The black monument gives one last brittle sigh, then crumbles into dead dust. The green haze is gone. The Hall of Tempering steadies, its floor circle sealing cleanly beneath Zhāng Wújì's feet.
Behind the ruin, the wall grinds open. Cool air spills out, carrying the faint scent of ancient medicinal oils and dry stone. Beyond lies a pristine wing, untouched and waiting.
Zhāng Wújì steps through the threshold into a new chamber lined with smooth stone plinths and pale arrays. The pressure here is lighter, but denser somehow, as if the room is meant to press bone and sinew into a tighter shape.
The remaining distortions unravel behind him. No pulse answers. No hidden face lingers in the dust. Only silence remains where Xùn's presence had been.
Zhāng Wújì
This place is cleaner than the last chamber.
Along the far wall, rows of sealed stone drawers sit beneath oil-dark labels and old meridian diagrams. A shallow basin in the center releases a thread of cold vapor, and the next path splits between a training dais and a narrow inner door.
✓ Quest Accepted
Complete the advanced body-tempering trial.
“Wújì enters the advanced body-tempering trial and follows the Primordial Ancestor's refinement method exactly. He endures the full process without stopping as the formation tempers and strengthens his physical vitality, flesh, organs, blood, bones, marrow, and meridians, completing the trial only once his entire physical foundation has been permanently reinforced.”
SUCCESS (Good Health, rolled +1)
Zhāng Wújì takes the training dais without hesitation. The pale arrays wake under his weight, and the chamber answers with a low, measured thrum.
Zhāng Wújì
The markings are arranged for direct circulation.
He follows the Primordial Ancestor's method exactly, breathing, settling, and letting the pressure enter him instead of resisting it. The cold vapor from the basin threads through his skin like fine needles.
Bone, blood, and marrow tighten in sequence. His meridians hold, then deepen, as if the chamber is carving a cleaner path through him.
The humming wall-rings brighten once, then steady. The green light in the floor carvings sinks into him, and the new density in his frame settles like iron finding its mold.
When the final pulse passes, the pressure releases all at once. Zhāng Wújì rises with a quieter stance, his body reinforced from flesh to marrow, and the inner door stands open ahead.
Quest Complete
Complete the advanced body-tempering trial.