The following weeks settled into a rhythm. Every three or four days, Yuming and his fellow juniors would visit the Ancestral Hall. Each time, he’d hold the token to his navel and feel the Tree’s attention through the incense smoke.

  Every three or four days, more fragments of the branch mark would slip through Yuming’s fault line. Yuming slowly felt the thread turn into a root, anchoring between his two selves.

  Qin Yueshan watched him with increasing curiosity. Her gaze never quite turned into action, but she recorded him carefully.

  Yuming watched her in turn. He learned eventually that the lady hailed from the prominent Jingquan Sect—one of the Five Great Sects of Zhao State. Her status was even higher than a normal Liu Family Qi Condensation cultivator.

  Liu Mingchen found a quiet bench in the Ancestral Hall to spend his days, watching aimlessly, waiting for the program to end so that he could get back to whatever it was he wanted to do. The Zhan cultivator—probably Tianjue—faded away as well. For the first few weeks Yuming noticed a constant watching-pressure, but by the third week the weight began to lift.

  By the sixth week, it had become sporadic.

  At night, alone in his guest quarters he attempted to thread his Ren and Du into a microcosmic orbit; with the help of some of Liu Jinghan’s gifts he succeeded quickly.

  The twelve meridians opened next. Because Ren and Du acted as guides, opening them was easy. He used the orbit’s current to tap each channel, introduce a flow, and held steadily until the opening was complete.

  Meridian Unblocking was complete.

  His circulation was incredibly stable for his cultivation level. With practice and precision, he began forming the basin—the proto-dantian. He could feel it in his lower abdomen: a quiet pit where the momentum of the orbit naturally pooled.

  The external qi pressure from the Ancestral Tree Ritual accelerated his progress. Additionally, the Unbroken Ledger’s Spiritual Opening method grew less difficult after Du was opened. Still, he knew he needed a spark—an ignition—to truly awaken his dantian. And as of now, he didn’t have that spark at all.

  The Wen grandson finally stopped hiding. His name was Wen Changyi; he turned eight a week after Yuming arrived. After a few weeks of watching the Liu juniors from the doorways, he started appearing openly when Yuming was in the compound.

  Yuming would wave to him sometimes. He never waved back, but he stopped running away.

  Liu Zhong seemed to find his groove. He did well in sessions, he was disciplined and diligent. His eyes made note of all the small privileges Yuming received: the slightly better room assignment, the way Mingchen addressed him with more respect, the periodic resources he’d receive from Zhenyuan.

  Liu Zhong never confronted Yuming. Only when he was alone would he clench his fists until they’d turn pale.

  Liu Zhong was pleasantly surprised to find that Liu Tianjue sent him a Meridian Soothing Pill and a few other spiritual items of varying values.

  My hard work is starting to pay off. I’m finally being recognized.

  Finally, the eighth week arrived.

  Yuming felt that his basin was nearly complete—he was only missing the spark to ignite it. He hadn’t received resources for it, so he figured that either Zhan or Xu didn’t want to see him awaken his dantian.

  As Yuming cultivated, Qin Yueshan awoke from a session of meditation and changed into her pale blue robes. She conjured a small cloud of mist and watered the plants growing in her room.

  Sigh. It was time for another Ancestral Tree session.

  Qin Yueshan didn’t enjoy playing the role of auditor, especially in this boring, rural place. She didn’t even have an immortal cave here, just a fancy room on top of a spiritual vein.

  But Jingquan needed someone watching the Liu Family, and she had drawn the assignment.

  The official story was that the Liu Family was testing tributary trees for contamination.

  The Jingquan Sect knew better.

  They were extracting. Harvest Qi, yes, but also karma. It was a closed system that witnessed its own legitimacy, that made the Liu trunk heavier and the tributary clans thinner with every cycle.

  Jingquan's power came from purification jurisdiction. The Liu network threatened that.

  So Yueshan documented, filed variances, and built a case that might matter in ten years or never.

  Qin Yueshan supposed it was important work. But it was mind-numbingly boring.

  She arrived at the Ancestral Hall just as the juniors were taking their positions. She recorded the formation’s resonance patterns with a slim jade slip.

  First position—Normal. Second Position—Normal. Third position—

  She paused. It was that Liu boy again, there was always a slight variance with him. Not contamination, nor deviation, but something different.

  After the first session she investigated and learned that the boy had an Earth-grade root. She supposed that explained the anomaly.

  The smell of incense thickened and the session began. Harvest Qi rose from the roots and flowed through the braided lattice, in the same pattern she’d documented dozens of times over. Then her instrument flickered.

  She frowned and swept it across the formation. Three of the nodes were reading strangely. This hadn’t been there last session… and the discoloration seemed darker than before. Was it formation drift? A buildup of residue?

  She glanced over to Liu Mingchen, whose eyes were closed in meditation, not noticing the abnormalities.

  The Liu Family certainly didn’t send their strongest, she mused.

  The protocol told her to stop the session and investigate the source of the problem. But it also meant a confrontation with Liu Mingchen. And a lot of paperwork.

  Worse, she’d have to explain why she didn’t notice anything wrong earlier.

  Technically, the formation was still functioning within acceptable parameters.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Yuming felt that something was wrong before he understood why.

  The texture of the Harvest Qi was slightly different today, slightly sharper. He felt it in his fault line. The Wen Tree’s fragment that had lodged itself inside over the past two months seemed to shudder—as if recognizing something foreign.

  This wasn’t the Wen Tree.

  Something else was threading through the flow, some signal riding the Harvest Qi to come in. The signal felt ancient and structured; it was as if it spoke some outdated dialect that he couldn’t understand.

  The fault line recoiled. The crack between Yuming and Chenming narrowed.

  He glanced around. Liu Zhong continued to breathe steadily. The other juniors looked as they always did.

  He glanced at Qin Yueshan, who was frowning as always. It didn’t seem like she’d noticed anything, either.

  No—she was glancing at her jade slip more frequently than she usually did. Maybe she did notice something.

  Yuming had learned that the woman came from the prominent Jingquan Sect. He didn’t know what she was doing here, but he knew she was closer to being a foe than a friend.

  This feeling… it’s not Wen or Liu, it’s something entirely different. A third party.

  If something bad happened, he would probably be sent back to Zhenyuan immediately. There, he would have no chance to condense himself in a direction he chose.

  Unless Jingquan won’t let me leave.

  Yuming waited for a few more seconds, feeling the fragment in his fault line rattle with increasing magnitude.

  Yuming felt it was time.

  He pressed his token against his navel and began cycling qi through it intensely.

  He instinctively matched the contaminated qi pattern for a moment before canceling it out. To anyone watching with spiritual sense, it would look as if his meridians briefly resonated with the contamination.

  Qin Yueshan’s head snapped towards him.

  Good.

  Then, the lattice started fluctuating wildly.

  At the first node, Liu Yuhao started convulsing wildly, foam at his lips. Liu Zhong at the second position doubled over, choking.

  The braids of the lattice continued falling like dominoes.

  Yuming’s intense cycling prior to the collapse saved him from the worst of it. He let his node hold for an extra moment before coughing and pretending to fall over.

  Qin Yueshan’s gaze didn’t leave him for a second. She ignored the other juniors and stared at him, using her spiritual sense to carve notes into her jade slip.

  Good. I just need to stay here and let the evidence accumulate.

  But Liu Qingyu was seizing.

  Her body convulsed as contradicting resonance marks tore at her. Qin Yueshan wasn’t planning on doing anything. Liu Mingchen was just opening her eyes.

  Mingchen will save her, he’s not going to let anyone die…

  But seeing her body contort, Yuming couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. The blurred fault line let Chenming contaminate his thinking.

  So he ran, finding the channel that connected Qingyu to the tree. He pulled quickly, drawing the contamination out of her channels and into his own, letting the foreign signal flood into the crack between his two selves.

  His vision whitened. He felt Liu Qingyu stop seizing as her breath steadied.

  Yuming fell onto the floor, coughing genuinely this time.

  Yuming lay on the floor, contamination burning through his channels. Through his blurred vision, he saw Liu Mingchen finally moving. His complacency shattered, and his hands worked the formation controls to shut everything down.

  The formation glow died, and the juniors slumped in their positions. Barely conscious—but still breathing.

  Qin Yueshan was fixed to her spot, her eyes still locked on Yuming.

  “So that’s what it is,” she murmured.

  Wen Yuanfeng frantically rushed down the stairs, his grandson Wen Changyi clutched against his chest and his face pale.

  “The children— are they—”

  “Alive.” Mingchen responded. “Grab some healers.”

  The next minutes were chaos. Wen clan members carried the unconscious juniors up the stairs. A physician arrived and began examining them one by one. Liu Zhong’s face regained color first. He was furious, demanding to know what had happened.

  Liu Qingyu remained unconscious but stable.

  Yuming slumped against the wall, letting the physician examine him without resistance. The contamination had left scars that would take weeks to heal.

  But the proto-dantian in his lower abdomen was pulsing. The violent pressure had carved it deeper.

  That alone makes it almost worth it.

  After Mingchen left the room, Qin Yueshan approached Yuming.

  She frowned.

  “You knew in advance.” She declared, not leaving any room for negotiation.

  Yuming gave a look of being slighted, then stumbled over his words.

  “S-Senior, this Junior was only trying to protect himself after he felt something was wrong.”

  “You did more than just protect yourself. You resonated with the contamination before canceling it.” She held up a jade slip. “I have the readings.”

  “This Junior doesn’t understand what that means.”

  “Your qi recognized the signal before you rejected it.” Her eyes were cold. “How would—”

  Before she could continue, a pressure descended. Qin Yueshan felt it, Yuming did too.

  It was familiar, the watching-weight he’d felt for weeks. The hairs on Yuming’s neck rose.

  Qin Yueshan had her thinking confirmed. As I thought, the Liu Family is using him. They probably had someone stationed here watching him the whole time.

  Liu Tianjue descended the stairs.

  His bright crimson robes contrasted with the dark waxed floors of the Ancestral Hall. He was studying a jade slip in his palm—probably a recording of the event that Liu Mingchen had given him.

  Tianjue’s gaze fell briefly on Liu Zhong, then settled on Yuming.

  Liu Zhong excitedly rushed up towards him. “This Junior greets Uncle Tianjue!”

  Tianjue nodded briefly towards Liu Zhong, before his attention returned to Yuming, who greeted him as well.

  Tianjue spoke to Qin Yueshan. “Fellow Daoist, this junior needs medical attention at Zhenyuan. I’ll escort him personally.”

  Liu Zhong’s eyes brightened before he realized that Tianjue was talking about Yuming. He cursed Yuming in his heart, bowed, and walked out of the room with his fists clenched slightly.

  “No.” Qin Yueshan answered.

  She stepped forward, positioning herself between Tianjue and Yuming.

  “This junior is a witness to formation sabotage. He stays until Jingquan completes its investigation. I hope you understand, Fellow Daoist.”

  Tianjue shook his head.

  “Jingquan has no authority over Liu Family members.”

  “I have reason to suspect that this karmic irregularity existed to supersede the monitoring of my Jingquan Sect. Fellow Daoist, would taking this junior away not be an admission of guilt?”

  Tianjue clenched his teeth. If that was truly the case the consequences would be severe. Jingquan didn’t care about the Liu Family stealing Harvest Qi from various clans, but if they were rerouting karma that was a different matter.

  The Liu Family might be forced to drop the Ancestral Tree program entirely.

  The problem was—the Liu Family was truly innocent!

  Is my Liu Family not trustworthy?

  Tianjue suspected that the true culprits were those well-dressed beasts from the Jingquan Sect. Perhaps they wanted to make things difficult for Liu Wanxiu, or claim tighter control over karma.

  Tianjue's expression didn't change. "The Liu Family claims nothing. But this junior requires treatment that the Wen compound cannot provide."

  "The contamination in his channels is stable, I've examined him myself." Qin Yueshan smiled thinly. "He's in no immediate danger. Unlike the evidence he's carrying, which might become... compromised if he's removed from my observation."

  Tianjue pulled out a jade slip. “Fellow Daoist, you’re joking. I watched the recording. The junior was sitting normally, then he heroically acted to save the life of his junior sister.”

  Tianjue continued. “If anything, he should be rewarded.”

  Qin Yueshan frowned. “I saw him acting strangely before, and his readings have been slightly off for the past two months. I have more than enough evidence for my Sect to conclude that wrongdoing occurred.”

  Tianjue’s eyes narrowed. “You’re suggesting that a fourteen year old modified a formation he hasn’t studied, for reasons you can’t articulate?”

  As the two argued, Yuming thought about who the true culprit was.

  From the resonance, it didn’t feel like my Liu Family… I would have recognized it. Maybe it really was Jingquan?

  Qin Yueshan continued, “The junior has questions to answer. And the fact that your Liu Family is so eager to remove him is all the more evidence that he was involved.”

  Qin Yueshan paused, then spoke more carefully.

  "An Earth-grade root is rare." She looked at Yuming, then back at Tianjue. "It means he has more weight than a normal junior. He can hold more."

  Tianjue's expression flickered, which didn’t go unnoticed by Yuming.

  "In a normal tributary session, karma flows from the branch tree through the juniors and into the Liu trunk. My instruments record all of it." She held up her jade slip. "But if some of that karma stayed inside a junior instead of flowing through—a junior heavy enough to hold it—then he could simply walk back to Mount Zhenyuan carrying what my records say never left."

  Her gaze grew heavier. Tianjue fell silent for a moment.

  Meanwhile, Yuming’s mind was racing.

  My Earth-grade root gives me more weight? In what… the Sea of Suffering?

  He looked at Tianjue’s complicated expression.

  Is the Zhan Branch trying to strap me with karma?