The wind carried the smell of spirit oil across the terrace. Xuan watched Pei Jing’s hands. He looked for a hidden ward in the glass and for the movement that would give away a second fighter waiting behind the rocks. When he found neither, he reached into his sleeve.
“You asked for the law,” he said. “I’ll read it to you.”
He unrolled a purple scroll edged with silver. The seals of sixteen sects ran down one side. The preamble named the fourth emperor of Great Qian and gave the year of issue. Xuan read both aloud before he went on to the articles.
“Article Forty-Eight of the Imperial Dao Concordat. Mountains above twenty thousand feet with active leylines or spatial rifts belong to the Grand Heavenly Alliance. Anyone occupying one without our leave is a squatter.”
The paper snapped in the wind. Xuan put his thumb on the next line.
“Article Seventy-Two. Relics from a tribulation of Seventh Rank or higher belong to the Alliance treasury. A finder may claim five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones if he surrenders the object intact within twelve hours.”
He lowered the scroll.
“You have drawn from the Void Eye without a permit for eighteen years. Give us the blade and your storage rings. Sign the service bond. Your household will owe fifty years in the Western Marches. Then leave so our engineers can build a station on the peak.”
