Chapter - 12 Heavenly Vein
"Aaaggghhh why is this so hard!?"
I wanted to punch something, maybe scream into a pillow--if I even had a pillow in this dream-limbo-space.
Visualising a path? Easy. ADHD-approved.
But slowly guiding qi through those paths?
Bro. That's like trying to thread a damn needle while riding a rollercoaster.
"I don't have time for this, dammit. Is this where it ends?"
I slumped--mentally.
My body back in the real world was probably just lying in a bed like fried chicken.
I didn't even get the chance to investigate that weird-ass tube and the symbol. The one that showed up before the lightning tried to yeet me out of existence.
> C'mon, think Aman. What was that symbol...?
I closed my eyes again, dragging up that memory.
A glowing symbol. Ethereal. Divine.
Almost like… it didn't belong in this world.
"Was it a warning? Like a pop-up from the heavens saying, 'Yo, incoming smite!'?"
Maybe.
"Ughh… too tiring, man."
I groaned inside my own dreamspace.
"Let's just focus on surviving first…"
I repeated the pattern like a mantra:
Meridians. Symbol. 108 meridians. Symbol. Focus. SYMBOL.
"Why the hell won't this symbol leave my brain!?"
I grabbed my imaginary head and shook it.
> I can't even focus because this stupid divine watermark is burned into my retina!
Tears of frustration streamed down my imaginary cheeks.
Okay, not really--but it felt like it.
"Alright… whatever," I muttered. "I'll just keep working. Maybe the stupid thing will fade away eventually."
So I focused again.
Willing qi to flow.
Visualising it coursing through the half-baked meridian map I'd sketched in my head.
Just increase the metabolism rate. Just a bit. That's all I ask...
But then…
The symbol started to glow. Brighter.
Brighter.
BRIGHTER.
"WHAT the actual fuck, bro! I can't even control my own imagination now!?" I yelled into the void.
Suddenly--the qi inside me dropped.
Fast.
Like it was getting sucked out by a vacuum.
"Wait, wait, WAIT! WHAT'S HAPPENING!?"
But then I saw it.
My meridians.
They were forming.
One by one.
Growing. Expanding. Branching out like roots from a tree.
New pathways.
Clean. Wide. Efficient.
My eyes widened. (Again, dream-eyes. Don't question it.)
"Holy shit. It's working."
A burst of relief exploded in my chest.
I didn't waste a second.
I threw myself into the process--fully focused.
Guiding qi like a man possessed.
Healing wasn't a dream anymore.
It was in progress.
—
Three days later...
Somewhere in the courtyard of the Jyotirmaya Sect, light laughter mixed with the rustling of trees in the breeze. Two disciples sat chatting on a stone bench under the shade of an ancient ginkgo tree.
"I'm telling you, Yasha, it was like--BOOM--and the next thing we know, lightning falls from the actual heavens!" Ishita exclaimed dramatically, hands flying everywhere as she recounted the story. "Right in the middle of the sect courtyard!"
Yashaswini raised an eyebrow. "You mean on that new guy… Aman?"
Ishita nodded. "Yup. Straight outta nowhere. And now he's been stuck in the Medicine Pavilion since then, completely unconscious. I swear, that guy attracts trouble like a flame attracts moths."
Meanwhile...
GASP--!
My eyes flew open.
"Holy--air! I'm breathing!"
My lungs felt like they'd been wrapped in sandpaper and set on fire, but hey, oxygen was flowing again. The first thing I noticed? Qi deficiency. Bad.
Felt like my insides were a dried-up noodle packet.
"Heh… yes sir, I made it out alive," I grinned weakly.
"Hacker or whaaaat!"
I blinked around the room. Plain white walls, the scent of crushed herbs lingering in the air, a small clay lamp flickering gently in the corner.
> Medicine Pavilion. Obviously.
I tried sitting up.
And… nope.
My body didn't respond the way it used to.
Muscles felt different. Regrown. Rewired. Alien.
I looked down at my arms and legs--they felt mine but also… new?
"Damn… did I just get a factory reset?"
I swung my legs over the bed.
They wobbled.
I stood up.
They wobbled harder.
But then my ADHD brain kicked in.
Before I knew it, I was adapting on the fly--like, "Oh? These are the new controls? Bet."
Took three wobbly steps. Then five. Then a light jog.
And then?
I sprinted out of the room like a man escaping hospital food.
The wind hit my face.
The sunlight blinded me for a moment--but I smiled.
I was out. Alive. Walking. Breathing.
I recognized the pavilion's corridor, the hanging bamboo curtains, the stone steps leading down to the sect's inner grounds.
> I knew where I had to go.
The place where I last stood before the tribulation--the edge of the hill, near the little farm patch I had claimed.
Not just to check for nostalgia or whatever.
I needed answers.
The symbol. The tube. That moment… it started there.
And my gut told me, that was far from over.
I finally reached the spot.
The hilltop. The patch of earth where it had all begun.
Where the symbol appeared.
Where the heavens decided to drop an entire lightning dragon on my face like I was some glitchy side character in an unfinished questline.
My eyes scanned the area like an eagle on the hunt--hyperfocused, twitchy, scanning every blade of grass, every rock, every possible spot where something out of the ordinary could've been left behind.
Nothing.
No symbol.
No tube.
No glowing signs from the heavens.
"Bro… really?" I muttered, squinting harder like it'd suddenly materialize if I stared long enough.
Nothing.
Even my ADHD brain--usually the best detective-slash-chaos-generator--was just buzzing around in frustration.
But then my eyes drifted to the side.
And I saw… my farm.
Still there.
Exactly the same.
The pets I had tamed were casually munching on grass, wagging tails and twitching ears, some even... cultivating?!
One of them had its eyes closed like it was seriously refining qi.
The goat literally looked wiser than me.
The chicken had actual posture like it practiced yoga or something.
I stood there, silent.
Staring.
Then I burst out--"YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN CARE I ALMOST DIED?!"
They didn't even flinch.
The goat blinked at me slowly like a monk.
The chicken let out a half-hearted cluck and turned away.
The bunny… kept chewing.
I walked over and plopped down right beside them, defeated.
"Well, whatever, it's not like I wanted your sympathy anyway," I grumbled.
"Stupid cute bastards."
My body was still wrecked. I could feel the qi deficiency like a void in my core.
If I wanted to keep moving forward, I had to recover--no, cultivate.
Time to refill the tank.
I closed my eyes and crossed my legs, slipping into meditation.
> Inhale... guide the qi... circulate through the meridians... exhale... repeat...
I could feel the newly formed meridian paths begin to respond. They were delicate, unfamiliar--but functional.
With each breath, I pulled qi from the surroundings.
From the wind.
From the earth.
Even from my arrogant little cultivation-pet squad.
Fine… maybe you're useful after all.
The world quieted around me.
Only the slow hum of energy and the beating of my heart remained.
This time, I wasn't going to stop until my core was full again.
As I sat there, qi gently swirling into my slowly recovering body, something clicked in my brain.
Wait a damn minute...
I blinked.
Eyes snapping open, I stared ahead at my "peaceful" little farm.
"Since when the hell did I have a goat… and a bunny?!"
I sprang to my feet, arms flailing slightly from the sudden movement.
I narrowed my eyes at them.
The goat turned its head and gave me a slow, indifferent look.
The bunny just kept chewing on a stalk of spiritual grass like it owned the damn place.
I stomped forward, inspecting them with the curiosity of a detective and the caution of a paranoid cultivator who just got dragon-zapped by the sky.
"Alright... Who taught you guys to chill here?" I muttered. "Was it the chicken? The pig? No--wait--it's gotta be the fox. They're smart. I've read stories."
I crouched near the newcomers and used a small spiritual pulse to scan their qi signatures.
What I found surprised me.
These two weren't cultivators.
They didn't know a thing about channeling qi.
But they had been passively absorbing it.
Just... existing here had made them healthier, stronger, almost spiritually attuned.
That's when it hit me.
The qi around this place--my farm--was dense. Really dense.
The chicken, pig, fox --they'd been cultivating for weeks now. And all that slow, steady refinement had affected the environment.
The grass here shimmered faintly.
The trees grew fuller, leaves rich with vitality.
Even the soil had a soft glow beneath the surface.
It was... a perfect cultivation microclimate.
Aman stared, blinking slowly.
"Damn," I muttered, finally sitting back down. "I accidentally created a cultivation hotspot."
I looked around once more, feeling the unease creep in.
This was a good thing... but also dangerous.
"I got lucky no one noticed this yet," I muttered.
"But if this keeps growing... it's just a matter of time before someone wants to take it."
I sat there, deep in thought, mind calculating risks, relocation plans, ways to keep it hidden. An hour passed in silence, my gaze drifting between the wind-touched grass and the horizon.
Finally, I stood.
Decision made.
"I need to move the farm. Hide it better. Maybe even set up a formation."
Stretching my arms, I turned toward the main sect buildings, heading back to my personal courtyard.
"First things first... gotta change clothes. Can't make big moves looking like a post-lightning grilled corpse."
Time to gear up. Things were getting real.
—
End of chapter 12