"The body bends, but the marrow must break for a man to pass through the gate."
Part 1: The Quiet Half-Year
Six months passed like falling leaves.
The world outside stirred with sect wars, merchant expansions, rising young geniuses.
Stone Lantern Town remained the same.
So did Li Wei.
To others, he was still a butcher—still quiet, still measured, still solitary.
But in the silence of his practice, everything had changed.
Each swing of his cleaver sang with internal harmony. Each breath he took sank deeper into his core.
Longevity Technique – Proficiency: (120/200) – Minor Success
Bone-Cleaving Form – Proficiency: (98/100) – Beginner
Swordsmanship – Proficiency: (81/200) – Minor Success
Butchering – Proficiency: (103/200) – Minor Success
He didn't chase power. He refined motion.
He didn't seek battle. He honed precision.
And the more he refined, the more pressure gathered—not externally, but within his body.
Part 2: The Signs
It started small.
A moment during training when he felt breath stall in his chest. A strike that cracked the practice log a little too deeply. A dream of still water... churning.
The Longevity Technique began circulating erratically during deep meditation, as if the energy within him was no longer satisfied.
His meridians swelled after training. Qi stagnated in bursts.
The Acquired Realm had reached its end.
To go further, his body needed to shed its limits.
Part 3: The Breaking
He chose a quiet night.
Rain whispered against the roof. Oil lamps flickered low.
Li Wei sat cross-legged in his backyard, shirtless, a circle of carved wooden talismans around him—not for defense, but for grounding. Symbols of his own creation.
He inhaled.
And began.
Qi rushed inward, forced through his meridians in an unnatural rhythm. He directed it deliberately, using the Longevity Technique to wrap his organs, his bones, his heart.
Pain bloomed.
Not burning. Not tearing.
It was compression.
Like his entire body was being pushed inward by invisible stone.
His ribs shuddered. Spine strained. The blood in his arms turned hot.
He almost blacked out.
Almost.
Instead, he focused on the flow.
He directed the energy into his marrow. Forced it to press against the bottleneck.
Then—
A crack, not physical, but spiritual, echoed through him.
His breath stopped.
His heart slowed.
And then—
Everything flowed.
A wave of warm energy flushed through his system, balancing where it had once resisted. His limbs lightened. The strain dissolved.
His body felt... empty.
But clear.
Then came the heartbeat.
One.
Two.
Three.
Each beat was deeper than before. Each breath calmer.
He had crossed the veil.
Martial Dao – Postnatal Realm (Early Stage)
Not many in the world of rootless mortals reached this stage.
And fewer still survived the ascent.
Part 4: The Weight of Power
In the days that followed, Li Wei said nothing of his breakthrough.
But those who watched him noticed changes.
His posture was lighter. The cuts he made were deeper with less effort. Wounds closed overnight. And the air around him... felt calm.
He didn't show off. Didn't boast.
But one day, a wild boar escaped from a cart near the square.
It charged through the alley.
Li Wei, without drawing a blade, stepped forward and struck it with his palm.
The boar dropped instantly.
People whispered. He returned to his stall.
As always.
Part 5: The Shadow Letter
One week later, a man in black left a parcel at his doorstep.
No words. No sender.
Inside: a single black parchment, written in a clean, slanted script:
"If you've stepped through the veil, your enemies already breathe down your neck."
No name. No seal. But the crescent mark in the bottom corner was painted in living ink.
Li Wei burned the parchment slowly.
But not before copying the mark.
[Experience Panel]
Name: Li Wei
Age: 23
Cultivation: Martial Dao – Postnatal Realm (Early Stage)
Skills:
• Longevity Technique – Proficiency: (120/200) – Minor Success
• Butchering – Proficiency: (103/200) – Minor Success
• Swordsmanship – Proficiency: (81/200) – Minor Success
• Bone-Cleaving Form – Proficiency: (98/100) – Beginner
End of Chapter 7