Transcension

Transcension involves implanting a Sha-Chi generating device into the body, along with a degree of physical modification. This allows artificial Sha-Chi to flow endlessly through the user's organs and meridians, in quantities far beyond what an ordinary martial artist could hold.

The greater the user's mastery of martial arts and the deeper their experience, the more power the technique draws out — which is why it keeps returning no matter how often it is banned.

The Sha-Chi gained this way erodes the will day by day, and in the end turns the user into a machine that knows only killing.

Devices crafted from Primal Stone slowed Sha-Chi fluctuations in fewer than 20% of cases. Grinding the stone and taking it orally raised that figure to 50%, and the trials were still running.

The art named in Huangxing's proclamation is the same line recorded in Primal Stone Records: Perfect Transcension — from an external device, to an oral dose, to modifying the body itself.

After the Eleven fell, the Sha-Chi Transcension Towers that made Maskwalkers were all destroyed, but no one knew how to shut the furnaces inside, so they were left running day and night. In recent years the furnace cores have changed, and those who go deep into the towers harden on the surface, like metal.

In one Mandate garrison, a man who lost his right arm begged to try Transcension. His comrades agreed, and said that whatever guilt came of it, they would bear it together.