With the jade plaque personally handed over by Hall Master Meng Congjian, Jian Dan left the Law Enforcement Hall satisfied.
Thinking of Meng Congjian's pained expression made her want to laugh. He had reminded her again and again: "Jian Lu Zūnshàng, your cultivation is high. You should be able to bear the first waves of thunder yourself. Save the good materials for last. Do not activate the defensive dome unless it is truly necessary."
"Alright, I will try," Jian Dan replied with a smiling squint. He was probably distressed over the spirit stones. No need to poke the bruise.
Back on Tianyue Peak, Jian Dan did not go straight into seclusion. She slipped to the eastern spur and, unseen, checked on what her three disciples were doing.
Mao Dou and Yu Zongfan were seated in meditation. Both were at the twelfth layer of Qi Refining. Now they only needed to keep accumulating qi. When they reached the thirteenth layer, Foundation Establishment would come naturally.
Xue Ru, at the tenth layer, was beneath the waterfall, practicing her sword. Each cut was by the book. The sword qi had not yet taken shape, but the force was decent.
After a round, Jian Dan returned to her cave. Yue Liang was still asleep in advancement. The pressure around her was steady. No worries there.
Only then did Jian Dan drop the restriction with an easy mind and step into her space.
The central shaft still floated in the air, waiting for her.
She sat on the futon, waved her hand, and set out the refined cubic spaces. Exhaling a turbid breath, she lifted the cube for the Qi Refining trial with her divine sense and guided it toward a face of the central shaft.
The two seemed to attract each other. With barely any effort there was a crisp click, and they locked. The array lines on that cube did not light.
Jian Dan was not in a hurry. The arrays were one whole. Only when all twenty cubes were assembled would they awaken.
The second cube. The third. Patiently, carefully, Jian Dan fitted the twenty cubes one by one onto the shaft.
When the last cube filled the final gap, the entire magic cube was complete. Space itself trembled for an instant.
Jian Dan's brow gave a twitch. She had not even activated the arrays yet, and her inner space reacted this strongly. It seemed the trial artifact was basically a success.
Careful as ever, she did not pour in Primordial Chaos qi immediately. She meditated for a full day and night, tuned herself to peak condition, then began the next step.
She fed Primordial Chaos qi into the array carved on the first cube. As the lines lit, power flowed straight into the second. She could feel it. Each activation required more than the last, her own energy pouring into the cube like a tide.
Sensing her reserves would not fuel the whole, she began circulating her art as she output, drawing on the space's energy, refining it, and feeding the cube.
Jian Dan became a relay for Primordial Chaos qi, refining on one side and sending out on the other, an unbroken stream to awaken the artifact. The further it went, the more the final cubes demanded.
The last cube drank down every drop of Primordial Chaos qi she had. Color paled on her face.
At last the final array flared. The entire cube began to rotate on its own. Each completed turn sent a ripple through the air, and Jian Dan felt her space reject the artifact.
She flashed out at once and opened the restriction on her cave.
Lü Se was on watch outside. He saw his Zūnshàng lift a hand in brief signal, then vanish.
Jian Dan shifted directly to the tribulation peak beside the Law Enforcement Hall. Feeling the cube in her space already drinking down its energy, she tossed it skyward without hesitation.
A crack and purple lightning split the air. A rolling roar of thunder followed. In the space of three breaths, the entire law-enforcement mountain was wrapped inside it.
Jian Dan patted her chest. Just in time. One mountain cannot hold two tigers. The cube had already begun fighting her inner space for energy.
The commotion drew almost the whole sect. Heads turned as one toward the Law Enforcement Peak.
"Junior Sister, your artifact succeeded?" Jian Li said. When the thunder boomed, he had already spotted Jian Dan on the tribulation peak and flashed over.
"Mmm. Whether it amounts to anything depends on this thunder," Jian Dan said, eyes never leaving the cube.
The trial cube seemed to sense the coming strike. It turned slowly, gathering strength.
The first bolt fell without sound. It struck the cube and dyed it wholly purple.
No one dared blink. The second bolt hammered the six exposed faces of the central shaft, and the top row of three cubes on the first face began to turn, as if a giant hand were twisting a puzzle.
The next seven bolts fell at five-breath intervals, forcing the cube through permutation after permutation. The shifting facets made onlookers' eyes blur.
"Tsk. Junior Sister, your mind really is something. You even thought of this," Jian Li breathed. She had given him a pleasant shock.
Jian Dan said nothing, gaze locked on the cube. She was reading the lines. Under the thunder the arrays had turned purple and shifted in places. The changes were slight, but the refiner could not fail to see them. Her brows knit.
When nine bolts finished, many let out a breath. It looked successful, and likely high grade.
But Jian Dan glanced at the cloud that had not dispersed and said to Jian Li, "It is not over."
"Hmm?" He started to ask, when the ink-dark cloud split as if by invisible hands. Purple lightning poured down like the Milky Way and crashed upon the cube. The glare was so fierce even distant low-level cultivators had to clamp their eyes shut.
Suspended in the storm, the cube slowly grew under the scour. Only when it had reached the size of a small mountain did the changes cease. The last bolt followed it down.
The cloud unraveled. Seven-colored radiance flowed, sheathing the cube and giving it an ancient, solemn air. Above it, seven characters formed in midair: "如梦似幻魔方境" (Rú mèng sì huàn mófāng jìng) —Dreamlike Illusory Rubik's Cube Realm
As Jian Dan was still frowning, the rainbow glow fell upon her as the refiner as well.
She felt it at once. The Unity mid stage she had just stabilized started to loosen.
Jian Li sensed the surge around her too. "Junior Sister, it seems you will advance again."
Jian Dan could only be helpless. The cube, washed in tribulation, had turned purple-black. It shrank and arrowed toward her hand, as if to return to its maker.
In a heartbeat she became the center of every onlooker's attention.
She caught the cube and swept it with her divine sense, confirming her guess. From its central shaft a purple-black jade key slid free. Her energy was already spilling over. There was no time to explain. She tossed the cube to Jian Li, the jade key along with it.
"Senior Brother, set the Cube Realm somewhere suitable. Let high-level cultivators trial it and see. I have not stocked the rewards inside. Do as you see fit. Give the jade key to a Zhēnzūn. Whoever refines it can control the Cube Realm."
Jian Li had just taken hold of the cube when Cotton Candy wrapped around Jian Dan. With one flash, she vanished from the tribulation peak.