Chu Yang woke up choking on the antiseptic smell.
Harsh white light poured from above, forcing him to squint. The blurry outlines of a hospital room came into focus. The steady *beep...beep...* of a heart monitor filled his ears, and an IV needle in his left arm fed cool liquid into his veins.
*"I'm...alive?"* He tried to sit up instinctively, but the movement tugged at the wounds on his back, sending a sharp pain through him. He sucked in a breath through clenched teeth.
"Don't move!" A nurse hurried over, pressing him back down. "You've got severe contusions on your back. No fractures, but the muscle damage is serious."
Chu Yang stared blankly at her. Fragmented memories flashed through his mind—the blood-soaked old man in the alley, the crimson sword, the strange warmth from the jade slip. *"How long was I out?"*
"Three days." The nurse adjusted the IV drip, her tone professionally calm. "The police found you alone in that alley. The security cameras only showed you collapsing by yourself."
*Alone?* His pulse spiked. *Where was the old man? The black-robed figure?* His hand shot to his pocket—
*The Jade Slip was gone!*
"My things—"
"Your personal items are in the bedside drawer." The nurse pointed. "Phone, wallet—everything's accounted for."
Chu Yang yanked the drawer open. His heart nearly stopped.
Amid loose change and keys, the ancient Jade Slip lay quietly, its surface shimmering with an almost imperceptible glow.
The nurse didn't seem to notice its strangeness. She handed him a medical report. "Honestly, your survival is a miracle. When you arrived, all your organs showed minor hemorrhaging. But by the next day, every reading suddenly normalized... The doctors have never seen anything like it."
Chu Yang's gaze locked onto the Jade Slip. He could've sworn it was... *breathing?*
"By the way," the nurse added abruptly, "has anyone visited you?"
"No." He smiled bitterly. He had no family in this city, and coworkers wouldn't care about some lowly programmer's fate.
The nurse hesitated. "This morning, a man in a black trench coat was lurking outside your room. Claimed to be a friend but left without signing in."
Chu Yang's back tensed—*The Black-Robed Man?!*
As soon as the nurse left, he grabbed the Jade Slip. The moment his fingers touched it, warmth surged up his arm—
**The world changed.**
Tiny azure lights floated everywhere, like glowing dust. They drifted through walls, curled around medical equipment, even trailed after the nurse down the hallway.
*"What the hell...?"* He rubbed his eyes, but the lights remained.
Compelled, he reached for one. Just before contact, the Jade Slip burned against his palm. A message flooded his mind:
**"To see qi is enlightenment. The Great Void's truth begins with this sight."**
Lightning seemed to strike Chu Yang. An insane realization hit him—*Was that old man's talk of cultivation...REAL?*
Outside, dusk deepened. The floating lights grew brighter. Following the Jade Slip's guidance, he adjusted his breathing. Several lights swirled toward him, slipping in through his nostrils.
Cool energy flowed through his meridians. The pain in his back lessened miraculously. Just as he prepared to draw more—
**The lights flickered out.**
Darkness swallowed the room, except for the blue particles. Then he noticed—*the lights near the door were turning black.*
Thick, oil-like mist seeped through the doorframe, corrupting the azure lights into sickly purple. The fog twisted into a humanoid shape—faceless, with only pale hands stretching from the gloom toward his bed...
Chu Yang froze, gripping the Jade Slip. As the black fingers neared his forehead—
**QINGLIGHT ERUPTED FROM THE SLIP!**
An inhuman shriek tore through the room. The mist recoiled like scorched flesh, vanishing under the door.
Outside, a nurse yelled, "Power surge?! Where's the backup generator?"
Lights returned. The room stood empty, as if nothing happened. Only his sweat-soaked palm and the Jade Slip's lingering heat proved the horror was real.
Doctors soon declared him fit for discharge tomorrow. But Chu Yang knew—
**Something had changed forever.**
That night, he didn't sleep, eyes fixed on the door. The Jade Slip pulsed in his hand like a warning:
**This world is far more dangerous than you know...**