The Person Behind the Door Was Her

"Why?"

Li Sanshun pressed his hand against Li Jiu's shoulder, first sprinkling hemostatic powder onto the wound.

"Fourteen people acting as my decoys?"

"You have it backward."

Li Jiu gasped in pain, raising a hand to point at the iron cabinet by the furnace.

"They weren't decoys; they were the fourteen layers of skin covering you."

A worn wooden box was hidden beneath the iron cabinet.

Li Sanshun pried open the lid, finding it stuffed with casting workshop ledgers. The paper had grown damp, and many of the characters were blurred. Li Jiu pulled a piece of oilcloth from the very bottom and spread it across the furnace platform.

The oilcloth depicted an old map of the Imperial City.

Fifteen red lines snaked through different streets and alleys, all eventually converging on an abandoned courtyard in the south of the city.

"Twenty-one years ago, the Imperial City was lashed by seven days of heavy rain. Fifteen newborn children were sent into this courtyard one after another."

"Were they all of the Ji bloodline?"

"All of them were close kin."

Li Jiu tapped the fifteen red circles on the oilcloth.

"Someone drew their blood, took footprints, and recorded their birthmarks. Once that was done, the first fourteen children were sent back to their respective families through fourteen different doors."

Li Sanshun's finger stopped on the final red circle.

"And me?"

"You took the fifteenth path."

"Leading where?"

"The casting workshop."

Li Jiu pressed the Seal of Destiny mold onto the red line.

"That night, someone stuffed you into a charcoal basket and smuggled you out of the Imperial City hidden among the furnace fuel. Fourteen vials of real blood were left at the courtyard, and the clothes used by the fourteen infants were scattered along the road."

"No matter which way the investigators looked, they would find Imperial blood."

Li Sanshun understood.

The fourteen children were meant to muddy the waters.

He was the only one truly meant to escape the Imperial City.

"Who set this trap?"

"I don't know either."

Li Jiu flipped up a corner of the oilcloth, revealing half of a Mystic Bird Seal.

"The person who met me was masked and carried a gold blade. She only told me to remember one thing: fifteen bloods as a barrier, the Seal of Destiny blood leaves the city."

"A woman?"

"Yes."

"How old was she?"

"Hard to tell. She was missing half of her right pinky finger, and there was an old scar on her wrist."

Li Sanshun memorized these two features.

"After she handed me to you, where did she go?"

"Back to the Imperial City."

Li Jiu pulled a charred copper fragment from the lining of the wooden box.

The copper was engraved with the character "Return."

"She said if she hadn't returned by daybreak, I was to take you to Linshui Township. Change your name, change your surname, and live as inconspicuously as possible."

"She didn't come back?"

"The next day, the courtyard in the south of the city was burned to ash. The Imperial family announced that fifteen children had died in the fire and sealed all the files."

Li Sanshun took out the fifteenth infant blood rubbing.

On the back of the rubbing, the words "Obeying Heaven and Following Fate" were written, addressed to Li Jiu.

"Why were these things left in the old vault?"

"Someone made a copy in advance."

Li Jiu stroked the edge of the paper.

"The original fifteen volumes recorded on the last two pages how the fourteen children were sent back, and also noted your departure via the fifteenth path. Once those two pages were lost, the fifteen people became fifteen missing Imperial infants."

"Xu Zhenchuan only got the incomplete volumes?"

"He got the blood records from the front, but he never saw the return registry. That bastard has been investigating for twenty-one years, always believing all fifteen children were hidden outside."

This also explained the fifteen blanks in the Ding-Character Furnace.

Six years ago, Xu Zhenchuan used the fifteen Imperial blood records to cast orders, hoping to manufacture all fifteen identities.

The first fourteen had been completed.

The fifteenth, however, remained at the bottom of the furnace due to a mismatch in the serial number and blood guide.

Xu Zhenchuan did not know that Imperial Blood Fifteen was not the last of the fifteen targets.

This number represented the fifteenth route out of the city.

Li Sanshun picked up the Seal of Destiny mold.

"Is there only one of these?"

"Only one."

"What about the Seal of Destiny on the gold blade?"

"It was cast using this."

Li Jiu took the mold and tapped the three red-veined petals twice.

"The Seal of Destiny recognizes three things: the gold blade, the mold, and the blood from your left foot. If one is missing, no one can open the final blood lock."

"What blood lock?"

Just as Li Jiu was about to speak, footsteps echoed outside the courtyard.

Zhao Rui led his men in, dragging a captive Dark Patrol Guard into the furnace room.

The man's mouth was stuffed with cloth, and both his arms were bound by Spirit-Locking Chains. Four main-peak disciples stood guard nearby, giving him no chance to struggle.

"We found something in the sole of his boot."

Zhao Rui tossed over a black iron token.

The front of the token was engraved with the Law Enforcement Peak's Dark Patrol emblem, while the back featured a blood groove. A number was carved beside the groove.

Seven.

Li Sanshun placed the token on the furnace platform and took out the rubbing of the fifteenth blank.

The size, thickness, and position of the blood groove all matched perfectly.

"The Ding-Character Furnace took fourteen imitation orders; how does he have one?"

The Dark Patrol Guard bit down on the cloth, a muffled, mocking laugh squeezing from his throat.

Zhao Rui ripped the gag away.

"Speak."

"I fell into your hands, so I accept it. Don't think you'll get anything out of me."

Li Sanshun picked up the No. 7 Imitation Order and sniffed it.

Hidden beneath the metallic tang were traces of green pine resin, Armory sealing powder, and a lingering aura of an Imperial sealing array.

[Imitation sealing order detected.]

[Law Enforcement Peak Armory opened within three hours.]

[Contact with Imperial sealing array within two hours.]

Gu Qinghe's old sword fragment and the Mystic-15 Sealing Sword had left the Armory exactly within the last three hours.

"So it was you who used the imitation orders to open the Armory."

The Dark Patrol Guard kept his mouth shut.

Zhao Rui brought over a sheet of white paper and pressed the No. 7 Imitation Order onto it.

The wear on the edges of the token matched the black iron marks left on the Armory's keyhole perfectly.

Gu Qinghe had never entered the Armory.

And there was no need for her to personally hand her Deacon Seal to Fang Shao.

As long as they investigated along the trail of the No. 7 Imitation Order, most of the framing against her could be dismantled.

Li Sanshun stuffed the token into an evidence bag.

"This thing can open the sect's vault and touch Imperial sealing arrays. What were you planning to do with fourteen of these tokens?"

The Dark Patrol Guard remained silent.

Li Jiu, however, braced himself against the furnace platform and stood up.

He grabbed the No. 7 Imitation Order, flipped it over, and used an iron nail to scrape the black lacquer from the edge of the blood groove.

Two small characters were revealed beneath the lacquer.

Outer Lock.

Li Jiu dropped the token and turned to search the clothes of the dead assassin.

Soon, he pulled a folded piece of black paper from the corpse's belt.

The paper depicted fifteen doors.

The first fourteen doors had been crossed out in red ink.

Beside the final door, three words were written.

Take left foot.

No one in the furnace room spoke.

The two assassins had been willing to die just to hack off Li Sanshun's left foot, and it wasn't to check a birthmark at all.

They needed his blood to open the door.

Zhao Rui grabbed the Dark Patrol Guard by the collar.

"What is behind the door?"

The Dark Patrol Guard spat out a mouthful of bloody foam.

"Ask his foster father."

Li Sanshun turned to Li Jiu.

Li Jiu gripped the Seal of Destiny mold, sweat beading on his forehead.

"The fourteen imitation orders have already opened the outer locks. The fact that they came to snatch the mold tonight means they've found the final door as well."

"Where is it?"

"Beneath the Tai Xuan Sect's Imperial Sealing Vault, there is another level."

An urgent message talisman flew in from outside the courtyard.

Zhao Rui caught it, and after reading just one line, he handed the paper to Li Sanshun.

Earth fire has appeared beneath the Imperial Sealing Vault.

Seven vault guards have gone missing.

Qi Shouxuan has already led men to the scene.

Li Sanshun grabbed the No. 7 Imitation Order and turned to leave.

The Dark Patrol Guard laughed from behind.

"Go now, it's too late."

Li Sanshun stopped in his tracks.

"Xu Zhenchuan has already gone in?"

The Dark Patrol Guard licked the blood from between his teeth.

"Vice Hall Master Xu is only responsible for opening the door."

"The person truly waiting inside the Sealing Vault is the woman who personally sent you out of the Imperial City twenty-one years ago."