Time was a blade at his throat.
Steward Zhao's men were moments from turning their feigned search into open violence.
He needed a weapon, and procedure alone wouldn't hold them off forever.
His mind raced. The forged order was the weak point, the system vulnerability, but his certainty was not proof.
He needed something absolute, something that could shatter their pretext in a single blow.
His gaze fell upon the small, iron-strapped chest his mother had revealed.
The source of the whisper. The source of his hunch.
Desperate times required dangerous tools. His hand found the heirloom again.
He couldn't feed it the entire ledger.
That felt like suicide.
He needed a controlled test, a small transaction.
He lifted the heavy, petrified wood abacus from the chest. With a sharp twist, he broke off a single, chipped jade bead.
It felt ancient in his palm.
He set the terms in his mind, a contract with the entity in his skull.
One bite. In exchange, give me an answer.
The presence in his head trembled with a greedy, feverish anticipation. It was a starving thing, desperate for a single crumb.
Li Xian closed his fist around the bead.
"Eat," he thought, pushing the intent forward. "And show me how you judge truth."
The jade bead in his hand did not glow or shatter. It simply dissolved.
One moment it was a solid, cold piece of history. The next, it was a fine gray dust that sifted through his fingers.
A jolt of icy energy shot up his arm and slammed into his brain.
His vision shifted. The world was the same, but overlaid with a new layer of data. The ink on the forged order in his other hand gained a visual quality, a texture.
It looked slick, greasy, fundamentally false. The legitimate papers on a nearby desk, by contrast, seemed to have weight and solidity, their ink lines like veins of dark stone.
The cost was immediate.
A hot wetness trickled from his nose. The room tilted, a wave of nausea churning in his gut.
A high-pitched whine screamed in his ears. He stumbled, catching himself on the edge of the table, his knuckles white.
Lady Yu Yan gasped, but he waved her off as if it were nothing.
The whisper in his head changed. The pleading need was gone, replaced by a single, resonant concept.
RECORD.
Steward Zhao's men began their search in earnest, pulling books from shelves and tapping on wall panels.
Their movements were clumsy, designed to intimidate.
Lady Yu Yan stood by the window, her back straight and her face a mask of cold dignity. Her fingers, hidden in her long sleeves, trembled once.
The small, human detail sent a spike of cold fury through Li Xian.
He watched them, his new senses processing their every move. He was a predator now, waiting for the clumsy trap to be sprung.
It didn't take long.
One of the guards, an attendant with shifty eyes, moved with too much purpose toward the far side of the room.
He knelt and pried at a floor tile, one Li Xian knew was perfectly sound.
The man's movements were too quick, too certain.
The attendant grunted with theatrical effort and lifted the stone. "What's this?" he announced, his voice ringing with false discovery. He reached into the shallow space and pulled out a small, silk pouch.
From within, he produced a small, silver token stamped with the Yunhai Merchant Guild's seal.
Stolen property.
A smug satisfaction rippled through Zhao's men. This was the scripted victory.
Li Xian looked at the pouch, then at the token. In his new, altered vision, they felt hollow.
Their history was shallow, their ink and metal screaming of recent fabrication. It was obviously a lie.
He let the silence hang for a moment before asking a single, harmless question that shattered their rhythm.
"Who touched it first?"
Steward Zhao's eyes hardened, the mask of civility finally dropping. "Are you accusing my men, Young Master?"
"An accusation?" Li Xian replied, his voice still light. "I am merely establishing a chain of custody procedure, stewart."
He held up the forged inspection order. "Speaking of which, this document has some… irregularities."
He tapped the wax seal. "The Patriarch's master seal has a small chip on the lower left quadrant from when it was dropped three years ago. This impression is flawless. A replica."
His finger moved to the date. "Furthermore, the date is written in the abbreviated merchant script. Official family orders use the full, formal script."
He smiled politely as he delivered the final blow, his eyes locked on Zhao. "And the issuing title is 'Head Steward.' A fine title, but your official rank, on all family documents, is 'Warehouse Master and Attendant Steward.' So tell me, Steward Zhao…"
Li Xian's smile widened. "Who forged a family order, and more importantly, who was arrogant enough to do it under the watchful eyes of the River Gate Sect?"
Zhao's face was a mottled canvas of fury and shock.
He was trapped.
To press the search was to admit his forgery. To retreat was to admit defeat.
He chose retreat.
"You are clever, Young Master," Zhao hissed, his voice low and venomous. "Cleverness can be… dangerous."
"Men! We're done here, Lady Yu Yan's property is clean."
He turned on his heel and stormed out, his men scrambling to follow, confused.
The door clicked shut, leaving an echoing silence. Lady Yu Yan let out a single, shuddering breath.
On the other hand, Li Xian felt the Glutton twitch.
It was a flicker of smug satisfaction, a purr of contentment.
It was hungry again already, proud of their shared victory, and demanding its next meal.
Unknowingly, from a darkened rooftop across the courtyard, a figure who was silently watching detached itself from the shadows and melted away into the night.
Back to the house, Li Xian turned away, hiding his face from his mother.
He brought a hand to his mouth, wiping away a fresh trickle of blood from his lip.
The power had a price.
The whisper returned, no longer a concept, just a raw, needy plea.
MORE...
A chilling realization washed over him. The glutton didn't just want power or energy.
It ate history. Canon Anchors.
This entire world, with its ancient treasures, forgotten dynasties, and powerful sects, was a pantry.
He didn't gain a cheat.
He gained an addiction with teeth.