The nite sky was clear, and the full moon hovered over the city like a silent eye, watching everything with an ancient coldness.
That nite, Jun Tian walked thru the deserted streets, his straw sandals whispering on the stone pavement. The houses were asleep, the wind carried the distant scent of the valley's spiritual flowers, and the silence seemed to weigh on the young man's shoulders.
In his chest, the emptiness expanded.
Even now, after days of trying to pretend that nothing had changed, he couldn't shake off the cold words he had heard from his parents — the disappointed looks, the hushed conversations about the son with green talent, the failure that would tarnish the Jun family name.
Jun Tian clenched his fists.
"So is that what I am to you?" Just a stain?
But he didn't feel hatred. Just pain. A pain that burned strangely, as if sadness were forging him in silence.
He knew that, at another time, he would have given up.
But now... now he had the Nine-Color Lotus.
When he closed his eyes, he could see her — gently spinning in a dark space, her petals radiating the seven colors of the rainbow, intertwined with the glow of the black and white of yin and yang.
It was an existence beyond comprehension, alive and silent. And whenever he meditated, he felt his soul quieting, as if an ancient presence were watching over him, instructing him.
It was she who showed him the Path of the Ascending Breath of Eternity — a technique impossible to exist in the lower world. An art that refined spiritual Qi into a pattern that even surpassed the limits of local laws.
But Jun Tian was cautious.
Even without fully understanding the origin of the Lotus, he knew that its presence could not be revealed.
That's why he didn't cultivate at home, not even during the day.
Every nite, he would sneak out thru the window, making his way thru the forest until he reached the Peak of the Lonely Cloud — a small mountain that rose to the north of the city.
When he finally reached the top, the nite wind blew in his face.
The air there was pure, and the spiritual Qi flowed like gentle streams, moving between the trees and the rocks.
Jun Tian sat on a moss-covered stone and closed his eyes.
Soon, the Lotus of Nine Colors appeared in his mind.
Its petals began to spin slowly, each color emitting a different vibration. Red — fire. Blue — water. Green — wood. Yellow — earth. Gray — metal. Black and white — yin and yang. Purple — mystery and transformation.
These vibrations merged into a single silent melody, and Jun Tian felt the world around him expand.
"Breathe... and become the world." Inhale the sky, exhale the earth.
"Do not seek Qi." Allow it to seek you.
The words were not yours.
They echoed in her mind like the echoes of a distant, ancient, and feminine voice, seemingly coming from forgotten eras.
Jun Tian followed the instructions.
With each breath, a faint mist began to form around him.
The spiritual Qi of the environment began to react, drawn by the strange vibration of the Lotus.
Small particles of light floated in the nite air, like spiritual fireflies, swirling around him.
The Qi thickened, condensed, and... transformed.
Inside his dantian, the flow of energy began to spiral.
A whirlwind of golden and silver energy formed — the perfect fusion of yin and yang.
Her body trembled, and her heart beat faster.
"This Qi... is different."
He knew.
Common cultivators absorbed Qi from the environment in a crude manner, slowly refining it.
But he... the Qi he absorbed was alive, pure, harmonious.
Not only did it nourish him, but it seemed to understand his existence, as if it accepted him.
The pain he had felt in his chest a little while ago began to dissipate, replaced by a feeling of lightness.
Her body seemed to float, and time began to lose its meaning.
The hours passed.
When the first rays of sunlight touched the horizon, Jun Tian opened his eyes.
Around him, the plants were covered by a thin layer of spiritual dew.
The breeze felt different — more alive, as if the world recognized him in some way.
Inside his body, the Qi flowed like a clear and continuous river.
He had reached the limit of the Qi Gathering Realm, on the verge of condensing his first true spiritual Qi.
But something made him stop.
Suddenly, the Lotus shone brightly in his mind.
A golden symbol appeared before his consciousness — a rune composed of complex, almost indecipherable strokes.
"The Condensation of True Qi... is not a simple advancement."
"The soul must be ready, or the body will shatter."
Jun Tian took a deep breath.
He understood the warning.
The Lotus would not let him advance hastily.
She shaped him calmly, like the blacksmith preparing the steel before the final forge.
— Understood… — he murmured, looking at the sunrise. — It's not the time yet.
The wind blew strongly, and a flower petal fell before him, spinning in the air before gently landing on the rock.
Jun Tian watched it and smiled faintly.
"One day... when I am ready, the whole world will feel this wind."
Rising, he wiped his hands and began to descend the mountain.
The city was still asleep, and no one would know that, on that silent nite, under the gaze of the moon, a new cultivator had been born — one who walked outside the laws of this world.
As it drifted away, the Lotus spun gently within its spiritual sea, emitting a single note — an ancient melody, impossible to be heard by mortal ears.
It was as if the universe itself were whispering to him:
"Jun Tian... the path you tread does not belong to this world."