Xuan lay on a cold stone slab that served as his bed, staring up at the dim ceiling of his room in the fortress. His fingers absentmindedly fiddled with the small necklace around his neck. Since the accident it had always been his source of comfort, but tonight, it did little to quiet the storm raging inside him.
The rest of the day had passed in a blur. After Master Shen's humiliating display, the children had spent the next hour studying the scrolls, followed by a short Q&A session. But while Xuan had sat with the others, he hadn't been able to focus. And now his lay on the nightstand beside him, untouched since he was led to his room. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember a single thing he had read.
All he could think about were Shen's words. A hopeless case... will never unlock the dantian... no future as a cultivator. The words rang in his ears, cruel and final.
He clenched his fist around the necklace, frustration bubbling inside him. This can't be real. It can't be..
*Tap, tap*
A soft tap echoed from the door, barely loud enough to break through Xuan's spiraling thoughts. He sat up as the door creaked open, and Bo Cai's face popped into the room.
"Mind if I come in?" Bo Cai asked, though he didn't wait for a response. He plopped down on the edge of Xuan's bed, casting a quick glance at the untouched scroll. He had known this would happen—everyone would react like that. But still, after seeing Xuan's previous determination, a part of him had hoped for a miracle. He was a bit disappointed, that Xuan seemed to have given up, but he couldn't really blame him.
Unwilling to even say a word, Xuan let out a long breath, his frustration visible in the slump of his shoulders.
After a moment of silence, Bo Cai's gaze lingered on Xuan's missing arm as a thought struck him. "You know, there are miracle medicines out there," he said suddenly, "stuff that can heal almost anything—even a node." He didn't actually believe that Xuan would be able to get his hands on such a medicine, but he felt like he needed to give Xuan some hope. "I mean, who knows? If you survive as a slave, you might get your hands on something like that." Bo Cai continued.
Xuan blinked. "Miracle medicines…?" He remembered something—an entry he had read in his parents' cultivation manual when he had been healing his Heart Node. His pulse quickened. There had been a section about medicines capable of restoring nodes.
Without thinking, he quickly delved into the depths of his mind and searched through the cultivation method his parents had taught him with a new sense of urgency as Bo Cai watched him close his eyes.
"There," Xuan muttered under his breath as he recalled a specific section. His parents' manual had detailed ways to heal damaged nodes using miracle medicines, just as he had remembered. But his excitement quickly waned as the memory came into sharper focus. The medicines were for broken nodes—not for ones that were completely gone, like his missing hand node.
His heart sank. Of course… It wasn't that simple. Healing a node was one thing, but regrowing an entirely lost one was a different matter.
Bo Cai, sensing Xuan's disappointment, gave him a confused look. "Xuan?"
But Xuan just nodded absently, but his mind still racing. His parents' manual had helped him before—maybe it could help him again. There had to be something else, something he was overlooking.
"I guess I'll leave you to it," Bo Cai said, rising to his feet as he noticed Xuan drifting into his own thoughts. His voice softened slightly, a hint of something like excitement flickering beneath his casual tone. He didn't know what he said that promted this change, but he could see the quiet determination in Xuan's eyes rekindeling.
He turned to leave, before glancing over his shoulder once more. "Just remember, you don't wanna fail the one-month test. So even if you can't unlock all the nodes... at least learn to sense qi." His tone was lighter now, with the faintest trace of a smile tugging at his lips. Seeing Xuan not give up somehow served as motivation for himself too.
With a final look at Xuan, Bo Cai left the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts once more.
For the next few hours, Xuan sat in quiet reflection, mentally going over every detail of his parents manual. He replayed the teachings in his mind, trying to piece together anything that could give him an edge. But no matter how many times he recalled the sections on nodes and qi, nothing seemed to stand out. There was no mention of regrowing a node, no hidden technique that could bypass the need for all six nodes.
Frustrated, Xuan unrolled the sect's scroll, hoping to find something—anything—that he hadn't already encountered in his parents' manual. His eyes scanned the familiar diagrams and teachings, but nothing new stood out. It was all the same.
But determined to not give up, he read through the scroll again, this time more slowly, cross-referencing it in his mind with every detail he could remember from his parents' method. But no matter how many times he compared the two, the teachings remained almost identical. Again and again, he went over them, desperately searching for a clue, but the conclusion was always the same.
Both methods spoke of the same six primary nodes—two in the hands, two in the feet, one in the heart, and one in the head. The frustration gnawed at him as he realized he was running in circles, and still, he couldn't find a solution to his missing hand node.
Still there was something else he noticed. The sect's cultivation method hadn't mentioned divine abilities at all, while his parents method detailed that you would be able to unlock one alongside the heart node. But at this point in time Xuan couldn't care less. What he wanted wasn't a divine ability but the chance to cultivate, so he shelved this difference for now.
But then as he contiued to compare the two methods something else nagged at him. Something subtle that he couldn't quite place.
Days blurred together as Xuan became consumed by his obsession and the strange feeling that something wasn't quite right as he compared the two sets of teachings endlessly in his mind. He couldn't let go. He refused to. If he couldn't cultivate, then what future was left for him? The thought gnawed at him, relentless and unforgiving. And each time he thought he might have found something in the methods, it slipped away, leaving him feeling more lost than before. But as his frustration mounted, so did his focus.
Then, on one sleepless night, after countless hours of studying and reflection, a crucial difference in the wording flickered in his mind.
"When all six nodes are opened, you will be able to gather enough qi at once to unlock the dantian."
That was what the sect's method demanded—rigid and uncompromising. But then, from his parents' manual, the words came back to him.
"When the open nodes are able to gather enough qi, the dantian can be unlocked."
His heart raced. His parents' method never insisted on unlocking all the nodes—only that enough qi needed to be gathered. It didn't specifically mention that every single node had to be active.
Xuan's heart pounded as the realization sank in.
Could it be? If he could somehow gather enough qi from the five remaining nodes, could he still unlock the dantian?
He wasn't certain. Without his parents here to guide him or anyone else he trusted to ask, there was no way to confirm his theory. But still this was a glimmer of hope—a possibility he hadn't seen before. And right now, that was enough to keep him going.
With the possibility in mind, he quickly went into a cross-legged sitting position and closed his eyes, deciding to forsake the sects method and stick with his parent's. If there really was a chance, then there was no time to waste. Afterall he only had one year of time to unlock his dantian.
Xuan began to concentrate deeply, the manual's teachings flowing through his mind like a calming stream, urging him to breathe slowly, clear his thoughts, and focus on the qi around him. He could sense the qi more easily now than before. When he had first cultivated, he had to almost force the energy into his body. But now, with his Heart Node unlocked, the qi entered his body more readily, naturally pulled in by the node's attraction.
However, even with this improvement, the process was far from easy. As the qi gathered inside him, Xuan carefully directed it toward his left hand node, focusing all his attention on surrounding the node with the swirling energy. His parents had stressed patience: instead of forcing the node open as he had with the Heart Node before, he was using a safer method. Slowly eroding the node's barriers with steady waves of qi, rather than risking damage by slamming into it.
But while this method was safer, it was also time-consuming. Yet Xuan knew that trying to brute-force his way through, as he had done before, would ultimately take even longer. If he got lucky again, and the node was only injured instead of broken, it would still take precious time to heal. In the end, the recovery period would likely be longer than simply unlocking the node with patience.
As Xuan was hard at work, he soon realized something else. Unlike the reckless technique he had used before, which had relied on brute strength and desperation, this process demanded precision and control. He had to carefully maintain the flow of qi, guiding it gently to the node and slowly surrounding it without overwhelming it.
Minutes passed, and sweat began to bead on his forehead. His concentration wavered, and as soon as it did, the qi began to dissipate, slipping away from the node and fading into the surrounding air.
However, the progress he had made didn't vanish. The process was cumulative; each session would erod the seal on the node little by little. With every cycle, he would weaken the barrier, bringing it closer to unlocking. It was a slow, grinding process, but Xuan knew that each effort was building toward the moment when the node would open up.
He let out a frustrated breath, his muscles aching from the strain of sitting in the same position. He knew he couldn't push too hard. Overexerting himself could damage the node and cripple his cultivation permanently. He had to pace himself.
Aware of the situation, Xuan took a moment to rest, letting the tension in his body and mind ease before starting again. The process was slow, but steady.
Over the next several days, he dedicated himself to unlocking the left hand node. Each session lasted only as long as he could manage to hold his concentration, as he surrounded the node with qi and gradually weakened its barriers.
As time passed he could feel the node weakening bit by bit, the qi pressing against it, waiting for the moment when it would finally open.
But Xuan couldn't spend all his time cultivating; he needed food to sustain his efforts.
---
A couple of days later, as evening fell, he made his way to the dining hall like he had the previous days, still preoccupied with thoughts from his latest cultivation session. This time, however, he was arriving later than usual. He had gotten too absorbed in his training and lost track of time, missing his typical mealtime.
Perhaps it was because of this that he noticed more children gathered in the hall than he was used to seeing. As soon as he stepped inside, a heavy tension hit him like a wave. He hadn't paid attention before, but now it was clear—the children were divided into two distinct groups. On one side sat those who had already managed to sense qi, their postures visibly more relaxed, with soft murmurs of conversation passing between them. On the other side, the atmosphere was thick with anxiety. Pale faces and wide, fearful eyes marked the ones who still struggled, the looming test weighing heavily on their minds.
Xuan's gaze swept across the room and landed on Bo Cai, sitting comfortably among a group of kids who seemed comparitively relaxed, presumably having already sensed qi. His round face lit up when he saw Xuan, and he called out, "Xuan! Over here!"
Hesitatiting briefly, Xuan made his way over to Bo Cai's table and sat down, Bo Cai grinned. "I sensed qi a couple of days ago," he said proudly. "How about you? How's it going?"
Xuan met his gaze, his voice steady. "I've sensed qi too." In fact he had long already been able to sense qi. But there was no need to tell them that.
The children on the surrounding tables let out a small gasp of surprise, but before Bo Cai could respond, one of the other kids at the table, a boy with sharp eyes and a smirk on his lips, leaned forward. "So what?" he said, his tone dripping with disdain. "It won't make a difference. You'll never unlock your dantian anyway. Why are you even trying?"
A few of the other kids at the table exchanged glances, some of them nodding in agreement. Xuan's jaw tightened, but he said nothing. The words stung and he knew that they were probably right. But still, he refused to give up. There was a chance.
Bo Cai shot the boy a glare. "Shut it," he said sharply, his tone cutting through the dismissive chatter. "Don't act like you're some kind of expert."
The boy shrugged, unbothered by Bo Cai's words, but he leaned back in his seat, his smirk fading slightly. And while Xuan appreciated Bo Cai's support, deep down, the uncertainty still lingered. Could he really overcome this?
---
Over the next couple of days the dining hall painted a more and more clear scene of the situation every time he visited it. Xuan noticed the growing divide between those who had sensed qi and those who hadn't. The children who were still struggling to sense qi barely spoke, their faces growing paler with each passing day. Some hardly ate, too consumed by fear to touch their food. Meanwhile, the ones who had already sensed qi sat with a certain relief—though a few of them, like the boy who had sneered at Xuan, carried an air of superiority, mocking those who still struggled.
Xuan did his best to ignore the whispers and the fleeting looks of disdain and pity some of the children cast his way. He wore the small, practiced smile he had adopted during his time with Jin—a habit that seemed to strangely bolster his confidence now, even if only a little. And he needed that confidence now more than ever. Sensing qi was only the first step. The real challenge lay ahead: unlocking his nodes and gathering enough qi to break open his dantian.
Every day before and after eating he focused on his cultivation. And slowly but surely he was wearing away the barrier of his hand node. And then, one evening, it finally happened.
As Xuan sat cross-legged in his room, carefully guiding the qi toward his hand node as he had done countless times before, he felt a sudden shift. The barrier around the node, which had resisted him for so long, finally gave way. A sharp, powerful surge of energy rushed through him, like a dam had burst inside his body.
He trembled from the surge of energy, a mix of exhaustion and exhilaration flooding his senses. The hand node had opened. Two nodes were now unlocked—his Heart Node and his hand node. There were only three more to go.
Xuan's smile grew a bit wider. For a moment, he allowed himself a brief moment of relief. He felt the faint glimmer of hope growing stronger within him. If he could just keep pushing, just keep going—
*bang, bang*
Suddenly, a sharp knock echoed through the stone walls of his room. Xuan's heart skipped a beat as the door creaked open, revealing a disciple dressed in dark robes with cold and impassive eyes. His gaze swept over Xuan as he spoke.
"It's time," the disciple said, his voice low but commanding. "Gather in the test chamber immediately."