The Nameless Epoch

Chapter 2: The Soul Imprint Still Lingers

After Jiang Linchuan's voice faded, no one in the Merit Hall dared speak.

The gray-white jade slip lay pinned beneath Chishan on the counter. Its light had already dimmed, as if the warning hundreds of people had just heard had been a shared mistake. Yet disciples near the front gate were quietly crushing message talismans. Once the news escaped, it would take less than half an hour for rumors of a dead man's return to spread through all of Xuangang Ironshield Fortress.

Jiang Linyuan placed one hand on the edge of the counter. “Steward Zhou, seal communications.”

“I don't have that authority.” Sweat covered Steward Zhou's forehead. A moment ago, he had thought Jiang Linyuan was making trouble over nothing. Now he looked as though he wanted to stuff the entire hall inside a sealing ward. “The mission wall cannot be stopped, and the communication array answers to the Sect Affairs Hall. Besides, some messages have already gone out. What good would sealing it do now?”

“It would still let us distinguish messages sent before the seal from those sent after.” Jiang Linyuan looked at the three disciples who had left witness signatures. “Record exactly what you heard. Don't decide the speaker's identity for it. The voice sounded like Jiang Linchuan. That does not make it Jiang Linchuan.”

Someone opened his mouth, then swallowed the words still alive before they could leave his tongue.

The array lines in the seams of the seventh tier continued to shine. Light moved across them from left to right like a row of fingers searching for something. Jiang Linyuan did not touch the jade slip again, but he could not remove Chishan. Once the shield was lifted, no one knew whom the receiving imprint might shine upon next.

The footsteps outside reached the door.

Two enforcement disciples of Xuangang Ironshield Fortress entered first, their black armor dusted with unmelted snow. An unfamiliar woman followed them. Her narrow-sleeved black robes were fitted for movement. No sword hung at her waist, only a bronze mirror the size of a palm.

As she crossed the threshold, she raised one hand. A thread of silver-white lightning skimmed the floor and joined into a closed circuit along the four walls. Every unsent message talisman in the hall went dark at once.

“Seal imposed at the third quarter past the hour of the rabbit.” She placed an Immortal Alliance law-inspector token on the counter. “From this moment onward, all unverified messages are to be recalled. Record the recipients of those already sent.”

Steward Zhou recognized the token and hurriedly bowed. “Inspector Ye, this is our sect's Merit Hall. Under procedure, the Enforcement Office should take control of the scene first—”

“Then take it.” Ye Zhaoshuang stepped aside for the two enforcement disciples, her voice level. “The scene belongs to Xuangang Ironshield Fortress. I am here to witness the cross-sect mission imprint. If anyone believes I have exceeded my authority, write the objection now and attach it to the front of the case file.”

Steward Zhou did not dare say more.

Jiang Linyuan, however, gave her a second look. He had heard of Ye Zhaoshuang, the Immortal Alliance's temporarily assigned circuit law inspector. She had spent three months making rounds through the north and had rejected two battle-merit claims filed by her own Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Palace. She had offended far more people than she had befriended.

Ye Zhaoshuang stopped five paces from the counter. Rather than inspect the jade slip at once, she first studied the people.

“Who made the first contact with the evidence?”

“I caught it with my shield,” Jiang Linyuan said. “The slip emerged from the seventh tier on its own. It first hovered three feet in front of me, then came down on the shield. Steward Zhou reached for it once but did not touch it. Since then, only Chishan has remained in contact with it.”

“What did you do before the voice appeared?”

“Inspected an anomalous scratch inside the shield, verified the mission text, and requested that the wall be stopped. I did not probe the slip with spiritual sense, feed it blood, or activate the receiving imprint with spiritual power.”

Ye Zhaoshuang's gaze settled on Chishan. “The anomalous scratch is also a change at the scene. Why did you not report it?”

“I could not confirm it was connected to the jade slip. Disclosing it prematurely could contaminate the other witnesses' statements.” Jiang Linyuan did not turn the shield over for her to see. “I can register it separately, but seal the wall first. The seventh-tier array lines are still moving. It is altering itself.”

She studied him for two breaths. Instead of following his request, she drew three old copper tallies from her sleeve and held them between her fingers one by one.

“Fact. Rule. Consequence. The fact is that the evidence responded specifically to you, while your bonded weapon changed in tandem. The rule requires the last person who touched the evidence to withdraw from verification. The consequence is that if you remain beside the wall, no later change can be proven not to have originated with you. Jiang Linyuan, release the shield ring and retreat seven steps.”

The two enforcement disciples had already taken positions to either side, though neither had reached for a weapon.

Jiang Linyuan glanced at the western window. It remained the nearest exit, but Ye Zhaoshuang's lightning seal had closed over its frame. She was a Golden Core cultivator. If he forced his way out with Chishan, he might gain one breath at most, and the only piece of evidence would be left amid the chaos.

He released his right hand. Chishan remained over the jade slip under its own weight, its corner sinking half an inch into the wooden counter.

“Record why I am withdrawing. And place a separate seal on the duty passage. Two stewards are standing there, but neither is responsible for recording who passes through.”

Several gazes turned toward the rear of the mission wall at once. Both duty stewards were present—one watching the wall, the other watching the crowd. If someone crossed the passage carrying an official order, each could later claim the passage had belonged to the other's watch.

Ye Zhaoshuang ordered one enforcement disciple to seal the passage. Then she had both duty stewards leave separate spiritual signatures. Only afterward did she press a copper tally to a blank case scroll.

“Jiang Linyuan voluntarily identified a gap in evidence preservation. Entered in the factual record. From this moment, the passage admits entry but no exit. Now retreat.”

Jiang Linyuan obeyed. Seven steps, not an inch more or less. The crowd receded with him, leaving a clear ring around the counter.

Only then did Ye Zhaoshuang approach Chishan. A second copper tally from her sleeve pinned the right side of the jade slip, while the bronze mirror hovered to its left. The mirror showed no human reflection, only a mass of tangled spiritual traces layered over one another. The brightest thread stretched from the receiving imprint, passed through Chishan's old iron, and ended in front of Jiang Linyuan.

“The Sin-Illuminating Thunder Mirror records residual traces. It cannot decide identity for me.” Ye Zhaoshuang seemed to be reminding those around her, and at the same time denying a conclusion before anyone could make it. “Records Office, retrieve the public mirror imprint of Jiang Linchuan's sealed soul registry. Do not touch the original file.”

The records cultivators who had just arrived hurried to raise a water mirror. Jiang Linchuan's sect registry number soon appeared in the air. His soul imprint within the image had long since faded to gray, and a black line around its edge marked the annulment entered upon his death.

Ye Zhaoshuang drew out a filament of lightning as fine as a strand of hair and touched both the mirror imprint and the mission slip. Provoked by the same current, the two soul signatures trembled nine times in exactly the same rhythm.

Everyone in the hall heard those nine pulses.

Someone stepped forward, only to be forced back by the lightning seal across the floor. Steward Zhou stared at the water mirror, his lips white.

“The soul signatures share a source... How can a dead man claim another mission?”

“Sharing a source proves only that this imprint came from Jiang Linchuan's soul registry. It does not prove Jiang Linchuan is alive.” Ye Zhaoshuang withdrew the lightning. “The registry may have been stolen. A fragment of his primordial spirit may have been refined. Or the Records Office's mirror imprint itself may have been replaced. Record what you just said as a question. Do not write it as a conclusion.”

When she said fragment of his primordial spirit, she did not spare Jiang Linyuan by looking away. The worst of his suspicions settled into certainty instead. Alive was not the only answer. It was not even the most likely one. Perhaps whoever stood behind this wanted him to believe his brother was still at Zhexue Pass, then bring both Chishan and the jade slip away.

“Verify the claiming time again,” he said. “If the soul imprint activated only after the slip appeared today, then it is bait. If the claim predates today, we need to examine eleven years of mission accounts.”

Ye Zhaoshuang did not move. “You have withdrawn from verification.”

“I am proposing a method. I am not touching the evidence.”

“A method also changes the sequence of verification. What is examined first determines what those who arrive later will see.” She pressed the third copper tally into the case scroll and finally looked at him. “From this moment, you are under investigative detention. The grounds are your direct kinship, the evidence's targeted response, and the unregistered change to your weapon. This is not a conviction, and you will not be placed under the Penal Office. You will remain in a witness chamber of the Law Hall. Chishan will be sealed where it stands. No one may contact it alone.”

“Duration?”

“Until the first round of cross-verification is complete. No later than the hour of the rabbit tomorrow. Beyond that limit, the Enforcement Office must submit a new application.”

“Who can review your decision?”

Someone in the crowd sucked in a breath. Even the enforcement disciples of Xuangang Ironshield Fortress looked toward Jiang Linyuan. For a cultivator in early Foundation Establishment to challenge a Golden Core law inspector's detention authority in public did not seem wise.

Ye Zhaoshuang did not grow angry. She removed the completed copper tally from the case scroll and sent it floating to him.

“The duty adjudicator of the Adjudication Office. My name, grounds, and time limit are all written there. You may appeal before entering the witness chamber.” She paused, then added, “An appeal does not suspend the isolation of evidence.”

Taking the opportunity, Steward Zhou pulled back the merit ledger and declared that the accused party's merit points and cave dwelling should both be frozen.

Jiang Linyuan did not seize the ledger. He only pointed out that the previous night's patrol had been completed by five people. Four portions of the thirty-seven points did not belong to him. A wounded disciple was waiting to repair his wrist guard and could not be investigated alongside him.

“Freezing unrelated property requires a separate finding of risk.” Ye Zhaoshuang pushed the merit ledger back across the counter. “Hold Jiang Linyuan's personal share. Release the shares belonging to his squad. Place guards on his cave dwelling and transfer his unfinished missions to the Stewardship Hall. If you insist on freezing everything, write down the path by which those assets could destroy evidence. I will sign it.”

Steward Zhou wrote nothing. He separated the other four shares instead.

The wounded disciple looked at his cracked wrist guard but said nothing. Jiang Linyuan gave him no sign. What remained here would become testimony. It should not become a debt of gratitude.

Jiang Linyuan caught the copper tally, read it through, and only then surrendered the message talisman from his storage pouch. He did not rush to prove his innocence. He made no further demand to join the verification. He merely asked the two enforcement disciples to confirm that Chishan remained under collective guard.

As he reached the door, the array lines in the mission wall suddenly paused. It was as if the bait had realized it had failed to lure its target away. Then every line turned toward the gray-white jade slip.

“Wait,” Ye Zhaoshuang said.

She reversed the Sin-Illuminating Thunder Mirror and brought its back down over the jade slip. Fine threads of lightning spread between her five fingers without a single spark touching Chishan. The seal tightened layer by layer. The gray-white slip trembled softly, then gave the crisp c***k of ice splitting.

A dark-red bead slowly swelled from a seam in the jade. It did not dissolve when it touched the air. Instead, it condensed into a drop of blood encased in frost.

A records cultivator passed a spirit ruler over it. Eleven complete frost-baleful age rings appeared along the ruler.

Ye Zhaoshuang did not reach for the drop. She used the Thunder Mirror to suspend it in midair. A faint fleck of golden light turned within the blood.

All the iron sands of the north were black.

This was a grain of golden sand that had no place in frozen blood from Zhexue Pass.