The meeting took place where the storm drains emptied into the outer void.
Inspector Cui Heng stood on an iron grating suspended over three thousand leagues of empty black sky, his midnight-blue robes whipping wildly in the cold high-sky gale. His square-cut jade glasses were flecked with frost.
Beside him, Lin Ke stood wrapped in a dark woolen cloak, his hands tucked into his sleeves.
“The numbers are checked,” Cui Heng said, his voice flat against the howling wind. “My division has audited sixty years of external customs vouchers. The four million stones earmarked for Foundry Nine’s safety upgrades were converted into sky promissory notes and cashed at the Ninth Court’s private brokerage in the Seventh Heaven. The transaction hashes match your careful logs down to the final micro-token.”
“Then file the indictment,” Lin Ke said.
Cui Heng let out a short, bitter bark of laughter that was swallowed by the void.
“You don’t understand the machinery of the High Courts, Lin Ke. Lord Lei Qian isn’t a mortal judge. He’s a hereditary Great Vehicle immortal who has held ministerial tenure for three thousand years. Under the Imperial Articles of Sovereign Privilege, a sitting Minister of the Ninth Court possesses total lawful immunity against summary arrest by any single office department.”
