Jin didn’t know what to expect when he began trying to bind the little black stone. The merchant only shared with him the method of activating the tool, but revealed nothing of its actual use or function.

Still, considering that it was supposed to teach him how to manipulate qi, Jin thought it would work like a medium, granting him the ability to manifest his qi in the outside world.

Ignoring the stinging sensation, he tightened his fist, making sure that the stone maintained contact with the little trickle of blood oozing from his hand. His breathing slowed down, adopting the distinct rhythm that had been instilled in him during his time at the camps.

In the darkness behind his closed eyes, the complex tapestry of his meridian network slowly began to take shape.

He didn’t enter a deep meditative state, making the image somewhat hazy and indistinct, but he figured it would be enough for now. He could always attempt going into a deeper trance if the binding process wasn’t successful.

With a thought, he directed more of his qi to the major meridian located in his right hand.

All that was left to do, was wait and hope for the process to work. Unfortunately, the merchant didn’t reveal anything else, seemingly confident that Jin could figure it out from there.

He continued to patiently circulate his qi. His cultivation mantra already formed a circuit connecting his dantian, hand, and stomach meridians, so aside from the wound on his palm, this meditation wasn’t different from his usual practice.

Jin decided to alter only one little thing.

Instead of letting his qi flow freely, he halted its progress at the hand meridian, permitting only a trickle to pass through. The circuit itself wasn’t broken, since the qi continued to loop in and out of his dantian, but with each cycle, more of the spiritual energies accumulated at the hand meridian.

Jin didn't put much thought into this action. He simply reasoned that, since binding the stone involved circulating qi in the hand he was holding it in, having more spiritual energy in the area couldn't hurt.

He watched as the radiance surrounding his hand meridian intensified, becoming more brilliant by the moment.

The image of his pathways resembled a tapestry of tightly interwoven threads. Its structure grew out from his dantian and followed the general shape of his body, as if someone had attempted to knit a human figure from strands of pure light. The vessels appeared as thin, hair-like threads, while the meridians they connected to resembled radiant beads.

With more and more energies swirling about it, the light surrounding his hand meridian steadily increased. From a tiny pea, it grew to the size of a pearl, and still the process didn’t stop.

The radiance it emitted made the hairlike vessels connecting to it turn dim in comparison.

Jin observed the changes with interest. He had never attempted anything like this before. The instructors at the camps had warned them that any experimentation outside of the manual's guidelines was a certain path to the next life, and Jin believed that they were not merely withholding information in that case.

Still, he remembered what had happened when he fought with Big Lu during the “discipline”. His qi abruptly stopped, building up a pressure in his meridians, and then shot out like a thunder in the sky.

Back then, the boost in power came with a heavy price - it scorched his pathways and caused severe damage. However, he had no intention of pushing himself that far.

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To his disappointment, his unique idea appeared to have little effect. The glow encircling his hand meridian expanded to the size of a quail egg, but all he got out of it was a numbing sensation of pain.

He was on the verge of abandoning the experiment and releasing the pent-up energy when something caught his attention. The discovery was so astonishing, it nearly jolted him out of his meditative trance.

Since the day he had first seen it, the intricate tapestry forming his meridian pathways existed in isolation. It floated in an empty space, surrounded not so much by darkness, as a complete void.

And now, in the emptiness close to his right hand meridian, something twinkled.

Jin's mind trembled with shock. To witness something invading the intimate space that constituted his very being was utterly startling. At the same time, he finally grasped the process of binding the little stone to himself.

Somehow, he needed to forge a pathway between his hand meridian and the little light blinking unsteadily in the void around it.

That was easier said than done. Jin had decent control of the qi coursing through his meridians; he could have it follow a memorised circuit without his input, slow and hasten its flow as he wanted, perhaps even reverse it - if he happened to feel suicidal - but that was it.

To have it reach out and form a connection outside the unity that composed it was completely unthinkable. It was like asking someone to sneeze with their elbow or sing with colours, even imagining it was impossible.

Doubtful, he decided to double down on his previous experiment and completely halted the flow of energies going out of his hand meridian. The pressure bearing on it sharply increased, and Jin felt the first signs of cracks appearing.

The radiance it emitted increased correspondingly with the strain. The little meridian lit up brilliantly, like a tiny star. It was still a far cry from the sunlike glory of his dantian, but its radiance was equal to a dozen normal meridians.

The light it radiated spread outwards, engulfing the minor meridians in his fingers, and reached even the tiny twinkling light outside.

As it made contact, the change was instantaneous. Jin sighed with relief seeing a connection, similar to the hairlike veins linking his meridians, start to take form.

With the process underway, Jin allowed a small trickle of qi to escape from his hand meridian, keeping the pressure at a steady level. Enough to maintain the process, but not allowing the pressure to build up any further.

Soon, the path was fully formed. Looking at it, Jin couldn't help but feel a little bewildered. It was as if he had added another meridian to his pathways.

There was only one thing left to do.

With bated breath, Jin directed a single strand of his qi to go through the newly formed connection.

Almost as soon as he did that, the image of his meridian pathways vanished, replaced by a void so deep and vast that it seemed to go on forever. Suddenly, an emotionless voice resounded in his mind.

Jin shivered. Although he couldn't comprehend the words, he recognized the distinct rhythm and cadence. The language used to address him was the same as the one used in his cultivation mantra.

It was the language of the Immortals.

Contrary to expectations, Jin didn't feel excited upon confirming that the stone truly had a deep connection with the Immortals. Instead, he felt mounting panic as he looked around the empty space he had been transported into.

His previous experiences had instilled in him deep wariness, if not an outright trauma in that respect.

But before he could even demand the voice to let him go, the little black stone reacted to his thoughts, and Jin found himself back in his room, gasping in surprise.

Hao Ling and Bizu Cheng sat nearby, watching his actions doubtfully. Jin’s choice to cloak himself in the blanket had not gone unnoticed, but all they could see was that he was doing something odd with his hand. The way Jin abruptly awoken from his meditative state, trembling and gasping, only raised more questions.

“See, I told you…” Bizu whispered uncomfortably to Hao.

“I’m sure it’s just the difficulty of the dao brother Jin’s comprehending,” Hao countered, though his voice was lacking its usual confidence. He then added hesitantly, “Maybe the meaning he’s understanding is connected to love…”

Bizu frowned. “If you could use this method to glimpse into dao, half the miners in my barracks would be immortals already.”

Luckily for Jin, he didn’t hear their conversation.

Once he had confirmed that the emptiness was not some horrifying trap, and he could exit it at will, he closed his eyes again, once more slipping into a meditative state.

The artificial meridian hovering close to his hand was still present, and the connection between the two didn’t fade. He didn’t even need to channel excessive amount of qi to maintain it.

With growing excitement, Jin sent another thin strand of his qi into the black stone.

Soon, he was again transported into an empty space. The emotionless voice repeated the same message he had heard before, before falling silent and leaving Jin alone in the void.

“I greet the Immortal!” With nothing else to do, Jin fell onto his ingrained habit.

Only silence answered him.