The Nightmare Hound did not move.
That was the detail that anchored Wei Liang's attention more than anything else — not the destroyed wall, not the screaming students pouring toward the exits, not the four instructors materializing their summons on the far side of the arena. The Hound was perfectly still, its void-eyes fixed on Achilles with the focused patience of an animal that has been told to wait and fully intends to.
Shen Wuque descended through the gap in the wall with unhurried steps and came to a stop at the arena's edge. He looked at the Hound. The Hound did not look back at him. Their relationship, Wei Liang understood, was not one of companionship.
It was one of dominance.
"You destroyed school property," Song Baiyu said from behind Wei Liang. Her voice was very level. Her Crane had risen to the rafters and was watching from above, its resonance building low and steady. "And interrupted a sanctioned match."
"The match was already decided," Shen Wuque said, without looking at her. "Your Crane's synchronization was broken. The boy had his sword at its feathers. You lost." A pause. "Accept it."
Something moved through Song Baiyu's expression that was not quite anger. It was the colder thing that lives beneath anger.
"What do you mean," Wei Liang said quietly, "the people who ended my father's life. He died at the Crimson Pass. Against the beast horde."
"He died at the Crimson Pass," Shen Wuque agreed. "The question is who opened the Pass to the horde in the first place."
The arena had emptied around them. Only Wei Liang, Song Baiyu, the four instructors at the far wall, and Inspector Luo Mingzhi remained — the Inspector standing very still in the gallery tier, his hand resting on the imperial seal at his belt but not yet pressing it.
Watching.
"That's a very large claim to make in front of an imperial court observer," Wei Liang said.
"I know. That's why I made it here." Shen Wuque finally looked at Luo Mingzhi, briefly, and then back. "There are people in this city who have been waiting twelve years for the Iron Spear's son to become inconvenient. You've become inconvenient rather faster than they anticipated."
"And you? Which side are you on?"
"I am on the side that sent me to assess you before deciding." He raised the black jade ring. The Nightmare Hound's weight shifted to its front legs. "Shall we?"
✦ ✦ ✦
Gao Ren's voice cracked across the arena like his iron staff on stone.
"Stand down. Both parties. Now."
The Senior Instructor had materialized on the arena floor itself — not through the competitor's corridor but directly, stepping from his summon's spatial ability, his expression the particular kind of controlled fury that in twenty-three years of teaching had preceded exactly three expulsions.
Shen Wuque looked at him with the patience of someone who has already calculated this variable.
"Senior Instructor Gao. I am a registered guest of the Ministry of External Affairs. My visit is documented."
"Your visit involved destroying a structural wall."
"The wall will be restored. I have the artisans waiting outside."
A beat of silence. Gao Ren's gaze moved to Wei Liang — checking, assessing — and then back to the boy in dark blue.
"Ministry of External Affairs," Inspector Luo said from the gallery, measured and careful. "Which division?"
"The Third."
A silence with a different quality settled over the arena. The Third Division of External Affairs was not a department most people discussed by name. It handled matters that existed in the space between diplomacy and the things that could not be called diplomacy.
Luo Mingzhi descended the gallery steps with the unhurried pace of a man who has just made a significant decision.
"Recall your beast," he said to Shen Wuque. "You have delivered your message. The rest can wait for a room with fewer witnesses."
Shen Wuque considered this for a moment. Then he lowered the jade ring.
The Nightmare Hound dissolved into its diagram with a sound like an intake of breath, and the arena exhaled.
✦ ✦ ✦
They convened in Headmaster Fang's private study — Wei Liang, Song Baiyu, Gao Ren, Inspector Luo, and Shen Wuque, who had accepted a seat and a cup of tea with the ease of someone who crashes institutions regularly and finds the hospitality variable.
Headmaster Fang himself stood behind his desk and said very little, which was the most alarming thing about him.
"The Crimson Pass," Luo Mingzhi began, setting his tea down. "Twelve years ago. The beast horde numbered one hundred and forty thousand — a figure that has never been publicly disclosed. The official record states eighty thousand."
Wei Liang's hands rested on his knees without moving.
"One hundred and forty thousand cannot spontaneously mass at a single pass without coordination," Luo continued. "Beast hordes of that scale require a draw — a lure powerful enough to pull the outer ranges inward. The beast lords do not abandon their territories without reason."
"My father's summon," Wei Liang said.
"The Gold Eater Colossus, yes. A tier-nine entity. Its energy signature was — and remains — unique. Detectable at range by any beast of sufficient intelligence." A pause. "Someone exposed your father's position to the horde before the evacuation was complete. The order to hold the pass came from the Military Council. Three members of that council had financial interests in the eastern provinces being accessible to outside parties once the civilian population vacated."
The room was very quiet.
"They used my father to draw the horde," Wei Liang said. "And then used the horde to justify holding the pass. He did not know."
"He knew something was wrong," Gao Ren said, which was not something Wei Liang had expected him to say. The Senior Instructor was looking at the wall, not at any of them. "He sent a letter. Three days before the Pass. I received it six days after his death, by which time the investigation had already been sealed."
Wei Liang looked at him.
"You never said anything."
"I had no proof. And you were four years old."
The silence stretched.
Shen Wuque had been watching this exchange with his head tilted slightly, the expression of a man who came to deliver a bomb and is now observing the detonation with professional interest.
"The three council members," Wei Liang said, turning back to him. "Are they still alive?"
"Two are. The third died of natural causes four years ago, which is either coincidence or courtesy, depending on who you ask." Shen Wuque set his tea down. "The two who remain have been watching your progress since you enrolled. When your summon was classified as unclassified — when the measuring stone failed to give a number — they moved their interest from observation to action."
"Hence you."
"Hence me." He looked at Wei Liang steadily. "I was sent to assess whether you were a threat worth eliminating or an asset worth acquiring. I have not yet submitted my report."
"What will it say?"
Shen Wuque was quiet for a long moment.
"I have not decided," he said. And for the first time, the contempt in his expression was absent. What replaced it was something harder to categorize. "I will let you know."