The entrance to Tier Five, a moonlit jade corridor narrowing into a sealed ascent gate. Mei arrives injured but upright.

The pagoda announces the shared-ascent rule through glowing legal script. Mei realizes this tier is built around forced dependency.

Mei enters one climbing shaft and sees Han Yue in the adjacent shaft, paired with her by the pagoda.

The shared rope of light forms, and the floor beneath both prisoners threatens to open if they refuse the climb.

The first qi pressure wave descends, proving the danger. Mei begins reading the chamber through Han's body.

Mei identifies the timing and orders Han to cut the first lock seal before the pressure crushes them.

They climb higher. Mei states the practical reason she is helping Han: if he dies now, she dies with him.

The division of labor becomes obvious: Han can cut the locks, but only Mei can time the pressure shifts.

Mei and Han settle into a dangerous rhythm, surviving by trusting only the mechanics, not each other.

Mei's injured shoulder gives out under the pressure. The shared rope makes Han feel the danger too.

Han notices Mei's injury and offers a practical observation. Mei refuses to mistake usefulness for kindness.

Han turns the climb into psychological pressure, asking Mei about the prince's poisoning in terms too specific to be innocent.

Mei nearly chooses silence and revenge, but the pressure wave makes the cost immediate: if Han falls, she dies too.

The last lock before the upper platform requires absolute timing. The platform is visible, but one mistake will still kill them.

Mei gives the last timing. Han cuts the seal, and the shared rope launches them onto the upper platform.

They land on the Tier Five upper platform. The shared seal begins dissolving, and the enforced cooperation ends.

Han attacks the instant the shared mechanism is gone. Mei was expecting it and reads the first techniques.

Mei survives the third technique, but Han has prepared a fourth variation outside the range of her prediction.

Han pins Mei at killing range. Mei sees death coming and cannot fully escape.

Han hesitates at the instant he should kill her. Mei uses that fraction of time to poison his wrist with a lichen-stained needle.

Han reacts to the pain with a smile that looks almost relieved. Mei understands his hesitation was not kindness.

Han leaves the Tier Five platform ahead of Mei. Mei realizes his failure to kill her means his real plan requires her alive, at least for now.