The tripled decree system is prepared in public view while Shen observes from the senior archive line.

Lihua steadies herself as Shen positions himself close enough to control the reading.

The verdict scroll reaches Lihua's hands and the ritual expects the official lie.

The court first assumes Lihua has made a ritual error.

Lihua frames her rebellion as clerkly accuracy, making interruption dangerous.

Lihua completes the first hidden decree and names an impossible sequence.

Lihua moves to the second and third decrees, showing the pattern was not a single forgery.

The Empress Dowager listens as the old regency shadow touches imperial blood.

Shen understands that Lihua is not improvising and that the proof is hidden on her body.

Lihua continues through the fifth, sixth, and seventh decrees, making the pattern undeniable.

The public mood shifts as the name Inner Brush becomes impossible to ignore.

The Empress Dowager directly engages the reading without stopping it.

Lihua's wounded arm begins to reveal the hidden archive as she reaches the tenth decree.