Green jade was stacked beneath the base of the mandala.
It formed a solid foundation of energy for this miniature universe.
Spiritual essence flowed between the jade stones, swept along by the magic power pouring into them. It raced through the magical circuits Xiao Xiao had painstakingly traced in silver powder and copper foil, coursed through the mandala's intricate structure, and finally converged at "Sumeru"—the topaz region at the very center of the Mandala Array, which symbolized the True Self and its core.
The gray-white stone sphere lay there quietly.
At first, it showed no response, as inert as any ordinary rock.
But as energy continued to soak into it, a change quietly began.
A faint glimmer appeared on the sphere's surface, like the glow of a firefly bug's belly. It pulsed so weakly it was almost transparent, yet it held a strange vitality. Under everyone's gaze, it slowly "rose and fell" in a steady rhythm.
The sphere itself was not moving. The layer of light that had absorbed the energy was "breathing."
Hermione held her breath.
She held it tight.
So tight that her chest began to ache, and she nearly suffocated herself.
Her eyes widened as she tried to catch every detail. She saw it clearly: whenever the light on the sphere's surface "sank" and drew inward, the green jade blocks stacked around the mandala dimmed slightly, as though some of the spiritual essence within them had been sucked away. The streams of magic power racing along the silver circuits then grew a little thicker and brighter as they surged faster toward the center. After that, the light on the sphere "rose" again, a shade brighter than before, completing the cycle.
Over and over it went.
Even without a deep understanding of the profound Mandala Array, Hermione could