Xijing Sitianjian, the Directorate Supervisor, issued a command: all Sitianjian officials were to stop monitoring all magic treasures within the Xijing Inner City precisely at the Tzu hour, and to cease recording everything happening in the inner city until the Chou hour.
With this order conveyed, the Five-Official Star Observers, Chief Clerks, Registrar of Portents, Clepsydra Masters, Watchers, Imperial Calendar Officials, Dawn Watchers, Scholars, and the crowd of petty officials without official ranks within Sitianjian ceased driving the various magic treasures used to monitor the inner city—such as the seismograph, armillary sphere, universal instrument, talismanic heavenly book, and earth book. Furthermore, earth spirits, earth goddesses, and other ghosts and gods were also ordered to rest.
At the same time, Gongtian Prefecture also issued a secret order: tonight, all bailiffs would no longer be on duty and would return home to rest. Whatever happened in the inner city, Gongtian Prefecture would know nothing of it and inquire about nothing.
Hearing this, the bailiffs of the prefectural yamen felt a chill in their hearts and returned to their respective homes.
Simultaneously, the troops of the Divine Machine Battalion guarding the inner city also received the message: muzzles facing outward, not a single gun or cannon was to be fired toward the inner city, and not half a step was to be set within the inner city.
A succession of secret orders was passed down silently without a single stir. The officials of various mansions also drifted off into dreamscapes, and the inner city remained as quiet and harmonious as usual.
The inner city of Xijing was filled everywhere with official roads, lacking narrow residential alleys. The roads were flat and convenient for carriages, yet now that it was already the Tzu hour, there were no longer any carriages upon the streets.