The Judge’s hammer came down. For a fraction of a second, the peak of Central Heaven Mountain went white and silent. The pools, the ridge, and the last stars vanished into the glare.
The blow struck Pei Jing’s crossed forearms. He held the Iron Gate Guard his grandfather’s men had used in the Great Yan infantry. Heat wrapped his shoulders. Blue fire moved across his ribs. The air around his face disappeared.
Heat went into his skin and came out in steam. His shoulders held just long enough to pass the rest of the blow into the mountain.
The sound arrived all at once. Eight hundred miles away in a South Sea harbor, the water shook under the wharves. On the northern steppe, men put their ears to the ground and heard a deep roll beneath the frost.
A fissure opened a mile below the summit. Steam and mud poured out among the pines. The mountain settled a little under the blow. Pei Jing’s feet had gone no farther back than they had at the first touch of the hammer. What remained of his boots was caught in the cooling rock.
Qi Shenxiao’s white arms still pressed against his wrists. Loops of fire went dark inside its chest. Violet patches formed between the loops still turning. Each one had to turn faster to keep the body upright.
