Yan crossed the last folded stair with Heaven-Burial Step. The corridor pulled sideways around him, but he followed the practiced sequence and emerged at the central furnace. His full body arrived before the reserve cutoff.
Qinghe stood at the console. Gu was beside the coil return, and two engineers waited near the inner ring. No one mistook the weak projection he had left earlier for an anchor. It had supplied no force. Yan’s hands were the part the furnace needed.
He put both palms on the inner ring. The familiar heat climbed his arms. The central gauge trembled, then steadied as the load shifted from the reserve coils to his active Final Offering. He did not restart the method. The same sequence continued, only now his body was physically present to hold it.
“Hold,” Qinghe said. She watched both gauges. “The central line is stable.”
Gu kept his hand at the cutoff. “Coil return is still carrying a narrow margin.”
“Close the return when the transfer holds.” Qinghe counted under her breath, watching the line settle. “Now.”
Gu closed the coil return. Qinghe watched the central gauge through another stable count. Only then did she stop the buffer clock. The reserve bank was isolated. The engineers recorded its final temperature and remaining charge, then tagged the cutoff before anyone touched the line again.
