Bai came back from the south-canal sorting depot with dust on his sleeves and an auction catalog folded inside his coat. He laid it on the low table in the guest quarters and put a brass freight tag beside it.
“Did you buy something?” Yan asked.
“Not yet.” Bai tapped the catalog. “I bought the right to ask questions. The depot clerk charged for the catalog and charged again for the owner’s freight tag.”
Yan looked at the tag. “Did you bargain?”
“I asked. He said the first price was for the paper, the second for the information.”
“And you paid both?”
“I wanted the information.”
Bai opened the catalog to a lot marked with a red stroke. The description named a damaged Golden Core manual: Thousand Fractures Core. Its provenance was uncertain. The known sequence fractured the forming core and destroyed most cultivators who attempted it. Two middle pages were missing. The index mentioned a stabilizing record kept in a sealed archive.
