The silence that blanketed Mount Apex was heavier than the bedrock of the continent.
Across the nine floating platforms, one hundred thousand scholars, royal monarchs, and clan patriarchs sat with their hands folded in their laps, fully unable to speak.
The red laser line continued to rotate at six hundred turns a minute, a steady crimson bright light cutting through the mist, silently marking the twenty-two inches of crooked, shameful bending across the sacred arenas of the Sages.
Then, from the highest watching gallery overlooking the Great Dialectic Forum, three figures slowly rose to their feet.
The Three Neutral Sages of Jiuzhou.
On the left was Grandmaster Xuan, the ancient dean of the Hall of Starry Mathematics, his white hair trailing to his waist. In the center stood Master Qing, Supreme Judge of the Land-wide Law Hall. He held the jade seal of justice. On the right stood Sage Tie, the venerable Patriarch of the Divine Crafting Pavilion. He leaned upon his heavy iron forging staff.
These three men had sat on the Council of Sages for six hundred years, maintaining strict, impartial neutrality through dynasties, wars, and royal collapses. Their word was the unbending bedrock of land-wide law.
Grandmaster Xuan stepped to the front of the marble gallery. He held his golden ritual metal pen in both hands.
