The darkness of the communal warehouse was broken only by the occasional pale beam of moonlight filtering through the rotted wooden rafters. Surrounding Shen Jin, the rhythmic, heavy breathing of exhausted n acted as a familiar white noise.
Sitting cross-legged on his rough straw pallet, Shen Jin closed his eyes.
System, he commanded silently. Initialize Flawless Simulation.
[PING.]
[Flawless Simulation: Initialized.]
[Transporting Host Consciousness to Subspace...]
The sensory details of the mortal world dissolved instantly. Shen Jin once again stood upon the seamless plane of reflective black glass under an endless, starless violet void.
In this space, the information downloaded into his mind earlier crystallized. The Vanguard ridian Scripture was no longer just abstract knowledge; it was an active blueprint. He looked down at his translucent body. The primary spiritual channel running from his lower abdon up to his chest was clear, glowing with a faint blue twilight hue, thanks to the ridian Washing Dew.
However, around his core area, there were nine heavy, ethereal chains wrapped tightly like a tallic cage. These were the Nine Seals of Qi—the natural physical blockades every mortal born in the Nine Heavens Domain carried from birth. To beco a cultivator, one had to break the first seal to allow ambient spiritual energy to collect in the dantian.
"Most sects break the first seal by using violent, explosive force," Shen Jin murmured to himself, recalling his past life. "They gorge themselves on expensive pills and let the raw, wild Qi bash against the seal until it shatters. It works, but it leaves microscopic cracks in the dantian. It limits how high you can climb."
The Vanguard style was completely different. It didn't punch the wall down. It unlocked it.
Following the breathing rhythms engraved into his soul, Shen Jin sank into a ditative stance. He began to draw the ambient energy of the simulation subspace into his nose. Inhale for four beats, hold for two, exhale through the pores for six.
Slowly, the pale blue light inside his cleansed ridians began to move. It didn't flow like a raging river; it moved with the agonizingly slow, pressurized grace of deep-sea currents. Shen Jin directed this liquid light toward his lower abdon, letting it coil smoothly around the first ethereal chain.
He didn't strike the chain. Instead, he made the energy vibrate.
Hummmmm.
A low, resonant sound echoed throughout the starless void. In the simulation, where physical pain was filtered out to maximize ntal efficiency, Shen Jin watched with absolute detachnt as the ethereal chain began to glow red-hot, its structural integrity unraveling as it absorbed the precisely directed frequency of his energy.
Hour after hour passed in the subspace. Shen Jin remained entirely motionless, a perfect monunt of focus. Ten hours. Fifteen hours. Twenty hours.
Finally, at the twenty-third hour of continuous, unyielding ditation, a crisp sound echoed in his mind.
CRACK.
The first of the nine ethereal chains snapped cleanly, dissolving into thousands of glittering violet particles that instantly rained down into his lower abdon. The mont they touched his core, a vacuum ford. The empty space in his lower belly ignited, transforming into a swirling vortex of pristine, condensed energy.
[PING.]
[Breakthrough Achieved!]
Current Cultivation Realm: First Seal of Qi — Qi Gathering (Early Stage).
Technique Mastered: Vanguard ridian Scripture (Volu 1 - Foundation Stage).
System Notice: Due to the flawless execution of the Vanguard style, your core has been established with 0% structural damage. Maximum containnt efficiency unlocked.
Active Passive Update: [Absolute Obscurity] has successfully compressed your new cultivation signature. To anyone outside, you still project the bio-signature of an ordinary, non-cultivating mortal.
Shen Jin opened his eyes in the simulation, feeling a profound sense of lightness. He raised his hand, and with a flick of his wrist, a tiny, localized ripple of transparent kinetic energy warped the air around his fingers. It was quiet, invisible to the naked eye, and carried no elental flash—but it was lethal.
[Simulation Cycle Concluded. Returning Host to Reality.]
The black glass vanished.
Shen Jin’s eyelids snapped open in the physical world. The morning bell of the Iron Whales convoy was ringing loudly outside, its bronze toll vibrating through the wooden walls of the warehouse.
“Wake up, you lazy dogs! The caravan leaves in one hour!” an overseer shouted through the door.
Shen Jin swung his legs out of the straw pallet. The mont his feet touched the floorboards, he noticed a massive difference. He didn't feel the usual morning stiffness or the dull ache of malnutrition. His body felt perfectly balanced, as light as a feather, yet grounded like an iron anvil.
He quickly checked his clothes, ensuring they were sufficiently wrinkled and covered in a layer of dust from the floor. He didn't want Chief Gao or anyone else noticing that he looked suspiciously healthy.
Grabbing his small canvas sack containing his only possessions—a spare pair of worn socks and a wooden comb—Shen Jin stepped out into the crisp, freezing morning air.
The central courtyard of the Iron Whales Transit Convoy was a scene of absolute chaos. Twelve massive, armored wooden carriages stood in a long line, each pulled by a pair of Draconic Oxen—beasts the size of small houses with thick, scaly hides and heavy horns. Laborers were frantically securing thick ropes around massive iron-bound crates filled with refined minerals, mountain silk, and rare dicinal herbs destined for the Sanctuary City.
"Hey! You! The clumsy brat!"
Shen Jin turned to see a burly caravan driver with a whip strapped to his thigh gesturing toward the rear of the convoy.
"You’re the extra hand Chief Gao threw at us to clear a debt, right?" the driver grunted, spitting a glob of dark tobacco juice onto the gravel. "Na's Old Barlow. You’re in charge of Carriage Eleven and Twelve's beasts. You feed them, you shovel their dung, and if one of those Draconic Oxen throws a shoe because you weren't watching the trail, I’ll personally use your back as a whetstone. Understand?"
"I understand, Master Barlow! Loud and clear!" Shen Jin said, bowing rapidly while keeping his shoulder slumped to look weak. "I'll do my absolute best, I swear!"
"Yeah, yeah. Save the whimpering," Barlow barked, waving him off. "Go check the harness on Carriage Twelve. We’re moving out in ten minutes."
Shen Jin hurried to the very back of the long caravan train. Carriage Twelve was a smaller, tightly sealed black carriage compared to the massive cargo haulers. It lacked any iron bars or comrcial markings, and the curtains were tightly drawn.
As Shen Jin approached the front of the carriage to inspect the massive ox's leather harness, his [Danger Sense Radar] didn't ping, but his newly unlocked Qi senses subtly vibrated.
Through the thick wooden walls of Carriage Twelve, he detected a faint, incredibly erratic life signature. It was the energy of soone imnsely powerful, but their internal pathways were currently a shattered, bleeding ss—like a volcano on the verge of collapsing into itself.
The key passenger, Shen Jin realized, keeping his face entirely blank as he adjusted a heavy iron buckle on the ox's neck. The hidden target that draws the rogue cultivators in the Black Ridge Mountains.
Suddenly, the carriage curtain flickered open by an inch. A pair of sharp, old, yet profoundly weary eyes locked onto Shen Jin from the darkness within.
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