Longwei read through the night.
The glowing scripture never dimming as he turned page after page. His body needed to rest, demanded it but something in the text kept pulling him forward, each passage answered questions he'd carried for years while raising new ones he'd never thought to ask.
The pain faded to background noise and the bloods dried on his skin. The world outside the cave ceased to exist.
Only the words remained.
"The orthodox sects teach that cultivation is war, the practitioner against the universe wresting power through force of will but this is a child's understanding.
"True cultivation is conversation which the universe does not hoard its power; it offers freely to those who know how to receive and the deepest reception occurs not in isolation but in union.
Yin and Yang are not opposites at war. They are lovers eternal, each incomplete without the other when they join, creation occurs. Stars are born and Life emerges and power beyond mortal comprehension flows freely.
The dual cultivator does not steal this power. They participate in it."
Longwei paused, absorbing the details.
Everything he'd been taught framed cultivation as conquest. Breaking through bottlenecks and forcing the body to transcend. Fighting for every advancement, even the language itself was violent... shattering barriers, crushing limits, dominating tribulations.
But this scripture spoke of... surrender and Participation, receiving rather than taking.
It Felt Wrong. Weak..
And Yet.
His twenty years of "conquest" had ended with him broken at the bottom of a ravine, betrayed by everyone he'd trusted. The path of force had led him here, perhaps a different path could lead him out.
He continued
"The corrupted arts: what the orthodox call 'dual cultivation' are parasitic perversions of the true path. They take without giving, they drain partners rather than uplifting them. The practitioner grows strong while their 'cauldrons' wither.*
"This is not the Primordial Way."
"True Yin-Yang Harmonization is mutual and both partners give, both partners receive and the exchange creates more than either possessed alone. Energy multiplied rather than transferred.
"A pair of dual cultivators advancing together will surpass isolated practitioners of equal starting talent. This is not theory. This is law.
Why, then was the art forbidden?
Because it threatened those who had achieved power through the old ways. Because masters who spent centuries in isolated cultivation could not accept that partnerships might achieve more, and Because the hierarchy of sects built on individual achievement would crumble if cooperation proved superior.
The Primordial Path was not banned because it was evil.
It was banned because it was effective."
Longwei let out a breath, he didn't know how he felt about all of this.
If this was true, if the scripture wasn't lying then everything he'd been taught was politics disguised as morality. The "righteous" sects hadn't condemned dual cultivation to protect the innocent, they'd condemned it to protect their power.
It explained so much, the vague warnings that never included specific techniques. The way any question about dual cultivation was met with disgust rather than education even the whispered stories of practitioners who achieved impossible advancement before being "heroically" struck down.
They weren't cautionary tales but were they were cover-ups?
Longwei turned to the next section, hunger now building in his stomach.
"The mechanics of Yin-Yang Harmonization are simple. The execution is not.
In the physical act of union, Yin and Yang energies reach their most volatile state. The barriers between cultivation bases thin and energy flows freely or chaotically, if the practitioners lack control.
The parasitic arts exploit this vulnerability. One partner maintains control while the other surrenders; the controlled energy flows in a single direction, draining the submissive cultivator.
The Primordial Path requires something far more difficult: mutual vulnerability, both partners must lower their defenses. Both must surrender control and both must trust the other absolutely.
There is no technique that can substitute for genuine trust, no pill that creates authentic vulnerability. No formation that forces true surrender.
This is why the path is difficult. Not because the arts are complex but because the heart must be open.
A practitioner who cannot trust cannot cultivate.
A practitioner who cannot surrender cannot receive.
A practitioner who views partners as tools will find the tools break in their hands."
Longwei's jaw tightened.
TRUST. VULNERABILITY. SURRENDER.
Three words that described everything he'd spent his life avoiding.
He'd trusted his sect and they'd discarded him. He'd trusted Yating, and she'd betrayed him. He'd trusted his martial brother and Zhou Chen had shattered his core.
Now this scripture tells him that advancement required MORE trust? Deeper vulnerability? Complete surrender to another person?
The universe had a sick sense of humor.
"I can't," he whispered. "I can't open myself like that again, not after..."
He stopped.
Not after what? Not after being hurt?
He was already hurt and broken, already at the bottom of a ravine with a damaged core and a body that might not survive the night.
What more did he have to lose?
His pride, whispered a cold voice.
"Pride?" Longwei answered himself, "is what kept me climbing when I should have looked around, pride is what made me ignore Yating's distance, Mother's decline, even the sect's coldness. Pride made me blind."
"Maybe It's Time To Try Something Else."
He Continued again.
"The first stage of Yin-Yang cultivation is Core Reconstruction.
For practitioners whose cores are Inefficient, the Primordial Path offers what no orthodox technique can: complete rebuilding. The inefficient core becomes fertile ground, Yin and Yang energies properly merged can crystallize a new foundation.
But this process requires a partner, for It cannot be done alone.
The cultivator receives while the partner gives, this is the one exception to mutual exchange, a necessary imbalance to restart the cycle. The partner will experience temporary weakness but no lasting harm.
Once the core is rebuilt then true dual cultivation can begin."
Longwei read the passage twice.
His core could be rebuilt and the damage Zhou Chen had inflicted wasn't permanent, there was a path back to cultivation, back to Power.
BUT.
This Process Requires A Partner. It Cannot Be Done Alone.
Of course it did.
He laughed... broken, the universe wasn't just cruel it was comedic too. Here was salvation, written in clear characters and techniques detailed with perfect clarity but all he had to do was find someone willing to share their body and energy with a crippled disgraced blood covered stranger with nothing to offer in return.
Simple.
"WHO?" he wondered. "Who would possibly..."
No one, that was the answer. He had no friends outside the sect, his cultivation obsession had seen to that. His family was dead and his reputation would be destroyed by whatever story Zhou Chen was spinning.
He was alone.
The scripture's light brightened again, almost in a mocking way.
Salvation right there but Can't reach it.
Longwei Shut His Eyes Tightly.
When he opened them, a gold light was filtering through the cave's mouth. It was dawn and he'd actually survived the night.
But his body felt worse than before, the wounds had stiffened, the blood loss was making him dizzy and his dislocated shoulder wasn't going away anytime soon but atleast he was alive.
He looked at the open scripture in his laps.
The practical sections followed the philosophy: detailed techniques for energy circulation, positions that facilitated different types of exchange, methods for building resonance with a partner. Diagrams showed meridian pathways he'd never seen in orthodox texts. Explanations covered scenarios he'd never imagined.
Of course, it was all useless without a partner.
Then he finally closed the book.
The black cover was a cool look under his fingers, the Yin-Yang serpents seemed to writhe slightly, though that might have been his blurry vision playing tricks.
"I need to survive first," he decided. "Find somewhere to heal, then worry about cultivation later."
He tucked the scripture into his robes, it was ligher than it looked fitting easily against his chest, and then began the agonizing process of Standing.
His left arm was basically useless, his ribs was in shatters and his legs were wobbly like a newborns but he got upright, leaning against the cave wall breathing through the pain.
The cave mouth was like a rectangle of brownish light and beyond it was the ravine.
Beyond the ravine... he had no idea. He'd been unconscious when Zhou Chen brought him here, no sense of direction no knowledge of nearby settlements.
So it was simple "Pick a direction and start walking" and don't die.
It wasn't much of a plan but it was what he was working with..
And he limped forward towards the light.