The scroll felt heavier than before
Ethan stared at the intricate lines of gold running across its surface, forming the diagram of a human body unlike any he'd ever seen in medical school. These weren't arteries or nerves these were meridians, channels of power waiting to be awakened.
Elena a mysterious healer and martial artist trained in ancient eastern arts stood across from him in the candlelit chamber beneath the Ethan's mentor Marcus Vane's clinic. Her eyes never left him. She held a long thin silver needle which is delicate and humming faintly with qi.
She asked
Are you sure about this?
Ethan's pulse quickened.
No. But I've come too far to walk away.
She nodded. Then you begin here.
She stepped behind him and gently pressed her fingers just above his heart. This is the Heart Aperture. The first gate.
He remembered her saying earlier that failing could be fatal. But what scared him more than dying was living an empty life. A life without answers.
He took a breath, centered himself and pressed the needle into his chest precisely at the point she indicated.
Pain hit him like lightning .
His body ached, eyes wide. It wasn't just physical it was spiritual. He felt something inside him unraveling and reconnecting all at once. His veins weren't pulsing with blood they were glowing. Light coursed through him, burning away something old and forgotten.
The scroll floated from his hand and spun in midair, radiating brighter.
Elena's voice broke through the roar in his head. You did it Ethan you've opened your first meridian.
His legs gave way, and Elena caught him before he fell.
When his vision cleared, Vane was leaning over him with a steaming bowl of green liquid. Drink this. It'll stabilize your qi.
Ethan drank, and the bitterness grounded him.
So I'm a cultivator now? he asked.
Vane laughed and said Not yet. You've taken the first step. A newborn in a world of gods and monsters. Most never survive beyond three meridians."
Ethan rubbed his chest, where a warmth still pulsed.
And how many are there?
Three hundred and sixty-five primary points, Vane said. Seventy-two major meridians. Nine great gates. But even the greatest cultivators rarely open more than twenty.
Ethan looked at Elena. She didn't smile, but her eyes held something like respect.
You've done it what takes most of them months, she said. But don't let it go to your head.
He chuckled weakly. Trust me. There's no room for ego when your body feels like it was set on fire.
Suddenly, the air shifted.
Elena's head snapped toward the door.
Vane cursed and reached for a satchel of silver needles.
The Crimson Altar was already responding.
You opened your gate, Elena said darkly, and now the world knows it.