~~~

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Liu Jin closes his eyes and gently cycles Qi through his body. It flows through Nine-Headed Snake God’s Veins and passes through his dantian.

With every breath, the process repeats itself.

With every breath, his focus sharpens.

His lower dantian is in good condition. This comes as no surprise to Liu Jin. The lower dantian lays the foundation for all that follows, so it is easily the most important one at lower levels. Old Jiang had always stressed its importance, and Liu Jin always focused his efforts accordingly, something that had served him well when he was in the Foundational Realm and the Inner Realm.

Liu Jin is now in the Nascent Realm, the third Realm of cultivation. The days in which he could just focus on his lower dantian are long gone.

After all, it is in the Nascent Realm when one starts becoming aware of their soul.

Perhaps, due to the events of Eastern Port City, Liu Jin has become aware of his soul a little earlier than he otherwise would have. However, it is a fact that cultivators usually start becoming aware of their souls when they are in the Nascent Realm. It happened sooner rather than later, but he would have hit this point all the same.

And the soul is not the domain of the lower dantian.

No, the lower dantian is more closely related to the physical. It is the best for receiving and distributing Qi through the meridians, nourishing the physical body.

The soul, meanwhile, is the domain of the middle dantian.

It is not something Old Jiang had ever told him, probably because the soul is something one must become aware of by one’s own merits. It cannot be forced. Indeed, it was through constant cultivation that Liu Jin noticed his awareness of his own soul increased when he focused on his middle dantian.

Right now, that is the dantian he is focusing on.

Liu Jin carefully cycles his Qi through it, paying attention not just to the way the energy moves through his body but also how it flows into his very spirit. He feels the shape of his soul, the way it molds itself to his body as if it were just hiding beneath his skin.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Sweat shines on Liu Jin’s forehead. His brow creases as he phases out his five senses. His body is important, but it is not what he needs to focus on right now. He needs to start paying more attention to his middle dantian and what it rules over. He needs to start mastering his very soul.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Slowly, carefully, Liu Jin wills his soul to move. It doesn’t do so quickly or easily. It cannot even be compared to a baby’s first steps. It just…

Twitches.

One twitch. Two. Three.

Four.

Fi...ve.

It is the soul equivalent of wiggling one’s toe. For now, this is the best Liu Jin can do.

It is enough to leave him gasping for air.

His concentration breaks. He collapses on the floor, his body now drenched in sweat, his chest heaving as he stares at the ceiling. Even after all this time, he can only move his soul this much. To think Xiao Nan could split his soul into pieces and control them from a distance. Incredible.

After a few minutes laying there, Liu Jin recovers enough to stand up. He reaches into his spatial pouch and takes out a towel to dry himself. He groans as he rolls his shoulders, trying to work out the kinks there. A glance at the window shows him the sky is turning dark. He has been meditating for hours.

It has been almost a week since he and the others were released from the Punishment House. Tomorrow, they’ll set out for Night Phantasm City with Young Master Feng Zhi. Compared to the events that led to that outcome, the past few days have been quiet and peaceful. With most of the main instigators against them being punished, the other disciples have seemingly decided to let them be. Even Bei Duyi has apparently faded into the background.

For Liu Jin, not much has changed. He had gone to the Apothecary the day after being released, unsure of what to expect. The revelation of Elder Xue’s true identity had shocked him.

However, nothing happened.

Once more, Elder Xue had not been there, apparently busy with something. Instead of meeting her, Liu Jin had been welcomed back by the other disciples and had then proceeded with his duties as usual, slowly racking up points. He had been at the Apothecary almost every day since then, and the pattern just repeated itself.

Today is an exception. Today, Liu Jin stayed in his room to meditate.

His depressingly empty room.

It is not that Liu Jin’s room is, by any means, inadequate. It is the room of an Inner Disciple of the Eternal Flame Clan. As such, it has a nice view, is of decent size, and the bed is soft like a cloud.

It is also empty.

Other disciples decorate their rooms with trophies from their adventures or trinkets brought from their homes or bought from the store. Liu Jin has done no such thing. Save for the protective talismans on the door and walls, there is nothing that would make one think this room is being used by someone else.

It would be easy to blame the state of the room on Liu Jin’s short time with the Eternal Flame Clan, but that would be wrong. Even if Liu Jin had been a member of the Eternal Flame Clan for more than a month, he wouldn’t have bothered decorating his room. All his things are safely stored in his spatial pouch, and he likes it that way.

Tonight, he takes out two items from it and puts them on the floor.

The first is the Black-Winged Imperial Eagle egg. The Qi inside it still beats strong. Xiao Fang has done a good job taking care of it, yet raising the chick that will hatch from it is not something Liu Jin has time for. That is why Liu Jin has not yet removed the temporal seal on it.

When he returns… yes, when he returns from Night Phantasm City. That will probably be the best time for it.

His mind made up, Liu Jin casts his gaze towards the other important item. It is safely stored in a glass jar with several protective talismans on it.

The black mass.

It has been years since Liu Jin acquired it, all the way back to New Moon Town. There, he met Xiao Heng, a young cultivator of the Xiao Sect with a curious medical condition that interfered with his cultivation. It had been Liu Jin who had healed him and, upon doing so, ended up extracting a black, pulsating mass from inside him.

It isn’t something as simple as a tumor. Qi pulses from it, almost like a heartbeat.

It is alive.

Xiao Heng’s sibling. A life that had not been able to be born yet, nevertheless, still clings to life. It lacks a heart or a brain, yet it struggles. That is how his Master had described it. Rather than saying it lives, it might be more accurate to say it exists. If Liu Jin wants to do anything about it, then he only needs to find a suitable body for it.

In all the years that have passed, Liu Jin has yet to do this.

It isn’t as though there hadn’t been opportunities for it. As Liu Jin understands it, any Spirit Beast with a simple enough brain would be a suitable container for it. Going to the Summer Forest, disabling one, and inserting the black mass into it would be a messy procedure but far from impossible.

However, is that truly the right choice?

The black mass is something that should have been a person. Putting it in a beast’s body would mean limiting its cognitive ability, dooming it to life as a beast. Is it better than nothing? Yes. Is it the best Liu Jin can do?

Liu Jin is not sure of that.

Putting it in the body of a Spirit Beast with high cognitive ability is a possibility, but there is no guarantee that would work. In fact, it most likely wouldn’t. The black mass would be unable to assert itself over such a Spirit Beast. In light of that, Liu Jin has few options left. One would be to put it in the body of a Spirit Beast with high potential for growth and try to see if he could raise the result until the body gains enough power to think as well as a human. Such a task would require tremendous effort, time, and resources on his part.

Or…

Or he could create a new body for it from scratch.

It is an option his brain tosses around every now and then, trying to look at it from different angles, coming up with different approaches to accomplish such a task. Liu Jin has even gone as far as to make a list of the items that would constitute the bare minimum to attempt this project.

However, he has never gone beyond that.

The skill required for such an endeavor. The power necessary. The potential ramifications and implications. All those things give him pause.

Liu Jin sighs and hangs his head.

The jar with the black lump soon goes back into his spatial pouch. The egg follows a second later.

It should be fine. There is still time. There is still plenty of time.

As long as the temporal seal is in place, nothing bad would happen to the black lump. It is not as if it is conscious of what is going on. It may exist, but that is all there is to it. It possesses no cognitive ability to even recognize said existence. Whether Liu Jin makes a decision now or in a decade makes no difference.

Even if it is a little sad.

Someone knocks on the door.

“Brother Qing, are you here? Brother Qing?”

Liu Jin blinks. A wave of his hand disables most of the talismans as he walks to the door.

“Senior Brother Khong,” he says, opening the door. “I was not expecting you at this hour.”

“I had hoped to talk to you in the Apothecary. However, you did not come today,” Khong Hu says, abruptly inviting himself into this room.

“I was busy preparing for my journey.”

“Admirable, yet it is because you were not there that I must now invite myself into this room.” Khong Hu looks at the room in a naturally snobby way. “A good thing I did. Clearly, you have not been educated in the proper way to present yourself if this is how you have chosen to live.”

He had actually been educated in the proper way. He’d just never cared for it.

“What exactly has Brother Khong come here for?”

“Why, is it not obvious?” Khong Hu asks. He takes a pamphlet out of his pocket and gives it a slap. “To teach you manners, of course! You have been chosen by the grace of Elder Xue to accompany Young Master Feng Zhi! When you go outside, it is the Eternal Flame Clan you will be representing! No, it might be even more than that. Night Phantasm City is located outside the Crimson Cloud Empire, so you’ll be representing the whole empire as well! The slightest misstep will reflect badly on all of us!”

“I really don’t think-Wait.” Liu Jin blinks. “Night Phantasm City is outside the Crimson Cloud Empire?”

No wonder he hadn’t recognized the name.

“See! You don’t even know that much!” Khong Hu shakes his head. “Clearly, I should have broached this topic much sooner, but no matter. I am here now. I will do my best to impress upon you all you need to know to avoid making a fool of yourself.

“I really don’t think this is necess-”

“It is entirely necessary! Your three friends may be lost causes, but in you, I sense a glimmer of potential. Now, sit down and do not worry. I shall make something acceptable out of you!”

Faced with such high energy, Liu Jin can only resign himself to a tedious evening.

~~~

“Amazing...”

Huang Shing says it. Everyone else thinks it. The sight before them is undoubtedly amazing. They are all gathered just outside the gates of the Eternal Flame Clan. Elder Xue and Elder Cheung are already there; so are Feng Zhi and over a dozen servants. However, that is not what shocks them.

The transport is the one that does that.

It is made of five long, interconnected wagons constructed from red wood and adorned with gold, the colors of the Eternal Flame Clan. Each one is large enough to fit at least ten people comfortably. There are no Spirit Beasts of any kind to pull on them. Instead, wheels of fire lift the vehicle off the ground.

“Well,” Feng Zhi asks, raising an eyebrow as a servant opens one of the doors for him. “What are you waiting for?”

The journey to Night Phantasm City has begun.

~~~