Chapter 87: The Inheritance Was Bait

Lin recognized the address before Liam finished entering it into his phone. His hand closed around the note, creasing the paper through the middle, and he looked toward the doorway as though he had already decided to leave. Liam caught his sleeve before he could pass. After spending the afternoon getting thrown around by him, stopping Lin with one hand felt optimistic, but the man at least had enough sense to look back.

“You know it?”

“A restoration shop.”

“You’ve been there?”

“The man who works there gave me the case.”

Liam stared at him for a moment. Then he released the sleeve and picked up his jacket. There were apparently several things Lin hadn’t considered worth mentioning when he described finding an inheritance. A dead owner was one thing. A living person who had handed over the sword, known about the manual, and could locate his apartment was something else entirely.

“Did he tell you to remove the wrapping?”

“He said the weapon would respond once I established a connection.”

“And the added pages explained how.”

Lin said nothing.

‘Wonderful. The instructions came with customer support.’

They took the Bentley. Liam sent Clara the address before leaving and told her they were going to speak to someone connected to the stolen items. She called immediately, making him explain the situation properly instead of leaving her with a message that sounded harmless because he had removed everything unpleasant from it. He answered while Lin sat stiffly beside him, the folded note resting on his knee.

“Call me before you leave there,” she said.

“I will.”

“And Liam?”

“Yeah?”

“If you need help, ask before something happens.”

He looked toward Lin before answering.

“I know.”

The shop occupied the ground floor of a narrow brick building, with faded lettering across the window and two old chairs displayed beside a wooden cabinet. A light burned farther inside. Liam parked across the street, then remained behind the wheel while Lin reached for the door handle.

“Leave the sword put away.”

“I heard you the first time.”

“I’m making sure you remember when you get angry.”

Lin let go of the handle long enough to give him a hard look. Liam ignored it and touched the connection to the screwdriver. It responded from inside the cradle, quiet but awake. He took it into his pocket before getting out, leaving the cape ready without lifting himself from the ground.

The man behind the counter looked up when they entered. He appeared to be in his fifties, with neatly combed hair and a pair of glasses hanging from a cord around his neck. There was nothing surprised about his expression. His eyes moved over Lin first, stopped briefly at the sleeve covering his wrist, then turned toward Liam.

“You brought someone.”

“You broke into my apartment.”

The man set down the small brush in his hand.

“Close the door.”

“No,” Liam said.

Both men looked at him. Liam remained beside the entrance, one hand resting against the door while he examined the room. The long weapon case lay open on a table behind the counter. Beside it sat the manual, several loose sheets, and a shallow metal tray.

“We can hear you from here.”

The man studied him for another moment.

“My name is Shen.”

“Give him his things.”

“I will. Once I understand what he’s done.”

Lin moved toward the counter. Shen’s attention returned to his wrist immediately, and Liam noticed the irritation that crossed his face when Lin kept his sleeve down. It was brief, but enough to change the way he understood the scene. Shen hadn’t invited them here because he was pleased with Lin’s progress.

“You stopped practicing,” Shen said.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“The sword was draining me.”

“It requires nourishment.”

Lin placed the note on the counter.

“What’s the vessel?”

Shen glanced at it without reaching for it. Liam watched his fingers settle flat against the wood. The man had been comfortable until that question, speaking as though Lin had returned a faulty purchase without reading the instructions. Now he looked toward the open door again.

“The later stages are difficult to explain.”

“Try.”

“The previous owner left more than his technique inside the weapon. With the correct preparation, you could receive his guidance.”

“Receive him where?”

Shen’s eyes shifted toward Liam.

“This doesn’t concern you.”

“It started concerning me when the sword tried to turn itself toward my face.”

Lin slowly pulled back his sleeve. The dark marks had faded further since their first examination, but enough remained for Shen to see them. He came around the counter at once, reaching toward Lin’s arm before stopping short of touching it.

“What did you use?”

Liam felt the screwdriver press against the inside of his pocket.

“Something that stopped the feeding.”

Shen looked at him properly then. His expression tightened, and for a second his gaze seemed to catch on something behind Liam’s shoulder. He blinked hard, swallowed, and took a small step back. Liam recognized the reaction. Whatever the man had just decided to do to him, his intimidation aura had answered before he could.

‘There you are.’

“Stay where you are,” Liam said.

Shen pressed a hand against the counter, breathing through his mouth. Lin turned slightly, finally noticing the change. That gave Liam a clear view of the table behind them, and he focused Material Analysis on the metal tray beneath the loose pages.

[Object: Inscribed metal plate.]

[Detected function: Spiritual energy conduction.]

[Active connection: Inscribed components within the adjacent weapon case.]

Liam’s eyes followed the faint indication toward the open lid. Several strips of lining had been removed, exposing pieces of metal set into the wood. They hadn’t been visible when Lin brought the case to the warehouse. Shen had done more than steal it.

“Lin. Step back.”

Shen moved first.

He struck the counter with his palm, and thin gray lines lifted from the plate behind him. They crossed the space above the wood so quickly that Liam barely had time to see their direction. One reached for Lin’s exposed wrist. Another came straight toward his own chest.

A notification flashed across his vision.

[Incoming Skill Detected: Spirit Binding Threads.]

[God Tier Reversal Available.]

Liam activated it.

The thread stopped close enough that he felt a cold pressure through his shirt. Then it snapped backward, dragging the others with it. Shen’s arm jerked away from the counter. His feet left the floor for an instant before the returning lines wrapped around his body and pulled tight.

He hit the side of the cabinet with a heavy crack.

Lin caught the counter as the loose papers scattered, then turned toward Liam. The entire exchange had taken less time than one of their training rounds. Shen lay on his side with his knees drawn up, struggling against something that tightened whenever he tried to move.

Liam didn’t approach him.

“The plate.”

Lin looked toward the table.

“Don’t touch it. Move aside.”

The screwdriver slipped from Liam’s pocket and crossed the room. He kept it small, guiding the tip beneath the fastening at the edge of the metal plate. The first screw came free. The second resisted long enough to send a faint strain through his forehead, then turned as the tool found the correct position.

Shen made a sharp sound from the floor.

“Leave that.”

Liam stopped pulling and looked at the panel again. A thin metal strip connected the plate to the case beneath the table. He hadn’t seen it from the doorway.

“Lin. Lift the cloth beside the case.”

Lin did, exposing the rest of the connection.

The screwdriver moved down and loosened the clamp holding the strip in place. When the metal separated, the faint gray lines above the table disappeared. Shen remained bound by his own reversed skill, breathing hard against the floor.

Liam recalled the screwdriver before moving any closer.

[External connection interrupted.]

He read the message, then looked at Lin’s wrist. The marks had darkened near the edge during the attack. They were still now.

The wrapping had stopped the sword feeding through his hand. It had never promised to protect him from whatever Shen had prepared inside the case.

Lin crouched beside the man and caught the front of his shirt.

“What were you trying to put inside me?”

Shen tried to turn his face away. Lin pulled him back without striking him, though the effort required to keep his hand still was obvious.

“Answer.”

“The owner.”

Liam looked toward the sword manual lying on the table. He remembered Lin placing a protective hand over it at the warehouse, unwilling to let somebody else examine the inheritance he had been given.

“The dead owner?” Liam asked.

“His body died.”

Lin’s grip tightened.

“And mine was supposed to replace it?”

Shen shut his eyes.

That was enough of an answer.

For a moment, Liam thought Lin would hit him anyway. Then the man released his shirt and stood, taking two steps away before stopping beside the table. His attention settled on the darker sheets at the back of the manual.

“You said he chose me.”

“He needed someone capable of learning the technique.”

Liam watched Lin’s face change. The anger remained, but there was something worse beneath it now. The sword, the manual, the promise of a powerful inheritance—somebody had understood exactly what he would be willing to believe.

“Who wrote the added pages?” Liam asked.

Shen hesitated.

Lin turned back.

“Who?”

“I copied them.”

“From what?”

“The instructions he left.”

Liam took his phone out and began recording before asking him to repeat that. Shen stared at the camera, then at Lin, and apparently decided there were worse things in the room than being recorded. He explained enough to confirm that the case had once helped contain the remnant. The changes he had made were intended to connect it to the wielder instead.

He had gone to the apartment because Lin had stopped answering his questions about the later forms.

When he found the altered wrapping among Lin’s discarded belongings and realized the practice had stopped, he had taken the case and book to prepare another way.

“You could have called,” Liam said.

“He would have refused.”

Liam looked at the overturned chair, then at the man bound on the floor.

“Good guess.”

They recovered the manual and took photographs of the altered case before moving anything else. Liam kept the loose pages separate. Lin wanted to tear them apart, but finally agreed that they were more useful as evidence of what Shen had done than as pieces on the floor.

The sword remained put away.

Outside, Liam called Clara before doing anything else.

“I’m all right.”

“That’s a terrible way to start.”

He looked through the shop window. Lin stood over Shen with the manual in his hand, reading the first pages again.

“Yeah. I’m beginning to notice.”

After ending the call, Liam returned to the table and opened the case carefully. The original insulating marks were still there beneath Shen’s additions. Damaged, incomplete, but visible now that the lining had been pulled away.

He turned toward the man on the floor.

“You knew how to change this so it could reach him.”

Shen watched him without speaking.

Liam placed the broken fitting from the apartment beside the exposed metalwork.

“Now you’re going to show us how it was supposed to keep that thing inside.”