Han Yu flipped back to the beginning and skimd the technical notes.
They were not written by a grandmaster. The handwriting was uneven in places, the diagrams simplistic, yet the foundation was solid. It seed like the art had been copied by soone with limited education but high diligence.
A strange irony. A powerful inheritance written in the shaky hand of soone who barely knew how to hold a brush.
Han Yu then tested the first mnemonic. The diagram showed a sowhat unusual Qi circuit that looped around the sternum before descending again through the right arm. It required a surge of Qi to montarily pass through the heart before converting to fire elental energy.
He sat cross-legged in the courtyard. Morning air drifted lightly past the tiled roof. He exhaled slowly and followed the prescribed breathing pattern.
Han Yu gathered so Neutral attribute less Spirit qi and moved along the path. he didn’t use Blood Qi for this as he had no idea of it would work or cause problems.
The qi flowed to his heart.
There was a mont of friction, a sensation like sothing heating rapidly inside his chest.
Then the Qi transford.
Fire Qi pulsed through his heart ridian like a sudden spark. It raced down his arm, into his finger, and burst outward.
Shua
A fla appeared.
It burned quietly, small and contained, dancing at the tip of his index finger.
But it was not yellow.
Nor was it orange.
It was deep crimson. Almost blood red.
Han Yu stared at it in silent shock. Fire, yes, but not ordinary fla. Sothing that reflected the body he currently occupied or the environnt he had been living in.
He flicked his finger lightly. The fla bent and danced exactly as the book described. There was no instability, no wildness. It felt like an extension of his own hand.
More than that, he felt almost no waste of Qi. The conversion was perfect. For every part of neutral spirit Qi he used, an equal part of fire Qi erged.
That was impossible for anyone without fire affinity.
Han Yu’s eyes narrowed.
"What did this body absorb... or what exactly changed inside ?"
He released the fla and watched it shrink, twist, and vanish.
He tried the technique again, this ti with full awareness of the conversion. Again, a perfect ratio. Again, flawless control. Again, that deep, red fla.
His brows furrowed.
Ju Fan did not have fire affinity. Han Yu had gone through the man’s letters and notes. The Ju Clan specialized in Blood Qi and Blood Arts. They were not known for common elental affinities, just the Blood Elent and that was only for those that had fully awakened their bloodlines.
If anything, most of their cultivation twisted elental Qi into sothing else entirely.
So how did he have such perfect affinity now?
’Could it be the remnants of Ju Fan’s cultivation?’
’Sothing that had fused into my spirit and physique? Or perhaps the influence of the Slaughtered Moon’s environnt, which infused everything with mutated Qi?’
Han Yu held out his hand again and let a few sparks flicker at his fingertips.
They looked like flas soaked in blood.
His heart tightened slightly.
He whispered, "Is this a mutation... or sothing far more dangerous?"
Either way, the Dancing Fla Art was not useless to him. It was perfect. Unlike explosive techniques that required raw force, this manual was entirely about fine manipulation and delicate control. His alchemical habits, his formation studies, and his soul techniques aligned perfectly with it.
It was as if the art were made for him.
Han Yu closed the book slowly.
His next breath was long and steady.
He would study it further. There was no doubt.
But in the back of his mind, unease began to spread. Fire affinity should not appear out of nowhere. Especially not in a body made fresh.
And certainly not with such precision.
Han Yu tied the cloth back around the book, placed it beside him, and gazed at the dying embers of the crimson fla he had summoned.
Sothing had changed inside him. He just did not know what yet.
But he would find out.
One way or another.
Han Yu walked out of the courtyard once more and let the morning air wash over him. The faint scent of dew clung to the grass and the roofs of the modest houses glimred lightly in the soft sunlight.
The village was already awake. Smoke drifted from a dozen chimneys, roosters crowed in the distance, and the quiet bustle of early chores carried across the open space.
But his mind was elsewhere. It circled back to the crimson fla he had summoned. It circled back to the impossible ease he felt when converting Qi into fire. It circled back to the question that nagged him more than any other.
’How did I gain fire elental affinity?’
He paused midway through the stone path and frowned. Before today he had simply believed that he had grown more precise with flas because of practice. Alchemy demanded control after all.
Fire Qi manipulation was sothing that every alchemist naturally refined with ti. Even without elental affinity, an experienced alchemist could handle flas better than an average fire cultivator.
But what he felt had not been the result of refinent. It had been innate.
Like the fla wanted to obey him.
Han Yu touched his chest lightly. He felt his Blood Qi circulate. It felt unchanged, but he now knew better. He had already tested wood affinity after joining the sect. He still rembered converting neutral spirit Qi into Wood elental spirit Qi to refine certain herbal pastes. So he still had that.
And his Darkness affinity had always been a part of him since the day he tested it back at his sect. He simply did not have the techniques to test it further. Darkness was a rare affinity and its skills often belonged to shadow clans or assassination sects rather than alchemists. He had shelved the matter long ago.
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