Chapter 18 · The Gatekeeper's Gambit - Chapter 18: The Second List

Mo Han was already moving before the black door stopped glowing.

The cut on his palm dripped onto the stone path. Three days. That's what the timer said. Three days before the door wanted him inside, or the mark would eat through his hand and take something worse.

Fine. He'd work with three days.

"Mo Han, wait—" Yun Sheng caught up beside him, her voice tight. "You can't just walk into the main trial ground with that thing on your hand. People will see."

"Good." He didn't slow down. "I want them to see."

She grabbed his sleeve. "You're not thinking straight. Wei Tiegu's people are everywhere. If they know you're marked—"

"They'll know I'm desperate." Mo Han pulled his sleeve free but kept his voice level. "Desperate people make mistakes. Let them think that."

Yun Sheng stared at him for a beat, then her eyes narrowed. "You're setting something up."

"I'm fixing a trial."

He rounded the corner and the main pavilion came into view. The ranking wall stood in the center courtyard, twenty feet tall, covered in glowing script. Names floated in neat columns, each one burning with spiritual light.