Su Wanwan did as she was told. The Moon-Illuminating Branches crawled densely across the stone wall, and the silver on the undersides of their leaves gleamed even brighter in the noon light, as though countless tiny silver flakes had been set into the wall.
"Close your eyes. Do not look with your eyes; feel with your breath." Bai Xi stood three feet behind her. "What is the first sentence of the first section of the Moon Breath Guide?"
Su Wanwan closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "The moon waxes and wanes; breath rises and falls. Draw the moon into the breath, like tides rushing to shore."
"Then try it."
Su Wanwan took a deep breath, withdrew her attention from the outside world, and sank it into her body. She had never done anything like this before—when cultivating in the past, she had always sought outward, seeking stronger spells, faster reactions, better hiding techniques. She had never seriously examined what was inside her own body.
Now, she had to look inward.
At first, she could feel nothing. There was only her heartbeat, her breathing, and the faint sound of blood flowing through her veins. Those sounds were so loud that she could not calm herself.
She tried to ignore them and sink her attention another layer deeper.
Her heartbeat faded.
Her breathing faded.
The sound of her blood flowing faded as well.
In their place came an exceedingly subtle sensation, as though something was slowly flowing deep within her body. It was so faint, like a wisp of smoke. The moment she thought about it too hard, it scattered; when she stopped thinking about it, it gradually gathered again.
Su Wanwan stubbornly locked onto it.
She did not know how long passed before that tiny sensation finally stopped scattering.