He killed the lamp. Darkness absolute.
He moved to the side of the entrance, back against the wall, and waited.
The footsteps stopped at the entrance. A light appeared — another lamp. A small head poked through the gap.
Mei.
She saw nothing in the darkness. 'Wen Dao? I followed your lamp light. Are you in here?'
He exhaled. He relit his lamp.
She blinked in the sudden light. She looked around the room. Her eyes went wide.
'What is this place?' she breathed.
'A dead man's training room.' He looked at her. 'How did you get into the maintenance tunnels?'
'I bring water to the maintenance workers sometimes. I saw you go into the wall.' She moved to the iron pedestal and looked at the bottles. 'What are these?'
'Pills. Old ones.' He paused. 'What do you know about cultivation pills?'
'I know rich disciples have them and normal ones don't.' She picked up one of the bottles, studied the label, set it back. 'Are these real?'
'They appear to be. I need someone who knows alchemy to verify it.'
'There's a pill student in the service workers. Old woman. Former apothecary.' Mei looked at him. 'She's honest. I would trust her.'
Wen Dao thought for a moment.
'Can you bring her here? Tonight. No one else.'
'Yes.' She was already turning to leave. Then she stopped. 'Wen Dao. Be careful with whatever this is. If the Grey Peak disciples find out—'
'I know.'
She left.
He spent the next two hours copying the wall text into the blank section at the back of his Iron Body Scripture scroll. His handwriting was cramped and fast but accurate.
By the time Mei returned with the old woman — who introduced herself only as Apothecary Lin — he had copied everything.
Apothecary Lin looked at the pills without touching them for five minutes. Then she removed one bottle's wax seal and smelled the interior. She pressed one finger to her tongue, then touched it to the bottle mouth, then pressed it to her tongue again.
She replaced the seal.
'All genuine,' she said. 'Three of them are still at full potency. Two are half-potency. One has degraded and is no longer useful.' She pointed to each. 'Bone Descent Pill — still good. Iron Organ Pill — still good. Marrow Purifier — still good. Qi Root Primer — half. Dantian Opener — half. Blood Advance — gone.'
Wen Dao looked at the five functioning pills.
'Can I use them safely at my current stage?'
'Bone Descent at Level Three is ideal timing. Iron Organ at Level Four. Marrow Purifier at Level Six. The Qi Root Primer at Level Eight, ready to break into Qi Condensation. Dantian Opener at Level Nine transition.' She replaced all the bottles. 'Whoever hid these knew exactly what they were doing.'
He distributed them carefully into a small pouch from the maintenance kit. He sealed the pouch in oilskin from his belt.
He sealed the wall back as carefully as he could. The mortar would not be perfect — it would look disturbed if someone looked closely. But the passage was rarely used.
'Not a word,' he told both of them.
Lin nodded and left without another word. She seemed to understand discretion perfectly.
Mei looked at him. 'You're going to be trouble, aren't you.'
'Things seem to arrange themselves that way,' he agreed.
She shook her head and left.
That night, he took the Bone Descent Pill.
It was not comfortable. His bones ached for four hours. Then the ache became heat. Then the heat became something electric — a feeling of his skeleton becoming more than bone. Denser. Heavier. Like iron depositing in the marrow.
By dawn, Body Tempering Level Four.
He lay on his bed until the morning bell and felt the difference in every movement. Heavier. Stronger. His fingers made marks in the wood of his desk when he pressed them, something that had not happened before.
The trial. The running. The forest. The dead elder. The scroll. The fighting ring. The caravan.
All of it had built to this.
He stood up.
Time for morning training.