Chapter 171 - CHAPTER 171 — Inversion Pending

The secondary interface held through the first ten minutes under continuous dual lock. Primary claim progression remained locked at seventy-four percent. The diverted pressure wrote the secondary residual marking deeper into Feng Lan's existing scars with every passing breath. Eleven percent became fourteen. Fourteen became seventeen. The residual wills did not invert. They simply watched the secondary signature form with the focused attention of mechanisms that had seen this delay method before and already knew its failure points.