Over a month later.
Eastern Maitreya Province, Jade Dawn School.
In a quiet chamber on Xiyi Mountain, faint, swirling vapors gathered and mingled around Chen Heng as he sat on a meditation cushion, imparting a sense of natural unity and pure, refined transformation.
His eyelids drooped, his breathing barely audible, as though it did not exist. He had entered a wondrous state of focused meditation, his subtle contemplations unfolding naturally.
Though his body remained rigid as dead wood, utterly motionless.
His mind seemed like moonlight steeping a pool, empty and unattached.
Within that cold, withered stillness lay another living world, luminous and immaculate, untouched by a speck of dust.
Gradually, rosy clouds drifted from Chen Heng's mouth and nose, radiant and brilliant, like stars gathering splendor. The crown of his head trembled slightly, and a formless radiance flowed out through it like an unobstructed stream.
The instant the two touched, they gathered into clouds and mist.
Thunderous rumbling sounded within the mist. Its radiance extended over ten feet, its colors and shapes shifting, and only dispersed after a long while, illuminating the four walls with dazzling, variegated brilliance.
Only then did Chen Heng raise his eyelids, a trace of a smile appearing on his face.
He rose from the cushion and slowly exhaled a long breath. The True Qi throughout his limbs and bones surged with it, as though mighty rivers were racing endlessly through his body!
To comprehend the innate, original naturalness was to grasp the true root of nature and life!
He stretched and stepped forward. His bones and flesh stirred like spring shoots breaking through the soil. In an instant, his back stooped somewhat, as though he had abruptly grown three inches shorter.
The next moment, his frame lengthened again. With a crack, the bones of his