[Disciples of the Jade Emptiness Gate may review disorder on Heaven's behalf.]
That line of cold golden text remained nailed to the end of the Urgent Report.
After Zhao Xuan had said, "Investigate the mortal world," the Clear Gate Register's flames had stopped burning deeper into the register's shadow.
Pale blue fire followed the gray seal on the Urgent Report, shining all the way toward Chaoge.
Before Golden Turtle Island, the immortals saw the Clear Gate Register's fire leave the Investiture Table for the first time and descend into the smoke and bustle of the real mortal world.
Inside the Grand Preceptor's Residence in Chaoge, the lamplight suddenly sank a notch.
Wen Zhong did not accept the Urgent Report.
Nor did he issue any orders.
The Urgent Report hovered before his desk. The gray-white Recording Seal at its end seeped outward inch by inch, as though trying to crawl into the military dispatch box on its own.
Once it entered the box, there would be a trace of the Grand Preceptor's Residence having received it.
Once that trace existed, the Northern Border's emergency, the Feudal Lords' suspected movements, and the impending gathering of Popular Grievance would no longer be merely three lines on a gray seal.
They would become proof that Chaoge already knew of the disorder.
Wen Zhong reached out and held down the military dispatch box.
Thunder Patterns beneath his palm pinned its lid shut.
"No military seal."
"No Relay Station Slip."
"No frontier commander's signature."
"It may not enter the box."
The Urgent Report trembled slightly.
The gray seal at its end did not retreat. Instead, it lunged toward the War Map.
Three gray points lit up at once: the northern frontier, the Feudal Lords' lodgings, and the residential quarter of the southern market.
On Golden Turtle