Siege

Everyone knew that Stone Speaker had gone mad—even Chenpi fell within the scope of his attacks.

Stone Speaker’s gaze slowly swept over everyone present.

It lingered longest on Mr. Kong.

Mr. Kong sighed. “Shi Buyi, so this is why you’ve invited me to every event all these years. Thinking back, every event you invited me to had a witch in attendance.”

Stone Speaker treated Mr. Kong very differently. He actually bowed slightly, giving him half a disciple’s salute.

“Yes, Mr. Kong. Though I don’t know why you’ve shown me so much concern, I can confirm that it has always come from a place of kindness. You accepted every invitation I sent you without hesitation, and I’m sincerely grateful.

“You don’t need me to explain much. You must have seen everything with your own eyes.

“Take the most recent Grand Illustrated Compendium Awards, held once every four years. As a judge, Chenpi should have been fair and impartial. But what did she do? She voted entirely according to her own preferences, forcing the two of us judges to vote for useless objects. Was that fair to the contestants who had waited four years? Was that really the purpose of the event?”

No one responded.

So far, everything Stone Speaker had done today had been bizarre.

Seated below the stage, Chen Miemie watched Stone Speaker with an indescribable sense of conflict.

Whether he was trying to reform the system or stage a coup, this wasn’t how he should have gone about it.

Such a major undertaking couldn’t be accomplished through mere eloquence. It needed armed force to back it up.

But what did he have here?

Only some ordinary personnel from the public security department.

The Mystics of the Society weren’t his people, while the witches were his outright targets.

Before taking action, he hadn’t even informed Luo Lang or President Yu—two people who could be considered his allies. In fact, he had offended both of them beyond repair.

Nearly everyone he had addressed as “all of you” was standing against him.

“Shi Buyi, are you finished?” Chenpi finally spoke. “I hereby announce the temporary removal of Shi Buyi from his position as Grand Scholar. He is to cooperate with investigations into multiple cases. Everyone, seize him.”

The moment Chenpi spoke, she played her trump card.

As long as she had reasonable grounds, Chenpi possessed the extraordinary authority to remove a sitting Grand Scholar from office.

Yet no one present moved.

Stone Speaker had prepared for this long ago. “According to the city’s system of laws, Chenpi, you do indeed have the authority to remove a Grand Scholar from office. However, even if you issue an official written order of removal, it won’t take effect until tomorrow. Until then, I am still the Grand Scholar of Law.”

“You certainly know these regulations inside and out. But what good will stubborn resistance do?”

President Yu had already begun the opening stance for another attack. “Everyone, strike together and take him down first. He can move through space over short distances. Don’t let him escape!”

Countless geometric symbols “came to life” on President Yu’s robes. They transformed in midair into chains made of symbols and surged toward Stone Speaker.

Cicada and Stone Speaker had been close friends since childhood. He was still trying to persuade him. “Shi Buyi, don’t resist. You’re being too extreme. Calm down. If you stop now, there’s still room to turn things around.”

Stone Speaker threw back his head and laughed. “Xia Chong, you’re not as clever as you were when we were children. Can’t you see? Today, I’ll give you another ‘lesson.’ This is my choice, and I’ll see it through to the end.”

Knowing that further words would be useless, a chorus of cicadas appeared around Cicada, sending invisible sound waves toward Stone Speaker.

“Good!” Stone Speaker roared.

As his shout rang out, his clothes suddenly bulged. Within a single second, his muscles burst through the fabric, and his entire body expanded to twice its original size.

Standing before them was a superhuman nearly four meters tall.

His body was covered in knotted muscles, making him look like a colossal stone statue of a muscular man.

His muscles were not flesh-colored. They were the pale color of plaster, and the shade continued to darken.

His appearance alone exerted overwhelming pressure. No one doubted his strength or defensive power.

“Come on, then. Let me see what all of you can do. [Eight Gates of Law: Stone Bagua]!”

A huge, stone, eight-sided shield extended from Stone Speaker’s back, its surface densely carved with tiny characters.

Facing President Yu’s geometric rune attack, he pointed with his left hand. “[Gate of Shock: Civil Procedure]—No trial without a complaint; remain impartial. Debate and argument shall govern the proceedings from beginning to end.”

The interior of the great shield behind him began to rotate. His head became the pointer, eventually aligning with the Gate of Shock.

The ground beneath everyone’s feet began to tremble. The shaking was strongest around him, and the chains of geometric symbols in midair were scattered apart by the vibrations.

With his other hand, he faced Cicada’s sonic attack. “[Gate of Life: Civil Law]—Whatever the law does not prohibit is permitted; the parties’ autonomy shall settle disputes.”

The cicadas continued to cry, but the sound seemed to have lost all its destructive power, becoming nothing more than ordinary chirping.

An expert’s skill was evident from the moment they made a move.

Cicada, a pathetic Mystic 4 who hadn’t even used his full strength, was one thing.

But President Yu was a Mystic whose abilities were connected to space. Setting aside the witches, she was widely acknowledged within the Book-Sealing Hall’s Mystic circle as the strongest of them all. Her attack, unleashed in anger, was no ordinary strike.

Her chains of geometric symbols might not appear particularly flashy, but in truth they combined the powers of logic and space. They were both real and illusory. An ordinary person could only stand helplessly bound, entirely at her mercy.

President Yu’s expression changed. “Everyone, attack! His [Mystic] rank is higher than mine!”

The people who had been watching the spectacle without the slightest sense of danger all changed expression.

President Yu publicly claimed to be Mystic 5, but everyone knew she was actually Mystic 6. If Stone Speaker could make someone clearly stronger than her in a single exchange, could he be Mystic 7?

Luo Lang made his move.

He attempted to “see through” Stone Speaker’s weakness.

Sensing the tangible gaze fixed upon him, Stone Speaker pointed in Luo Lang’s direction. The stone Bagua behind him rotated. “[Gate of Opening: Commercial and Economic Law].”

Luo Lang was in the midst of conducting a superlogical deduction when his mind suddenly turned to mush. His thoughts became thick and sluggish. He didn’t feel any pain—his mind simply seemed to freeze, leaving him blank.

Mortar Granny’s lips moved soundlessly, and a sinister curse wrapped itself around Stone Speaker’s body.

Black lines crept up from Stone Speaker’s feet toward his heart.

The lines had only reached his calves when Stone Speaker noticed them in time. “Heh heh. A curse? As insidious as expected. [Gate of Injury: Criminal Procedure]—No one shall be tried twice for the same offense; where there is doubt, presume innocence.”

The curse stopped at his calf. It neither vanished nor continued upward.

President Shepherd of the Hamburger Workshop pondered for a long while before finally making his move.

After taking a bite of a dish whose ingredients were impossible to identify, both his hands transformed into red mantis-shrimp claws. Using the claws, he picked up several tiny iron pellets and aimed them at Stone Speaker’s arm. “[Mantis Shrimp: Supersonic Pellets]!”

His claws acted like superpowered springs, launching the small steel pellets into the air.

The pellets sliced through the air in blurred afterimages and struck Stone Speaker’s arm directly.

Two bloody holes appeared in Stone Speaker’s hand. He didn’t look at the wounds. Instead, he followed the pellets’ trajectory and located President Shepherd.

“[Gate of Obstruction: Administrative Law]—No action without legal authorization; statutory duties must be performed.”

The next time President Shepherd’s marble struck, it could no longer pierce Stone Speaker’s stone-like skin.

Carpenter’s attack caught Stone Speaker somewhat off guard. Splinters appeared between his stone-hard muscles, seemingly alive as they burrowed toward his mouth, ears, and other vulnerable areas.

At first glance, the attack did not seem very powerful. In reality, it was highly effective against a mysterious practitioner who followed such a forceful, hard-hitting path.

“[Gate of Scenery: Many-Cities Technique].” He did not even need to finish reciting the full incantation before the splinters were shaken loose from his body.

The most dangerous attack arrived.

The others might not yet have been fighting to kill, and none had aimed for his vital points.

Silence had held back for a long time. When he finally struck, it was with a killing move.

All outside sounds around Stone Speaker vanished. In his ears, he seemed to hear the sounds of his own blood vessels and heartbeat.

The sounds grew louder and louder, as though his heart would explode and his blood vessels burst the next second.

“Heh heh, it finally came. Terrifying, just as expected. But I wasn’t unprepared. [Gate of Death: Penal Law]. ‘No act is a crime without a written law; each person bears responsibility for their own crimes, and guilt does not implicate their relatives.’”

Stone Speaker’s eardrums were shattered outright by the force of his own roar. Strangely enough, once his eardrums ruptured, his hearing returned instead. The internal sounds disappeared, and the sounds from outside came back.

He slowly began walking toward the area below the platform.

That was where the exit lay.

After taking only a few steps, he stopped.

Someone stood between him and the exit: Mr. Kong, the leader of the Book Chasers.