The opened passage throbs beneath the stall, and Ren’s tether still pulls at the lattice behind Li Wu. The Scrap Vendor straightens at last, fear dropping from his shoulders like a shed coat.
The Scrap Vendor
Enough. That token is not for show.
He lifts a small jade token. It hums once, and the floor answers with a neat, downward click. The nearest hidden seam quiets, as if listening.
The Scrap Vendor
This lattice asks for knowledge as well as an anchor. A price for passage. Share what you learn of the next realm, and I guide you through the deeper layers.
Ren
Careful, Li Wu. He is changing the terms because he thinks he can.
The Jade Clerk
If you want a clean descent, you speak to me first. If you want to wander blind, keep your silence.
The jade token’s glow steadies the opening, while Ren’s influence remains caught in the wider pattern, straining but not free. The way down is open, but now it has a witness.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn what the next realm requires for passage
✓ Quest Accepted
Force the Jade Clerk and Scrap Vendor to reveal the truth
“I turn to the vendor and the clerk, "You used me, so I'll give you knowledge, but not the knowledge you seek." I press against the stall and ask for consent; then I form an image of it's new form: a cocoon completely sealing the clerk and the scrap vendor that continuously wraps and folds inward until the entire space is sealed shut using the Shadow Sect's Hollow Lotus Tomb technique.”
SUCCESS (Superb Hand-to-Hand Combat, rolled +1)
Li Wu
You used me, so I give you knowledge, but not the knowledge you seek.
Li Wu presses one palm to the stall edge. His bloodied forearm catches the jade glow, and the passage’s pulse answers through the boards.
Li Wu
Consent first. Then shape.
The air folds inward around the vendor and the clerk. Thin, crimson lines lace together, then wrap tighter, sealing like petals over a closing bud.
The Scrap Vendor
Wait, that is not guidance, that is a tomb.
The Jade Clerk
You are making your own answer.
The cocoon finishes its turn, smooth and complete, swallowing the space where the two stood. The listening pulse settles into the sealed shell, and Ren’s tether shivers against the new shape.
“I respond, "Indeed, it is a tomb." I make the final seal of the technique I learned from Ren tethering the fate of the cocoon to the fate of the two trapped men. "I have it on good authority it's called the Hollow Lotus Tomb."”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
The cocoon tightens once, then stills. Li Wu’s bloodied forearm lifts from the stall edge, and the seal answers with a low, listening thrum.
Li Wu
Indeed, it is a tomb.
His final hand sign settles into the crimson shell. The cocoon takes the name into itself, and the trapped fate of the two men knots to its pulse.
The Scrap Vendor
That is a binding, not a bargain.
The Jade Clerk
He has made the seal answer to its own ending.
Li Wu
I have it on good authority it is called the Hollow Lotus Tomb.
The passage below falls quiet as if satisfied. Ren’s tether shivers, then settles, and the crimson cocoon holds both men inside the verdict.
Quest Complete
Learn what the next realm requires for passage
Skill Upgrade: Hand-to-Hand Combat Superb→Legendary
Quest Complete
Force the Jade Clerk and Scrap Vendor to reveal the truth
New Gift: Hard-Won Insight
“I turn to Ren, "How did I do?"”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
Li Wu
How did I do?
Ren
You held the seal without letting it bite inward. That is rarer than strength.
Ren
You listened to the lattice instead of forcing it. Most men only know how to break what answers them.
The Scrap Vendor
He speaks like he is grading a student, but he has stopped looking at the cocoon.
Ren
The blood on your arm helped, too. The price was visible, so the pattern could accept it.
The Scrap Vendor
He means you made the seal honest. That is not the same as making it kind.
Ren
No. But it is stable. Stable things can be read, and read things can be revised.
The Scrap Vendor
...If you want my judgment, Li Wu, you did better than I expected. And that annoys me.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the truth the Scrap Vendor and Jade Clerk are hiding
“I use the cocoon to amplify my senses of the two trapped inside and read the truths they're concealing.”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +0)
Li Wu lets the cocoon’s quiet press against his senses. The seal answers at once, carrying two separate rhythms, one sharp and counting, one thin and veiled beneath stillness.
Li Wu
Two truths. One spoken, one buried.
The Scrap Vendor’s pulse tightens around the jade token. Beneath his annoyance is calculation, not doubt. He is weighing whether Li Wu is a customer or a threat.
The Scrap Vendor
He can feel the seam. If he leans once more, the cocoon will show him the hinge.
The Jade Clerk’s breathing is shallow, but their qi is not idle. It keeps circling the cocoon’s inner wall, touching the same point again and again, like a hand testing a hidden latch.
The Jade Clerk
Do not let him hear the ledger path. Do not let him hear the name under it.
Li Wu catches the concealed thread between them. The vendor is hiding that the passage was never meant to be sold, only measured. The clerk is hiding that the jade token is a witness mark, not a key.
The Scrap Vendor
...You read too much for a man with blood on his sleeve.
Quest Complete
Learn the truth the Scrap Vendor and Jade Clerk are hiding