The morning sun rose pale and clear over Lotus Lake, casting a thin, golden light across the damp slate roofs of Willow Alley. The cold dampness of the long winter was finally receding, replaced by the fresh, green breeze of late spring.
Inside his small courtyard, Fang Lin stood under the budding willow tree, his hands clasped behind his back.
He was ready. For six months, his body had rested and his mind had quieted, absorbing the simple rhythms of the mortal blacksmith and the raw, unpolished flow of the orphans' basic stances. In the quiet recesses of his spiritual sea, his reconnected meridians were fully functional, but he knew they were merely a temporary patch. To support his Chaos Phantom Extreme Physique and lay the foundation for multiple cores in the future, he had to take a dangerous step. He had to tear down the old house before he could build a palace under the guidance of the Dark Flame Spirit.
Before he could enter seclusion, however, he had to clear his inventory of the spoils he had gathered.
Fang Lin sat at the low wooden table in his kitchen, pulling out the five embroidered storage pouches he had taken from the secondary-sect elders slaughtered at the gates of Rivercloud City. These pouches were spatial bags, small leather sacks enchanted with minor space-expansion formations that allowed a cultivator to carry bags of items in a pocket-sized space. He poured the contents onto the table, sorting through the pile with a practiced eye.
Most of the items were useless to him. There were secondary-grade iron swords, low-grade defensive talismans, and jars of common Qi-nourishing pills that were too impure for his refined foundation. However, he kept a few bottles of clean, low-grade body-warming pills, which were mild medicines designed to help young cultivators gather warmth in their bones, and three small jade amulets. These amulets were minor wood-attributed charms that could release a thin shield of green light if the wearer was struck by a sudden physical blow, providing a basic layer of protection.
He put all the generic weapons, metal plates, and beast materials back into the pouches, planning to sell them.
Just as he finished packing, the wooden gate creaked open. Xiao Chuan, Hu Zi, and Er Ya walked into the courtyard, their faces bright and their posture solid.
"Big Brother Lin," Xiao Chuan said, standing straight as he stopped in front of the table. "We finished clearing the logs near the southern wall. The wood is stacked and dry."
"Good," Fang Lin said, offering a quiet smile. He pushed the three jade amulets and the bottles of body-warming pills across the wooden table. "Take these."
The items Fang Lin had provided were extraordinary. Even at a glance, the three children could tell that no amount of copper or gold could buy them. These were treasures of the cultivation world.
Xiao Chuan frowned, his chin lifting with that familiar, stubborn pride. "We worked for our coppers, Big Brother Lin. We don't take charity."
"This is not charity," Fang Lin replied, his voice calm and level. "I am going to be away for a few days. I have some business at the Star-River Merchant Alliance branch in the city, and I will be renting a cultivation room to work on my injuries. While I am gone, I need you three to keep an eye on the courtyard. Consider these amulets and pills as your advance payment for guard duty. The amulets must be worn under your shirts, close to the skin."
Hearing what Fang Lin said, the three of them were astonished and elevated.
"Big Brother Lin, does that mean that you can cultivate again?"
"Are your meridians healed?"
"What Cultivation realm are you at?
They fired a salvo of questions at him.
Fang Lin just chuckled and advised them to take the items.
Xiao Chuan looked at the jade amulets. He was young, but survival on the docks had made him sharp enough to recognize that these were not mortal toys. They carried a faint, warm vibration of spiritual energy.
"These are cultivator charms," Xiao Chuan whispered, his eyes wide.
"They are simple defensive tools," Fang Lin explained, immediately following his words with a direct narrator explanation. "If someone strikes you, the wood element inside the jade will release a small shield of green light to absorb the blow, which is a common protective measure used by wealthy merchants' children to survive sudden street fights. The pills are body-warming medicines. Take one every three days when you practice your stances; it will keep the lake dampness from freezing your pathways."
Xiao Chuan hesitated, then swept the jade amulets and pill bottles into his pockets, nodding seriously. "We will guard the yard, Big Brother Lin. No one will cross the gate."
Fang Lin stood up and walked out of the alley, detouring to the smithy to inform Uncle Zhang and Auntie Mei of his temporary departure.
"Going to the Merchant Alliance?" Uncle Zhang grunted, pausing his heavy hammer as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Those merchant folks are greedy, Lin Er. They look polite in their fancy robes, but they will skin a mortal for a copper. Don't let them cheat you with their shiny talk."
"I will be careful, Uncle Zhang," Fang Lin promised, touched by the old blacksmith's gruff concern.
"Here," Auntie Mei said, hurrying out of the kitchen with a small paper package. "Take this dried venison. You look thin enough to blow away in the wind, and those merchant halls don't serve proper food. Don't stay in those damp rooms too long."
"Thank you, Auntie Mei. I will return in three days," Fang Lin said, pocketing the package.
He walked through the busy county streets, heading toward the grand, white jade structure that stood in the center of Lotus Lake City. This was the local branch of the Star-River Merchant Alliance, a planet-spanning guild of traders and bankers who maintained absolute neutrality in all cultivator conflicts.
The main hall was cool and quiet, lined with polished black stone pillars and staffed by clerks in neat, silver-embroidered grey robes. Fang Lin walked to a counter near the back, where a middle-aged assessor with a calm, professional expression greeted him.
"Welcome to the Star-River Merchant Alliance," the clerk said, bowing slightly. "How may we assist you today, guest?"
Fang Lin did not speak. He placed the five storage pouches on the counter, opening them to reveal the massive pile of generic weapons, low-grade iron materials, and secondary beast cores he had sorted out.
The clerk's eyes flickered with a brief, sharp assessment. He reached out, his fingers tracing the patterns on the swords and examining the purity of the beast cores with a small silver loupe. After a few minutes of silent calculation, the clerk looked up, his tone remaining polite and professional.
"These are common weapons and materials from Spirit Foundation and some Core Formation cultivators," the clerk appraised. "The quality is average, but the materials are clean. The Alliance can offer you around 240,000 low-grade spirit stones for the entire lot. Do you wish to receive them in physical stones, or deposit them into an Alliance account?"
"Deposit them," Fang Lin said quietly. "And issue a jade card."
"Understood," the clerk replied. He pulled a smooth, rectangular slip of grey-silver jade from a drawer, placing it on a small formation plate on the counter. "This will be a Silver Star-River Jade Card."
As the clerk configured the plate, the narrator immediately explained the Alliance's account system.
The Star-River Merchant Alliance issued jade cards in four distinct grades to cultivators: Bronze Cards were for basic accounts carrying small funds under 50,000 low-grade stones; Silver Cards were for mid-tier accounts holding up to 5,000,000 low-grade stones; Gold Cards were reserved for wealthy Core Formation experts and major sect elders; and Purple Cards were supreme accounts held only by Law Comprehension ancestors, few Domain Forging experts and alliance executives. These cards utilized a soul-binding mechanic, which meant that a cultivator had to press their divine sense or blood into the card to imprint their unique soul signature onto the jade. Once bound, only that specific cultivator's energy could access the funds, rendering the card completely useless to anyone else if it was lost or stolen.
"Please press your finger to the center of the card to bind your soul imprint," the clerk instructed.
Fang Lin reached out, his thumb pressing against the cool surface of the silver jade. In his spiritual sea, his Peak-Solid Soul gently released a tiny, microscopic thread of soul energy, stamping his unique signature onto the formation within the card. The grey jade flashed with a brief, silver light, and the numbers 240,000 low-grade spirit stones appeared on its smooth surface.
With a simple thought, Fang Lin converted the funds, choosing to hold them as 2,400 mid-grade and 24 high-grade spirit stones to save space, keeping the digital records on the card.
"I need to rent a high-grade cultivation chamber," Fang Lin said, placing a single mid-grade stone on the counter. "For three days."
"A high-grade chamber is ten low-grade stones per day," the clerk said, returning seventy low-grade stones in change. "Chamber seven on the third basement level is vacant. It is protected by a double-layered insulation array that blocks all external scans and divine senses. Here is the entry key."
Fang Lin took the heavy bronze key and followed the stone steps down into the cool, silent depths of the third basement level.
Chamber seven was a small, square room built from heavy, spirit-blocking grey basalt. A simple straw mat sat in the center, surrounded by glowing blue runes of the isolation array carved into the walls. When Fang Lin closed the iron door and turned the key, a deep, absolute silence settled over the room, cutting off all connection to the outside county.
Fang Lin sat cross-legged on the straw mat, placing the silver jade card beside him.
"Are you ready?" the Dark Flame Spirit's voice echoed in his mind, her childlike tone carrying a rare, serious weight. "Rebuilding your meridian layout is not like patching a cracked tool. You must completely shatter your current reconnected pathways, turning them into a chaotic void of raw energy before you can forge the new paths. The pain will be absolute. If your soul wavers for even a single second, the raw Qi will run wild, and your life will collapse."
"I am ready," Fang Lin thought back, his expression calm and unwavering. "My Peak-Solid Soul can bear the strain, and my Chaos Phantom Extreme Physique will keep my physical frame from dissolving."
"Then begin," the spirit sighed. "I will monitor your spirit Qi."
Fang Lin closed his eyes, taking a deep, slow breath.
He did not guide his Qi in its normal, circular flow. Instead, utilizing his Peak-Solid Soul, he actively seized control of his internal energy, forcing the tiny trickle of Qi to run in reverse. The spiritual energy began to pool in his chest, building immense, crushing pressure within his reconnected meridians. The pathways grew hot, stretching and straining under the unnatural, reverse flow like a river backed up behind a solid stone dam.
"Shatter," Fang Lin thought, his voice cold and resolute.
He released the dam. The reverse Qi slammed into his meridians with the force of a crashing mountain.
A soundless explosion erupted inside his chest.
Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth and beneath his skin.
In that instant, his reconnected meridians shattered into a million microscopic pieces. The pain was absolute—an internal, grinding agony that felt as if a thousand white-hot iron pins were being driven through his flesh, bone, and nerves simultaneously. His breath caught in his throat, and a cold sweat instantly soaked through his grey cotton coat. His muscles convulsed, and his physical frame trembled violently, the sheer shock of the destruction threatening to tear his consciousness apart.
"Hold the Spirit!" the Dark Flame Spirit screamed in his mind.
Fang Lin did not yield. His Peak-Solid Soul remained iron-hard and stable, holding his mind above the waves of agony, refusing to let him black out.
With a silent roar of resolve, he guided his Nether Life Spirit Qi—the cool, vibrant emerald-green energy that served as his primary regenerative power—to flow from his smoldering Spirit Foundation Dantian. The cool green energy did not try to repair the broken paths; instead, it wrapped around his vital organs and his soul sea like a protective, soothing blanket. The green energy held the raw, chaotic fragments of vitality in place, keeping his life force from spilling out into a formless void, stabilizing his physical body as his internal pathways dissolved completely.
Inside his chest, his meridians were gone. There was only a dark, chaotic storm of raw energy and green light, a physical void waiting to be forged.
He stood on the edge of the abyss, his teeth clenched, blood oozing out, his body trembling as the first day of his reclusion drew to a close.
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