Chapter 19 — The Talisman Painter Who Guards the Village

The Color-Changing Touchstone

The alarm bell rang out in the middle of the night, different from the familiar roll call bell every morning - a loud and urgent bell, causing the entire student housing area to wake up in panic.

Diệp Sương jumped up from the bed, her heart pounding, and Âu Bội Nhi quickly ran out, where hundreds of other disciples were also pouring into the yard, everyone's faces were confused.

"What's up?" Âu Bội Nhi asked an upper class sister who was rushing past.

"The Linh Đài scene is on alert," the senior sister replied, her voice urgent. "The touchstone turned yellow, the elders are in an emergency meeting."

Diệp Sương was dumbfounded, immediately remembering the small fluctuation that she and Cố Thanh Việt had witnessed during the night shift a few weeks ago - that fleeting sign, it turned out, was not a single random incident.

*

The news spread throughout Tông Vân Các over the next few days. Although incomplete and unofficial, it was enough to create a tense atmosphere across the sect. Fluctuations in the Linh Mạch at the foot of Vân Tiêu Mountain—the area considered the most stable and firmly protected by the ancient battlefield—were increasing day by day, although they had not yet reached the red-alert level.

"Unprecedented," said Chung Nhã Trúc, one evening she happened to meet Diệp Sương in the hallway, her voice was somewhat worried, rarely seen in someone who was always calm. "I heard from the senior inner sect brothers that even the oldest elders, who have been through many decades, have never witnessed the Linh Mạch around Vân Tiêu being unstable to this extent."

"What is the cause?" Diệp Sương asked, her voice worried.

"No one knows for sure," Chung Nhã Trúc shook her head. "Some people think it's a natural cycle that only repeats every few years. Some people worry that something more unusual is happening. The elders are increasing supervision, assigning more inner sect disciples to be on constant duty at Cảnh Linh Đài."

*

Amid that tense atmosphere, Cố Thanh Việt received another letter from the capital Lệ Dương, this time much thicker than the previous letters, and when he finished reading it, his face became unusually serious.

"What's up?" Diệp Sương asked, when she found him sitting alone in a familiar corner of the library, his eyes looking thoughtfully out the window.

"My father wrote," Cố Thanh Việt replied, his voice low, "that recently in the capital there have been many secret meetings related to adjusting the policy of exploiting Linh Mạch resources nationwide, proposed by Khâm Vân Ti. My father did not elaborate on the details in the letter — perhaps because it was not something that should be written down on paper — but he expressed dissatisfaction with this new direction." Diệp Sương remembered Tạ Vân Khê's lecture, remembered the question she once asked and the unusual silence before the elder answered. "Do you think these two things are related? The Linh Mạch upheaval here, and the new policy in the capital?"

Cố Thanh Việt was silent for a long time, his eyes deep in thought. "I can't confirm. It could just be a coincidence. But I also can't deny that the feeling I had while sitting at Cảnh Linh Đài that night - that strange, small heartbeat - made me more uneasy than any theoretical lecture I've ever studied."

In the following days, the rhythm of life at Tông Vân Các changed markedly. The morning practice hours were extended, the exercises shifted focus to emergency situations - drawing spells in low light conditions, drawing spells when suddenly interrupted, and even had a mock drill to evacuate the entire outer sect disciples' housing area to fortified shelters deep in the mountain.

"I've never seen the sect so tense," Âu Bội Nhi whispered to Diệp Sương during a rehearsal, as they both stood in line waiting for their turn to go down to the shelter with hundreds of other disciples. "Even when I first started, even though everyone said the sect was very strict, I had never seen an atmosphere this heavy."

"Me too," Diệp Sương replied, looking at the elders standing everywhere to monitor, everyone's faces were more tense than usual. "But maybe this is a good thing — if something really happens, at least everyone is prepared."

Even Nhiêu Bá Tường, who always maintained a stern and cold appearance, became much more dedicated during the tutorial sessions, spending extra time outside of work hours to personally tutor weak disciples, including unexpectedly Diệp Sương, even though he was not in the group that needed additional support.

"I want to make sure you master the emergency suppression technique," he explained when Diệp Sương appeared surprised by this unusual concern. "Your hybrid drawing style has many advantages, but in a truly dire situation, sometimes the standard technique, proven over many generations, is still the safer choice. I don't want you to have to learn that the painful way."

Those words, although still carrying a familiar stern tone, contained a sincere concern that Diệp Sương had not expected from this strict instructor, touching her deeply and making her even more determined to practice harder.

*

A few days later, an extraordinary meeting was convened, not only for the elders but also for all inner sect disciples and a number of excellent outer sect disciples chosen to attend to listen, including Diệp Sương and Cố Thanh Việt.

Grandmaster Thư Khải Dương personally presided, his face much more serious than the first time Diệp Sương saw it during the initiation ceremony.

"We are witnessing an unusual phenomenon without precedent in the sect's recent history," he announced, his voice echoing throughout the silent hall. "The fluctuations in the Linh Mạch around the peak of Vân Tiêu are increasing, slowly but steadily in a negative direction. I request all disciples, regardless of rank, to increase vigilance, to be ready for any situation that may arise," He paused, swept his eyes over the crowd, then added in an unusually cautious voice: "I also want to emphasize that this is not a sign of an impending demon tide. We have the situation fully under control. But it never hurts to be cautious."

Diệp Sương sat quietly in the crowd, clearly feeling the tension spreading throughout the hall, and in her heart a question silently formed that she had not dared to voice to anyone, including Cố Thanh Việt: did the sect leader's reassurance really reflect the seriousness of the situation, or was it merely a way to avoid causing unnecessary panic throughout the sect?

*

That night, when she returned to her room, Diệp Sương sat by the window sill for a long time, looking out at the darkness covering the vast architectural complex of Tông Vân Các, where the lights from countless other windows were still bright, showing that she was not the only one who couldn't sleep tonight.

She took out Mr. Tám Mực's old inkstone, placed it on her palm, feeling the familiar smoothness of the stone surface worn over the years. She remembered what her grandfather had once told her - draw spells from compassion, not from pure technique - and wondered, in a world that was gradually revealing cracks whose nature she still did not fully understand, whether that root was enough to help her stand firm, or whether she would need something more.

Out there, somewhere deep in the heart of the mountain, the Linh Mạch stream continued to move, slowly but relentlessly, like a silent warning whose true weight only a few people—including a sixteen-year-old girl who grew up in a small village at the foot of the mountain—had begun to feel.

There was a light knock on the door. Âu Bội Nhi, still not asleep, walked over and sat down next to Diệp Sương on the windowsill, saying nothing, just quietly looking out at the same night sky.

"Are you scared?" she finally asked, her voice quieter than usual.

"Yes," Diệp Sương admitted. "But I also feel lucky, because at least I don't have to face this alone."

Âu Bội Nhi gently leaned her head on her friend's shoulder, the two sat silently like that for a long time, not needing another word to understand that, no matter what was about to happen, they would face it together. Far away, from the training ground, could still be heard the steady footsteps of a group of inner sect disciples practicing late at night, a sound that was both comforting and a reminder that the entire sect, despite their worries, was still preparing with all their might for whatever lay ahead.

Before leaving the room to return to her bed, Âu Bội Nhi stopped at the door, turned around and said one more sentence, half joking and half serious: "If anything really happens, remember to stand close to Cố Thanh Việt, I heard that he senses Linh Mạch very well, standing closer is probably safer." Diệp Sương laughed softly and waved her friend away, but when she was alone, she still couldn't help but think of that sentence, and of Cố Thanh Việt's pensive face in the emergency meeting this afternoon, wondering if he was tossing and turning like her right now, thinking about the same anxiety that was casting a shadow over the mountain that was once considered the most peaceful in Cửu Vân.