The sound of iron spikes biting into timber echoed across the Central Plaza long before sunrise.
On Thursday, by mid-morning, more than two thousand academy disciples had gathered around the White-Lotus Founder Stele. The towering black monolith stood twenty feet tall in the center of the terrace, its surface carved with ancient sword verses that hummed with faint golden light.
Beside the sacred stone, workmen in gray aprons finished erecting a heavy wooden platform.
It was not a stage for an academic debate. It was an expulsion scaffold draped in crimson silk.
Two thick iron rings were bolted to the central timber, each linked to a pair of heavy spirit-suppression cuffs. Above the rings hung a formal silk proclamation stamped with the scarlet wax seal of the Vice-Dean’s office.
Senior Disciple Vayne stood atop the scaffold, his bruised ribs wrapped tight beneath an immaculate blue robe.
“More than a month,” Vayne shouted, his voice carrying over the murmuring crowd. “For more than a month, the outer court student Kaelen Vance has defied academy orders! He has skipped every morning lecture, refused every sword audit, and defiled the dignity of our institution!”
The gathered disciples buzzed with excitement.
