The morning air was sharp, cutting against Xu Tianyin's skin as he stood in the ruined courtyard. His body ached with every movement, bruises forming where Bai Yeming's unseen strikes had landed. But he did not complain.
Pain was no longer something to endure. It was something to understand.
He flexed his fingers, feeling the dull throb in his knuckles. The pain had not faded. It had settled deep inside him, and he could feel something shifting beneath it—something unformed, waiting to be grasped.
Bai Yeming watched him with silent approval. "Again."
Xu Tianyin braced himself.
A flicker—then impact.
His vision swam as another invisible force struck his ribs. He staggered but did not fall. He felt the pain settle, his body absorbing it like a vessel.
"Good." Bai Yeming's voice was calm. "Now, control it."
Control it?
Xu Tianyin inhaled sharply. He focused, feeling the raw ache in his chest. It pulsed like a second heartbeat, but instead of draining him, it was fuel.
He shifted his stance, adjusting instinctively.
Bai Yeming's next strike came—faster this time.
Xu Tianyin moved.
It was not a perfect dodge, but the attack that should have sent him to the ground only forced him back a step. The pain flared and settled once more, a steady burn beneath his skin.
His breath came quicker now. His heart pounded.
He could do this.
His mind was no longer drowning in agony—it was learning.
Bai Yeming studied him. "You are beginning to see."
Xu Tianyin swallowed. "What… what is this?"
She crossed her arms. "The body rejects pain. It fears it, resists it. But you…" Her gaze sharpened. "You accept it."
Xu Tianyin stared at his hands. His body should have been screaming in agony. Instead, he felt—stronger.
"What does that mean?"
"It means you do not cultivate like others. You never will."
Xu Tianyin had always known that, but hearing it aloud still left a hollow feeling in his chest. He had spent years trying to fit into a world that had cast him aside. Now, Bai Yeming was confirming what he had already begun to understand.
But then she said something else.
"And that is why you will surpass them."
His breath caught.
Bai Yeming gestured to the ground. "Sit."
Xu Tianyin obeyed, lowering himself onto the cracked stone. The pain settled around him like a cloak.
"Close your eyes," she instructed.
He hesitated, then did as she said.
"Now," her voice was quieter now, almost like a whisper carried by the wind, "listen to your wounds."
Xu Tianyin focused.
At first, all he could hear was the wind, the distant rustling of trees. But then—
A steady pulse.
It was not his heartbeat.
It was something deeper.
A rhythm within the pain itself.
His body was not merely enduring these wounds—it was changing.
His breathing slowed. The aches, the bruises, the deep-set exhaustion—they were no longer weights dragging him down. They were part of him, part of his very being.
And then—he felt something shift.
The pain did not fade, but it no longer felt like suffering.
It felt like cultivation.
Xu Tianyin's eyes snapped open.
Bai Yeming was watching him, a rare glint of satisfaction in her gaze.
"You have taken your first step."
Xu Tianyin exhaled, his mind racing. His path would not be like anyone else's. He would not refine qi, would not absorb the heavens' energy like those who had rejected him.
He would scar himself upon the void—and grow stronger from it.
He clenched his fists.
This was only the beginning.