Chapter 49 — The False Seventh

The inner chamber was smaller than the council hall.

That helped.

Fewer chairs.

Fewer elders.

Fewer opportunities for someone to pretend they hadn't heard the question.

The Profound Sword Sect Master entered last.

The stone door closed behind him.

Formation light spread across its edges.

Li Cangwu checked it himself.

Duan Zheng noticed.

"Don't trust him?"

Li Cangwu glanced at the Sect Master.

"I trust formations less."

The Sect Master ignored him.

"Speak."

Song Yao remained standing.

On the table lay everything that had taken three years to bring into the same room.

The Reed Grave transfer registry.

Luo Heng's token.

The damaged recording jade.

The sheath clasp from Hollow Reed.

The false-Seventh training records.

Several stripped sword fittings.

And Zhou Xuanji's old report.

Jian Wuchen stood opposite them.

Clear Wind rested at his side.

Song Yao looked at him.

Then at Duan Zheng.

"Zhou Xuanji did not disappear."

Duan folded his arms.

"We noticed."

Song Yao's eyes narrowed.

Shen Yuan almost smiled.

Duan continued.

"Try again."

A pause.

Then Song Yao nodded.

"He made himself disappear."

That was different.

Ye Feng leaned forward.

"Why?"

"Because someone was reading his reports."

"We established that."

"No."

Song Yao looked toward the Sect Master.

"We established that today."

She touched Zhou Xuanji's old jade slip.

"Zhou established it three years ago."

The room became quiet.

"He suspected information was leaking through the central registry. But suspicion wasn't enough. So he wrote three reports."

Duan's expression changed.

"False reports."

"Partly."

Song Yao nodded.

"Each contained a different route, different suspected storage site, and different description of what he believed was being moved."

Lin Yue understood first.

"He waited to see which one changed."

Song Yao looked at her.

"Yes."

"Which did?"

"The report submitted through the central registry."

The Sect Master's face remained unreadable.

Song Yao continued.

"Three days later, the location named only in that report was emptied."

Duan asked, "Why didn't he tell the Sect Master?"

The answer came from the Sect Master himself.

"Because the leak was inside a system under my authority."

Song Yao nodded.

"He didn't know whether the Sect Master was involved."

Silence.

The Sect Master accepted the statement without reaction.

That improved Shen Yuan's opinion of him slightly.

Again.

Duan was less generous.

"So Zhou trusted you."

"For a while."

"For a while?"

Song Yao's gaze lowered.

"Until Jian Shou died."

Jian Wuchen's fingers moved against Clear Wind's hilt.

Barely.

"What changed?"

Song Yao looked at him.

"Everything."

Jian Shou had noticed the first sword by accident.

That was almost disappointing.

No ancient prophecy.

No mysterious summons.

No secret message from a dying expert.

He had simply recognized a sword.

"It belonged to a wandering cultivator named Wei Ren," Song Yao said. "Jian Shou fought beside him during a beast tide."

Jian listened.

"Years later, he saw the same sword in a private exchange."

"Stolen?" Ye Feng asked.

"No."

Song Yao shook her head.

"According to the records, it had been forged less than two years earlier."

Duan's eyes narrowed.

"Same sword?"

"Jian Shou was certain."

"Why?"

"He had damaged it."

Ye Feng blinked.

Song Yao's mouth moved faintly.

"They disagreed about something."

"What?"

"I don't remember."

Jian spoke without expression.

"He probably did."

Song Yao looked at him.

Then nodded.

"Probably."

The damage had been repaired.

The hilt replaced.

Scabbard changed.

Inscription polished away.

But a tiny deformation remained beneath the guard.

Jian Shou recognized it.

He asked questions.

Then found another sword.

Then another.

Not many.

Enough.

Zhou Xuanji had already been investigating irregular registry records.

Eventually the two trails met.

"At first," Song Yao said, "they thought it was smuggling."

Duan glanced at the Reed Grave records.

"Reasonable."

"It stopped being reasonable."

"Why?"

"Because the valuable swords weren't the ones disappearing."

Silence.

Song Yao selected one Reed Grave entry.

A Heaven-grade sword had entered.

Inspected.

Recorded.

Sold six months later.

Then she selected another.

Low Earth-grade.

Damaged.

Market value almost meaningless.

That sword had been transferred four times under heavy security.

Lu Chen frowned.

"Why?"

Song Yao looked at him.

"That was Jian Shou's question."

Lu nodded.

"Good question."

"No one disagrees," Lin said.

Lu became quiet.

Song Yao continued.

"They weren't collecting powerful swords."

Jian looked at the stripped fittings.

"They were collecting specific swords."

"Yes."

"Based on what?"

Song Yao did not answer immediately.

Instead, she picked up the damaged Grey Reed recording jade.

She activated it.

The injured swordsman appeared again.

Yield.

Turn.

Return.

Falling Reed.

Song Yao watched the third step.

"I need to explain Zhou first."

Duan's expression tightened.

"Then explain him."

"After Jian Shou died, Zhou stopped trusting written records completely."

"Because the murder weapon was moved?"

Song Yao looked at him.

"Because it appeared in three places."

Duan went still.

Jian's eyes sharpened.

Song Yao continued.

"The sword described in the first report of Jian Shou's death appeared in a regional registry eleven days later."

Duan knew.

He had followed it.

"Then another description placed what appeared to be the same sword in Grey Reed."

Duan knew that too.

"Then a third record said it had been destroyed months earlier."

Duan's face hardened.

"All three trails had supporting witnesses."

"Yes."

"And I followed them."

"Yes."

Duan laughed once.

There was no humor in it.

Song Yao's expression tightened.

"That was what they wanted."

Shen Yuan looked at the transfer registry.

Swords arrived.

Identities removed.

Fittings changed.

Registrations altered.

Residual Sword Qi recorded.

Then they left.

"Do not follow the sword," Shen said.

Song Yao looked at him.

He tapped Luo Heng's damaged jade.

"They weren't only hiding where the sword went."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"No."

"They were manufacturing where it had been."

Song Yao nodded.

Duan closed his eyes.

Three years of wrong roads compressed into that one sentence.

When he opened them again, his voice was steady.

"Why?"

Song Yao looked toward the stripped sword fittings.

"Because they were trying to understand something that didn't care about any of it."

She removed a small object from her storage ring.

Not a sword.

Not a token.

A piece of black stone.

No larger than two fingers.

One side was smooth.

The other had been cut from something larger.

Duan immediately moved.

"Where did you get that?"

"Zhou."

"When?"

"Three years ago."

"And you've had it the entire time?"

"Yes."

Duan's expression darkened.

Song Yao met his gaze.

"He told me not to put it near a sword."

Lu Chen looked at the stone.

Then at the many swords in the room.

"That seems inconvenient."

No one answered him.

Shen Yuan activated the system.

Nothing happened for half a breath.

Then:

[Analyzing...]

His attention sharpened.

[Ancient structure fragment detected.]

[Age: Indeterminate.]

[Primary structural principles: Incomplete.]

[Sword Dao components: 14.8%.]

Shen's eyes narrowed.

Only fourteen?

More lines appeared.

[Cause-and-Effect characteristics detected.]

He became still.

[Relationship identification structure detected.]

[Function severely damaged.]

[Original architecture inaccessible.]

[Warning: Historical contamination exceeds reliable reconstruction threshold.]

Cause and effect.

Not Sword Dao.

Not primarily.

Shen Yuan said nothing.

Song Yao placed the stone at the center of the table.

"Zhou found several fragments like this."

"Where?" the Sect Master asked.

"Inside a sealed storage chamber beneath an abandoned Seventh Lineage repository."

Several people looked toward her.

Li Cangwu frowned.

"Which repository?"

"The old southern archive."

"That was emptied centuries ago."

"Apparently not completely."

Duan looked at the fragment.

"The false Seventh found it first."

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"Because Zhou didn't break the seal."

Song Yao pointed to one edge.

"Someone had already opened it, removed most of what was inside, then resealed the chamber."

The Sect Master's expression hardened.

"How long ago?"

"Zhou couldn't determine."

Jian asked:

"What does it do?"

Song Yao looked at him.

"That's where Jian Shou died."

Not an answer.

But close.

At first, the false Seventh believed the fragments were part of an ancient sword inheritance.

That made sense.

They came from Seventh Lineage ruins.

Some responded to swords.

Some carried remnants of sword intent.

Some contained diagrams resembling circulation routes.

So they began reconstructing them.

Poorly.

Piece by piece.

They collected old Seventh Lineage records.

Copied techniques.

Recovered artifacts.

Bought swords associated with lost lineages.

Stole others.

Eventually, they built something.

Not complete.

Not stable.

But functional enough.

"A formation?" Lin asked.

Song Yao nodded.

"Zhou called it that because he didn't have a better word."

"What did it do?"

Song Yao looked at the black fragment.

"It recognized things."

Lu frowned.

"Things?"

"Relationships."

That word changed Shen Yuan's attention completely.

Song Yao continued.

"Place a sword inside the structure and nothing might happen."

She pointed to one Reed Grave record.

"Place another sword inside and a section would react."

Another.

"Sometimes two completely unrelated weapons caused the same part of the structure to respond."

"Unrelated according to the records," Lin said.

Song Yao looked at her.

"Exactly."

The Sect Master leaned forward.

"Actual provenance."

"Zhou's theory."

Duan frowned.

"Explain."

Song Yao selected two records.

"Different owners. Different regions. Different grades. Different forging dates."

She placed them together.

"But both swords had passed through the same ruined battlefield decades apart."

Another pair.

"These had no documented connection."

She paused.

"Zhou eventually learned that both had been repaired by the same craftsman's lineage."

Another.

"These had been owned by cultivators who studied under different masters."

She looked at Jian.

"Their masters shared a master."

Silence.

Shen Yuan looked at the black fragment again.

Relationship identification.

Cause and effect.

The false Seventh had thought they were reconstructing a sword inheritance.

They had found something stranger.

Jian asked, "How did they know which relationship caused the reaction?"

"They didn't."

Song Yao's answer came immediately.

"That was why they needed so many swords."

Now Reed Grave made sense.

Not a warehouse.

Not merely a smuggling station.

A sorting point.

Thousands of histories passing through steel.

Collect.

Strip identity.

Change registration.

Move.

Record.

Compare.

If the ancient structure continued recognizing the same relationships after every visible identifier had been removed—

then it wasn't reading the visible identifiers.

Lu Chen stared at the transfer registry.

"They changed the swords on purpose."

Song Yao nodded.

"Yes."

"Not only to hide them."

"No."

"To test whether the thing still knew."

Song Yao looked at him.

"Yes."

Lu became unusually quiet.

Jian looked at the records.

"So they weren't trying to hide the swords from the structure."

"No."

"They were trying to hide the swords from themselves."

Everyone looked at him.

Jian continued.

"If they knew a sword's history, they could imagine the connection."

Shen Yuan smiled faintly.

Exactly.

Song Yao nodded.

"Zhou reached the same conclusion."

Blind testing.

Remove provenance.

Alter appearance.

Move through intermediaries.

Then see whether the structure still reacted.

The false Seventh had spent years laundering swords partly to eliminate their own knowledge of the test subjects.

Duan stared at the records.

"That's insane."

Shen Yuan disagreed.

"No."

Duan looked at him.

"It's experimental."

"That doesn't make it better."

"No."

"But it makes sense."

Unfortunately.

Jian Wuchen looked at Song Yao.

"What does this have to do with the Seventh Lineage?"

Song Yao's expression changed.

"This is the part Zhou didn't want written down."

She reached into her storage ring again.

This time she removed a thin jade strip.

Cracked.

Old.

Not ancient.

Three years, perhaps.

Zhou's handwriting.

Only four lines remained legible.

Song Yao placed it down.

Duan read first.

His expression slowly changed.

He passed it to Li Cangwu.

Then the Sect Master.

Finally Jian.

The surviving text was simple.

The official Seventh is incomplete.

The imitators know this.

They believe the missing portion can be reconstructed.

I believe it was removed deliberately.

Jian read the final line twice.

"Removed."

Song Yao nodded.

"Zhou compared the earliest surviving Seventh Lineage manuals with later copies."

Li Cangwu frowned.

"We've done that."

"You compared techniques."

"Of course."

"Zhou compared omissions."

Silence.

Song Yao continued.

"The oldest surviving records contain references to procedures that don't exist."

"What procedures?" the Sect Master asked.

"Identification."

Shen's gaze sharpened.

"Of relationships?"

Song Yao looked at him.

"Zhou didn't use that word initially."

"What did he use?"

"Continuity."

That was better.

And worse.

Song Yao quoted from memory.

"'Before severance, establish continuity.'"

Shen Yuan stopped moving.

Jian noticed.

"Master?"

"Continue."

Song Yao did.

"'Before severance, distinguish origin, transmission, recipient, and return.'"

Nobody spoke.

Shen Yuan looked at the black fragment.

His Heaven-Severing Dao did not react.

Not directly.

But he understood the logic immediately.

Too immediately.

You could not safely cut something if you didn't understand what connected it.

A bloodline.

An inheritance.

A vow.

A transmission.

A causal chain.

A sword path.

Cut the wrong relationship—

and the consequence might be nothing like what you intended.

Shen knew that better than anyone.

The system flickered.

[Conceptual correspondence detected.]

[Relationship Identification → Severance Targeting.]

Then:

[Insufficient information.]

Good.

For once, the system knew when to stop.

Duan looked at Shen.

"You recognize something."

"Conceptually."

"What?"

Shen considered the answer.

"Whoever built this didn't identify relationships because they enjoyed making records."

Li Cangwu's expression changed.

"They needed targets."

"Probably."

"For what?"

Shen looked at Zhou's jade strip.

Before severance.

"Cutting."

The room went silent.

Jian's gaze lowered to Clear Wind.

Song Yao exhaled slowly.

"That's what Zhou believed."

The official Seventh Lineage was not false.

Not exactly.

That distinction mattered.

Song Yao's lineage possessed genuine techniques.

Genuine records.

Genuine historical continuity within Profound Sword.

But that continuity began long after the oldest surviving fragments.

The modern lineage had been rebuilt.

Generations of cultivators had gathered damaged manuals, surviving forms, oral traditions and scattered records.

They reconstructed a sword lineage from what remained.

They had never claimed otherwise.

What nobody had realized was that the missing portions might not have been lost accidentally.

"The false Seventh did," Duan said.

Song Yao nodded.

"They found deeper fragments than we did."

"And decided that made them the true lineage."

"Eventually."

Li Cangwu's mouth twisted.

"Idiots."

Song Yao looked at him.

"They weren't entirely wrong."

That silenced him.

"The official Seventh is incomplete," she said. "They proved that."

"But?"

"They assumed incomplete meant damaged."

Shen Yuan looked at Zhou's final line.

Removed deliberately.

"They never considered that someone wanted it incomplete."

Song Yao nodded.

That was the problem.

The false Seventh wasn't merely imitating a lineage.

It was attempting to restore one.

A lineage that, according to the oldest surviving evidence, had once required procedures for identifying continuity before severing it.

And someone in the distant past had apparently removed those procedures so thoroughly that the modern Seventh no longer knew they'd existed.

Lu Chen looked at Song Yao.

"So they're called false Seventh because they aren't the official Seventh?"

"That's how the name began."

"But they think they're the real Seventh."

"Yes."

Lu frowned.

"That's confusing."

"History often is," Li Cangwu said.

Lu looked dissatisfied.

Jian returned to the question that mattered to him.

"My father."

Song Yao became still.

"What did he find?"

The room quieted again.

"Not all of this."

"How much?"

"Enough."

She looked at Jian directly.

"Jian Shou discovered the sword transfers first."

Jian waited.

"Then he discovered the experiments."

A pause.

"He learned they were stripping identifying features from swords before testing them."

Another.

"He realized the false Seventh wasn't trying to learn where the swords were going."

Jian's voice was quiet.

"They were trying to learn where they'd been."

"Yes."

"Then?"

Song Yao looked down.

"He found a reaction record."

"What reacted?"

"I don't know."

"Song Yao."

"I don't."

Her voice sharpened.

"That was the problem."

Jian went silent.

Song Yao continued.

"The record had been partially destroyed. It referred to a sword with no significant grade, no famous owner, no known inheritance."

She looked at the black fragment.

"But the reaction was stronger than anything else they'd tested."

Duan frowned.

"Why?"

"Jian Shou wanted to know."

Of course he did.

"He traced the sword backward."

"To what?"

"Not a person."

Song Yao paused.

"A location."

The Sect Master's eyes narrowed.

"Which?"

Song Yao looked toward Jian.

"The First Sword Tomb."

Silence.

Jian Wuchen did not react outwardly.

But Shen Yuan felt his Sword Qi shift.

Barely.

The First Key.

The First Sword Tomb.

An existing thread.

Not a new one.

Duan asked, "The false Seventh was searching for the Key?"

"No."

Song Yao shook her head.

"Not initially."

That mattered.

"They didn't know the Key existed."

"Then what?"

"They discovered several swords producing similar reactions had historical connections to the First Sword Tomb."

"How?"

"Owners who entered it. Craftsmen who repaired weapons recovered from it. Fragments traded after expeditions. Techniques derived from inscriptions found nearby."

She looked at Jian.

"Connections."

Not destiny.

Not bloodline.

History.

The ancient structure was following relationships toward the same place.

Eventually the false Seventh noticed.

Then they began searching deliberately.

That was when the First Sword Tomb Key entered the investigation.

Jian Shou had discovered them before they found it.

"He wasn't their original target," Jian said.

"No."

"He found them."

"Yes."

"And they killed him."

Song Yao's face tightened.

"Yes."

Jian's hand rested on Clear Wind.

No explosion.

No vow.

No rage.

Just:

"Who?"

Song Yao met his eyes.

"I don't know."

Jian stared at her.

"Zhou might."

That was enough to move the question forward.

Not enough to close it.

Yet.

Duan Zheng walked to the wall.

For several breaths, he faced away from everyone.

Then:

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Song Yao didn't pretend not to understand.

"Zhou asked me not to."

"I was investigating Jian Shou's death."

"Yes."

"I found the false Seventh trail."

"Yes."

"And you watched me follow it."

"I didn't know where you were."

"You could have found me."

"Maybe."

Duan turned.

"You let me chase a murder weapon you knew might have been deliberately moved."

Song Yao's expression tightened.

"I knew Zhou suspected it."

"That's enough."

"He didn't know who he could trust."

"I wasn't asking him to trust the sect."

"No."

Song Yao's voice became quieter.

"You were asking him to trust you."

Duan stopped.

Song Yao looked at him.

"And he didn't."

That hurt more than anger would have.

Duan's face emptied.

Song Yao continued before he could answer.

"Not because he thought you were involved."

"Then why?"

"Because you followed trails."

Duan's jaw tightened.

"He needed someone who wouldn't."

Silence.

"He believed if you knew what he knew, you would go after the people responsible."

"Of course I would."

"Exactly."

Duan laughed once.

Cold.

"And what did his brilliant plan accomplish?"

Song Yao didn't answer.

"Luo Heng died."

Nothing.

"I disappeared."

Nothing.

"Zhou vanished."

Nothing.

"You spent three years lying."

Nothing.

"Jian Shou stayed dead."

Song Yao closed her eyes.

Duan stepped back.

"Excellent strategy."

No one defended her.

Not even Shen.

Her decision had reasons.

That didn't make it good.

Finally Song Yao said:

"I know."

Duan looked away.

That was all she had.

Lin Yue had been studying the dates.

Again.

Shen noticed before anyone else.

She moved Zhou's jade strip beside the Reed Grave registry.

Then the Grey Reed recording.

Then the sheath clasp.

"Something doesn't fit."

Duan looked over.

"What?"

"Zhou disappeared three years ago."

"Yes."

"Contact with Elder Song became irregular."

Song Yao nodded.

"Then stopped."

"Yes."

"The Grey Reed recording is recent."

"Yes."

"The injured swordsman went toward Reed Grave."

"Yes."

Lin pointed to the route scratches on the sheath clasp.

"Senior Duan recognized these."

Duan's expression changed.

Lin continued.

"If Zhou Xuanji was hiding from Profound Sword, why use Senior Duan's old route notation?"

Nobody answered.

Lu Chen looked between them.

"Because he wanted Senior Duan to read it?"

Lin nodded.

Duan stared at the clasp.

Song Yao slowly sat down.

"He knew."

Duan looked at her.

"Knew what?"

"That you were alive."

"How?"

"I don't know."

Duan almost snapped at her.

Stopped.

There were enough unknowns already.

Lin continued.

"Reed Grave wasn't where he wanted to be found."

"No," Shen said.

Everyone looked at him.

He tapped the damaged jade recovered beneath Luo Heng's remains.

"Someone left enough there to correct Duan's investigation."

False Seventh.

Do not follow the sword.

Jian Shou was not the target at first.

Duan stared at it.

"He wanted me to find Reed Grave."

"Probably."

Lu frowned.

"Then why didn't he stay?"

Silence.

Everyone looked at him.

Lu became cautious.

"What?"

Shen smiled faintly.

"Good question."

Lu looked pleased.

Lin answered.

"Because Reed Grave wasn't his destination."

Duan's gaze shifted toward the transfer registry.

The final notation.

The one that had bothered them since Reed Grave.

Destination:

Profound Sword territory.

Song Yao stood again.

"Show me."

Duan turned the ledger.

She read the final notation.

Once.

Then again.

Her face changed.

The Sect Master noticed.

"You know it."

"Yes."

"Where?"

Song Yao looked at him.

"The old sword registry repository beneath Third Lineage Mountain."

Li Cangwu frowned.

"That still exists?"

"Officially, it's an archive."

"Officially?"

"It hasn't stored active records in decades."

The Sect Master's expression darkened.

"But it remains connected to the central registry formation."

Song Yao nodded.

Duan understood.

"Zhou went back to the source."

Not Reed Grave.

Not another valley.

Not another ruin.

Profound Sword itself.

The Sect Master moved immediately.

He activated a jade token.

Three orders left the chamber.

"Outer gates closed."

A second.

"All registry records preserved."

Third.

"No document destruction, no archive access, no personnel movement without direct authorization."

Li Cangwu looked at him.

"Who receives those orders?"

"People whose authority does not overlap the nine names Lin Yue identified."

Good.

The Sect Master wasn't incompetent.

He turned to Duan.

"The three remaining overlaps."

"Two are outside."

"In the council chamber."

"Yes."

"The third?"

"Registry Hall."

The Sect Master activated another jade.

No response.

Again.

Nothing.

His expression hardened.

"He's not answering."

Duan reached for his sword.

"Then we move."

"No."

The Sect Master raised a hand.

Duan stared at him.

"If he knows we're looking for him, running directly there tells him exactly how much we know."

"He's already not answering."

"Which is why we watch exits first."

Duan looked ready to argue.

Then a formation pulse struck the chamber.

Once.

Sharp.

The Sect Master's eyes changed.

A voice came through his authority token.

"Reporting! Elder Cao attempted to leave the council chamber through the western service passage!"

One of the two.

The Sect Master stood.

"Status?"

"He broke the first restraint formation!"

A second voice shouted in the background.

Sword Qi erupted through the communication jade.

The Sect Master disappeared.

Not metaphorically.

One moment he stood beside the table.

The next, the chamber doors were open and wind rushed inward.

Lu Chen blinked.

"Fast."

Li Cangwu was already walking.

"Come."

They reached the western service passage less than a minute later.

The fight was over.

One sword mark crossed the wall.

Only one.

An elder lay against the stone.

Conscious.

His sword had been cut cleanly in half.

The Profound Sword Sect Master stood three paces away.

His own blade was already sheathed.

Shen Yuan approved.

Competence was pleasant.

Elder Cao looked around.

Saw Duan.

Song Yao.

Jian.

Shen.

His face changed.

Duan crouched in front of him.

"Bad day?"

Cao said nothing.

Li Cangwu searched him.

Storage ring.

Identity token.

Medicine.

Two communication jades.

One had been crushed.

The other—

intact.

The Sect Master activated it.

A transfer authorization appeared.

Current.

Issued that morning.

Li Cangwu read it.

Then swore.

Duan took it.

"Destination."

Song Yao already knew.

"The old registry repository."

Jian's hand moved to Clear Wind.

Duan read the time.

His expression hardened.

"Tonight."

The Sect Master looked at Cao.

"What is being transferred?"

Cao smiled through blood.

"You're late."

Duan punched him.

Li Cangwu sighed.

"Everyone has started doing that."

Lu Chen looked offended.

"I only did it once."

"No one was speaking to you."

"Oh."

The Sect Master took the authorization.

"How long?"

Song Yao checked the formation notation.

Her face tightened.

"Less than an hour."

Duan stood.

"We go."

"Yes," the Sect Master said.

No argument this time.

Li Cangwu looked toward the council chamber.

"I stay."

Duan frowned.

"Why?"

"Because one suspect just ran, another is still sitting in that room, and the third has disappeared from Registry Hall."

He looked at Cao.

"Someone needs to make sure we don't lose the sect while you're chasing the archive."

The Sect Master nodded.

"Take direct control of the council chamber."

Li Cangwu smiled faintly.

"Retirement is flexible."

They moved.

Shen Yuan.

Lin Yue.

Jian Wuchen.

Lu Chen.

Duan Zheng.

Ye Feng.

Song Yao.

The Profound Sword Sect Master.

No new elder.

No army.

Too many people would only warn whoever was waiting.

They descended from the council mountain at speed.

Jian moved near the front.

Song Yao beside Duan.

Lin and Lu followed Shen.

The old registry repository lay beneath Third Lineage Mountain.

Less than an hour.

Perhaps Zhou Xuanji was there.

Perhaps not.

Perhaps the remaining records were already burning.

But Shen Yuan's thoughts remained briefly on the black fragment Song Yao had returned to her storage ring.

Cause and effect.

Relationship identification.

Continuity.

Severance targeting.

And the words Zhou Xuanji had written:

I believe it was removed deliberately.

There was another reason those concepts bothered him.

A man who had once stood on Cloudveil Peak.

An ancient First Disciple whose path dealt in Karma.

Han Wuji.

Shen did not know whether the fragment belonged to him.

The system certainly hadn't said that.

But the conceptual overlap was difficult to ignore.

Cause and effect identifying the relationship.

Severance cutting it.

First and Seventh.

Shen stored the thought away.

Later.

This was not the time to dig eight thousand years backward.

They had a problem less than an hour ahead.

Lu Chen suddenly looked down.

The force-distribution plate was still strapped across his back.

He sighed.

"I knew I should have left this somewhere."

Jian Wuchen didn't slow.

"You had time."

"I was busy."

"Doing what?"

"Listening."

Jian glanced back.

"Poorly."

Lu looked at Shen.

"Master."

"No."

"I didn't ask anything."

"You were going to."

Lu adjusted the plate.

"Can I leave it here?"

"No."

"Why?"

Shen looked at the battered metal slab.

Then at Lu.

"You're finally becoming useful with it."

Lu stared.

"Me or the plate?"

Shen continued down the mountain.

Lin Yue passed Lu.

"The plate."

Jian followed.

"Obviously."

Lu looked toward Ye Feng.

Ye Feng shook his head.

"I'm not getting involved."

Lu sighed and ran after them.

Behind the humor, Third Lineage Mountain rose ahead.

Somewhere beneath it was an archive connected to the same registry system Zhou Xuanji had stopped trusting three years ago.

Someone had authorized a transfer there tonight.

Someone else had just tried to flee rather than remain in a locked council chamber.

And if the trail Zhou left through Grey Reed and Reed Grave meant what they now believed—

then he had gone there first.

This time, Duan Zheng wasn't following a sword.

He was following the man who had taught him not to.