Three hours after dawn, Pei Jing felt a tapping through the rock. He was sitting near the eastern rim with his legs folded. The taps came in groups of three. Each group was a little closer than the last.
He opened his eyes. Through a gap in the cloud, he saw three people climbing the eastern ridge, halfway between the pine forest and the summit. The man in front wore azure robes and carried a horsehair whisk. The two behind him took turns setting pegs and unwinding gold thread. Each had a bronze compass in one hand.
Divine Cloud Sect. Pei Jing had seen its survey records. The sect would plant markers wherever it found good qi, file a claim with the Grand Heavenly Alliance, and begin collecting tithes. If anyone already lived there, he could pay to stay or answer to a disciplinary squad.
He took a charcoal stick and wrote on a scrap of wood. The three would reach the upper boundary in about five and a half hours. If he went down to talk, they would still have the markers behind them and a reason to come back with more men.
Pei Jing got up and took the Nine-Fold Astral Bone Blade. He went to the eastern lip and looked across the valley. Little Split Needle rose out of the cloud, five miles from where he stood. Nothing lived on the bare column. He waited for a break in the clouds and checked the ravine below it…
