The Enforcer Hunting My Pen Name Reads Every Chapter novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: What He Saw
Shen spoke for an hour, and the jade did not warm once.
He stood in the middle of the Great Hall with his hair loose, and the Inspector's brush moved.
Three hundred disciples listened to the Sword Saint say more words in a row than he had said in twelve years.
"There is a door under the Alchemy Pavilion, in the east wall of the lower hall. It is behind a rack of empty jars."
His voice was rough, and he did not stop.
"It opens with a key that Lord Yuan carries on his belt. Beyond it is a hall with a white jade floor."
He raised a hand.
"There are nine pits cut in the floor. In the third pit there is a cauldron."
He told it plainly.
He had told it a hundred times in his head, to the dark, and the words had worn smooth.
He said what the cauldron was for, and who stood at it.
He said what the Master had said to the boy who lay at the door.
When he reached the boy, he did not look at Mo.
"He was forty. He looked twenty-two. He had come up the mountain to be an alchemist's apprentice, and he was told he was chosen."
Shen's throat did not close.
"I was twenty-nine. I found him at the door because a man had sent me on an errand."
He paused.
"That man did not know what was behind it."
"And afterward?" the Inspector asked.
"The Master was waiting on the stair. He told me three of my own pupils were on the list."
Shen's hands were steady.
"He said I could swear, or he could begin with them. I swore."
"It was the wrong choice. It was the only one I could see."
The brush stopped.
"It was not wrong," the Inspector told him. "It was made under a threat to the helpless. It will be recorded as such."
Shen did not answer.
He stood there, and found that his eyes had gone unreliable.
The hall was quiet.
Then someone on the east side began, softly, to kneel.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Enforcer Hunting My Pen Name Reads Every Chapter are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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