The cedar porch of the Floating Mountain fell into a breathless, respectful stillness.
Beneath the waving ribbons of the Aurora Australis, Lin Xiao sat nestled upon his circular silk cushion. The gentle, humorous wobble of his forty-inch form had quieted, replaced by a rhythmic, hypnotic pulsation that mirrored the heartbeat of the cosmos.
With every spreading, his semi-clear sapphire mass flushed with brilliant golden-violet starlight. With every contraction, the surrounding sky qi within three hundred leagues bowed inward, drawn toward his center like water swirling toward a bottomless whirlpool.
Gu Qingfeng stepped back three paces, his faded hemp sleeves fluttering in the rising gravity draft. The old swordsman’s weathered face held an expression of deep, solemn respect.
“In traditional human sects,” Gu Qingfeng murmured, his voice hushed so as not to disturb the air, “the breakthrough to the Body Integration Realm is known as the Great Severing. A fighter must take their ghostly Nascent Soul—a delicate, immortal entity born of pure spirit—and forcibly hammer it into the mortal flesh, bone, and blood vessels. If the spirit veins resist, the fighter coughs up their own lifeblood. If the soul hesitates, the dantian shatters like brittle fine china.”
Tie Shan leaned his titan arms on the stone railing. He watched the blue glow deepen with wide, earnest eyes.
