Enchanted Skies

Chapter 3 Cloisonné Alert

The cloisonné furnace quenched moonlight into quantum-state peacock blue. Su Wan curled inside a 2.4-meter-diameter enameled isolation pod, seven iridium conduits forged from “Records of Lacquer Art” texts piercing her wrists. Wandering peony vines on the pod walls translated her EEG into Northern Song Guan ware crackling sounds, while Lin Shen's quantum glaze mixture at the west console emitted barium copper silicate crystals identical to Mona Lisa's pupils.

"Neural integration 41%, below threshold." Xuanji's announcement intercut with British Museum's emergency broadcast. Holograms showed “Admonitions Scroll” exuding pearl-like blood droplets, each DNA sequenced to match Su's saliva on Ru shards.

Lin suddenly plunged his hand into the 1400°C glaze vat. "Living conductor required," he pressed his charred right palm against the pod's Makara handle. "Su's silk threads can't withstand mercury backflow."

Su's birthmark erupted in Northern Wei grotto cobalt. As Lin's blood seeped into cloisonné vines, the pod filled with Dunhuang sutra cave incense. She found herself floating in quantum “A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains”, each mountain fold cradling Lin's childhood fragments—a six-year-old bound to Ming armillary sphere, his pupils reflecting Professor Jiang embedding “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains” shards into his spine.

"So you're Jiang's human mounting experiment..." She grasped Lin's wrist in the consciousness torrent, conservator's intuition revealing grimmer truths. Those "neural catheters" were actually civilization shackles forged via “Exploitation of the Works of Nature” swordsmithing, transmuting Lin's pain into “Han Xizai's Night Banquet” pipa melodies.

Alarms suddenly played 1938 Berlin Philharmonic live recordings. Xuanji warned in German: "“Admonitions Scroll” blood loss reaches civilization threshold." Su's silk gloves disintegrated, revealing fingerprints matching Gu Kaizhi's seal in the Palace Museum. Writing with her blood on pod walls, every stroke generated “Xuanji Tu” palindromes.

"This isn't healing, it's awakening!" She kicked the blood-seeping hatch. "You're activating quantum painting instincts in my DNA!" Liquid enamel engulfed her as Song Jun glaze aurora. Lin lunged for the console as his pocket watch's twelve** reversed flow, Su's hairpin piercing the pod with Mona Lisa's golden ratio spiral.

London's hologram alert showed “Admonitions Scroll” fully quantized, Ban Jieyu's robes morphing into Su's qipao patterns. Researchers exposed to the scroll developed Lin's movable-type irises.

"Sync rate 69%!" Xuanji's alarm synced with MoMA explosions. Lin shattered the cloisonné furnace, welding their neural networks via Ming champlevé technique. During fusion, he saw Su's DNA entwined with “Nymph of the Luo River” cloud patterns, while his memory palace revealed Professor Jiang playing chess with Su's grandfather—the pieces being microscopic “Qingming Scroll” grain boats.

As quantum storms tore open the lab roof, Su's birthmark sprayed Dunhang mineral nanopigments. She painted “Eight-Seven Immortals Scroll” ribbons midair while Lin's spine-formed anti-gravity matrix. When final enamel solidified into Gu Kaizhi's "silkworm thread" brushwork, the British Museum feed showed blood droplets reassembling Su's face chanting “Travelers Among Mountains and Streams” coordinates in ancient bronze script.