Yan sat in the repaired cultivation chamber with the spirit-stone racks full and the outer wards steady. The complete Thousand Fractures manual lay open on the stand. Gu had checked the activation sequence once more, and Qinghe had compared the body notes with the pulse instruments. The room had passed its load test the previous afternoon.
Director Su stood near the gallery window with Min. Bai watched the case and the exit. They were all inside the reinforced ring, but outside the marked cultivation circle. Yan had asked for them to stay close enough to see the readings and far enough from the practice space.
“Are the stones ready?” he asked.
Min checked each rack. “The feed is balanced. The outer seal is steady.”
“Manual?”
Gu tapped the open page. “Complete. The missing transitions match the archive foldout.”
Yan looked at Qinghe. “Pulse?”
“Even.” She smiled. “You’re rested, you’ve eaten, and you know the sequence.”
