The morning after his breakthrough, Feng Jiuge felt a vitality he had never known. The world seemed sharper, the colors more vibrant. The faint hum of Dou Zhi Qi in the air was no longer a distant chorus but a tangible presence he could almost touch. His body, nourished by three balanced elements, felt light and brimming with a quiet strength.
He walked into the main room of their small house to find Qing Lin already awake, diligently practicing the crude characters he had taught her, scratching them into a patch of smoothed-out dirt on the floor with a stick. She looked up as he entered, her large, dark eyes lighting up.
"Good morning, Jiuge-gege!" Her voice, once a timid, uncertain sound, now held a clear note of warmth and happiness.
"Good morning, Xiao Lin," Feng Jiuge smiled, ruffling her hair. The simple domesticity of the scene was a balm to his soul, a stark contrast to the cold, solitary path he had walked for three years.
"You feel… different today, gege," she said, tilting her head, her perception surprisingly acute. "Warmer. Brighter."
"I had a small breakthrough last night," he explained simply. "I'm a bit stronger now."
Her face broke into a radiant grin. "That's wonderful! You worked so hard!" Her genuine happiness for him was pure and uncomplicated, a precious gift in a world that had given him so little.
He sat with her, watching her practice. A thought that had been forming in his mind for weeks finally solidified. He couldn't be the only one getting stronger. To truly protect her, she needed to be able to protect herself.
"Xiao Lin," he began gently. "Have you ever thought about becoming a cultivator?"
She looked up, her stick pausing mid-stroke. The idea seemed foreign to her. "Me? But… I'm…" Her voice faltered, the old insecurities resurfacing.
"You are you," Feng Jiuge stated firmly, his gaze meeting hers. "You are my sister. And you have the potential to be very strong. Stronger than you can imagine."
He held out his hand. "Let me see something. Close your eyes and try to relax. Just feel the air around you."
Qing Lin, trusting him completely, did as he asked. Feng Jiuge activated his Heavenly Perception Pupils. The cool energy flooded his vision, and the world transformed into a tapestry of flowing energies.
When he looked at Qing Lin, he saw it clearly. While her core was dormant, a faint, almost invisible current of cyan-colored energy flowed around her. It was swift, gentle, and elusive, like a breeze on a summer day.
'Wind attribute,' Feng Jiuge confirmed. 'It suits her. Timid and quiet, but with the potential for incredible speed and sharpness. Good. That's something I can work with.'
"You have a gift, Xiao Lin," he said, deactivating his ocular skill. "An affinity for the wind. We just need to give you the right key to unlock it."
Later that day, he took her to the bustling Wu Tan City marketplace. He bypassed the stalls selling trinkets and food, heading straight for a large shop that dealt in fabrics and silks. The proprietor, the same merchant he had helped years ago, saw him coming and his gruff face broke into a welcoming smile.
"Jiuge! It's been a while, my boy. What brings you here? Need more old books?"
"Uncle Zhang, it's good to see you," Feng Jiuge greeted him warmly. "Actually, today I'm here to call in that favor you said I had."
The merchant's expression turned serious. "Of course. You name it. My business wouldn't be half of what it is without that simple advice you gave me. What do you need?"
"I need a wind-attribute cultivation technique," Feng Jiuge said, his voice low. "It doesn't have to be complete. In fact, an incomplete or damaged manual would be better. Something you might have acquired in a job lot, something you couldn't sell."
Uncle Zhang stroked his chin thoughtfully. "A wind technique… incomplete… Wait." His eyes lit up with recollection. "A few years back, I took a bundle of old scrolls as payment from a down-on-his-luck mercenary. Most were junk, but there was one… let me see."
He disappeared into the back of his shop, the sound of rummaging echoing out. He returned a few minutes later, carrying a dusty, thin scroll made of beast hide, blowing a cloud of dust off it.
"Here we are. The 'Tome of the Rushing Gale.' Or part of it, anyway," the merchant said, unrolling it slightly. "It's only the first scroll. The mercenary said the rest was lost in a monster attack. It's a low-grade Yellow Class technique, and without the subsequent scrolls, it's useless for advancing past the Dou Disciple realm. No one would buy it. If you want it, it's yours."
Feng Jiuge took the scroll, his heart beating a little faster. 'Perfect.' An incomplete manual was a blank canvas. It had a foundation, but no restrictive ceiling. "This is exactly what I needed. Thank you, Uncle Zhang. My debt is cleared."
"Nonsense, boy. You ever need anything else, you just ask," the merchant boomed, waving him off.
Back in their small, quiet house, Feng Jiuge laid the scroll out. Qing Lin looked at the strange diagrams and dense text with a mixture of awe and nervousness.
"This," Feng Jiuge announced, "is going to be your first step."
He spent the next two days studying the "Tome of the Rushing Gale." It was, as the merchant said, a decent but unremarkable low-Yellow technique. It taught a basic method of absorbing wind-attribute Dou Zhi Qi and circulating it. Its primary flaw, aside from being incomplete, was its rigidity. It was a one-size-fits-all approach.
"But you, Xiao Lin, are not one-size-fits-all," Feng Jiuge told her, a determined glint in his eye. "We're going to make this technique yours, and yours alone."
The process was intricate and required immense concentration. He had Qing Lin sit before him and begin attempting the basic breathing exercises from the scroll. Then, he activated his Heavenly Perception Pupils.
"Alright, Xiao Lin, I'm going to guide you. It might feel a little strange, but trust me."
He placed a hand on her back, channeling a minuscule, carefully controlled thread of his own tri-elemental Dou Qi. He didn't push it into her body; he used its energetic signature as a beacon, a guide for her own nascent energy.
With his Heavenly Perception Pupils, he could see the faint cyan Dou Zhi Qi she absorbed. He could also see the pathways of her meridians, as unique as her fingerprints. "The scroll says to push the energy down your left arm first, but your meridian there is slightly narrower. It's creating resistance. Let's try guiding it towards the central torso channel first. It's wider, more receptive."
He used his guiding thread of Dou Qi to gently nudge her own energy flow, correcting its path. "There… feel that? It's smoother."
Qing Lin's eyes were closed tight in concentration, but she nodded. "It is… it doesn't feel stuck anymore."
For hours they worked. Feng Jiuge was like a master tailor, and the cultivation technique was a garment he was altering to fit her perfectly. He discovered that a particular junction in her energy pathways was naturally adept at splitting the flow, a detail the generic manual completely ignored. He taught her to leverage this, creating a micro-cycle that purified the Dou Qi twice as fast as the original method.
He drew upon the complex principles he had learned while creating his own Tri-Unity Genesis Art. He incorporated concepts of resonance, of creating a feedback loop where the circulating Dou Qi would attune itself more perfectly to her body with each cycle, thereby increasing the efficiency of absorption.
Because the "Tome of the Rushing Gale" was incomplete, it had no advanced circulation patterns. This was a blessing. Feng Jiuge filled in these gaps, designing new pathways based on his observations of her body, pathways that were far more elegant and efficient than anything a low-Yellow technique would contain.
After a week of this intense, personalized training, the technique was unrecognizable. It flowed with a grace and potency that was orders of magnitude beyond the original scroll.
"I think we'll call it the 'Silent Gale Scripture'," Feng Jiuge said, looking at his work with satisfaction. Qing Lin was now able to circulate her Dou Qi smoothly, a faint cyan glow enveloping her small frame during cultivation. "Compared to my own technique, which I'd rate as mid-level Mysterious Class, yours is now solidly in the low-level Mysterious Class. It's a very, very good start, Xiao Lin."
Qing Lin opened her eyes, which shone with newfound confidence. "Thank you, Jiuge-gege." The gratitude in her voice was absolute.
With their cultivation paths set, the next month was one of quiet, diligent growth. Their small house became a sanctuary of focused training. Feng Jiuge would cultivate his Tri-Unity Genesis Art, feeling his foundation grow stronger with each passing day, while Qing Lin practiced her Silent Gale Scripture. Their progress was astonishing.
The dual-pronged approach of a superior, tailor-made technique and a gifted student paid off. Within that single month, Feng Jiuge, fueled by his rocket-like absorption speed, broke through the final barrier of the Dou Disciple realm and officially stepped into the rank of a 1-star Dou Practitioner. The moment the Dou Zhi Qi in his body condensed into true Dou Qi, he felt a qualitative leap in his power.
Qing Lin, starting from nothing, progressed at a blistering pace. By the end of the month, she had reached the level of a 4-star Dou Disciple, a feat that would have been considered genius-level in any of the major clans.
But cultivation wasn't Feng Jiuge's only focus. During the day, while they rested from training, he immersed himself in study. He used the favors and goodwill he had built to borrow or purchase books on alchemy, monster anatomy, and herbology. He was particularly fascinated with the properties of beast inner cores. An audacious idea, born from his knowledge of the Flame Mantra, was beginning to take shape in his mind.
'If Flame Mantra can devise a way to absorb and refine something as violent and untamable as a Heavenly Flame, then there must be a way to absorb the energy from a beast core,' he theorized, making notes on a fresh scroll. 'The energy in a beast core is dense and chaotic, yes, and contains the beast's remnant will, but it's fundamentally just Dou Qi. It's not a primordial force of nature like a Heavenly Flame. It should be… manageable and simpler to handle.'
He believed the key lay not in overpowering the energy, but in digesting it. His Tri-Unity Genesis Art was the perfect tool. It was already designed to handle three different types of energy. Adding a fourth, temporary source shouldn't be impossible.
The theory was one thing. Practice, as he was about to learn, was another entirely.
One evening, after ensuring Qing Lin was deep in her cultivation trance, Feng Jiuge sat in the center of the courtyard. He took a deep breath and retrieved a core from his storage ring. It was a Third Order Beast Core, vibrant green and pulsing with a powerful life force. A wood-attribute core, the same as his primary Verdant Sapling Art foundation. He hoped the affinity would make the process easier.
'A Third Order beast is equivalent to a Dou Grandmaster,' he reminded himself, his heart thudding in his chest. 'I am a 1-star Dou Practitioner. This is a massive leap. I should remain cautious.'
He placed the beast core on his palm. He didn't try to swallow it or absorb it whole. His plan was to use his Dou Qi as a probe, to gently coax out a single, tiny sliver of the core's energy and draw it into his body for refinement.
He activated his Tri-Unity Genesis Art, his own balanced Dou Qi circulating smoothly. He extended a thread of his energy, wrapping it around the core. Cautiously, he pulled.
A wisp of pure, incredibly dense wood-attribute Dou Qi, no larger than a needle's thread, was drawn from the core. The moment it entered his meridians, all hell broke loose.
It was not the gentle, nourishing energy he had anticipated. This was a savage, tyrannical force. It was the condensed life's work of a powerful beast, and it carried the creature's primal will. The sliver of energy didn't flow; it rampaged.
Feng Jiuge's carefully balanced tri-elemental circulation was shattered instantly. The foreign energy, vastly superior in quality and density, crashed through his meridians like a flood bursting through a paper dam. The pain was excruciating, a thousand white-hot needles stabbing him from the inside.
'I-I severely overestimated myself!' he thought, a strangled gasp escaping his lips as he fought to regain control.
His own Dou Qi, which he considered to be at least three times as potent as that of a normal 1-star Dou Practitioner, was utterly helpless. It was like a well-trained soldier trying to stop a charging rhinoceros. It was scattered, suppressed, and thrown into chaos. The beast core's energy, free of any restraint, smashed against the walls of his meridians, causing microscopic tears and internal bleeding.
He forcefully severed the connection to the beast core, which clattered to the ground. But the damage was done. The rampaging sliver of energy was still inside him, wreaking havoc. With a roar of effort, Feng Jiuge mobilized every last scrap of his own Dou Qi, not to fight the foreign energy, but to surround it, to smother it, to grind it down through sheer attrition.
It felt like an eternity. Sweat poured down his face, his body trembled violently, and he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood to keep from crying out and waking Qing Lin. Finally, after what must have been nearly an hour of agonizing internal struggle, he managed to fully dissipate the invasive energy.
He collapsed onto his back, gasping for air, his body screaming in protest. Every muscle ached, and a dull, throbbing pain emanated from deep within him. He had failed. Spectacularly.
But as he lay there, staring at the stars, despair did not take him. Instead, the analytical mind from his past life took over.
'Failure is the ladder to future success.'
He sat up, wincing, and activated his Heavenly Perception Pupils. He turned his enhanced gaze inward. The view was a mess. He could see the inflamed pathways, the bruised sections of his meridians, and the points where his own Dou Qi had been violently disrupted. The damage was significant, but not permanent. His resilient, wood-nourished body was already beginning the slow process of repair.
He stumbled into the house, grabbing a blank scroll and a piece of charcoal. By the light of a single oil lamp, he began to draw.
He sketched the human torso, then meticulously traced the complex network of his meridian system. Using the information from his Heavenly Perception Pupils, he began to mark the damaged areas with red charcoal. He noted the exact point of entry, the path of the rampaging energy, and the locations of the most severe internal trauma.
'The initial entry point was the problem,' he wrote in the margins, his hand shaky. 'Direct absorption into a primary circulation channel is suicide. The energy is too dense, too wild. It needs a buffer zone. A pre-processing chamber.'
He drew a new diagram. 'What if I create a temporary, isolated cycle, separate from the main one? A crucible. I could draw the foreign energy into this small loop, use my own Dou Qi to attack it, break it down, strip it of its will, and only then, once it's been tamed and diluted, feed the purified essence into the main Tri-Unity Genesis cycle.'
His mind went back to the Flame Mantra from the novel. 'The mantra doesn't just absorb a Heavenly Flame; it uses the flame's violent energy to actively expand and temper the user's meridians, adapting them to be able to contain even greater power. It uses destruction as a catalyst for growth.'
He looked at his own diagrams. 'My attempt was pure defense. I tried to contain the energy, and I failed. The Flame Mantra's principle is to use the energy's chaotic nature.'
A new line of thought emerged. 'Perhaps I don't need to fully tame it in my body. Perhaps I just need to break it into smaller, more manageable packets. Then, I can introduce these smaller packets into my main cycle at points where my own energy is strongest and most stable—specifically, where the wood, fire, and lightning elements converge and are at their peak harmony. The combined force of my three elements might be able to digest these smaller packets where one alone could not.'
He started sketching again, his charcoal stick flying across the scroll, creating new pathways, new junctions, new theories. The pain in his body was forgotten, replaced by the feverish excitement of a scientist on the verge of a breakthrough.
This was his path. Xiao Yan had his ring and his master. Feng Jiuge had his memories, his analytical mind, and a willingness to bleed for every inch of progress.
'Absorbing the energy from beast cores is possible,' he thought, his eyes burning with renewed determination. 'It should be. In the grand scheme of things, the power of a Third Tier Beast beast is nothing compared to the divine power of a Heavenly Flame. If one is possible, the other must be. I just haven't found the right equation yet.'
He looked down at the scroll, now covered in diagrams and notes. It was a map of his failure, but it was also a blueprint for his future success. He would heal, he would refine his theory, and he would try again. He would turn the savage power of beasts into his own.