The massive courtroom seemed to breathe around Li Wei. He replayed every fragment of the chaos that had led him here. Had someone framed him? Or did the elders truly believe Guo Liang’s death was his doing? The cross-examining Third Head Ming Haoren had insisted poison was used, but never once had he named a specific poison. He had no vial or residue or even evidence. Just accusation wrapped in elegant rhetoric.

  The verdict seemed foregone, painted with convenience and fear.

  I am in grave danger, Li Wei thought, a silent chill tightening around his spine.

  In any other circumstance, even if he had killed Guo Liang, the punishment would not be death. The martial world had its own hierarchy of bloodshed. Killing a disciple of one’s own sect warranted execution only if intent and malice were proven beyond doubt. Killing someone from another sect? That was usually a matter of negotiations and compensation between equals. Sect A pays Sect B, Sect B pretends justice is done, and the world marches on. But Azure Cloud Sect and Heavenly Sword Pavilion? The power gap between them was like a stream compared to an ocean. Fivefold difference at the very least. Heavenly Sword Pavilion dominated territories, commanded legions of elites. Azure Cloud was, despite its pride, a mid-tier sect clinging to relevance like ivy grasping an ancient wall.

  If a servant of Azure Cloud killed a prized disciple of Heavenly Sword Pavilion… no amount of compensation would be enough. A head would roll, and Li Wei knew exactly whose.

  A prickling heat of indignation welled in his chest. His death would be nothing more than political housekeeping, a tidy sacrifice to preserve peace. The Third Head’s plea for justice was a sham, a way to save face and pretend to be righteous.

  What a tragic joke, he thought. To die for a crime I did not commit… and not even for justice, but convenience. He inhaled slowly, grounding his thoughts before they could spiral. Panic now would not save him. His gaze wandered to the two inner sect disciples stationed beside him, one on each side like statues carved of flesh. Their cultivation was high enough that Li Wei couldn’t perceive their realm. Although he had regained his cultivation, he was still at Flesh-Tempering. Beyond Flesh was Blood-Tempering, and beyond that was Bone-Tempering. These senior disciples were either at Blood-Tempering or Bone, he couldn't be sure. But he understood the gaps: if he moved wrongly, they would snap him like a reed.

  He glanced down at his wrist, still bound with shimmering sealing silk. “Senior brothers, may I ask a question?” he said, testing the silence.

  At first, neither turned. Then the older of the two flicked a glance toward him, the way one might humor a curious squirrel.

  Li Wei managed a faint smile. “Since I am crippled and possess no cultivation base… why bother with binding silk? Ordinary rope would restrain me well enough.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The disciple blinked once, then his attention drifted away again, as if the question were too pointless for a response. But after a moment, the boy’s voice drifted back, casual and laced with disdain. “Protocol. We’re a cultivation sect, after all. Also, the silk as additional properties. It feels smooth and gentle right now around your wrist. But try to struggle and that silk will harden like iron, twist your wrists to pulp. Struggle some more and it’ll burst apart and cocoon your entire body in a heartbeat. You’ll be trussed up like a silkworm ready to be steamed. Quite the show, if you fancy putting on one.”

  Li Wei swallowed any retort and silence reclaimed the hall.

  The court would resume in five incense sticks time—roughly two and a half hours.

  Li Wei attempted to slip into his dantian and observe his inner body.

  Visualizing one’s inner body was easier to do in a meditative posture and with one’s eyes closed. There was even a quote about meditation that goes 'when real eyes close, mind-eye opens.' However, him closing his eyes and entering a meditative posture now would raise alarm from the two inner sect disciples beside him who believed he was crippled.

  Li Wei took a deep breath and allowed his body to relax.

  Entering one’s inner body with one’s eyes open was not an impossible task, but it took deeper concentration. However, the stimulus from the outside world was too distracting for Li Wei. The overwhelming pressure of the trial, of the gazes that would soon condemn him, gnawed at the edges of his focus, making his attempt to visualise his inner body fail again and again.

  An hour passed in silence.

  While the two inner sect disciple stood at Li Wei’s sides, Li Wei sat calmly in the cross examination box, his wrists clasped together before him, his eyes open and occasionally blinking. To all outward eyes, he looked like a defeated boy awaiting judgement, resigned to rot. His chin lowered, his eyes dull. At a random point in time, one of the disciples glanced back casually at him, saw Li Wei’s languid and heavy-lidded expression, the look of a boy who had lost all hope, and then glanced away. Just as the guard dismissed him, the spark inside Li Wei ignited and he stopped blinking. His eyes, still open, stilled to a glassy calm.

  Finally.

  His mind-eye opened and he observed the condition of his dantian. There, in his dantian, the Heavenly Dao Lotus lay coiled tight above his qi pool, its luminous petals pressed close like a clenched fist. Li Wei brushed his will against it, coaxing. A single petal trembled, then loosened, and from that tiny opening, a filament of qi emerged. It was minuscule, gossamer thin, half the width of a hair. It flowed like azure mist through his meridians. Half of Li Wei’s mind guided it gently; the other half kept observing the silk around his wrist. His heart thudded, but he remained outwardly serene. If anyone noticed even a flicker of qi, doom would descend faster than lightning. The qi reached his wrists. His pulse hammered. Binding Silk could sense the movement of internal qi, but since the Heavenly Dao Lotus’s path was one of hidden strength, perhaps it could evade the silk’s detection? He needed to test this…

  Please do not react, he begged inwardly. If the silk sensed qi and tightened, the sect would immediately know he had lied about being crippled. His jaw clenched, the only betrayal of tension he allowed himself. He continued to direct the qi along the meridian inside his right wrist, inching it forward like a shadow afraid of sunlight. If this worked… if the binding did nothing… perhaps all was not lost. But if the silk reacted…

  He exhaled silently. Ancestors, he thought, watch over your foolish descendant today.