A Song For The Ages

Feiyin sat in the quietude of his chamber, his eyes half-closed as he breathed deeply through his nose. The air was cool, faintly laced with the fresh air of dawn. Yet what he focused on now wasn't what he could smell, but what he could feel.

There was a new rhythm coursing through him. A deeper, steadier pulse. Not just the beating of his heart, but something more profound, subtler and grander. The essence qi within him flowed with a grace and vitality unlike anything he'd felt before. It was different from inner strength, which surged with raw vitality and primal force. Essence qi was quiet power, sovereign and responsive, like a loyal blade forged to his will.

Feiyin exhaled slowly.

The change was astonishing. Inner strength had always required rigorous control and precision to wield effectively. But essence qi? It flowed like water through a riverbed he had carved himself. There was no resistance. No tension. It was a part of him in a way that inner strength never quite was.

Excitement stirred within his chest.

He had stepped through a door that few ever reached. And on the other side,

Possibility.

Essence qi was miraculous in its own right, born from the union of world essence and the essence of life. It carried dual natures, like twin flames. One born of creation, infinite and vast, the other born of growth, intimate and personal. This duality made it unique among energies: it could expand and evolve with its wielder, adapting to the very soul of the cultivator.

He finally understood why the qi manifestation phase was often called the First True Step of Cultivation.

Until now, all his efforts had been about survival. Strengthening the body, refining the senses, enduring and surpassing mortal limits. But this… this was transformation. The beginning of something greater. A reshaping of essence.

And the rewards were not subtle.

He could feel the extension of life blooming gently within him, like a spring flower just beginning to open. Where a peak Meridian Opening cultivator might live 120 years, his life now stretched out toward 150, more, perhaps, with future breakthroughs.

And his body?

Transcended.

Before his breakthrough, his strength had already reached 99,000 kg. Now, as essence qi fused with every tissue and tendon, bone and blood, he felt his might swell beyond reckoning.

198,000 kg.

By comparison, even a regular genius who had reached the peak of meridian opening with a perfect body tempering foundation would rarely exceed 33,000 kg. Upon breaking through, that number would typically double to around 56,000 kg, 66,000 kg at most if one had a particularly deep foundation.

Feiyin's strength stood in a realm of its own.

The number echoed in his mind.

A breath.

A step.

A blow.

Everything carried power. Lethality.

His spiritual sense had also shifted. For most cultivators, spiritual sense at this stage would only extend a few feet at best, just enough to feel the edge of their surroundings. But now, his spiritual perception flowed outward like the gentle spread of sound through a canyon. He extended it experimentally, 15 feet in every direction.

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His senses reached through the walls. He felt Bai Yu, coiled and sleeping, her breath soft and even, her scales reflecting the faint warmth of the sunlight. He felt the flickering torch on the wall outside his room. The tremor of footsteps in the hall, a disciple stretching after a long night. Even the gentle hum of the mountain's internal heat, far below, brushing against veins of stone.

The oscillation sense layered atop this, adding flavor to feeling, like the tone to a note. Together, they composed a harmony. A song of the world.

He opened his eyes slowly.

There was something else, something stranger.

His gaze turned inward again. The essence qi within him flowed toward not one, but three distinct points. Three centers, each gently rotating.

His chest. His head. His core.

Dantians.

He frowned. He had never read of such a thing in the archives. Nor had his father ever mentioned it. Cultivators spoke of a dantian as if it were singular, a sacred vessel near the navel. But now he had three, each subtly aligned with a fundamental aspect of his being.

The core, near the navel, was stable and grounded. The one near the heart pulsed with warmth, emotion, will. The one behind the mind's eye hummed with clarity and perception.

He leaned into their rhythm, feeling the essence qi begin to cycle. Not quickly, but steadily.

According to the archives, the next step would be to form a qi nexus.

The qi nexus wasn't just a pool of energy. It was a living cyclone, a vortex of essence qi that spun endlessly, drawing in the breath of the world and refining it automatically. Forming it was the true beginning of the qi manifestation phase, stabilizing and deepening the connection between the cultivator and the world.

Feiyin drew another breath.

Each center slowly began to spin, the essence qi forming embryonic vortices within them. They weren't complete yet, not by far. But they had begun.

He could feel it.

The spin wasn't just for storage. It was for refinement.

The faster the spin, the greater the draw. The essence qi within would compress further, like heated metal folded over and over. More potent. More efficient.

Feiyin let his focus settle on the core vortex, the one at his navel.

He could feel it straining, trying to increase its pace, and with his will, he gently fed it more essence qi, using his breath to guide the rhythm. It grew faster, tighter, more condensed. A faint glow formed along his lower abdomen. It wasn't visible to the eye, but he could feel it.

The refining had begun.

He repeated the same with the other two. The one at the heart took more coaxing, responding more to emotion than logic. He let himself think of Hui, of her smile, her laughter, her food. Pain surfaced, but so did strength and resolve.

The vortex turned.

In his head, the final vortex was different. It didn't respond to will or feeling, but clarity. Intention. He stilled his thoughts, narrowed them, like narrowing the blade's edge.

And it too began to spin.

Feiyin opened his eyes.

In that moment, he felt… balanced. As if three great wheels within him had begun to turn, each feeding the other. Not fully formed. Not yet. But they were there.

And he would grow them.

One day at a time.

He rose to his feet. Every motion felt lighter. Surer. There was strength in his stride, confidence in his breath. The essence qi continued its slow, deliberate cycle through his meridians, each of which had been reinforced during his breakthrough. Their structure now hardened like forged steel. No longer just vessels, but conduits of power.

And he knew now why people who had not prepared thoroughly struggled to grow further after forming their essence qi.

If their meridians were weak, fragile, they would be damaged by the essence qi's power. And since the meridians harden upon contact with essence qi, it became nearly impossible to open new ones afterward.

His preparation had paid off.

He had opened all his meridians beforehand.

And so now, he stood at the starting line of true cultivation.

And he was ready.

To refine. To grow. To forge forward.

He stepped to the window, drawing back the curtain.

Outside, the mountain breathed. Trails of colorful smoke rose from distant chimneys, alchemy at work. Disciples walked between halls, their auras barely registering in the edge of his perception. The sun, climbing higher, kissed the clouds with streaks of gold.

Feiyin smiled faintly.

It was a new day.

And he was a step closer to his goals.