Days passed in a quiet, unchanging rhythm within the courtyard. Li Shen remained seated beneath the same stone pavilion, repeating the same process until even time itself seemed to blur.
Sit... Breathe... Sense... Fail... Again and again.
His injuries from the earlier fight had mostly healed, but the deeper struggle had only just begun. Every attempt to draw Qi into his body was met with resistance, not from the world around him, but from within.
At first, he could barely hold a strand of Qi for more than a fleeting moment. It would touch his skin, hesitate, and then vanish as if rejected by his very existence. But slowly, almost imperceptibly, that began to change. Each failure lasted a little longer than the last. Each moment of contact stretched just enough to give him a sense of progress.
Still, it was far from enough.
"You're forcing it too much," Lian Yue said one afternoon, her voice calm but firm as she stood behind him.
Li Shen didn't open his eyes. His breathing remained steady, controlled. "You said I should force my body to adapt."
"I did," she replied, stepping closer. "But force without control is no different from self-destruction."
Her words lingered, but Li Shen said nothing. Instead, he adjusted his breathing, allowing his mind to settle into stillness once more. This time, when the faint threads of Qi appeared around him, he did not immediately reach for them. He simply observed.
For the first time, he noticed their natural flow and how they drifted like invisible currents, neither hurried nor still. They were not something to be seized.
They were something to be guided.
"…Good," Lian Yue murmured softly.
Li Shen focused on a single strand, letting it drift closer on its own. He did not chase it. He did not pull. He simply waited. Slowly, as if responding to his intent, the strand moved toward him until it lightly brushed against his skin.
"Now," Lian Yue said quietly, "guide it."
Li Shen shifted his awareness, gently directing the strand without force. The Qi trembled slightly before beginning to sink into his skin. A strange sensation followed, it was unfamiliar and uncomfortable, like something foreign trying to take root within him. His breathing tightened instinctively, but he forced himself to remain calm.
The strand moved deeper.
For the first time, it did not immediately disappear.
"…Good," Lian Yue said again, her voice lower now.
But just as Li Shen began to stabilize it, something changed.
Beneath his skin, faint golden lines flickered.
The Qi trembled violently.
Li Shen's eyes snapped open. "It's happening again…"
Before he could react further, a subtle but undeniable pull emerged from within him. It was not his will. It was not something he controlled.
It was the armor.
The strand of Qi twisted unnaturally, as if caught in an invisible current. Its gentle flow turned chaotic in an instant.
"Suppress it," Lian Yue said sharply.
Li Shen clenched his fists, forcing his focus inward. He tried to stabilize the Qi, to hold it in place but the pull only grew stronger. It came from deeper than his thoughts, deeper than his body. It was something instinctive.
Something alive.
The Qi distorted further.
Then it vanished completely devoured.
Li Shen's body trembled slightly as he exhaled. "…I didn't do that."
"I know," Lian Yue replied calmly, though her gaze had sharpened.
Silence fell between them, heavier than before.
"Again," she said.
Li Shen hesitated for the first time. "…It's just going to happen again."
"Yes."
He frowned slightly. "…Then what's the point?"
Lian Yue stepped in front of him, her gaze steady and unyielding. "The point is that you learn to stop it. If you can't even hold a single strand of Qi, how do you expect to control something far more powerful?"
Her words struck deeper than he expected.
Li Shen exhaled slowly, then closed his eyes once more.
This time, there was no hesitation.
The threads of Qi appeared again, drifting through the still air. He reached out, with intent. A strand responded, moving toward him before sinking into his skin once more.
The pressure returned.
Unstable, uncomfortable but he endured it.
Then the pull came again this time stronger than before.
The armor stirred beneath his skin, its presence heavy and suffocating. The Qi began to twist under its influence.
"Now," Lian Yue said sharply, "feel it."
"…Feel what?" Li Shen asked, his voice strained.
"The difference," she replied. "Between you and it."
Li Shen focused inward.
The Qi felt light, fluid, almost fragile in its movement.
The armor was the opposite.
It feels heavy, violent and hungry.
They were two completely different forces.
"Separate them," Lian Yue instructed.
Li Shen gritted his teeth, forcing himself not to resist blindly. Instead, he shifted his focus toward the Qi itself trying to protect it, to isolate it from the pull of the armor rather than fight the armor directly.
For a brief moment
It worked.
The Qi trembled, but it did not immediately collapse. It remained within him, unstable but present.
Li Shen held it with everything he had.
But the armor did not yield.
The pull intensified, crushing his control until the strand shattered.
Gone.. once more.
Li Shen's body shook slightly, but this time, he did not open his eyes.
"…Again," he said quietly.
Lian Yue watched him in silence. For the first time, there was a faint trace of approval in her expression.
Hours passed as Li Shen continued without pause. Attempt after attempt ended in failure, but something had changed. He was no longer simply trying to absorb Qi.
He was fighting for it, fighting against something inside himself.
By the end of the day, he managed to hold a strand longer than ever before, although not stable or complete it was real.
When he finally opened his eyes, his face was pale, his breathing uneven.
"…I felt it," he said.
Lian Yue gave a single nod. "That is your first step."
Li Shen lowered his gaze slightly, his thoughts heavy but clear.
For the first time, he truly understood.
His greatest enemy was not the world outside.
Not the hunters.
Not the sects hidden within London.
But the thing within him.
The armor.
And if he failed to control it, It would consume everything.
Including him.