The hidden hall opens like a throat of stone. Shelves of jade slips and metal plates stretch into darkness, and the meridian carvings along the walls twitch at the edge of sight. The air hums against Wújì's skin.
Zhāng Wújì
The pressure is stronger than the last chamber.
At the center, a shallow basin of black crystal sits beside a narrow dais. The green glow in its seams answers the pulse inside Wújì's body, then flickers, unstable.
Xùn
Again... you push, and the seal loosens.
The voice comes from nowhere and everywhere at once. One of the wall's carved lines cracks open, letting out a thread of pale light that crawls toward the basin.
Xùn
Keep refining. Keep taking. Every breakthrough feeds the fracture.
Wújì can feel it now, each surge of qi into his meridians reaches deeper into the inheritance, and something sealed below answers by waking a little more.
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover Xun's resurrection and permanently sever his manifestations.
✓ Quest Accepted
Complete the Primordial Ancestor's medicinal body-refinement.
“Wújì searches the Primordial Ancestor's oldest records for an explanation of Xun's impossible return. He discovers that the figure he previously killed was only a temporary manifested vessel sustained by a damaged auxiliary formation. Destroying the vessel killed that manifestation, but not the source producing it. Wújì traces the formation to its core and permanently disconnects it from the inheritance's active chambers, preventing Xun from manifesting or speaking through them again.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +1)
Wújì traces the oldest tablets by touch, following the hidden notation where the meridian script repeats beneath the newer seals. The fracture was never Xùn, only a vessel borrowed from a damaged array.
A thin seam of light threads through the records, and the chamber answers with a colder hush. Wújì finds the cut point, where the auxiliary formation feeds the active halls.
Zhāng Wújì
So the voice was being carried, not born here.
He presses qi into the marked channel. The line goes dead, then dulls through the wall, severed from the chamber’s pulse.
The green glow in the basin steadies once, then loses its answer. The cracked seam keeps shining, but nothing speaks through it now.
Xùn
...
Quest Complete
Uncover Xun's resurrection and permanently sever his manifestations.
“Wújì studies the Primordial Ancestor's personal body-refinement records, searching for a medicinal method capable of further strengthening his already-refined physical constitution, along with the ingredients or preparation required to perform it.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +0)
Wújì lowers his gaze to the next slab and follows the body-refinement notes line by line. The script is severe, practical, and exacting, describing a medicinal wash meant to thicken flesh, calm meridians, and steady bones under outside pressure.
Zhāng Wújì
This is not for raw power. It is for holding a form without breaking.
He traces the listed ingredients with one finger, jar names and herb names surfacing from the ancient catalog. Several are already in the inheritance, while two require careful blending with his own qi before use.
The wall seam keeps bleeding pale light beside the shelves, and the chamber cools a shade more, as if listening. The seal disc’s crack answers with a faint red glimmer.
Xùn
You have found the shape of it now. Tell me, what do you think is meant to enter a vessel prepared this carefully?
Wújì reaches the final line. The method is complete, and so are its requirements, a basin of tempered water, the herbs, and a body already made dense enough to endure an intrusion without shattering.
That last clause settles over the room like frost. The stillness in his frame is not only strength, but a ready-made shell for something external to inhabit.
Quest Complete
Complete the Primordial Ancestor's medicinal body-refinement.
“Wújì verifies the severance using the Primordial Ancestor's records. The damaged auxiliary formation is fully disconnected and inert, with no consciousness, spirit, foreign qi, or external presence remaining linked to him or the active inheritance chambers. The words just heard are only the final residual imprint left in the formation before its shutdown, fading completely once exhausted. Wújì's body remains entirely his own. He returns his attention to the medicinal refinement records.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +1)
Wújì closes the register and reaches for the red fracture in the seal disc’s reflection, not with his hand, but with his attention. The chamber answers with a dry, empty hush. Nothing stirs in the seam, nothing presses back.
Zhāng Wújì
The voice is gone. Only the record remains.
He checks the wall seam again, then the basin, then the fracture line on the disc. Each holds still. The auxiliary formation is dead weight now, its last trace spent.
When he returns to the slab, the medicinal wash notes seem sharper than before, every instruction laid out for a body that can endure intrusion without splitting.
The cooling stone deepens the silence around him. His frame feels denser, quieter, as if every breath settles into place instead of scattering.
Then the meaning of the line settles in with it, hard and exact. This is not just strength for his own use. It is preparation, a body shaped to hold something else.
Above the basin, the crimson fracture on the seal disc glints once, thin as a hair. The chamber waits for his next choice.
✓ Quest Accepted
Obtain the medicinal refinement ingredients
“Wújì follows the Primordial Ancestor’s ingredient list exactly, searching the inheritance’s medicinal stores for every required herb, extract, and material. He gathers the complete set, including carefully blending the two components that require his own qi, then stores the finished ingredients together beside the original refinement records, ready for preparation.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +1)
Wújì starts at the herb stores and works methodically, matching each name in the record to a sealed jar, a dried root, a mineral shard, a vial of oil, and a strip of preserved skin-leather.
He finds the last missing items in a cold side cabinet, where the labels are half-peeled and the air smells faintly of dust and medicine. The chamber does not resist him, only watches.
At the stone table, he grinds, measures, and blends the two components that require his own qi. His breath stays even, and the mixture takes on a thin inner sheen.
Zhāng Wújì
The blend holds. It is accepting my qi instead of rejecting it.
He seals the finished set together beside the original refinement records, aligning each bundle with exact care. The ingredients lie ready, complete and ordered.
Xùn
You prepare it exactly as written. Tell me, Wújì, is this for power, or for a vessel?
The question hangs in the cooling stone air, while the red crack on the seal disc gives one thin, patient glint.
Quest Complete
Obtain the medicinal refinement ingredients