He closed his eyes. The cultivation began. His spiritual energy, circulating through his meridians, met the incoming sword intent. The two energies — his own, which was refined but limited, and the external intent, which was pure and vast — merged. The sensation — the merging, the integration, the absorption — was the most profound experience of his cultivation career.
'Damn it,' he thought. The internal voice was urgent. Not panicked — urgent. The intent was too valuable to waste. 'I need to absorb this. All of it. And teach my wife. She needs this. Her cultivation has been stagnant for years. If she could absorb even a fraction of this intent, she would break through. She could—'
He didn't know. He didn't know that the sword intent — the pure, condensed, manifested intent that he was absorbing with such reverence — was not natural. Was not accumulated. Was not created by the domain.
It was manifested by his wife.
