In the nine hundredth entry hall, at the geographical and spirit apex of the Axis Mundi, the First Sovereign delivered the final decree of the deep.
The huge titan of star-black glass leaned forward upon the Obsidian Throne. His eight-hundred-arm-length frame, which had remained stone-hard in silent vigil across ten thousand winters, was now fully awake, infused with the blood-vessel warmth of thirty-seven degrees and the rhythmic breath flow of sixty-four thousand living channels. Deep within his black glass chest, the four-hundred-and-eighteen-second breathing cycle pulsed with calm, earth-shaking power. He drew the fresh snowmelt of the high glaciers down through forty leagues of granite chimney pipes and exhaled life into the underground world.
On the green jade dais, Qiao Ming and Yan Zhiqiu stood together at the intersection of the main spirit vein lines.
The Broken Slate, carried through six hundred years of blood, flight, and generational sorrow, was now permanently fused into the armrest stone base of the throne, its fractured edges erased by living jade and fiery glass. The old family debt of the Yan clan was fully discharged. The ancient promise had found its resting place.
From the crown of the titan, the great diamond Meridian Eye flared with blinding, diamond-violet bright glare. He cast a single, unified column of light eighty arm-lengths wide that wrapped around the entire dais.
