That single point of light at the Seal's center—it did not shine. It split. And the world broke. Not pain. Not attack. A collapse. Like the Seal was unraveling its own frame, responding to him too fast, too deeply.
The realm twisted. Ground cracked. Sky flipped.
The stage beneath him became a ledge.
He tried to anchor his will. But the Seal did nothing to stop it.
It was waiting for him to flee, or fall.
Then—
a voice. Familiar. Soft.
"Jin, my son…
don't be afraid.
The dream will pass."
Not real. Not now. But real enough.
His mother's voice. Not from the Seal, from him.
But the Seal had found it. Used it.
He stood on the edge of unraveling. The Seal sank into a rift of thought so deep, it had no shape.
He could step back, preserve what was left.
Or—
Step forward. And become part of the break.
His eyes closed. He whispered:
"I don't want dreams
to define me anymore."
And he stepped down into the heart of it.
The Seal pulsed.
And the Fourth Lock—
broke open.
—
Above the Court of Witnessing, the sky shuddered. The Seal had descended. The trial was meant to pause. But instead—
a wave. Slow. Silent. Reversed.
A ripple of anti-law, rising from the place where the Seal had vanished.
Jia Luyan stood.
"Mirror lock—now!"
Seven scroll-mirrors flared.
And all—
shut down at once.
Each burned with a single phrase:
"Chainbreak Denied."
Wu Zhi whispered:
"Who is controlling the Seal domain?"
No answer.
Because no one was.
The Seal was choosing not to stop.
The platform where it had sunk glowed again.
A white-gold crack split the floor, reaching up through the Judiciary Crown.
A single line.
A pulse of resistance.
A statement:
"Judgment is not finished."
Jia Luyan froze.
"The Court cannot cut the chain…?"
Xiao Yanfeng, half-smiling, tapped his fan:
"It seems the seal doesn't allow you to leave."
And all at once, the bridges locked. The lights froze. Every thread, every glyph was suspended.
Shen Jin was still inside. But that wasn't the point anymore. The entire apparatus—judges, scribes, observers—had been marked as incomplete. Anyone who tried to end it would be seen by the Seal.
As one of them. Wu Zhi said softly:
"It wrote us in."
Jia Luyan sat down. Closed the book. Because now—
they were the ones being asked.
—
In the depths of the Hall of No Mind, the seal no longer moved. The Fourth Lock opened and closed.
Not with force. But with silence.
A wheel turning inward.
Dreams sealed.
Questions folded.
Answers, returned.
Shen Jin opened his eyes. He had not moved. But something inside him had. He felt it—
like being rebuilt from within.
The Seal floated before him. Quiet. Waiting. Then—from its center—a phrase emerged.
Not sound.
Not glyph.
Something in between.
"Its name is not for judgment.
Its words are not for speech.
Its shape is not for law."
And then—a second line. Simpler.
"To this one I grant a name:
Jin's Word."
He froze. This was not an imprint. Not a code. Not a brand. It was a response. A Seal's reply to him. A name tied to his own.
In ancient records, they called this "the Resonant Script."
When the Seal, on rare occasion, acknowledges the bearer, his word is written into its language. It would remain forever.
He reached out. Touched the phrase. It vanished. The Seal returned to his hand. But as it did—a voice. Soft. Older than memory.
"You are not the first to be asked."
"But you are the first to answer."
He said nothing.
Because the answer was already written.
When he stepped out from the Hall, every glyph in the Court of Witnessing went dark.
And the Seal in his hand was no longer the same.
—
Shen Jin stepped out from the Hall of No Mind. Silence.
Even the court seemed to hold its breath.
He walked slowly to the center once more.
The Seal floated at his palm—no longer locked.
Its inner ring moved now. Not wildly. But deliberately.
Jia Luyan stood. Eyes fixed.
"You never accepted judgment," he said.
"Yet you ended it."
Shen Jin looked back.
"Judgment was never the end."
"You only believed you were the point."
A stir ran through the tiers.
But Wu Zhi spoke next:
"The Seal has answered your name."
"Will you now return it—
into the register of the Lingyuan Division?"
Shen Jin held his gaze.
"If the Seal belongs to me…"
"To whom do I belong?"
Wu Zhi smiled faintly.
Jia Luyan closed his scroll.
"The Seal's dominion is still in question."
"Until review by the Divine Archive,
you may not leave Yuancheng."
Shen Jin said nothing. Only looked at the seal.
It glowed—
but did not comply. Did not resist.
A silence longer than law.
Then—
Shen Jin raised his head.
Not to answer.
To speak.
"The seal has spoken."
"It said—"
He paused. Then:
"It is not power
that defines a bearer."
"It is the one
who dares to reply."
The mark resonated once, a single sound, like a name being carved into stone.