The successful defense of the jade mine solidified Ye Xia's position within the Yun family. Even Yun Zhong offered a grudging word of respect. The family elders, once skeptical, now looked at her as a legitimate asset. Resources were allocated to her without question—rare herbs for cultivation, access to ancient texts, and a significant increase in her discretionary budget, which she promptly funneled into the system.
The lull in open conflict allowed her to focus on her bottleneck. Liam, true to his word, delivered a prototype of his "Serenity Draught." The vial contained a liquid that shimmered with a soft, silvery light.
"It's unstable," he warned her. "It should help you find the stillness you need, but the concentration process is still volatile. It could backfire."
Ye Xia accepted the risk. That night, in the absolute silence of her training room, she drank the elixir.
A profound calm washed over her. The constant churn of her thoughts, the simmering anger, the fear—all of it faded into a deep, oceanic stillness. For the first time, she could observe the storm of Kai within her not as a part of it, but from the outside.
She saw the energy for what it was: vast and powerful, but diffuse, like a cloud. The goal of Qi Condensation was to compress that cloud into rain—a dense, liquid drop of pure power in her Dantian.
Guided by the draught's effects and Liam's instructions, she turned her focus inward. She began to spin the cloud of Kai, slowly at first, then faster and faster, compressing it with immense mental force. It was like trying to collapse a star. The pressure was immense, a crushing weight on her soul.
Just when she thought she would break, she felt a shift. A single, incredibly dense point of light ignited in the center of her Dantian. It was tiny, but it radiated a power that made her previous energy feel like mist.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host! You have successfully broken through to the Qi Condensation Stage (Initial Phase)!]
[System Syncing… Cultivation Module Upgraded.]
[New Skill Unlocked: Qi Perception. Host can now sense the cultivation level and energy type of others with greater clarity.]
[New Skill Unlocked: Qi Shield. Host can project a shield of condensed Qi to block minor physical and energy attacks. Cost: 5 units of Kai.]
Ye Xia opened her eyes. The world was different. The air shimmered with colors and energies she had never seen before. She could feel the latent life force in the plants in her apartment, the dull glow of the city's electricity. She had ascended to a new realm of existence.