Chapter 140 — Returning to Origin
He entered the cultivation chamber beneath the floor tile a little past midnight, when the last cart had gone quiet on the street outside and even the river seemed to have slowed its voice for the night. The chamber was small, barely large enough to sit cross-legged with his knees clear of the earthen walls, warded with a formation he'd carved into the stone himself in the first weeks after arriving. A single ward-stone in the corner cast a faint, colorless light, just enough to see his own hands by. He settled into position, spine straight, breath slow, and let the three principles settle over his circulation together for the first time — structure beneath it, resonance threaded through it, and transmission guiding the qi's path rather than its destination.