The third time spiritual energy surged past the Baihui Acupoint, my temple twitched. It did not hurt—it swelled, as if something were lightly knocking inside my skull. I did not stop. I continued pressing downward, guiding the hot current toward the Yuzhen Pass.
The first two cycles had been steady. The first had flowed as smoothly as water running downhill. The second had caught for an instant at Jianjing, but it passed after I adjusted my breathing. This was the third cycle, and the last one for today. As long as I completed it, the task would be done.
I urged the qi in my dantian, making it move faster. This power was much stronger than when I had first begun, and it no longer moved with the same stiffness as before. But the smoother it went, the more I wanted to finish quickly. I had already been sitting for so long that my body was stiff, my knees ached, and holding my back straight had made it go numb.
"Reverse surge through Yuzhen; once it opens, the spirit becomes clear." That line from the Profound Origin Breathing Technique surfaced in my mind. The system had explained before that Yuzhen was one of the three major passes of the Governing Vessel. Once I crossed it, my spiritual awareness would become even clearer. But I could not remember it clearly. I only vaguely remembered that it said to "connect through."
Then I would connect through.
I gritted my teeth and mobilized every last trace of spiritual energy in my body, sending it all rushing toward the top of my head. Not gradually pushing forward, but violently forcing it upward. I thought that was what counted as a breakthrough—what counted as progress.
In an instant, it felt as if an iron rod had been rammed into the back of my neck.
It was not a metaphor. It truly felt as though a red-hot iron bar had pierced up from my spine and plunged straight into my brain. My whole body jolted violently. My fingers spasmed, my toes curled tight, and my breathing stopped for half a beat.
Pain. Excruciating pain.
It was not the pain of torn flesh. It felt as though the gaps in my bones, my blood vessels, and my brain were all being ripped apart. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. Something seemed to be lodged in my throat. My chest felt suffocated, and my heart pounded so fast it seemed ready to burst.
My spiritual energy had gone out of control.
It no longer followed its original route. Instead, it ran wild. Some of it rushed into my arms, making my fingertips go numb as though they had been pierced through with needles. Some crashed into my legs, and my knees gave out. I toppled from my meditative posture, my shoulder slamming into the floor with a dull thud.
The spirit stone in the room was still in its socket, but it had gone black, without even a trace of light. The animal hide on the roof rustled as the wind lifted it, as though someone outside were slapping against it.
I wanted to crawl back up. I pressed one hand against the floor, but my arm would not obey me at all. My muscles trembled on their own, beyond my control. Cold sweat poured from my forehead, sliding along my temples and behind my ears, leaving them icy.
My head buzzed. My vision went dark, then suddenly flashed white, like lightning exploding inside my skull. I saw images—fragments tumbling within the Chaotic Flow, the mist at the valley entrance, the system's pop-up text boxes... They flashed by and vanished just as quickly. I could not grasp any of them.
"Wrong..." I finally realized. "It is not a full-force charge... it is a gradual guide..."
But it was useless to say that now.
The spiritual energy inside me was like floodwaters breaching a dam, surging everywhere. Every inch of my meridians was bearing pressure it should never have endured. The line along the outside of my forearm suddenly erupted in pain. I knew that was where the Hand Shaoyang Sanjiao Meridian lay, but it should not have been reacting at all right now.
I curled up, biting down on my lower lip until I tasted blood. I did not want to cry out and alert anything, but a low groan still squeezed from my throat. It was hoarse, sounding nothing like my own voice.
Breathing became harder and harder. Every inhale felt like working a bellows. My lungs were dry, and it felt as though a stone were pressing on my chest. I tried to restart the circulation and use the breathing formula to steady my qi, but the moment the thought arose, that rampaging energy surged back against me, making my temples throb wildly.
I rolled onto my back, my eyes open but unable to see clearly. The shadows of the vines on the roof swayed, different from before. They had once hung quietly, but now they seemed to writhe and twist together, tightening more and more.
The spirit stone beside my hand was completely spent. I reached out to touch it, but the instant my fingertips brushed its surface, a sharp pain shot through them, like a static shock. I pulled my hand back and saw that my fingertips had darkened slightly, as though they had been scorched.
This could not go on.
I was still conscious. Though my mind was hazy, I could still sense that the system was there. It did not speak, but I could feel its presence, like a thin mist hovering at the edge of my sea of consciousness. What was it waiting for? Why was it not saying anything?
Maybe it could not intervene on its own. Maybe it could only offer prompts.
Gathering my last clear thought, I asked inwardly, What should I do now?
There was no answer.
I asked again, my voice trembling.
This time, something flickered in the depths of my sea of consciousness. It was neither text nor voice, but a vibration—faint yet distinct, like the strike of a bell.
Then red light appeared.
It was only a tiny cluster at first, slowly spreading through the center of my consciousness. It was neither hot nor blinding, yet it carried an oppressive force, like an alarm—and a warning.
I knew this was the system's response. It had detected the danger and was preparing to act. But it had not intervened yet. It was still observing, still judging the critical threshold.
I was almost unable to hold on.
My limbs began to convulse uncontrollably. It was not a cramp—my entire legs and arms jerked upward by themselves, fell, then jerked again. Like a fish out of water, I flopped across the ground several times and crashed into the pile of stone slabs in the corner. A flat stone tumbled down and struck my shin, making my vision go white with pain.
Blood seeped from my mouth again. Not much—just enough to run from the corner of my lips toward my ear. I raised a hand to wipe it away, and my palm came away wet and warm, stained dark red.
It should not have been dark outside yet. The room was dim, but I could still make out its outlines. The door curtain hung still, and no wind blew in from the southern opening, yet the air was moving. I could feel the spiritual energy in turmoil. It no longer flowed steadily, but spiraled like water boiling in a pot.
I tried desperately to recall the correct route. The Conception Vessel descended, paused at the perineum for three breaths, then slowly rose along the Governing Vessel, passing the Tailbone Pass, piercing the Spine Pass, reaching the Dazhui Acupoint... all the way to Yuzhen. It was supposed to seep through slightly, not force its way through.
I should have realized sooner. "Connecting through" did not mean smashing through with brute force. It meant letting the qi naturally permeate.
But it was already too late to think about that.
I lay on the ground, my body still shaking. My breaths grew shallower and shallower, yet my heartbeat grew heavier. Every pulse tugged at my skull, as though it were about to shake my brain loose.
I raised my right hand and tried to guide it once more. But the moment my fingers moved, my entire arm hurt as though it had been sliced open by blades. I could not help crying out, my voice cracking.
My fingertips were only inches from the spirit stone. If I could touch it, perhaps I could borrow a little of its remaining spiritual energy to stabilize my meridians. I edged forward slightly, my shoulder scraping against the floor and burning with pain.
I was just short of reaching it.
Then the chaotic current inside me suddenly changed direction and all surged toward my Heart Meridian.
My chest tightened, as though someone had stomped on it viciously. My eyes flew wide, a choking sound escaped my throat, and my whole body arched before crashing heavily back down.
My vision began to blur. I could no longer see the vines on the roof. They became a shifting mass of darkness. A low hum rose beside my ears, drowning out the sound of the stream and the wind.
I still had a sliver of consciousness.
I knew I was lying on the floor. I knew blood was running from the corner of my mouth down my neck. I knew the spirit stone beside my hand could no longer save me.
The system was still vibrating. The red light grew brighter and brighter.
I opened my mouth, wanting to say something, but the sound caught in my throat.
The next second, my body convulsed violently, and my right leg kicked into the pile of stones in the corner. Several fragments rolled down. One struck the spirit stone with a clear chime.
Outside, the dead leaf still rested by the threshold. The wind stirred it once, turning it over.
Before you continue