Leaving the Vault of the Final Ledgers behind, the passage entered Entry hall 697: The Chamber of the Glow. The hall was built from polished slabs of black tourmaline granite, whose glassy faces reflected the yellow beam of their horn lantern with flawless sight clarity. On opposite sides of the long room, two massive display cases of cast bronze faced each other like opposing castle walls.
In the northern case lay the recovered edicts and patents of the Second Epoch, stamped in cuneiform on star-fallen iron plates. In the southern case, Yan Zhiqiu carefully laid out the official decrees and talismanic mandates of the Azure Firmament Sect, recovered from courier satchels during her desperate flight across the outer rifts.
Qiao Ming walked slowly between the two cases, his bare horn-hard feet gripping the polished tourmaline flags. He paused between the center displays, looking from the ancient iron plate to the modern silk scroll. The visual contrast was striking—dark pitted metal on one side, shimmering royal silk stitched with gold thread on the other—yet as his slate-grey eyes compared the legal clauses, a grim, deep chill settled over his shoulders.
“The wording is matching,” Yan Zhiqiu said, her voice shaking with an intense, archival fury that seemed to make the lantern flame tremble. “Read the fourth paragraph of the Sect’s Ascension Charter, Qiao Ming: ‘All mortal souls residing within the outer vassal domains are chosen as Raw Spiritual Reserves, subject to immediate claims by the Elder Council for the replenishment of…
