Chapter 34 · The Gatekeeper's Gambit - Chapter 34: The Last Rule

Mo Han stared at his own face.

The Judge's mask lay on the floor between them, cracked down the middle. And behind it was Lin Mo. Not the cultivator body he'd been wearing for months. The real him. Forty-two years old, thinning hair, the kind of tired that came from twenty years of project timelines and client calls that should've been emails.

"So," Lin Mo said. His voice was flat. The way it used to sound during performance reviews. "You figured it out."

Su Jin's hand found Mo Han's wrist. Her fingers were still warm from the blood she'd spilled to reactivate their contract. "What is this?"

"The last trial." Lin Mo—the Judge—gestured at the space around them. The black stone walls had started to dissolve. Behind them, Mo Han could see his apartment. His actual apartment. The IKEA desk with the wobbly leg. The coffee mug he'd left in the sink the morning he died. "You beat the other six levels. This one's simple."

Mo Han's throat was dry. "I go back."

"You go back." The Judge pulled a folded piece of paper from his jacket. Not a cultivator's robe.