Void Qi Suppression!
The foundation of Void Steps lay in suppressing one's spiritual presence by dissolving into the cosmic flow. Like the empty dark between stars, Su Xiaobai needed to vanish—completely.
He imagined the vast, infinite void, where stars floated like dust in an endless sea of black.
That emptiness was his goal.
To erase himself, to become nothing.
_____
Inhale—Void Influx!
Su Xiaobai's breath slowed, deep and steady, as he inhaled, not just air, but the faint traces of qi that surrounded him in the cave. Even in a place where qi was sparse, the Frostwhisper Lotus acted as a conduit, allowing him to absorb what little there was, along with the cold essence of the lotus itself.
He envisioned it like breathing in the night itself, as though he were pulling in the stars and the darkness around him, compressing the qi into his dantian.
His aura began to shrink, his presence becoming faint, barely perceptible.
The frost from the lotus helped, cooling his internal energy until it was calm, still—just a ripple on a still ocean.
His breath was shallow now, the world around him dimming further. His presence shrank until it became almost nonexistent, like a whisper lost in the wind.
_____
Hold—Dimensional Concealment!
Now came the most delicate part of the process. Su Xiaobai stilled his qi completely, halting its flow within his meridians.
It was as if his very spirit folded inward, creating a null space around his body. His presence vanished, disappearing into the background of reality.
It was as if he no longer existed in the world. The cave, the faint winds, even the distant heartbeat of the Immortal Fetus—everything faded into a distant hum.
Su Xiaobai's being blended with the void itself, his spiritual senses retreating until he became a shadow between dimensions.
Here, in this stillness, he could sense the fragile balance.
He could feel the cold qi from the lotus holding his spiritual essence in place, a perfect equilibrium.
He was like a thought not yet born, a breath yet to be taken.
A shadow that the world refused to recognize.
_______
Exhale—Qi Dissipation!
Carefully, he let the compressed qi in his dantian flow outward. But unlike the usual forceful bursts of energy he was used to releasing, this was different.
He released it gently, slowly, like mist rising from a midnight lake, each breath dissolving into the surrounding void without a sound.
His presence evaporated, untraceable.
He could feel it now—how even the faintest ripple in his qi could disturb the delicate balance of the void.
If he were too hasty, too careless, he would betray his position, like a sudden gust of wind disturbing the calm surface of a pond.
But he maintained control, releasing the qi like a whisper, until there was nothing left of his presence.
Su Xiaobai sat in complete silence, his body suspended between dimensions, unseen, unnoticed.
Void Harmonization!
The next was harmonizing with the natural voids around him—those fragile spaces where reality itself weakened, where the world's qi faltered and the Dao of Heaven lost its grip.
Su Xiaobai focused, extending his spiritual senses outward, searching for these hidden cracks in reality.
He had already achieved the 'Perception of Voids', a basic step in Void Steps, but now, with the Frostwhisper Lotus stabilizing his qi and numbing his senses, he could feel them more clearly.
Small, fleeting pockets of void, where the flow of qi was weak—these were the places where he could truly disappear.
He sensed them now, scattered throughout the cave, like fractures in the air itself.
'There.' A small tear, not far from him, where the cave's qi was thinner, weaker.
He moved his body slightly, careful not to disturb the balance he had achieved.
______
It was working.
His breath was steady, his body harmonizing with the cold qi from the lotus and the natural voids around him.
His spiritual presence was erased, his body a ghost, flitting between spaces where reality loosened its grip.
The frost from the lotus numbed his senses just enough to allow him to push further, to feel the deeper void cracks without becoming overwhelmed.
He could feel it now—how to hide between the cracks in reality without disturbing them.
He had mastered the art of perceiving the void, but now, he was one step closer to moving through it.
______
Su Xiaobai's lips curled into a faint smirk as he opened his eyes, the Frostwhisper Lotus slowly fading away, its cold energy fully absorbed.
His cultivation was stable, and the dangerous surges of qi from the spiritual pond had been consolidated into a smooth, powerful stream.
But more importantly, he had strengthened his foundation in the Voidwalker's Step!
His senses returned slowly, the world's faint hum growing louder as he emerged from the void.
But something had changed.
He could feel the cracks in the world around him more clearly, the subtle places where reality frayed.
And now, he could step into them—without the world ever noticing.
____
Su Xiaobai rose to his feet, the cold energy of the Frostwhisper Lotus still lingering in his veins, making his spirit feel sharper, more agile.
His steps were lighter than ever, like he could glide across the floor of the cave without making a sound.
His eyes gleamed with a new confidence, an inner fire sparked by the progress he'd made.
"Perfect," he whispered to himself, a small grin curling his lips. "The first stage is done. With the next, I'll be able to flicker from one place to another… like a shadow slipping through cracks in reality."
In this cursed cave, the 'void cracks' were already scattered like hidden pathways, little ruptures in space connecting one spot to another.
All Su Xiaobai had to do was step through them, like hopping from stone to stone across a river.
But outside this cave? That was a different beast entirely.
Out there, there wouldn't be neatly laid cracks waiting for him to step into. The void existed everywhere, like the space before creation—emptiness before existence.
Mastering the void meant learning to navigate that nothingness, even in places filled with qi, where every step would be like trying to hide from the wind while standing in the middle of a storm.
Flickering even a few meters through reality wouldn't be easy, but it was possible. And Su Xiaobai was determined to make it happen.
For now, he was just a whisper in the void—a light breeze. He could inhale, hold his breath, and disappear into thin air.
But the moment he moved? Poof.
He'd reappear, like a kid who got caught sneaking around with a lantern in the dead of night.
And the denser the qi in an area, the harder it would be to hide. Too much energy meant sharper senses for anyone nearby.
Not everyone, though. Su Xiaobai smirked at the thought. Sure, some cultivators with ridiculous spiritual perception might notice him, but there were plenty of arrogant fools out there who'd miss him entirely.
Take someone like Lan Meiyu or Liu Zhenhai—those bastards thought they had eyes on everything, but Su Xiaobai was confident he could creep right up to their doors, maybe even whisper "boo" behind their backs, and they wouldn't have a damn clue!
"Voidwalker's Step..." Su Xiaobai said aloud, the name rolling off his tongue.