The damp limestone corridor beneath Sunken Bone Hollow smelled of stagnant vinegar and rotting bone marrow.
Ye Chen stepped through the shattered oak doors of the dissection chamber, his boots crunching over discarded iron scalpels and broken glass vials.
At the far end of the subterranean vault, Elder Kuang stood backed against a massive altar of green soapstone, his gray funeral shrouds soaked with sweat, his crooked fingers trembling violently as he held a bloodstained bone whistle to his lips.
"Do not take another step, boy!" Kuang shrieked, his voice bouncing off the low stone ceiling. "You broke the bone array outside, but you have not seen the masterwork of this hollow! I spent thirty years harvesting the skeletal frames of four tournament champions from the lower peaks to forge
