A cold, heavy numbness crept outward from the center of Lin Ke’s bones.
It began deep within his marrow. A deep, chemical ache like crushed glass grinding inside his thigh bone cavities.
Stage Two of the live merge had engaged. The Abyssal Ashen Bone Lattice was executing its stone replacement cycle. To build an unbending load-bearing chassis capable of withstanding the impending sky-trial strike, his skeleton was actively shedding its soft, organic calcium matrix to make room for the dense spirit-iron lattice.
The displaced stone waste—pure living calx—flooded his blood-vessel bed in a massive, uncontrolled wave.
His blood turned the color and consistency of grey foundry sludge.
With every sluggish contraction of his heart, thick stone slurry scraped against the fragile endothelial lining of his arteries. His hands and feet grew numb and cold. His fingers seized into rigid claws as calcium settled mud began precipitating in his tiny blood vessel beds.
Worse, the heavy stone grit tore through his Vitreous Glass Spirit veins (Bing-Mai). Unlike living vessels with slimy linings, his non-elastic quartz dust channels had to endure direct water-flow scouring. The gritty calx felt like fine emery powder and skin-burning lye being blasted through delicate glass tubing at crushing pressure. A screaming, razor-edged agony sang through his arms and legs. Tiny friction heating the channel walls until his marrow felt like it was boiling in lead.
