The scarlet wax seal of the Grand Fortune Trade ring cracked with a dry, brittle snap under the point of Lin Ke’s iron metal pen.
Apothecary He had stepped out to compound another batch of willow-bark broth. He muttered curses at the drafty windows. That left Lin Ke, Meng Shan, and Shen Yue alone in the candle-lit solitude room.
Shen Yue stood by the barred window. Her dual-thread senses maintained a sound-muffling screen across the oak door to keep junior medical apprentices from eavesdropping.
Inside the iron strongbox lay no gold metal bars or high-tier spirit stones.
Only a single, thick ledger bound in oiled pigskin, containing over two hundred pages of fine rice paper covered in tiny red stone calligraphy, along with twelve carved bone tally slips.
Lin Ke leaned forward against the straps of his cot. He held the ledger in his uninjured right hand.
He didn’t need to read every line with mortal eyes.
Status, Lin Ke commanded internally. Diff against Azure Cloud Sect Quarterly Supply Registers.
