The gong sounded above the arena. Qiu Ren named Withering Torrent as the first test. The attendants set a padded target in the center of the ring and checked the audience ward. Qinghe asked the physicians to announce Yan’s baseline pulse and channel flow before he began.
Dr. Shen read the values aloud. The court clerk wrote them on the slate, facing the lower rows. Three apprentices copied the figures on separate sheets. Yan watched until the last number was written, then looked at the target.
Qiu demonstrated the hand pattern once without gathering qi. “This movement drives the torrent through the practitioner’s meridians. An ordinary body would suffer fever and collapse.”
Yan repeated the pattern slowly. He had read the full manual, including the recovery sequence. His Spirit Palace met the requirement, and the System made the complete sequence feel easy to follow. He did not begin until Qinghe gave the physicians time to step outside the target line.
The arena clerk asked, “Will you use the full force of the art?”
“I will. Otherwise the audience would see a false result.”
He measured the distance with his hand. The target had been set closer to the physician table than the diagram showed. Yan pointed it out. Qiu objected that the placement had already been approved, but Qinghe checked the marks and confirmed that the target could move farther while keeping the same distance from Yan’s starting point.
