It began in silence.
Li Jian stood barefoot on air, hovering above the city skyline. It was nighttime, but the clouds were glowing — washed in pale jade and gold, as if the stars were leaking color.
He looked down. Below him, the streets pulsed faintly. Lines of light curled between buildings like veins. Trees shimmered. Car headlights blinked like fireflies with rhythm.
Everything was… connected.
He took a step forward, weightless and the wind brushed past him, whispering faint notes. It sounded like guqin strings being plucked underwater.
Then a voice called from behind him.
"Look closely, disciple. Do you see the meridians of the world?"
He turned. Elder Sheng Tai stood on a floating calligraphy brush, robed in light, beard swirling in celestial wind.
"Qi flows through all things. The city is not dead — it breathes. It hums."
Li Jian opened his mouth to answer then his stomach suddenly growled.
⸻
He jolted awake with a gasp — drenched in sweat and tangled in his blanket.
The world was no longer glowing and weightless but his stomach definitely was.
Glorp.
"…Oh no."
Jian scrambled out of bed, slammed into the doorframe, and power-walked to the bathroom with the haunted, desperate speed of a man on the brink.
"Ah! The cleansing begins!" Sheng Tai's voice echoed from the smartphone charging next to his pillow.
"SHUT UP."
"This is excellent news!"
Jian barely made it to the toilet.
What followed could only be described as a spiritual evacuation.
⸻
Ten minutes later, he emerged pale, weak, trembling, and emotionally broken.
"Grandpa," he rasped. "I just saw my own soul leave my body."
"Yes! A successful detoxification!" Elder Sheng Tian replied
"I saw my regrets from third grade." Jian weakly replied
"Qi movement stirs ancient memories." Elder Sheng Tian immediately replied
"I saw a cabbage judge me."
"The vegetable spirits are always watching."
Jian collapsed onto the couch, clutching his hot water bottle like a war medal.
"You have begun your first meridian response."
"I began explosive diarrhea."
"Progress always begins with discomfort!"
He glared at the ceiling. "That should be the slogan on your cultivation manual."
⸻
Despite everything, Jian did notice something different.
The weird buzzing in his limbs hadn't gone away. His fingertips tingled. He touched a metal spoon and felt the faintest shock — not painful, just there.
His appetite returned by evening, and he moved like someone whose body was unfamiliar — light-footed, hypersensitive.
Even the air felt sharper. The lights dimmed slightly when he walked under them.
When he pressed a palm to the rice cooker, it vibrated.
"…Okay," he admitted. "Something's happening."
"Indeed. Your spiritual roots have awakened."
Jian narrowed his eyes. "So was this… diarrhea trial planned?"
"Not planned. But… statistically common."
"…You really are like a fantasy-themed health coach."
⸻
That night, Sheng Tai insisted on showing Jian a simplified map of his internal energy network.
He projected it onto the phone screen: a glowing diagram of a humanoid figure with strange lines running through it — down the arms, legs, spine, and chest.
Jian eyes squinted.
"…Why does this look like a subway map for a city run by caffeine addicts?"
"Each line is a channel of Qi. You have twelve major meridians and eight extraordinary ones."
"How many are working?"
"Currently? One. Slightly. It's like trying to breathe through a straw filled with wet rice."
Jian stared blankly. "Great. I have one wet straw."
"And a powerful stomach meridian, judging by today's performance." Sheng Tian sarcastically replied
"Can we never speak of that again?"
"The Dao demands honesty."
⸻
Jian spent the rest of the evening curled up in bed with a hot pack and a bowl of plain rice.
He wasn't quite ready for another alchemy attempt — or any more "Vitality Pills" that smelled like fruit gum and battery acid.
Sheng Tai, mercifully, kept quiet but around midnight, Jian sat up, rubbed his temples, and muttered:
"…I floated above the city."
"Yes?"
"It felt… calm. Like I wasn't me. Like I understood everything for one second."
"A dream of clarity."
"Was that… real?"
"Real enough to stir your meridians."
Jian exhaled.
He wasn't sure what that meant but somehow, the next time he looked out the window at the skyline, it did seem to breathe.
Just a little.