Luo Fan woke to darkness and the smell of cold stone.
For a moment he didn't know where he was. Then his hand brushed against the broken awl, and memory flooded back. The shed. The ring. Twenty hours left on the timer. He sat up fast, his head swimming.
Twenty hours. His body would start shutting down before tomorrow night. He had to forge. He had to gain essence. But first, he had to fix the ring.
He pulled it from his sleeve. The copper wire patch glinted in the faint light filtering through the shed's cracks. It was ugly. Functional, but unstable. Elder Xu had given him three days. He had used only a few hours so far. He could try again. Make it better.
He activated the Concealment Talisman – two hours of hiding left – and set the ring on the flat stone.
"Material Analysis," he whispered.
---
[Material Analysis]
Item: Qi‑Storing Ring (Mortal‑rank, Functional but Unstable)
Current Storage: 3/10 units
Stability: 45%
Primary Issue: Copper wire bridge is misaligned. Node 4 still unstable.
Suggested Improvement: Replace wire with spirit‑infused thread and re‑flow the connection using blood essence.
---
Spirit‑infused thread. He had some left. And blood. Always blood.
He stared at the ring for a long time. His engineering mind traced the flow of Qi like current through a circuit. The original design was efficient but fragile. His bypass was clever but crude. What if he integrated the bypass into the original formation instead of just taping over it?
He spent the next hour drawing diagrams in the dust with his finger, muttering to himself. The crack at node 4 was the problem. If he could reroute the Qi through a secondary loop that also reinforced the broken node…
Like a redundant circuit. He smiled. On Earth, he had designed backup systems for industrial machinery. This was no different.
He gathered his materials: a thin strand of spirit‑infused thread, a pinch of spirit dust, and two drops of his blood. His body ached from yesterday's blood loss, but he needed this to work. No Demonic Mode. No shortcuts. Just skill.
He began.
---
The work was delicate. He used the awl to scrape away the old copper wire, careful not to damage the surrounding nodes. Then he soaked the spirit‑infused thread in the blood‑and‑dust paste and laid it along the path he had designed. The thread was finer than copper, more flexible. It would carry Qi more smoothly.
His hand shook. He paused, took a breath, and continued.
Node by node, he wove the thread through the formation, connecting the broken junction to a secondary loop he had created. The pattern was unorthodox – no traditional forger would have thought of it. But it made sense. The Qi would flow through the backup channel if the main path failed, and the backup would also feed energy back into the broken node, stabilizing it.
Two hours passed. Sweat dripped into his eyes. His fingers cramped.
Then, with the final knot, the formation pulsed.
Light ran through the ring – not the weak flicker of before, but a steady, silver glow. The crystal cleared. The crack remained visible, but it no longer split the formation. It was sealed, like a scar that had healed.
---
[Forging Complete – Repair Success]
Item: Qi‑Storing Ring (Mortal‑rank, Functional)
Storage Capacity: 8/10 units (reduced from original 10 due to permanent damage, but stable)
Stability: 92%
Forge Points Earned: +15
Refined Spiritual Essence Absorbed: +8 units
Forge Mastery increased: 10 → 12
---
RSE: 19.0 → 27.0
Timer: 20:43:15 → 21:36:55 (net +53 minutes after subtracting 2 hours of work)
FP: 15 → 30
Luo Fan stared at the ring. It wasn't perfect. The storage capacity was still below the original, and the crack was still visible. But it was stable. It would hold Qi. It would work.
He held it up to the light, and for the first time in days, he felt something other than fear. Pride.
He tucked the ring into his sleeve, deactivated the Concealment Talisman (its duration was almost gone anyway), and lay back on the stone floor. His body was exhausted, but his mind was racing.
Lu Chen's talismans. Due tomorrow. Four of them.
He had materials left. Iron filings, spirit dust, some thread. Enough for maybe two talismans. He would need to scavenge more in the morning. But first, he needed to sleep.
He closed his eyes and let the darkness take him.
---
The next morning – or what passed for morning in the windowless shed – Luo Fan woke to the sound of footsteps.
He sat up, heart pounding. The Concealment Talisman was inactive. His hidden corner was visible. But there was nothing incriminating in sight – just the flat stone, the awl, and a few scraps. The ring was in his sleeve.
The footsteps stopped outside the door. A knock – three slow, deliberate raps.
"Luo Fan." Elder Xu's voice. "Open up. I was passing by and thought I'd see if you'd even started. Most servants wouldn't touch a broken artifact. They'd sell it for scrap."
Luo Fan's stomach unclenched slightly. Passing by. The old man hadn't come to collect the ring early – he had come out of curiosity. Or maybe to catch him in a lie.
He opened the door.
Elder Xu stood in the morning light, his grey hair disheveled, his eyes sharp. He looked past Luo Fan into the shed, taking in the bare stone, the broken awl, the scattered dust. Then he looked at Luo Fan's face.
"You've been working," he said. It wasn't a question.
Luo Fan pulled the ring from his sleeve and held it out.
Elder Xu took it. He turned it over in his gnarled fingers, his expression unreadable. Then he closed his eyes and sent a thread of Qi into the ring.
The crystal glowed. Faintly, but steadily.
The old man's eyes snapped open. "Where did you learn this?"
Luo Fan kept his voice steady. "I told you. Old texts. And taking things apart."
"This isn't in any old text." Elder Xu held the ring up to the light, squinting at the thread‑and‑blood repair. "This is… unorthodox. The secondary loop, the way you've bypassed the broken node – I've never seen anything like it." He lowered the ring and stared at Luo Fan. "Who are you?"
"A servant who wants to be useful."
The old man was silent for a long moment. Then he laughed – a dry, wheezing sound. "Useful. Ha." He tucked the ring into his robe. "You've passed the test. Barely. The ring is ugly, and the storage capacity is reduced. But it works. That's more than most of my apprentices could do."
He turned to leave, then paused. "Be at the Artifact Hall tomorrow at dawn. Ask for Elder Xu. I'll have a mop and a bucket waiting for you."
He walked away without looking back.
Luo Fan stood in the doorway, the morning light warm on his face. A cleaner. A real workshop. Real tools.
He still had Lu Chen's talismans to make. He still had Wei Feng's demands. His timer was still ticking – now just over twelve hours until collapse. But for the first time, he had a path forward.
He closed the door, reactivated the Concealment Talisman (barely an hour left), and began to gather his materials.
Four talismans. Due today.
He had work to do.