Chapter 12 · The Gatekeeper's Gambit - Chapter 12: Put the Rules on Trial

The summons scroll hit Mo Han's desk at dawn, and it was already burning at the edges.

He didn't need to open it to know what it said. The Tower didn't send fire-sealed orders for routine business. Su Jin was still asleep in the recovery chamber two floors down, her meridians half-shredded from yesterday's ledger extraction.

Yun Sheng was locked in meditation at the shadow gate, holding back whatever was trying to claw through from the other side. And Wei Tiegu had just filed an official complaint naming Mo Han as complicit in trial tampering.

The scroll's wax seal cracked on its own. Black smoke curled up, forming words in the air: "Collect Yun Sheng by noon. Enforcement priority. Non-negotiable."

Mo Han stared at it. Noon was four hours away.

"Non-negotiable," he said to the empty room. "Right."

He grabbed his outer robe and headed for the central spire. If the Tower wanted to force his hand, he'd make it do the forcing in public.

The adjudication hall was already packed when he arrived. Not with disciples—those poor idiots were still running their morning trials—but with Keepers.