Dawn of the fourth day. The kiln had finally cooled enough to open.

Rain began to fall, the sky heavy and gray.


A crowd gathered before the kiln door.

Harrison stood with an umbrella, face grim. Lewis and Wilson looked haggard, unshaven. Charlotte stood at the front, soaked through, trembling uncontrollably—a defendant awaiting verdict.

In the distance, Jones's car arrived. He remained inside, window down, smoking a cigar like a man enjoying theater.


"Open it," Charlotte croaked, her voice barely recognizable.

Two laborers stepped forward with long iron hooks, prying away the sealed bricks one by one.


Heat blasted out, carrying dust and strange burnt scents! Steam billowed, obscuring their vision.

With all bricks removed, the dark chamber appeared. Inside, the shadowy outlines of stacked saggars waited.

"Bring them out!" Charlotte rasped.

The men donned thick gloves, held their breath, and crawled into the still-hot chamber. They carefully extracted the first heavy saggar, placing it on a tarp before the kiln.

Crack. The lid came off.

All eyes locked onto it!

Harrison stepped forward, wiping away ash with a damp cloth.

What emerged was a twisted, deformed grayish-black lump! The glaze pitted and cratered as if eaten by acid!

Ruined!

Charlotte's knees buckled. Lewis and Wilson went ashen.

"Ha!" Jones's distant laugh cut through the rain like a knife.

The second saggar emerged. Opened.

Another disaster! The glaze cracked like parched earth!

Third… fourth… seven or eight in succession, all catastrophic failures! Charred, warped, shattered!

Despair drenched Charlotte colder than the rain. It's over… everything's lost…

Lewis collapsed to the ground. Wilson buried his face in his hands.

"Keep going!" Harrison suddenly bellowed, his voice shaking with desperate intensity. "The back! The kiln's heart! Where the heat peaks! Get those pieces!"

One worker gritted his teeth and crawled deeper into the still-scorching chamber. He emerged with the innermost saggar—noticeably heavier than the others.

Click. The lid came off.

With trembling hands, Harrison wiped away the thick ash.

A breathtaking blue erupted before them! Like the sky washed clean after a storm! The glaze had flowed like a waterfall, naturally cascading down and pooling at the edges in deep blue teardrops. Charlotte's twisted mountain design had somehow maintained its structure, the flowing glaze transforming it into something both broken and magnificent!

"Sky blue?!" Wilson gasped, lunging forward.

Another saggar from the kiln's heart was opened.

Caramel glaze covered most of the vessel, but at the edges—where extreme heat had interacted with Louis's sabotage powder and Charlotte's metallic additives—dazzling gold crystals had formed! Like liquid gold splashed across autumn leaves! Radiant! Breathtaking!

"Golden-Speckled Flambé?!" Harrison's voice cracked with disbelief. "This effect exists only in ancient legends!"

They opened another—a matte white plate whose glaze had flowed unevenly, creating textures like a misty landscape painting! The bluish tint Wilson had questioned now resembled distant mountains shrouded in mist, creating profound depth!

"You've done it!" Harrison grabbed Charlotte's cold arm, tears streaming down his weathered face. "Kiln transformation! A miracle of the fire gods! Masterpieces—every one a masterpiece!"

Charlotte stared in shock at pieces that seemed to glow with inner light despite the gloomy day. Raindrops struck the golden crystals, scattering tiny prisms of light. Cold rain mingled with hot tears on her cheeks.

Against all odds, she'd won her desperate gamble!

She whipped her head toward Jones's car.

Jones's smile had frozen solid. His cigar fell onto his expensive shoes, burning through unnoticed. He stared at the gleaming masterpieces among the pile of failures, his eyes venomous with disbelief and raw jealousy.

His sabotage had backfired spectacularly—actually creating something extraordinary!

"Impossible!" he snarled, slamming his fist against the car door with a hollow thud.