The underground array forge hummed with the deep, oceanic deep ring of five hundred thousand spirit stones shaking all at once. Located three hundred paces beneath the northern terrace, the chamber was carved from a single dome of crystal-clear white granite. In the center of the hall, a raised dais of sky bronze supported forty long worktables, upon which lay fifty thousand polished discs of warm river jade.
Each jade disc was exactly two inches across, carved from semi-clear mutton-fat white jade harvested from the clean riverbeds of the Clear Stream Valley. In the dead center of each disc, delicate lapidary chisels had bored a hollow ball-shaped pool no larger than a mustard seed. It was surrounded by sixteen nested rings of micro-inscribed spatial shifted weight runes.
Lin Xiao stood before the main assembly altar in his youthful scholar avatar. His azure linen sleeves were tied back with clean white cords. He closed his eyes, centering his mind upon the boundless Primordial Chaos Void dantian swirling at his core.
“Dao Spirit, initiate ringing fluid division,” Lin Xiao directed silently. “Maintain atom-deep focus across all nodes. Ensure each droplet retains full non-Newtonian impact-hardening memory.”
“Affirmative, Host,” the Dao Spirit replied within his spiritual sea. “Extracting fifty thousand tiny cellular clusters from Host’s outer boundary layer. Moving dampening settings locked at total maximum. Void anchor map points tuned to the outside Recovery Pavilion.”
