The final phase change occurred with total, exact inevitability.
As the heat inside Cauldron 084 plunged past 1,418 Degrees of star-heat, the twelve-heartbeat window snapped shut. The sound pressure wave that Lin Tao had kept across the copper pipe hub released its grip. He allowed the underground salt water to execute the final, end-post cool across the bronze hull.
KZZZZZT.
Inside the crucible, the twelve swirling vortices of uncommitted dragon marrow slurry collapsed at the same time.
In database transaction processing, Lin Tao analyzed, his breath releasing in a slow, steady plume of white vapor, when a suspended transaction finally commits after duplicate share-out, it doesn’t discard the cloned records. It writes all twelve instances to permanent storage with matching coded parity.
Through the quartz watching port, the blinding golden-violet fire subsided into a calm, sapphire-hued calm.
Floating in the center of each of the twelve sound cradles was a perfect, ball-shaped gem of condensed sky medicine—each the size of a walnut. It spun slowly on its axis. Across the semi-clear golden surface of each sphere, nine nested rings of violet Dan-fire pulsed with a slow, steady beat, like the resting heartbeat of a sleeping dragon. The spheres emitted a soft chiming sound as they cooled. They settled gently onto the fine china collection trays set beneath the nozzles.
