By nightfall, Canglan City had shifted into something else. Not ruined exactly. Just… wrong.
Fires burned in three, maybe four districts. Sirens tangled with each other until the sound became a single, stretched-out wail. Emergency vehicles blocked the main roads in crooked lines, red and blue lights flashing against glass and smoke. Online, every platform was buckling under a flood of shaky videos, mutated dogs tearing through fences, a balcony collapsing mid-livestream, someone hovering a few inches above the ground with a look that wasn't quite joy.
The government pushed out an emergency order before midnight.
Remain indoors.
Avoid contact with unknown individuals.
Report all abnormal activity.
The words felt thin.
Most people didn't understand what was happening. They argued about radiation, about experiments, about divine punishment. They refreshed their screens and waited for someone confident to explain it.
Lin Xuanye didn't need an explanation.
The spiritual energy density had stabilized. Low, but steady. The first surge had passed like a wave breaking against stone. Those who hadn't died in the shock were beginning to awaken.
He moved through the western outskirts without drawing attention. Plain jacket. Dark pants. Nothing worth remembering. His aura was restrained so tightly it barely stirred the air around him.
In his previous life, he had wasted the first week reacting. Watching. Surviving.
This time he was hunting.
The silver pillar that had struck the western hills earlier that evening had already faded from the sky, but the aftershock lingered. He could feel it pressing faintly against his senses even from miles away, like a low hum behind everything else.
A minor spirit crystal deposit would form at the impact point. Small. Impure. Invaluable right now.
He reached the base of the hills just before midnight.
Police barricades blocked the main path. Flashlights cut through the dark in restless arcs. Officers shouted at civilians who lingered too long, voices sharper than usual.
Lin Xuanye didn't slow. He simply didn't go that way.
He circled through a thin patch of woodland where the surveillance thinned out and the ground dipped unevenly. The air changed as he walked. Not dramatically. Just enough.
The deeper he went, the heavier it felt.
The trees were changing. Leaves a shade darker than they should be. Bark tightening, as if the trunks had flexed and decided to stay that way. Even the soil under his boots felt compacted, denser somehow. He paused once, pressed his palm lightly against a tree, then moved on without comment.
He climbed a rocky incline and saw the crater.
Thirty meters across, roughly. Jagged edges. Stone split outward like something had forced its way down rather than fallen in. At the center, faint crystals shimmered with pale silver light, half-buried in fractured rock.
Not fully formed.
Almost.
Two police officers stood near the rim. Both are too close. Both pretending not to be afraid.
One of them staggered.
His flashlight slipped from his hand and clattered down the slope. He grabbed his head as if something inside was trying to tear free. His partner turned sharply.
"Hey, are you okay?"
The air tightened.
Lin Xuanye's eyes narrowed slightly.
Awakening.
The officer's body trembled. A faint glow seeped from his pores, thin threads of spiritual light that flickered and pulsed without rhythm. His partner stepped back, boots scraping stone.
Then the officer roared.
Not in pain.
In shock. In power. In something too large for his own skin.
He threw a punch without thinking.
The air cracked. A visible distortion rippled outward. His partner was flung back several meters, landing hard and sliding across loose gravel.
Silence followed. A stunned, hollow kind of silence.
The awakened officer stared at his own hands. His breathing came fast. Too fast. Energy surged around him in erratic bursts, flaring and collapsing.
Early awakenings were unstable. Emotional. Dangerous.
If this spiraled out of control, reinforcements would flood the area before the crystals fully formed.
Lin Xuanye stepped out from the tree line.
The awakened officer snapped toward him, eyes wide and unfocused.
"Stay back," he shouted. His voice cracked in the middle. "Don't come closer."
Spiritual energy lashed outward in uneven waves. It had no pattern. No structure.
"You cannot control it like this," Lin Xuanye said, his tone steady. "Slow your breathing. Force it."
The man hesitated. Just for a moment.
Then panic returned, hotter than before.
He lunged.
Too slow.
Lin Xuanye shifted to the side, almost lazily, and struck the man's wrist with two fingers. The contact was light. Precise. A thin stream of Qi slipped through the meridian pathways and disrupted the chaotic circulation at its source.
The effect was immediate.
The wild glow around the officer collapsed inward as if someone had drawn a curtain shut. His legs buckled. He fell without ceremony, unconscious before he hit the ground.
The second officer, still dazed and half-sprawled near the rim, stared.
"You… you did something to him."
"I stopped him from tearing apart his own meridians," Lin Xuanye replied. "He will wake."
Whether he would remember clearly was another matter.
He walked past the stunned man and descended into the crater.
The air inside felt heavier. Thicker. Each breath carried a raw edge.
The crystals had brightened. Formation complete.
He knelt and placed his hand against the largest one.
Cold. Clean. Unfiltered.
Spiritual essence surged into his palm in a rush that would have overwhelmed an ordinary awakened individual. Many would absorb it greedily, burn through their channels, and cripple themselves before sunrise.
Lin Xuanye began circulating the Nine Nether Immortal Scripture without hesitation.
Refine.
Filter.
Compress.
The crystal's glow dimmed gradually as the energy transferred into him in controlled streams. His cultivation, already at the middle stage of Qi Gathering, stabilized fully. The foundation settled. Tightened.
He exhaled slowly.
The late stage approached.
Smaller crystals cracked one by one under the steady pull of his circulation technique. He adjusted the flow again, then again, shaving away impurities with patient precision. One sentence of thought lingered in his mind, too much too fast would be a waste, and then even that faded.
Footsteps approached in the distance. Rapid. Coordinated.
More officers. Maybe military.
He stood.
Late stage Qi Gathering.
The difference was immediate, though not dramatic in appearance. His senses expanded outward like a net cast into dark water. Every breath carried threads of spiritual energy. Every footstep beyond the crater rim was distinct. Even the wind seemed textured.
Flashlights swept across the crater.
"What are you doing down there?" someone shouted.
Lin Xuanye did not answer.
He moved.
Two breaths. That was all it took. His figure blurred into the tree line, presence fading as he restrained his aura once more.
By the time the officers reached the center, the crystals were nothing but dull fragments embedded in stone.
Empty.
Back in the woodland, he slowed to a steady pace. His chest rose and fell evenly. He did not feel tired. Not exactly. Just aware.
This was a minor deposit.
In three days, a slightly larger one would appear near the river district. In a week, the Black Moon Ruins would begin to react to the rising spiritual tide.
He adjusted his sleeve without looking at it.
Every step had to be calculated.
His phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen, then answered.
"Xuanye," Han Tianyu's voice burst through, strained and bright at the same time. "I awakened. I can control wind. Actual wind. This is insane. We need to meet."
Lin Xuanye looked up at the dark sky. A faint current brushed past his cheek, ordinary for now.
Wind control.
Yes. That had always been Han Tianyu's affinity.
"I am busy," Lin Xuanye said.
"Busy?" Han Tianyu let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "The world's turning upside down and you're busy."
"Yes."
There was a pause. Not long.
"We'll talk soon," Han Tianyu said, softer this time.
The call ended.
Lin Xuanye lowered the phone slowly. In his previous life, this was where their paths truly merged, shared opportunities, shared dangers, shared mistakes.
This time would be different.
He wasn't entirely sure how yet. But different.
He turned toward the distant glow of the city.
Late stage Qi Gathering on the first night of the Spiritual Tide. Already ahead of most awakened individuals. Not invincible. Just ahead.
Tomorrow, the government would announce the formation of the Cultivator Registration Bureau. Power would be categorized. Ranked. Measured in neat columns.
Competition would follow naturally. People liked lists.
Lin Xuanye's expression remained calm.
Let them build their system.
He would climb it before they understood what they were measuring.
Sirens echoed faintly behind him as he walked back toward Canglan City. The smoke still hung low over the skyline. Somewhere, something else was awakening.
Behind him, in a quiet crater beneath the hills, the first real opportunity of this era had already been taken.