Chapter 250: Testing Out The Skills
Now more than ever, Han Yu felt like his path—though twisted and strange—was beginning to connect. Soul Qi, rogue manuals, and forgotten knowledge. Maybe he wasn’t lost in the dark after all. Maybe he was just... on a different road.
He smiled to himself and blew out the lantern.
Tomorrow, he’d test the theory. Fingers first.
The next morning, Han Yu woke up early with the eagerness of a child testing a new toy and the wariness of a cultivator experimenting with volatile Soul Qi.
After a quick breakfast and some tea brewed from dried peach blossom leaves—an acquired taste he had yet to get used to—he cleared the center of the room in his inn, rolled up the simple rug, and sat cross-legged on the wooden floor.
The book, Secrets of the Needle Finger Alchemist, rested beside him. Its cracked spine and faded lettering belied the strange insights within. Han Yu opened it to a page he had marked the previous night and reread the section describing the basic Finger Needle Technique.
"The cultivator must guide the True Essence into the tip of the finger until it becomes as fine as silk, as sharp as the invisible breath of a snake, and still as moonlight."
Poetic, vague, and entirely unhelpful—unless you already knew what you were doing. Thankfully, Han Yu had experience with channeling Soul Qi. Not only that, but he had even learned a Soul Skill called Soul Needle during his earlier breakthroughs, a ranged ability that allowed him to fire threads of soul power to stun or damage opponents at a distance.
"Quite similar..." Han Yu muttered.
In theory, this Finger Needle technique was conceptually related—it involved Soul Qi, had "needle" in the name, and used concentrated, pinpoint application of force. But in practice, the similarities ended there.
Soul Needle was for long-range spiritual interference. Finger Needle was purely short-range and tactile. No visible projectiles. No obvious buildup of energy.