The world dissolved into white noise.
[System Alert]
[Anomaly Detected: Soul Integrity Breach]
[Countermeasures: Re-routing Heavenly Dao Feedback...]
[...Redirecting to Null Pointer...]
[...Success.]
The screaming in Han Zhau's mind cut off as abruptly as a severed cable. The searing agony that felt like his soul was being put through a paper shredder vanished, leaving behind a cold, numbing hollowness. He gasped, air rushing into his lungs, his body slumped on the reed mat like a puppet with its strings cut.
The lecture hall was dead silent. The chaotic vortex of Qi had dissipated, but the air still crackled with static electricity.
"What... in the name of the Ancestors..."
Han Zhau cracked one eye open. Elder Mo stood over him, his usually stoic face twisted in a mix of horror and bewilderment. The other students were pressed against the walls, eyeing Han Zhau as if he were a ticking spirit bomb.
"Young Master Zhau," Mo whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "That... that was a Qi Gathering formation's worth of energy. How? Your meridians... they should be stone."
Han Zhau swallowed the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. Crap! Think of something Han Zhau!
"I... I don't know, Elder," he rasped, playing up the weakling act. He clutched his chest, feigning confusion. "I just... I wanted to cultivate so badly. I focused everything I had, and then... it felt like something exploded."
"A desperate awakening?" Mo muttered, stroking his silver beard. "The heavens are mysterious. Perhaps your sheer will momentarily resonated with the Dao, forcing a turbulent intake. Dangerous. Extremely dangerous."
He placed a hand on Han Zhau's wrist. A warm current of foreign Qi probed his body. Han Zhau held his breath. Please don't find the Cheat Engine. Please don't find the Cheat Engine.
Mo frowned. "Your meridians... they are still blocked. Heavily. Yet, the residue of pure Qi is undeniable." He withdrew his hand, shaking his head. "You are lucky to be alive, boy. If that torrent had sustained for a second longer, you would be a stain on the floor."
The tension in the room broke. The other students whispered.
"Just a fluke," snorted a voice from the back. Han Li. "Trying to force it and almost blowing himself up. Typical trash behavior."
Elder Mo shot Han Li a glare, silencing him, then turned back to Han Zhau. "Rest. Do not attempt that again without supervision."
As the lecture resumed albeit with a much more distracted audience Han Zhau sat up, wiping sweat from his brow. He kept his head down, but his internal eye was wide open.
That was too close. But it worked. Kind of.
He brought up the interface again.
[Cheat Engine v7.5]
He looked at the value he had modified. Qi_Pull_Rate. It had reset to 0.0042 after the crash.
Why the backlash? he wondered. If I just pull more Qi, it should just fill me up. Unless...
He focused on the address 0x00B3C218 (Qi_Pull_Rate). In the game, if you wanted to know why a value was behaving strangely, you checked what instructions were accessing it.
Right-click. "Find out what accesses this address".
A debugger window popped up in his mind's eye.
opcode: mov eax, [0x00B3C218]
opcode: fld dword ptr [0x00B3C218]
"Standard reads," he muttered. Then, a write instruction flashed.
0x00401A2B - mov cx, [0x1FB29004]
0x00401A2F - mul cx
Multiplication?
Han Zhau narrowed his eyes. The system wasn't just taking his Pull Rate raw. It was multiplying it by something.
He focused on the address in the cx register: 0x1FB29004.
He added it to the main address list.
Address: 0x1FB29004 | Type: Float | Value: 0.001
"0.001," Han Zhau mentally breathed.
It clicked.
Qi_Absorbed = Qi_Pull_Rate * 0.001
"That's the blockage," he realized. "It's a coefficient. A throttle. No matter how much I pull, only 0.1% gets through. The rest... piles up at the gate and explodes."
He renamed the address: Meridian_Open_Rate.
He stared at the number. 0.001. A thousandth. That was the measure of his talent. The reason he was trash.
If I change this...
His finger his mental cursor hovered over the value. Fear pricked at him. The memory of the soul-tearing pain was fresh. But the hunger was stronger.
Not yet. Class is ending.
The bells tolled for the end of the session.
------
Han Zhau stumbled out of the hall, his legs still jelly.
"Hey! Daoist Exploder!"
Han Zhau suppressed a groan. He didn't turn, but a heavy hand landed on his shoulder, spinning him around.
Han Li grinned down at him, his lackeys flanking him like gargoyles.
"You really scared us there, cousin," Li lied, his grip tightening on Han Zhau's shoulder until it bruised. "Thought you were going to destroy the hall with your incompetence. Maybe you should just stay in your room. Or better yet, the stables. The horses need mucking."
"Let go, Li," Han Zhau said quietly.
"Or what?" Li sneered, shoving him. Han Zhau stumbled back, hitting the stone railing. "Go cry to your father. Oh wait, he's busy training real cultivators."
Li laughed, spitting on the ground near Han Zhau's boot, and walked away.
Han Zhau stared at the saliva, his expression blank. But inside, the interface was glowing red.
Just you wait, you Level 5 Mob.
Back in his room, Han Zhau barred the door. He sat on his bed, the humiliation fueling his focus.
He brought up the Meridian_Open_Rate.
Value: 0.001
I need to be careful. Gradual changes.
He selected the value.
Change Value to: 0.1
A 100x increase. From 0.1% to 10%.
He hit Enter.
Instantly, a sensation washed over him. It was not violent like before. It was... relief.
Imagine breathing through a straw your entire life, and suddenly, someone hands you a snorkel. It wasn't full lung capacity, but the air the Qi flowed. He could feel it. A cool, soothing stream trickling past the blockage, nourishing his parched dantian.
"Is this... what normal people feel?" he whispered, tears pricking his eyes. The constant, heavy pressure on his chest, a weight he hadn't even realized he was carrying, lifted.
He checked his status. No pain. No bleeding.
It's stable.
Greed, turning and dark, whispered in his ear. 10% is good. But 100% is better.
If I'm going to hack, I hack to win.
He focused on the value again.
Change Value to: 1.0
Fully open. The theoretical limit.
Enter.
CRACK.
It sounded like a whip cracking inside his skull.
"Gah—!"
Han Zhau clamped his hands over his mouth, but the blood sprayed through his fingers, staining the silk quilt crimson. The world tilted violently. The Qi didn't just flow; it rushed in, a torrent the channel wasn't reinforced to handle. If the blockage was the dam, he hadn't just opened the floodgates; he'd removed the riverbed.
Darkness swarmed his vision. Too... much...
He collapsed.
-------
"...Zhau'er! Zhau'er!"
The voice was deep, booming, and thick with panic.
Han Zhau peeled his eyes open. The ceiling outcome was familiar. He was in his bed.
A large, calloused hand was gripping his own. He looked up to see a man with broad shoulders and a face carved from granite, now etched with worry. Han Su Tian. His father.
Beside him, Little Gui was wiping tears from his face with a sleeve.
"Father..." Han Zhau croaked.
"Don't speak," Su Tian commanded gently. "Little Gui found you unconscious, bleeding from the mouth. He said you collapsed." His eyes hardened. "Who did this? Was it Li? Or those Cloud Sect disciples?"
Han Zhau sensed the killing intent rolling off his father. Foundation Establishment pressure. It was suffocating.
"No," Han Zhau managed to say. "No one bullied me. I... I was just sick."
Su Tian's shoulders slumped. He looked unconvinced, but he nodded. He produced a small porcelain bottle. "Eat this. Spirit Mending Pill."
He fed Han Zhau the pill. A warm energy spread through his stomach, settling the roiling pain.
Su Tian stood up, looking weary. "Rest, Zhau'er. I will have the physician come by later."
"Wait," Han Zhau said.
Su Tian paused at the door. "What is it?"
"The manual," Han Zhau said, his voice gaining a shred of strength. "Technical... technique. The Jade Lotus Sutra. I want to read it."
Su Tian sighed, a pained look crossing his face. "Zhau'er... we've talked about this. Your body... it cannot hold Qi. Reading the manual will only bring you despair."
"I can feel it," Han Zhau said.
Su Tian froze. "What?"
"I can feel the Qi," Han Zhau lied—or told the half-truth. "Today, in the lecture. I felt it move. It didn't disperse. It... stayed."
He sat up, wincing, and held out his hand. He focused on the connection he still had to the modified reality. He hadn't reverted the value. The 1.0 had crashed him, but the system must have stabilized it, or perhaps his faint resulted in a reset?
He checked the cheat engine hurriedly.
Meridian_Open_Rate: 0.1
It had reverted to the stable value? No, he must have changed it back in his delirium, or the crash reverted the last edit.
He focused. The cool stream flowed.
Su Tian rushed back to the bedside, grabbing Han Zhau's wrist. He closed his eyes.
Seconds ticked by.
Su Tian's eyes snapped open. They were wide, shining with an emotion Han Zhau hadn't seen in the memories: Hope.
"It's... it's flowing," Su Tian whispered. "Weak. Thread-thin. But it's flowing. It's not dissipating!"
He laughed, a loud, booming sound that shook the dust from the rafters. "My son! My son is not a cripple!"
He turned to the door. "I will get it. I will get the manual. Wait here! Don't move!"
He sprinted out of the room, dignity forgotten.
Little Gui stared at Han Zhau, mouth agape. "Young Master... you... you did it?"
Han Zhau smiled, a weak, tired smile. "I told you, didn't I?"
"I'll... I'll go get food! Meat! You need energy!" Little Gui scrambled out, tripping over his own robes in his excitement.
Han Zhau was left alone in the quiet room.
He closed his eyes and sensed the flow again. It was smooth. Consistent.
The 0.1—the 10% open rate—was holding.
So, 10% is my current limit, he analyzed coldly. Any higher, and the body fails. I need to reinforce the body, or find the value that calculates 'Backlash' and delete it.
He looked at the address list.
Qi_Pull_Rate: 0.0042 Meridian_Open_Rate: 0.1
This is just the beginning.
Footsteps thundered down the hallway. Heavy, rapid.
Han Zhau opened his eyes just as Su Tian burst back into the room, clutching a jade slip and a worn book in his hands, his face beaming like a rising sun.
"Here take this!"