Chapter 7: The Threshold Society
Han Feng left Salt Rest before dawn, while a thin veil of mist still clung to the settlement's walls and the guards at the entrance changed shifts.
He carried little enough to attract no attention. His belongings consisted of a few necessities, some ordinary cultivation materials, and the objects he had carefully concealed within his spatial storage. Nothing about his appearance suggested that he possessed anything worth inspecting.
To an outside observer, he was merely another wandering cultivator abandoning a settlement where prices rose every week and the roads grew more dangerous by the day.
Yet before leaving, Han Feng made one final check.
The previous night, he had placed a small spiritual marker on a stone hidden beneath the floorboards of the abandoned house where he had examined the tablet. The marker was too weak to harm anyone, but it would react if a substantial amount of energy was released nearby.
Before leaving the settlement, Han Feng passed through a side street and discreetly inspected the location.
The stone was gone.
The floorboards remained intact. There were no signs of forced entry, nor any marks left by tools. Even the dust surrounding the empty space had been disturbed in an unusual pattern, as though someone had lifted the stone without touching the surrounding wood.
Han Feng stared at the empty space for several seconds.
The marker had never activated.
Whoever had removed the stone either possessed a method of avoiding spiritual detection or had managed to take it without releasing any perceptible energy.
Neither possibility pleased him.
He made no attempt to track the person responsible. Instead, he left the street and followed a trail leading north, away from both Salt Rest and the sealed road.
The gray-mantled stranger was not the only person interested in the disappearances. The Regional Council was investigating travelers. The Gray Claw Gang had received information about his movements. Someone possessed fragments resembling the objects described in Mei Qiu's reports.
If Han Feng continued treating every incident as an isolated mystery, he would eventually walk into a trap prepared by people who understood far more than he did.
He needed to change his approach.
Rather than chasing the next anomaly, he would investigate the organization that appeared to be interested in all of them.
The Threshold Society.
Mei Qiu had first mentioned the organization at Three Stones Station.
According to her, it was also known in other regions as the Void Collectors. Its members searched for objects recovered from convergence fissures, purchased unusual materials, and resorted to theft when legal methods failed.
Rumors about their ultimate purpose varied.
Some claimed they wanted to cross the fissures and explore whatever lay beyond them. Others believed they were attempting to extract energy from convergence zones. A few suggested that the organization was collecting objects capable of interacting with the unstable laws left behind by the Convergence.
At the time, Han Feng had considered the information too incomplete to justify an investigation.
Now, the circumstances had changed.
By midday, he reached a settlement called Broken Bridge, built beside the dry bed of an ancient river.
The village had no defensive walls, but its position made it a convenient trading point for small merchant caravans and independent cultivators. Several buildings had been constructed atop the ruins of older structures, whose walls bore inscriptions that none of the current inhabitants seemed capable of understanding.
Han Feng entered a small shop dealing in secondhand materials.
The proprietor was a middle-aged man with a mechanical arm made from dark wood and metal. Reinforcement inscriptions covered the prosthetic, though several lines had worn thin from years of use.
The man glanced up from his counter.
"What are you looking for?"
"Information."
"Information costs more than merchandise."
Han Feng placed two spirit stones on the counter.
"I'm looking for people who purchase black fragments recovered from convergence zones. I'm not interested in selling anything."
The merchant did not touch the stones.
"Why are you asking?"
"I heard several caravans disappeared while transporting similar materials."
The man's expression changed almost imperceptibly.
It wasn't fear.
It was recognition.
"You should ask that question somewhere else."
"Where?"
The merchant glanced toward the entrance before looking at the curtain separating the shop from a small storage room.
"There's a gambling house near the dry riverbed. Use the rear entrance and ask for a table in the lower hall. If anyone asks who sent you, tell them you're looking for a buyer for merchandise without a name."
Han Feng retrieved one of the spirit stones, leaving the other on the counter.
"Is that all?"
"That's all I can tell you without putting my business at risk."
Han Feng left without pressing him further.
The gambling house stood at the northern edge of Broken Bridge, wedged between two partially collapsed buildings. From the outside, it appeared to be an ordinary establishment where merchants tried to forget their troubles through games of chance.
The rear entrance told a different story.
A discreet formation had been embedded around the doorway. Its purpose was to detect anyone attempting to cross the threshold while circulating spiritual energy.
Han Feng noticed the mechanism before reaching the door.
He did not disable it.
Instead, he suppressed his cultivation fluctuations and approached like an ordinary traveler.
A man seated beside the entrance raised his eyes.
"Here to gamble?"
"I'm looking for a buyer for merchandise without a name."
The man's smile disappeared.
"What kind of merchandise?"
"The kind that shouldn't be activated."
For several moments, the doorkeeper studied him.
Then he knocked twice.
A narrow opening appeared in the wooden door.
"Go downstairs."
The lower hall bore little resemblance to the establishment above.
There were no gambling tables, drinks, or music. Metallic plates covered the walls, disrupting spiritual perception, while three corridors led to separate rooms.
At the center stood a long table laden with wooden boxes, sealed containers, and objects whose origins were difficult to determine.
A narrow-faced man waited beside it.
"I'm called Lord Luo," he said. "You don't need to reveal your name. What do you need to know?"
Han Feng remained standing.
"I want information about the Threshold Society."
Lord Luo did not move.
"That name is used by many people to justify their actions. Some groups purchase materials from convergence zones. Others steal them. Still others sell dangerous techniques and call it research."
He folded his hands.
"What exactly do you want to know?"
"Who's buying black fragments."
The little cordiality remaining in Lord Luo's expression vanished.
"That question is more dangerous than it sounds."
"I assumed as much."
"Then you should also understand that an answer has a price."
Han Feng placed a small pouch on the table. Inside were several spirit stones and two ordinary refinement materials.
It wasn't a fortune, but it demonstrated that he did not expect information to be given away for free.
Lord Luo opened the pouch, examined its contents, and closed it again.
"Three weeks ago, a buyer came here looking for objects that didn't reflect spiritual energy."
"Explain."
"He wasn't interested in rare minerals or materials used to craft artifacts. He wanted things that seemed to absorb perception, even when examined by experienced cultivators."
Han Feng's gaze sharpened.
"Describe him."
"A man wearing a gray mantle. He never showed his face. He paid well and asked very few questions."
Han Feng kept his expression unchanged.
The clothing resembled that of the stranger who had watched the sealed road near Salt Rest.
It was not proof that they were the same person, but the coincidence deserved attention.
"Did he give you a name?"
"No. But he brought a symbol."
Lord Luo opened a drawer and removed a sheet of paper.
A design had been drawn across it: an incomplete circle crossed by three curved lines that converged toward an empty space.
Han Feng recognized it immediately.
It resembled the symbol Mei Qiu had shown him at Three Stones Station.
Not exactly, but closely enough to suggest a common origin.
"What did he purchase?" Han Feng asked.
"Two black fragments and a piece of ancient stone."
Lord Luo paused before continuing.
"The buyer claimed that objects like these should never be activated with primordial essence or placed near hybrid formations. He said the reaction could attract something that existed in neither system's records."
Han Feng studied the drawing.
"And you believed him?"
"I believed the money he paid. The rest isn't my concern."
"Where can I find him?"
"You can't. He left that same night. Before departing, however, he mentioned a place called the Seven Lantern Repository. He intended to examine a shipment confiscated by the Regional Council."
Han Feng's attention sharpened.
The repository might be the same facility Mei Qiu had mentioned, where instruments had recorded a complete absence of energy for three seconds before disappearing.
If the buyer was connected to the gray-mantled stranger, the repository might be the first place where several of his leads converged in a verifiable way.
"Where is it?"
Lord Luo pointed to a map hanging on the wall. The location was marked east of Broken Bridge, near an old transport route that crossed an unstable convergence zone.
"The Council sealed the area after an incident. There are guards and containment formations. If you're thinking of entering, I recommend abandoning the idea."
Han Feng folded the map.
"I never said I intended to enter."
Lord Luo gave a brief laugh.
"Everyone says that before doing precisely the opposite."
Han Feng tucked the map away and turned toward the stairs.
Before he reached them, Lord Luo spoke again.
"One more thing. If you find a black stone container with a vertical line across its surface, don't open it."
Han Feng stopped.
"Why?"
"The gray-mantled man wasn't trying to buy one. He wanted to discover who already possessed one."
Han Feng's expression remained unchanged, but his thoughts accelerated.
He had shown no one the tablet since leaving Three Stones Station. He had not mentioned it in the gambling house, either.
The container Lord Luo described could be an entirely different object, discovered somewhere in one of the regions affected by the Convergence.
Even so, the resemblance was troubling.
"Did he explain why?"
Lord Luo shook his head.
"He only said that some objects aren't found. They're left behind."
Han Feng asked no further questions.
He left the gambling house and crossed the settlement without looking back.
By dusk, Han Feng had found shelter in an abandoned building near the dry riverbed.
Before examining the map, he inspected the surrounding area and confirmed that no one appeared to have followed him from the gambling house.
Only then did he retrieve the stone tablet and place it on an insulating cloth.
The inscription remained unchanged.
Vestige of Origin.
Han Feng examined its surface from several angles but found no vertical line resembling the one Lord Luo had described.
The tablet was flat and irregular, with no visible mechanism or obvious means of opening it.
Still, the warning about objects that should not be opened forced him to reconsider an assumption.
Perhaps the tablet wasn't an object intended for use.
Perhaps it was a record.
Or a fragment of something larger.
He put it away and unfolded the map of the Seven Lantern Repository.
The area was marked with warning symbols. One annotation indicated that the monitoring instruments had been replaced after the incident. Another, written in a different hand, stated that the repository remained closed by order of the Council.
Han Feng considered three possibilities.
First, the Threshold Society might be trying to recover materials confiscated by the Council.
Second, the gray-mantled man might be investigating the same phenomena independently, without belonging to the organization.
Third, and more troubling, someone might be collecting specific objects to deliberately provoke a reaction.
He lacked the evidence to choose between them.
But the Seven Lantern Repository represented a point where several reports intersected. Investigating it might reveal who was manipulating the flow of information—or whether anyone was doing so at all.
Han Feng had no intention of infiltrating the facility that night.
First, he would observe the patrol routes, identify blind spots, and determine whether the Council had installed any detection methods capable of penetrating the Celestial Veil.
Only after that would he decide how to proceed.
He put away the map and entered meditation.
For the first hour, the Celestial Diagram remained quiet.
During the second, one of its outer lines glowed faintly.
Han Feng immediately stopped meditating.
Nothing in the surrounding environment had changed. There were no spiritual fluctuations, spatial distortions, or sounds from outside.
The reaction seemed to originate within the Diagram itself, as though one of its components were responding to a signal too distant for his ordinary senses to perceive.
This time, however, Han Feng noticed something different.
The illuminated line seemed to point in a particular direction.
East.
The Seven Lantern Repository lay in that direction.
He did not mistake the coincidence for an instruction.
The Celestial Diagram had offered no explanation, and following an unfamiliar signal without understanding its nature would be reckless.
Even so, the reaction added another variable to his investigation.
Perhaps the repository contained an object related to the tablet.
Perhaps the Diagram was merely responding to the general instability of the world.
Both possibilities remained open.
Han Feng decided to observe the facility at dawn.
Far from Broken Bridge, inside an underground chamber protected by multiple layers of seals, the gray-mantled man examined a black stone container.
It was approximately the size of a human head. Its surface was smooth and featureless except for a single vertical line running down its center.
There was no lid, no hinge, and no visible mechanism that suggested it could be opened in the conventional sense.
Two smaller fragments lay on a nearby table, both recovered from convergence zones.
A short-haired woman stood across from him.
"The buyer in the settlement confirmed that someone has been asking about us," she reported.
"Describe him."
"A solitary traveler. Dark clothing. His cultivation was difficult to determine. He defeated two Council agents in Salt Rest without revealing his true strength."
The gray-mantled man showed no surprise.
"Does he possess the object?"
"We don't know."
"Then he hasn't found it yet."
The woman frowned.
"How can you be certain?"
The man moved his hand toward the container, stopping several centimeters above its surface.
"Because if he had found it, this place would have reacted already."
For an instant, the vertical line seemed to deepen.
A vibration traveled across the table, shifting both smaller fragments by several millimeters.
The woman immediately stepped back.
"Should we notify the others?"
"No. The Society doesn't need to know everything."
"And the traveler?"
The man withdrew his hand.
"Watch him. Do not interfere unless he approaches the repository."
"What if he already knows what we're looking for?"
The silence that followed lasted several seconds.
"Then we'll discover whether he understands the value of what he carries."
The container became motionless again.
Yet the vertical line at its center remained visible longer than before.
That same night, inside Han Feng's consciousness, the Celestial Diagram emitted a silent pulse.
For the first time since the beginning of the Convergence, two of its outer lines appeared to point in different directions.
One toward the Seven Lantern Repository.
The other toward a place Han Feng had never seen.
Between them, at the center of the Diagram, something remained hidden.