Adventure of Zhāng Wújì 1

The wall-rings keep their steady pulse, and the jade beads answer it from inside Zhāng Wújì's body. The old rhythm returns, familiar now, as if the hall remembers his breath.

Ahead, the black monument splits wider. What looked like stone is a shell, and beneath it lies a living seal-core, dark red and wetly luminous, beating in time with his own qi.

A seam of light opens across the floor, and a sealed refinement chamber unfolds from the wall like a hidden lung. Ancient records etched beside it flare awake, then resolve into the next stage of tempering.

The instructions are brutal, but clear. Flesh, organs, blood, bones, marrow, meridians, all are to be strengthened together, not one by one, but as a single furnace.

Xùn's silhouette sharpens in the green glow, watching the seal peel back another layer. The chamber does not open all at once, it invites Zhāng Wújì forward, one measured breath at a time.

Zhāng Wújì steps into the chamber as the wall closes behind him. The air bites cold, then burns, and the seal-core’s pulse answers from under his skin.

He settles into the marked circle and follows the Primordial Ancestor’s instructions without hesitation. Qi sinks through his frame, grinding through flesh, organs, blood, bone, and marrow in one brutal sweep.

His breathing stays steady even as his body shudders. The jade beads flare once, then go still, as if spent on the toll.

Across the hall, the monument’s split shell darkens. A faint seam remains, and the green haze around Xùn wavers harder, disturbed by the chamber’s strain.

When the pressure finally eases, Zhāng Wújì stands with a deeper, denser stillness in his frame. The floor around him is dusted with fine cracks, and the seal-core beats once, sharp and wary.