The lower slopes of the Iron Dragon Gap dropped into a wide, barren plain of scorched white clay known as the Desolation of the Nine Pillars.
Three hundred paces ahead, the golden curtain of the Nine-Dragon Barrier rose straight from the earth like a sheet of polished amber. Up close, the wall was not silent. It hummed with a low, nonstop deep shaking that rang through the teeth and shook the marrow of the shins. A steady, unbending drone measured at exactly twenty-four shakes per second.
Lin Tao walked slowly across the chalky ground, his boots crunching on brittle stone crusts.
Beside him, Tie Shan moved with measured, heavy strides. The giant held his fourteen-pound star-iron pry-bar clamped across his chest, his senses alert for sky scout constructs or self-running outer edge mines. Every twenty paces, Lin Tao checked his pocket compass and spirit chalk, noting the geomantic slope and marking reference pins in the frozen turf.
“The air tastes like burnt copper,” Tie Shan said, squinting at the barrier.
“Spark-charged surrounding charge,” Lin Tao replied quietly. “The barrier is leaking high-voltage potential into the surrounding topsoil to deter wildlife and stray travelers. Notice the spacing of the scorched turf. The discharge occurs in rhythmic bands, roughly every forty paces, matching the ringing hum of the main boundary engine.”
