Chapter 8: Breath of the Verdant Lotus
The walls of Fang Lee's abode didn't shake—they burst into oblivion.
Wood splintered and vanished. Beams of spirit-forged pine turned to cinders and mist. The floor beneath them exploded into steam and ash. The ceiling, the lanterns, the portraits and minor treasures lining the walls—all were pierced by light as a pillar of twin-colored Qi shot skyward, punching through the roof, through the clouds, through the sky itself.
The heavens opened in silent reverence.
Blue and red flames—water and fire—surged together, neither consuming the other. Instead, they danced, spiraled, harmonized into a breathtaking cyclone of elemental light.
Fang Lee was thrown back—flung through what remained of his shattered walls, crashing into a broken courtyard pillar. His bare skin hissed with steam, the scent of scorched flesh and boiling wounds clinging to him.
He coughed violently, struggling to rise.
"Fuck," he cursed, the blast of steam and boiled water knocking out all the effort he'd put into his pretense. The storm of fire and water surged forth with intense fury—and suddenly, he hated that he had entertained his wuxia-romance cosplay. He should've just acted like he had a wounded demon or a Qi deviation and used that to spice up his dream instead.
He clicked his tongue.
His fingers instantly formed a seal.
Fine. If she's using me to break through, then I'll do the same—
Let's see what happens when you devour someone's foundation to make your own, Fang Lee thought, feeling his opportunity to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm within arm's reach.
"You leave me no choice, then."
He exhaled sharply.
Breath of the Verdant Lotus.
His breathing shifted—controlled, erratic yet precise. His chest rose and fell in sync with his Qi, forcing it into an unnatural rhythm. He felt Lian Xue's Qi undergoing a fundamental change—not just in quality or quantity. It began to transform into something else entirely.
And floating above the cratered remains of the floor, suspended by manifested Qi, was Lian Xue.
Her hair whipped wildly behind her, crimson strands streaked with glowing blue light. Her skin shimmered, soaked in the glow of two elements—one red, searing and wild; one blue, calm but unstoppable.
Her eyes opened.
And they glowed white.
No pupil. No iris.
Just light.
The air around her bent, distorted by the sheer pressure of her conflicting elements—now perfectly merged. Flames curled around her arms, their tips dripping into liquid water, which floated upward like dew escaping gravity.
Her torn robes billowed like silken banners, her chest rising with breath that no longer sounded pained—but enlightened.
The ground beneath her glowed with a sigil neither of them had ever seen—a blooming lotus with petals of ice and flame.
But her transformation wasn't complete. The blooming lotus's pastels began to fall as it shifted into pure Qi. It unraveled—then exploded into a beam of nothingness that shot through her and the coiling pillar of red and blue still emitting from her.
But at the same time—
A surge of jade-green energy erupted from Fang Lee's dantian, forming an invisible barrier around him.
Then—his meridians opened instinctively.
Lian Xue's wild, searing Qi rushed into him like a raging inferno seeking to consume everything in its path. It burned through his veins, tearing into his flesh, searing his bones. This was the process before forming a foundation—the tearing down of everything to forge a soul treasure and technique tailored to one's path. The energy spread mercilessly, corroding Fang Lee's body from the inside out.
He gritted his teeth.
Even as agony wracked his being, he still forced the invading Qi deeper, pushing it into his dantian.
Inside him, his Qi twisted violently.
Fang Lee's dantian fractured—splitting apart. One side remained an emerald green, but the other turned into a corrupted, venomous light. The two forces coiled together, forming a spiraling yin-yang within him—unstable, trembling, on the verge of collapse.
His pores hissed as his body was tempered. His hands weaved another seal as he struck every pressure point in his body—and the pain sharpened. If not for his body's cultivation-hardened temperament, Oliver's mortal mind would have long since caved under the pressure of the pain.
His dantian wanted to tear itself apart, rejecting the foreign energy that threatened to consume it.
But hesitation meant defeat.
And he had no intention of losing here.
He clenched his fists and forced the remaining Qi outward, abandoning the Fang Clan's Qi Refinement Realm breathing technique and activating a Foundation Realm technique.
I will not let her Qi destroy me.
I will reforge myself with it…
FUCK THIS!!!
I'll fucking—twist the shit out of that cock-blocking bitch!!!
he roared internally, switching seals for the final time as his Qi surged to meet hers.
"Shattered Dantian!" Fang Lee roared, activating his one-time Foundation Establishment technique.
A reckless, suicidal method.
A technique designed to annihilate one's dantian completely—only to absorb all the Qi in the surroundings and rebuild it anew.
Crack! Crack!
The first fractures formed.
Two pieces. Four. Eight.
Then—fifty.
And then—
BOOOOM!!! (x2)
Two explosions rang out—one erupting from within him, and the other from Lian Xue. He felt heat, cold, calm—tearing through his flesh—while his own Qi ripped itself out of his dantian.
—
Within the devastated heart of the pine forest, where light formed by all four elements—fire, water, earth, and wind—devoured the land like an insatiable beast, a spear of jade radiance tore through the inferno: a single, unyielding light against the chaos.
It did not merely resist the light.
It consumed it.
Yet in doing so, it only added to its growing arsenal. The elements of earth grew into minerals of jade; water and earth's remnants fused into wood and plant essence, while fire and wind grew side by side.
The night trembled as green and pale light clashed—two opposing forces locked in a violent struggle. The sheer impact of their collision sent ripples through the air, snapping branches, scattering dust, and warping the very fabric of Qi. The ground quaked beneath them, the earth itself recoiling as if unable to withstand the power unleashed.
At the center of it all—
Fang Lee.
A cultivator once stagnant. Trapped beneath the weight of his own bottleneck.
But now—breaking through.
His body, half-burned, bloodied, and battered, became the battlefield. His boiled flesh pulsed with unstable Qi, his meridians straining, twisting, fraying beneath the flood of raw energy tearing through him.
This pain—this suffering—it did not hinder him.
It forged him.
His dantian, once fractured, now reformed—stronger, deeper, pulsing with the refined power of the elements, his Heavenly Physique, and Verdant Qi. It was not an explosion of dominance. Not a divine reckoning.
It was his call for unity.
Their Yin & Yang fusion.
A dual Foundation Realm breakthrough—carved not from peace and meditation, but from two forces devouring one another on the edge of life and death.
Not a triumph of control—A victory of shared defiance.
Rumble.
FLASH!!!
The heavens answered.
The air crackled. Qi, once scattered, condensed—drawn toward the singularity that was Fang Lee. The sky above, choked with smoke, twisted violently as something ancient stirred.
FLASH!!!
A Heavenly Tribulation had arrived.
A force beyond human comprehension. Beyond mortal will. A decree from the cosmos itself.
The first bolt fell.
A streak of silver lightning—impossibly fast—carved through the heavens like a celestial blade. The air split in its wake, the ozone thick with the scent of destruction.
And then—impact.
The world detonated.
But neither of those who drew the heavens' fury took the blow head-on.
Instead, two small gardens bloomed. Filled with dandelions, tulips, plum blossoms, and three plum trees lining the comma-shaped cauldrons of light—one dark jade, one pale. The largest tree stood beneath a miniature ball of flame. The other beneath a sphere of pure jade.
These two constructs spiraled together, floating above them—pristine, unyielding. The elements gathered, and their presence exuded an ancient, unfathomable power.
They were not merely shields.
They were the proof of Ascension.
The twin Foundation Establishment treasures:
The All-Seasons Divine Cauldrons: Yin and Yang Eternal Garden.