Ling Shi's fist crept closer—an inch, then half an inch. Jin Shu could feel the heat of her qi brushing his skin. He was losing ground fast.

Damn it! He knew he'd lost. He had nothing left to pour into his fist.

Ling Shi's bloody lips stretched into a savage grin. "Real combat draws blood—and yours is about to fly!" she roared, laughter booming across the battlefield.

His arm trembled violently. His fist had collapsed all the way to his chest. A few inches more and her punch would take his head clean off.

Desperation clawed at his mind. He searched for anything—any strategy, trick, escape. Nothing worked. Even in his imagination, every plan ended with him dead.

Then—just as everything began to fade—qi surged through his body like a tidal wave. It flooded his infinite meridians, raced down his right arm, and exploded into his clenched fist.

His power spiked.

His fist blasted forward, driving Ling Shi back as if gravity had reversed. In a heartbeat, their positions flipped entirely.

"How?!" Ling Shi gasped, eyes wide with disbelief.

Nano?! Jin Shu demanded internally.

Don't worry—I'm fine. This small amount won't hurt me… for long, Nano said, voice noticeably weaker.

Jin Shu grit his teeth, stepped in, and completed the punch.

His fist slammed into the center of Ling Shi's chest—she was too tall for a headshot—and launched her like a ragdoll. She tore through the forest, snapping tree after tree. Dozens of meters later, she finally crashed to a stop as a massive trunk splintered and collapsed over her legs, pinning her beneath tons of wood.

Fortunately, she was unconscious. If she'd been awake, the pain alone might have killed her.

Jin Shu blinked, stunned by his own strength. He turned to Biyu, who looked even more shocked.

"We should… save her, right?"

Biyu shrugged. "Probably…"

They sprinted down the path of destruction. Ling Shi lay half-buried, her outer robes obliterated where his blow had landed, exposing bruised, bloody flesh across her chest. The fallen tree crushing her legs looked heavier than a small mountain.

Jin Shu crouched, got both hands beneath the trunk, and strained with everything he had left. It didn't even budge.

Biyu calmly walked to the other side, grasped the log with one hand, and hefted it off as if lifting laundry before tossing it over her shoulder.

"I… I could have done that too… I was just tired…" Jin Shu mumbled.

She smiled gently. "I'm sure you could."

Biyu knelt beside Ling Shi, rolling her sleeves up. Soft green light bloomed from her hands as she hovered them over Ling Shi's destroyed chest. Torn skin slowly knit together, reshaping her ribs and reforming her breasts.

Jin Shu choked on his breath and whipped his head away, ears burning.

"Hand me something to cover her," Biyu said.

"Right. Sure." He fumbled through his spatial storage and blindly passed her a blanket. "Here."

"I need both hands. Put it over her."

"Uh…" He hesitated, then tossed the blanket over her as quickly as possible.

Cough!

Ling Shi spat a mouthful of blood, splattering the blanket deep crimson. "See… a wimp…" she rasped.

"I…" Jin Shu blinked at her. "At least I'm not the one on my back coughing up blood."

She snorted. "Hah… so you've got a bit of a bite. Good for you. Wimp."

She shoved the blanket aside and tried to stand, only to collapse immediately as her half-healed legs buckled. She caught herself with her hands, breath sharp with pain.

"Pfft!" Jin Shu couldn't help laughing.

She shot him a glare. "Aren't you going to look away?"

He shrugged. "Thought you wanted me to look?"

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Biyu turned and leveled a death stare at him. "Look. Away. Now."

He spun around at lightspeed, pure survival instinct detonating in his brain as cold sweat dripped down his spine.

"I'll… I'll just leave for now," he stammered, laughing nervously.

***

Walking in a random direction through the forest, Jin Shu spoke to Nano through his thoughts.

So, how much damage did giving me that burst of qi do to you?

Not much. I'll recover in a few days… I believe.

You believe? And what if you don't? What if you can't?

I will. I've calculated it. More importantly, Nano said, clearly shifting the topic, we have other matters to address.

Jin Shu didn't want to argue. What matters?

Your new cultivation technique. It's past time you start using it.

He didn't want to admit it, but Nano was right—he'd let his cultivation sit still for far too long.

You're right. Let's do it.

He picked a flat-topped rock in the middle of a clearing directly under the rays of the three suns. Beyond it lay the beach and crystal-clear waves, delivering a cool, salty breeze. It felt like the center point of all the elements—he couldn't hope for a better place to cultivate.

Sitting cross-legged, he closed his eyes and let his soul sink into his soul space, where his two other selves waited.

"Shuang, you're the best with techniques. You take over," he said, relinquishing control.

Shuang glanced at him, nodded, and stepped forward. A moment later, he vanished from the soul space and settled into the driver's seat of their shared body.

Taking in a deep breath of fresh air, he relished being in control and outside the soul space again.

"Alright, Nano. Let's do that thing."

Nano didn't respond with words, but Shuang felt the answer in the sudden shift of his blood, flowing in a new pattern. A brief wave of lightheadedness washed over him, but he steadied himself. Closing his eyes, he focused on his meridians. Their infinite twists were dizzying, but he had to maintain focus.

"What is that thing?" Jin Shu asked from the soul space.

"We—Nano and I—have been working on a more complex version of our cultivation technique. It reached completion when Long Jinshu showed us the final piece of the puzzle we'd been missing."

"Uh… what…?"

"Don't worry about it. We knew it would confuse you, which is why we didn't bring it up."

"Rude. But… probably true."

"Alright, shh. I need to concentrate."

Jin Shu mimed zipping his lips and fell silent.

Shuang followed the movements of Nano within his bloodstream and located a cluster of meridians. Using his mind in tandem with a qi-coated fingertip, he drew a shape along his arm. At the same time, the cluster of meridians shifted in perfect synchronization, forming the same pattern internally.

In the soul space, Jin Shu and Gold watched with fascination as a rune appeared along their arm—forming both on their physical body and their soul bodies. Each of them now bore the newly engraved rune.

When the shape finished forming, Shuang opened his eyes. After one more deep breath, he crossed his fingers over his lap and drew in the ambient qi. It formed a visible swirl above the rune before sinking into the design and giving it a subtle glow.

Moments later, he uncrossed his fingers and allowed the qi to disperse back into the air. The black rune glowed faintly with a palpable aura of strength—exactly what it represented: a strength rune.

He picked up a stone from the ground and gave it a light squeeze. It crumbled instantly into fine powder that flowed like sand through his fingers. Nothing shocking for a cultivator—except that he'd done it without activating any qi. Even someone like Ling Shi, who trained her physical body to its peak, would struggle to reduce a stone to such fine powder while at the same realm as Jin Shu without using qi.

Nodding in satisfaction, Shuang closed his eyes again. This time he directed his qi into the strength-rune-shaped meridians. Then, using a qi-covered finger once more, he drew a new shape over the rune.

A small white tiger took form on his arm—ninety percent reminiscent of Yin'er, yet not her. It was the divine beast White Tiger, though clearly inspired by her.

When the tattoo finished forming, the strength rune fully merged with the white tiger, becoming indistinguishable from the new pattern. To any observer—by sight or by any method of inspection—Jin Shu simply had a white tiger tattoo on his arm.

Shuang repeated the same process on his opposite arm. This time, however, he didn't draw a strength rune. Instead, he traced a far more obscure symbol—one rarely used: a stability rune.

Normally, stability runes were inscribed into formations to prevent them from shifting when placed on unstable surfaces—like sand. Even if the ground moved, the formation would remain intact. Applied to his body, Chen Ai Yun had theorized it would allow Jin Shu to maintain unwavering aim even while moving at full speed in combat.

For this rune's tattoo, Shuang chose an azure dragon. The dragon's body curved along his arm, beginning at the shoulder and winding down to his wrist, where its head rested. The black rune melded seamlessly into the darker strokes of the dragon's scales, indistinguishable from the artwork even when examined with intent.

As the second rune and tattoo settled into place, Jin Shu's long-stagnant cultivation stirred. A pulse of advancement rippled through him, pushing him from the sixth stage of the Core Realm to the seventh. Two more stages, and he would finally stand at the threshold of the Spirit Realm like the others.

Only he and Li Xue still lagged behind—though Li Xue was merely a single stage away, far closer than he was.