The Book of the Seabed had barely opened when it cried out:
"You still owe me—"
"Cut the nonsense," Gu Qingshan interrupted. "I didn't come to ask you a question."
The Book of the Seabed looked rather put out.
It had thought it would finally get a chance to collect its debt, but it turned out he hadn't come to ask a question.
Wait.
That wasn't right.
Even if he hadn't come to ask a question, that didn't stop it from collecting its debt.
Just as the Book of the Seabed was about to catch on, Gu Qingshan spoke. "You can do what the Book of Judgment does. Can you help me set up this card so it can communicate with me?"
He showed it the Feather of Avoiding Disaster.
"I can help you set it up, but you won't be able to communicate with it," said the Book of the Seabed.
"I'm a card myself. Why wouldn't I be able to communicate with it? Are you stopping us?" Gu Qingshan asked suspiciously.
The Book of the Seabed snorted. "This card is a sealed Phase World. Ordinarily, you can't enter it—unless you turn back into a card, in which case you can communicate with it."
"That's a good idea," Gu Qingshan said, pleased.
Now that things had reached the point where he had to speak with Feather, he wouldn't cling to convention and keep hiding in the shadows.
Gu Qingshan stepped back several paces and cried, "Manifest!"
The void around him gradually revealed a rectangular frame—
the same card frame Xiao Xi had drawn long ago.
Gu Qingshan stood within the frame, light and darkness appearing behind him.
A line of Crimson Small Characters appeared at once:
"You have always been one of the Sin Judgment Cards."
"Too much time