Chapter 21 · The Gatekeeper's Gambit - Chapter 21: The Black Gate Calls a Name

The judgment table cracked straight down the middle.

Mo Han yanked the gate seal free and the whole platform shuddered. Cracks spiderwebbed across the stone, glowing red where the core's edits had been burned into the surface. Every Keeper in the hall could read them now. Every disciple waiting outside could hear the silence that followed.

Wei Tiegu's face went gray.

"You—" The senior Keeper's voice died in his throat. His hand hovered over his own seal like he wanted to erase what just happened but couldn't figure out which rule to invoke.

Mo Han didn't give him time. He turned and walked toward the edge of the platform where the Black Gate had opened below. The air down there smelled wrong. Burnt metal and something sweet that made his teeth ache.

Su Jin stepped in front of him.

"You're not going down there." Her tone was flat. Not a question. Not a suggestion.

Mo Han met her eyes. "Someone has to."

"Then send a recovery team. You just humiliated half the senior Keepers in this tower. You think they're going to let you walk into an unstable gate and come back out with a prize?"

She wasn't wrong.