89: The Eight Weeks
The eight weeks of preparation passed by the small careful preceding small private hour of the household's preceding standing rhythm.
Lin Wanyue, by her own preceding preference, conducted the careful preceding small private substrate-anchor calibration of every gate of Cloud Sky City and every secondary entry across the careful preceding small private hour of the past eight weeks, by the careful preceding small private route of one or two daily walks through the city's preceding small private outer districts in the careful preceding small private courtesy of a clansman's wife on her preceding small private leisurely afternoon errand. The household — by Cousin Su Lin's preceding standing arrangement — had been informed, by the small careful preceding small private cover-story, that *the young master's mother had returned home from a long preceding small private absence* and was, by her preceding preference, *re-acquainting herself with the careful preceding small private kingdom of Beicang's preceding small private capital city*.
The cover-story held.
The careful preceding small private city's careful preceding small private substrate registered, by Su Yan's preceding small private substrate-sight read at the close of each evening, the careful preceding small private gates' preceding small private fresh substrate-anchor signatures.
By the careful preceding small private close of the sixth week, every careful preceding small private gate of Cloud Sky City and every careful preceding small private secondary entry — *thirty-seven careful preceding small private endpoints in total* — had been calibrated.
By the careful preceding small private close of the seventh week, the substrate-anchor pair Su Yan carried at the inner pocket of his outer robe had been re-armed, by the careful preceding small private hour of his mother's preceding small private re-calibration ritual, with the careful preceding small private new *trigger pattern*. The pattern would, by the careful preceding small private hour of the trap's preceding small private armed configuration, *teleport* whichever cultivator triggered any of the thirty-seven endpoints, in the small precise unhurried preceding hour of half a breath, to the careful preceding small private foundation platform of the Mirror.
By the careful preceding small private close of the seventh week, the careful preceding small private foundation platform of the Mirror had — by Lin Wanyue's preceding small private preparation, by Linglong's preceding small private substrate-companion calibration, and by the careful preceding small private one-and-a-half-year-old young Linglong tree's preceding small private substrate-recognition — been *armed* as the careful preceding small private *receiving end* of the careful preceding small private trap.
The platform's preceding small private interior would, by the careful preceding small private hour of the trap's preceding small private trigger, *seal* any cultivator who arrived there by the careful preceding small private hour of one substrate-suppression net the platform's preceding small private living foundation had — by Linglong's preceding small private growing tree-mother's preceding small private substrate cooperation — *built*.
The seal would, by Lin Wanyue's preceding small private read, *hold* any Sovereign Apex cultivator for at least *the careful preceding small private hour of one full day*.
In one full day, by Lin Wanyue's preceding preference, *she* — by her own preceding small private preceding hour of nine years and three months of careful preceding small private preceding planning, by every careful preceding small private substrate-mathematics of the seventh book of the cellar set, and by the careful preceding small private hour of the substrate-anchor pair's preceding small private second calibration — would, with Su Yan and Linglong at the foundation platform, *conduct the careful preceding small private soul-cultivation interrogation* of the careful preceding small private cultivator who had been preceding-time hunting Su Yan, the careful preceding small private Aleph-line, and the careful preceding small private Bai-jing clan's careful preceding small private remaining eleven members for the past ten years.
By the close of the interrogation — by Lin Wanyue's preceding read — the careful preceding small private interrogated cultivator would, by the careful preceding small private hour of the interrogation's preceding small private completion, *also* be *sealed permanently* into the foundation platform's preceding small private interior, where she would — by the careful preceding small private hour of the platform's preceding standing arrangement — *remain*, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping of the careful preceding small private next several centuries, *unable to communicate with her preceding small private chain of command and unable to be retrieved by any of the chain's preceding small private operatives*.
By the careful preceding small private close of the seventh week, the trap was *armed*.
By the careful preceding small private close of the eighth week, by the careful preceding small private Bureau's preceding small private most recent quarterly file delivered by Wei Mingfan to the eastern wing on the morning of the seventh day of the eighth week, *Madam Hollow's preceding small private investigation team* had — by every careful preceding small private intelligence-line — *crossed* the careful preceding small private kingdom of Beicang's preceding small private southern border on the careful preceding small private second day of the eighth week. The team was, by Wei Mingfan's preceding read, *eight days from Cloud Sky City* at the unhurried pace of an investigation team conducting careful preceding small private route-by-route preceding small private surveillance.
By the careful preceding small private hour of the eighth day of the eighth week, the team would, by every careful preceding small private estimate, *arrive at one of the careful preceding small private city's preceding small private gates*.
The household, by Cousin Su Lin's preceding standing arrangement, *did not register* the team's preceding small private approach.
The kingdom of Beicang's preceding small private senior cultivators, by the careful preceding small private hour of one preceding small private quiet Bureau preceding small private private intelligence channel, *also* did not register.
Only the careful preceding small private four members of the careful preceding small private trap's preceding small private armed circle — *Lin Wanyue, Su Yan, Linglong, and Wei Mingfan* — knew.
By the careful preceding small private close of the eighth day of the eighth week, the careful preceding small private hour of the trap's preceding small private trigger was — *one to three days* away, depending on which of the careful preceding small private gates Madam Hollow chose.
In his chest, the ember pulsed — slow, considered, *grave*.
The dry voice — for the first time in the careful preceding small private hour of three months — said: *Be careful. The careful preceding small private hour ahead is, by my preceding read, the careful preceding small private most operationally dangerous of your preceding-time first arc. Madam Hollow is — by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping — *not* a careful preceding small private opponent who has, in any of her preceding small private hundred preceding-time engagements, *been sealed*. She is, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping, *the careful preceding small private cultivator who has, by her preceding small private hundred engagements, *sealed others*. The careful preceding small private trap will, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping, *trigger correctly*. The careful preceding small private interrogation will, by my preceding read, be — *the careful preceding small private hour of one mother's preceding small private mathematical confrontation with one cultivator who knows, by her preceding small private hundred engagements, every careful preceding small private substrate-trick the careful preceding small private mathematics of one Aleph-line might preceding-time deploy*. The careful preceding small private hour of the interrogation's preceding small private outcome — by my preceding read — is, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping, *not preceding-time guaranteed*.*
Su Yan inclined his head, in the careful preceding small private dim of his mother's writing room, in the direction of the ember.
He did not, by his preceding preference, allow his face to register the careful preceding small private warning.
But the careful preceding small private hour of the next several days — by the careful preceding small private hour of one ember's preceding small private grave warning — *gained* a careful preceding small private private weight that the past eight weeks of preparation had not, by their preceding small private rhythm, prepared him for.
He inhaled.
He let the inhalation finish.
He inclined his head — small, formal — to his mother, who had — by the careful preceding small private hour of his preceding small private head's careful preceding small private inclination — also turned to look at him from her writing-table.
She inclined her head — small, formal — in return.
She did not, by her preceding preference, ask what the ember had said.
She did, however, by her preceding preference, smile — very small, very brief — the careful preceding small private smile of one Aeon-of-the-Verdant-Year who had — by her own preceding preference for the careful preceding small private hour of nine years and three months of preceding small private waiting — preceding-time decided that the careful preceding small private hour of any preceding small private engagement with Madam Hollow would be conducted *by her preceding preference* and not by Madam Hollow's, regardless of the careful preceding small private outcome's preceding small private uncertainty.
The careful preceding small private smile, by every careful preceding small private read of one mother's preceding small private substrate, was the careful preceding small private smile of one cultivator who had been preceding-time preparing this preceding small private hour for a very, very long time.
The careful preceding small private hour of *Madam Hollow's preceding small private arrival* — by the careful preceding small private hour of the next two to three days — *was, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping, imminent*.