On the tenth day the grotto was quiet. The tremors from two days before had stopped. Cloud Mist’s charms and Azure Cloud’s drills were silent. Both groups had moved toward the surface.
The lotus basin was down to five inches of clear spring water. In ten days the earth-marrow had passed into Pei Jing’s body. Only a thick layer of amber-gold sediment remained in the hollows at the bottom. It held earth salts and quartz essence too dense to pass through his skin.
He sat cross-legged in the shallows with his palms on his knees. The Ledger counted down the last twenty seconds.
00:00:15.
00:00:10.
00:00:05.
The Five-Elemental Chaos Martial Root had finished its thousandth turn of the final cycle. The five currents drew together into a bright sphere spinning in time with the earth vein below him.
The Astral Crystalline Bone Sheath now covered all two hundred and six bones. From his fingertips to the bones of his neck, there was no gap in it. Thin spirals of stone enamel protected the vessels inside his bones, strong enough to hold against six thousand pounds per square inch.
