Chapter 27

I made my way back across the gravel road toward the healer’s clinic, the pill still clutched tightly in my hand.

My body felt stiff, sore in all the usual places, but the pain was dulled now. Muted under the steady thrum of Qi running through my veins. I was healing faster than I had any right to.

As I approached, I spotted Master Kai and Madam Shen sitting at a small wooden table on the porch. Their heads were bowed slightly toward each other, talking in low tones, their hands resting just a few inches apart on the table.

I slowed instinctively.

There was a softness between them I hadn’t seen before. For a moment, it felt wrong to interrupt.

I cleared my throat quietly.

Both of them looked up, startled.

Madam Shen was the first to recover. She smiled warmly, tucking a stray strand of silver hair behind her ear. “Fang Wu,” she said, “how are you feeling?”

“Fine,” I said, stepping onto the porch. “Better.”

I almost left it there.

Almost.

But my hand tightened on the pill, feeling the faint pulse still warm against my skin.

These two… if anyone in Fallen Mist knew what I was holding, it would be them.

I hesitated for half a second, then set it carefully on the table between them.

“I need your opinion,” I said. “The merchant, Jin Tao he gave me this. Said it could help. But I don’t know what it is.”

Master Kai leaned forward immediately, curiosity lighting his face. He reached for the pill, turning it between his fingers with a surgeon’s care.

His eyebrows shot up. “I don’t recognise it,” he muttered. “Could be anything.”

Before he could say more, Madam Shen snatched it from his hands with surprising speed.

She cradled the pill in her palm for a moment, studying it closely.

Her eyes widened slightly.

Then she shot a quick glance around, checking to make sure no one was watching.

“That’s an Awakening Pill.”

I blinked. “Awakening what do you mean?”

She nodded. Her voice dropped even further.

“They’re rare. Very rare. More legend than truth in these parts. But from what little I know…” she paused, weighing her words carefully, “an Awakening Pill carries enough pure Qi to break the mortal boundary. To turn a normal man into a cultivator.”

The words struck me like a hammer.

“That’s how cultivators are born?” I said quietly. “Through Qi?”

“In a sense, yes,” Madam Shen said. “Most cultivators are born with enough Qi in their bodies, they just need a catalyst to begin their journey. But others, forcefully break through the mortal wall. And this is one of those ways.”

I frowned, connecting dots in my head.

It made sense. Every time I killed something, it’s Qi would enter my body. I could feel it moving around under my skin but until recently it hadn’t really done anything. Only now was it beginning to help me heal faster but that must have been because I had a decent amount of it now. That also led to further questions, does that mean Qi is attached to my spirit stat? Every time I absorbed some, it would raise the stat.

I was beginning to think it was the measure of how much Qi my body held.

Madam Shen pressed the pill back into my hand.

“You need to take it quickly,” she said. “Before anyone else sees. Before anyone gets any funny ideas.”

Master Kai grunted, raising a hand as if to argue. “Hold on now. There are plenty of seasoned hunters. Men who’ve fought and bled for this village. Maybe—”

Madam Shen smacked the back of his hand without hesitation.

“Enough foolishness,” she snapped. “If the merchant gave it to Fang Wu, then it’s his.”

Kai scowled, rubbing the back of his hand with exaggerated care. “I mean nothing by it. I like you boy and you seem to know how to hold your own. It’s just, I’m sure there are stronger people here. Who could make more use of it.”

Madam Shen turned her sharp gaze back to me.

“Don’t listen to him. Besides,” she said, before turning back to Master Kai. “If that merchant could get here alone, past a beast horde… you think you want to test what happens if you cross someone like that. Something is fishy with that man. We weren’t expecting a merchant for another two days at minimum.”

I swallowed. That was a fair point and something I hadn’t thought about.

I closed my fingers tighter around the pill, feeling its warmth seep into my skin.

I nodded, “Thank you both. Truely.” Then I stepped back inside the clinic.

The door swung closed behind me with a faint thud, sealing me in with the heavy scent of herbs.

I moved to my room and sat heavily on the bed, the mattress groaning under my weight.

My mind whirled with doubts, worries, half-formed fears.

Was this smart? Was I being manipulated? Was I really ready?

Probably not.

But if I didn’t do this now, I might never move forward. I looked at my dagger, resting on the bedside table. One of the only things reminding me of home.

I closed my eyes, feeling the pill heavy in my palm, and before I could think better of it, tossed it into my mouth and swallowed.

It slid down my throat smoothly, leaving behind a faint, metallic tang.

I sat there for a heartbeat.
Then another.

And then… Pain.

It wasn’t a slow building thing. It didn’t give me time to brace.

It hit like a lightning strike straight to my stomach.

A roar of energy exploded outward from my mid section, blasting through my veins like wildfire.

I doubled over, choking on my own breath, hands clawing at my sides.

The world spun.

Every inch of me felt like it was tearing apart from the inside, Qi rampaging without any care for the vessel it had been shoved into.

I fell to my knees, coughing, gasping.

My vision blurred. My heartbeat slammed against my ribs so hard it felt like it might burst through.

I tried to reach for the Qi, tried to contain it the way I’d done after fights, after absorbing wisps from the air and beasts.

But this wasn’t a wisp.

This was a raging storm.

It slammed against my mind and my bones.

I felt the threads of my being fraying.

Tearing.

Something hot and wet trickled from my nose. I didn’t have to look to know it was blood.

I forced a breath in.

Then another.

Control it. You have to control it.

I gritted my teeth so hard my jaw ached.
Sweat poured down my face, soaking into my robes.

I pressed my hands to the ground, feeling the warped, shaking pulse of my body struggling to hold itself together.

The Qi was wild, alive, slamming against the insides of my body with reckless fury.

For a moment, I felt it. A snap. Something tearing.

My vision went white.

This is how I die.
Torn apart by power I wasn’t ready for.
A footnote in a backwater village.

Fuck that.

I gasped in a lungful of air, dragged my body upright, and fell into a seated position on the floor.

The old instructors at the Hunter’s Academy had drilled the basics of breathing exercises into us once, long ago. It was supposed to help us deal with our pain. I think they were meaning mental pain but right now. I needed it to deal with my physical pain. Or was it spiritual pain. I don’t know.

I closed my eyes and through the howling storm inside me, I reached inward.

One shaky breath.
Then another.

I kept taking deep breaths, trying to clear my mind. To push away the pain that was raking through my body. To find the eye of the hurricane.

Slowly, painfully, the spiraling madness inside me stopped tearing at my veins and started infusing my body.

Every second felt like it shaved years off my life.

But I endured.

Breath after breath.

Heartbeat after heartbeat.

And somewhere between one moment and the next, time lost all meaning.

The world outside fell away.

There was no village, no beasts.

Only the storm and me. One of us had to win.

So I breathed in and out once more. It was time to tame a storm.

——

Jin Tao smiled as he watched the ripples of Qi exploding from the clinic across the road.

He stood by his cart, a long-stemmed pipe resting easily in his hand. The faint scent of spiced tobacco curled around him, masking the sharper smells of sweat and fear lingering in the village.

Everything was falling into place.

Fang Wu would tame the Qi inside him. He would cross the first threshold.
And then… the Daemon of Fallen Mist would owe him a favor.

The thought stretched his smile even wider. He exhaled a long plume of smoke, the silver-gray cloud drifting lazily into the starlit sky.

One more thing to handle before the beast wave arrived.

After all, even he couldn’t hold them off forever.

Tucking his pipe away with a practiced flick, Jin Tao walked across the square toward the clinic’s porch. The old couple sat at the small wooden table.

He stopped a few paces away and gave a low, respectful bow.

“Forgive me,” he said smoothly, straightening. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get here in time with the Lung Pill.”

Both Master Kai and Madam Shen stiffened slightly.

“But,” Jin Tao continued, producing a small jade bottle from within his coat, “I’d like to make it up to you. I don’t like owing debts. Bad for business.”

He uncorked the bottle and tilted it, revealing a single shimmering pill nestled inside.

“This will heal the boy. Wei Lin, yes? No strings attached. You already paid for the other pill. Consider this… a replacement.”

Madam Shen narrowed her eyes.

“Let me see it,” she said, holding out a hand.

Jin Tao’s smile didn’t falter. If anything, it deepened. He tipped the jade bottle forward, letting the single pill roll into his palm before holding it out for her inspection.

Madam Shen leaned closer, studying it with a practiced eye.

The pill gleamed faintly under the porch light.

After a long moment, she straightened, her face still guarded but a little less tight.

“A basic Rejuvenating Pill,” she said quietly.

She glanced at Master Kai, who gave a small grunt of reluctant approval.

Madam Shen hesitated only a heartbeat longer before nodding stiffly.

“We accept.”

Jin Tao dropped the pill back into the bottle with a soft clink, corked it, and tucked it neatly away with a flourish.

“Excellent,” he said, his voice smooth as ever. “Let’s see to it, then.”

Grudgingly, they nodded.

Madam Shen stood and gestured him inside. Together, they entered the clinic, the door creaking shut behind them.

The moment Jin Tao crossed the threshold, he could feel it.

The air inside was thick, heavy, practically vibrating with raw Qi.
It poured from the side room like a tide, unseen by the old couple but more than enough to make a sensitive man’s knees buckle.

He glanced sideways at Madam Shen and Master Kai. Then followed them deeper into the clinic, past rows of herbs and bowls, until they reached a small room where Wei Lin lay pale and unmoving.

Jin Tao stepped forward, his boots whispering over the wooden floor.

He leaned over Wei Lin briefly, inspecting him.

Then, with a single smooth motion, he pressed the pill to the boy’s lips, coaxing it inside.

Wei Lin’s throat worked once, instinctively swallowing.

Jin Tao smiled, brushing his hands together with satisfaction.

“There,” he said lightly. “Debt paid.”

He straightened, casting one final glance toward the side room where Fang Wu fought his invisible war.

Soon.

Very soon.

He adjusted the cuffs of his coat and tipped an imaginary hat toward the stunned old couple.

“All the boards are in place,” he muttered under his breath as he turned to leave.

The beast wave was coming.
The pieces had been set.

And now… It was time to see who survived the first move.