Chapter 3: The Inner World
The thing about meditation is that it gives you way too much time to think. Sitting cross-legged on my narrow bed, trying to focus on the pulsing light in my chest that apparently represented my spiritual core, my mind kept wandering to increasingly existential questions. Like, was I technically stealing this cultivation potential from the original Ke Yin? Was his soul floating around somewhere, annoyed that some random guy from Earth had hijacked his chance at immortality?
"Focus," I muttered to myself, rolling the Spirit Resonance Bead between my fingers. It had been a week since that first morning assembly, and while I could now reliably sense my core, I hadn't made much progress beyond that. Wei Lin, naturally, was already talking about something called 'core expansion,' while dropping not-so-subtle hints about special techniques his family could teach me—for a price, of course.
The jade bead pulsed with soft blue light in response to my spiritual energy, a rhythm I'd grown familiar with over countless hours of practice. Close your eyes, regulate your breathing, feel the connection between the bead and the light in your chest...
Something shifted.
The sensation was subtle at first, like a change in air pressure before a storm. The pulsing light that represented my core seemed to... unfold? That's not quite the right word, but spiritual phenomena have a way of defying normal description. It was as if I'd been looking at a point of light head-on all this time, and suddenly shifted perspective to see it had depth.
Warning!
Initiating Inner World Formation Protocol...
The text appeared in my mind like a heads-up display in a video game, glowing blue characters floating in the darkness behind my closed eyes. What the...?
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