Purifying Soul Marrow

Tania stood atop the ruins. From there, she could see White Cliff Town in the distance as sheets of ash rose like a local snowfall.

She closed her eyes, and a faint, flickering light gathered around her.

"If the omen is right, the person you're looking for is in that town," Tania said, opening her eyes. "Judging by the Source Energy I sensed, he's at least above Rank Four."

"Is that so? We've finally found him. Without that Tidal Night, we might have spent quite a while longer searching the Wilderness."

A man stepped forward. He was around thirty, with slightly pale skin, loose robes, and an unhurried manner.

Another man followed close behind him and asked nervously,

"What's the plan? A direct assault? Toren and I are only Rank One, and Tania has only just reached Rank Two..."

"Gene, I'll deal with him. You only need to support me."

The man cast Gene a sidelong glance, his voice turning cold. "Apart from him, there shouldn't be any other Transcendents in that town. Dealing with a group of ordinary people shouldn't be difficult for you."

Gene wanted to say something, but in the end he silently nodded and obeyed. Toren did the same.

Tania asked, "When do we move?"

"As a Torchbearer who returned alive from the Dark World, Nuen won't be easy to deal with."

The man thought for a moment. "Not to mention that the town has a Torchlight Lighthouse. Its Soul Marrow light will severely restrict us."

He made his decision and gave his orders. "I need a few days to prepare so I can borrow my lord's power."

"Your lord?"

Tania considered the words with curiosity, giving the man a meaningful look.

"Your master is..."

The man met her gaze with open hostility. "What?"

"Nothing. I'm just curious..."

The man cut off her questions. "Tania, we're only working together."

Tania gave a soft laugh. "Even if you don't tell me, I can make a fair guess."

"Before I left Her City, I heard rumors about you. You've been hunting that man named Nuen for years, perhaps longer... Did you find him this time because you felt that powerful bloodline summons not long ago?"

Tania leaned against the man's chest, lightly dragging her nails across it with a seductive smile.

"The only ones who can sense a bloodline summons between Torchbearers are those people..."

Tania stopped mid-sentence. The man's expression turned icy, as though frost had settled over it.

"Deathbird, don't be so tense. We're on the same side, aren't we?" Tania said with a grin. "I'm just a little tired of life in Her City. Maybe when this is over, I could join you..."

Without warning, Deathbird seized Tania by the throat and lifted her with one hand.

"The same side?"

Contempt and anger edged his voice. "How could we possibly be on the same side?"

"Join us?"

Deathbird threw Tania to the ground and planted a foot on her delicate face.

"That's an insult to us."

Tania silently endured the humiliation. Gene and Toren did not dare make a sound. They did not know Deathbird's true identity, but from the fragments they had heard, they had already guessed a little.

The truth chilled them to the bone.

After Tidal Night, White Cliff Town passed several peaceful nights.

In that peace, the townspeople grew busier than ever. They gathered beside the high wall under the scorching sun, swinging hammers and hoes to repair the wall and build defenses.

"The Source-Energy Tide a few days ago came too suddenly. It's left me uneasy," Nuen said to Mayor Bohr as he directed the townspeople. "As a precaution, I think we should reinforce the Town Hall as well as the wall."

"I have no objection. You're the expert in this," Bohr said with his usual genial smile. "What I'm wondering is why this tide worries you so much when White Cliff Town has survived several before."

"Maybe... intuition?" Nuen said uncertainly.

"Then trust your intuition," Bohr said, offering him his full support. "As a high-ranking Transcendent, your instincts are often far sharper than those of ordinary people like us."

Nuen fell silent, lost in thought. Bohr was used to these spells of silence and waited patiently.

After a long while, Nuen spoke.

"Tidal Night is only a by-product of a Source-Energy Tide. The real danger is that the tide's ripples sweep out of the depths of the Origin Sea, cross the Spirit Realm, and wash over reality."

Nuen chose his words carefully. "Often, that wave crossing from the unreal into the real drags things sleeping in the Origin Sea or the Spirit Realm into our world."

"Oh, is that why ruined walls sometimes appear out of nowhere in the Wilderness?"

The vast, desolate land was strewn with countless ruins. Sometimes they appeared without warning, and sometimes they vanished just as suddenly. Their architecture and degree of weathering varied, as though fragments from different ages had been twisted together.

When the Interstice Gray Domain descended, it sometimes took things away and sometimes left things behind. Under the protection of the Torchlight Lighthouse, White Cliff Town was unaffected by it.

"What worries me more than the things that sank into the Spirit Realm are the things that come back."

"Such as?"

Bohr looked at Nuen curiously. Though he was the mayor of White Cliff Town, he had spent his entire life there and had never set foot beyond it.

"Certain unusual creatures of Chaos? Or perhaps offspring of Abominations hidden deep in the Spirit Realm?

"In any case, anything that returns from the Interstice Gray Domain is generally some twisted, malevolent thing of Chaos."

Nuen drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. A smile appeared on his weathered face as he reassured Bohr.

"Perhaps I'm overthinking it. White Cliff Town has already done well to survive that Tidal Night."

He continued, "If White Cliff Town hadn't held out that night, the Interstice Gray Domain might have swallowed the whole town and dragged it into the Spirit Realm."

"Into... the Spirit Realm?" A chill ran down Bohr's spine. "What would happen then?"

Bohr was an ordinary man. The Spirit Realm was too distant and too mysterious for him.

Nuen shook his head and said no more. "That isn't something you need to worry about."

"All right."

Bohr could not force an answer from him.

"I'll leave the work here to you for now," Nuen said. "I'm going to check our Soul Marrow reserves. We used a great deal that night, so we'll have to be more careful with what's left."

"Of course. Sorry for the trouble."

After parting from Bohr, Nuen returned to the Armory, where Xilian had been waiting for some time.

"Teacher."

Xilian nodded to Nuen as he entered the Armory.

"Come with me."

Nuen beckoned and led Xilian into a room deep within the Armory.

Xilian glanced up at the plaque on the door. It read: Refining Room.

The Refining Room was large but mostly empty. A chair stood in its center, with a complicated machine behind it. Curving pipes protruded from the machine and connected containers of different shapes, making it look like a grotesquely overgrown mechanical tumor.

Nuen flipped the power switch. The machine roared to life amid mechanical clatter and the hum of electricity. The room grew noticeably warmer, and clouds of dust billowed out.

After warming up, the machine settled into a steady rhythm. Xilian knew what to do. Without waiting for instructions, he sat in the chair, rolled up his sleeve, and exposed his clean wrist.

"This Soul Marrow Refiner has seen better days, but at least it still runs," Nuen said, turning a knob. "I have no idea how the Spirit Artisans made something this complicated last so long."

A needle slipped beneath Xilian's skin. A streak of crimson appeared in the tubing and flowed into the Soul Marrow Refiner.

"The Soul Marrow Refiner separates Soul Marrow from your blood, then refines it to a degree, purifying it into the powdered Soul Marrow we usually use."

Over the years, Nuen had often come here to refine his own blood and replenish White Cliff Town's dwindling Soul Marrow supply.

Xilian's blood passed between the containers, and a warm, blood-scented vapor slowly spread through the room.

"When the purification is done, much of the Soul Marrow in your body will be gone. You'll feel a little weak, but that's normal. Don't worry."

"Like when I burn through the Soul Marrow in my body during a fight?"

Xilian remembered fighting through Tidal Night.

"More or less," Nuen said. "How quickly your Soul Marrow regenerates depends on your rank.

"Legend has it that some Torchbearers at the highest ranks can come close to perpetual motion, generating Soul Marrow as fast as they burn it, like a sun that never goes out."

"Like... the Expeditionary Pathfinder?"

Xilian thought of that mighty figure at the end of the Torchbearing Path.

At the end of every Fated Path stood beings known as Giant Gods. But the Secret-Speech Sage, Heavenly Craftsman Iron Father, and the Expeditionary Pathfinder had set themselves apart from the Giant Gods of the old era. They did not call themselves Giant Gods, but the Three Sages.

"Who knows? I've never seen the Expeditionary Pathfinder myself."

The Expeditionary Pathfinder's deeds had become legend. Only a handful of Torchbearers who had survived since the Year of Rebellion still remembered them clearly.

Xilian sat obediently in the chair. Aside from the pain in his wrist, the worst part of the purification was the Soul Marrow Refiner's ear-splitting noise.

Nuen left the Refining Room. As Xilian waited for the purification to finish, he recalled what Ava had told him that morning.

"We're planning a celebration."

In the faint morning light, Ava had spoken with delight. "To celebrate White Cliff Town surviving Tidal Night and you becoming a Torchbearer."

"Have the mayor and my teacher agreed?" Xilian had asked.

"Of course." Ava had nodded vigorously. "White Cliff Town hasn't held a celebration in far too long. It's time we had one to put some life back into everyone."

"Dress handsomely. I've already picked you as my dance partner."

The Soul Marrow Refiner's noise abruptly stopped, followed by a long chime.

Xilian removed the needle from his wrist and opened the Soul Marrow Refiner's output compartment. Inside sat a small box of crimson powdered crystals: the Soul Marrow just purified from his body.

"Whew... I really am a little dizzy."

Xilian blinked, his head swimming.

If such a short session left him tired and weak, he could hardly imagine how Nuen had endured so many years of it.

After resting for a while, Xilian stood and made his unsteady way out of the Refining Room.

Just before closing the door, Xilian looked back at the empty room. An image rose unbidden in his mind.

Nuen sat alone in the chair while the Soul Marrow Refiner drew blood from his body, enduring its noise and the silence around it, day after day, all the way to the present.

Xilian did not know whether that counted as a kind of punishment. But he thought he understood why Nuen had stayed in White Cliff Town all this time.

White Cliff Town had been founded by the Sunflower Clan. It was one of the few things they had left in the world.

If White Cliff Town vanished into the Yellow Earth as well, how lonely would Nuen be?