The moon hung over the willows.
Li Chijing opened his eyes. His father sat beside him, tea bowl in hand, studying the cloth inscribed with the *Attraction Method*.
"Father," he said, "I've memorized the art in these two months. Today is the Beginning of Summer — one of the Eight Solar Terms. We can attempt it."
"Then go."
Li Mutian's voice was steady.
Li Chijing's heart leaped. His three brothers shared his excitement. They lit incense, drew the bath, and set up an altar in the courtyard.
Li Mutian brought out the Dharma Mirror with ceremony, cradling it onto a stand he had carved himself — coiled-dragon motifs on both sides. Before the altar they placed nine sticks of incense and fresh offerings of fruit.
Lu Jiangxian felt a flush of embarrassment. The incense and offerings looked for all the world like they were paying respects to a dead man.
At the altar, Li Chijing performed the full three kneelings and nine kowtows. Bowed low, forehead to the stone, he spoke:
"I, Li Chijing, disciple of the Li clan, humbly beseech the Profound and Illumined Dharma. May it govern my fate and settle my spirit. In devotion I walk the path of cultivation."
"When the season comes, I shall report my merit. I shall not betray this trust. As the talisman burns, so my body yields to the Supreme Yin."
He emptied his mind, activated the art, and swallowed the qi of primal harmony three times.
Lu Jiangxian stirred his will. The mirror's surface erupted in flowing light.
"It's working!"
Li Mutian and the others leaned forward, breath held.
The gray-green mirror hummed. A white pearl leaped from its face — round and perfect, blazing so fiercely that the entire courtyard went white. The brothers shielded their eyes.
Li Chijing's mind went blank. A voice like thunder, like stone grinding against stone, spoke inside him:
*"Let it be recorded: a disciple of the Li clan has purged his vices, stilled his transgressions, and severed the roots of evil. To him is granted the Profound and Illumined Dharma, that he may give rise to the karma of the Dao, cross from mortality into sagehood, begin with the talisman-precepts, and from there ascend to truth."*
*"Bestowed: one volume of the* Supreme Lunar Breathing Wheel-Nurturing Art. *One technique: the Golden Light Art."*
Li Chijing scrambled upright and sat cross-legged. The white pearl vaulted into his Mud Pill Palace, and he shuddered as a flood of information drowned his thoughts.
The pearl imparted the arts, then spun gently down through his crown, traced his meridians, and came to rest in his lower dantian — the Qi Sea point.
Li Mutian and the others watched the talisman seed vanish into Li Chijing's crown. They stood rigid with dread, staring at the boy as he sat cross-legged, eyes shut, spirit withdrawn.
He sat like that until dawn.
When the Supreme Yin sank and the Golden Crow rose, Li Chijing trembled — and woke.
He opened his eyes to find his whole family circled around him, their faces hollow with worry.
"Father! Brothers! I've received the Profound Pearl Talisman Seed. I've crossed the gate of immortal cultivation!"
He leaped up and threw his arms around his father.
Li Mutian laughed and spun him in a full circle. Li Tongya and the others let out long, shaking breaths. Their faces cracked into joy.
"I received an art. It's called the *Supreme Lunar Breathing Wheel-Nurturing Art*."
Li Chijing opened his mouth to recite it — but the white pearl in his Qi Sea pulsed once. His voice died. He could only rasp, his lips shaping empty air.
Panic seized him. He clamped a hand over his mouth, then tried again. "Father!"
The word came out. He exhaled with relief and made a second attempt — and again the words would not leave him, could not be written, could not even be held in his conscious mind.
"The immortal art cannot be spoken or written," he said, face flushed with embarrassment. "How strange."
"Don't worry," Li Changhu said, ruffling his hair. He watched their father carry the Dharma Mirror back to its chamber with solemn care, then added: "When the Summer Solstice comes, the rest of us will petition together."
"Eldest Brother." Li Chijing cut him off, hesitant. "I think there are only six talisman seeds."
"Only six?" Li Tongya had been studying the *Attraction Method* on the cloth. He looked up.
"After I received the seed... a lot of things appeared in my mind. The Six Realms of cultivation. Embryonic Breathing and the Wheel-Nurturing. I think the Dharma Mirror can only produce six seeds."
Li Xiangping nodded, trying to comfort him. "A thing of such miraculous power that wrests fortune from heaven's hand — of course it would be few."
Li Changhu yawned and waved a hand. "Everyone go sleep. We've been up all night."
"You're just afraid my sister-in-law will worry!" Li Xiangping laughed.
"Brat." Li Changhu grinned, utterly unashamed. He lowered his voice. "I think Tian Yun is a fine girl."
"Eldest Brother, stop playing matchmaker!" Li Xiangping's face went stiff, and he stormed out of the courtyard toward his room.
Li Changhu's laughter chased after him.
"He's interested," Li Mutian murmured to himself, stroking his beard.
---
That night, moonlight poured like water.
Li Chijing sat cross-legged in the courtyard, hands forming a seal. He drew a thread of qi from his Qi Sea, guided it through his meridians, and vaulted it over the Twelve-Story Tower at his throat. It surfaced at the point between his brows.
In an instant, his vision sharpened. Moonlight streamed toward his forehead, converging with that thread of qi.
After a while, he formed another seal and drew the thread — now transformed into milky-white lunar qi — back down through the Twelve-Story Tower and into his Qi Sea.
Three cycles.
Li Chijing opened his eyes. Two hours had passed.
"This speed of absorbing lunar essence is far too slow," he calculated.
Eighty-one absorptions yielded one strand of lunar qi. Eighty-one strands formed the first of the Six Wheels — the Profound Vision Wheel. Once the Profound Vision Wheel was complete, one was considered to have entered Embryonic Breathing and could begin casting techniques.
"Three cycles took two hours," he said to himself. "Eighty-one cycles is fifty-four hours. Six hours of training a day means... nine days per strand. Eighty-one strands means two full years..."
His eyes drifted to the Dharma Mirror, glowing on its stone platform with a dense halo of lunar essence.
He had an idea.
He sat cross-legged beside the platform and resumed his training.
Inside the mirror, Lu Jiangxian was drifting in a half-slumber to pass the time. He had long since absorbed all the lunar essence he needed. Time in the mirror was vast and dull. He dozed the way he used to doze through boring lectures in university — sometimes a blink lasted an entire day.
Li Chijing's qi leaped from his brow into the mirror's halo, jolting Lu Jiangxian awake. He looked at the boy before him and chuckled to himself.
*Clever.*
Li Chijing guided the qi back into his Qi Sea. A cold rush flooded his body. The strand of lunar qi had swollen more than tenfold. At this rate — five or six sessions to form one strand!
He was electrified. He resumed training, cycling without pause. He did not stop until dawn light washed the sky and his brothers arrived in the rear courtyard. Only then did he tear himself away.
Seeing his father and brothers assembled, Li Chijing told them everything from the night before. They were stunned and overjoyed. Li Mutian sighed, lit another stick of incense for Lu Jiangxian, and led his children out of the hidden chamber.