Ren pushes through the parted crowd, each step stiff as if the market itself pulls at his joints. His hollow gaze never leaves Li Wu, and his hand stays on his blade.
Ren
The gateway's anchor is calling me. I can feel it here.
The Scrap Vendor draws back from the stall, alarm sharpening his face. Nearby buyers stop pretending not to watch.
The Scrap Vendor
You come here with that look, and my stall starts shaking again? I am not reporting this twice.
Li Wu
Ren is not looking at the ground. He is tracking the seal through me.
Ren stops at the cracked brickwork Li Wu has sealed, his jaw tightening. For a moment his fingers twitch against the hilt, as if testing a rhythm only he can hear.
Ren
Whatever you touched, it still answers. Show me where the path goes.
✓ Quest Accepted
Force Ren back into the lattice
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn where the buried passage leads
“I turn to Ren and speak, I'm not surprised you're still alive, but do you still want to kill me or are we past that?”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Li Wu
I am not surprised you are still alive, but do you still want to kill me, or are we past that?
Ren
Past it, for now. You are the only one here who can hear what the lattice is saying.
Ren lifts his free hand from the blade, and the tension in his shoulders loosens by a fraction. The parted crowd keeps its distance as the sealed bricks answer with a faint, buried thrum.
The Scrap Vendor
Then say it plain. Is that thing under my stall a door, or a grave?
Ren
A passage. It leads down, not out.
At the word, Ren’s gaze flicks to Li Wu, wary but less boxed in than before. The pressure around the seal steadies, as if the hidden way has finally heard someone name it.
Quest Complete
Learn where the buried passage leads
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great
“I ask Ren, Can you distract the pesky mosquitoes watching us?”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +1)
Ren lets out a short breath, and the hard line of his jaw eases. The sealed bricks answer with that buried thrum, steady and low, while the Scrap Vendor keeps watching from behind the stall like a man trying not to look afraid.
Li Wu
Can you distract the mosquitoes watching us?
Ren
Mosquitoes, yes. That is a kinder name than watcher.
Ren
He tilts his chin toward the market crowd. "I can give them something louder than this stall. What do you need from me, Li Wu?"
The Scrap Vendor
Guarded curiosity sharpens his gaze as he looks from Ren to the sealed ground. "If they are looking, then they are already late," he thinks, swallowing hard.
Ren
His mouth twists, almost a grin. "A passage that listens is rare. If your lattice can speak, I would rather hear it than fight for scraps at its edge."
Li Wu’s bloodied forearm catches the market light as the calm vortex beneath the stall hums once, receptive. Ren shifts his weight and turns his attention outward, ready to draw eyes away from the seal.
“I let Ren draw the crowd away; then I use flowing earth essence and iron market intuition to sense the beat of the passage and match it to the lattice's beat.”
SUCCESS (Great Meditation, rolled +3)
Ren’s outward gesture lands, and the market’s gaze starts to drift with it. Li Wu lets the noise thin, then sinks his attention into the buried pulse under the stall.
Li Wu
The beat is already there. I only need to match it.
Flowing earth essence threads through his palm and wrist. The sealed bricks answer at once, their thrum aligning with his breath until the passage’s rhythm and the lattice’s rhythm become one pattern.
The hidden seam gives cleanly. The floor opens without a crack, just a narrow downward line, precise as a cut made by intent.
Below the opening, a second pulse blooms, clear enough to read. Li Wu catches it in the same instant and feels the shape of the passage turn in his mind, like a door remembering its hinge.
Ren
There. It is listening to you now.
Ren’s shoulders loosen as the lattice tugs back at him, not with force, but with a reopened claim. The market crowd loses its interest in the stall, and the first true step of the passage sits open under Li Wu’s hand.
“I use the technique from the higher realm to create a law for an invisible passage through the single line without breaking the stone successfully whisking Ren and I to the other side.”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled -2)