Before he began the demonstration, Yan asked the front row what Hanlo had told them about the risk. He wanted the answers recorded while everyone could hear them, not turned into a rumor afterward.
Jin Rui stood near the clinic cart, his fever lower but his hands still tremulous. He had come back to hear the lesson and tell the others what happened when he practiced. “He said the first pulse was safe if we kept the breath count,” Jin said. “I thought the recovery was part of the class.”
Fenna stood beside Ning. “I heard that faith would carry a person through the strain. I thought the blank at the bottom meant the last line was advanced.”
Pera lifted his sheet. “He promised a recovery step after the surge. He never showed it on paper.”
Yan asked if anyone had been told how much vitality the art could consume. No one in the first row answered. Hanlo said, “They were told enough to make their own choice.”
A woman in the second row spoke. “I have a child at home. I cannot lose three days recovering from a failed technique. Is the effect guaranteed?”
“No cultivation is guaranteed,” Hanlo said. “Faith improves the chance.”
