The arena crew brought in a reinforced bronze frame used for siege tests. Its feet locked into the stone. A guild representative watched as the attendants tightened each clamp and checked the ward.
“Can it be repaired after?” Yan asked.
“It was donated for the trial,” the representative said. “We would prefer to get it back in one piece.”
“Then I’ll try not to break it.”
The crowd laughed. Qiu said the target measured force, not control. A clean strike would count as a test, but the court would not call it a separate technique. Yan agreed. He asked Qinghe to mark the point of impact so the audience could compare the result with the previous frame.
She drew a short chalk line across the bronze. Wei checked the target’s distance from the starting point. The physicians moved behind the outer ward, where the force could not travel to them.
Yan began Withering Torrent for a third time. The strengthened channels carried the flow with less resistance. He turned his wrist at the end of the sequence and directed the ordinary force into the chalked point.
The frame bent inward. Its legs scraped across the floor, but did not break. The sound rolled over the audience and brought a cheer from the lower rows.
