Thirty-six bells rang from the crater rim at midnight. The Star-Suppressing Great Array changed its note, and cold white mist poured into the basin. Down in the Underground Flues, the air smelled of damp stone and cooling slag.
Pei Jing sharpened the cleaver before he touched the diamond awl. Forty passes on the Black Mountain Whetstone, then forty on the other side. The old rhythm had stayed with him from the frontier to the Black Marsh. He kept going until the weariness of thirty days fell away from his hands.
His dantian held a nine-zhang basin of clear qi. Silver and violet currents passed through three hundred and sixty points without catching. When his pulse reached sixteen beats a minute, he picked up the awl.
He drew the last stroke across his fifty-second working needle and held the tool still while the Chaos Qi settled. The dark enamel took the light with a tiny snap.
Pei Jing put down the awl and closed his eyes.
The Ledger’s old gray slate cracked. Behind it was dark jade, with the new rank written in white.
Thirty days and sixty hours. He’d reached Tier Four in engraving. His finished needles also earned him a separate craft qualification, Tier Two Talisman Master. That rated the whole piece, from the steel to its working runes.
