Free Web NovelChapter 140: Chapter 140: The First Vow Courtyard
The First Vow Courtyard was filled with stone tablets.
Each tablet carried a sentence carved in old script.
Some were simple.
I will guard the gate.
Some were heavier.
I will speak no lie even if truth kills me.
Some were broken.
I will never abandon—
The rest had been scratched away.
Ash drifted through the courtyard without wind. Silent monks knelt between tablets, their robes gray, their bodies thin as smoke. They did not attack when Qin Yuheng’s team entered. They only watched.
A panel appeared.
[First Vow Courtyard]
[Trial]
Cross without creating a false vow.
[Warning]
Responding to vow echoes may bind speech.]
Qin Mo’s mouth cloth suddenly looked very wise.
Qin Yuheng activated Law-Thread Severing Eye.
The courtyard was filled with threads.
Every tablet emitted faint lines. Some floated harmlessly. Others reached like hooks toward the team’s mouths, ears, and hands. Speech would likely give them shape.
He sent a jade pulse.
Do not read aloud. Do not agree.
Qin Yuchen nodded.
Qin Lian moved silently.
Qin Mo wrote on a small slate:
I like this communication method.
Qin Yuheng nearly smiled.
They crossed slowly.
The first vow echo came from a tablet near Qin Yuchen.
A voice like an old warrior whispered:
"Will you protect them?"
Qin Yuchen’s eyes shifted.
The hook moved toward his mouth.
He did not speak.
Instead, he placed two fingers on his sword and continued walking.
The hook faded.
The second echo came for Qin Lian.
"If no one sees you, do you still exist?"
She did not answer. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Her cloak fluttered once.
The hook faded.
The third came for Qin Mo.
"Will you complete the formation?"
Qin Mo froze.
That was dangerous.
His habits included answering complaints automatically.
He gripped his slate and wrote:
No verbal contracts.
The hook faded.
Then the courtyard turned toward Qin Yuheng.
Several tablets lit at once.
Voices overlapped.
"Will you save your father?"
"Will you protect your family?"
"Will you command the army?"
"Will you break Blood Sun?"
"Will you hold every gate?"
Each question was reasonable.
Each answer could become a chain.
Qin Yuheng stopped.
The vow threads gathered around him like ash snakes.
He could not say yes.
He could not say no carelessly either.
A commander’s burden was already heavy. A vow law could turn intention into binding fate.
He took out the True Soul Guiding Lantern.
Its flame pointed forward.
Not toward any tablet.
Forward.
Qin Yuheng stepped.
The vow threads tightened, trying to force speech.
He activated Gate Thunder Command Field inwardly—not outward to command others, but to stabilize his own will.
Then he spoke one sentence.
Carefully.
"I walk forward and choose with clear mind."
The courtyard froze.
The vow threads approached the words, tested them, and found no false promise. It was not a vow to save everyone. Not a vow to destroy anyone. Not a vow to obey the monastery.
It was a statement of present intent.
The threads faded.
The First Vow Courtyard opened.
[First Vow Courtyard cleared.]
[False vows created: 0]
[Silence law backlash: 0%]
Qin Mo removed his mouth cloth slightly and whispered, "That was terrifying."
A bell rang once.
The kneeling monks stood.
Not hostile.
One of them approached. Its face was hidden under ash.
It pointed toward a cracked side hall.
A new panel appeared.
[Bound Vow Spirit detected.]
[Freeing vow spirits may increase evaluation.]
Qin Yuheng looked at the team.
No one needed words.
They entered the side hall.
Inside, a spirit was chained to a broken tablet. The tablet read:
I will guard the children until dawn.
But beneath it, in smaller blood-colored script, someone had added:
Even after they are gone.
Qin Mo’s eyes narrowed.
"Vow corruption."
The bound spirit looked like a young monk. He knelt beside three tiny ash piles.
Children?
Or memory remains?
The spirit whispered, "Dawn never came."
Qin Yuheng used Law-Thread Severing Eye.
The original vow was pure. The added clause corrupted it, trapping the monk after the children died or left.
"Can we cut the added clause?" Qin Yuheng asked.
Qin Mo nodded slowly.
"Yes. But if we damage the original vow, the spirit may collapse."
Careful work began.
Qin Mo set a separation formation.
Qin Lian guarded the door.
Qin Yuchen held the spirit steady with calm sword intent.
Qin Yuheng used the Contract-Breaking Law Crystal and Law-Thread Severing Eye to identify the false clause.
He cut only the blood-colored thread.
The tablet cracked.
The young monk spirit looked up.
For the first time, ash fell from his face.
"Dawn," he whispered.
Light entered the side hall.
The spirit dissolved peacefully.
[Bound Vow Spirit freed: 1 / 3]
[Hidden history clue acquired.]
The clue appeared as a vision.
A monastery full of monks protecting refugees.
A siege.
A night of ash.
A desperate abbot forcing vows to continue beyond death.
The monastery had not fallen because vows were weak.
It had fallen because someone twisted vows into chains.
Qin Yuheng’s expression darkened.
This floor was not only about silence.
It was about responsibility corrupted into bondage.
A theme he could not ignore.
The path to the Second Vow Courtyard opened.
From beyond it came the sound of a bell that had not yet moved.
Qin Mo replaced his mouth cloth.
Qin Yuheng stepped forward.
The monastery was waiting to judge not only their words, but the weight they were willing to carry.
