The heat still hadn’t eased when the second day began.
Pei Jing opened his eyes. His skin felt dry as clay, and the Heavy Earth Pillar was still giving off heat. If he put the next load on his Foundation while it was this hot, the channels around it would stretch and lose their shape.
He reached for the soapstone flask at the north point. The Glacial Cold-Bone Fire had been drawn from dragon bone in the frozen vaults of Mount Hanyuan. Blue vapor spilled over his fingers when he opened the flask. It sank to the platform and laid a patch of white frost on the hot rock.
Pei Jing drew the flame in with a breath.
Cold struck his chest. His teeth rattled so hard he could hear them over the magma. Frost spread across his brows and lashes. His next breath sent little grains of ice clicking against his chest. Below his ribs, his belly still gave off red light.
The heat wanted to spread. The cold drew everything inward. Pei Jing held both within the reach of the Five-Elemental Chaos Spirit Root. He had accounted for what each would do to his body. If he could bring them together slowly, the swelling from one would be matched by the pull of the other.
