Chapter 32: 1° stage of the Qi Accumulation Realm
Cairen’s return to his room was a silent and heavy journey.
Each step echoed the mental exhaustion consuming him.
The scene with Ling, the struggle to restrain her under the extreme strain of the Veil of Blindness and the chain, had taken its toll.
The meal brought by the same servant as always was eaten without him truly tasting it. Yet, he consumed it all quickly.
Trying to replenish his strength. And then he collapsed onto the bed, sleep taking him almost instantly. It was a deep, dreamless slumber, closer to a faint than to true rest.
At dawn, he woke with his body rejuvenated, though his mind still carried remnants of tension. Without hesitation, ignoring the outside world and the complications Ling brought, Cairen sat on the floor.
Then he once again immersed himself in the technique Embrace of the Deep Ocean.
The ritual repeated itself, sit, close his eyes, feel the dense Qi of the castle, draw in the cold and serene current of the water element, guide it through his channels, and witness its slow yet inevitable transformation into fallen energy within his dantian.
Each drop of gray energy accumulated was another grain of sand in his foundation of power.
He cultivated until mental exhaustion forced him to stop. Ate. Slept. And upon waking again that same day, he did it all over.
There was no space for laziness or doubt. The promise of a new bloodline, of a qualitative leap in strength, was fuel more potent than anything else.
Two days passed in this monotonous yet dedicated cycle. Until, during one session, a different sensation arose.
His dantian, once a vessel that passively accepted energy, began to reject it.
Then an internal pressure grew, as if the very walls of his dantian were expanding under the weight of the accumulated energy.
It was a feeling both painful and euphoric. He felt full, overflowing.
He did not resist it. Instead, he channeled all his will, forcing the last wave of Qi to enter and transform, compacting into the fallen energy already within him.
It was like an explosion.
A sudden, profound silence overtook his being. Followed by a violent, silent expansion within.
His dantian had not merely emptied, it had been enlarged. The inner space had doubled in size.
Once more vast and empty, but now capable of holding far more.
The world around him seemed sharper. Colors grew even more vivid, the flow of Qi in the air clearer.
He had broken through the threshold.
And finally, he had stepped into the 1° stage of the Qi Accumulation Realm.
The joy of the achievement barely had time to warm him when the cold, familiar mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
’Ding!’
{Secondary Mission Completed!}
{Reward: Fallen Nhamara Bloodline (Grade 2)}
As the bloodline began to flow into him, suddenly... everything began to fade.
His eyes blinked, and he found only total darkness. Then, after blinking once more... he was in a completely new place.
Beneath his feet stretched a vast field covered in translucent flowers.
They swayed gently in the wind, but they were not silent.
Instead, a constant whisper filled the air. Broken words, fragmented memories, voices that belonged to no one in particular.
Cairen narrowed his eyes. Each flower seemed to emit a kind of sound.
He bent down, bringing his face close to one of them.
The petals vibrated, and then he heard, clear as if someone had spoken directly into his ear.
"I didn’t want to die!"
"My daughter... where is my daughter?"
"Please... don’t take her from me. Don’t take her!"
Cairen leapt back.
His heart raced. These were no illusions. The flowers were truly speaking. Each one carried a memory.
When he raised his gaze, he realized.
Around him, there were not dozens. They were thousands, tens of thousands, a lake of translucent flowers stretching as far as sight could reach.
And they all testified at once. A chorus of laments. It was like a living cemetery.
Cairen walked slowly. The more steps he took, the clearer the voices became.
The nearest flowers not only spoke but also showed images on their petals, like reflections on glass.
Faces, expressions frozen in despair, eyes wide, mouths screaming silently.
A chill ran down Cairen’s spine. It was like walking through a field of countless stolen memories.
The wind blew stronger. All the flowers trembled at once, and the voices that had once been fragments became a single chorus, so dense it made Cairen’s head throb.
"Help me!"
"DO NOT FORGET!"
"I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to, no, I don’t want to!"
"Why... why was I abandoned here?"
Cairen clenched his teeth. His body trembled. He felt those voices trying to invade his mind, as though the flowers were searching for something within his soul.
Then something changed.
Footsteps were heard.
Heavy, steady.
Cairen turned and realized he was not alone.
Two men were walking through the field. They did not see him, Cairen remained merely an invisible observer within that vision.
The two looked around with horrified expressions.
One of them, the younger, nearly stumbled, his breath faltering.
"By the heavens. What... what the hell are these things?"
"Why are they speaking?" he asked, half in disbelief and fear.
The other, older, carried a short blade at his waist, but his hand trembled.
He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and then answered in a low voice, as if afraid the flowers themselves would hear.
"This... this should be impossible..."
"These flowers... They are Nhamara Flowers. A species said to have gone extinct millennia ago."
The younger one’s eyes widened.
"Extinct? Why?"
"Because they shouldn’t exist." The older man swallowed hard.
"They absorb memories from all who pass near them. They store those memories... forever. They are a treasure for any cultivator. Whoever consumes these flowers can obtain the memories of warriors, sages, even forgotten gods... and more than that."
"The soul itself is strengthened. They can heal spiritual wounds, rebuild a broken mind. Some even say they increase the very essence of the soul to absurd proportions."