Heng Zhen's body did not move, but within him… a new world had begun to form.
Beneath his navel, at the deepest point between body and spirit, a space that had never existed before began to expand slowly.Not ordinary emptiness—but something dense, deep, and cold.Like a world not yet permitted to be born.
"What… is this?"
He felt it grow like roots piercing into darkness.It wasn't light that opened that space,but his own will.The once-wild Yuanqi was now being gently drawn inward—settling,inhabiting.
Dantian.
A soul-body chamber, the center of all movement and intent.But this Dantian… did not shine.It was dark.
Not because it was evil—but because the world had not yet accepted it.
The sky did not rumble.Nature did not sing in welcome.Instead, the clouds darkened slowly.Leaves that had once been still began to tremble as if afraid.Small stones nearby cracked without cause.
As if the entire world whispered:
"What you are building… does not belong here."
The Yuanqi gathering within that Dantian did not swirl gently like a flowing vortex.It pulsed.Slow…then faster…then slowing again.Like a heart learning to beat for the first time.
"Foundation…" Heng Zhen thought."Is this… the Foundation Realm?"
He did not answer with words.But his body answered with deep stillness.There was no feeling of lightness,no celebration of power.Only an awareness—that he was beginning to reshape himself into something the world had never known.
Something not born of Chaosqi.Something not crafted by any being before him.Yuanqi, building its first home.
"This… is my first small fortress," he whispered."But… what will I hold within it?"
Far beyond the mist,an eye opened.Not human.Not beast.But something that had long remained silent.
It turned its gaze toward the valley,and whispered into the wind:
"This world will not remain still…when new Qi begins to be born."