The light drizzle of Grain Rain soaked the wilderness of the Northern Frontier as Shen Xitang stood before the restored pivot of the Big Dipper Formation. The improved magnetic thickness gauge emitted a steady hum, its copper needle finally settling firmly to the true north—irrefutable proof that the ley lines had returned to their proper magnetic poles.
Shen Xitang leaned down to wedge flint into a fissure in the Basalt, a method for grounding foundations as recorded in the *Discourse on River Defense*. She struck the wedge with an iron hammer, checking the orientation with magnetic powder after every three blows.
When the seventh piece of flint was driven into place, the copper disc of the magnetic gauge suddenly shuddered, and the Crimson Fire Gold Dust it had attracted formed a complete Big Dipper Formation pattern within the Glazed Mirror.
Chapter 32