Golden Fortune Pawn opened at nine every morning.
At seven forty-two, it changed owners.
Feng Baoshu placed the purchase agreement on Leng Yao’s desk.
“Eight million.”
Leng Yao signed the final page.
“The building is worth six.”
“The owner noticed our urgency.”
“He noticed yours.”
Feng Baoshu took the signed document.
“You told me to complete the purchase before opening.”
“I did.”
“That limits negotiation.”
“It also prevents Shen Mingzhi from entering the shop.”
The golden timer remained at the edge of Leng Yao’s vision.
69:17:44
The correction system had not repeated its warning since assigning the event.
It did not need to.
In the original story, Shen Mingzhi entered Golden Fortune Pawn while delivering medicine to a nearby clinic.
He noticed an old jade pendant in a tray of damaged jewellery and bought it for two hundred yuan.
The shopkeeper believed it was worthless.
It was not.
The pendant contained the remains of a spiritual perception technique called the Seven Aperture Eye.
Once awakened, it allowed Shen Mingzhi to detect hidden formations, identify spiritual materials and see flaws in cultivation techniques.
It was one of the reasons he later discovered the formation beneath the Dragon’s Vein property.
Leng Yao did not need the technique for himself.
He needed Shen Mingzhi not to have it.
“Where is the previous owner?” Leng Yao asked.
“Waiting at the shop.”
“Has the inventory moved?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Feng Baoshu turned towards the door.
“Xue Lihua accessed the Jiangnan warehouse file last night.”
“How long did she read it?”
“Eleven minutes.”
“And then?”
“She contacted an unregistered number.”
“Did we trace it?”
“The signal passed through four relays.”
“Let it go.”
Feng Baoshu stopped.
“We can identify the receiver if we continue.”
“They will abandon the number.”
“That still removes one channel.”
“And warns them that Xue is exposed.”
The old butler nodded once.
“Half the warehouse file was genuine.”
“It had to be.”
“If the Shen family acts on it, we lose two shipments.”
“We lose one.”
“The second?”
“Does not exist.”
Feng Baoshu left.
Leng Yao looked at the timer again.
The system believed the jade pendant belonged to Shen Mingzhi.
That wording mattered.
Designated recipient.
Not discoverer.
Not owner.
Recipient.
Heaven had already decided where the object would go.
Leng Yao intended to find out how strongly that decision was enforced.
Golden Fortune Pawn stood between a pharmacy and a closed restaurant in an older commercial street.
Its faded red sign had lost two letters.
Metal bars covered the windows, and dust gathered around the objects displayed behind the glass.
The former owner waited inside.
Jin Guohai was a short man in his fifties with thick glasses and a shirt stretched tightly across his stomach.
He bowed when Leng Yao entered.
“Mr Leng.”
“Mr Jin.”
“I did not know the buyer was you.”
“That was deliberate.”
Jin Guohai forced a smile.
“I hope there was no problem with the records.”
“We will know soon.”
The shop contained watches, jewellery, old electronics and several low-grade spiritual items hidden among ordinary goods.
Most were worthless.
A few held traces of energy.
One item pulled at Leng Yao’s inverted core.
He followed the sensation towards a glass display cabinet near the back.
A tray of damaged jewellery sat beneath several watches.
The pendant lay in the centre.
It was smaller than Leng Yao expected.
Black jade.
Oval shape.
A silver loop passed through the top, though no chain remained attached.
A crack ran down one side.
To ordinary sight, it looked cheap.
Through spiritual perception, it looked no different.
That was part of its protection.
“Open the cabinet,” Leng Yao said.
Jin Guohai searched through a ring of keys.
“Is there something specific you want?”
“The black pendant.”
“That?”
Jin found the correct key.
“It came in with a group of items from an estate clearance.
I almost threw it away.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“Who owned the estate?”
“I would need to check.”
“Do that.”
Jin opened the cabinet.
Leng Yao reached for the pendant.
The correction system appeared.
Warning.
Mandate-bound object.
Unauthorized contact prohibited.
His fingers closed around the jade.
Cold entered his hand.
The shop vanished.
For a moment, Leng Yao stood inside a stone chamber.
Seven black mirrors surrounded him.
An old man sat at the centre, his empty eye sockets turned towards the floor.
The old man raised his head.
Two points of golden light appeared inside the hollow sockets.
Then the vision ended.
Leng Yao stood inside the pawnshop again.
The pendant had become warm in his hand.
Jin Guohai watched him.
“Is it valuable?”
“Yes.”
The former owner swallowed.
“How valuable?”
“You already sold it.”
Jin looked towards Feng Baoshu.
The butler’s expression discouraged further questions.
Leng Yao examined the crack in the pendant.
Golden energy rested deep within it.
His inverted core pulled.
Nothing happened.
The object resisted him.
It did not attack.
It simply refused.
Release the object.
Leng Yao tightened his grip.
No.
A sharp sound came from the front of the shop.
The lights went out.
Metal shutters dropped over the windows.
Feng Baoshu turned towards the entrance.
“I did not activate those.”
Jin Guohai hurried towards the control panel.
“It must be a fault.”
The smell of smoke entered the room.
Feng Baoshu caught Jin by the shoulder.
“Stay here.”
Flames appeared beneath the front counter.
They spread across the floor too quickly.
Not normal fire.
Spiritual oil.
Leng Yao looked towards the rear hallway.
A door slammed open.
Three masked men entered.
The first carried a short sword.
The second held a pistol fitted with a spiritual suppressor.
The third threw a metal cylinder into the shop.
White smoke exploded from it.
Feng Baoshu moved.
The gunman fired.
The bullet struck a wall of dark energy and flattened.
Feng Baoshu crossed the distance before the man could fire again.
One strike broke the gunman’s wrist.
A second put him through the display cabinet.
The swordsman attacked Leng Yao.
His blade carried the blue energy of the Northern Sect.
Leng Yao stepped aside.
The sword passed his shoulder.
He caught the man’s elbow and drove a palm into his chest.
Dark energy entered the attacker’s body.
The man flew backwards and struck a cabinet.
The third intruder ignored them.
He ran towards the jewellery tray.
Not the cash.
Not the spiritual medicines.
The pendant.
Leng Yao closed his hand around it.
The intruder drew a knife.
“Give it to me.”
Leng Yao looked at the blue mark on his wrist.
Northern Sect.
“You came quickly.”
The man lunged.
Leng Yao caught the knife between two fingers.
The blade stopped.
The attacker’s eyes widened.
Leng Yao twisted.
Steel snapped.
He struck the man once in the stomach.
The attacker folded.
Leng Yao seized the back of his neck and pushed him face-first into the counter.
“Who sent you?”
The man laughed through broken teeth.
“You already lost.”
A motorbike engine roared outside.
The rear wall exploded.
Brick and glass filled the shop.
A fourth attacker rode through the opening on a black motorcycle.
The front wheel struck Leng Yao’s captive and threw him aside.
The rider reached for the pendant.
Leng Yao saw the movement.
He also saw the golden thread attached to the rider’s wrist.
The correction system was guiding him.
Leng Yao released the pendant.
The rider caught it.
He accelerated through the smoke and escaped through the broken wall.
Feng Baoshu threw the unconscious gunman aside.
“You let him take it.”
“Yes.”
They ran through the opening.
The rider sped into an alley behind the shop.
A delivery bicycle turned into the road ahead of him.
The cyclist wore a blue courier jacket.
Shen Mingzhi.
The correction had brought him to the pendant.
The rider swerved.
His motorcycle struck a rubbish bin.
The rear wheel lifted.
He lost control.
The pendant flew from his hand.
It spun through the air towards Shen Mingzhi.
Golden light gathered around it.
Leng Yao raised his hand.
His shadow stretched across the ground.
It climbed the wall, crossed the alley and formed a black hand around the falling pendant.
The jade stopped less than a metre from Shen Mingzhi.
Shen stared at it.
The shadow pulled the pendant away.
It returned to Leng Yao’s palm.
The rider hit the ground and rolled beneath a parked van.
Shen abandoned his bicycle and ran towards him.
Leng Yao stepped back into the smoke before Shen could look in his direction.
Feng Baoshu followed.
They re-entered the shop through the broken wall.
“You planned that?” Feng Baoshu asked.
“No.”
“You gave him the pendant.”
“I wanted to see where he would go.”
“And he went directly to Shen Mingzhi.”
“Yes.”
The former owner crouched behind the counter.
The fire had stopped spreading.
Without the pendant moving towards Shen, the spiritual flames were already weakening.
Feng Baoshu looked at the masked men.
“The Northern Sect?”
“Their uniforms.”
“They may have been hired.”
“They were.”
“By the correction system?”
“Through someone it could influence.”
The system displayed new text.
Acquisition sequence interrupted.
Return the mandate-bound object.
Leng Yao walked towards the rear office.
“Bring the attackers.”
“All of them?”
“The living ones.”
Feng Baoshu looked towards the alley.
“And Shen Mingzhi?”
“Leave him.”
“He may enter the shop.”
“He is helping the rider.”
Leng Yao had seen enough of Shen’s behaviour in the original memories to predict that much.
The young man would call an ambulance before chasing a strange pendant.
That difference between them was one reason Heaven had chosen Shen as its hero.
It was also exploitable.
The shop’s rear office contained one desk, two chairs and a safe built into the wall.
Leng Yao placed the pendant on the desk.
Feng Baoshu tied the three conscious attackers in the storage room.
Jin Guohai sat outside under guard.
The golden timer remained visible.
68:41:19
The event had not ended.
The pendant still belonged to Shen Mingzhi.
Leng Yao circulated his core.
Dark energy flowed through his palm and surrounded the jade.
The correction system reacted.
Forced claim detected.
Recipient protection active.
The pendant released a pulse of golden light.
It struck Leng Yao’s chest.
His chair slid backwards.
A crack opened across the desk.
The jade rose into the air.
It turned towards the front of the shop.
Towards Shen Mingzhi.
Leng Yao’s shadow wrapped around it.
The jade continued pulling.
The golden thread inside it became visible.
It stretched through the shop and out into the street.
One end was bound to the pendant.
The other disappeared in Shen Mingzhi’s direction.
Leng Yao reached for the thread.
Do not touch the mandate bond.
He touched it.
The world shook.
Not the shop.
Something deeper.
Leng Yao saw thousands of golden threads extending through Shanghai.
They connected people to objects.
People to locations.
People to one another.
Some were faint.
Some burned like chains.
A dozen thick threads converged on Shen Mingzhi.
The jade pendant was only one of them.
Far beyond the city, other clusters of golden threads glowed.
One in the north.
One across the sea.
Another beneath the mountains west of Shanghai.
Leng Yao tried to focus on them.
The vision collapsed.
He returned to the office with blood running from both eyes.
Feng Baoshu entered.
“What happened?”
“There are others.”
“Other pendants?”
“Other people.”
The system filled Leng Yao’s vision.
Restricted information accessed.
Memory removal authorised.
Golden energy entered his skull.
Pain tore through his head.
The image of the distant threads began fading.
Leng Yao’s inverted core rotated.
Darkness rose through his meridians and caught the golden energy before it reached his mind.
The two forces collided behind his eyes.
Leng Yao gripped the edge of the desk.
Feng Baoshu stepped towards him.
“Do not touch me.”
The old man stopped.
The system pushed harder.
The memory of the northern cluster blurred.
Leng Yao forced his core open.
The fractures pulled at the invading energy.
A section tore free.
Darkness swallowed it.
The pressure vanished.
Leng Yao remained seated until his vision cleared.
The system spoke again.
Anomaly resistance increased.
Mandate bond remains active.
The golden thread still connected the jade to Shen Mingzhi.
Leng Yao could not remove it.
Not yet.
But he could see where it entered the pendant.
A small golden symbol lay beneath the crack in the jade.
It resembled an eye surrounded by seven lines.
Leng Yao pressed his thumb against it.
His core pulled.
The symbol resisted.
He pulled harder.
The crack in the pendant spread.
Golden light escaped.
Feng Baoshu shielded his eyes.
The symbol tore loose.
It entered Leng Yao’s palm.
The pendant fell onto the desk.
Its connection to Shen Mingzhi disappeared.
The correction system flickered.
Mandate ownership damaged.
Designated acquisition failed.
Seven Aperture Eye inheritance: inactive.
Leng Yao opened his hand.
A tiny golden mark had appeared in the centre of his palm.
His inverted core absorbed it slowly.
The mark darkened.
Gold became black.
A thin line of text appeared before him.
Not from the correction system.
The letters were uneven and incomplete.
Authority fragment recorded.
Then they disappeared.
Leng Yao stared at the empty space.
Feng Baoshu had seen nothing.
“What did you do?”
“I removed the part that belonged to Shen Mingzhi.”
“Can you use the pendant?”
“No.”
“Then why take it?”
“So he cannot.”
Feng Baoshu picked up the damaged jade.
“It may still contain the technique.”
“It does.”
“Who receives it now?”
“No one.”
The correction system answered.
Reassignment in progress.
A new golden thread emerged from the pendant.
It did not travel towards Shen Mingzhi.
It pointed west.
Beyond Shanghai.
Leng Yao watched it form.
The system had lost one recipient.
It had chosen another.
Secondary candidate located.
Acquisition sequence revised.
The timer reset.
167:59:59
Feng Baoshu placed the pendant back on the desk.
“Another problem?”
Leng Yao closed his hand over the black mark in his palm.
“Yes.”
“Shen Mingzhi?”
“No.”
For the first time since inheriting the dead man’s memories, Leng Yao faced an event that had never appeared in the novel.
He looked towards the golden thread leading west.
“Someone the reader never knew existed.”