Sun Miao yielded — to her own thirst for knowledge.
Seeing that Cheng Shi's smile didn't look fake, she hesitated back and forth before producing a single page from a book and carefully taking the arrowhead from his hand, wrapping it within.
"This is...?"
"One page from mory's Chronicle of Ti. Occasionally in mory's trials, you'll stumble upon its pages, lost within dreams. Extrely rare, and once used, gone forever.
This may be the most extravagant consumable in the ga. Cheng Shi, you'd better not be tricking .
Its function is to trace origins. Think of it as entering a dream like a Dream Peeping Ranger, except that ordinary dreamwalkers and tools require a conscious living being as a vessel. This page doesn't.
All it needs is a related object. Use the page, enter its 'dream,' and revisit the past.
Of course, you can't change history — we'll just be spectators."
Sun Miao typed with one hand and operated with the other, neither slowing the other. Her hands were quick; the mont her typing ended, the other hand finished as well.
Azure light poured from the page and cascaded to the ground. Like a rising tide, it slowly crept over both their ankles.
Seeing this, Cheng Shi frowned and shuffled behind Sun Miao.
"..." Sun Miao gave him an expressionless glance. "Excessive caution only wastes ntal energy. Relax — compared to scheming against you, information and history are what actually interest .
Also, I've set up a formation around the tent. Nobody will notice this place for a while. You can venture into the dream at ease."
Hearing this, Cheng Shi bead. "Why didn't you say so earlier? If I'd known, I wouldn't have been so careful. Co on, let's go — lead the way!"
"..."
The tide of mory rose higher and higher, soon engulfing them completely.
Cheng Shi felt everything go dark. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself standing atop a building's roof. Below him stretched the unmistakable skyline of Katouting.
Inside the dream, Sun Miao no longer needed her electronic beeper. Her voice resonated directly in Cheng Shi's ears.
"As I suspected — it's her. Lid Yara!"
Cheng Shi turned toward the voice. There stood the Grand Investigator, one hand gripping the spire of a clock-tower-like structure like a helmsman at the prow, gazing intently in a particular direction.
Sun Miao was surprisingly familiar with the city. The mont she noted Lid Yara's line of sight, she nodded.
"Looks like you were right. She's looking toward Esa Res's residence. This Supre Inquisitor's death is indeed linked to her.
And there are indeed swarms of Iron Law Knights searching below us. The alternative histories were right for once."
No sooner had she spoken than Lid Yara shot forward like a bowstring-released arrow. Cheng Shi and Sun Miao hurried to keep up.
Before long, they arrived at Esa Res's front hall. But the nearly-retired inquisitor was already dead — killed by a small crossbow bolt.
The first thing Cheng Shi saw upon landing was Lid Yara extracting the blood-stained, Esa Res-inscribed arrowhead from the dead man's chest.
Both their pupils shrank.
'Wrong.'
Their assumptions from monts before were entirely wrong. From the ti Lid Yara touched down to the ti they caught up — no more than two or three seconds. Never mind whether the Grand Investigator could kill silently; even if she could, this corpse had clearly been dead for well over ten minutes.
Blood flow had stopped. The killer had struck and was long gone.
They exchanged a look. Neither had expected Esa Res's death to contain hidden layers.
Lid Yara held the bloody arrowhead, looking down at her adoptive father sprawled on the floor with eyes still open. A flicker of pity crossed her gaze — but no sympathy.
A man who'd abandoned his principles and dared play both sides under Order's gaze had long ceased being the father she'd revered.
So Lid Yara shed no tears. She only grew more certain: the Grand Tribunal's problems extended far beyond Order alone. Under His influence, Katouting's supre power structure was fracturing.
More ironically still: shortly after Lid Yara dropped into the courtyard, Iron Law Knights from across the city converged on the location as if guided by so invisible eye. At that point, any fool could guess who was behind this.
Among the six supre figures: the Chaos-maddened Supre Inquisitor Lo Yat had died at the hands of Grand Justice La Quis. La Quis, in turn, died by suicide. Now another Supre Inquisitor, Esa Res, was dead — and the person about to be "crowned" as the culprit was clearly Investigator Lid Yara. But she was obviously not the killer.
So who, at this point in ti, could easily kill a Supre Inquisitor in Katouting — the holy land of Order? Besides her, only two possibilities remained:
The last Supre Inquisitor, Keinlaur. And Grand Executioner Artair.
But Keinlaur was currently inspecting the border — away on external affairs. That left only Artair in the city. Who else could the killer be?
The answer seed obvious. But there was the question of motive.
Had the Grand Executioner discovered Esa Res's blasphemous negligence and been moved to kill?
But why wouldn't a champion of harsh law formalize the killing with procedural justice? That way, he could publicly judge a Supre Inquisitor, demonstrate fairness to the people, and add a milestone achievent for the Strict Law Faction's governance of Katouting. A once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity. If Artair wasn't an idiot, he shouldn't have missed it.
Cheng Shi frowned. Things weren't so simple.
And clearly, Lid Yara had reached the sa conclusion. She didn't confront Artair. Instead, she fled Katouting, evading the Iron Law Knights' pursuit, and raced toward Keinlaur's location.
In her eyes, this was undoubtedly a fra job — and the true beneficiary was Supre Inquisitor Keinlaur.
As for how Keinlaur, who was far away at the border, could kill Esa Res inside Katouting...
Don't forget — Lid Yara had once investigated the Truth scholars' covert experints within the Grand Tribunal. She knew Keinlaur had mastered certain "illegal" techniques from the Tower of Logic. Techniques like... slicing.
The intervening pursuit was long and grueling. Stripped of her identity, Lid Yara could barely move within Grand Tribunal territory. Fortunately, for Cheng Shi and Sun Miao it was just a dream. They fast-forwarded through the journey, skipping straight to the mont Lid Yara confronted Keinlaur.
By then, the Tower of Logic's civil war had intensified dramatically. Keinlaur had been conscripting soldiers across the country; his current tour involved pressing each county to send warriors to the front lines — to hold back the fire of War spreading from the Tower of Logic.
When Lid Yara dispatched the guards and slipped into Keinlaur's room, the white-haired elder seated behind a long table slowly raised his head.
"You've finally co, Lid Yara."
"Ready to face justice, Keinlaur?"
Keinlaur smiled faintly.
"Well now — is even the Grand Investigator, champion of procedural justice, going to overstep her bounds and conduct an unauthorized trial on behalf of our Benefactor?
But you forget — I am the judge. In this nation, it has always been I who passes sentence on the guilty."
Lid Yara laughed coldly. She produced a compact crossbow. On its bed sat a bolt — and its arrowhead was unmistakably the one inscribed with Esa Res's na.
"Then, esteed Supre Inquisitor — you may now declare my murder conviction in advance."
The words had barely left her mouth when the crossbow's chanism clicked.
...
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