Reaching the Qi Gathering Realm

Days passed in the residence.

Bai Mu, as promised, trained her in earnest. The guards followed her to each training but would leave the moment she arrived. It was Bai Mu's insistence that they did not need to stay. At first, the gruff instructor spent a great deal of time guiding her body physically such as adjusting her stance, correcting her posture, and giving verbal cues. Before long, it became clear that Lian Xue hardly needed correction at all.

Her body moved with natural grace, her intuition sharp, and her form near perfect. She listened and adapted based on his feedback. It was as if every beat of instruction etched itself into her muscles with a single repetition.

"You learn faster than anyone I've ever trained," Bai Mu had muttered one morning, scratching his beard. "You don't even need to see to perfect a form. You make me disappointed with the others, haha!"

The Lotus Palm, the Lian Clan's signature martial art, became her focus to learn and Bai Mu was more than willing to personally guide her. Strikes layered like blooming petals. It was soft at first, then heavy and precise. Bai Mu taught her each position, step, and palm variation with precision.

"Without Qi," he explained, "the Lotus Palm is simply a beautiful way to beat someone bloody. Once you reach the Qi Gathering Realm, spiritual energy will infuse your strikes. The soft will become deadly. A full bloom at the moment of impact can cripple a man's core."

Day after day, she became better and better.

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One night, approximately a couple weeks before the wedding, Lian Xue was sitting on her bed inside her room. The moon hung high, casting pale silver light over the Lian Clan estate.

She knew she could break into the Qi Gathering Realm whenever she wished. It was a feeling she had felt when she was in the process of running away from home.

This feeling, however, was much different.

She had been sensing it all day. A pressure in her lower abdomen. A heat that wasn't from exertion. A subtle thrum in her veins.

The first stage of the Qi Gathering Realm was about unlocking the dantian. The dantian is the spiritual center of the body where energy can be stored and refined. Most cultivators struggled for days, weeks, even months to break through. Some would never break through. In fact, the majority did not have the talent to naturally break through. The difference between refining the body and wielding and containing spiritual energy is a vast one. One is still a stronger mortal. The other, someone that has officially embarked on being able to use heaven for one's own purposes.

No matter the struggles of other people, for Lian Xue, this breakthrough felt as easy as breathing.

She exhaled slowly and drew her awareness inward. Down through her chest, past the stomach, to the space just beneath her navel.

She could feel an emptiness there. It almost felt like an empty container of sorts.

With simply the smallest intent from her, she felt as if she had caused a dam to break as the spiritual energy of the world, the very breath of heaven and earth, rushed into her like a river seeks the sea.

Lian Xue's body trembled, not in fear or pain, but awe. She had ascended! She had done it! She had reached the Qi Gathering Realm!

As she continued picturing her insides through her senses, she both felt it and saw it with her mind's eye.

A soft flower bloomed and unfolded in her core. Pale petals spiraled into view, ghostly and luminous, spinning gently within the energy of her dantian.

"The Lotus…" she whispered aloud. It was delicate and beautiful, but she could already feel its strength. It was her father's legacy. Everyone in the Lian Clan would inherit this martial spirit.

Even as she marveled, another shape began to form beside it.

It shimmered as she sat there in absolute shock.

The long, elegant body of a guzheng, with silver strings and a lacquered frame, emerged from the energy. Its strings vibrated in her mind as it seemed to play a melody all on its own.

She froze.

"That… that's not from Father…" she murmured.

An extremely rare dual manifestation had occured.

Martial spirits were blood-bound, passed from parent to child and most often inherited from the father. The chance of inheriting both parents' spirits was one in a billion.

The more martial spirits you had, the easier it was to absorb spiritual energy. They functioned as a magnet of sorts that would draw it in. Additionally, martial spirits would complement and augment martial arts. The more you had, the more diverse your arts and ways to fight would be. There were only upsides to having more spirits and no downsides.

Her lotus was a great example of that. The Lotus Palm was made to be used in conjunction with the martial spirit. Together, they would only be more powerful.

As for something like the guzheng, it was more complicated. While the lotus spirit would assist in martial arts, the guzheng would display its might in ranged spells. One could impact the very minds and souls of opponents with the guzheng. 

As far as Lian Xue knew, her clan only had one musical score in the library that could function in conjunction with this spirit. Her father once said it was a gift from her mother.

Right, my mother...

If the lotus came from her father, the guzheng naturally had to come from her mother.

Did she leave that musical piece just for me? Surely not, right? She couldn't have known I would inherit that spirit.

More questions were popping up than answers.

I have to go ask father. I will reveal the truth about my current strength. I need to know about my mother!

Before she could get up, she was forced to sit down in even more shock than when the guzheng manifested in her dantian.

From the edge of the swirling energy, a vast crimson appeared, and with sudden force, a sinuous shape broke through.

It was a serpent.

Blood-red and gleaming like molten ruby, the serpent uncurled with grace and power. It didn't simply float, it moved. It swam through her dantian as if it had always belonged, its body elegant and terrifying. Its eyes glinted with something close to sentience as it circled the lotus and guzheng like a guardian or a predator.

Lian Xue gasped.

As it swam, Lian Xue began to feel a little bit of fear towards the unknown. Martial spirits were only manifestations of the things that exist in all creation. Animals, weapons, ancestral phantoms, celestial phenomena, and even abstract concepts could be martial spirits. The difference was that the animals and plants, while graceful, never appeared to be alive.

The serpent, however, seemed alive as it swam in her body.

As she observed more, she gasped.

The serpent stopped swimming and seemingly stared directly at her before continuing its leisurely adventure in her dantian.

She had three martial spirits.

One from her father, the other presumably from her mother, and the last most definitely from the cultivation method she found in that cave.

She had never heard of something like this happening. Cultivation methods never gave someone another martial spirit. Maybe she was simply a frog in the well, but it scared her nonetheless.

Am I forming a life in my dantian?

The simple thought of that was enough to terrify her.

She didn't know whether this would be a good thing or a bad thing.

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The next day, after her morning training with Bai Mu, she sought her father out immediately.

The morning sun filtered softly through the paper windows of Lian Chengwu's study, casting golden rays across the polished floor. The air smelled faintly of incense and ink, as it always did. Lian Chengwu sat behind his desk, quietly reading over a stack of clan documents, his brows furrowed. He hadn't slept much in recent days as his daughter's return had brought him joy, yes, but also fear. There was no telling what the elders might do next.

The knock at the door was quiet, deliberate.

"Enter," he called, assuming it was a servant.

But when the door slid open and Lian Xue stepped in, his eyes widened.

She stood straighter than usual, her posture strong, her steps steady. The morning light caught her just right, illuminating the faint shimmer of strength that now seemed to radiate from her. She wore the same robes, the same blindfold, and yet something was different.

He set the scroll aside, rising to his feet. "Xue'er?" 

"Father, we need to talk. Do you have time?"

He placed the document he had been reading down.

"I always have time for you. What do you need?"

"I broke through," she said simply.

He blinked. "What?"

"I reached the Qi Gathering Realm last night."

The words hit him like a falling mountain. His knees nearly buckled beneath him.

"W-What?" he echoed, stepping around the desk as though he hadn't heard her properly the first time. "How? You had no cultivation, not even a spark. How is that possible?"

Instead of answering with words, Lian Xue raised her hand and made a tight fist.

Then she punched forward toward the air itself.

The strike was clean, silent… and then the sound followed.

A loud bang split the air like a thunderclap, a sharp gust rippling outward from her fist as if space itself had bent to her will. Papers rustled on the desk and a few fell from it. A nearby lantern rattled on its hook. The spiritual force wasn't visible, but its presence could be felt. It was dense, overwhelming, and terrifyingly focused.

He stared at her, stunned, unable to speak. For a moment, all he could do was watch the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she lowered her arm.

"Damn!" he cursed.

All he could do was curse. He was shocked so much, he couldn't form proper thoughts. It took a good while for him to calm down enough to speak.

"Xue'er…" His voice trembled. "You really… You've cultivated Qi! You've opened your dantian!"

"I have," she said quietly. "The breakthrough was clean and the energy flows well."

He stepped forward, eyes wide, mouth half-open in disbelief and then, slowly, his joy faded.

"You came to tell me now?" he asked, voice quiet but tight. "I have been so worried about you. Why did you not tell me you could cultivate?"

"I didn't mean to upset you by it," she said, frowning slightly. "I wasn't hiding it either. I told you now didn't I?"

"I'm your father, Xue'er. I thought… after everything, we were past the secrets."

She lowered her head, lips pressing thin. "I'm sorry."

There was silence, tense and heavy.

Eventually, Lian Chengwu exhaled slowly and nodded. "Next time… don't keep something like this from me."

She nodded.

After a moment, she added, "There's something else."

He glanced up, wary.

"When I broke through, I saw my martial spirits. I have the lotus. I also have... a guzheng."

Silence descended in the room.

He stared at her, the color draining from his face. "A guzheng?" he whispered.

"Yes."

His legs nearly gave out as he sank into his seat. Lian Chengwu's lips parted, but no words came.

"That was her spirit, wasn't it?" Lian Xue asked quietly.

He didn't answer right away. He seemed lost. It seemed as though he was somewhere far away in a memory.

Then, barely above a whisper, he said, "Yes… That was your mother's spirit."

"Can you please tell me about her? I know next to nothing about her."

Yet another silence dropped in the room.

"She... I'm sorry Xue'er, I would if I could."

"Father, I have a right to—"

"I swore a Heavenly Oath..."

A Heavenly Oath. It was a pact made sort of like a contract. If the one that swears it breaks it, they would face the wrath of Heaven itself. 

"Who could make you swear a Heavenly Oath?"

"I can't say that either. Xue'er, as long as you get stronger, you will find out yourself. All I can tell you is that she is out there somewhere."

Lian Xue felt very complicated at the moment. Her thoughts were a mess.

"Father, I said I wouldn't keep things from you. There is something else you should know. I have a third martial spirit."

"WHAT?! Xue'er, don't fool around. I have never heard of a third martial spirit. Even having two is like encountering a phoenix or a dragon in the middle of the woods.

"Father, I am not joking. There is a serpent in my dantian. Moreover, it is strange. It feels alive."

Lian Chengwu was silent for a long moment.

Then he said, low and grim, "That's no ordinary spirit."

"I know."

"Does it… feel dangerous to you?"

Lian Xue considered. "Not dangerous. It feels powerful. It feels like it's waiting for something."

He gave a small nod, but unease lingered in his eyes.

"You're not the girl you were when you left, Xue'er."

"No," she agreed. "I don't think I'll ever be either."

Lian Chengwu looked at his daughter. As a father, he was proud. She was growing up.

He was also just a little heartbroken.