Just as Zhang Xiaohua was helplessly facing the bracelet in his hand, it unexpectedly emitted a faint ripple. This ripple differed from the Qi fluctuations Zhang Xiaohua had previously known—the still kind that required one to sense them. Or rather, this was a true fluctuation, a flicker akin to breathing, a ripple capable of spreading.
Zhang Xiaohua was taken aback. Had he really become some sort of prophet? Whatever he thought of came true?
But immediately afterward, he understood. The night was deep, and midnight was about to arrive—the very time when he would fall asleep.
At that moment, a thought suddenly arose in his mind: If I don't wear the bracelet, can I still fall into that stupor?
Once that thought emerged, it was like a seed meeting water, impossible to contain. Zhang Xiaohua bit his lip, set the bracelet down before him beside the small ring, then took two small Qi Stones from his robes. Sitting with his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, he began cultivating the Carefree Heart Sutra.
At first, the bracelet on the ground showed no reaction. But when midnight arrived, its faint ripple suddenly intensified and cast itself over Zhang Xiaohua like a fishing net. Zhang Xiaohua, cultivating the Carefree Heart Sutra, immediately began to flicker all over, his frequency similar to the bracelet's ripples as it surged without cease. At the same time, endless starlight poured down from the night sky, no different from his usual cultivation.
The sole difference was perhaps that, at the instant the starlight descended, the bracelet on the ground suddenly vanished. When it reappeared, it was tightly pressed against Zhang Xiaohua's left arm, as though it had never been removed at all!
The tiny ring that had originally lain beside the bracelet remained