Kaelen Ashwright immediately took a breath."Lao Moonriver. Dark essence technique, Third Heaven, two hundred and two years ago."He was cataloging now, voice settling into a rhythm that was almost recitation."Classified as forbidden because the technique drew on lunar essence rather than standard spiritual energy. He was a fisherman's son. Learned it from a fragment of an ancient text his father found in a fishing net.”“Lao Moonriver never hurt anyone. He used it to protect his village from a demon incursion that three orthodox sects had declined to handle because there wasn't sufficient payment in it.”“He saved approximately four hundred lives. The Elders arrived two weeks later and arrested him for unauthorized use of a classified forbidden technique. Executed.""Su Winterbright," he continued, without pause this time around."A variation of essence absorption that she called Breath Stealing, which in practice was almost identical to what you've described to me as Essence Devour

"The first one I know of directly was a man named Shou Irongrasp," she said. "He was a blacksmith. Ordinary. No cultivation at all.”“He entered the tournament eight years ago because his daughter had been diagnosed with a cultivation deviation that was destroying her meridians from the inside, and the only treatment was a high-grade stabilizing pill that cost more than everything he owned combined.”“The Meridian Restoration Pill was not what she needed, but he thought he could sell it and use the proceeds to buy the treatment she actually required." Old Moth paused. "He died in his first match. His opponent was a Qi Condensation cultivator.”“The match lasted forty-five seconds. Shou managed to land two strikes with a hammer he'd brought, both of which were deflected by basic cultivation reinforcement that the hammer couldn't penetrate.”“His opponent didn't even bother with technique. Just a single palm strike to the sternum." Her voice remained flat and factual. "The tournament

The headquarters of the Mortal Coil Enforcement Authority occupied the only stone building in the City of Dust that had been constructed with any genuine intention of permanence. Everything else in the district had been built the way the Mortal Coil built everything: fast, cheap, and with the understanding that it would either collapse or be torn down within a generation to make room for something equally temporary. But the Enforcement Authority's headquarters had been built to last, thick walls of grey stone, narrow windows that were difficult to climb through and easy to defend, a gate of iron-reinforced wood that had turned back everything short of a serious cultivation assault, and above the main entrance, carved into the stone in letters that someone had clearly intended to be imposing, the words: ORDER MAINTAINED. DEBT COLLECTED. AUTHORITY PRESERVED.Inside, on the third floor, in an office that was considerably more comfortable than anything visible from the street suggested

He was about to speak when the door opened again.This time it opened with a knock, but the knock and the opening happened simultaneously, which was still technically a failure of courtesy but suggested at least an awareness of the form. One of the junior enforcers, a young man named Pell who usually worked the gate rather than field operations, stood in the doorway with an expression that suggested he'd been running and had questions about whether running had been the right choice."Regent Voss," Pell said, "one of Dax's men just came back to the building. He's in a bad way, sir. He says he needs to speak to you directly."Voss looked at Dax. Dax looked at Pell."Which one?" Dax asked."He said his name was Carro, sir. He's one of the formation specialists."Carro. Dax's expression indicated he recognized the name. "He was the last one standing when old Moth went outside. I didn't think he'd made it back.""He barely did," Pell said. "He crawled, from the look of him. Sir, he's say

“Contact the Celestial Realm first and split the bounty in exchange for their resources.”“Wait and observe until the individuals left the house on their own, then intercept them in open ground without the home advantage.”“Send a single informer in, not as an enforcer, as an ordinary civilian, to get more information about who the blind woman was and what she was actually doing.”“Offer amnesty in exchange for information about the technique, use the information to claim the theoretical bounty from the Celestial Realm without having to produce the practitioners themselves.”“Seal the building exits and wait them out.Voss listened to all of it. His face was still and authoritative throughout.”“When the voices ran out, he said: "No."The room looked at him."No to all of it," he said. "Waiting gives them time to move. Contacting the Celestial Realm gives them the bounty and gives us the risk of having invited an Inquisitor team into our district and then having to explain every quest