On the fifth day, he reached for the last container.
Pei Jing opened his eyes. Seven pillars stood in his Dantian, each doing what he had built it to do. He still needed something to join them at the top. He thought of an unfinished arch. It could stand as long as every stone bore an even share of the weight. One blow from the side could bring it down.
He reached for the star-iron sphere at the south point of the platform. The lead gourd had stood there before he emptied it. The earth pillar it had raised stood at the center of his Dantian, leaving the south of that inner ring for the solar pair. The Astral Sun Fire inside it had come from Burning Sun Valley’s Central Sun-Flame Cauldron. The Valley’s great bronze mirrors caught the fire high in the sky and fed it into the cauldron. He had drawn this portion from an outlet and sealed it in the sphere.
He took off the cap. White light flooded the cave. He could see it through his closed eyes. The black shelf, the pillars and the red sea vanished in the glare. Hot dust blew across his skin.
