In the days that followed the choosing of cultivation techniques, the Xiao Clan seemed to hollow out overnight. Those young members whose Dou Qi had not yet reached the seventh stage were gradually dispatched from the main compound and reassigned to the clan's various enterprises scattered across Wutan City, where they would spend their time in training and apprenticeship. The select few who had obtained techniques from the pavilion, meanwhile, withdrew into the solitude of intensive cultivation, each striving to master their chosen method as swiftly as possible.
In this quiet rhythm of days, two months slipped by like water through open fingers — so silently that no one noticed they were gone until they had already passed.
The summer sun blazed overhead, its relentless heat turning the earth into a furnace. Thin wisps of heat rose from the ground in slow, shimmering curtains, distorting the air until the distant trees wavered like reflections in troubled water.
On the back mountain of the Xiao Clan compound, beneath the shade of a small grove, a young man sat with his back against a cool slab of blue-green stone. Xiao Yan's eyes were closed, his breathing measured, his robe loosened to let the faint breeze reach his skin. The tips of his fingers rested lightly on his knees as Dou Qi circulated through the channels of his body in slow, deliberate waves. Two months of relentless training had carved new lines into his face — leaner, sharper, the look of someone who had been whittled down to essentials. His Dou Qi had grown perceptibly denser, and the cyclone within his dantian spun with greater force and stability than it ever had before.
A short distance away, Xun'er sat upon a smooth boulder, watching him. She had been his companion in these solitary sessions from the beginning — always nearby, always present, though she never interrupted. Today, as on every other day, she had come with a basin of cool water and a clean cloth, intending to help him clean the sweat and grime from the day's exertions.
But as she approached, she caught the way his gaze lingered on her — an intensity in his eyes that made her pause. She looked up and found him staring at her with open, unguarded fascination, and a flush crept across her cheeks. "Xiao Yan-gege..."
The soft, teasing lilt in her voice cut through the oppressive heat of the grove like a cool draught of spring water.
The reason for his distraction was plain enough. The summer heat had compelled Xun'er to dress lightly — a thin robe of pale green that clung to her slender frame, leaving the graceful column of her neck exposed along with a generous expanse of porcelain-white skin. The gentle curves of her young figure, still on the threshold of womanhood, radiated a youthful beauty that was almost impossible to ignore. Little wonder that Xiao Yan's concentration had slipped.
Snapped back to himself by her voice, Xiao Yan felt heat rise to his own cheeks. He offered an awkward laugh, leaned back against the cool stone, and let his eyes fall shut, surrendering to the ministrations of those small, careful hands.
Xun'er pouted her rosy lips in feigned irritation and began to wipe the perspiration from his skin. As she worked, her eyes drifted sideways to steal a glance at him — and she discovered, with some surprise, that the boy had fallen asleep. His breathing had deepened, his features gone slack with exhaustion. Two months of grueling training had evidently taken a greater toll than even his stubborn pride would admit.
She shook her head with a helpless smile. She knew how much he had pushed himself today — the intensity of his battles, the relentless pace of his cultivation. Gently, she set down the cloth and let her slender fingers come to rest at her sides. At their tips, a faint golden luminescence began to flicker and dance, barely visible against the dappled shade of the grove.
Glancing once more at the sleeping figure, Xun'er reached out and touched her fingertips to his skin. Tiny motes of golden light pulsed from her fingers and sank into his body, slipping through the surface like sunlight through water.
As the golden radiance flowed into him, fine beads of sweat appeared on Xun'er's smooth forehead. She bit her lower lip, concentrating, and was about to channel more when her face suddenly froze.
Beside the blue-green stone, the unconscious Xiao Yan had begun to change. A strange, invisible suction had awakened within his body — a pull that drew upon the ambient Dou Qi of the surrounding air. Thread after thread of energy from the heavens and the earth spiraled inward, converging on his still form like iron filings drawn to a lodestone.
"Oh... is he about to break through?"
Xun'er's eyes widened. She recognized the signs — the involuntary absorption, the pull of natural Dou Qi into the body's cyclone. She had experienced it herself. Her lips parted in quiet astonishment as she watched the threads of energy grow thicker, the air around Xiao Yan beginning to shimmer with the faintest trace of luminescence.
The grove fell silent. The only sound was the slow, steady rush of invisible energy pouring into the young man who slept against the stone — and at his side, a girl whose golden eyes watched with a mixture of wonder and something far deeper, something she kept locked behind her lashes where no one could read it.
The breakthrough had begun.