Yunfan sat motionless inside the cavern.
His breath was shallow, but steady. His muscles trembled beneath still flesh, sweat clinging to his skin like mist before a storm.
Within his core, the vortex of Qi spun faster, chaotic, unstable, pressing against the walls of his dantian like thunder trapped in a bottle. Each pulse surged stronger than the last, slamming through his meridians, challenging their shape, their strength, their limits.
He gritted his teeth.Fingers dug into his knees.
Lightning rippled beneath his skin raw arcs of thunder Qi flashing in his blood vessels.
Then
It broke.
The tension snapped like a string pulled too tight.
Qi exploded outward, not from his body but through it, expanding in a wave that sent the cave walls humming in resonance. The sword marks carved into the stone around him lit up, glowing faintly in response to the storm inside his bones.
His aura pulsed once, then again.
And with it came power.New weight.New depth.
He felt his strength soar, rising from within like breathless laughter clawing its way out of his ribs. His heart beat once and the sound rang like a bell in the silence of the world.
He wasn't just holding more Qi.
He was becoming it.
The lightning inside him wasn't a storm anymore.
It was his pulse.
His thoughts sharpened. His senses stretched. Every strand of his Qi no longer felt like energy it felt like a blade.
But it wasn't over.
Not yet.
The sword on his back, Wordless Edge, began to vibrate.
Not violently. Not urgently.
Patiently.Like it had been waiting for this moment.
His mind stilled. His breath faded.
And in that quiet, he felt the world tilt.
Something shifted in the weight of the air. The aura around him didn't just radiate it cut. The pressure that now bled from his spirit moved like the edge of a drawn sword.
The stone beneath him cracked.
And yet… he hadn't drawn the blade.
He didn't need to.
He opened his eyes.
The cavern flinched.
At the far end of the chamber, Yao Ling'er stirred from unconsciousness. Her body trembled in response to the pressure rolling from him.
She blinked blearily at him.
"You… you're heavier," she murmured. "Denser."
"You flirting or insultin'?" Yunfan asked, his voice calm, but a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Both," she mumbled, before slumping back against the stone wall.
He stood slowly.
No fanfare. No flash.
But every part of him now felt centered.
Clear.
Deadly.
As he strapped the zither back to his shoulder and adjusted the position of the blade, thunder cracked faintly in the sky overhead.
A tremor shook the ruin.
Somewhere, far across the floating landscape, a pillar of light shot into the heavens radiant, pulsing, layered with thousands of seals unraveling at once.
"A treasure's waking up," Yunfan said softly.
Not with fear.
Not with excitement.
Just certainty.
His fingers brushed the hilt of his blade.
And it sang.