MINI-CHAPTER — RESOURCES
Séraphine stood over the boxes in silence. They were stacked unevenly across the chamber floor, their presence intrusive against the otherwise controlled space. Sixty in total. Each one sealed. Each one humming faintly with contained energy.
She crouched and opened the nearest box. Light spilled out, dense and contained. Inside, neatly arranged, were spirit stones. Refined. Stable. Each one carried a quiet weight that pressed against her perception the moment it was exposed.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Spirit stones." She didn't touch them. She didn't need to. She could feel it. Each box held a thousand.
Her gaze shifted across the rest. Sixty boxes. Sixty thousand spirit stones. Her fingers curled slightly. That wasn't a resource drop. That was allocation at a level she wasn't meant to access yet.
"Ten beast cores refine into one spirit stone," she murmured under her breath, her voice quieter now, more controlled. "This isn't something given to Manifest-stage cultivators." Her thoughts moved quickly, aligning structure with implication. This was for the next stage. For Domain-level refinement and above. For core disciples.
Her jaw tightened slightly. "How strong is he…" The question slipped out before she could stop it. Inside her, Leylin stirred. "I don't know," he said after a moment, his tone less certain than before. "But even from what I can observe through you… you're not close."
Séraphine exhaled slowly. That matched her own conclusion. There had been no pressure from him, no force, no presence that demanded submission. And yet she couldn't perceive him at all. She straightened slightly, her gaze drifting. "…who else could it be?" she murmured.
Leylin stayed quiet for a few seconds longer this time. Then, lower, "I can't read him." That made her still. "You can't see his signature?" she asked. "No," Leylin replied. "Which leaves two possibilities." A pause. "He doesn't have one." Another. "Or he's far beyond anything I've seen through you."
Silence settled again. Séraphine looked back down at the boxes. A thought surfaced. Six months. Maybe more. Seclusion. With this level of resources, she could accelerate everything, push past her limits, stabilize faster, reach Domain sooner than anyone expected.
Then, "No." Leylin cut through it, direct and final. "Ninety percent of this goes to me." Séraphine's eyes twitched. She closed the box with a sharper motion than necessary. "…of course it does." No argument. Just irritation she didn't bother hiding. "Take most of them to the echo chamber," Leylin continued. She paused, head tilting slightly. "…why the echo chamber?" A quiet certainty entered his voice. "You'll understand when you get there."
Silence followed. Séraphine looked at the boxes again, then slowly stood. The decision settled without resistance. And beneath it, something had already begun to move.