The ringing in his ears faded bit by bit before Qi Luo realized he was lying on the floor.
Stone, ice-cold under his back. His spine burned like someone had taken a brand to it.
He sucked in a few breaths. The Key-Sigil in his chest was still spasming with pain, but it no longer felt like it was going to drag his entire being up into that black chain on the dome.
"…Alive?" His throat was dry. He asked the question in his head first.
The Chain-world gave him a very undignified answer:
[Carrier · Qi Luo——status: pending recovery (suspended).]
Suspended.
Like a letter opened halfway and stuck on a pop-up that said, "Confirm deletion?"
In the center of the hall, the circle was no longer a proper circle.
The spirit-fire the Fallen Knights had lit was like a brief but brutal eclipse, burning a black hole into the heart of the array. The rune-edges were scorched. The air still stank of burnt iron and leather.
Cen Duo and the others were gone.
Only a few pieces of armor, still faintly red from the heat, lay cooling in the center.
The broken chain sigil was burned into the stone, like a brand pressed down with a white-hot iron.
It wasn't part of the world's master covenant, yet it had been forcibly seared into the corner of that "page."
Qi Luo braced a hand on the ground and slowly pushed himself upright.
There was a hollow in his chest—Cen Duo's "Watch closely. This is what breach looks like" still echoing in his ears. Firelight, that creased grin, the shape of his mouth when he swore—all of it tugged him backward.
He wanted to just sit there.
Just sit and stare at that ring of broken-chain scorches for a little longer.
A roar from the High Seats dragged him out of it by force.
"Hunters!"
The chief recorder's voice carried real fury this time. "Apprehend the carrier at once! And track down the remaining Fallen Knights—"
The rest of his sentence was drowned out by a clash of chains.
The black chain on the dome was still shuddering violently. The self-check module was overloaded, red text streaking across the depths of the Chains:
[Handling major breach…]
[Recovery process suspended…]
[Buffer-layer structure re-sequencing…]
The voices of god-authority were smothered, three parts out of ten, by the noise of the world itself.
But the word "Hunters" still landed clean in every member of the squad's ears.
Qi Luo lifted his head and saw the Covenant Hunter ranks ripple as one.
Dozens of gazes snapped toward the center of the array—toward him.
The closest gaze belonged to a pair of eyes he already knew well.
Ruan Ji stood at the edge of the formation, hand still resting on her sword hilt.
Her mask covered half her face. Her badge glowed faintly beneath her cloak. The Hunter chains ran from her shoulders into the execution systems above the hall.
[Directive: apprehend carrier · Qi Luo.]
[Enforcers: all Hunters present.]
The line flashed once across every Hunter's chain.
Immediately after, another line appeared on Ruan Ji's chain alone:
[Co-hunter duties:]
[—During trials involving world-level clauses, responsible for recording and cross-checking the process.]
[Note: co-hunter counterpart · Qi Luo.]
The two lines collided for a brief instant, striking off a small spray of sparks.
"Ruan Ji." A god's phantom on the High Seats spoke, voice like cold iron. "As primary Hunter, you will lead—"
He didn't finish.
Ruan Ji was already moving.
She stepped out of the ranks. The motion was clean, decisive. Her cloak snapped, and she drew a straight line out of the Hunter formation, heading straight for the edge of the circle.
Plenty of people assumed she was going to rush up and drive a blade down onto Qi Luo's shoulder.
Even Qi Luo himself had a split second where he thought—
"So it's come to this."
The next second, that illusion shattered.
The hand she extended wasn't her right, the one on the sword.
It was her left.
That left hand, carrying the Hunter chain, clamped directly around Qi Luo's wrist.
"Co-hunter," she raised her head and spoke out, voice clear, every syllable crisp and official, "will take over subsequent escort and review of the carrier."
The Chain-world answered at once:
[Escort authority: from Council escort chain → Hunter system (co-hunter channel).]
The chains above the hall stuttered mid-air.
Some of the phantoms' faces twisted slightly on the light screen.
A line of protest flashed across the chief recorder's stone slab:
[Co-hunter has no escort enforcement authority.]
The Hunter system coldly threw out a supplement:
[Addendum: when the trial process has entered world-level breach-handling mode, a co-hunter must be present to handle subsequent escort and record-keeping.]
The addendum was signed—Ruan Ji.
It was the line she had slipped into the Hunter Covenant earlier: "Any trial of world-level clauses must have a co-hunter present to observe and cross-check."
Now, she was using that sentence to sidestep the chief recorder's mouth.
"Where do you intend to escort him?" one phantom narrowed its eyes. "Back to the Hunter chain chamber?"
"To where he's supposed to be." Ruan Ji said.
She tightened her hand on Qi Luo's wrist.
"Move," she murmured under her breath. "If you can stand, then follow."
Qi Luo blinked.
"You're not afraid…" His throat tightened. "The system will tag you as a traitor too?"
"It already has." Ruan Ji said.
Deep in her chains, a line had long since changed color:
[Hunter · Ruan Ji——tags: loyal / behavioral deviation under observation.]
Behind that, she had added one tiny, tiny note:
[—deviation toward mortals.]
"Worry about yourself first." she said.
Qi Luo didn't hesitate again.
He grabbed her forearm, and let her haul him up off the floor, half-pulled, half-dragged.
The binding runes at the edge of the circle were wrecked, charred by the Fallen Knights' spirit-fire.
The world was too busy patching the burnt-out "buffer layer" to redraw prison-script for the accused.
The moment Qi Luo stepped out, a faint sting bit at his soles—
The World Base-Covenant quietly reminding him: You are leaving the center of the Recovery.
[Record: carrier deviating from Recovery array center.]
[Cause: major breach-handling has suspended the process.]
[Provisional conclusion: Recovery delayed.]
Delayed.
Another result ripped out of the world by the Fallen Knights.
"Where?" he asked in a low voice as Ruan Ji dragged him out of the array.
"You know." Ruan Ji said.
She didn't look back, but in the Chain-world, she flicked him a small prompt:
[Target: Abyssal Clocktower.]
Qi Luo's breath hitched.
—The Three-Chime Night Bell.
—The night it all began.
And the first draft of the Recovery Contingency's suggested execution site was precisely:
[Temple deep layer · abyssal pipe interface (i.e., base of the Abyssal Clocktower).]
"You're taking me back," he murmured. "Back to where they wanted to press the button."
"The Key either gets pressed, or presses itself." Ruan Ji said. "You chose the latter."
"So now you go stand where you're meant to."
By the time they burst out of the circle, the Hunter ranks had already reacted.
Steel hissed from sheaths, the sound like a whole forest of Chains yanked tight at once.
"Ruan Ji!" somebody shouted. "You're overstepping!"
"You're escorting a World Traitor!"
—She is executing co-hunter escort duties, Qi Luo thought coldly.
Ruan Ji ignored the shouting.
She lifted her hand. Her Hunter badge flashed. A circle of dedicated "escort chain" sprang up under their feet.
That chain was meant to bind prisoners during transport, preventing them from altering their path.
Now she clamped it around both herself and Qi Luo instead.
[Escort writ:]
[Target: carrier · Qi Luo.]
[Escort: Hunter · Ruan Ji (co-hunter).]
[Destination: ——]
That field should have read something like "Covenant Council holding cells."
Ruan Ji scribbled different words into the blank:
[Destination: Abyssal Clocktower · contingency verification point.]
[Reason: carrier recovery process suspended; must be isolated and checked at original contingency interface.]
The World Base-Covenant hesitated.
[Detected: target location matches original Recovery Contingency's suggested site.]
[Assessment: during breach-handling, relocating carrier to contingency interface point aids isolation and monitoring.]
[Inclination: approve.]
The black chain on the dome gave a small shiver.
It recognized the term "Abyssal Clocktower."
—That was the hole it had originally been meant to pass through.
The escort chain under their feet snapped taut, like a rope flung into deep water, hauling them toward the exit.
The faces on the High Seats all changed at once.
"Stop her!" someone roared.
"The carrier must not approach the abyssal interface—"
As the command went out, the divine envoys around the walls tore themselves free from the murals like peeled-off shadows and stepped into form.
They wore immaculate judicial robes. Behind them, "wings" unfolded—made of script, each feather a different enforcement clause.
The leading enforcement envoy stretched out a hand, palm marked by a seal woven from covenant words.
[Enforcement decree:]
[Target: co-hunter · Ruan Ji.]
[Charge: abuse of authority, aiding carrier's escape.]
[Authority: apprehend on site; may apply "temporary sealing" as needed.]
That hand slammed down toward the Chains on the path in front of them.
Ruan Ji's eyes sharpened.
"Now you can lodge a clause cross-check request," she murmured.
"Do me a favor, co-hunter."
Qi Luo understood.
He shoved down the chaos roiling in his chest and pressed his fingers to the back of the Hunter badge under his shirt.
For a heartbeat the badge was molten. The co-hunter authority chain roared open in his vision.
[Temporary co-hunter · Qi Luo——]
[In events involving world-level clauses that come into conflict with the Hunter system, you may make one "clause cross-check request" to the world's self-check module.]
"Request cross-check." Qi Luo bit the words out. "Target: current enforcement decree on the envoy."
The self-check module was yanked away from its frantic breach-handling to spin off a new thread.
[Cross-check request received.]
[Target clause: Hunter system · internal enforcement decree.]
[Parsing content—]
Outside the light screen, only Ruan Ji and Qi Luo could see the fine text streaming across the Chains.
[Scope of enforcement decree:]
[1. When Hunters seriously deviate from their duties in non–world-level clause incidents.]
[2. When Hunters abuse system authority for personal affairs and harm order.]
[3. …]
[Note: when the trial process has been flagged "world-level breach-handling" by the World Base-Covenant, co-hunters hold a measure of autonomous adjustment authority; their actions must be evaluated primarily against "co-hunter duty" clauses.]
Qi Luo pounced on that line.
"See that?" he "read" it aloud to the world. "This isn't a 'non–world-level' incident."
"It's your own flagged 'world-level breach-handling'."
"The co-hunter's conduct should be judged by the co-hunter clauses first."
The self-check module paused.
[Cross-check conclusion:]
[Current enforcement decree conflicts with co-hunter duty clauses.]
[Ruling: priority must be granted to co-hunter duties.]
[Recommendation: temporarily suspend enforcement decree against co-hunter.]
The "recommendation" was handed back into the Hunter system.
The envoy's hand faltered midair.
He felt the self-check pang at once, but his instinct was: Execute higher orders.
The Hunter system flicked him a line of chilly text on the chain behind him:
[Self-check result: current environment is world-level breach-handling mode.]
[Enforcing decree may interfere with co-hunter record-keeping.]
[Recommendation: suspend.]
His hand hung there, feathers on his script-wings flickering light and dark.
He couldn't defy a system self-check.
Caught between anger and duty, he froze for just an instant—
In that instant, the escort chain had already yanked Qi Luo and Ruan Ji past him, through the vertical light screen at the hall's exit.
"After them!" someone yelled.
More Hunters surged forward with blades drawn.
But the escort chain had already switched to "external route."
Outside the hall, the temple plaza seethed.
The observation stones were still broadcasting the inner hall's images—now nothing but chaos: Fallen Knights' spirit-fire, the twisting black chain, the Forbidden-Seal Scroll's World Recovery Plan, the gasps from witnesses across the city.
Qi Luo and Ruan Ji all but flew across the plaza, dragged by the escort chain.
The Rust Street witnesses, those singled out to attend, saw them streak past the center of the square—
Someone instinctively reached out, trying to snatch at the hem of Qi Luo's coat, then jerked back, afraid to touch the escort chain.
"Qi Luo!" a child's voice cracked on his name.
Qi Luo turned. His gaze skimmed over a skinny figure—that brat whose "apprentice sell-yourself contract" he'd tweaked back in the day.
He wanted to stop.
Just for a heartbeat. Just long enough to give the kid a smile.
The escort chain snapped tight. The World Base-Covenant threw a warning at him:
[During escort, carrier may not stop of his own will.]
[Stopping will be deemed "resisting isolation" and may resume Recovery process.]
Ruan Ji clamped a hand on him. "Don't stop."
Qi Luo ground his teeth and forced himself to wrench his gaze away.
"Come back alive and say hello then," he told himself. "Assuming—this world still allows coming back."
They tore out of the square and onto a raised conduit leading out of the city.
Under their feet, the escort chain laid itself down into an invisible path, running from the upper tier along the temple's flank toward the city's rim.
The farther they went, the colder the air grew.
The rust-stink of Rust Street and the oil smoke of the mid-tier fell away behind them, leaving only the damp chill of the mist-sea blowing up from below, like an unseen hand smearing cold across their faces.
In the distance, the outline of the Abyssal Clocktower emerged from the fog.
A black tower, standing on the very edge of the city.
Half its bulk was sunk into Skycast City's fringe structures; the other half jutted out over the abyssal mist-sea, like a nail pinning city and abyss together.
At the top of the tower hung the giant Night Bell.
The bell-body was wrapped in layers of clauses. Chains threaded through the bell-mouth, trailing down into the bottomless fog below.
It was the source of the Three-Chime Night Bell—
And, in the Recovery Contingency, the designated "interface point."
"When you were little, it was right beneath there." Ruan Ji said.
She didn't say the rest—"when they laid you on that stone slab and nearly pressed the button."
Qi Luo stared at the tower, a familiar dull ache rising in his chest.
Childhood nightmares unspooled frame by frame—abyssal mist, stone platform, the pain of carved sigils, the Night Bell's thunder, people arguing above him, someone shattering a stone slab, and then Fallen Knights leaping into darkness with him in their arms.
"I thought once I grew up I'd never go back," Qi Luo said.
"Now you walk in yourself." Ruan Ji replied.
The escort chain dragged them along the high conduit at speed.
Behind them, Chains from the temple's direction were already reweaving into pursuit paths.
[New directive: prevent carrier from approaching abyssal interface.]
Several dedicated pursuit chains shot out like unleashed hounds, chasing from the hall, distance shrinking in the air.
These were "divine enforcement chains" the world was moving directly—far faster than ordinary Hunters.
"Any chance you can go faster?" Qi Luo panted, asking the escort chain.
The chain gave him a calm, despairing answer:
[Current speed: at safety upper limit.]
[Further increase may destabilize carrier.]
"Now you're worried I'll crack?" Qi Luo let out a short laugh. "You almost took me apart to reinstall me just now."
The escort chain said nothing.
Ruan Ji suddenly veered, jerking him with her off the main conduit and down a narrow maintenance shaft ladder.
"Escort chain picks the smoothest path," she said. "We pick the steepest."
"The world likes clean data," Qi Luo said. "We're adding noise."
The shaft was narrow and steep. The metal rungs were slick with condensation, the air so damp it made them shiver.
They slid down as fast as they dared, boots clanging on the rungs, while above them the pursuit chains hissed past the mouth of the shaft—
Calculating their route based on the escort chain's trajectory, never expecting the two targets to jump into a maintenance shaft halfway through.
"You really trust physics to beat clauses?" Qi Luo asked.
"Not physics." Ruan Ji said. "What you taught me—no rule, however rigidly written, covers every blind spot."
"The escort writ says 'follow the escort chain route'." She kept her voice level. "It doesn't say 'you may not use maintenance ladders.'"
"And the maintenance ladder?" Qi Luo asked.
"It says 'for maintenance personnel only'." Ruan Ji said. "It doesn't say 'carrier forbidden.'"
"You going to patch that in for them?"
"Next time." Qi Luo panted a laugh. "If I'm still alive to patch it."
The shaft ended at a metal door, the surface flaking with rust save for the fresh clause-seal in its center.
[Abyssal Clocktower · maintenance access]
[Non-maintenance personnel prohibited.]
[During Three-Chime Night Bell, no one may enter or exit.]
Qi Luo pressed his hand to the seal.
The Key-Sigil under his palm warmed faintly.
[Detected: carrier making contact with outer perimeter of abyssal interface.]
[Recommendation: prevent.]
Before the World Base-Covenant could upgrade "recommendation" to "compulsory directive," Ruan Ji had already overwritten with Hunter authority:
[Co-hunter escort statement: carrier must be isolated and observed at contingency interface; consistent with maintenance duties.]
The seal hesitated.
"Carrier" and "maintenance personnel" were, clearly, worlds apart.
But the last round of chaos had come with a proposal from self-check: "prioritize isolation."
[Final judgment: entry permitted.]
The metal door groaned open.
A colder wind hissed through the gap, smelling of abyssal mist and old iron.
Beyond lay a spiral staircase, winding downward.
The steps hugged the tower's inner wall, coiling toward a darkness with no visible end.
From here they could see the mist-sea outside the city's edge.
The fog moved like some immense slow creature, battering against the tower's outer wall.
The moment they stepped into the tower—
The Night Bell tolled.
The first chime.
Boom—
The sound exploded from the summit, crashing down the stone walls layer by layer like someone had slammed a giant hammer into the world's spine.
Qi Luo's foot jolted.
The sound struck his ribs and briefly synchronized with the rhythm of his Key-Sigil.
[Record: Night Bell · first chime.]
[Iron Law reminder: during the Three-Chime Night Bell, all clauses related to the Abyssal Clocktower enter special state.]
Fine text crawled along the edge of the steps:
[Iron Law of the Night Bell:]
[First chime—gates close; none may leave the city.]
[Second chime—none inside the Clocktower may stop walking.]
[Third chime—none may look back.]
Qi Luo stared at the lines for several seconds.
"They turned my childhood ghost story into a clause," he said quietly. "As a kid I only ever heard 'after the third chime, don't look back.' Never saw the full version."
"Half of childhood stories are for soothing kids." Ruan Ji said. "The other half are for hiding real rules."
The second chime fell almost on the heels of the first. The interval was short, like the city itself had no patience left.
Boom—
The stone steps shuddered.
The mist outside shook, sagging a few spans before slowly surging back up.
[Record: Night Bell · second chime.]
[Iron Law of the Night Bell · second clause in effect—those walking inside the Clocktower may not stop; otherwise it is deemed "intent to look back" and they will be recovered by abyssal chains.]
The tiny script stretched downward, lighting up step by step at their feet like a thin band of light.
Qi Luo's stride faltered by reflex.
Ruan Ji yanked him. "Don't stop."
They were forced to keep descending.
Behind them, the metal door at the top of the stairs swung half shut under the vibration of the bell.
A sliver of light still leaked through, but the next clause might slam it closed with a bang.
"'No turning back after the third chime…'" Qi Luo read. "What happens if you do?"
The clauses answered him with clinical calm:
[Third clause: After the three chimes of the Night Bell, anyone inside the Clocktower or at the edge of the abyss who looks back shall have their name deemed "turned toward the Old Days" and be recorded by the abyssal chains as "voluntary Recovery."]
[Consequence: roster status changes to "entered the abyss," irreversible.]
"Voluntary Recovery," Qi Luo's smile twisted. "What a choice word."
"Will you look back?" Ruan Ji asked.
She didn't specify what that meant he'd be looking back at—
The city, the temple, the scorched mark the Fallen Knights had burned into the circle, or the people in front of the observation stones, crying and calling his name.
Qi Luo's Adam's apple bobbed.
"As a kid I always wanted to look back someday," he said low. "See exactly who it was that carried me off that stone slab that night."
"Now you've seen them." Ruan Ji said.
"They just finished burning off their atonement right in front of you."
The steps reached down, cold stone upon cold stone.
The echo of the bells prowled the tower like some huge beast breathing in the distance.
"The third chime hasn't rung yet," Qi Luo said. "If I turn now, they won't catch me."
"So," Ruan Ji asked quietly, "will you?"
His fingers whitened around the rail.
Images flashed through his mind—the little church on Rust Street, the foreman in the workshop, the lazy posture of the disease-reminder god slumped against a cracked idol, Cen Duo's last smile.
He wanted to turn.
Even just once. Just to take one more look at this city.
In that moment, he understood why the "Iron Law" had to be written into a clause—
Not to scare people, but to make the cruel decision for those whose legs would fail them.
"I can't," Qi Luo said.
He shut his eyes, forcing each syllable out. "At least—not after the third chime."
"And before the third?" Ruan Ji asked.
Qi Luo opened his eyes. His gaze twitched upward an inch, then pushed itself back down.
"Before the third," he murmured, "I need to reach the bottom."
"Let the world see, first"—his voice steadied—"that someone can walk this tower without looking back, not because they're afraid of the abyss."
"But because they still have something to write."
Ruan Ji watched him.
The Hunter badge against her chest was icy cold.
"The second chime has already rung," she said. "The third could hit at any moment."
"Until then, we only go down."
The steps stretched on beneath their feet.
The abyssal mist roiled outside the tower.
Behind them, the light through the door crack narrowed, bit by bit—a symbol of sorts. The city, the upper tiers, the temple, Rust Street—everything loud and chaotic was slowly being closed out.
Qi Luo said silently in his heart:
—Cen Duo, your first lesson was, "If you sign something, you own it."
—I'm owning what I just chose.
He didn't look back.
The echo of the second chime still wound around the stone walls.
The power of the third was already gathering in the cracks of the tower.
When it fell,
Any name that turned would be taken by the abyss as "voluntary Recovery" into the past.
And he and Ruan Ji had already set their feet on the spiral path leading down to the deepest point of the abyss.