Lin Yi stood before the qilin, the storage token hovering lightly above his palm, its surface calm, its contents anything but. Within it lay the celestial jades he had just collected, each one dense with refined energy, each one a fragment of this world's deeper structure.
The qilin did not look away.
Its gaze remained fixed on the token, its usually tranquil presence now carrying a faint, rising intensity. The light along its scales pulsed in slow intervals, like a heartbeat gradually increasing in pace.
"...You want them," Lin Yi said quietly.
It was not a question.
The qilin took a step forward.
The air beneath its hooves rippled, the invisible currents bending slightly around its movement. Up close, the change was clearer. The soft multicolored glow that once defined its presence had deepened, the colors becoming more saturated, more… real.
Alive in a different way.
Lin Yi did not hesitate further.
His fingers shifted slightly, as the token opened.
