A stark underground inspection chamber. Jian Mo has carved five sealing arrays into black stone. Shen kneels in the center under guard while Suye is permitted to observe.

Jian Mo tests Shen's blood against divine names. Each array lights, shudders, and refuses to identify possession.

Suye secretly uses healer sight. Shen's body appears overlaid with meridians rejecting a small human-shaped soul-flame in his chest.

After the tests fail, Elder Qiu reframes Shen's condition as an asset while Jian Mo sees a containment disaster.

Suye brings Shen to the infirmary after testing. Shelves of herbs and plain wooden tools line the room; no one else is present.

The smell of Suye's blood tests Shen's restraint. His shadow lengthens toward her, and she deliberately stays seated.

Outside the infirmary, Jian Mo stands in the corridor with a listening talisman hidden beneath his sleeve. The paper wall glows with silhouettes of Shen and Suye.

Later that night, Shen slips from the infirmary to the quiet hall where former Vessels are stored like honored relics. Lanterns burn low.

Ren Zhuo speaks in fragments while Shen studies the glow in his chest and resists the urge to feed on the remaining afterglow.

The small room visually transforms around Ren Zhuo's words: his glow casts bars like a stable, and distant divine silhouettes loom in the light.

In a private archive of divine records, Jian Mo delivers his listening report to Elder Qiu. Scroll shelves and sealed tablets surround them.