The air on the mid-level of the tower was trembling.
It wasn't the bell, and it wasn't the wind from the abyss. It was the sound of god-army chains higher up grinding through the air—that cold, metallic hum.
[High Gods' Legion · First Sequence approaching.]
[Task: supervise the New Covenant Council; activate Emergency Defense Clauses if necessary.]
The prompt the world issued was as cold as stone.
Qi Luo sat on the Temporary Administrator's Observer Seat and glanced upward.
Through the vision of the chains, he could see it clearly:
Above the temple, legion after legion in light armor followed the High Gods' Legion chains down toward the edge of the abyss. Their war-flags bore no crests, only lines of razor-sharp text:
[Right to Maintain Order]
[Right of Emergency Takeover]
[Authorization of Force to Prevent Structural Collapse]
This was the Old Covenant's favorite set of buzzwords.
——You want a council?
——Let me "maintain order" for you first.
"They have no intention of just supervising," Ruan Ji said beside him, her gaze cold and heavy.
The Hunter chains inside her drew taut, sensing the approach of a system of the same origin.
"They plan to smash the venue along with everything else."
Outside the tower, the wind changed.
Wind that had been blowing in from all directions was squeezed into a single current, slamming straight down. It hit the outer wall of the Clocktower, making the stone bricks tremble.
Over Rust Street, someone looked up and saw a "cloud" flying toward the tower.
On closer look, it wasn't a cloud at all, but a full formation of light-wrapped figures.
"The divine legions are here!" someone cried.
At the edge of the abyss, remnants of the Fallen Knights and warriors of various races—who had arrived early—were already forming a line around the outer ring of the tower.
Cen Duo, the old leader of the Fallen Knights, had already burned himself out in the great hall, but not every knight had gone to ash that night.
There were always some hiding in the shadows, waiting for the next breach of covenant.
Their armor was rusted through. The chest-stripes that had once represented their "atonement years" had been slashed over and over by their own hands and recarved with rough symbols:
——Not the main gods' crests, but a simple ring with a single line across it.
It was the sketched mark Qi Luo had drawn for the New Covenant Council.
"Whoever stands here today," a young Fallen Knight said coldly to the people beside him, visor down,
"their name goes in the register as 'first batch to attend the council'."
Next to him, a minor-god representative nervously bundled its own glow tighter.
"I used to be just a little god in charge of migraines…" it said weakly. "I don't think I'm very suited to blocking divine legions."
"You're the 'minor-gods' seat representative' now."
The knight slapped its glow-ball with the face of his shield.
"Job changed."
Farther out in the air, winged clan fliers formed a circle, their Flight Redemption Clauses burning along their wings; from an abandoned tunnel, a squad of runic machinery rumbled out, rusted wheels carved over with crude new lettering:
[NO MORE FREE SERVICE]
This was the gatekeeping lineup of all those "oppressed by the Old Covenant."
And what they were about to face were divine legions backed by a full stack of "order clauses."
——
Mid-level of the Clocktower, inside the council ring.
The self-check module gave a terse prompt:
[Divine legions about to enter New Covenant Council spirit-chain's influence range.]
[Suggestion: define "boundary between war and council" to avoid system confusion.]
Qi Luo rose from the observer's seat and walked toward the inner edge of the council ring.
At the central speaking platform, Ruan Ji had just stepped down, leaving it briefly empty.
On the high seats, a tall godlike projection stood and slowly descended toward the mid-level—his projection slid down along the god-chains, forming a clear outline on the far side of the speaking platform.
This was not a mortal priest, but a direct agent under the High Gods' Group.
The name the world gave him was simple:
[High Gods' Group Agent · Yuan Heng]
No flowery titles, no strings of honors, just one heavy word: "agent."
The god-chain behind him was as thick as a pillar, wrapped round and round with words like "Supervision," "Trusteeship," "Emergency Takeover."
On the mortal seats, someone instinctively hunched their neck.
"Is that like… a lawyer for the gods?" the Rust Street craftsman whispered.
"Close enough," the old priest murmured. "More like the one holding the original copy of the master covenant."
"So who goes up for us?" the craftsman asked, glancing at Qi Luo.
"The temporary administrator," the priest said.
"——The one holding the draft."
When Qi Luo stepped onto the speaking platform, the self-check module showed its identity confirmation:
[Speaker: Temporary Administrator · Qi Luo.]
[Opposing seat: High Gods' Group Agent · Yuan Heng.]
[Agenda: whether the New Covenant Council has the authority to keep operating while "Divine War" and "Clause War" run in parallel.]
——Divine War, and Clause War.
The world itself knew these were two different kinds of war.
Yuan Heng's projection looked at Qi Luo, his gaze like the bottom of the sea.
"Key," he said.
His voice wasn't loud, yet it rang clearly around every seat.
"You opened a council."
"Good."
"But you forgot one prerequisite."
"A council must be held on the premise that order is controllable."
"When order is about to collapse, defense has higher priority than discussion."
Qi Luo looked up at him, expression mild. "You're trying to shut the council down?"
"Not shut," Yuan Heng said.
"Pause."
He raised a hand, and a new clause-framework unfurled behind him.
[High Gods' Group Proposal · Emergency Defense Supplemental Clauses (Draft):]
[1. When the world's overall structure shows signs of instability due to large-scale council activity and multi-party noise, the High Gods' Group shall have the right to temporarily suspend operation of the New Covenant Council to ensure the safety of the city-body and abyssal interface.]
[2. During suspension, no seat may initiate new clause discussions or modifications in the name of the council.]
[3. Once order is restored, the High Gods' Group shall evaluate whether the council may resume.]
"This is only a supplemental clause." Yuan Heng turned his head to the mortal and minor-god seats.
"You hold the council, we defend the city."
"We're good at this."
"You just give up a tiny bit of authority, wait for us to finish the war first."
On the mortal seats, someone muttered under their breath,
"Sounds… not completely unreasonable, actually."
"I mean, if there's a war, pausing the council so the city doesn't collapse…"
"Are you stupid?" the person next to him elbowed him.
"The city's collapsing because his war is hammering it."
"And now he's proposing that when he hits things hard enough, we shut up, and after he's done, he'll see how many of us are left and then maybe let us talk."
Over on the minor-gods' side, some glow-balls were wavering; others were plainly flickering with unease.
Qi Luo didn't rush to refute anything. He was reading the clauses.
On the screen, the Emergency Defense Supplemental Clauses looked simple: three articles, neat structure, cautious wording.
But he knew the High Gods' Group was never that "honest."
"Scroll," he said to the world.
The screen slid down, revealing a section of fine-print that had been squeezed small:
[4. "World overall structural instability" shall be determined by the High Gods' Group and its authorized agents. The council shall have no right to challenge said determination.]
[5. If the council itself is deemed to be the cause of structural instability, the High Gods' Group may activate Temporary Trusteeship Clauses and take over management of the council spirit-chain.]
[6. During temporary trusteeship, the High Gods' Group shall have the right to adjust the standards for council participation.]
Qi Luo let out a soft laugh.
"There it is," he said.
"Trusteeship, takeover, adjustment of qualifications."
"You're not defending. You're waiting to move in the second the council stumbles and carry the whole thing back to your side."
Yuan Heng didn't deny it.
"The world needs a single hand on the helm," he said.
"Too many hands, and the ship capsizes."
"We have experience."
"You have wounds."
His gaze brushed past the invisible New Covenant cost node in Qi Luo's chest.
"You're fit to be witnesses, to be case studies," he said. "Not helmsmen."
Qi Luo didn't argue over who was "more fit" to steer.
He simply lifted a hand and pointed upward.
"You think the structure is unstable because we're holding a council," he said evenly.
"Or because you brought the legions down to smash things?"
Yuan Heng's brows twitched almost imperceptibly.
"We are fulfilling our defensive duty."
"Defending against who?"
Qi Luo tilted his head. "Defending against us, who are sitting here talking? Or against the rollback contingency plans that you yourselves wrote?"
Outside, the roar of divine war exploded like thunder, as if on cue with his question.
——
Outside the tower, the first wave of divine legions had already crashed into the remnants of the Fallen Knights.
Light armor against rusted steel. Clauses against breach of covenant.
Under the envoys' feet ran the cold, clear text of the legion war-covenant:
[Obey orders.]
[Advance in prescribed sequence.]
[Upon encountering resistance, mete out punishment under "Disturbance of Order" clauses.]
Under the Fallen Knights' feet, the text was rough, re-carved by their own hands:
[No more unconditional obedience to divine orders.]
[Protect mortals and minor gods during the council proceedings.]
[My own name may be erased; the names I shield must be remembered.]
A divine envoy raised his hand, blade of light falling toward a knight blocking the stair.
In midair, the light-blade jolted, as if it had struck something invisible.
In his vision, a line of text flashed:
[Reminder: within the New Covenant Council spirit-chain's range, execution of Name-Erasure or comparable acts of total removal is forbidden.]
[Current action determination: excessive.]
The blade swerved off by sheer force, slicing only half the knight's cape.
The envoy's face changed. He immediately adjusted, shifting from "erasure" to "injury."
The knight whose cape had been torn laughed, raising his shield to take the hit head-on.
"See?" he shouted to a winged youth beside him. "Even the world won't let them wipe people out at will here."
"So we just hold until they're done talking."
The winged youth clenched his teeth, spreading wings carved full of Flight Redemption Clauses as he twisted in midair to clash with another envoy.
At some point, a new line popped up on his chains:
[You may temporarily be regarded as a "New Covenant Council security collaborator", and shall be granted limited justification to "阻止暴力干预 (prevent violent interference)".]
In its own way, the world was granting these "irregular defenders" a sliver of legitimacy.
This divine war was no longer a simple contest of power.
In the world of clauses, both sides' restraints were being recalculated.
——
Mid-level of the tower, on the battlefield of clauses.
Qi Luo raised a hand, pointing at the Emergency Defense Clauses behind Yuan Heng.
"You propose to 'suspend the council' on the grounds of 'overall structural instability'," he said.
"You give yourselves the sole authority to define 'instability,' then write that you can 'trustee the council spirit-chain.'"
"That's not defense."
"That's using the crisis to grab the venue."
On the mortal seats, someone couldn't help clapping before being yanked back down.
On the minor-gods' side, a glow-ball swayed. "He… makes some sense," it whispered.
Yuan Heng's expression didn't flicker. "You may oppose it. You may propose an amendment."
"The world will evaluate which version is more conducive to stability."
"What do you have?"
Qi Luo smiled.
"I won't touch your first two clauses," he said.
"I'll even concede this much—when the city really is about to collapse, the council can and should give way."
"But there's a prerequisite."
He lifted his hand and wrote a new line of fine print into the screen, inserting it just before Clause Four:
[Supplement to Clause Four: any party applying to suspend the council on the grounds of "structural instability" shall not be eligible for "temporary trusteeship" or "takeover of council spirit-chain management" if their own behavior constitutes the primary cause of said instability.]
[Such behavior shall only be recognized as "self-correction".]
[Trusteeship authority shall be transferred to a third-party node not involved in causing the instability.]
The moment that line went in, the self-check module clearly stalled.
It began a lightning-fast comparison:
[Current sources of structural instability:]
[——Large-scale mobilization of divine legions;]
[——High-altitude clause conflict;]
[——Effects of suspended rollback contingencies;]
[——Noise from the New Covenant Council.]
[Proportions: legion mobilization and associated clauses: approximately XX%; council noise: approximately XX%; others: approximately XX%.]
Qi Luo watched the percentages appear one by one, the corner of his mouth curling in a barely visible arc.
"You say the council is what's destabilizing things," he said, looking up at Yuan Heng.
"The world says your legions are the main cause."
Yuan Heng's projection shivered faintly.
"You've tampered with the proposal," he said softly.
"I appended a note to your proposal," Qi Luo replied.
"You wrote 'who gets to trustee'; I wrote 'who doesn't get to trustee'."
"Now the world has to answer a question—"
He turned his hand directly toward the world.
"When one party is both the primary source of the problem and the applicant to be its sole resolver," he said,
"shall that behavior be treated as 'self-correction'?"
The self-check module reluctantly spat out a line it hated to write:
[Detected: logical paradox tendency.]
[Single party is both main source of the issue and sole applicant to resolve it.]
[Under the logic of the new clause "Errors shall not be cleared to zero, but recorded and corrected", such a party shall be recognized as possessing only "self-correction" qualification, not trusteeship over others.]
[Suggestion: in such cases, trusteeship authority shall be granted to a third-party node not involved in causing instability.]
On the high seats, the color of the main gods' projections shifted.
For the first time, they watched the world's side-notes stop patching for them—and start dismantling their language instead.
Yuan Heng stared at Qi Luo.
"Third-party node?" he said quietly. "Who do you have in mind?"
Qi Luo pointed at the council spirit-chain ring—then tapped the space at his chest.
There, the world had just added a line of text:
[New Covenant Council spirit-chain: currently in trial operation; possesses limited structural adjustment capability.]
[Temporary Administrator node: Qi Luo.]
His smile was slow.
"You say the council can be put under trusteeship, and I agree," he said.
"But given that you're already the primary source of instability, the trusteeship doesn't go to you."
"It goes to us."
"To the New Covenant Council spirit-chain."
"To here."
His fingertip stopped on two words——"Temporary Administrator."
On the mortal seats, someone shot to their feet.
"Doesn't this mean—" The Rust Street craftsman's voice shook with excitement. "—every time they stir up trouble, the world cuts off a slice of power and hands it to us?"
On the minor-gods' seats, the little glow that had been shrinking in the corner flared brighter.
"Just a slice is fine," it said, voice trembling. "We've never touched this level of authority before…"
Yuan Heng's projection visibly froze for a second.
"The world will not—" he began.
The self-check module cut him off:
[To mitigate current structural instability caused by large-scale legion activity, the "supplemental note on transfer of trusteeship authority" shall be immediately activated.]
[A portion of "local order-management authority around the Abyssal Clocktower" shall be temporarily remapped from the High Gods' Legion chains to the New Covenant Council spirit-chain and Temporary Administrator node.]
[Scope:]
[——Within and around the Clocktower for a set period, divine legions shall not unilaterally expand their authorization to use force.]
[——Any attempt to "suspend the council" shall be subject to joint review by the New Covenant Council spirit-chain.]
[This adjustment shall be re-evaluated once the situation improves.]
Qi Luo clearly felt the halo above his head brighten.
Some of the authority phrases that had been glued to the legion chains shook loose and slid toward the ring of light, as if some unseen power had pulled a stack of pages over to it.
Outside the tower, the weapons of the divine legions stuttered again in mid-swing.
The legion chains under the envoys' feet refreshed at high speed:
[Authority update:]
[——Existing clause "may suspend council when necessary" has been marked as "subject to council joint review".]
[——Existing permission "free entry and exit of spirit-chain range" has been temporarily curtailed.]
[Unauthorized crashing through council boundaries shall be recorded as "breach of trusteeship agreement".]
"What's going on?" a divine envoy roared, runes on his light armor thrown into chaos. "Who altered our covenant?"
"The world," an older envoy said grimly.
He stared at the cold line reading "partial transfer of trusteeship authority" beneath his feet and clenched his jaw.
"It was the world itself."
On the Fallen Knights' side, someone let out a rough laugh.
"See that?"
"They tried to hijack the council and got flagged as 'source of the problem' by the system."
"So management authority got cut a slice and handed to us."
Panting, the winged youth wiped blood from his mouth and tilted his head to look at the halo glowing brighter above.
"So we're not just fighting down here," he said.
"We're also… pulling authority up there."
——
Mid-level of the Clocktower. The clause war went on.
Yuan Heng's projection had grown heavy.
"You used that line 'Errors shall not be cleared to zero' against us," he said, watching Qi Luo.
"You forced the world to acknowledge who's causing the problem."
"You know perfectly well this chaos can't be settled without the legions."
"Yet you used it to seize part of order-management."
Qi Luo shrugged.
"You proposed it; I annotated it."
"We're negotiating on the table."
"You tried to press the council down with Emergency Defense Clauses; I twisted the blade back with 'bear your own errors'."
"That's called a clause war, not a robbery."
He pointed at the proposal behind Yuan Heng.
"This one, I don't reject in full," he said.
"When structure really is about to collapse, the council should pause."
"But whether it pauses or not cannot depend solely on your word."
"You want more military credit? Fine."
"You want to use that to slam the council back into rollback? No."
Yuan Heng fell silent for two beats.
The god-chain behind him rolled and surged, like a sea turning over in its depths.
At last, he raised a hand and wiped out half a sentence after Clause Four, leaving only:
[4. Determination of "structural instability" shall be based on comprehensive evaluation by the world's self-check module.]
[If caused primarily by the actions of a single party, said party shall not possess trusteeship over others.]
This was how he kept a shred of face after the world had already leaned one way.
On the surface, he was accepting the world's new stance; in reality, he was locking the "third-party node" as tightly as possible into that single line—"self-check module"—never again explicitly naming the New Covenant Council.
Qi Luo saw it and smiled.
"You're still trying to route around us," he said.
"But you're already a step late."
In his own vision, the line the world had just written on the master covenant's edge—"trusteeship authority may be transferred to the New Covenant Council spirit-chain and Temporary Administrator node"—had already been stamped into the record with a tag that read "not recommended for deletion."
Which meant that even if the wording was modified later, the underlying route had been carved into the system.
"Yuan Heng," Qi Luo said, smile fading, voice turning serious.
"You're not going to smash every single council with legions."
"There will come a day when the world learns to stop hitting 'rollback' and instead sit down and balance the books."
"When that day comes, if you're still seated in that ring—"
"You'd better decide ahead of time what you're going to write into your covenant."
"'Always correct,' or 'has the right to amend when wrong'."
Yuan Heng looked quietly at him.
"You want us to become the second kind?" he asked.
Qi Luo thought of the Shadow down in the abyss, saying softly:
——"Errors need someone to stand there too."
"I want the world to admit that you can be wrong," Qi Luo said.
"Only then will you stop using 'rollback' to run from it."
"Stop tearing out the whole page every time you miss a line."
He paused, raising his eyes to the cold gods on the high seats.
"This isn't for your sake."
"This is to force you—"
"——to live a little more like humans."
Someone on the mortal seats let out a low laugh that caught in their nose halfway through.
On the minor-gods' ring, a weak little glow swayed, as if it had mustered a bit of courage.
On the high seats, a main god's projection suddenly spoke, voice low.
"Qi Luo."
"You're quite good at hiding blades in the text."
"You dragged out a line we'd buried."
"But you're also carving the handle of the knife into your own bones."
Qi Luo pressed a hand lightly to his chest.
The pain at the New Covenant cost node sank another layer deeper.
[Cost of the New Covenant: 7...8...]
Every time he made the world give up a little of its rollback convenience, another mark went on his account.
"I know," he said softly. "That's the job of a temporary administrator."
Yuan Heng looked at him.
For a long time, he said nothing at all.
Only when the divine war outside the tower edged back from its fiercest peak did the self-check module produce a mid-battle report:
[Current structural instability level: slightly alleviated.]
[Cause: legion authority partially restricted; New Covenant Council spirit-chain has begun bearing part of adjustment function.]
[Conclusion: continuing the council will not immediately cause collapse of the city-body.]
In the end, Yuan Heng closed the Emergency Defense Clauses screen.
"The High Gods' Group will not activate suspension authority—for now," he said.
"We will continue… supervising."
The word "supervising" carried a very obvious bite.
It was their first time tasting, even in a tiny local area, what it meant for authority to be "placed under trusteeship."
Qi Luo nodded.
"You're welcome to keep watching," he said.
"From now on, you have to watch every single line."
He returned to the observer's seat and sat down.
Ruan Ji walked back to his side and let out a slow breath.
"That clause you caught just now," she said. "If you'd let it slide in, all they'd have to do from now on is stir up enough 'instability' down here in the mortal world."
"Then they'd declare 'the structure is on the verge of collapse' and the world would hand authority back into their hands under that clause."
"How did you think of that supplement?"
Qi Luo turned his head to look at her.
"Rust Street," he said.
"The most common trap in loan covenants used to be—'If force majeure causes breach, lender has the right to recall all assets early.'"
"And 'force majeure' always ended up being interpreted as 'you being poor'."
"So when I rewrote covenants for people, the first thing I'd write was—"
"'If the lender's behavior is also among the causes of the breach, they may not invoke this clause.'"
"The world is just a slightly bigger loan house than Rust Street."
"I'm just copying the same language over."
Ruan Ji blinked, then couldn't help laughing.
The laugh held a trace of long-lost ease, and a deeper tension for the future.
"The legions are still outside," she said.
"The main gods have shelved that clause for now, but they won't let this go."
"They'll keep trying to cram other things into the New Covenant."
"Then we'll keep catching them," Qi Luo said, leaning back against the stone wall and closing his eyes for a moment.
"Today we caught 'emergency trusteeship'."
"Next time—it'll probably be 'interpretation rights'."
He could already picture that day—
Some god representative proposing:
[All rights of interpretation over ambiguous areas shall belong to the High Gods' Group.]
When that time came, he'd have to chop "interpretation rights" into pieces and pry some of them out of divine hands: for humans, for minor gods, for the council.
Every time he pried out a piece, the line "this name may be deleted at any time" carved in his bones would sink a little deeper.
"Qi Luo," Ruan Ji suddenly called.
"Mm?"
"Can you promise me something?" She fixed her eyes on him.
"Before the New Covenant is finished—"
"Don't let yourself be deleted."
Qi Luo slowly opened his eyes.
"I promise," he said.
"Until the New Covenant is finished, I won't press that key myself."
"As for whether the world will reach in at midnight and do it for me—"
He spread his hands.
"That depends on whether we can pull enough authority over to our side before then."
Above the tower, the light of the New Covenant Council spirit-chain had grown steadier.
Mortals, minor gods, other races, and even the main gods' representatives who were barely suppressing their anger to "supervise" were all tied together by this chain.
Deep within the chain, a fine line of text was quietly written by the world:
[First concurrent event of Divine War and Clause War:]
[Result:]
[——Legion force failed to successfully suspend the council.]
[——Attempt to insert Emergency Trusteeship Clauses was detected and corrected.]
[——Portion of order-management authority temporarily ceded to New Covenant Council structure.]
[Note:]
[This shall become an important case for future discussions of "boundaries of divine authority".]
Qi Luo did not see this line——
Because it was a memo the world wrote for itself.
But he could feel it.
Every time a main god tried to slip in a hidden stripe into the New Covenant, it was like a sharp needle skimming past his bones.
Every time he caught one, the needle stayed in the paper instead, a specimen for future study on "how the Old Covenant was dismantled."
——The clause war had only just begun.
——The divine war still raged outside the tower.
——And above the smoke and godfire, a new spirit-chain was quietly nudging the structure of authority toward another future.