Observation

Winter came earlier to Linjiang than to Xingjing.

When Xu Wuyi returned to the villa, the osmanthus tree by the entrance had already shed all its leaves. Its bare branches swayed gently in the river wind.

The Earth Fire Marrow Lamp in the Cultivation Room was still lit, and the fist mark on the crystal wall looked especially deep beneath the warm yellow light.

He set the storage pouch on a chair and took the square stone slab from inside.

The pale golden patterns across its surface flowed slowly beneath the lamplight, exactly as they had when he first obtained it.

But this time, when he sent his consciousness into the slab, the patterns did not drag him into any vision. They merely flickered quietly in his palm.

He had already seen the Inner Landscape Diagram and read those ancient, profound words. Spirit was neither energy nor rules.

An inner world was not punched into existence, nor was it piled together with Order. It grew from the spirit.

He placed the stone slab on a low table in the corner of the Cultivation Room, then sat cross-legged on the training mat.

His consciousness sank into his body. The one hundred and thirty-six meridian fissures remained stable, and the blood-and-qi network flowed freely throughout his body. The Order barrier of the new network along his spine was still so thin, while blood and qi leaking from the fissures seeped slowly through his muscles and bones.

Everything was stable. But stable did not mean strong enough.

He began examining his spirit.

This was not his first time examining himself. Ever since Honghe No. 1 High School, ever since he first practiced the standing stance, he had constantly examined his body, his fist techniques, and his rules.

But examining the spirit and examining