At breakfast, Yan opened the catalog beside his bowl and checked the limit Bai had written. The Thousand Fractures Core cost less than a proper sword at reserve, but the auction fee and deposit pushed it higher. He had saved enough for that amount. He had also planned to keep money for good meals and travel.
Ning came in from the worker office with a stack of appointment slips. She placed them on a chair, not the table, and sat down with a bowl of millet porridge.
“Are you buying something?” she asked.
“A manual that might help me reach Golden Core.”
“Is it complete?”
“No. Two pages are missing.”
“Then why buy it?”
“To find the missing sequence. The index points to a sealed archive.”
