Six miles south of the Tea Garden, the seclusion pavilion hummed with golden light, rattling the porcelain tea bowls against the wooden table.
Outside, Sera Thorne, Mina Vance, and Elder Sterling stood watch as the refinement array reached its peak.
Inside the pavilion, Barnaby Holt, Linnea, and Deacon Vane did not open their eyes.
They sat firmly anchored to their woven straw mats, absorbing forty thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones—four hundred Sovereign Jade Cores—alongside the purified Imperial Dragon-Marrow Nectar and Cloud-Veined pill essence.
Barnaby held the central earth node, his weathered meridians grounding the forty billion units of pure Qi deep into the bedrock.
Linnea directed the wood node, weaving golden threads of dragon-marrow vitality through their shared spiritual conduits.
Deacon Vane governed the water node, regulating the immense torrent of energy released by the forty thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones.
The four hundred Sovereign Jade Cores crumbled into fine white powder in unison.
