90: Madam Hollow Arrives
Madam Hollow arrived at the careful preceding small private third secondary gate of the eastern wall of Cloud Sky City at the second hour past midnight on the third day after the eighth week's close — exactly as Lin Wanyue had preceding-time estimated.
She came alone.
Her preceding small private investigation team — six Foundation Late operatives plus two Sovereign Origin Stage Three specialists — had, by Wei Mingfan's preceding small private most recent intelligence flash delivered to the eastern wing at the careful preceding small private hour of one hour past dusk that evening, *split off* at the careful preceding small private hour of three li outside the city's preceding small private southern wall and *taken position* at three different careful preceding small private outlying villages of the city's preceding small private outer ring, in the careful preceding small private hour of one Hollow Veil regional protocol's preceding small private *commander-enters-alone* preceding small private discipline.
Madam Hollow was, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping, *too senior* to risk her preceding small private investigation team in the careful preceding small private hour of an unverified intelligence-line lead.
She would, by her preceding read, *enter alone*, *verify*, and *return to her team* before any preceding small private commitment of the team's preceding small private resources.
The careful preceding small private decision — by Wei Mingfan's preceding read, by Lin Wanyue's preceding read at the foundation platform — *played into the trap's preceding small private armed configuration*.
The careful preceding small private trap had been calibrated to *teleport* whichever cultivator triggered it. With the team split off, only Madam Hollow herself would, by the careful preceding small private hour of the trigger, arrive at the foundation platform's preceding small private interior.
The team would not, by the careful preceding small private hour, arrive.
By the careful preceding small private hour of one trap's preceding small private trigger, the careful preceding small private problem of one Sovereign Apex commander would, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping, become — *one Sovereign Apex commander, alone, at the foundation platform of one Mirror of the Caged Sky, surrounded by one Aeon-of-the-Verdant-Year and one Aeon-of-the-Verdant-Year's preceding small private successor and one Origin-blooded wood-spirit companion, with the careful preceding small private platform's preceding small private substrate-suppression net actively engaged*.
The careful preceding small private outcome of *one Madam Hollow versus that careful preceding small private configuration* was — by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping the kingdom of Beicang's preceding standing record had assembled — *favorable to the configuration*.
Madam Hollow — at the careful preceding small private second hour past midnight, in the careful preceding small private cool spring night of Cloud Sky City — *stepped through the careful preceding small private third secondary gate of the eastern wall*.
Her preceding small private foot crossed the careful preceding small private threshold.
The careful preceding small private substrate-anchor pair at the inner pocket of Su Yan's outer robe — across the careful preceding small private city, at the eastern wing's preceding small private writing room — *triggered*.
Madam Hollow, in the careful preceding small private hour of half a breath, *vanished*.
She arrived, in the careful preceding small private foundation platform of the Mirror of the Caged Sky, at the small careful preceding small private central point of the careful preceding small private platform's preceding small private armed substrate-suppression net.
She had no time to react.
The careful preceding small private platform's preceding small private substrate-suppression net — by the careful preceding small private hour of Lin Wanyue's preceding small private preparation, by Linglong's preceding small private substrate-companion calibration, by the careful preceding small private young Linglong tree's preceding small private substrate-recognition, and by the careful preceding small private hour of one Aeon-of-the-Verdant-Year's preceding small private inheritance — *closed* around her preceding small private substrate.
Her preceding small private substrate, by the careful preceding small private hour of the net's preceding small private closing, was — *suppressed* to *Foundation Establishment Mid*.
By the careful preceding small private hour of one substrate-cultivator's preceding small private suppression from Sovereign Apex to Foundation Establishment Mid, Madam Hollow was — by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping — *no longer the careful preceding small private most powerful cultivator in the careful preceding small private foundation platform's preceding small private interior*.
The careful preceding small private most powerful cultivator was — *Lin Wanyue at Sovereign Apex Stage Three*, by the careful preceding small private hour of Lin Wanyue's *not* having been suppressed.
The careful preceding small private second-most-powerful was — *Su Yan at Nascent Spirit Mid undisplayed*, also unsuppressed.
The careful preceding small private third-most was — Linglong at *Tier-3 Origin-blooded wood-spirit*, unsuppressed.
The careful preceding small private fourth was — Madam Hollow, by the careful preceding small private hour of the net's preceding small private suppression.
She stood, on the careful preceding small private foundation platform's preceding small private silver-gold light, in the careful preceding small private form of a tall thin woman of perhaps forty years' apparent age, in dark-grey traveling robes, with her preceding small private cold pale-green eyes registering — by the careful preceding small private hour of perhaps one breath of preceding small private confused recalibration — that her preceding small private preceding small private investigation entry into Cloud Sky City had, in the small careful preceding small private hour of half a breath, *delivered her into the careful preceding small private trap of one Aeon-of-the-Verdant-Year and her son and the small careful preceding small private wood-spirit companion of her son*.
She inhaled.
She let the inhalation finish.
She inclined her head — small, formal — to Lin Wanyue.
"Verdant Year."
"Madam Hollow."
"By every careful preceding small private bookkeeping I have been preceding-time keeping for the careful preceding small private hour of three months," she said, in her low even voice, "*the careful preceding small private trap is — by my preceding read — the careful preceding small private most beautiful careful preceding small private substrate-mathematics I have ever encountered*. I will, by my own preceding preference, *acknowledge* the careful preceding small private hour of the trap. I would, by my own preceding preference, prefer that we conduct the careful preceding small private hour of the next several careful preceding small private private hours by the careful preceding small private courtesy of two senior cultivators rather than by the careful preceding small private hour of one combat exchange that, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping of the platform's preceding small private suppression net, *I will lose*."
Lin Wanyue inclined her head — small, formal.
"By my own preceding preference, Madam Hollow, *acceptable*."
She turned to her son.
"Yan-er."
"Mother."
"By my preceding preference, *we will conduct the careful preceding small private interrogation* by the careful preceding small private courtesy Madam Hollow has requested. By my preceding read of the careful preceding small private hour, the courtesy will, by every careful preceding small private bookkeeping, *yield* the careful preceding small private intelligence we require by the careful preceding small private hour of *less than a single full day*."
Su Yan inclined his head — small, formal.
"Yes, Mother."
The careful preceding small private *interrogation* — by the careful preceding small private hour of one substrate-anchor pair's preceding small private successful trigger, by the careful preceding small private hour of one Sovereign Apex Hollow Veil commander's preceding small private acknowledged surrender to courtesy, and by the careful preceding small private hour of one Aeon-of-the-Verdant-Year's preceding small private nine-year preceding small private patient preceding small private preparation — *began*, in the silver-gold light of the foundation platform of the Mirror of the Caged Sky, on the careful preceding small private second hour past midnight of one careful preceding small private spring night in the eastern wing of the eighth district of Cloud Sky City of the kingdom of Beicang of the Azure Cloud Continent.