"...Did you feel that?"
Boulder slowly opened his eyes.
"I did."
Nothing inside the chamber had changed. The platform still emitted its steady golden radiance, the arrays remained active, and the tendrils continued feeding Shawn with stabilizing energy.
Yet something had undeniably shifted.
Morgan immediately spread out his divine sense once more.
This time, nothing stopped him.
No resistance.
No rejection.
His senses flowed effortlessly through Shawn's body.
But the easier it became, the more unsettled he felt.
"...Impossible," Morgan muttered.
Every meridian they had painstakingly reforged remained intact. Every damaged muscle had recovered, and every shattered bone had completely reconstructed itself. The vessel had become unbelievably stable.
And it had happened without either of them doing anything.
Morgan looked toward Boulder.
"You did this?"
Boulder slowly shook his head, his gaze never leaving Shawn.
"No."
A brief pause followed before he spoke again.
"It has begun."
Morgan frowned.
"The inheritance?"
A faint nod answered him.
Neither of them moved.
For the first time since the experiment had begun, they had become mere spectators.
Morgan's eyes suddenly shifted toward the platform.
"...The platform..."
The runes had changed.
Their shapes were identical, but their purpose had shifted. The golden arrays they had painstakingly activated no longer released energy toward Shawn.
They had fallen completely still, as though they had fulfilled their final duty.
Even stranger, the countless tendrils connected to Shawn slowly detached from his body one by one.
None of them snapped.
None were forced away.
They simply let go.
Morgan immediately stepped closer.
"He shouldn't be disconnected yet."
Without hesitation, he reached toward the nearest array, intending to reactivate it.
Nothing happened.
He poured more Essence into the formation, but it ignored him.
For the first time since inheriting this ancient project, Morgan had lost control of it.
"...Grandmaster."
Boulder slowly raised a hand.
"Don't."
Morgan froze.
"The inheritance," Boulder murmured quietly, "has taken over completely. We can not act at all."
Neither of them moved again.
Inside Shawn, his meridians trembled faintly before settling into complete stillness. His muscles relaxed, his bones emitted a faint glow before returning to normal, and even the tiny scars left behind by the earlier process quietly disappeared.
Nothing dramatic occurred.
Yet everything had changed.
Boulder slowly narrowed his eyes.
"...Morgan."
Morgan immediately looked toward him.
"Do you feel it?"
Morgan's expression gradually changed.
The chamber itself had become strangely quiet.
Even the surrounding Essence in the air no longer flowed naturally.
It was gathering, almost imperceptibly, as though answering a call.
Neither of them spoke.
Far beyond the manor, leaves rustled without any wind. The air itself became strangely heavy. The first currents of World Energy, invisible to ordinary cultivators, shifted ever so slightly, like rivers quietly changing their course.
Back inside the chamber, Shawn suddenly lifted his head.
He hadn't sensed it.
He hadn't seen it.
Yet his entire body recognized it.
Something was coming.
Then a single thread of pure World Energy slipped silently through the chamber's protective formations.
It ignored every array, every barrier, and every seal as though none of them existed.
Morgan's pupils contracted.
"...What?"
The tiny strand floated gently through the air before descending toward Shawn.
It paused for only an instant above his forehead.
Then, without resistance, it entered him.
Shawn's entire body trembled.
It wasn't from pain.
It was recognition.
The inheritance had completed the vessel.
The world had answered.