Xu Wuyi's punches had once traveled from his waist to his fist, passing through several stages of muscle contraction, meridian activation, and energy transmission. Now, all those stages had vanished. Thought was action, and action was thought.
He withdrew his fist and stood upright. Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the Inner Landscape Tree, utterly transformed, stood quietly in his mental space. Warm golden light continuously flowed from its fruit, circulating through the network of its canopy and roots, as though something that had never ceased had finally begun to operate.
He stood there for a while, allowing his body to adapt to this new mode of operation. Then he pushed open the Cultivation Room door and walked out.
It was dawn outside. A thin veil of mist hung over the river, and the snow-capped mountains beyond it appeared softly white. Dewdrops on the grass glimmered beneath the rising sun, while the air carried the crisp scent of earth mixed with grass blades.
Zero Seven's figure emerged at the edge of the shade. Her gaze paused on his face, then she carried over a cup of hot tea and set it on the cut surface of a tree stump. Her movements were a fraction slower than usual as she placed the cup down, as though her program were conducting some additional analysis.
"Mr. Xu Wuyi, the aura around you—"
"Changed," Xu Wuyi said. He walked over to the stump and sat down, lifting the cup for a sip. The tea was just the right temperature. Its nourishing sensation slid down his throat and into his body, where the warm golden light within the fruit caught it directly, broke it down, and circulated it. Previously, the root network would have needed several breaths to digest it. Now, it was almost instantaneous.