A lotus-ash recovery room beneath the altar. Paper talismans hang from rafters, and a low oil lamp gives practical light. Suye monitors Shen Yao's pulse.

Shen Yao sits up weakly. A bamboo screen separates the sickbed from the observation side where Elder Qiu listens without fully entering.

The recovery room blurs around Shen Yao as living qi becomes visible to him: Suye's pulse green, Elder Qiu's gold behind the screen, acolytes faint yellow outside.

Fei Lian barges into the recovery chamber despite talismans at the door, angry that Shen Yao survived irregularly.

Qi drains from Fei Lian into Shen Yao through their contact. The room darkens except for copper-red threads peeling from Fei's wrist into Shen's cuff and fingers.

The feeding breaks. Fei falls alive but emptied, and Shen Yao experiences a stolen childhood memory as a ghostly overlay.

A sudden inner vision overtakes Shen Yao: rows of kneeling cultivators under vast divine hands, their fate-threads tied like crop rows to the heavens.

Jian Mo enters the recovery chamber with enforcement talismans and two anonymous guards behind him. The air fills with cold blue sealing light.

Elder Qiu enters after Jian Mo, turning panic into procedure. Fei is carried to a side pallet; Shen is framed by talismans.

A quick containment test: Jian Mo places a talisman near Shen's forehead, Elder Qiu observes, Suye watches for pain.

Night in the sealed recovery room. Shen sits awake while talismans flutter. The distant pulses of sleeping disciples glow beyond the walls.