Chapter 33

As the first light of dawn pierced the thin mist, a squad of fast boats from the Tax Supervision Office blockaded the canal. Shen Xitang stood beside the damp pages of the *Gazetteer of River Defense*, watching as government troops plastered official seals onto the newly cast sluice gates. She suddenly drew the Xuanji Lock her mother had left behind and pressed the cylinder against the tampered-with characters of the "Cangzhou Section." Amid the resonating hum of magnets, Crimson Fire Gold Dust coalesced to form a complete diagram of the canal's diversion, every mark stamped with the hidden Chiwen Seal of the Crown Prince’s manor. A warm breeze of early summer swept across the renovated Xuanji Freight House as Shen Xitang stroked the newly crafted magnetic compass. The canal route engraved in intaglio on the brass base plate emitted a cold shimmer, and the needle began to tremble violently as it neared the Cangzhou section—a clear sign that the subterranean magnetic field was in disarray.