level_act31side_02_end

How many more times must we see this?

Newly-sprouted seedlings, stalks bending from the weight of grain, branches filled with fruit... all gone before Catastrophe.

Locusts, draughts, blizzards, frost, floods...

Frost in early spring almost wiped out the seedlings. It took all our effort to preserve a small portion of them.

What will it take to feed everyone?

A sudden rain has drowned any festive spirit.

The rain begins to subside, but not the water accumulated in the fields, which has reached ankle depth.

How could so much water accumulate so quickly?!

It's turbid... did the rain carry dirty mud from upstream? It's going to pollute the fields!

Gai si de! What are they doing at the construction site? Drain the damned thing already!

This is bad! The dam's burst!

Ta ma de! You've gotta be kidding me!

What's going on?

Apparently, an Originium vein upstream exploded, sending fragments down the river that got caught in the machinery, blowing a hole in the dam.

Why didn't anyone notice?!

The water levels were normal. We didn't detect any unusual Originium reactions, or expect the Originium activity to be so irregular...

Jiangui de... during flood season, no less.

The water is filled with Originium silt. It's going to wreak havoc on the crops, maybe even cause infection.

Everyone be careful! Dam repairs will take time. Get people downstream to block the flow!

The current is getting faster. What do we do if the entire dam collapses?

What do you think we can do? Stop it with your Arts, your lives!

The polluted water continues to spread. The fields are already filled with mud.

Step on it! More sandbags!

We need to protect the experiments in this field! Don't let it get flooded!

Aiya! Your specialty is playing with sand, isn't it? Get to it!

You're the one who plays with sand! My specialty is soil analysis! Ai, I'll do what I can!

Farmers and Tianshis line up to deliver sandbag after sandbag to the banks, scrapping together a makeshift dam with Originium Arts.

There is one last gap in it.

Gah... I can't...

The youth leaps up with a bag of sand in his arms and tries to block the gap, but a gust of wind stops him in his tracks.

What are you doing?!

That water is mixed with Originium-filled mud! Are you trying to get infected?

It's my job to protect the people...

You think everyone needs your protection? You're different from the people standing here because why?

I—

How can I help?

The flood is caused by a burst dam. It's overwhelmed the field's drainage system.

We're in flood season, and it'll take time to repair it. The situation will only get worse if we don't do something.

You're a Messenger, right? Are you fast?

I suppose... what do you need me to do?

Someone needs to take charge in this chaos.

Take this map and go to the marked plates. Find the farmer in charge and get the plates ready to move.

What are you planning?

Dahuang's nomadic city modifications are only partially complete, but some degree of movement is possible.

While repairs at the dam continue, we will rebuild the drainage system by rearranging the plates and creating elevation...

Gah—

The edges of the metal plate melt as they connect to the gap in the dam.

The flood, seeking the path of least resistance, continues to batter the hasty repair. Water shoots out from the gaps in the metal, cutting open a crack like sharp blades.

That's not how your Arts are supposed to be used, Laoshi! You need to rest. I'll take over for a while.

Back off!

Your Arts are no good, child!

*cough*... *cough*...

Heavenly forge—

Nian...!

What's this mess? We aren't even done at the factory...

But looking at this flood... good job holding out this long.

You should not intervene outside of work in the core city.

Call it emergency discretion, alright? Seriously, you engineers are even more uptight than the Sui Regulator.

Go catch your breath. I'll deal with the rest.

You intend to rearrange the plates?

No time to explain. I know work on Dahuang's mobile plates is incomplete, but they're capable of basic movement.

Moving a few plates will go a long way towards draining the polluted water in the fields.

You can't be serious! Only Rong and Tianshi Shu have the authority to move the plates. No one else may—

Both of them are busy coordinating flood control efforts.

The flood shows no sign of abating. Fields and crops are being drowned as we speak. What are you going to do, hold a Tianshi Bureau meeting?

Why you—

You're Tianshi Shu's apprentice... I've seen you with her.

Very well... I'll trust you.

But they are plates of various sizes, and there are dozens. Any movement is a complex job that will take several Tianshis an entire day to calculate.

No need for that. I have the layout memorized, and a plan.

This is what we'll do.

Plate A-9, five tiles to the east. Plate B-8, down five levels.

I...

What are you doing standing there? Get on it!

Ai! Fine, I don't have any better ideas.

What's going on? The plate is moving!

Wait, the flood seems to have gotten weaker...

The plates are moving! Seek shelter—

Seek shelter where? The greenhouses?

Calm down and evacuate through the passage to Plate C-4. It's at a higher elevation now and gives protection from the floods.

Qingping! What are you doing here?

I saw He Sheng and he told me what he's planning.

The river is to the north of Dahuang. The plates to the west are the ones that have to be moved in order to drain the water from the northwest side of Dahuang to the valley in the southwest.

I didn't think of that at all...

Mianmian! Stay put!

Grain Buds?

Candlestick, Inkbrush! What about Big Buffalo? Is he okay?

He...

Don't worry, he's in a safe place.

Oh, I'm so relieved!

Wait, no, that's not it! The stockbeasts ran away in panic when the plate started moving. Help me catch them!

(Terrified cries)

Where did these stockbeasts come from?!

Mianmian! No running!

Stop! That's the edge of the plate!

Dusk?!

Who permitted you to use your powers—

Slowpokes.

Going door to door like this, half the houses will be flooded by the time you reach them.

But—

Never thought I would be helping the Sui Regulator clean up their mess... I'll do it this once. Won't happen again.

Wh-Where are we? Tianshi Arts? Who could be so powerful?

Look!

The sky's clearing up...

Sigh...

Everyone's exhausted. Dahuang can't afford another disaster.

I suppose this qualifies as extenuating circumstances.

Phew...

Go away.

A breeze sweeps across the land.

Vast expanses of farmland undulate like breathing, cutting the surging torrent into smaller streams that flow along planned routes.

Standing on the edge of the plate, the lucky stockbeast watches the flood subside, then digs out a patch of clean grass with its nose and begins to eat.

The sun shines through the clouds, upon a land that has survived disaster—barely.

Plates A-9 through C-3 successfully moved. All accumulated water is now being drained.

End of report.

What is the extent of the damage?

Varying levels of pollution on Plates A-9 through B-3. Less impact to the other plates, but further inspections are called for.

Crops from polluted fields must be disposed of. The summer harvest will be significantly impacted, on top of a year that has already seen disappointing results.

Almost a year of the people's hard work washed away... will there be enough to fill this year's quota?

How many will go hungry?

There will be enough, thanks to the efforts of countless generations.

But we can't afford another surprise.

This is bigger than just Dahuang. We must report to the capital and coordinate food supplies across all of Yan.

Yumen is closest to Dahuang, but it was also struck by Catastrophe earlier this year. Repairs are still ongoing, and it's unlikely they could spare anyone.

Indeed. The Ministry of Works indicates that Catastrophe frequency has been rising in recent years.

This has been a bad year...

Dahuang is already the country's biggest food producer. We can't ask for aid from other cities.

Plate repairs can wait. Dahuang's first priority is food production. There are still many experimental fields close to bearing fruit that have not yet been moved to safer plates...

We'll need to delay work on the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities. We need to bring back the Tianshis who were reassigned there to save the remaining farms and grain.

We can't afford to delay the summer planting.

I understand your difficulties, but can we not discuss a delay of the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities?

Food is important, of course, but the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities is also an important national defense project. The imperial court has reason to order it completed by autumn. We must consider the benefits and drawbacks carefully.

You want to consider it carefully, you'll write to the capital, have the Council of Ministers meet for ten days, and come back to us with a result.

A food shortfall doesn't mean people pay a few more coins to buy their grain.

It means that many thousands will go hungry.

How many will be driven from their homes if there is a war?

Never forget where the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities project came from.

Across the river...

You know it's more than that.

Beyond the issue with demons, there is—

Excuse me.

This is not the right time or place for this topic.

Watch your words.

Gai si.

It's not easy to quantify benefits and drawbacks, but our priority is clear.

The summer harvest and planting involve years of research and food for millions. There can be no delay.

We should ask the Tianshis to help inspect and repair affected areas. This is our immediate priority.

As for the schedule of the Twelve Pagodas and Five Cities, I'll request instructions from the Tianshi Bureaus in the name of the Ministry of Rites. Perhaps something can be done, with the help of the Chamber of Heaven's Designs.

I'll take responsibility if the imperial court determines that the matter was not properly handled.

Well, if they want to chop someone's head off, they can make it mine. Just say I put a sword to the Assistant Minister's neck here. You stay out of this.

How do we get anything done, if we're already talking about responsibility before we've gotten any work done?

It's the people of Yan who will pay the price for a mistake. We're merely three insignificant specimens thereof.

If both of you insist... I will defer to your decision.

I ask that you remember the promises you just made.

Hmph.

No problem. Everything goes well, everyone's happy. Things go wrong, you can pin it all on me.

Er, that's not what I meant. All I meant to say is that, given the urgency of the situation, it would be prudent to communicate with the Chamber of Heaven's Designs—

I most certainly concur. I will draft a detailed report for Assistant Minister Ning to deliver to the Chamber.

I'll need to prepare for that. I take my leave.

Excuse me, ladies—eh.

Ugh.

Well, at least my Ministry of Works won't be taking the fall.

Let's hope the supplies arrive on time.

Kick and roll... kick and roll...

Grain Buds absent-mindedly kicks the dirt in the fields.

The lumps roll haphazardly, while Grain Buds walks with her head bowed, swinging wild grass that she picked from the roadside.

Wonder how long the power outage might last this time. It's so hot, and the stockbeasts are scared. Disease could spread too...

They're not eating or sleeping. Are they comfortable in their new home?

Xiaohe, too. Haven't seen him at dinner for days. Doesn't he know that he needs to rest when tired? He's dumber than a burdenbeast...

The weather is getting worse each year, and the crops don't grow well...

Has Shennong really abandoned this land?

She winds the grass around her finger, then rolls it up.

She makes a motion to throw it, then she remembers how Shu weaved the grass into a foal with a few deft movements of her fingers.

Shu could make so many things if I brought this grass back. But she's so busy, and even Candlestick is nowhere to be seen.

I guess I should bring some more back and weave it up. Maybe it'll make them happier.

And where the heck is Mianmian?

Grain Buds lifts her feet and kicks a piece of dirt hard.

It hits a rice stalk, spins, and comes to a stop.

Splat.

It leaves no mark on the rice stalk.

A flood.

The crops in the fields bow their heads, just like everyone has.

Only a single rice plant stands tall in the carnage.

It holds its grains high and proud, almost in scorn of everything else that has fallen, as though it has absorbed the lifeforce of everything around it.

When everything else goes dark, it alone blooms bright like life.

Grain Buds could not resist reaching out to touch it.

It is bright red.

A burdenbeast strolls by the edge of the paddies, the sun shining upon it.

It is bright red too.

Here at last.

The tired one closes her reddened eyes.

The river has drowned her mouth, the mud glued her eyes shut. Trees and weeds sway lifelessly in the wind, and she tries her hardest to identify the sound.

Sigh...

She brushes her hand against a fallen seedling, and it stands back up in the mud, enervated.

She closes her eyes. The river flows past her hair, and the roots of the trees are like lines on her palm.

There was a time, many years ago, when Catastrophes were frequent as they are now...

There was nothing I could do. I watched as rice ready for harvest fell in the fields, leaving nothing but a tiny patch that could barely fill a single bag.

You said to me, your face full of mud, that there was nothing to worry about. Keep at it, year after year, and it will come.

There were no wrinkles on your face back then.

And you weren't Shennong yet.

So many years have passed. Why is the dream still so distant?

The earth beneath her feet undulates like her breathing, as though there is a warm heart deep below that continues to beat, slowly and heavily.

Now its shallow footsteps become recognizable.

Hm...?

The rumble of motor vehicles, only heard once every few months.

Caravans from afar deliver new supplies, new things, and news from other places, bringing some excitement to the life of monotonous labor in Dahuang.

It does not take long for the dust cloud to close the distance, and a figure comes down from the lead vehicle.

He is wearing a light, spotless shirt, and wind and smoke follow him for ten thousand li.

You're back.

Long time no see.

My dear sister.