A cloud-draped mantle unfurled from the sky, falling over the man's broad back like all the past that had finally lain tame.
He no longer spoke of the stories of old. He bore all the weight of the past upon his shoulders.
Thus he descended onto the Mirror Stone Plaza before the Censorate, placing this [Earth Mirror], and the many censors' eyes, in judgment over his entire life.
The Censorate's main headquarters was built grand and imposing, with nothing to obstruct the view. Its high terraces and Ornamental Columns lay fully exposed at a glance.
Before long, Great Jing Empire's current Chief Censor, Shang Shuyi, emerged from the enormous gate opening in the raised platform, dark as the maw of some beast.
He wore the spotless official robes of the Censorate, every detail impeccably arranged.
His eyes looked only ahead, never straying. In this way, he met Lou Yue on the straight road before the platform.
The straight road was like the beast's tongue, and also like an enormous sword.
Heavenly light cast a long, drawn-out shadow for Lou Yue alone.
Shang Shuyi's shadow hid within the gate's darkness. Standing alongside it were the rows of censors, arranged in two lines, wielding their tablets as swords.
The Great Jing Empire's first censorial tablet had been personally carved by the Grand Ancestor and bestowed upon the Chief Censor, commanding him to speak of his own faults.
"This is the sword of words. Above, it pierces the Son of Heaven; below, it cuts through gate and soldier. Across all within and beyond the realm, there is nothing it does not pierce, and none who can evade it."—Jing Outline · Volume One.
The entire outer city of Tianjing City seemed to be divided here by a vast boundary.
Though alone, Lou Yue's bearing