The next day, as Lin Yi moved the last sack of red peony roots onto the shelf, a faint tearing sound emerged from the wooden crate's base. Kneeling to inspect it, he discovered a crack in the corner revealing half a yellowed manual. When his fingers touched the pages, searing pain stabbed through his chest like needles.
"Newbie!" The apothecary's bark shattered the air behind him. "Daydreaming again?"
Lin Yi swiftly tucked the manual into his sleeve and hefted the medicine box. "This crate's damp underneath. Should we transfer the contents?"
The shopkeeper narrowed his eyes, bronze scales clinking in his grip. "Mind your duties." He tossed a bundle of dried gentian roots at Lin Yi. "Jar these in celadon vessels. And remember—" The scale rod thundered against the sandalwood countertop. "The rear storeroom's offlimits."
At dusk, Lin Yi barred his chamber door and extracted the partial manual. The cover's "Fundamental Breath Control Technique" title swam in bloodstains. The final page bore a crimson thumbprint marking two urgent characters: Run.
"Verification Protocol Step Three..." He traced three nearly invisible scratches on the windowsill - now four. His dual tracking system: moss carvings behind the privy counted days, these subtle marks tallied room entries.
Moonlight silvered the manual as Lin Yi assumed the five-point celestial posture. When his first breath cycled the prescribed path, the embedded device in his chest vibrated. Horrified, he watched moonlight condense into luminous threads that wormed through his pores into meridians.
His shadow warped on the wall, sprouting three heads and six grotesque limbs. Cold sweat trickled down his spine as rasping coughs sounded outside. The alley beggar who perpetually hunched by the tea stall now stared up at his window, cracked bowl glowing faintly with a lotus sigil - identical to the apothecary's jade pendant.
A corroded coin shattered through the window, exploding into seven shards that severed the luminous threads. Blood oozed from the manual's meridian diagrams, sketching a demonic visage on the wall.
"Want the Tribunal hounds sniffing your trail?" The beggar's voice seeped through cracked panes. By the time Lin Yi reached the window, the old man perched impossibly on a roof beam three stories high, swaying wine gourd in hand.
Lin Yi's fingers found fresh wood splinters in the fifth windowsill notch. Ice flooded his veins - someone monitored his every movement.
"Old Master, what's your meaning?" His grip whitened on the lattice.
The beggar upended his gourd. Wine solidified into icicles aimed at Lin Yi's forehead. "Three years back, some fool tried cultivating the Nine Cycle Reincarnation Art here..." The ice shattered to mist an inch from Lin Yi's face. "Wild dogs still gnaw his bones out back."
Frost crystallized across Lin Yi's chest device. The beggar's milky eyes sharpened. "Show me that metal plate."
Thunderous crashes erupted from the apothecary. Eighteen charm-sealed crates quaked, pulsing like a colossal heartbeat. Blood flakes from the manual swirled into the characters: Third Hour of Xu.
The beggar's face drained of color. His gourd smashed against flagstones, blue flames revealing seven advancing figures with soul-chains. "Take this!" His bowl burned a lotus brand into Lin Yi's palm. "Strike the third northwest tile at the City God Temple before midnight. If I don't—" Ragged cloth tore open, revealing a gaping chest wound. "Enshrine this bowl before the Tribunal's founding statue!"
Hailstones pelted the alleyways. Lin Yi altered course mid-stride. The temple's watchman clangs sounded wrong - three strikes interspersed with nail-on-brass screeches, recalling Verification Law Three: True paths lie in a guide's blind spots.
His chest device hummed in tune with the bowl, projecting luminous trails through the downpour. At the seventh thunderclap, his fingers closed on bronze taotie door rings at the Tribunal's side entrance.
"Verification Step Seven..." Rain dripped from his chin as he felt fresh triangular carvings on the stone lion base - his own tracking marks from the apothecary, signaling three groups had preceded him.
All eternal lamps extinguished as he placed the bowl before the statue. The stone crown cracked open, revealing half a decomposed face that spoke with the beggar's voice: "They carved a Heart-Devouring Curse on my spirit tablet!"
Black blood oozed from the inverted bowl, writhing into prophetic verses:
Xu hour bloodstains azure steps
Heart-lamp reveals thrice-cast shadows
Break the casket, honor living ghosts
Lin Yi's chest device burned as the beggar's wound pattern materialized on his skin. Before he could react, the apothecary's voice slithered from shadows: "Young friend, did you know this statue last awoke to devour twelve trespassers?"