117: Chapter 118 The Dirty Thread Sewn into the Cuff

The grey thread-shadow in the blank name grid suddenly moved.

The movement was extremely slight, as if it had been scorched awake by the lingering heat of the Merchant Alliance seal on the edge of the ledger page, or perhaps like some living thing dormant in the paper's seams, instinctively turning over after being disturbed by the scent of a person.

It was so subtle that the Temple record-keeper next to them was still busy filling in characters, and Pei Chengxu only had time to frown, yet Wen Zhao had already pressed down with the Line-Marking Nail in his hand at the very first moment.

The tail of the Line-Marking Nail made a faint sound, crisp like cracking ice.

The worm-silk-like grey thread-shadow on the ledger page recoiled, winding halfway around the edge of the blank name grid, like a startled snake trying to hide back deep in its hole.

Young Master Su Jiuheng's eyelids twitched, and the relaxed expression on his face cracked for the first time. "I just finished stamping this page of the ledger with the Merchant Alliance seal." He looked at Lu Jin, his voice carrying a trace of imperceptible tension, "It moving like this doesn't count as a normal ledger reaction, right?"

Lu Jin did not answer. He placed the ledger page flat on the edge of the fire altar outside the half-gate, his fingertips pressing down on the guarantee seal handed to him by Young Master Su Jiuheng, while the black-silver ledger tag still hovered above the war map.

The Pei family investigative team's tail-number, the Merchant Alliance guarantee seal, and the Temple outer-layer protective gear seal each occupied a corner on the map, like three anchor points of an invisible web. The blank name grid was caught in the middle, like a damp needle hidden in the seam of a garment, ready to pierce everyone's palms at any moment.

Pei Chengxu stepped forward half a pace, his voice cold and hard: "Lu Jin, an anomaly in the ledger does not equate to an anomaly with the Pei family."

Qiao Ye sneered, thumping the shield in his hand against the ground with a dull thud: "What are you in such a rush for?"

Pei Chengxu glanced at him, his gaze like a knife: "I am talking about the rules."

"Rules depend on the person." Qiao Ye lifted his shield, the old scars on its surface appearing particularly gruesome in the firelight. "Your team has an extra person without a name, and you won't even let anyone look? Did the Pei family set this rule, or did the Outer Gods?"

Pei Chengxu's face darkened, and the command fire in his sleeve flickered faintly.

Young Master Pei Tiange raised his hand, stopping him.

"Let him finish." His voice remained steady, like a stone dropped into a deep pool, the ripples controlled within a small space. Yet his gaze did not leave the ledger page; after the blank name grid moved, the Merchant Alliance heat-seal on the page dimmed, as if something had sucked away a layer of its light.

Young Master Su Jiuheng reached out to touch it, but was stopped by Wen Zhao.

"Don't touch it." Wen Zhao's voice was not loud, but carried an irrefutable certainty.

Young Master Su Jiuheng immediately withdrew his hand and stepped back half a pace, not forgetting to mutter: "Fine, you do it. My ledger is expensive, and your Line-Marking Nail is also expensive—everyone is quite generous today."

Wen Zhao did not respond. He crouched in front of the fire altar and lined up the three Line-Marking Nails.

The first old Line-Marking Nail pressed against the edge of the Merchant Alliance ledger page, the second was spiked beside the Pei family investigative team's tail-number, and the third hovered above the Temple outer-layer protective gear seal, hesitating to fall, like an archer calibrating his aim, waiting for the perfect moment.

Seeing this, the Temple Inspector immediately frowned, its tone carrying a bureaucratic wariness: "The protective gear seal is subject to unified verification by the Temple's outer layer; no one is permitted to unauthorizedly make an impression of it."

Wen Zhao looked up, his gaze calm: "I am only making an impression of the shadow."

The Temple Inspector said: "Making an impression of the shadow also requires my consent."

Lu Jin looked at it, his voice not loud, but like a stone thrown into a deep pool, every word sending out heavy ripples: "This protective gear seal is stamped with the Pei family investigative tail-number and is entering the outer-layer line of the Ruptured Furnace Seat. If the blank-name person enters the half-gate, and we then turn back to check if you consent, there will be nowhere left to settle the account."

The Temple Inspector's lips tightened, unable to find words to refute him for a moment.

Young Master Pei Tiange said: "Permission to make the impression granted."

The Temple Inspector looked at him, its eyes filled with astonishment.

Young Master Pei Tiange's expression did not change, like an eternal stone statue: "The Pei family escort team's tail-number is here; I also need to know where this person is entering from."

Pei Chengxu whispered: "Young Lord, this will allow it to seize a handle against us, and in the future, the Military Court will hold us accountable..."

Young Master Pei Tiange did not turn his head, his voice carrying a heart-palpitating clarity: "Being caught on a technicality is better than being caught by the thread."

As these words fell, the tent fell silent for a breath. Lu Jin looked at Young Master Pei Tiange, and Young Master Pei Tiange looked back at him. Separated by the ledger page, the fire altar, and the residual patterns of the half-gate, neither spoke explicitly, yet both reflected the same meaning in their eyes—catch the person first, settle the score later.

Young Master Su Jiuheng pulled his sleeves back and whispered: "If you call it out now, it can say you're making a mountain out of a molehill. Once the person actually enters the gate, the Outer Gods can use his feet to map the path."

Lu Jin said: "That is why we won't call it out."

Qiao Ye was taken aback. Ning Yanqiu looked up, her eyes flickering. Wen Zhao's fingers also paused, then he immediately understood Lu Jin's meaning—cast a long line and let that thing walk into the light itself.

Young Master Su Jiuheng's lips twitched, and his gaze towards Lu Jin carried a hint of complexity: "Your nerve is more expensive than my private seal."

Lu Jin said: "You've already signed it, don't just sit there feeling pained."

Young Master Su Jiuheng took a breath, truly stepped back half a pace, and left the stage to Wen Zhao.

Wen Zhao dropped the third Line-Marking Nail. The moment the tip touched the impression of the protective gear seal, a faint sound of water came from beneath the fire altar, as if something were turning over at the bottom of a well, or like some ancient creature stretching in the darkness. Ning Yanqiu's Cold Mirror Auxiliary Seal on her cuff immediately lit up with a thin line of light. Master Crow crouched behind her shoulder, its feathers bristling with a ring of cold grey, a low warning rolling in its throat.

"There is an echo underground." Ning Yanqiu spoke, her voice cold as frost.

Wen Zhao nodded, his gaze never leaving the Line-Marking Nail: "I heard it." His voice was very soft, but steadier than before, like a blade being re-sharpened on a whetstone.

The three Line-Marking Nails heated up simultaneously. The first pinned the blank name grid on the ledger page, the second pulled the Pei family tail-number into a thin line of fire, and the third traced out the pale white pattern within the Temple protective gear seal. The three lines crisscrossed above the fire altar, weaving an invisible web. The grey thread-shadow on the ledger page had been pretending to be quiet at first, but once the third old Line-Marking Nail was pressed firmly, it suddenly poked a small segment out from the blank name grid, like a snake that could no longer resist its hunger, flicking its tongue.

It did not crawl toward the gate. It first adhered to the Pei family tail-number.

Pei Chengxu's face changed: "Stop!"

Wen Zhao did not stop. His left hand was turned white from the vibration of the old Line-Marking Nail, and the thin scabs of old wounds on his knuckles were torn open, blood seeping along his fingertips and dripping a small patch of dark red onto the edge of the fire altar. Qiao Ye stepped forward, his eyes reddening: "Let me press it for you!"

"Don't move." Wen Zhao stared at that grey thread, his voice squeezed through his teeth: "It recognizes the line, not force. No matter how strong you are, if you press the wrong position, you'll just be helping it escape."

Qiao Ye stopped dead in his tracks, his fists clenching until they cracked.

Wen Zhao tilted the second Line-Marking Nail half an inch backward. The Pei family tail-number was dragged out into a small segment of dark red shadow. Within the dark red shadow, there should have been the regular tooth-pattern of the Pei family fire-emblem, but this segment had no teeth, only a thin layer of skin, as if someone had torn a small piece of someone else's name and pasted it to their own sole to impersonate an identity.

The Temple Inspector's face finally changed, its voice carrying a hint of incredulous dryness: "This does not conform to the protective gear procedure."

Young Master Su Jiuheng coughed lightly, his smile carrying a hint of schadenfreude: "My Lord, please don't say that to me. My ledger is only responsible for receiving and issuing materials, not for putting shoes on strange things."

The Temple Inspector was choked by his words, its face turning from green to white.

Young Master Pei Tiange looked at Pei Chengxu, his gaze like lightning: "Where are the outer-layer escort personnel now?"

Pei Chengxu took out the command buckle, and its surface lit up. He asked a few questions in a low voice, his face growing uglier the more he listened: "At the second-layer Warning line outside the gate."

"Who is leading them?"

"The Old-Buckle Verification Deacon is leading the team."

Young Master Pei Tiange said: "Bring them in."

Lu Jin spoke: "No need."

Young Master Pei Tiange looked at him.

Lu Jin said: "The thread will find the gate itself."

As soon as the words fell, a spot of damp blackness suddenly appeared on the grey ground outside the half-gate. That spot of black seeped out from a crack in the ground, walked half an inch around the edge of the fire altar, and then quickly retracted, like a startled snail that hit a wall as soon as it poked out its tentacles. Ning Yanqiu's Cold Mirror Auxiliary Seal pressed downward, and the cold white mirror light illuminated the ground. In the mirror light, the damp blackness turned into an extremely faint footprint—no heel, only toes. The toes pointed toward the half-gate, like a puppet suspended by invisible threads, walking step by step toward the abyss.

Master Crow let out a low, hoarse cry, its frost-white feather edges appearing particularly glaring in the firelight.

Ning Yanqiu said: "The person is moving."

Wen Zhao's third Line-Marking Nail suddenly tilted. He reached out to press it down, the veins on the back of his hand bulging like earthworms about to burst through his skin: "Don't let the outer layer transmit orders."

Pei Chengxu frowned: "What do you mean?"

Wen Zhao did not look at him, his voice hurried and low: "The command buckle will fill in the name. What it is missing is a name; as long as someone calls it by name in the queue, it can borrow that response to fill the blank name into a temporary name, and from then on, it will have the credentials to walk within these rules!"

Pei Chengxu's face stiffened. The command buckle in his hand was still lit, the firelight making his fingers tremble slightly.

Young Master Pei Tiange reached out and pressed down on the buckle's surface. The command firelight extinguished, as if its throat had been strangled by an invisible hand.

"Chengxu."

"Yes." Pei Chengxu lowered his head, his voice carrying a trace of lingering fear.

Young Master Pei Tiange said: "From now on, the Pei family escort is not allowed to call names; only report numbers by position. Whoever dares to call a name will be dealt with by military law."

Pei Chengxu immediately passed down a silent short order. This time, he did not argue, but a layer of fine sweat seeped from his forehead.

Lu Jin looked at Wen Zhao: "Can you catch the position?"

Wen Zhao pressed the first old Line-Marking Nail deeper into the ledger page, and the page let out a slight cracking sound, like skin unable to bear the weight. Young Master Su Jiuheng's lips twitched, but he held back, clearly feeling pained for his newly stamped ledger page.

Wen Zhao whispered: "I can."

"It is walking in the sixth position."

Pei Chengxu immediately said: "The Pei family's main team only has five people escorting."

Wen Zhao watched the spike shadow, his voice cold as if fished out of an ice cellar: "That is why it is ranked sixth."

As soon as those words were said, the three lines on the fire altar suddenly closed together. The blank name grid, the Pei family tail-number, and the Temple protective gear seal were strung together by a tiny spike shadow. The spike shadow did not stop on the ledger page; it slid down from the edge of the fire altar and landed in front of that damp, black, heel-less footprint on the ground. The footprint stopped, like a snake whose seven inches had been nailed down, unable to crawl forward another inch.

Sounds of armor plates rubbing against each other rang out outside the tent. The people from the Pei family's outer-layer Warning line had been called to the front of the gate. The five sets of footsteps were uniform, but the sixth set was sandwiched in between, so light it was as if it weren't touching the ground, like a fallen leaf swept by the wind, silently sticking close.

Instructor Han Tiecheng said in a deep voice at the tent entrance: "Everyone, stop."

The outside instantly fell silent.

A very ordinary voice rang out from outside the tent curtain, clean, calm, carrying a hint of just-right confusion: "Does the Military Court have an order?"

The voice sounded like any other disciplined Temple outer-layer escort—proper, dutiful, and unremarkable.

Wen Zhao's face, however, turned even whiter, his knuckles tightening and turning white on the Line-Marking Nail: "It is mimicking the voice."

Ning Yanqiu's Cold Mirror Auxiliary Seal slid out along her cuff. She did not immediately shine it out, but only looked at Lu Jin. Lu Jin said: "Shine it on the feet."

Ning Yanqiu nodded. Master Crow leaped from behind her shoulder and landed above the tent door. A line of cold white from the Cold Mirror Auxiliary Seal cut out from beneath the crow's shadow, and the tent curtain was illuminated until it stiffened. The six footprints outside were simultaneously cast onto the fabric. The first five footprints had armor plates, boot soles, and fire lines; they were real, solid people.

The sixth one also had a boot sole, but its shadow broke off below the ankle. From the break, a grey thread hung down, trailing all the way down, passing through the ground, and connecting to the darker well beneath the Ruptured Furnace Seat, like an umbilical cord connecting to a monstrous fetus in a mother's womb.

Everyone in the tent held their breath for half a breath.

The Temple Inspector stared at that grey thread, its Adam's apple bobbing, its voice dry as if sandpaper were rubbing: "Outer God Parasitic Thread."

When it said these four words, the air inside the tent seemed to freeze.

Pei Chengxu turned his head abruptly to look at Young Master Pei Tiange, his gaze filled with a trace of horror.

Young Master Pei Tiange did not look at him. He watched the sixth footprint, his eyes turning cold for the first time, like two bottomless cold pools finally freezing over with a thin layer of ice.

"Pin it down."