The third seal broke on a night Wei Liang wasn't expecting it, mid-breath, no warning, just a sudden white-hot tear through his chest that dropped him to the floor convulsing before Xu could even shout a warning. He came to hours later with blood crusted under his nose and a strength in his limbs that hadn't been there before, coiled and waiting, different from the first two gates. Xu confirmed it immediately: three seals down, Void root stabilizing faster than any lineage record he remembered from his old life, and a warning underneath the praise that the next gate would hurt worse than all three combined.
Elder Gong noticed him limping through morning roster and said nothing, just marked an extra pen cleaning against his name as punishment for looking unfit for labor, and Wei Liang took
