The light in the side hall shifted several times over three days, from the pale white of dawn to the bright white of noon, then to the warm hues of evening tinted yellow by the sea breeze, before finally sinking into the dark gray of night.
Xiao Yun did not leave the room. The tea on the windowsill was never replenished. He spent most of his time seated at the table by the window, several sheets filled with markings spread before him and a few sharpened charcoal pencils set beside them.
He drew several drafts, then covered them one by one with fresh sheets of paper, grouping together the areas with denser markings and merging repeated lines. Gradually, he determined the arrangement of the Artifact Runes across the pillar's surface, as well as the depth and spacing of the internal engravings.
He took out a piece of uniformly textured refined iron from his storage space and cut it to a suitable size for use as test material.
He did not rush to experiment directly on the Deep Sea Sunken Silver Pillar. Instead, he first simulated the pillar's structure and pattern distribution on the scaled-down block of refined iron, determining how to handle the starting points and turns of the Artifact Runes.
He used a charcoal pencil to sketch the initial outline of the Artifact Runes onto the refined iron block, then guided Spiritual Power along the lines, observing its direction and speed of flow within the iron. He recorded whether it moved smoothly through turns, whether it stalled at intersections, and whether it could close steadily at the end.
After completing the records, he remelted the refined iron block and made a new sample, slightly adjusting the paths of the Artifact Runes to make their transitions smoother.
Each time he