Chapter 813

Below the Heaven Pool Precipice, the dried-up water diversion canal stretched like a cracked scar from the foot of the mountain to the edge of the distant dry fields.

The mud at the bottom of the canal had dried into powder, and a single gust of wind kicked up a gray cloud of dust that stung the eyes.

Tens of thousands of local commoners gathered from all directions, standing in a dense mass on both sides of the canal, their necks stretched long, their gazes all focused on the towering precipice that reached into the clouds.

An old man with a face full of deep wrinkles squatted by the canal, snapped a dried-out wheat stalk in two, and tossed it to the bottom.

"Water flows to low places; that's the rule passed down by our ancestors. The Heaven Pool is on the other side of the mountain, not much higher than the canal at our feet, yet there's a four or five-zhang-high precipice in between."

He shook his head, his voice heavy.

"To make water cross that, you'd have to invite the Dragon King himself to descend."

A woman holding a child beside him bit her lip and added,

"The proclamation says water will surely descend within ten days; today is already the eighth day. Can those iron pipes be of any use?"

The murmurs in the crowd grew louder; some had a look of skeptical anticipation, but more had faces written with blatant doubt.

Chu Ci stood on a large rock in front of the crowd, his official hat sitting straight on his head, his clear eyes sweeping over the restless sea of people.

He took a deep breath and raised his voice.

"Fellow villagers, when has the Zhuguo ever failed to keep his word?"

The crowd went quiet for a moment, and a voice emerged from a corner.

"He hasn't failed his word, but no one has ever seen water flow to a high place, Lord Chu."

Chu Ci pressed his palm to his chest.

"I stake my own head on this: the Zhuguo said there would be water within ten days, and there will surely be water."

He lowered his voice by half.

"How many years of suffering did you endure in the Qi State? Who distributed land to you when you arrived in Xiazhou? Who exempted you from taxes? Who treated you like human beings?"

The murmurs in the crowd died down further, and several older refugees bowed their heads in silence.

Chu Ci took his hand from his chest and pointed toward the precipice.

"Trust the Zhuguo once, just this once. When the water flows out, you will know what kind of man the Zhuguo truly is."

Above the precipice, Chen Yan stood at the edge of the cliff top, the gale whipping his dark python-patterned cloak into a frenzy. Beneath his feet was a four or five-zhang-high vertical drop; one wrong step would mean being smashed to pieces.

He did not look down.

He was watching the craftsmen and soldiers hoisting and splicing the giant pipes section by section.

A simple lifting device made of three sets of winches and thick hemp ropes had been set up at the top of the precipice. Each pipe section was cradled at the bottom by hemp ropes, slowly hoisted to the cliff top by the winches, and then moved by a dozen soldiers to the pre-set pipe slots.

The pipe slots were carved into the cliff face by Chen Yan's orders, extending from the top to the bottom like a giant stone snake path. Once the pipes were embedded, they were secured to the cliff with iron nails and stone wedges.

The interface between the first and second pipe sections was being sealed.

The old master squatted beside the interface, using a brush to apply tung oil boiled five times, layer by layer, into the gap, waiting for it to soak in before applying the next.

After the raw lacquer was applied, an iron hoop wrapped in animal hide was fitted over the outside and locked tight with rivets.

A young craftsman carefully poured a jar of water into the injection hole above the interface and lowered his head to listen against the pipe wall for ten breaths.

His face changed.

"Master, this interface is leaking; I can hear a hissing sound."

A layer of fine sweat instantly broke out on the old master's forehead; he pushed the young craftsman aside and pressed his own ear against the pipe wall.

After five breaths, he raised his head, turned, and roared at the craftsmen behind him.

"Take it apart and reseal it! Double the tung oil, replace the raw lacquer with a mixture of pine resin and animal blood, pour it into the gap, and let it dry completely before putting on the iron hoop!"

Chen Yan walked down from the cliff top, his boots treading on the edge of the stone slot, gravel sliding with a clatter beneath his feet.

"Are there many leaks?"

The old master knelt beside the pipe, his voice tight.

"Reporting to the Zhuguo, we've spliced one hundred and thirty sections so far, and there have been four leaking interfaces. Three have been resealed; this is the last one."

Chen Yan squatted down, reached his finger into the gap of the interface, and rubbed his fingertip back and forth over the leak.

"Pine resin and animal blood."

He stood up and jerked his chin toward Gu Yuci behind him.

"Go, get a barrel of pine resin from the military supply camp, and have the kitchen slaughter two cows; collect the blood and send it up."

Gu Yuci cupped his hands.

"I will see to it at once."

Chen Yan turned back to look at the old master.

"When pine resin is heated and mixed with fresh cow blood, it becomes stickier and denser than raw lacquer once it solidifies; the wind won't crack it, and water won't rot it."

The old master's eyes brightened.

"How does the Zhuguo know even this?"

Chen Yan clapped the stone dust from his hands.

"There is much that I know; just do as I say."

The pine resin and cow blood were sent up half an hour later.

The old master followed Chen Yan's method, heating the pine resin on a small furnace until it bubbled, then adding fresh cow blood to stir it into a dark red, thick paste, which he poured into the gaps of the interface with an iron ladle.

The paste solidified much faster than raw lacquer; half an hour later, the young craftsman pressed his ear against the pipe wall again and listened for twenty breaths.

He raised his head, his tension replaced by an unbelievable joy.

"Master, no leaks; there's not a sound of air."

The old master let out a long breath, collapsing onto the ground as if half his life had been drained away.

"I've been a blacksmith all my life, but I've never heard of this method of the Zhuguo's."

Before sunset, the last pipe section was embedded in the stone slot at the bottom of the cliff. The giant pipeline extended from the deep water area of the Heaven Pool, climbed over the highest point of the precipice, wound down along the stone slot on the cliff face, and the outlet hung three feet directly above the dried-up diversion canal.

The massive inverted U-shaped pipeline spanned the precipice, the iron-wood composite body shimmering with a cold, dark light in the setting sun.

The commoners below the cliff looked up at this behemoth, their mouths wide open.

Chen Yan stood on the cliff top, overlooking the cracked diversion canal below and the tens of thousands of eyes filled with doubt and anticipation.

He turned and gave the final order to the soldiers and craftsmen behind him.

"Inject water."

Sixty barrels of clear water transported from the mountain were poured one by one into the injection hole at the highest point of the pipeline; the water surged and crashed inside, emitting a dull, rushing sound.

The injection lasted for a full hour.

The moment the last barrel was poured in, the old master slammed the cover onto the injection hole, wedged it tight with iron wedges, and sealed every gap with the pine resin and animal blood mixture.

The air inside the pipe was completely displaced by the water; the five-li-long iron-wood pipe was filled with clear water from the Heaven Pool and the mountain, without a single air bubble.

Chen Yan drew his sword from his waist.

The twilight stretched his figure long, casting him onto the cliff face like an iron statue outlined by the sky.

He pointed his blade toward the outlet below the cliff.

"Open the gate!"

Two soldiers grabbed the iron ring on the outlet cover and yanked it upward with all their might.

The entire scene fell into absolute silence.

Tens of thousands of eyes stared fixedly at that dark pipe mouth, at that iron-wood mouth that no one believed could flow with water.

The air solidified like an iron plate.