Stillness Seeping into the Bones

The air in early March still carried a lingering chill, and the sound of dripping water outside struck the eaves like needles. Ryan sat in the training room, a thin cushion beneath his knees, his posture straight as a pine. He did not close his eyes. Instead, he stared at the floor ahead, breathing long and steady, his bodily awareness flowing like water.

This was the seventh day of his "Breath-Holding Meditation Experiment."

Unlike before, he was no longer "sitting quietly for meditation," but deliberately "searching for the paths Nen took within the body."

In his notes, he gave this phase of training a new name:

[Qi-Sense Guidance Experiment · S-INT Series]

Objective: Under conditions without external pressure, induce the emergence of "self-perceived qi flow points" through sustained breath-holding × mental focus

For the first few days, he had gained almost nothing.

Even in the exhausted yet highly alert state after training, all he could feel were ordinary reactions: rising body heat, slightly restricted breathing, and a slowing heartbeat.

But he was not impatient.

He knew Nen would not arrive because he wanted it to; it would only respond once his "body was ready."

So he began with the directionality of qi sensation—

He recalled the instant during sandbag practice when he had felt "his breath flow out along his knuckles," as well as the lingering sensation from meditation when "warmth surged through his spine." With a red pen, he circled six "possible Nen flow outlets" on a sketch of a human figure:

The center of the sternum

Three inches below the navel

The connection point of the right shoulder's arched muscle

The inner side of the elbow crease

The center of the palm

The outer edge of the foot arch

Afterward, he conducted single-point focus training on those locations—

For example, today, he concentrated his awareness three inches below his navel, at the Qihai, and, through a slow breath-holding rhythm and subtle spinal adjustments, compressed the "qi-sense channel" into a single vertical line.

He closed his eyes, let his fingers hang naturally, relaxed his shoulders, and kept his spine straight. The entire process lasted no more than fifteen minutes, yet it was more "exhausting" than an hour of sitting meditation in the past.

Then, in the twelfth minute, he finally felt the faintest trace of an "inner surge."

It was like a fine thread brushing across his ribs and passing through his navel, or like a drop of warm water slowly seeping outward from deep within.

It was not an illusion.

He had not "controlled" it, but it had undeniably appeared.

That warm current stirred a chain of delicate feedback throughout his nervous system—

His breathing slowed, blood pulsed lightly in his palms, his hearing sharpened slightly, and he could "hear the fluctuations within his own body."

The qi did not break through the membrane-like barrier around his outer layer, but it made him realize—there truly was another kind of energy within his body, one that had yet to be mobilized.

That afternoon, Ryan went to the training yard and began the second phase of his experiment:

[Impact Stress Buffering × Will-Guided Protective Muscles]

This was a prototype movement model he had extracted from Nen's defensive technique—Ken.

He tied an old block of wood to a rope and let it drop from half a meter up, striking his shoulder blades, upper abdomen, lower ribs, waist, and other areas.

Unlike his previous practice of simply taking hits to raise his resistance threshold, this time, before each impact arrived, he focused his awareness on the muscles at the target area and made them contract slightly. At the same time, he held his breath briefly and used the method of "sinking qi into the dantian" to control the rebound of tension within his muscle layers at the instant of impact.

The effect was astonishing.

When the wooden block struck his shoulder, he clearly felt it—not as "taking it head-on," but as a "pressing down, then drawing back" buffering sensation.

It was as though some layer of muscle, awakened in advance by his awareness, caught the force and slowly dispersed it. It was neither a pure counterattack nor passive acceptance.

This was the prototype of Ken.

There was no "Nen aura coating," but the underlying outline of "awareness-led + body-linked" principles was already there.

He repeated the experiment again and again until his elbow was slightly swollen and his waist had turned red.

His mother passed by from the kitchen carrying hot water. Watching him repeatedly slam himself into that wooden board, she finally could not help approaching him. "What kind of training is this now? It hurts just watching you get hit like that."

Ryan stopped, exhaled a breath of white mist, and looked at his mother.

Instead of falling silent as he usually did, he answered her directly.

"I'm learning how to make my body obey my will."

"...Obey?"

"If someone swings a blade at me one day, I might not be able to dodge it."

"But if I can make my body contract in advance, disperse the force, and avoid broken bones or internal injuries—then I'll have one more second to escape."

His mother froze where she stood.

Ryan walked over, gently took the cup of hot water from her, and said calmly:

"I'm not afraid of pain. Pain means I'm still alive."

"But if one day I don't even get the chance to feel pain, that means I haven't trained enough."

His mother lowered her head. After a long while, she softly said, "Don't treat yourself like this."

Ryan only smiled faintly. "I just haven't learned Nen yet."

"But I've already learned how to train myself into someone who can endure it first."

That night, he wrote in his log:

[Qi-Sense Training × Will-Based Protection Prototype Synchronization]

Internal sensation confirmed: A warm current vibration appeared around the Qihai; it was not a muscular illusion and showed a tendency to surge upward;

Body response: With concentrated intent, the muscles achieved localized buffered resistance, forming a "non-active-counterattack Ken-state structure";

Conclusion: No surface-level Nen aura output yet, but an internal guidance pathway had already formed a connected pattern;

Inference: A single instance of "high-pressure external force + autonomous stress response" should be enough to trigger the first Ren state.

He closed the notebook, walked to the window, and looked toward the distant Sky Tower.

Nen had not arrived, but his body was prepared, and his heart was ready.

The next step was to "push open the door through battle."

After dusk, an old alley in the outskirts of Tower City fell into dead silence. Dilapidated streetlamps cast long shadows, while the sharp clatter of a stray cat knocking over an iron bucket came from afar.

Ryan stood on the stone-paved open space at the corner of his yard, knees slightly bent, palms facing down, completely motionless.

He was conducting a new experiment:

Active Qi Drawing Experiment · S-PULL-01

The goal was not to "meditate and sense qi," but—for the first time, to use his subjective will to move qi from the Qihai to the surface of his body.

He held his breath, his eyes focused, his awareness centered three inches below his navel. At the same time, he inhaled slowly and guided the sensation he called the "faint warm current" toward his arm in rhythm with his heartbeat.

He had imagined what this moment would look like:

Qi would pass from within to without like water, crossing his muscles, elbows, and wrists before reaching his palm—then it would be wrapped in intent, completing the output structure of a "basic Ren state."

But that was not what happened.

By the third minute, the warm current still lingered in the upper part of his abdomen; by the sixth, his awareness had scattered and the qi sensation began to retract.

Failure.

He was not disappointed. He simply wrote down:

[S-PULL-01] Attempt Failed

Issue: Awareness extension was too prolonged; the guidance was interrupted when attention retracted

Hypothesis: Without the pressure of imminent battle or external stimulation, Nen would not respond voluntarily

"Just as expected," he muttered. "Without the awareness of life and death, Nen still isn't willing to come out."

He knew true outward qi release had to occur in the instant of an "extreme reaction."

That was—when you no longer hoped to succeed at Ren, but had no other choice, qi would move for your sake.

He decided to rest.

But he did not expect that this day, the trial would truly arrive.

When he left the yard, the night had grown darker, and moonlight hung over Tower City. He reached the western entrance of his neighborhood, intending to take a detour home, when he saw an unfamiliar figure at the corner of an alley.

A man in a dark gray trench coat stood against the wall, his head lowered, his face impossible to see clearly.

Ryan instinctively slowed his pace and sensed the other man's presence—it was unmoving, undispersed, as though it was not there.

But—it was too "clean."

This did not resemble "an ordinary person standing still." It resembled "a stance deliberately meant to avoid being noticed."

Before he could go around him, the man suddenly raised his head.

"Are you training Nen?" The man's voice was low, but every word came clearly.

Ryan stopped, his brow twitching. "Who are you?"

The other man did not answer. He merely took one step forward, and his body suddenly closed the distance.

In that instant, Ryan felt an indescribable oppressive force rush toward him from the front—not wind, but a near-air-collapsing sense of "presence," like a mountain pressing down on his head, like cold seeping into his bones.

He understood:

The other man was a Nen Ability user.

Before he could react, the man had already closed in. An elbow swept forward, and the force of his palm bore down on Ryan's shoulder and neck!

—The man did not intend to kill him. He was testing him.

But at that moment, Ryan did not hesitate.

Instinctively, he poured his awareness into his lower abdomen, mobilized every muscle in his body, and sent intent crackling through his fists and arms like electricity—

Qi erupted from his dantian, surged through his sternum, arm bones, and palm tendons, then burst out just before his right fist!

"Hah—!"

With a short roar, the air ahead let out a resonant hum, as though a wall of qi had blocked the incoming palm!

The man's feet halted, surprise appearing in his eyes.

"You actually blocked it?"

Ryan held his right fist halfway raised. His palm trembled slightly, his fingertips burned, and every pore across his body had opened. A thin layer of qi film lingered around his shoulders, elbows, and arms, so faint it was nearly invisible.

But that was—in the truest sense—his first outward release of Nen.

Not meditation.

Not simulation.

It was a true Ren state forced out in actual combat, under pressure, driven into a dead end, with no choice but to use it.

The man slowly withdrew his fist, fell silent for two seconds, then nodded.

"You really... are qualified."

Leaving behind those words, he turned and vanished into the night alley.

Ryan remained where he was until the Nen flow slowly receded. Only then did all strength leave his body, and he dropped to his knees on the ground.

He knew that had not been a victory, but it was—

His first step toward becoming a Nen Ability user.

No one had taught him.

No formula had been forced into him.

Rather, his body, will, and instincts had all made the same choice in that instant—

I have to survive.

And so, Nen—came.