Adventure of Zhāng Wújì 1

Zhāng Wújì steps into the circular hall, and the glowing lines beneath his feet answer with a low hum. The array is vast, precise, and hungry for motion.

Concentrated qi presses down on him like a weighted cloak. The Stone Monument’s projection flickers at the edge of the chamber, its diagrams matching the routes of his meridians.

He settles where the lines converge, letting the breathing method guide his chest. The three jade beads warm at once, tugging at his breath like tiny mouths drinking in the same current.

Qi flows into him faster than before, then snarls at the edge of his untrained body. His shoulders tense, his pulse jumps, and the pressure forces him to keep perfect control or be overwhelmed.

The glowing circuit brightens under him, revealing the next step clearly, rapid cultivation through borrowed qi, if he can endure the beads drawing their hidden share from him.

The surge of power proves too volatile for his unrefined meridians, and the qi begins to tear through his channels rather than flow. Zhāng Wújì gasps as his control shatters, the jade beads pulsing with a harsh, discordant light that forces him to break his posture.

Zhāng Wújì straightens by degrees, not forcing the breath, only loosening around it. The harsh pull in his channels stops fighting the flow.

The three jade beads answer at once, their light softening from jagged flashes into a steady pulse.

Qi runs through the floor array, into his dantian, then back again in a clean circuit. The flickering lines under him brighten.

His breathing locks into the array's tempo, and the strain in his meridians eases into something bearable, then stable.

A seam of light in the floor widens another finger's breadth, and the path beyond it glows clearer, while the iron sword's distant sheen catches in the hall.