At the hour of Yin, the rhythmic striking of the watchman’s clapper pierced the thinning mist. Shen Xitang’s silver needle carved the final mark into the stele of incriminating evidence.
Xiao Heng pressed the tip of his sword against the bronze mechanism hidden at the base of the monument. With a harsh grating of dark iron against rusted copper, a "click" echoed out, and the stele split open by three inches, revealing the gilded *Secret Files of the Directorate of Armament* housed within.
"To think the Han Faction would cast the evidence directly into the stone." Shen Xitang’s fingertips brushed over the dried bloodstains on the documents the moment the saltpeter solution was splashed upon them.
Chapter 84