The sun sank, leaving behind the last trace of the day's light, and night slowly fell.
Though Bulma wasn't too keen on camping in the wilderness, she knew there was still a long way to go. She had no choice but to find a dry, sheltered spot on the riverbank and take out a Hoi-Poi Capsule.
With a soft bang, a puff of white smoke cleared, revealing a fully equipped camping tent that had appeared out of nowhere. It even came with a soft bed and a tea table.
Bulma pursed her lips and ducked inside, remembering to look back at Lin Fan. "Hey, you're in charge of keeping watch tonight. We're in the middle of nowhere, and if some wild beast comes along, I'll be counting on your 'rudimentary kung fu'!"
Despite what she said, she quietly fastened a strangely shaped wrist-mounted weapon around her wrist. Clearly, she wasn't truly relying on Lin Fan entirely.
Lin Fan only smiled faintly and didn't take offense. He went to the river to wash his face.
The water was ice-cold, but it jolted him awake.
He didn't use the tent Bulma had provided. Instead, he found a smooth boulder nearby and sat cross-legged on it.
The wilderness around him gradually fell quiet. All he could hear was the gentle rush of water nearby and the chirping of insects, while the occasional long howl of an unknown beast drifted from the distant forest, lonely and desolate.
Lin Fan closed his eyes, cast aside distracting thoughts, and focused his mind on his lower dantian. Following the supreme methods described in the Great Dao Source Scripture, he slowly circulated the trace of True Qi that had grown a little stronger.
The faint essence formed from the vegetables and rice he'd eaten during the day, along with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth continuously flowing into his body, was swept up by the current of energy and refined, like streams joining a deep pool.
Time passed unnoticed during cultivation, especially amid a world where spiritual energy, though thin, was far purer than anything in the cities of his previous life.
Lin Fan's mind settled into stillness, his awareness merging with his surroundings. He could feel the wisp of energy within him growing livelier, its circulation through his meridians gradually speeding up, and the warmth it brought becoming more pronounced.
After an unknown number of hours, the moon reached its zenith, bathing the riverbank in clear light as though it had been dusted with silver frost.
Suddenly, Lin Fan's body trembled slightly.
Within his dantian, after countless cycles, the faint, wavering current of energy abruptly grew a little more solid. It was still weak, but now it had substance, no longer seeming as illusory as mist.
As it circulated, it seemed to stir faint sounds of wind and thunder—not sounds that truly rang out into the world, but a mysterious sensation within his meridians and acupoints.
Early Qi Refining!
The Great Dao Source Scripture stated: "When the sense of qi arises naturally, circulates through the meridians, and condenses without dispersing, this is early Qi Refining."
A boundless force, impossible to describe, surged from his dantian and flowed through his limbs and bones. Though slight, it was undeniably real.
The fatigue from the day's journey and the dull ache of his old injuries were washed away in an instant. His whole body felt refreshed, and his senses were sharper than ever.
He could even clearly "see" the pores across his body opening and closing—not with his eyes, but with his spiritual awareness—as wisps of spiritual energy from heaven and earth were drawn in faster by the energy within him.
Lin Fan slowly opened his eyes. A clear light glimmered in them for a moment in the darkness before gradually fading.
He spread his palm and felt the newly formed True Qi within him, as obedient as an extension of his own arm. His heart stirred.
From this moment on, he had truly taken his first solid step into this perilous otherworld.
A thought crossed his mind, and he tried to slowly push the wisp of True Qi out through the Laogong acupoint in his palm.
At first, it was extremely difficult. The True Qi circulated freely inside his body, but trying to force it out was like struggling through a muddy bog.
He focused his mind and tried over and over, until beads of sweat appeared on his brow.
At last, a faint white glimmer flashed across his palm, then vanished in an instant, almost as if he'd imagined it.
But right afterward, another glimmer struggled to life. Though dim as a firefly, it stubbornly refused to go out. A very soft crackling sound accompanied it, like static on a winter day, as it flickered unsteadily an inch or so above his palm.
It worked!
He had only forced the True Qi an inch beyond his body. It couldn't reach far and had hardly any power, but this was genuine True Qi released beyond the body!
The tent flap suddenly lifted at one corner. Bulma poked her head out, bleary-eyed as she rubbed them and complained, "What was that noise? All that crackling... Are you going to let me sleep or not?"
Before she could finish, her gaze fell on the faint white light flickering in Lin Fan's palm. All traces of sleepiness vanished, and she exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? What's that in your hand? A glow stick?"
Seeing that she'd been disturbed, Lin Fan felt quietly amused. He dispersed the True Qi, and the white light and crackling vanished at once. Putting on a calm front, he said, "It's no glow stick. I had a sudden insight while meditating, which caused the vital energy within my body to manifest as a bolt of lightning in my palm. I'm sorry for disturbing you."
He casually borrowed some Taoist terminology from his previous life and gave it the name "Palm Thunder."
"Vital energy? Palm Thunder?"
Bulma's curiosity instantly peaked. She scrambled out of the tent and hurried over to Lin Fan. Crouching beside him, she stared wide-eyed at his empty palm. "Seriously? Do it again so I can see! Just once!"
Lin Fan had no choice but to focus again and slowly urge the tiny amount of True Qi he had gained at the early Qi Refining stage.
The white light reappeared. Though the crackling was faint, it was clearly audible in the quiet night.
"Whoa!" Bulma exclaimed, her face alight with the excitement of someone who'd just spotted a fascinating new toy.
She abruptly raised her wrist and quickly pressed several buttons on the strangely shaped device strapped to it.
A pale blue beam shot out from the wrist device and scanned the faint white light in Lin Fan's palm.
Data flashed across the device's screen. As Bulma watched it, her brows gradually furrowed and her excitement faded, replaced by a scientist's scrutiny and...
a hint of disappointment she couldn't hide.
"The energy signature is very strange. Its frequency is completely different from ordinary bioelectricity or any known energy source. The structure... Hmm, it's very compact. It has a sense of order that I can't quite describe."
She murmured to herself, then looked up at Lin Fan and pursed her lips. "But the energy level is way too low, isn't it? The readings are pitiful. It'd have trouble lighting a bulb, let alone hurting anyone. This 'Palm Thunder' of yours probably couldn't even stun a rabbit, could it? Hehe..."
She couldn't help laughing at her own words. The little mystery of the moment vanished, and she decided that whatever this wild man had cooked up was just another flashy but impractical piece of "ancient technique."
Lin Fan wasn't offended by her words, and his heart remained as calm as ever.
He knew that the fledgling True Qi he had just formed was probably weaker than a child's toy stun gun. It was only natural for Bulma, a genius scientist accustomed to high-energy weapons, to laugh at him.
He let the white light in his palm fade, his expression as calm as before, as though he hadn't been the one mocked. He said slowly, "Everything in heaven and earth begins small, and the Great Dao ultimately returns to simplicity. My Palm Thunder is weak today, but one day I'll grow strong."
With that, he offered no further explanation. He closed his eyes again and resumed meditating to consolidate his newly attained early Qi Refining realm.
Seeing him like this, Bulma lost interest. She yawned and muttered, "So cryptic..."
Then she ducked back into the tent to continue sleeping, treating the whole thing as an insignificant little interruption in the middle of the night.
The riverbank fell quiet again.
In meditation, Lin Fan gazed inward at the True Qi in his dantian, its existence now unmistakable, and felt his mind settle into peace.
Though the thunder in his palm was weak, it had revealed the first glimpse of the Great Dao.
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