A heartbeat later, he felt it.
An invisible force washed through the apartment, through the walls, through the furniture, through his own body, and continued onward without resistance. In its wake the air itself changed. What had been ordinary, empty space now carried a subtle density, a faint pressure against the skin and lungs, like the atmosphere just before a storm. Qi had arrived. For the first time, the room itself could support normal cultivation.
Stan felt the difference first as texture. The air in his living room was fractionally heavier, richer, almost tangible. Camilla felt it too. She rose without a word, crossed to the balcony doors, and stepped outside. There she stood perfectly still, crimson eyes fixed on the city spread below, as though listening to something only she could hear, the slow, gathering pulse of a world beginning to change.
