The silence in the Grand Concourse had the heavy, choking mass of an un-vented blast fire.
Across forty paces of blood-spattered white granite, Zhao Wuji’s face was devoid of color. The high-born heir took half a step backward from the pavilion stone railing. His ermine mantle shook, his right hand signaling wild, silent commands to his leftover bodyguards to prepare an immediate pullback carriage.
“The martial proof is finished,” Chief Judge Lu croaked, scrambling down the cedar steps to retrieve his fallen iron gavel, his voice cracking with panic. “The... The accused party has showed physical innocence through trial by combat. The embezzlement charges are hereby dismissed without prejudice! This trial is adjourned—”
“This trial isn’t adjourned,” Lin Ke said.
The words were not shouted. They were delivered with the calm, terrifying finality of a system administrator terminating a secret user session.
Lin Ke reached into the deep inner fold of his wide grey sleeve.
He didn’t pull a weapon. He pulled a heavy, five-foot tube-shaped scroll wrapped in oiled black silk. He was bound with braided iron wire.
He stepped past Gu Yan’s unconscious body. He walked directly to the base of the high judgment dais where the three court elders sat above him.
