Scales Joined
After carrying the two wooden crates back to the stone house, Long Tian did not rush to process the Ore Core Stone.
He placed them together with the crystals in a dry hollow in the corner of the wall, covered them with an old cloth, and only took out a small piece each day to hold in his palm for a while so that the Origin Return Pearl could sense its texture. The purity of the Ore Core Stone was indeed not as good as that of the crystals, and the distribution of light and dark was uneven, some parts were gold and some were black, like a lump of dough that had not been mixed properly. Yu Jin tried to polish the edge of one of them with the Power of Origin. After polishing, the inner layer exposed was indeed more uniform than the outer layer, but the layers of texture inside the whole mineral were intertwined and needed to be sorted out one by one.
"There's not enough time to grind them all down piece by piece." Yu Jin placed the chipped Ore Core Stone back on the cloth, wiping the grayish-white stone powder off his fingers. "If we were to grind them all into powder and then recrystallize them, the process would require continuous high-temperature tempering, at least four or five days of uninterrupted Soul Power output."
Long Tian squatted down in front of the hollow, examining the two piles of Ore Core Stone, then felt the outline of the crystal tucked into his clothes. He spoke softly, with a newly formed certainty. "Not all of it. Take a portion, crush it, and melt it with the crystal to form a new core."
Yu Jin didn't ask "who will use the new core?" He watched as Long Tian placed the first Ore Core Stone in his palm and began to slowly heat it by enveloping it in the aura of the Origin Return Pearl. The surface of the stone began to soften in the continuous heat, its color changing from grayish-white to translucent amber, with tiny bubbles seeping from the edges. Long Tian scraped off the heated mineral powder and collected it on a thin stone slab. He then drew a ray of grayish-white afterglow from the surface of the crystal and shone it into the mineral powder. The two slowly fused together on the surface of the stone slab into a still-flowing, viscous slurry.
He roasted one piece every day. The first piece took a full hour, the second piece was shortened to 35 minutes, and by the fifth piece, he could roast and crush the entire Ore Core Stone within 15 minutes and initially mix it with the residual light of the crystal. After roasting for five consecutive days, the slurry on the stone slab accumulated to the size of a fist, and the color changed from the initial grayish-white with blemishes to a uniform light gray, with a layer of warm, oily sheen on the surface.
On the evening of the sixth day, Long Tian peeled the ball of light off the stone slab and held it in his palm, bringing it close to the Origin Return Pearl. The moment they touched, the light suddenly tightened—like mercury being gathered by an external force—condensing from a thin mass of liquid into a smooth, dark gray bead, about an inch in diameter, smaller than the Origin Return Pearl, but with a dense and solid texture. The dark gray bead had no cracks or patterns, only a very light matte sheen, and quietly floated half an inch above Long Tian's palm.
Long Tian looked down at it, feeling the Origin Return Pearl slowly rotate once in his dantian, as if it had only briefly touched him without lingering. He held the newly formed dark gray pearl in front of Yu Jin: "Put it on. Take off the stone pendant; this one is more compatible with your core attributes."
As Yu Jin reached out and took the bead, his fingertips touched its surface, and his dantian core glowed slightly at the moment of contact. He took the gray stone pendant off his neck and hung the dark gray bead on the same leather cord. When the bead touched his chest, he paused slightly, as if an invisible current of energy was supporting his back from within. He looked down at the matte surface of the bead, then looked up at Long Tian.
"Inside this bead..." Yu Jin pressed his fingertips against the surface of the bead for a moment, feeling it. "It has the aura of your tempering, the essence of the Ore Core Stone, and a trace of crystal's aftertaste. It's like a small furnace."
"This is for your daily core-raising. It can continuously nourish the Fourth Ring even without Soul Hunting." Long Tian covered the remaining Ore Core Stone with the cloth again. "The remaining stones can be roasted slowly later; there's no rush to use them."
Yu Jin did not refuse. He placed the dark gray bead against his chest, walked to the stream, squatted down, scooped up a handful of water, took a sip, and when he stood up, he pressed his palm against the bead, as if to confirm that it was still there. His steps were more steady than before, his back was straighter than ever, and his whole person was like a stone tool whose inner layer had just been polished and was finally revealing its true shape.
That night, Long Tian didn't spar with anyone. He sat alone in the open space in front of the house, facing the dark outline formed by the mountain wall, cross-legged, and lit up the five Soul Ring one by one. The gray-white halo of the Origin Return Pearl continued to circulate in the center of his dantian. He spread his palms on his knees and pushed all the refined light and dark energy in his body into the Closed Circuit at the same time, letting them travel around the path marked on the silk. The first circle was steady, the second circle was slightly faster, and on the third circle, the Origin Return Pearl began to tremble, and the edges of the golden ice cracks on its surface extended outward into new fine arcs.
Fourth lap. Fifth lap.
When the Closed Circuit reached its seventh cycle, Long Tian felt the Origin Return Pearl suddenly tighten, like a spring compressed to its limit stopping just before it could rebound. The five Soul Ring in his dantian simultaneously shone at their brightest. The light and dark energies no longer separated, but instead surged towards the Origin Return Pearl from their respective positions—two torrents of gold and black crashed into the grayish-white pearl's interior. Upon meeting deep within the pearl's core, they did not repel each other, but were instead accepted, mixed, and recombined by the golden ice cracks covering the inner wall of the Origin Return Pearl. The Origin Return Pearl trembled violently for several breaths during that impact, then emitted a completely new light from within—a uniformly flowing pattern of gold and black interwoven across the grayish-white background, like a chaotic void being relit.
A deep, rumbling sound came from the depths of Long Tian's dantian, like a giant creature turning over in the depths of a distant mountain. Above Long Tian's five Soul Ring and below the Origin Return Pearl, a brand new Soul Ring materialized out of thin air in the gap between them—a deep, mixed color between gold and black, with a grayish-white halo around its edges, and a denser and thicker texture than the five Soul Ring below. It did not absorb any power from any Soul Beast from the outside; it was entirely the sixth ring that had spontaneously formed after the light and darkness within his body Return to One.
Long Tian opened his eyes. Six Soul Ring were neatly arranged in his dantian, and the Origin Return Pearl slowly rotated between the Sixth Ring and Fifth Ring. The gold and black interlacing patterns on its surface echoed the patterns on the inner walls of each Soul Ring, like a thread passing through multiple bead holes simultaneously. He looked down at his hands, and the grayish-white halo between his palm lines had turned into a deeper grayish-gold. Gold, black, and white mixed into a stable base color that continued to flow in his palms without dissipating.
He stood up and stretched. The feeling of his Soul Power was more than twice as strong as before, and the circuits of his meridians running through his body were more complete and resilient than ever when all six Soul Ring were active simultaneously. He tried raising his right hand and looking at it in the moonlight—the golden scales on the back of his hand had a grayish-white halo around their edges, and the gaps between the scales were no longer filled by shadows as before, but were naturally covered by that base color. The faint crack between the gold and black had disappeared, and the scales on the back of his hand had a uniformly transitioning tone, like a river flowing from both banks to the center and forming a calm, deep pool at the confluence.
Yu Jin emerged from the stone house and saw him standing there, in the open space where the moonlight and the afterglow of the hearth fire met, his hands outstretched, looking down at the layer of gray-gold luster in his palms. Yu Jin stopped at the doorway. He sensed that Long Tian's Soul Power fluctuations were completely different from before—it was a state where there was no longer a need for deliberate fusion, where they had already merged at a fundamental level, like a furnace that, from the outside, still looked like the same bricks and stones, but inside burned flames of a different temperature.
Long Tian turned his palm over, and a gray-gold halo condensed above it into a slender outline of light and shadow—the shape of a dragon. The dragon's figure was more complete and solid than ever before; every line on the edge of its scales was clearly discernible, with gold and black intertwined on a gray-white background, like the twilight of late autumn being gathered into a tangible life. It circled once above his palm and then dissipated, but the outline lingered on Yu Jin's retina for a long time.
Yu Jin stood in the doorway, watching him. A warm, steady glow emanated from the dark gray bead in his hand, emanating from his chest. He didn't approach, didn't disturb him, but simply leaned against the doorframe, gazing at the person standing in the center of the moonlit clearing. He watched him look down at his empty palms, watched him slowly clench his fists, watched the reflection of the six Soul Ring in his eyes as he looked up. In that gaze, Yu Jin saw something nearly complete taking shape. It wasn't fully revealed yet, but its outline was already discernible.
Long Tian withdrew his palm, and the six Soul Ring disappeared one by one into the depths of his dantian. The gray-gold luster of the Origin Return Pearl also slowly subsided, becoming a quiet core within his body. As he turned to walk back to the stone house, he passed by Yu Jin, his steps slightly heavier than usual, as if he had a newly fitted suit of armor on his shoulders. Yu Jin stepped aside to let him pass, without saying a word, but only touched Long Tian's elbow with the back of his finger as Long Tian crossed the threshold. The movement was light and brief, like two adjacent scales gently scraping against each other at their overlapping edges.
The fire in the furnace was still burning. Long Tieshan sat on a wooden stump by the furnace, holding the fire tongs but not stirring the coals; he simply held them, watching the flames dance, as if waiting for an answer that didn't need to be asked. Long Tian walked over and squatted by the furnace, taking the fire tongs from his father and adding a piece of firewood to the furnace. Sparks flew as the firewood fell into the flames. Father and son squatted in front of the furnace, the firelight bathing their profiles in the same warm hue. They didn't exchange a word, but sat quietly for a while in the same light.