Chapter 28 - Priya Learns About Qi
Priya Shah accepted the existence of cultivation in seven seconds.
Mason respected that.
One Council enforcer punched a steel railing hard enough to bend it around his fist.
Priya looked at the railing.
Then at Mason.
“Okay. Magic.”
“Qi.”
“Magic with branding.”
“Basically.”
“Can I sue it?”
Logan smiled.
“I like her.”
The catwalk fight became an engineering problem.
Twelve Council cultivators controlled both exits.
Mason’s team had Ward, who could barely fight; Priya, who was normal; Logan, who was strong but politically constrained; Tessa, who was delighted to finally hit Council employees; and Mason, who had been a weak scrapyard worker less than a month ago.
The odds were poor.
The bridge disagreed.
[CIVIC CONTRACT SUPPORT AVAILABLE]
[AUTHORIZED TEMPORARY ACCESS TO MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS]
Mason grinned.
He pulled an emergency lever.
A maintenance gantry moved.
Three enforcers lost footing.
Tessa swept one off the catwalk onto a lower safety net.
Logan fought with polished efficiency, every strike carrying controlled furnace qi.
Mason used the environment.
Broken bolts.
Old rail sections.
Maintenance chains.
Anything previously discarded responded to Scrapfield Breathing.
One enforcer swung a relic baton.
Mason blocked with Argument Ender.
The baton remembered being raw stock.
It straightened into a useless metal rod.
The man stared.
Mason hit him with it.
“Recycling.”
They reached the first hostile claim node.
Mason could not simply smash it.
The device had integrated into the bridge’s qi flow.
Removing it incorrectly might damage the civic relic.
Priya crouched beside the plate.
“Show me where this thing is attached structurally.”
Mason pointed.
She examined bolts, welds, and a reinforcement bracket.
“This bracket is carrying load it shouldn’t. They used the control plate as a structural insert.”
Tessa understood.
“So if we remove it—”
“We create stress concentration.”
Mason smiled.
“Can we repair around it first?”
Priya looked offended.
“Obviously.”
They fabricated a temporary brace from maintenance stock.
Mason repaired two existing cracks.
Then he reclaimed the hostile node.
[CLAIM DEVICE REMOVED: 1/24]
The bridge hummed.
[APPROVAL.]
Priya looked around.
“Did the bridge just approve my detail?”
“Yes.”
She tried not to look pleased.
She failed.
They removed four nodes before Crowe himself arrived.
He stepped onto the catwalk without touching the stairs.
Earth qi formed beneath his shoes in midair.
Priya stared.
“Can I sue that?”
“Probably not.”
“Shame.”
Crowe looked at Mason.
“You misunderstand the project.”
“You keep saying that after lying.”
“The bridge is unstable.”
“Seventy-one percent condition.”
Crowe’s eyes narrowed.
“You can read civic condition?”
Mason immediately regretted revealing that.
Ward whispered, “Too late now.”
Crowe lowered his voice.
“Then read deeper.”
Mason hesitated.
He opened the bridge profile and pushed beyond the visible stats.
A hidden layer appeared.
[INTERNAL SEAL CONDITION: 18%]
His stomach dropped.
The bridge itself was structurally fine.
The seal beneath it was not.
Crowe said, “We are not replacing the bridge because it is failing.”
Mason looked at him.
“We know.”
“No.”
Crowe pointed down toward the river.
“We are replacing it because something beneath it has learned how to knock.”
The entire bridge shook.
Not from traffic.
Three deep impacts came from below the water.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
---
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