Exercise 2: Breathing Technique
Dad sat cross-legged in front of them, his back perfectly straight, hands resting on his knees.
"What separates cultivators from normal people," he began, "is the ability to sense and manipulate Nexis—the energy that flows through all things. The air, the ground, living creatures, even empty space has Nexis in it."
Kai already knew this, but he nodded like he was hearing it for the first ti.
"The first step is learning to sense it. Most people can’t feel Nexis at all—it’s invisible, intangible. But with the right technique, you can train yourself to detect it."
Dad demonstrated a breathing pattern—slow inhale through the nose (count to four), hold (count to two), controlled exhale through the mouth (count to six).
"This is called Basic Breath Circulation. Watch carefully."
As Dad breathed, Kai’s enhanced Spirit sense automatically detected what was happening. Tiny amounts of Nexis from the air were flowing into Dad’s nose, following his breath down into his lungs, then circulating through his ridians in a specific pattern before being released again.
It was like watching soone practice writing the letter ’A’ over and over. Simple. Basic. Foundation-level stuff.
"You breathe in a specific rhythm to create resonance with ambient Nexis," Dad explained. "This resonance allows you to slowly draw energy into your body. Eventually, with enough practice, you can accumulate energy in your dantian and begin formal cultivation."
He opened his eyes. "Now, I need you both to understand—this is hard. Most people take weeks or even months just to sense Nexis for the first ti. So people never manage it at all. So don’t be discouraged if nothing happens today, or tomorrow, or even next week."
Yue raised her hand. "How long did it take you, Dad?"
"Three months before I felt anything," Dad admitted. "And I was considered pretty quick."
Three months? Kai tried not to look shocked. He’d been sensing Nexis since his physique awakened. It was as natural as breathing now.
"So just focus on the breathing pattern," Dad continued. "Don’t force anything. Don’t strain. Just breathe, and pay attention to any sensations—warmth, tingling, pressure, anything unusual."
Yue closed her eyes and started breathing in the pattern, her face scrunched up in concentration.
Kai also closed his eyes.
Okay. I need to ’sense’ Nexis after a believable amount of ti. Maybe... five minutes? That’s still crazy fast but not impossible-monster fast.
He began the Basic Breath Circulation pattern, deliberately making it a bit wrong at first—holding his breath a bit too long, exhaling too quickly.
Dad quietly corrected his form. "Slower exhale, Kai. Count to six."
"Okay," Kai adjusted.
One minute passed.
Kai kept up the breathing while thinking about other things. This was boring. Super boring. He already knew how to sense Nexis. He’d been doing it constantly since yesterday.
Maybe I should practice sothing useful while I sit here...
While maintaining the breathing pattern outward, he split his attention internally. Part of his brain kept the act going. The other part started reviewing the Void Annihilation Palm technique knowledge that had integrated earlier.
The technique channels void energy into the palm, compresses it to destructive density, then releases it in a targeted burst. But what if I compressed it more efficiently? What if I could reduce the charge ti?
Two minutes.
His enhanced Comprehension started working on the problem automatically. The Void Annihilation Palm wasn’t just about raw power—it was about precise control. If he could modulate the density of the void energy, he could control the effect. Full erasure or just disruption. Like having a volu knob.
Three minutes.
Oh. I could add a rotation to the energy spiral. That would increase penetration power without increasing overall energy cost. And if I compressed in stages instead of all at once...
[Void Annihilation Palm: Comprehension increased] [Efficiency: 47%] [Charge ti: Reduced 63%] [Control precision: Enhanced]
Kai ntally blinked. Wait, did I just accidentally improve a supre technique while pretending to ditate?
[Affirmative. Host’s Comprehension (75.2) combined with Terran Bloodline (100,000× learning acceleration) makes technique optimization trivial.]
That’s... actually pretty cool.
Four minutes.
Dad’s voice: "Good breathing, both of you. Keep the rhythm steady."
Five minutes.
Ti to "sense" the Nexis.
Kai let a tiny thread of ambient Nexis flow into his perception—sothing he’d been sensing the entire ti but now pretending to notice for the first ti.
He made his eyes pop open. "Father? I feel sothing!"
Dad’s head snapped toward him so fast Kai heard his neck crack. "You what?"
"There’s this... warm feeling? Like there’s invisible mist in the air all around us. Is that the Nexis?"
For a long mont, Dad just stared at him.
Then he stood up.
Walked three steps away.
Turned around.
Stared so more.
"You sensed it?" His voice ca out weird. Strained. "In five minutes?"
Yue’s eyes popped open. "He WHAT?!"
Kai tried to look uncertain. "Is that wrong? You said to feel for any sensations, and I can definitely feel sothing warm and tingly now. It’s everywhere!"
Dad ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up funny. "Kai. Son. Most people take weeks. Talented individuals take days. Absolute geniuses take hours."
"Oh." Kai tried to look innocent. "So... five minutes is fast?"
"FIVE MINUTES IS—" Dad stopped himself, took a deep breath. "Yes. Five minutes is... extraordinarily fast."
Mom’s voice ca from the kitchen window where she’d apparently been watching. "Chen Wei? What’s happening?"
"Our son just sensed Nexis in five minutes!" Dad called back, his voice a bit high-pitched.
There was a crash from inside—Mom had dropped sothing.
She appeared at the back door, wiping her hands on her apron. "He what? Chen Wei, he’s five. Are you sure he’s not just imagining—"
"Describe it, Kai," Dad interrupted. "What exactly do you feel?"
Kai closed his eyes again, reaching out with his Spirit sense. "It’s like... warm invisible mist. But not really mist because I can’t see it or touch it. It’s more like a feeling of warmth that’s everywhere—in the air, in the ground, even inside my own body a little bit. And it kind of... moves? Like very slow currents of warm water, but in the air."
Dead silence.
That was apparently exactly the right description because Dad sat down heavily on the grass.
"That’s... that’s a perfect description of ambient Nexis. He’s really sensing it."
Mom walked out into the yard, looking at Kai like she’d never seen him before. "Our five-year-old son just sensed cultivation energy in five minutes."
"Five minutes and twenty seconds, technically," Kai offered helpfully.
"Kai," Mom said slowly, "you learned to read at one year old. You’ve been speaking in complete sentences since you were eighteen months. You have better vocabulary than most adults." She exchanged a look with Dad. "And now this."
"Our son is a heaven-defying genius," Dad said faintly.
"Might be?" Mom raised an eyebrow. "Chen Wei, at what point do we stop saying ’might be’ and just accept that our child is exceptional?"
Kai sat quietly, trying to look humble. Inside, he was thinking: If only you knew about the Sword Law, the dual Intents, the complete Tier 4 cultivation base, the void physique, the primordial bloodline...
[Host is dwelling on secrets again.]
Can you bla ? The gap between what they think and what’s real is huge!
Dad composed himself, straightening his shoulders. "Alright. Kai, that’s... that’s truly exceptional work. Now that you can sense it, I want you to practice drawing it in. Just tiny amounts—don’t try to circulate it yet, don’t try to store it. Just get used to the feeling of Nexis flowing into your body."
"Okay!" Kai closed his eyes again.
Okay, I can sense Nexis already, so now I just need to draw it in gently with the Basic Breath Circulation like Dad showed.
But then a thought occurred to him.
Wait. I have the Primordial Universe Void Scripture. That’s my actual cultivation thod. Should I use that instead?
[Host may use either technique. Basic Breath Circulation is safe but inefficient. Primordial Universe Void Scripture is powerful but unstable in populated areas.]
Unstable how?
[Large-scale energy absorption if uncontrolled. Recomnd extre caution.]
Kai thought about it. Dad wanted him to draw in energy. The Void Scripture was made for drawing in energy. It should be fine if he was careful, right?
I’ll just use a tiny bit of the Void Scripture. Super gentle. What could possibly go wrong?
[Famous last words detected.]
System, stop being dramatic.
Kai closed his eyes and, instead of using the Basic Breath Circulation, he very carefully circulated the Primordial Universe Void Scripture - Stage 1.
Just a little bit. Just to see what it felt like.
The mont the technique activated, reality scread.
What happened in the next 0.1 Second was Pure Terror.
Kai’s 37 trillion cellular Dantians opened simultaneously.
Each one beca a miniature void—a hungry, empty space that craved energy with desperate intensity.
The Scripture’s nature was absolute and uncompromising: Convert ALL energy to Void Energy.
And "all energy" ant everything.
The entire city went BLACK.
Not dark like nightti. Not shadowed like a cloud passing over the sun.
BLACK.
Like soone had reached up and yanked the sun straight out of the sky. Like reality itself had been switched off.
Every form of energy within the entire span of Redwood City was devoured in an instant:
Light: Every photon absorbed, converted to void energy
Heat: Drained from the air, the ground, every living thing
Sound: Stopped propagating entirely—the world went silent
Ambient Nexis: Ripped from the atmosphere like water down a drain
Nature Energy: Pulled from deep underground—roots, soil, ancient earth reserves flowing upward Kinetic Energy: Motion froze mid-movent
Life Force: Every person felt their energy being tugged toward the city center
Kai beca a true black hole. A perfect sphere of consumption with a radius that swallowed everything.
His cellular Dantians drank it all.
Across Redwood City panic ensued.
In the marketplace:
rchant Liam was in the middle of haggling over rice prices, his mouth open to quote a number, when the world went black and his voice simply stopped. Sound died. Light vanished.
And then he felt it—sothing pulling at his chest. Like invisible hands reaching inside his ribs and trying to yank his soul out through his sternum.
Cold.
Bone-deep, terrifying cold that had nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with the absence of life itself.
At the bakery:
Baker Conry had just pulled fresh bread from the oven. The heat vanished from the coals in an instant—900-degree flas reduced to nothing. The light died. The warmth disappeared.
For one horrible mont, she felt her life force being sucked away—like sothing was drinking her existence itself.
She couldn’t even scream. Her voice had no air to travel through.
At the city gates:
Guardsman Wood, a Body Tempering cultivator with ten years of training, felt his Nexis energy suddenly lurch inside his ridians.
His cultivation base, carefully built over a decade of ditation and practice, tried to flow out of his body.
The energy wanted to leave. Wanted to rush toward a corner of the city. Toward whatever nightmare thing was calling to it.
His channels spasd. His dantian convulsed.
What in all the hells—
In the schoolhouse:
Old Master Tong was teaching calligraphy to young students when the blackness hit. His weak cultivation base, earned through fifty years of patient study, nearly collapsed entirely.
The Nexis in his dantian swirled chaotically, trying to escape, trying to answer so terrible summons.
He gasped—or tried to. There was no air to gasp with.
Inside the Chen house:
Mother had been preparing vegetables in the kitchen when the world went dark.
The knife clattered from her hand as cold terror seized her heart.
She felt sothing outside. Sothing wrong. Sothing that shouldn’t exist.
The energy in her body—she wasn’t a cultivator, just a normal person with normal life force—tried to flow toward the yard. Toward her son.
Kai—
In the training yard:
Father stood seven ters from Kai, and in that 0.1 seconds, he felt death itself.
His Body Tempering cultivation base went completely haywire. Energy spiraled out of control. His ridians burned as Nexis tried to forcibly exit his body.
The pull was imnse. Irresistible. Like being caught in a whirlpool with no hope of escape.
His mind registered one thought: My son is—
And then he blinked.
The Pull Stops
Kai’s eyes snapped open in horror.
STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!
The Void Scripture cut off imdiately.
The 37 trillion hungry voids snapped shut like mouths clamping closed.
Light crashed back into existence. Heat returned. Sound resud with a physical impact.
The world gasped back into being.
Total duration: 0.1 seconds.
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