His voice was quiet, but everyone heard him clearly.
The sandalwood prayer beads in the fat higher-up's hand creaked under his grip. He did not dare utter a word.
All those vicious threats of "exile, dismissal, conviction" from moments ago were not even a joke in the face of absolute power.
Rules were made for people who lacked the strength to break them.
Qingxiao pressed down slightly with his foot, and the old man on the floor gave a muffled grunt of pain.
"If we wanted to, we could wipe out any one of your families within half an hour.
Half an hour is a bit too conservative. If we actually got moving... five minutes."
He raised his left hand and lightly tapped a fingertip against the solid wood conference table.
Crack.
A thin crack spread from his fingertip like a slender snake, crawling across the entire length of the table before stopping right in front of the fat higher-up.
Qingxiao swept his gaze over the table, then reached out and picked up a confidential document sealed with red wax at the far edge.
He flipped through two pages and casually tossed it back onto the table, where it came to rest before them.
"Minutes from last Wednesday's internal meeting.
You proposed transferring me to Okinawa to clear out cursed spirits and exiling Suguru Geto to the Kyoto branch school. Split us up, then win us over one at a time."
His tone was flat, as though he were reading an inconsequential list.
"A pretty detailed plan. You even marked the escort routes. Just not much use."
The four people at the table caught their breath.
Only the five of them present had seen those minutes, and even the archived copy was locked in a secret room at headquarters.
Not