Chapter 231: To Feel is to See

Chapter 231: To Feel is to See

The darkness closed around me like a second skin. The absence of sight wasn’t silence anymore. It was a pressure. A space. A landscape I had to walk without feet.

I breathed in, slow and steady, and felt the world unfold around me through other threads.

Touch. The tension of damp moss underfoot. The subtle give of earth when a heel shifted its weight. The brush of air that moved just slightly wrong before a strike.

Smell. Morning dew clinging to bark. My own sweat, sour and sharp, thickening with each clash.

Hearing. I could tell when Ren Zhi inhaled through his nose. The way his robe fluttered a heartbeat before his foot pivoted. The ghost-step that always came three moves before a strike.

Qi sense, barely. It wasn’t Nature’s Attunement; I kept that sealed, shoved down, trying to retrain my instincts away from dependency. That was too much like sight. Too easy to fall back on. Ren Zhi would feel it. And he’d cuss me out for that.

A step. A shift. A breath—

I ducked.

Something sliced through the air above me with barely a whisper. I twisted into a roll, caught the scent of grass mid-turn, pushed off a root I couldn’t see and pivoted sideways. Only to be caught by a sweeping kick I hadn’t accounted for. My ribs folded in on themselves with the impact, and I hit the ground hard, air exploding from my lungs.

“You hesitated,” he said flatly.

I gritted my teeth and groaned, arms shaking as I pushed myself upright again.

“Too much weight on your front foot,” he continued. “And your hearing’s still compensating too slow.”

He stepped back. I heard the grass whisper where he moved.

“We’re done.”

“No,” I rasped.

The word came without thinking. My body screamed otherwise, but my mind surged ahead, desperate to hold onto what I’d learned and what I was learning. I was so close. Just a few more tries, and I'd breakthrough.

I sat up straighter, blood thrumming through my ears. “Let me go a little longer. Please.”

Ren Zhi didn’t reply. There was a moment of silence, and I feared he'd reject my request.

“You’re not just doing this for yourself, are you?”

It caught me off guard.

My breath hitched. “Of course I am. Why else would I be pushing this hard?”

He didn’t answer. Just let the silence draw out like thread between us.

“No,” he said finally. “You’re not. Not really. That’s what you tell yourself. But what is this for, really?”

I started to protest—but the words caught in my throat.

“I...” I hesitated. “If I break through, it’ll give me more time. Less rest. Less strain. I can refine faster. Think faster. Get to the cure quicker. That’s why—”

“Why bear that weight?”

He stepped closer; just enough for me to feel the air shift, his voice low.

“Why take it all on yourself? Why run around feeding your garden, treating the sick, explaining to children why the water tastes bitter, when you could be in seclusion right now—purifying yourself? Creating a version of the cure that only works on you?”

I swallowed.

“Because I’d never forgive myself if I let them die.”

“That’s not righteousness,” he said, voice hardening. “That’s fear. And maybe a little arrogance.”

I felt something rise in me; something quiet but firm. “You think I’m arrogant? For wanting to save lives?”

“I think,” Ren Zhi said, circling again, “you carry people’s expectations like they’re your birthright. Like their hope gives you permission to burn yourself alive. Do you think that’s courage?”

I didn’t answer.

“I’ve seen that kind of burden break people,” Ren Zhi said. “Turn them into statues for others to worship, and graves for themselves to lie in. You think you’re immune to that?”

There was something bitter in the way he said that last part. I surmised whoever he was talking about... it hadn't ended well.

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A breeze rustled the leaves around us.

There was no sharpness in his voice. Just weariness.

I looked down at my shaking hands. Without my sight, I couldn’t see them—but I could feel the tremors.

“So what?” I snapped. “You want me to give up? You do realize if I fail here, you'll also be affected? This sickness isn't just something you can cure with a wave of your hands, no matter how powerful you are.”

Ren Zhi didn’t answer.

“I want to understand,” he said instead. “Why you keep going. Why you refuse to stop, even when your legs are trembling and your lungs can’t draw breath. Enlighten me.”

I exhaled. Closed my eyes.

But something twisted in my gut. The words that rose weren’t calm or reflective. They were raw.

“You really want to know?” I said, voice rising. “Why I don’t stop?”

I pushed myself to my feet, fists clenched at my sides.

“Because if I stop, people die. Tianyi's already sick. Windy too. This village will fall. If I stop, you—even you, start getting sick like the rest of us and end up too sick to hide in your quiet corner. Even with that trick to slow your circulation.”

My voice cracked. I didn’t care.

“So don’t stand there and ask me whether I’m doing this for me or for them. I don’t have the luxury of asking that question. I don’t get to make it about one or the other. Because if I don't find a cure, everyone dies.”

The words hung between us like smoke.

Just silence.

I breathed hard. My hands were shaking again, not from strain; but from everything that had been piling up for weeks.

Then the storm passed.

And all that was left was the truth.

I let my shoulders drop as all the frustration and anger left my body. My voice softened.

“But you're right,” I muttered. “I’m terrified all the time. I hate seeing people hurt. I hate burying them even more. But somewhere along the way... I chose it. People stopped looking to Elder Ming, or Jian Feng, or whoever else. They started looking to me.”

I inhaled. Steadied.

“I’m not trying to be a hero. Not anymore. Maybe once. I used to believe in stories like that. The ones written by Liang Feng, where the hero would step up to the occasion and deliver every single time. No matter the odds. No matter the opponent. They never wavered. Not even once.”

For a moment, I heard his breath hitch. A shift in his breathing. But he didn't say anything, so I continued.

“I'm nothing like that. But if I can hold on a little longer... if I can be a light for someone, then I’ll keep going. Not because anyone expects it. Not because it’s written in some prophecy. But because it’s my Dao. And I won’t turn away from it.”

I turned toward him; or where I thought he was since I couldn't see.

“Is that enough of an answer?”

The silence after that was long.

Then Ren Zhi exhaled.

A soft, almost imperceptible laugh escaped him; dry, rough around the edges.

Then, softly, he said, “Get ready. I’m not going easy on you.”

I didn’t respond.

I just dropped into stance.

My breath steadied. My focus narrowed. All the noise, the self-doubt, the whirlwind of thoughts—I let them go.

The world became sensation.

Every footfall, every gust of wind, every errant vibration through the soil; each one stitched into the map I’d built inside my head. Not perfect. Not yet.

Ren Zhi moved like smoke through branches, silent in ways no man should be. And still, I felt him.

A whisper of breeze to the left. But the warmth of body heat was to my right.

'Conflicting.'

A trick.

I didn’t bite. Instead, I stilled, felt for the next cue.

The moss under my foot compressed unevenly, tension shifting just a hair. A wrongness in the rhythm of the air.

I stepped back.

A blow missed my ribs by a hairsbreadth. I could feel his knuckles brush up my robes.

Then another came, faster. No sound. No warning.

Just the sudden smell of disturbed grass. The echo of heat displacement. A breath caught in motion.

I twisted, letting my robe swirl around me. The Sevenfold Essence Chains beneath my robe jingled as I moved.

At the beginning it had thrown me off. The subtle noise of chain links rubbing against each other made it impossible to isolate anything. But now, I listened to it differently.

Every motion I made triggered that sound. Which meant... every place the sound wasn't coming from was a place Ren Zhi could be.

He tried to throw that off, too.

I heard a footstep to my left. But the wind came from behind. The air shouldn't have been moving that way unless...

I dropped flat, rolled forward on instinct.

Something whistled through the space where my head had just been. Too fast. Too smooth.

"Oho!"

I could feel his grin in the air, even if I couldn’t see it.

Another flicker of misdirection; he stepped down hard behind me, a stamp that sounded like a preparation to leap.

But my ears told me the force was too light. No leap. A feint.

'What was real?'

I stopped trying to guess.

I started to listen to all of it, not in isolation.

Touch, scent, breath, the jingle of my armor, the tension in the dirt, the contradiction between heat and airflow. I began to weave them together; not like a set of individual clues, but as layers of the same image. The exchanges became faster and faster; sweat poured down my body as I was forced to utilize everything I had and more, just to keep up.

Like threads of fabric. Woven too loosely at first. But now pulled taut.

And there he was.

A slight intake of breath. Not enough to locate. But enough to warn.

I braced low, let the air guide me.

The pressure dipped.

The air twisted.

And without thinking—without hesitation—I moved.

My arm snapped up. Open palm. No flourish. No wild strike.

A purely calculated one.

My fingers curled around his wrist.

It locked into place with a finality I hadn’t felt in hours. Not a desperate parry. Not a hopeful block. A read. A choice.

I read the field. And I chose right.

He didn’t pull back. Didn’t say anything.

And then, it clicked.

Not in the air. Not in the space around me. But inside me.

A sensation like my entire being melding into liquid. Like something that had been locked for years finally yielding. My body surged.

Your Body has reached Qi Initiation Stage - Rank 5

Your overall cultivation rank is now at Essence Awakening Stage - Rank 1

It wasn’t loud.

And suddenly, I understood.

My body didn’t explode with strength. There was no storm of qi, no bright flash like with Tianyi's ascenscion to Essence Awakening. Just... alignment.

Everything slotted into place.

Mind. Body. Qi. Not equal. Not symmetrical. But in harmony.

Every breath felt purposeful. Every heartbeat precise. Qi moved smoother now, too. Not just through my meridians, but with my breath, rising and falling like an undercurrent to everything I did. The blockage Ren Zhi had placed on my third eye acupoint was loosening.

My vision returned.

And the world wasn’t brighter. It was closer.

Edges were crisper. Distances clearer. The dim moonlight refracted off morning dew like a diagram. I could see where a single blade of grass curved wrong. I could feel the inertia of the world. Where everything belonged.

I exhaled, and even that felt different.

Ren Zhi’s wrist was still in my grasp. I released it. For a moment, I could see his hand tremble. It vanished as soon as I noticed.

His eyes remained closed, but he tilted his head slightly, studying me.

“Welcome to the next stage,” he said.

He didn’t sound surprised.

Just... satisfied.

I stood there, heart steady, my breath measured. The Amethyst Plague hadn’t disappeared. The fatigue still gnawed at the edges. But it was distant. Manageable.

“I didn’t think it would feel like this,” I said softly.

Ren Zhi snorted. “What, you expected fireworks?”

“Honestly?” I said, smiling faintly, “I expected to pass out.”

“You still might. You've pushed yourself hard.”

He stepped back, brushing dirt from his sleeve, then paused. I could tell he was about to say more, but didn’t.

Instead, he just said, “Hold onto that feeling. It fades.”

I nodded.

He turned to leave, but something in me still pulsed with urgency.

“Ren Zhi,” I called.

He paused.

“I meant what I said earlier. This path I’ve chosen... it’s not because I want to be someone. It’s because I’ve seen what happens when no one steps forward. And I won’t let that happen here.”

He didn’t respond immediately.

Then, over his shoulder, he said, “Then I hope your spine is stronger than mine was.”

And just like that, he walked off back to the Soaring Swallow, leaving me alone with my thoughts, and my newfound status.

HEAVENLY INTERFACE: KAI LIU

PERK(S):

Interface Manipulator - Allows manipulation of the Heavenly Interface and access to special features.

Dao Pioneer - Grants a unique status softens the rigid thresholds that usually constrain skill acquisition and evolution, allowing for more fluid and spontaneous development of skills and cultivation techniques.

Race: Human

Vitality: Sufficient

PRIMARY

Affinity - Wood and Fire

Cultivation Rank: Essence Awakening Stage - Rank 1

QI: Essence Awakening Stage - Rank 2 (...)

MIND: Essence Awakening Stage - Rank 1 (...)

BODY: Qi Initiation Stage - Rank 5 (...)

SKILLS

Herbal Sage Alchemy - 1 (...)

Nature's Attunement - 9 (...)

Mind's Eye Reading - 1 (...)

Cultivation Techniques:

Rooted Banyan Stance - 7 (...)

Vermilion Lotus Refinement - 1 (...)

Bamboo Reprisal Counter - 1 (...)

Manifold Memory Palace Technique - 1 (...)

Refinement Simulation Technique - 1 (...)

Heavenly Flame Mantra - 5 (...)

Black Tortoise’s Endurance - 1 (...)

Currency:

Technique Token - 1