The records gallery door was sealed by a band of black script. A clerk stood outside holding a stack of orders, unable to enter without the Registry mark. The seal bent the corridor around the command room; anyone following the marked passage returned to the same pillar.
Yan stopped short of the line. “Step back. Keep the papers out of the fight.”
The clerk moved behind a stone column and held the orders against his chest. Yan examined the seal. The ink band joined the lintel to two brass studs in the floor. It was a confinement formation, not a door he could break with strength.
He performed the Heaven-Burial Step through the line. The method carried him across the boundary and reinforced his foundation through its practiced cost. The ink seal remained intact behind him.
A warden swung at his back as he landed. Yan turned with Thousand Fractures and broke the baton’s formation pattern. The weapon clattered against the floor. The warden’s follow-up caught Yan in the ribs, leaving a deep bruise.
Pain flared. Yan did not mistake his reinforced body for protection from the blow. He disarmed the warden and moved the clerk farther behind the pillar.
