The clawed marker changed the shape of the day.
Until then, Qinghe's fear had come from beyond the palisade in howls, watching eyes, and the memory of the first wolf's attack. Now the forest had marked a human sign, torn through the charcoal name of Qinghe as if the word itself offended it.
Han Yue wanted immediate patrols.
Qin Moxuan wanted the work teams pulled inward and all gathering suspended until a defensive count could be made.
Yue Lingxi wanted to inspect the forest edge before anyone panicked enough to cut trees blindly.
Li Qingluan wanted more water.
That final demand mattered more than it should have.
The medical zone had grown quieter, and that frightened Ji Yuan. Screams meant struggle. Silence often meant the body had spent all strength protesting. The wounded needed washing, boiling, cooling, swallowing. Qinghe had collected rainwater in torn plastic sheets and dented containers, but mud fouled half of it, and the rest vanished faster than rules could count.
"Water decides who lives tonight," Li said.
Her voice was rough from exhaustion. She stood beside the medical stones, hair tied back with a strip of cloth, sleeves rolled above her elbows. The faint green light that had once appeared around her hands had not returned in full, though sometimes, when she touched the worst wounds, Ji Yuan thought he saw a shimmer beneath her skin.
Qin glanced toward the forest. "The search teams cannot be divided further. We have a damaged marker, wolf sign, and at least one missing gatherer from the outer path."
"One missing?" Ji Yuan asked.
Han Yue nodded grimly. "The injured scout said he was not alone. The second boy ran toward the low ground when the marker was struck. Hasn't returned."
Another weight settled into the clearing.
Another name waiting to become either person or record.
"We search," Han said. "Now."
"We search intelligently," Yue Lingxi corrected. "If wolves drove him toward low ground, he may be near water. Or they wanted him there."
The word water pulled a small voice from near the cooking fire.
"I know where it shines."
No one noticed at first.
The speaker was a girl of perhaps nine years, thin as a reed, with mud on her cheeks and eyes too large for her face. She stood beside Yin Meiniang's work area, clutching a cracked wooden cup against her chest.
Yin looked down at her. "Xiaoman, speak louder or save your breath."
The girl swallowed and looked toward Ji Yuan.
"I saw water shining last night."
Several adults turned.
Zhang Bei, who had been binding stakes near the palisade, gave a humorless snort. "Children see many things at night."
The girl's ears reddened, but she did not look away.
Ji Yuan crouched so they were closer to the same height. "Your name is Chen Xiaoman?"
She nodded.
He remembered her from the census. Orphan. Parents unconfirmed, then confirmed dead by morning. No assigned function yet. Too small for heavy work. Old enough to understand more than adults wished.
"When did you see it?" he asked.
"When the wolves were watching," she whispered. "I could not sleep. I went behind the cooking place. I know I was not supposed to."
Qin Moxuan's expression sharpened.
Ji Yuan lifted one hand slightly, stopping him before the reprimand came.
Chen Xiaoman continued, words tumbling faster now. "I heard water. Not rain. Running water. So I followed a little. Not far. I saw silver under the rocks. It was like the sky fell into a crack."
Yue Lingxi's face changed.
"You followed water sounds alone?" she asked.
Chen Xiaoman looked down. "I was thirsty."
No one spoke.
That answer was too simple to condemn.
Li Qingluan stepped closer. "Can you lead us there?"
The girl nodded, then hesitated. "It was near the roots."
"Everything is near the roots," Han muttered.
Ji Yuan stood. "Small group. Yue leads. Han, keep the palisade work going and prepare a search team if we do not return quickly."
Han's head snapped toward him. "You are going?"
"Yes."
"Again?"
Ji Yuan met his eyes. "If there is water, I need to see it before I decide how it is used."
Qin said, "The settlement cannot afford its seal-bearer being dragged into every hazard."
"The settlement cannot afford decisions made from ignorance."
Li Qingluan took a cloth satchel from beside the medical stones. "I am going as well."
Ji Yuan almost objected.
She looked at him before he could speak. "If it is water that can save patients, I will judge it. Not you. Not the Record. Me."
There was no answer to that.
So the group became four: Yue Lingxi, Ji Yuan, Li Qingluan, and Chen Xiaoman. Wei Cang, still under kitchen duty, watched them leave with a look that suggested he knew what it meant to be thirsty enough to break rules.
Chen led them past the cooking fire, around the crude shelter frames, and toward the lower edge of the clearing where the soil dipped between two clusters of blue-green roots. The palisade did not yet reach there. Mist gathered thickly in the hollow, turning every branch into a half-seen hand.
Yue moved first, spear raised. "Step where I step."
Chen Xiaoman obeyed with the care of a child trying very hard not to be treated like a child.
The sound came after a dozen steps.
Water.
Not rainwater dripping from leaves, but a thin, continuous murmur.
They passed between two stones veined with pale green. Behind them, hidden by hanging roots, lay a narrow crack in the earth. Clear water flowed through it into a shallow basin no wider than a shield. Threads of silver light moved beneath the surface, not reflected from above, but rising from within.
Li Qingluan forgot to breathe.
Ji Yuan felt the cracked seal warm.
The Record opened.
Source Identified: Qinghe Spring.
Spiritual Qi: Weak, unstable.
Primary Effects: Minor recovery, wound cleansing, vitality support.
Secondary Effects: Beast attraction, spiritual sensitivity, possible contamination if overused.
Warning: Unregulated drawing may destabilize local circulation.
Ji Yuan read the warning twice.
Li knelt beside the basin. "This water is clean."
Yue's eyes remained on the roots. "And dangerous."
Li cupped a little in her hand, smelled it, then touched it to a small cut on her wrist. The bleeding slowed almost immediately.
Her expression tightened with fierce hope.
"With this, I can save more."
"With this," Yue said softly, "the wolves may have found us."
The joy in Li's face dimmed.
Ji Yuan looked at the shining basin. A spring meant life. A spring meant settlement. A spring meant the wounded might endure, food could be prepared, cloth washed, fever cooled.
A spring also meant beasts.
A resource in Shanhai Tianyu was not a gift. It was a beacon.
"How much can we take?" he asked.
The Record offered no simple answer.
Yue crouched near the edge. "Small amounts. Quietly. Do not muddy it. Do not widen the basin. Do not cut these roots."
Li looked as if she wanted to argue with the entire forest.
Ji Yuan said, "We collect enough for the worst wounded. No public announcement yet."
Li turned to him sharply. "You would hide water?"
"For now."
"From thirsty people?"
"From panic. From hoarding. From everyone rushing here and trampling the roots until the spring dies or calls every beast nearby." The words hurt to say. "We tell Qin, Han, Yin, and the minimum needed to carry sealed containers. Distribution through the medical zone and cooking fire."
Li's jaw tightened.
But she did not call him wrong.
Chen Xiaoman, who had been silent, stepped closer to the basin. "It showed me something."
Ji Yuan looked down. "What?"
The girl touched one finger to the silver water.
The spring went still.
Then its surface darkened.
For one heartbeat, Ji Yuan saw not roots, not sky, not his own reflection.
He saw Earth burning.
Towers collapsing beneath a red horizon. Roads filled with people. A hospital corridor flooded with white light. The Celestial Gate opening like a wound no god could close.
Chen Xiaoman began to cry without making a sound.
The water rippled.
The vision vanished.
From somewhere deep in Qingmu Forest, a wolf howled.