The court delivered the manuals in a locked case. Qiu brought the key; Wei carried the duplicate catalog. Qinghe met them in the study room, where she could compare every page without moving the books into the sealed assembly hall.
The case held Withering Torrent, Black Lamp Method and Thousand Thorn Pulse. Each copy bore the Registry seal. Yan leaned over the table, curious but careful not to touch the bindings until Qinghe read the catalog numbers aloud.
“Complete,” the scribe said. “All pages present.”
“Complete according to what list?” Qinghe asked.
He produced the catalog. Wei compared its count and number with the archive entry, then checked the seals. One of the catalog digits had been written in a different hand. The scribe said a clerk had corrected it earlier.
“Then initial the correction,” Wei said. “We need to know it was seen before the trial.”
The scribe did. Yan waited while Qinghe examined each binding. She found no missing leaves and no loose stitching. She made a sketch of the diagrams at the final folds, so they would know if a different version appeared in the arena.
Qinghe read the first manual. “Withering Torrent drives qi through the meridians until they should collapse. The benefit is a forceful current that can break a target.”
