Chapter 16 – The Cost of Defiance

Xu Tianyin's cultivation was no longer a theory—it was a reality. But reality had a price.

His body rebelled against the changes, rejecting what it could not understand. Pain wove itself into his bones, deeper than any wound he had ever known. This was not qi deviation—this was something entirely different.

Bai Yeming watched in silence, her expression unreadable. She would not intervene. Not yet.

Tianyin clenched his fists. His breath was ragged, his vision blurred. Every inch of him felt like it was being unmade. He reached inward, searching for the cause. What was being stripped away?

He could not see it, could not grasp it. But something was dissolving. His past? His fate? The very foundation of his existence? His fingers dug into the earth.

Do not resist.

The thought was not his own. Bai Yeming's voice cut through the haze. "Pain is proof that something is changing."

Tianyin exhaled. And he let go.

The agony did not fade. It deepened, sinking into a place beyond flesh, beyond soul. But instead of fighting, he allowed it.

And in that moment, something shifted.

Tianyin opened his eyes. The world felt distant, muted. The sensation of qi pressing against his skin was gone. Not just around him—within him. A void had formed in his dantian, vast and untouched.

Yeming tilted her head. "What have you done?"

Tianyin looked down at his hands. No aura surrounded them, no energy pulsed from his meridians. He should have felt hollow, broken. Instead, he felt light.

Something had been lost. And something had been gained.

A step forward had been taken.

But the cost had yet to be revealed.