The bell did not ring like metal anymore. It rang like a rule.
Inside the Court-made dome, the air became heavy again. It felt like the whole world was pressing down, trying to force one answer out of Qi Shan Wei.
PAY WITH THE FROST THREAD. NOW.
The glowing words hung above the Court platform like a verdict carved into the sky.
Ling Xueyao's Frost Thread pulled hard. Her body jolted as if an invisible hook had caught her heart and yanked.
Her lips turned pale. Her breath came out in white smoke, even though the dome was warm.
For one heartbeat, a pale moon shape almost formed behind her again. It was huge, cold, and quiet. The start of her Lunar Frost Domain.
But it was not stable.
It was like a newborn star trying to rise inside a storm.
Zhen stepped forward at once. His shield layers tightened, turning the dome's space into a moving fortress around them.
"Protect target: Xueyao," Zhen said in his flat voice. "Threat source: Bell-Law hook."
Drakonix's cocoon cracked wider, and a wing pushed out harder. The wing's flame was not normal fire anymore. It had prismatic colors inside it—like the sky had spilled into the flame.
Drakonix growled, rough and young and proud. "No… taking… her…"
Then, like he still had time to be jealous even while half-born, his wing twitched toward Qi Shan Wei, like he was warning everyone.
Zhen turned his head slightly. "Correction: the young lord is not defending her. He is defending ownership."
Drakonix hissed. "Shut… up…"
Zhen replied calmly. "I am already shut. My mouthplate does not open."
The humor lasted only one breath. Then the pressure returned, sharp and cruel.
The invisible hook pulled again. The Frost Thread began to tear at one point, like a thin rope being cut by a slow blade.
Ling Xueyao's eyes widened. She did not beg. She did not cry.
But fear showed in her face anyway.
Not fear of dying.
Fear of being lost. Fear that the bond would become a broken road that could never be found again.
Qi Shan Wei's calm became colder.
He lifted Heavenpiercer.
He did not point it at the Court elders.
He pointed it at the place where the hook did not "exist."
He pointed it at the law itself.
The tip of the blade touched empty air.
And the air screamed.
Not with sound.
With resistance.
A thin crack of light formed, like the world itself was trying to stop him from doing something "impossible."
Outside the dome, cultivators shouted in shock. Even elders leaned forward.
"A sword touching law?" someone whispered. "That's madness!"
Qi Shan Wei did not change expression.
His voice was quiet. "Laws can be measured."
The Silent Bell envoy's eyes narrowed. For the first time, his calm looked strained.
"This is Bell-Law," the envoy said. "Not an enemy you can cut like flesh."
Qi Shan Wei answered the same way he always did—like a ruler speaking a simple truth.
"Everything has a seam."
He moved his left hand.
A formation disc appeared, plain and bronze. A public-grade product. One the world thought it already understood.
Heaven-Anchor Bastion Formation.
But he did not place it on the ground.
He placed it in the air, around the Frost Thread, around the hook, around the space where the bell's pressure was "touching."
A thin ring of prismatic lines formed.
Then another.
Then a third.
It was not a prison.
It was an anchor.
Like pinning lightning to the sky with a nail.
The hook slowed.
The Frost Thread stopped tearing for one breath.
Just one breath.
But Qi Shan Wei used that breath like an emperor uses a single opening in war.
He stepped close to Ling Xueyao.
He did not make a big romance scene. He did not speak sweet words.
He simply placed two fingers on the prismatic bracelet formation around her wrist—the one he made earlier to steady her.
His touch was light.
But it carried a strong, steady intent.
"Breathe," he said.
Ling Xueyao's throat tightened. She nodded once.
They breathed together.
One breath.
Two.
Three.
Her shaking eased a little. The moon-shadow behind her stopped flaring wild.
Her Lunar Frost Domain did not awaken.
But it did not collapse either.
It waited. Calm. Like a blade staying in its sheath.
The Court elders looked angry.
One elder's voice cut through the dome. "Silent Bell envoy! Take the payment! If the bond is cut, the Prismatic One becomes unstable. That is proof!"
The envoy did not smile. He did not look proud.
He looked… careful.
"The bell is already choosing," he said. "And it does not enjoy being refused."
Qi Shan Wei lifted his eyes to the glowing words in the air.
PAY WITH THE FROST THREAD. NOW.
He spoke one word.
"No."
The dome shook.
The words flickered like a flame being slapped.
And then the bell rang again—deeper, older.
This time, the sound did not press down only on bodies.
It pressed down on history.
For one heartbeat, the battlefield flashed.
The broken ground looked whole again.
The dead looked alive again.
Then it snapped back.
A wave of screams rose outside as weaker cultivators fell to their knees. Some grabbed their heads like their memories were being pulled apart.
Ling Xueyao staggered. Her lips parted. "That… was time…"
Zhen's runes flared.
"New conclusion," Zhen said. "The bell is escalating payment category."
The glowing words above the platform changed.
IF NOT THREAD… THEN NAME.
The air turned cold.
The Silent Bell envoy's face changed again—concern, sharper now.
"A name payment is not a wound," he said. "It is a rewrite."
Qi Shan Wei's gaze sharpened. "I know."
The Thousand Masks assassin trapped inside the dome looked up in panic, their voice breaking. "We were promised clean death! No karmic debt!"
The envoy looked at them like they were a small insect under a storm cloud.
"You were promised a clean death," he said. "Not a safe one."
Drakonix's flame surged and touched the assassin's contract seal again. The contract words burned away like dry paper.
The assassin screamed as their mask cracked further.
Outside the dome, the Thousand Masks watchers stepped back, shocked.
"That flame…" one whispered. "It burns contracts like they are nothing."
The Court elders' eyes flickered with greed and fear at the same time.
Qi Shan Wei did not look at them.
He looked at the bell's pressure lines in the air.
And he saw something else.
The bell's force did not move like random sound.
It moved like a path.
Like a thin line traveling through space.
Like lightning.
His mind turned fast, calm, sharp.
He had spent his life measuring formations.
Measuring seals.
Measuring traps.
Measuring the "impossible," until it became a tool.
He spoke to Zhen without raising his voice.
"Second Layer. Move the dome inside the dome."
Zhen answered instantly. "Imperial Shield Matrix: Second Layer."
The shield pattern shifted. The space around them tightened into a moving fortress—like a smaller stronghold inside the Court's bigger cage.
It reduced the bell's pressure for one breath.
Qi Shan Wei used that breath again.
He lifted his hand and drew a thin prismatic line in the air.
Heavenstep pattern.
Not a teleport.
Not yet.
A test.
He traced the bell's force path like a map.
Then he pushed his prismatic energy into it.
The air trembled.
The bell rang again.
And the tremble became a crack.
A thin tear opened in the dome's inner wall—small as a finger-width, but real.
The Court elders froze.
"What did you do?" one elder shouted.
Qi Shan Wei answered calmly.
"I found the seam."
The Silent Bell envoy's eyes widened slightly.
He whispered, almost to himself. "You are stepping into it…"
Outside the dome, thunder rolled—not from clouds, but from something deeper.
It felt like the sky was waking up.
Drakonix roared from inside the cocoon, and the cocoon cracked wide open.
A full prismatic wing unfolded.
Then a second wing followed—still shaking, still young, but real.
The dragon's eyes opened.
They were not childish eyes.
They were ancient.
They looked like a sky that remembers every storm.
Drakonix drew in breath.
Not normal breath.
A breath that pulled heat, light, and pressure into his chest like a furnace swallowing the world.
Then he released a roar.
It was not loud only.
It was law.
A roar that bit into contracts.
A roar that bit into seals.
A roar that bit into the bell's written words above the platform.
The words IF NOT THREAD… THEN NAME flickered like scared fire.
Drakonix growled, voice rough but proud. "Stop… writing… on my sky."
The Court dome shook.
A crack spread like spider-webs across the inner wall where Qi Shan Wei had opened the seam.
Qi Shan Wei moved one step forward. Calm, steady, like he was walking through a door in his own palace.
He touched the crack with Heavenpiercer again.
This time, he did not "cut" it.
He guided it.
Like turning a small crack into a controlled opening.
The crack widened.
Light rushed in.
Wind rushed in.
The smell of the outside world rushed in—dust, blood, and something else.
Something sharp.
Something electric.
The Silent Bell envoy stepped back for the first time.
"Stop," he said quietly. "If you break the Court dome while the bell is active, you will call something you cannot control."
Qi Shan Wei's voice stayed level.
"Then I will control it."
He turned his head slightly, speaking to Ling Xueyao.
"Hold your domain. Do not let it bloom yet."
Ling Xueyao swallowed. Her eyes were still pale with pain, but they were sharp again.
"I can hold," she said.
Qi Shan Wei looked at Drakonix.
"Do not burn the bell directly," he said. "Burn the hook."
Drakonix snorted like an offended prince.
"Mine… flame… bites…"
Then he obeyed anyway.
He focused his flame on the invisible hook pulling the Frost Thread.
The hook burned.
It did not vanish—but it hurt.
The hook loosened for one breath.
Qi Shan Wei used that breath like a killing strike.
He snapped his fingers.
A second "simple" formation disc appeared.
Nine-Fold Stillwater Barrier.
He expanded it into a calming field again, softening the bell's pressure like water swallowing a falling stone.
Then he cut the opening wider.
Outside the dome, the crowd screamed as the Court-made cage finally broke.
Not into pieces.
Into a clean breach, like a door carved by a ruler.
Qi Shan Wei stepped out first.
Zhen moved next, shield layers guarding Drakonix and Ling Xueyao like an escort formation.
Ling Xueyao stepped out last, her Frost Thread trembling but still attached.
The Court elders shouted in fury.
"Seal him again!"
"Trap him!"
"Kill him!"
But the air above them changed.
The sky did not look normal anymore.
A thin line appeared high above, like a crack across heaven.
Then another.
Then another.
And thunder did not fall downward.
It moved sideways.
Like something searching.
The Silent Bell envoy's eyes went distant.
He listened.
Then he spoke, voice low.
"The schedule has begun."
Qi Shan Wei looked up.
One lightning line formed in the sky, sharp and bright.
It did not strike the ground.
It turned.
And pointed.
Pointed at him.
The crowd outside froze.
Someone whispered in horror. "The lightning… is looking…"
Then the lightning moved.
Not falling.
Hunting.
It raced through the sky toward Qi Shan Wei like a spear with eyes.
The world screamed.
Ling Xueyao lifted her sword, but Qi Shan Wei raised one hand.
"No," he said calmly. "Watch."
The lightning reached him.
And instead of killing him…
It stopped.
It hovered one finger-length from his skin, shaking like it was deciding what he was.
Qi Shan Wei did not flinch.
His golden eyes stayed steady.
He let his prismatic aura rise just a little.
The lightning trembled.
Then it bent.
Not fully. Not kneeling yet.
But it bent enough that everyone saw it.
The Court elders went pale.
The Silent Bell envoy's lips tightened.
"This is not punishment," he said. "This is selection."
The lightning vanished in a flash.
And in that flash, the sky cracked wider.
Thunder rolled across the world like a giant waking up.
Drakonix spread his wings fully for the first time. His prismatic flame rose into the air like a banner.
Zhen's voice came out flat, perfectly timed in the middle of terror.
"New threat: the sky has activated hunting mode."
Drakonix snapped his head. "Stop… talking… like that!"
Zhen replied, calm as always. "Clarification: I cannot stop. I am designed for reporting."
Qi Shan Wei did not smile.
But his eyes sharpened like a blade being drawn.
He looked at the broken dome behind him.
He looked at the Court elders.
He looked at the Silent Bell envoy.
Then he looked at the sky again.
The Seven Days had begun.
And heaven had learned where to aim.
The lightning formed again—more lines this time, like a net.
And every line turned toward Qi Shan Wei.
The sky did not want payment now.
It wanted an answer.
And the world held its breath, because it felt the truth:
This was no longer a Court trial.
This was a world event.
And it had chosen the one man who would not bow.
To be Continued
© Kishtika., 2026
All rights reserved.