2026-09-03 18:12:25
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Su Qingyue, sad tale
That night, Xiao Meng sat on the east wing's roof tiles and stared at the red sky.He kept his breathing steady, the Azure Stream flowing through his meridians, and let the qi circle through his dantian again and again. Two days had passed since the theft, and in two days he had learned something strange about himself.His spirit sense was sharper, unlike the normal guard in the mansion. When he closed his eyes, the entire manor unfolded in his mind like an ink painting: the guards pacing the wall, the steward snoring in the storehouse, a mouse in the granary, a moth against a lantern. He could feel every change in the air, every breath, every heartbeat. He had assumed it was normal until Qingyue gaped at him over dinner."Tiānrén Gǎnyìng!" she had cried, spilling her soup. "Heaven and Man Resonance! That's an ability reserved for cultivators who have formed a Golden Core!"He remembered her clear explanation of what the golden core was. A Golden Core, Jīndān, was what a cultivator bec
Zhao Bao: The Hand That Named the Fox
"That I was nothing but a scavenger who wanted a free meal." Xiao Meng's voice stayed gentle. "At that hour, no horse had been reported, no jar had been counted. The steward had not yet entered the stable. Only one kind of man hunts the fox before the hens have begun to cry, and it is the man who watched the fox walk in."Silence fell like a dropped blade."That's right," Qingyue whispered, then louder, her eyes blazing. "That's right! You said it before anybody knew anything! You knew!""A slip of the tongue!" Zhao Bao barked. "Anyone could have guessed a stranger would steal...""Guessed what, exactly? A theft that no one had yet discovered?" Xiao Meng tilted his head. "If a man cries 'thief' while the house still sleeps, either he is a prophet or he is the thief. And I do not think you are a prophet.""Master Su," Old Qian stammered from his knees, daring to lift his head. "The farrier's stamp, the one I use to mark hoof-shapes on the new shoes. It's been missing from my toolbox sin
Who is the Thief?
Nobody believed him."Early Qi Refining?" Lu Heng's eyes narrowed. "Impossible, just yesterday you didn’t even have a spirit core, so how? That’s just impossible!" He sent out a thread of spiritual sense, and his brows rose. Deep in Xiao Meng's lower dantian, thin as a strand of spider silk but unmistakably real, a thread of qi was turning. "...It’s impossible, just what demonic technigue did you use.""Demonic technique? Is it so hard?" Xiao Meng asked. "To become a Qi Refining cultivator?"The guards burst out laughing."Hard?" one wheezed. "First you temper the flesh, that's Body Refining. Then you open the meridians, sense the qi of heaven and earth, and draw it into your dantian. Most men spend years on that threshold, and plenty never cross it.""Even a gifted child needs two or three years," another added."Only prodigies and exceptions do it faster," Qingyue said, folding her arms. "And I have tutors, pills, and a spirit spring, and I'm still in early Body Refining after two ye
Early stage Qi refining in a single night
The scavenger market rose out of the red dust like a scab on the land.Xiao Meng stared from the wagon seat. Tents of patched hide leaned against walls of scrap iron. Splintered stalls sold bones, rusted talismans, and jars of "spirit dust" that looked suspiciously like sand. Between them, people sat in the dirt with hollow cheeks and ribs showing through ragged cloth, palms turned up to every passing wagon. Eyes measured the guards' weapons and slid away. A man clutched a loaf to his chest as if the air itself might steal it."Don't give them anything," Qingyue whispered. Then she dug into her sleeve and pressed a copper coin into a child's hand."Why are they like this?""Because of the war." It was the quietest he had ever heard her. "When the heavens fell, we were cut off from the mainland's spiritual veins. Nothing grows right here. The strong left, and the ones who couldn't dig through the ruins for relics to sell for bread. That's what a scavenger is ."She forced her smile back
A Name Without a Past
Xiao Meng woke to the creak of wheels.A wooden ceiling swayed above him. A lantern rocked on its hook, and the air smelled of dried herbs and horses. A carriage. He sat up and found three faces watching him: a lean, grey-eyed man with a trimmed beard, a broad-shouldered guard he vaguely remembered from the hollow, and a girl who was beaming."He's awake! Father, he's awake! I told you he wasn't dead. Mu Jian owes me a silver.""I said he was breathing too evenly to be dead," Mu Jian muttered, with a deep sigh." Yeah, whatever, it’s the same as saying he is dead." The girl clasped her hands and bowed with theatrical grace. "Let me introduce myself properly, since you fainted on me last time. Su Qingyue, daughter of caravan master Su Beichen. You may remember my name with gratitude.""Qingyue," her father said mildly, with a heavy sigh, "Young man, you saved my daughter's life. We found you unconscious and alone among the. Leaving you there was unthinkable."Xiao Meng stared hard for a
The Man Beneath the Red Sky
"Help! Someone, help me!"The cry came again and again, ragged and frantic, scraping at the edges of the dark. Then a shriek tore across the air, so shrill it split the silence in two, and Xiao Meng's eyes snapped open.Leaves, orange leaves, dry and brittle, buried him to the chest. He thrashed upward through them, and they spilled from his shoulders like dying embers as he dragged himself to his knees, gasping.The sky was red, a deep, bruised crimson stretched from horizon to horizon. Beneath it lay broken walls, rusted halberds leaning in the dust, and the vast ribs of some colossal beast arching overhead like the ruin of a temple.Where am I?He pressed a hand to his chest. His heartbeat was slow and steady. His fingers were long, callused, and unfamiliar. His body felt like borrowed clothing, tailored for a stranger.Who am I?"Please! Somebody!"The voice came from beyond a ridge of shattered stone. Xiao Meng rose, swayed, and found his balance. He walked toward it without knowi
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