The outer disciple robes were too loose on him.
Jiang Chen sat at the edge of the cliff behind the servant quarters, watching the spirit cranes wheel above the misty valleys below. Azure Peak stretched in quiet majesty all around him, its halls carved into the mountainside like the bones of dragons.
His fists still ached.
The duel from yesterday played in his mind over and over again—not the victory, but the pain. The fear. The silence when Lu Yan collapsed. The moment when Jiang Chen realized...
He had taken a life.
He closed his eyes.
"This world… it doesn't give second chances."
...
Behind him, the scroll of Basic Qi Absorption lay open.
Its characters glowed faintly, etched with traces of spiritual intent. It described the foundation every cultivator must build: how to sense Qi in the air, draw it into the dantian, and circulate it through the meridians.
It sounded simple.
It wasn't.
...
Jiang Chen sat cross-legged on a stone slab in a hidden grove near the cliffside. The trees swayed gently in the wind, and the smell of moss and pine filled the air.
[New Skill Detected: Basic Qi Absorption – Entry (0%)]
He followed the breathing rhythm described in the scroll.
Inhale. Hold. Guide. Exhale. Focus.
Minutes passed. Then an hour. Then two.
He felt nothing.
The world remained dull and empty.
"Am I doing it wrong…?"
The scroll described the Qi of the world as mist—drifting in the air, waiting to be drawn in. But to Jiang Chen, it was as if he were blind to it.
Time slipped by like falling leaves.
...
Night fell.
His legs were numb, his back stiff, his breathing ragged. He opened his eyes.
Still nothing.
[Basic Qi Absorption – Entry (1%)]
One percent.
One whole day… for that?
His fingers curled into the earth beside him.
Not in frustration. Not in self-pity.
In resolve.
"If one percent is all I can earn today…"
"Then I'll do it again tomorrow."
...
The next week passed in silence.
Each day: wake before the sun, run laps along the edge of the mountain path, strike the practice post until his hands bled, then meditate in the grove.
Servants stared. Outer disciples sneered.
No one spoke to him.
[Empty Fist Form – Great Achievement (9%)]
[Iron Body Tempering – Entry (22%)]
[Basic Qi Absorption – Entry (6%)]
The numbers ticked upward.
Slow. Painful. Earned.
And with each day, his body changed. His strikes became heavier. His endurance longer. His breath more stable. His sleep deeper.
But still—he couldn't truly sense the world's Qi. He couldn't feel the flow others described. The heavens remained closed to him.
Until the eighth day.
...
That morning, something changed.
The wind shifted as he sat beneath the pine tree. His mind drifted into stillness. Not forceful focus. Not forced will.
Stillness.
A silence between heartbeats.
And in that silence—
He felt it.
Like a faint chill brushing against his skin. Like dew gathering in the lungs.
It was so slight he nearly doubted it.
But his panel confirmed it:
[Basic Qi Absorption – Entry (12%)]
Breakthrough: You have taken in your first trace of spiritual Qi.
Jiang Chen's eyes opened wide.
"So… that's what it feels like."
The feeling passed in seconds.
But it was enough.
He had seen the edge of the path.
...
Later that evening, as the moon climbed over the peaks, Jiang Chen sat alone by candlelight. The outer disciple dorms were rowdy with laughter and sparring, but none of that reached him.
He looked down at his calloused hands, the flickering candlelight dancing across his scarred knuckles.
He didn't have talent.
But he had time.
And pain.
And the panel.
And something more—a fire. A pull in his blood. Something ancient, slumbering, watching.
He felt it sometimes when he dreamed—visions of a white-robed figure standing at the edge of the stars, fists raised against the void.
That figure was him. Or had been.
"Jiang Tian…"
"Who were you?"
The candle went out.
Darkness returned.