The descent into hell didn't look like a gate of fire. It looked like a broom closet.
Elder Baek pushed aside a heavy rack of drying herbs in the back of the Furnace Room. Behind it lay a panel of stone that looked seamless to the naked eye. But Baek didn't use a key; he pressed his palm against the rock and pulsed his Qi in a specific, jagged rhythm—three short bursts, one long.
Ka-chunk.
The mechanism groaned—a sound of grinding gears that hadn't been oiled in decades. The stone wall slid backward, revealing a dark, spiraling staircase cut directly into the bedrock.
"Follow," Baek commanded, grabbing a lantern from the wall. The flame inside wasn't fire; it was a captured Will-o'-Wisp, burning with a cold, sickly green light.
Jin Ryeong stepped into the passage. The air temperature dropped instantly. The heat of the furnace above was replaced by a damp, subterranean chill that seeped through his servant robes. It smelled of vinegar, sulfur, and something coppery.
Old blood.
They descended for what felt like ten minutes. The stairs were steep and slick with moss.
"Do you know why the Orthodoxy bans Chimera Arts?" Baek's voice echoed off the damp walls, distorted and hollow.
"Because it violates the sanctity of the human form," Jin Ryeong recited the standard answer from the Sect manual.
"Wrong," Baek spat. "They ban it because they are cowards. They believe the body is a temple. I believe the body is a chassis."
Baek stopped at a heavy iron door at the bottom of the stairs. He turned to Jin Ryeong, his face illuminated by the green ghost-light.
"Cultivation is just upgrading the engine," Baek whispered, his eyes wide and unblinking. "But if you put a dragon's engine in a tricycle, the tricycle breaks. To hold godlike power, you need a godlike frame. If you weren't born with one... you build it."
Baek kicked the door open.
The Laboratory.
It was a cavernous space, lit by hundreds of glowing moss-crystals embedded in the ceiling. The center of the room was dominated by a stone operating table, complete with leather straps and gutters carved into the rock to drain fluids.
Along the walls were glass jars. Some contained hearts that still beat sluggishly in yellow fluid. Others contained eyes. One jar held a severed hand that was scratching the glass, trying to escape.
But Jin Ryeong's attention was drawn to the figure strapped to the table.
It was a man. Or what was left of one. He was naked, his body pale and covered in ritualistic tattoos drawn in what looked like mercury. He was conscious, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.
Jin Ryeong recognized him. Jiao. A forty-year-old Outer Disciple. He had been sweeping the courtyards for twenty years, stuck at the peak of Body Tempering, unable to form his first wisp of Qi. He was the definition of "Dead Weight."
"Is he... coerced?" Jin Ryeong asked quietly.
"Volunteered," the man on the table rasped. Jiao turned his head, his neck muscles straining against the leather. "I volunteered. Better to be a monster than a failure."
Baek walked to a workbench covered in tools that looked more like torture devices than medical instruments: saws, drills, and needles the size of skewers.
"Prepare the donor," Baek ordered, pointing to a metal box in the corner. "Wear the gloves. It bites."
Jin Ryeong walked to the box. It was made of Lead-Steel, heavy and cold. He put on a pair of thick dragon-hide gloves provided on the table.
He unlatched the box.
HISS.
Steam erupted from the gap. Inside, resting on a bed of ice crystals, lay an arm. It wasn't human. It was massive, covered in coarse, wire-like red fur. The muscles were so dense they looked like braided steel cables. The hand ended in four fingers, each tipped with a black claw.
[System Activation: Diagnosis Eye]
[Target: Right Arm of a Red-Fur Demon Ape.]
[Grade: Tier 2 Beast.]
[Attribute: Fire / Brute Force.]
[Status: Severed (24 hours ago). Cellular activity remains at 85%.]
[Warning: High residual Beastic Qi. Rejection rate for human host: 92%.]
"It's hot," Jin Ryeong said, lifting the arm. It weighed at least thirty pounds. The heat radiating from it was intense, like holding a burning log.
"Of course it is," Baek muttered, arranging his scalpels.
"The Red-Fur Ape circulates Magma Qi. That is why Jiao is here. He has a 'Yang-Deficient' body type. The heat of the arm should balance his cold constitutionIn theory..."
In theory.
The two most dangerous words in medicine.
Baek beckoned Jin Ryeong to the table. "Place it next to his stump."
Jin Ryeong looked at Jiao's right shoulder. His arm had already been amputated, the wound cauterized and healed over weeks ago. This had been planned for a long time.
Jin Ryeong placed the massive ape arm on the sterile cloth next to the shoulder. The size difference was comical. The ape's forearm was thicker than Jiao's thigh.
"Anesthesia?" Jin Ryeong asked.
Baek scoffed. "Pain is necessary. It stimulates the nerves to accept the new connection. If he sleeps, the Qi goes dormant and the graft fails. He stays awake."
Jiao whimpered, but nodded. "Do it."
Baek picked up a scalpel made of black obsidian. "I will connect the bone and the major arteries. You..." He pointed at Jin Ryeong with the blade. "...You are the suture man. As I connect the vessels, you must stitch them instantly. If you are too slow, he bleeds out. If you are too messy, the flow clots."
"Understood." Jin Ryeong picked up a silver needle and threaded it with 'Gut-Thread'—a dissolvable suture made from sheep intestine.
"Begin."
Baek didn't hesitate. He sliced into Jiao's healed stump, peeling back the skin flaps to expose the bone and muscle. Blood welled up instantly, dark and heavy.
Jiao screamed. It was a high, thin sound, like a rabbit caught in a trap. He thrashed against the straps.
"Hold him!" Baek roared.
Jin Ryeong didn't use his hands; he needed them for the needle. He stepped on the leather strap across Jiao's chest, putting his full weight down to pin the man.
Baek worked with terrifying speed. He drilled into Jiao's humerus bone. Then he drilled into the Ape's bone. He inserted a metal rod to link them.
CRUNCH.
The bones were fused. "Arteries!" Baek commanded.
Baek used forceps to pull a pulsating red tube from the Ape arm and a smaller, paler tube from Jiao's shoulder. He held them together.
"Stitch!"
Jin Ryeong's vision shifted.
[Zoom: 5x],a propriety of his innate class that he discovered when studying the scroll given by the elder.
He saw the artery walls.
He saw the microscopic fraying of the tissue. He moved. His hand was a blur. Loop. Pull. Knot. Loop. Pull. Knot.
In three seconds, the arteries were joined with a watertight seal.
"Good," Baek grunted, surprised. "Nerves. Next."
They worked for an hour. The smell of blood and burnt bone filled the air. Jiao had stopped screaming; he was now just gasping, his face grey, foam gathering at the corners of his mouth.
The arm was attached. It looked grotesque—a massive, hairy beast limb grafted onto a pale, skinny human torso.
"Final step," Baek wiped sweat from his forehead.
"The Meridian Bridge."
This was the impossible part. Arteries carried blood. Meridians carried Qi. You couldn't sew a meridian with thread. You had to channel Qi to fuse them.
Baek placed his glowing hands on the seam. "I will force the Ape's Qi into Jiao's network.
Prepare the suppression needles.
If he convulses, stab him in the neck."
Baek pushed.
BOOM.
A shockwave of heat blasted from the table. The Ape arm glowed bright red. The fur stood on end.
"ARGHHHHH!" Jiao's eyes rolled back in his head. His back arched off the table, lifting Jin Ryeong's foot.
[System Warning]
[Meridian Mismatch Detected.]
[The Ape's 'Fire River' Meridian is too large for the Host's 'Small Yin' Meridian.]
[Pressure Building: 80%... 90%...]
[Prediction: Heart Explosion in 10 seconds.]
Baek was sweating profusely. "Accept it! Accept the power, you trash!"
"It's not fitting!" Jin Ryeong shouted. "The flow is backing up! It's going to blow his heart!"
"Silence! I just need more pressure!" Baek pushed harder.
Jin Ryeong saw the grid.
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He saw the red torrent of the Ape's Qi slamming into the narrow blue trickle of Jiao's system. It was like connecting a fire hose to a straw. The straw was about to burst.
Baek was blinded by ambition. He couldn't see the blockage.
Jin Ryeong had to act.
He dropped the suppression needle. He grabbed a distinct, long silver needle—a Spirit Needle used for acupuncture.
"Move," Jin Ryeong hissed.
He didn't wait for Baek. He jammed the needle not into the shoulder, but into the Ape arm's elbow—specifically, into the 'Gate of Magma' acupoint.
"What are you doing?!" Baek screamed.
Jin Ryeong twisted the needle. "Venting."
He channeled his own Qi (5/5).
[Skill: Thousand Venom Hand]
Instead of injecting poison, he used the corrosive nature of his Qi to burn a tiny hole in the Ape's meridian before it reached the shoulder.
HISSSSSS.
A jet of red steam shot out of the needle in the Ape's elbow. It whistled like a tea kettle.
The pressure dropped instantly. The red torrent slowed down. The "Fire Hose" became a manageable stream.
Jiao slammed back onto the table, gasping for air. His heart rate stabilized. The Ape arm stopped glowing red and settled into a dull, rhythmic pulse, matching Jiao's heartbeat.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Baek stood frozen, his hands hovering over the graft. He watched the steam venting from the needle Jin Ryeong had inserted.
"You..." Baek stared at the needle. "You created a relief valve."
"The pressure was too high," Jin Ryeong said, pulling the needle out. The hole sealed up, but the flow had normalized. "I diverted the excess Yang Qi out of the elbow. Now the connection is stable."
Baek looked at Jiao. The disciple was unconscious, but breathing. The massive arm was now twitching, the fingers curling and uncurling on their own.
"Success," Baek whispered. A terrifying, genuine smile spread across his face.
"It works."
He turned to Jin Ryeong. He didn't look angry about the interruption.
He looked at Jin Ryeong like a man finding a diamond in a pile of coal.
"You saw the flow," Baek said. It wasn't a question.
"You saw the blockage before the feedback loop started."
"I guessed," Jin Ryeong lied.
"Don't lie to me!" Baek grabbed Jin Ryeong's shoulders.
His grip was painful.
"You have the Sight. The Alchemist's Eye. I spent forty years developing my sense, and you... a rat... you have it by instinct?"
Baek let go. He paced around the room, laughing maniacally.
"Good. Good! This changes everything. Jiao is just a prototype.
With your eyes and my knowledge... we can build something greater."
Baek walked to a bookshelf carved into the rock wall. He pulled a lever, and a section of books slid forward.
"I promised you access," Baek said, his back turned. "Take what you want from the bottom shelf. Basic theory. Anatomy. Poison crafting."
He turned back, his eyes glowing green in the lantern light.
"But tomorrow, we start the real work. The Sect Leader wants a battalion of these... things. And we have to make sure they obey."
Jin Ryeong looked at the unconscious Jiao.
The man had his wish. He was strong now.
But looking at the monstrous arm that twitched with a will of its own, Jin Ryeong wondered if Jiao was still the owner of his own body.
[System Notification]
[Quest Completed: The Chimera Surgeon.]
[Rating: S (Crisis Averted).]
[Reward: Access to 'Baek's Forbidden Library' (Tier 1).]
[Bonus Reward: +200 XP.]
[Reputation: Elder Baek (Obsession/Value).]
Jin Ryeong walked to the bookshelf.
He didn't take the medical books.
He reached for a thin, dusty manual tucked in the corner.
[Item: 'The Art of Qi Needles' (Fragment)]
Description: A technique to project Qi through silver needles for ranged attacks or remote healing.
"Thank you, Elder," Jin Ryeong said, tucking the book into his sash.
As they left the lab, locking the monster Jiao in the darkness, Jin Ryeong felt the Iron-Vein Scarab vibrate in his pocket.
The Scarab was hungry for the leftover metal shavings from the bone drill.
Jin Ryeong smiled. Everyone in this sect was a parasite.