Qinghe set the spirit-glass cylinder in its portable cradle at the engineering table. She checked the casing and the relay connection before starting the playback. Gu stood beside her, comparing the label with his research copies. Yan sat where he could see the paper transcript.
The first preserved voice came through with a low crackle. Yun Cang described an experiment into destructive feedback and whether its harmful pathway could turn inside the practitioner. The recording ended in the middle of a sentence.
Yan leaned forward. “Did the experiment work?”
Gu shook his head. “The recording establishes what Yun was testing. It doesn’t tell us whether the method produced the same result as your System.”
Qinghe asked them to preserve the cylinder until they could read the entire series. The fragment did not name a future bearer or describe a completed catalyst. They would not turn a partial recording into a conclusion.
The corridor shook. A stone rib dropped behind them and blocked the door they had entered through. Dust spilled across the floor, and a smaller fragment struck the outer edge of the table.
Yan caught the metal frame before it fell. Qinghe moved the cylinder cradle away from the impact. Gu pulled the papers into a case and checked the seals.
