A brief silence hung in the air like a drawn bowstring, stretched to the absolute limit and threatening to snap.
Not a pin dropped in the grand hall. Only the faint, occasional crackle of burning candles could be heard, along with the muffled sound of officials swallowing hard in tension. The air was thick, resembling congealed grease.
At the front of the civil officials' ranks, a figure dressed in deep purple robes embroidered with soaring cranes—like a venomous snake coiled in the shadows—finally began to stir.
Chapter 325