The four-fifths fraction of Lu's ancient core had previously emerged from storage, departing the eleven thousand six hundred awakened cultivators the instant the southern fragment arrived.Patriarch Xue's corrupted core had simultaneously entered the restored primordial vein upon the exact same reversed draw, at the exact same hour. Melvin had spent six long weeks assuming the two catastrophic payloads had traveled together as a single unified entity through the subterranean network.Manager Lin adjusted the copper sensor leads on the reading frame, pointing to the erratic needle oscillations. "The diagnostic dials prove that Patriarch Xue's core never merged with Lu's fragment, Doctor Melvin, because the ninth seam is vibrating at an entirely independent frequency that matches none of our northern baselines!""A nine-seam core cannot distribute its mass across a general population the way a single core can, because it requires nine distinct frequencies held completely separate to pre

Rising to his feet despite the searing agony in his cracked ribs, Melvin issued a sharp tactical command. "Do not attack his physical body with blades or qi blasts, because striking his flesh will only rupture his unstable meridian walls and force his corrupted core to detonate violently, killing everyone inside this cavern!"The possessed monster leaped across the shattered pool bed, his blackened fingernails aimed directly at Melvin's throat. The air screamed with concussive force as the nine-seam core compressed itself, preparing to unleash a lethal burst of celestial fire.Melvin dodged beneath the sweeping strike, withdrawing nine long silver acupuncture needles from his velvet belt. Instead of driving the needles into Han's thrashing flesh, he plunged the silver shafts directly into the surrounding bedrock at precise geometric intervals.Each silver needle vibrated at one specific harmonic frequency, mirroring the exact holding protocol Melvin had written for eleven thousand six

The possessed deacon merely veered around her rigid stance, brushing past her shoulder as though she were a wooden post. He did not waste a single flick of qi on the defenseless woman, because her mortal body held zero value for his desperate cellular transfer."He bypassed Lady Beatrix without striking her because her mortal meridians possess zero cultivation foundation, confirming he only targets a specific anatomical compatibility that can sustain a celestial transfer," Melvin whispered, hobbling through the ruined entrance of the pavilion.Kaelen sprinted into the pavilion four seconds ahead of the physician, throwing his entire armored weight into the narrow doorway. A concussive shockwave erupted from Han's palm, shattering Kaelen's right forearm across the nine silver needles seated in his bracers and hurling him through the canvas tent frame into the mud outside.Spitting blood onto the trampled grass, Kaelen struggled to his feet outside the torn wall. "Cut through the rear c

Melvin pulled his hand back as if burned, his breath catching sharply in his throat. "Her spiritual foundation is not an ordinary mortal vessel at all, but an ancient Sovereign inheritance identical to the royal lineages of the Hidden Boundary.""What did you find hidden inside my daughter's spine, Doctor Melvin?" Lady Beatrix asked with mounting dread, her aristocratic composure wavering for the first time."Beneath the dragon mark lies an extensive fibrous scar structure left by an artificial Void Energy Core," Melvin answered grimly, his voice dropping to a tense whisper.That foreign energetic parasite had been surgically planted inside her body when she was a small child, wrapping itself tightly around the dormant pattern to suppress its growth. It was the exact same toxic anomaly Melvin had extracted with four silver needles in a VIP isolation suite in Sargana Province before he ever knew what a cut face was.The terrifying diagnostic truth struck the young physician with the ph

When the crystalline cap displaced planetary flow upon closing, he had rejected the idea of forcing one human core to absorb the discharge. He had driven the surging flow north through eighty-one valve points, distributing the kinetic pressure across eleven thousand six hundred living meridian structures until the crisis passed without a single casualty.The ancient sealing notes described one solitary carrier enduring the total crushing weight for a thousand years. That narrow design was the only method available to an ancient officer who possessed two carriers and zero surrounding population. Melvin commanded an asset the ancient architects never had: two worlds populated by cultivators who had already stood in the drain fields and returned down the terraces to hold the line.A distributed cap needed a seated meridian network holding the subterranean load in tiny fractions so that no individual took lasting damage. It also demanded a live regulator stationed at the head of the circu