Both of Them on the Same Stage

When Bibi Dong reached the door, filthy water was still dripping from the blood channel. Yue Guan brought over the old ledger from when the door had been sealed. Its seal was intact, but someone had replaced the lock from the inside. The Formation Master hid behind the door and, while everyone was talking, drove in another Blood Nail.

Yue Guan found fresh iron filings near the keyhole and summoned the old guard who had sealed the door. The man was past fifty but still remembered the hour Bibi Dong had ordered him to nail it shut. Three months earlier, someone had removed part of the outer wall under the pretext of repairing a drain. He had reported it to the Customs Office, but Officer Tao's predecessor had buried the report in a pile of wastepaper. Yue Guan found it and had the guard press his thumbprint onto the original.

"Stand back." Bibi Dong looked at Tang San and Hu Liena. "You have the records. Keep them safe first."

Tang San did not move aside at once. He wanted to know whether the Rakshasa Pattern came from her Divine Trial. Bibi Dong touched the edge of the door. A wisp of black-purple energy seeped from the old seal and tangled with the red mist in the blood channel.

"Xiao Wu will see that old ledger too," Tang San said.

"She should." Bibi Dong did not look away. "I took her mother's Spirit Ring and Spirit Bone. No one else can admit to that for me." Before Tang San could speak again, she crushed the first wisp of red mist rising from the doorframe and motioned for Hu Liena to take out the sample kept in the porcelain bottle. The two wisps settled on a stone. One left only the purple