The sea surface shimmered dark red, and an oily film slowly swirled around the hull. Chen Wuya stood on the stern deck, one hand pressed against the rune disk as he fed Misaligned Force into the protective barrier thread by thread. He stared into the dense fog ahead, his breathing steady.
What had happened last night was over. The brocade pouch was still tucked against his chest, and neither the green bottle nor the black bottle had been touched. He no longer dwelled on those two choices. He only felt that the true qi within him had grown heavier than before, as though something were drawing it along, making it flow to a certain rhythm.
He closed his eyes, warmth blooming in his palm. The heat came from the red mark, rising and falling at the same frequency as the blue light beneath the sea, like the tides.
"So it wasn't the water moving." He opened his eyes. "It was force following the sea."
He withdrew his hand and stepped back two paces. His feet spread shoulder-width apart, his left foot slightly forward. This was the opening stance of the first form of the Universe Reversal Step.
But this time, he did not follow the original method. He reversed the true qi of the Canglang Art, sending it upward against the current from his dantian before pouring it down through the meridians of his legs. A stabbing pain shot through his channels, and the system immediately issued a warning:
[Meridians flowing in reverse. Risk level: high.]
He did not stop.
When he took the second step, the direction in which his foot exerted force was the opposite of usual. Ordinary people borrowed force by pushing against the ground; he treated the ground as a point of pull, as