Three weeks later, Zhāng Wújì stands in a new chamber of the Primordial Inheritance, where the air presses like deep water. Ahead, a heavy circular seal has opened into a hall of pale jade pools and ancient stone pillars.
The pools float a finger's breadth above the floor, perfectly still. Their green light spills over carved meridians in the stone, making the whole room look like a body laid bare for judgment.
Zhāng Wújì steps through the threshold. The pressure bites at his bones, then settles into a steady, testing weight, as if the chamber is measuring every breath he takes.
Xùn
The trial begins here. Flesh first, then blood, then bone.
One jade pool ripples without being touched. From its surface rises a narrow thread of light, pointing deeper between the pillars.
Zhāng Wújì feels the path waiting. The chamber does not stop him, but it clearly demands a choice, to enter the pools, or follow the light onward.
✓ Quest Accepted
Complete the jade pool body-tempering trial
“is this a fake Xùn”
YES, AND MORE (Even, rolled 1)
Zhāng Wújì
The way Xùn moves... it is too fluid, like water poured into a mold that does not quite fit.
Xùn
You stare, Zhāng Wújì. Do you wonder if I am merely a reflection of the stone, or something that has outlived its own purpose?
The figure's skin ripples with a faint, unnatural luminescence, and for a heartbeat, the features blur into the texture of the surrounding jade pillars.
“rely on my physical body to withstand the trial strengthening and remolding my physical form tempering my body”
SUCCESS (Mediocre Health, rolled +3)
The jade pools answer his stillness first. Their surface quivers, and the carved meridians underfoot brighten like veins catching blood.
Zhāng Wújì
The pressure is changing, not just pushing.
Zhāng Wújì settles his stance and lets the force strike through bone and sinew. His shoulders tighten, then ease as his breath finds the chamber's rhythm.
Across the hall, Xùn tilts their head. The faint green distortion around them sharpens, as if they are listening with the whole room.
Xùn
You do not resist like the others. You listen first.
The pressure rolls again, and Zhāng Wújì's skin takes it without folding. Heat spreads through his frame, deep and steady, remolding what strain had tried to break.
Xùn
Then speak, if you can spare the breath. Do you temper yourself by choice, or by hunger?
The hall holds its silence around the question, jade light trembling over Zhāng Wújì's steadied body.
“"I will grow strong enough to where no one will ever look down on me again!" fully put my body into this trial”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Zhāng Wújì stops measuring the pressure and lets it take him whole. His feet settle harder into the stone, his spine straightens, and the chamber answers with a sharp, hungry pulse.
Zhāng Wújì
This pressure can be used.
The jade pools flare in response. Heat pours through his limbs, not as pain alone, but as force seeking a shape.
Xùn
Good. Do not flinch from it, let it find every weak seam.
Zhāng Wújì draws his breath in deeper, and the pressure stops crushing in one place. It spreads, then folds inward, feeding his circulation instead of fighting it.
Xùn
So this is what he is after, not survival, refinement.
A low tremor runs across the hall. The carved meridians brighten under his soles, and the nearest jade pool calms to a clear, steady ripple as his body takes the trial and keeps it.
Quest Complete
Complete the jade pool body-tempering trial
Attribute Upgrade: Health Mediocre→Fair