Chapter 2 – The Silent World
Pain returned before sight did.
It crawled through Arin's body like fire beneath his skin. His ribs felt crushed. His left arm refused to move. Dust filled his lungs with every shallow breath.
But he was alive.
That fact alone made no sense.
The mine had collapsed completely. He remembered the impact. The crushing weight. The darkness.
Yet now—
He could breathe.
Barely.
A faint blue glow pulsed beneath his skin.
Arin forced his eyes open.
Darkness still surrounded him. Heavy stone pressed against his back and legs, trapping him within a narrow pocket of air.
He should have suffocated already.
Instead, something cool and steady flowed through his meridians.
Qi.
But purer.
Denser.
And it wasn't coming from outside.
It was coming from within.
His expression remained calm despite the situation.
"So it wasn't a hallucination…"
He closed his eyes again.
And the world shifted.
—
He stood once more beneath the cracked sky.
The barren land stretched endlessly in all directions. The air was still. Silent. Empty.
At the center of the sky, the glowing shard pulsed like a distant sun.
No voice greeted him.
No system interface appeared.
No ancient spirit explained anything.
Just silence.
Arin walked forward slowly.
Each step echoed faintly, though there was no wind to carry the sound.
The ground was dry and lifeless. When he knelt and touched it, fine dust slipped between his fingers.
Dead soil.
"This is my dantian…"
But this wasn't how a dantian should look.
Normally, a cultivator's dantian was a spiritual reservoir — a condensed core of qi.
This was something else entirely.
A world.
He lifted his gaze toward the sky.
The cracks across the heavens were jagged, like scars from an ancient war. Through them, faint darkness seeped — not night, but something deeper.
Something broken.
The shard pulsed again.
This time, Arin felt it.
A ripple spread through the land.
The dust trembled.
And then—
A thin line of faint light appeared across the barren ground several hundred meters away.
Arin's eyes sharpened.
He walked toward it.
The closer he got, the clearer it became.
A vein.
Not of metal.
Of energy.
It glowed faintly beneath the soil — like a newborn spirit vein trying to form.
His heartbeat slowed.
Understanding dawned.
When the star ignited… something changed.
The world was responding.
To him.
He crouched and pressed his palm against the glowing line.
Warmth spread through his consciousness instantly.
Outside—
In the real world—
His broken ribs began to knit together.
The crushed muscle fibers slowly repaired.
Qi flowed smoothly through meridians that had previously felt sluggish and obstructed.
Arin's eyes widened slightly.
The inner world was affecting reality.
No.
It was cultivating alongside him.
He withdrew his hand slowly.
The glowing vein dimmed but did not disappear.
Interesting.
He closed his eyes and focused.
Time passed.
He could feel it differently here.
Slower.
Or perhaps—
Faster.
He wasn't certain.
But instinct told him this place did not follow normal laws.
"If this land can produce spirit veins…"
His voice echoed softly across the empty world.
"…then it can grow."
And if it could grow—
So could he.
A faint tremor ran through the sky again.
For a brief moment, the cracks above widened.
And beyond them—
He sensed something.
Ancient.
Vast.
Watching.
The feeling disappeared instantly.
Arin stood still for several seconds.
His expression did not change.
But deep inside, his thoughts sharpened.
So this power was not without risk.
Good.
Power without danger was meaningless.
His consciousness began to fade once more as the real world pulled him back.
Before leaving, he looked across the barren land.
Endless potential.
Infinite silence.
Waiting for its sovereign.
—
Back in the collapsed mine, beneath tons of stone—
Arin Vale opened his eyes.
This time—
There was no weakness in them.
Only clarity.
Only purpose.
Above him, the rock ceiling cracked slightly.
Not from outside force.
But from a steady, growing pressure within.
Something inside him had begun to awaken.
And the mine would not be able to contain it for long.