Chapter 258 — Let Them Come

CHAPTER 258

Let Them Come

The notice reached Martial Palace's Hall of Counsel before the paint had dried.

A runner laid the torn plank on the long table. Nobody touched it. Twelve people sat around it in carved chairs, and every one of them stared at the red letters as if they might bite.

“Artificer Hall will inspect the mines' protection in three days,” Deputy Qu Jiang read aloud. He was Elder Wei Chengyuan's deputy, a lean man with a long grey beard and a habit of stroking it when angry. He was stroking it now. “Signed by no one. Posted at our own border toll.”

“An insult,” Tuoba Hong said from the junior side of the table. “Nothing more.”

Tuoba Hong sat at the head of the junior side of the table. He was Martial Palace's chief disciple, publicly at early Nascent Soul, and he wore a crimson robe with gold pillars stitched down both sleeves. People said his fists could crack a city wall. Tuoba Hong himself said it more often than people did.

“Inspect our protection? Who do those beggars think they are? Throwing an egg at a rock!” Tuoba Hong said.

“The champion's sect,” Yuan Kuang said.

The room went quiet. Yuan Kuang had a scar across the back of one hand and a deep, rough voice, and he never said a word that wasn't needed. He sat with his arms folded and his eyes on the plank.

“And the champion himself?” Deputy Qu Jiang asked.

“Still late Foundation Establishment, if the reports are right,” Yuan Kuang said. “Sitting at a pill stall. Nothing more.”

“Then why is the plank so cheerful?” a thin elder asked.

“Because it was written by Lin Langtian,” Tuoba Hong said, and curled his lip. “Artificer Hall's chief disciple. Early Nascent Soul, same as me. They say he sells sweet potatoes to the gate guards. They say he once bargained a beggar down on a donation.”

Some people laughed. Deputy Qu Jiang did not.

“Elder Wei Chengyuan has read the notice,” Deputy Qu Jiang said. “He wants to know what we intend to do about it.”

The thin elder proposed closing the road and declaring the mines off limits. If the visitors couldn’t get there, they couldn’t inspect anything. He looked satisfied with that answer.

Another elder immediately objected. That would give Artificer Hall exactly what it wanted: a reason to tell every market Martial Palace had something to hide.

Suggestions came faster. Send guards. Bar the gate. Surely they didn’t have to admit anyone who put a notice on a plank.

The same objection stopped them. The notice had made a locked gate look suspicious before anyone even reached it.

Someone reluctantly suggested an apology and the release of the wagons. Deputy Qu Jiang’s face darkened before the proposal was finished.

“Absolutely not,” Deputy Qu Jiang snapped. “That is surrender. Wei Chengyuan will not hear of it.”

Tuoba Hong tapped the table with one finger. It made a sharp, bright sound, and all the elders turned to him.

“Let them come,” Tuoba Hong said.

“Chief Disciple?” Deputy Qu Jiang said.

“Open the gates and line the road with our guards,” Tuoba Hong said. “Let them look through every tunnel and count every cart. A turtle in a jar is easy to catch. While they’re busy pretending to inspect us, I’ll be waiting.”

He smiled. It was not a nice smile.

“Their chief disciple wants a wager? I'll give him a wager. In front of two hundred miners and a hundred guards. He'll lose, and he'll lose where everyone can see. After that, who will ever believe Artificer Hall can inspect anything?” Tuoba Hong said.

“And the champion?” Yuan Kuang asked.

“Bring a few more guards for the champion,” Tuoba Hong said. “He can inspect the ground from the inside of a ditch.”

“Yuan Kuang can attend,” the thin elder offered.

“No need,” Deputy Qu Jiang said. “The mines already have an overseer. Dai Mu, early Golden Core. A mine is his home, and he's been itching for something to hit since the spring. Let him test the pill-seller.”

“A Golden Core against a Foundation Establishment cultivator?” someone asked. “Won't it look bad?”

“Not if the Foundation Establishment cultivator is a champion,” Deputy Qu Jiang said. “Then it looks like a test.”

The elders nodded. They saw no cost or danger in using a Golden Core overseer to ‘test’ the champion. The thin elder began the order while another sent for tea. Deputy Qu Jiang still watched the red plank.

Deputy Qu Jiang lifted the plank and looked at it once more. He wasn't smiling.

“I will inform Elder Wei,” Deputy Qu Jiang said. “He will approve. He always does when pride is involved.”

Tuoba Hong laughed. Yuan Kuang did not.

Yuan Kuang was looking at the last line of the plank, the small writing underneath. By order of the Chief Disciple.

“Why would a poor sect advertise its chief disciple?” Yuan Kuang asked quietly.

“Because he's a fool,” Tuoba Hong said.

“Maybe,” Yuan Kuang said.

Nobody heard him, because the tea had arrived.

That evening, a courier galloped out of Martial Palace's gate with a sealed order for the Wujin Mines. It said Welcome the visitors. Treat them well. Underneath, in the overseer's private code, one more line was written.

Break something.