Walking Alone
That night, Long Tian went up the hillside alone.
Yu Jin didn't follow. He sat on the threshold of the stone house, the light from the hearth fire spilling out from the door behind him and spreading across the muddy ground in front of him. He watched Long Tian's figure disappear into the shadows at the edge of the pine forest as he walked across the clearing, without getting up. Long Tieshan came out of the house and stood beside Yu Jin for a while, also looking in that direction, before turning back.
Long Tian sat cross-legged on the hillside. There was no moonlight; the clouds completely obscured the sky, making the entire hillside as dark as an old felt cloth turned upside down to dry. He closed his eyes and focused his energy into his dantian, activating each of his six Soul Ring one by one. The Origin Return Pearl spun steadily under the influence of the new core. Yu Jin was not beside him, and half of the energy was missing from the Closed Circuit; only his own Soul Power flowed in circles through his meridians.
He focused his attention on the Origin Return Pearl. The gold and black patterns on its surface were more stable after the new core was embedded, like a painting finally framed and no longer shifting. He sank his mind into the new core—the dark gray core in the very center of the Origin Return Pearl continuously emanated a slow, steady pulse, even and substantial, like the water at the bottom of a well being continuously filled with new currents and overflowing the original water level. He channeled his Soul Power from the six rings into the Origin Return Pearl and directly into the new core, which then ground it before releasing it into his meridians. As the ground energy passed through his vessels, he felt scales rise from his back on their own.
He guided the energy through a complete cycle of the Return to Origin path: chest, ribs, spine, waist and hips, before returning to the dantian. After completing one cycle, he didn't stop, allowing the energy to continue flowing in a second cycle at the confluence point. The second cycle was slightly smoother than the first, like a newly trodden path where the second step feels naturally smoother. When he completed the third cycle, he felt that the scales on his back had completely unfolded, running along the spine from the base of his neck to his tailbone, with no gaps between the scales.
Halfway through the fourth lap, he felt the rotation speed of the Origin Return Pearl increase slightly, and the flow of that aura also accelerated. He didn't force it down, letting the acceleration develop naturally. During the fifth lap, fine light began to seep from the edges of the scales on his back, and the light dust in the shadows accumulated into a thin layer on the ground behind him. During the seventh lap, the two-headed Dragon Shadow rose from behind him—without being activated or actively summoned, it simply appeared on its own after the aura had completed a sufficient number of laps, hovering about a person's height behind Long Tian, its two heads and four eyes calmly staring at the darkness ahead, without blinking.
Long Tian didn't open his eyes. After the Dragon Shadow appeared on its own, he continued to let his aura complete the twelfth cycle. Each cycle's aura was denser than the previous one, and the edges of the scales of the two-headed Dragon Shadow Soul Power, allowing the six rings to fall back into their positions one by one, reducing the rotation speed of the Origin Return Pearl to normal, and gradually slowing the pulse of the new core to only retain a basic continuous frequency. When he opened his eyes, the darkness in front of him remained, but the ground behind him was still covered with fine dust that had fallen during the long period of the Dragon Shadow's suspension. This dust, like a layer of sifted fine sand, was evenly spread around the spot where he had sat, emitting a very faint glow in the moonless night.
He stood up. The scales on his back had receded, but a thin layer of residual warmth remained on the skin of his spine, like a Shitou that had been baked in the sun all day and was still radiating the heat it had absorbed after nightfall. He looked down at the ground where he had been sitting; the light was slowly fading. He pulled his coat tighter and walked down the hillside, stepping along the edge of the remaining light.
Yu Jin was still sitting on the threshold. Seeing him walk out from the shadows, he moved aside to make room for half of the door frame. Long Tian sat down next to him, and the two of them faced the open space and the faint afterglow on it.
"You walked twelve laps by yourself," Yu Jin said. It wasn't a question.
"Hmm. Each circle is smoother than the last. In the last few circles, I felt the Origin Return Pearl adjusting its position on its own, rising slightly from the lower edge of my chest, now resting against the middle of my sternum."
Yu Jin turned his head to look at Long Tian's chest. He couldn't see anything through the fabric, but after a moment, he looked back ahead. "Next time you leave, that Dragon Shadow will follow your movements. You won't need to release it actively anymore."
Long Tian, sitting on the threshold, caught the words. He felt the new core in his chest pulsating steadily, like the lingering echo of a bell's hammer after each strike. He sat on the threshold, the light from the hearth fire spilling from the door behind him and Yu Jin, casting the fabric of their clothes in the same warm hue. The people inside had already retired for the night; the only sounds were the occasional crackling of flames licking the firewood and the mountain stream, clearer in the deepening night than in daylight—the two sounds overlapping like a continuous, uninterrupted dialogue.
Long Tian placed his palm below his chest, feeling the pulse of the Origin Return Pearl and the new core through his clothes. The outline of the two-headed Dragon Shadow appeared briefly in the darkness after he closed his eyes, then disappeared again, like something that had learned to walk trying to adapt to being led by someone else. Long Tian removed his palm from his chest and placed it on his knees, staring at the last layer of extinguishing light dust on the open ground in front of him. Only after it had completely darkened did he get up and go back into the house. Yu Jin stood up as well, closing the door from the inside. The hinges made a soft, oily sound as they turned, which lingered in the room for a moment before falling completely silent.