sleepy city militia in leather jerkins. These were cultivators wearing shimmering deep-indigo robes embroidered with a stylized black wave. Their eyes were cold, arrogant and radiated the distinct pressure of the Qi Condensation realm.

  "The city is under lockdown," the guard on the left announced to Li Yu. His voice was bored but firm. "By order of the Obsidian-River Sect. No one enters. No one leaves."

  "Lockdown?" Li Yu asked politely. "Since when? I walked in yesterday without issue."

  "Since an hour ago," the guard replied. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder toward the massive archway of the gate.

  Li Yu looked over in that direction. A shimmering and translucent barrier now covered the opening. It hummed with a low-frequency vibration that made the air ripple. It was a sealing array with a large scale. The cost couldn’t have been cheap to keep such an array running.

  "What's the occasion?" Li Yu asked innocently. "Did the river flood? Beast outbreak? Or did the Sect Master lose his favorite pet?"

  The guard glared at him. "Do not be glib, mortal. A thief stole a pill furnace from the Obsidian-River Sect's outer vault. The culprit is suspected to be hiding within the city limits. We have invoked Martial Law. Return to your inn. If you are found loitering near the perimeter, you will be detained."

  "A pill furnace," Li Yu repeated but didn’t believe him. "Right…"

  He glanced at Si Luo and Bai Ruo. Si Luo looked unimpressed by the barrier. Her eyes traced the flow of Qi along the invisible walls.

  “That's sect politics for you,” Li Yu sighed and talked to the two ladies. “Come on. Let's go back.”

  "Understood, seniors," Li Yu bowed to the guards. "We will wait."

  They turned and walked back into the city.

  "So we are trapped?" Si Luo asked aloud as they moved out of earshot.

  "Trapped is a strong word," Li Yu said while buying a skewer of candied hawthorn from a vendor who looked worried. "We're just... pausing. Think of it as extended people-watching. Besides, where else are we going to find dumplings that good?"

  By noon the atmosphere in Iron-Willow City had shifted from confusion to low-grade panic.

  The bustling happy market from the night before had transformed. The price of rice had tripled in four hours due to panic. People were hoarding everything. Vegetables, spirit-coal and even buckets of river water, as if the array might cut off the flow.

  Li Yu sat on the second-floor balcony of their inn and was watching the street below.

  "Mortals are reactive," Bai Ruo observed. She was watching two grown men argue over a bag of dried beans. "The scarcity is artificial, yet the fear makes it real. The pattern of behavior mimics a disturbed ant colony. I say mortals but cultivators would react the same way."

  "People don't think about patterns when they're scared," Li Yu said as he sipped his tea. "They think about their stomachs. They want the certainty that they will survive for the week or month."

  The innkeeper, a sweaty man named Old Wu, rushed past their table carrying a stack of wooden boards.

  "Master Li!" Old Wu panted. "You should stay inside! Rumor has it the thief is a master of disguise who melts faces! I'm boarding up the windows!"

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  "Old Wu," Li Yu said calmly. "If he melts faces, I don't think pine boards are going to stop him. Also, why would a face-melter steal a pill furnace?"

  "To melt more faces efficiently!" Old Wu yelled back. He was too focused on hammering a nail with frantic strikes.

  Li Yu shook his head while taking in the words of Old Wu. "Solid logic actually."

  The tension in the city was palpable. Squads of Obsidian-River disciples were patrolling the streets, stopping random citizens, checking identification tokens and tossing luggage onto the street.

  "This is boring," Si Luo declared. She was sitting perfectly upright and staring at a Go board Li Yu had bought to pass the time. "Li Yu, play a move."

  "I'm thinking," Li Yu said.

  "You have been thinking for ten minutes. The tea is cold."

  "Strategy takes time, Si Luo. Also, I am new to the game and not very good."

  "Destruction is faster," she muttered as she placed a stone that aggressively cut off his movements. This was a game she had played since a young age and was a master.

  "Okay," Li Yu said as he stood up after losing yet another group of stones. "I can't fix the lockdown but I can fix the mood. Let's go for a walk."

  They wandered toward the West District, a residential area filled with narrow alleys and courtyards. The heavy hand of the sect was less visible here but the anxiety was just as thick.

  They saw a merchant frantically trying to hide his best silk under a pile of straw, fearing confiscation. They saw families locking their gates with three different padlocks.

  And then, on a street corner, they saw a crowd gathering.

  A man in tattered Taoist robes was standing on a crate, holding up a handful of yellow paper talismans. He had a goatee that looked glued on and eyes that shifted constantly.

  "Protection!" the man shouted. "Get your protection here! These are authentic Demon-Warding Charms inscribed by the Grandmaster of Mount Tai! If the face-melting thief comes near your house, this charm will burn him with holy fire! Only ten silver coins! A bargain for your life!"

  A terrified young woman was reaching for her purse to pay.

  Li Yu stepped in.

  "Demon-Warding Charms?" Li Yu asked loudly while examining the paper. "Interesting calligraphy. It looks remarkably like the 'Chicken-Scratch' style."

  The scammer froze. He glared at Li Yu. "Ignorant scholar! This is ancient runic script! It channels the Yang energy of the sun!"

  "Is that so?" Li Yu smiled. He sniffed the paper. "Funny. It smells like old soy sauce and pig blood. And the paper... isn't this the wrapping paper from the butcher shop down the street?"

  The crowd murmured. The young woman pulled her hand back.

  "You dare insult my craft?" the scammer roared. He was seeing his potential sale slipping away. "I'll curse you! I'll turn your luck to ash!"

  He slapped a talisman onto Li Yu’s chest. "Burn!"

  Nothing happened. The paper just fluttered there, limp and sad.

  "Oh no," Li Yu said deadpan. "I feel it. The overwhelming urge to... season a pork chop."

  Si Luo let out a short laugh. The tension in the immediate area broke. The young woman giggled. Even a few passersby smirked.

  The scammer turned red and was actually stunned that it didn’t work. He had actually brought this from an old man that claimed these charms worked as he advertised. Thinking he could turn a profit, he loaded up on the charms to resell.

  Bai Ruo stepped forward and she plucked the talisman off Li Yu’s chest. "The ink composition lacks any spiritual conductivity. It is merely pigment.”

  The crowd erupted in laughter. The scammer snatched his papers and ran down the alleyway while crying. The scammer had actually been scammed but no one knew that.

  "Thank you, young man," the woman said to Li Yu. "I... I was just so scared."

  "Don't buy fear," Li Yu told her gently. "Just lock your door and wait it out. It'll be over soon most likely."

  They continued walking. The encounter seemed small but Li Yu noticed the shoulders of the people nearby relax a little.

  Later in the afternoon they found themselves in a small public square. The atmosphere here was tense for a different reason. A squad of Obsidian-River disciples was interrogating an old man who was selling kites.

  "I told you," the old man stammered. His hands were clutching a bundle of colorful paper dragons and butterflies. "I didn't see anyone strange! I've just been here selling toys!"

  "We have reports of signals being passed via aerial devices," the patrol leader barked. He was a young man with a face that looked like it had been slapped by arrogance at birth. "These kites could be signal flags for the thief's accomplices."

  He grabbed a dragon kite and snapped its bamboo frame. Crack.

  The old man flinched. "Please! That took me three days to make!"

  "Silence!" The leader raised his hand to slap the old man.

  The hand stopped in mid-air.

  It wasn't a physical block. It just... stopped. As if the air around the hand had suddenly turned to solid iron.

  "The wind is strong today," a voice said.

  The patrol leader turned towards the voice. His face was red with exertion as he tried to pull his hand back. He saw Li Yu standing ten feet away and admiring a butterfly kite on the rack.