By dark-kingxu
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The moment the scroll vanished into dust, Xu Ming remained still.
The words still echoed inside him like thunder in a hollow mountain.
> "Qi. Body. Soul. Sight. I will carve all of them into me."
The forest seemed to quiet as if the world had heard his vow. He sat cross-legged on the moss-covered stone, letting the cold wrap around his body like chains.
Chains he would break.
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His meridians ached. His flesh trembled. But inside his dantian, a flicker of warmth sparked.
Not a flash. Not a surge. A spark.
> "Qi Spark… stage one."
He felt it — the tiniest point of light flickering in his core, swirling faintly with breath he'd just drawn from the world.
A breakthrough.
After years of failure. After the mockery, the beatings, the shame. After watching his mother die and burying her with broken hands.
Now, at last…
> He had begun.
He focused. Slowed his breathing. The threadlines in the air began to glow again — faint, dancing golden lines that moved with the wind, the soil, and the distant echoes of beast Qi.
He pulled.
> One breath. Pain.
> Two breaths. Pressure.
> Three breaths. Fire.
> Four— Snap!
His shoulder tensed, tendons cracking as too much Qi rushed in. He grit his teeth.
> "Too fast. Idiot. Start again."
He slowed his pull. Let the spark within him pulse in rhythm.
The pain didn't go away. But it began to serve him.
He was building the foundation of the Qi Spark stage. Nine mini-stages — like forging a shell around a flame. Only once it was stable could the next stage be reached.
> "First spark. Second pulse. Third breath. Fourth coil…"
His mind repeated the process. Time passed unnoticed.
He didn't move until the sun began to rise.
When he opened his eyes, the world looked clearer. Brighter.
Sharper.
"I'm not a cripple anymore."
He clenched his fists and stood. His body still bruised from the night before, but something had changed.
No — everything had changed.
He reached for the dagger he'd taken from the cultivator's spatial ring. Poisoned edge. Light. Balanced.
He strapped it to his waist and glanced toward the deeper forest.
> "Now it's time to see if this power is real."