Juliya felt whole.
Energy coursed through her unlike anything she had ever experienced. She didn't feel stronger than before, but she felt complete. The Qi moving within her no longer fought for control, it had become part of her, as natural as her own heartbeat.
The years-long war within her body had finally ended, replaced by perfect harmony.
As she held David close, she became aware of something remarkable. Their Qi seemed to recognize each other, two streams finding their natural rhythm. Her circulation began to mirror his, like two lovers sharing a tender moment syncing their breathing.
Unwrapping her arms from around David, she stood up from her lotus position and looked around.
"We really made a mess, huh?" Juliya said, surveying the carnage with a slightly twisted smile.
David let out a dry chuckle. "Yeah, well, maybe these guys are weaker than real Portal Beasts." He absentmindedly poked the beast next to them with his sword.
"I wouldn't say that."
Both of them turned to see Sarah standing nearby. She had apparently been watching their tender moment but had only now decided to speak up.
"I was talking to the guards Rayner assigned to our little convoy," Sarah continued, "and it seems like this was an attack similar to the pack tactics seen in Realms with semi-intelligent Realm Beasts."
A smirk spread across her face as she leaned in closer, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "If you're trying to keep your newfound skills a secret, you're not doing a very good job."
David looked around and saw the guards and patients staring at the 3 of them like they were freaks.
An ambush of fifteen Mutated [1]Beasts being taken down with no casualties and no expectation of it happening... was shocking to say the least.
David cleared his throat and looked to the group.
"I think we've rested enough. We need to report these developments to HQ."
---
The convoy continued through the tunnel until the brilliant floodlight of a lead train car pierced the darkness ahead. The sudden flash of white light momentarily blinded the entire group.
As they approached, the four guards moved to the front of the convoy. One stepped forward and called out in a clear, formal voice.
"Under orders of Inner Resident Rayner, we have brought all injured from State Station, along with Outer Residents Juliya and David Hatter."
A tense silence stretched across the platform. Then, cutting through the quiet like a blade, came a voice that made David's blood run cold.
"Ah, David and Juliya Hatter."
The voice carried a mixture of amusement and something darker.
"I never expected to see the two of you again so soon. Or ever again, for that matter."
From the shadows behind the floodlight, a figure emerged. Flowing robes caught the light as he stepped forward, and David's heart sank as he recognized the ornate Jian glinting at the man's hip.
Without hesitation, the entire convoy dropped into deep bows.
"We greet the Vice Family Head!"
A gaudy laugh echoed through the tunnels before cutting off abruptly.
"Rise. No need for that right now. You are on an important mission, after all."
The Vice Family Head's smile sent a chill down David's spine. There was something predatory about the way the man's eyes lingered on them.
'Why is this creepy guy talking to us?' David thought desperately. 'Just give us the vehicle and let us go.'
The lead guard straightened first, his voice respectful but urgent. "Thank you for your greeting, Vice Family Head. Before our convoy continues to HQ, I have a report."
For a moment, the Vice Family Head's eyebrows rose in surprise. The audacity of a mere Outer Resident requesting a personal audience was almost insulting. But there was something about the guard's boldness that intrigued him.
David was already feeling a little off put by Sarah's earlier comment, but now a guard asking for a direct meeting with the Vice Head. He was hoping that this meeting didn't have to do with more than just abnormal beasts, but he had a feeling that him and his wife's names were going to come up in the report also.
"Very well." His tone carried the weight of someone accustomed to absolute obedience. "The rest of you, make your way to the troop carriers on Summer Street. We will be en route momentarily."
As the Vice Family Head turned to address the guard privately, Sarah leaned closer to David and Juliya.
"Is this the US military or a Chinese martial arts sect?" she muttered under her breath. "Make up your damn minds with the vocabulary you're using."
Despite the mounting tension and the very real threat of exposure, David and Juliya both struggled to suppress snorts of laughter.
This contradiction was a running joke among Outer Residents, one of the few sources of humor for people not firmly under the Sect's control as 'Inners'. Commands like "Rendezvous at the LZ and join with the Flying Dragon Sword Brigade" never failed to crack them up.
There was speculation that the Sect Leader was some kind of martial arts Chinaboo[2], but nothing had been confirmed. What made it even more ridiculous was that the Family Head was reportedly an Irish American with zero apparent connections to East Asian culture. The whole thing struck most people as absurdly out of place.
At least the Vice Family Head looked the part. Unlike the reportedly pasty Irish American Family Head, this man appeared to be of Chinese descent, which made his flowing robes and ornate Jian seem less like cultural appropriation and more authentic. Still, the disconnect between military efficiency and martial arts theater remained painfully obvious to anyone paying attention.
The trio began to slowly move forward, being careful to stay hushed as they were escorted to Summer Street.
Before David could muster a response to Sarah's comment, a blue screen erupted in his vision.
System Message: "Warning: Interference detected.
Localized array disruption consistent with Portal Realm relic technology.
System functions limited: scanning, correction authority, and disciple tracking are suppressed in current zone.
Interference Source: Foundational Stage Artifact.
Recommendation: Evacuate zone of influence, raise cultivation level, or await relic destabilization.
System Status: Passive monitoring only."
David blinked. His faint smile faded into a deep frown.
Juliya and Sarah both glanced at him, concerned by the sudden shift in his expression. But David wasn't paying attention. He had already begun cycling his Qi, slow and deliberate.
The difference was immediate.
Around the major meridians connected to his heart, the flow felt sluggish, like shifting from a maglev train to a standard Amtrak train. Still fast but unmistakably slower.
There was no sign of damage. His meridians remained whole, but the clarity and responsiveness he had grown accustomed to were dulled. Something was suppressing them from the outside.
He stopped his circulation and opened his eyes. Quietly, he spoke to the two of them. "Give me a moment. Something is happening."
With another focused effort, David switched to his Qi sensing.
The world shifted. Everything around him took on that familiar shimmering overlay, like sunlight dancing across a pond's surface. Normally, Qi moved in smooth, concentric ripples: natural, clean, and rhythmic.
But here, something was off.
Around the perimeter of the train tunnel, the ripples began to warp. Instead of flowing outward in even rings, they folded inward, curling into tight, unnatural spirals. The air shimmered like oil floating on water, tinged faintly violet at the edges. In some spots, the Qi ripples simply stopped, as if colliding with an invisible wall.
Near the Vice Family Head, it was worse. The Qi there wasn't moving. It was compressing, folding inward, drawn toward a single unseen point. Something heavy was distorting the flow.
If David had to guess the 'Foundational Stage Artifact' was on the Vice Head's person somewhere.
This wasn't an attack from what he could tell, but a deliberate debuff, and a sophisticated one at that.
He concentrated on everyone around him, honing his vision into a narrow cone to inspect each person. That revealed something interesting. No one else besides himself and Juliya seemed affected by this suppression.
Sarah. The guards. The patients. All of them moved normally. Their Qi was untouched. The only thing separating David and Juliya from the rest was the state of their meridians.
They were completely intact.
Everyone else's were damaged.
The realization struck him like lightning.
This artifact was the inverse of the violent Qi outside. That chaotic energy overwhelmed and even killed damaged cultivators but left him and now Juliya, after having her cultivation reset, unharmed. This suppression field did the opposite: it weakened people with intact meridians while leaving everyone else alone.
David quietly whispered to the two of them, "We need to break off and talk."
Sarah raised an eyebrow while Juliya's face went stern. Over the past forty-eight hours, anytime David pulled them aside for a revelation, it was a big deal.
Juliya nodded in response and pointed to the bathroom near the exit to the platform.
Husband and wife seemed entirely in sync. Meanwhile, Sarah was confused and exhausted by the prospect of going into another moldy, gross bathroom.
Sarah raised her finger asking for a moment and walked over to one of the Vice Head's guards, who was escorting the group to the troop transports outside, and spoke with an authoritative tone.
"We have injured and elderly here. It was a short distance between stops, but it took a long time getting here. We need a bathroom break."
Sarah's face was stern as she spoke, her piercing blue eyes not betraying the subtle misinformation she was weaving.
The guard looked at Sarah and then glanced around at the injured.
What he saw wasn't that bad. Sure, they were injured, but they were all fit Outer Residents of the New Life Sect, and the oldest person among the wounded looked to be about forty. He honestly figured they could wait.
He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could reject Sarah's request, a shout came from the direction of the Vice Head and the guard briefing him.
"Are you ABSOLUTELY sure?"
The Vice Head's voice boomed across the tunnel, gathering the attention and stares of everyone there.
Noticing the looks, he quickly regained his composure and spoke in a more refined tone. "Ahem, nothing to worry about. Go back to your duties."
A beat later, he pulled the guard further into seclusion, away from prying eyes and ears.
Sarah couldn't help but snort about the outburst, but quickly covered it with a cough.
The guard, after seeing that awkward exchange, decided that whatever was happening would take a moment. "You have five minutes. Make sure everyone who needs to go can go. We won't be stopping again."
Sarah pressed her right fist into her left palm and bowed. "Thank you. We will be quick!"
She turned and rushed to where David and Juliya were waiting by the bathroom. On the way, she called out to the injured that if they needed to use the bathroom, they should go now.
A small group detached and made their way toward David and Juliya.
Before David and Juliya could object to their secret meeting place being disrupted by a parade of cripples, Sarah motioned to a utility closet a little further down the tunnel walkway. With a rather chipper tone, she spoke. "I will not be going back into a moldy bathroom today. There are plenty of private places. Let's go."
While Sarah had some lingering trauma from train station bathrooms, David and Juliya had the same lingering trauma from maintenance tunnels. But despite that, the trio persevered and made their way to the doorway.
---
The three of them were crammed into a broom closet no bigger than five by five feet. It was a tight fit, but they made it work. The lights didn't function, but honestly that was fine. David only had a few things to say, and then they could make their way back out.
"Okay," David began, speaking with an almost somber tone. "I think the NLS, specifically the Vice Head, has some type of artifact on his person that can suppress people with completely intact meridians."
If it wasn't pitch black, David would've seen both Juliya and Sarah's jaws drop in shock.
"Is that why I was feeling weird out there?" Juliya asked curiously. "I figured it was just because I'm still getting used to my cultivation and coming off a battle high. But I definitely feel slower than right after I finished cultivating."
David shrugged, accomplishing absolutely nothing in the darkness. "I think that could be the case." He paused, squinting into the void as if searching for reactions that were completely invisible to him. When the silence stretched too long, he continued. "What I do know is that this is like the opposite of the violent Qi. Juliya and I aren't affected by that stuff, but you guys are."
He gestured emphatically toward Sarah while saying this, pointing confidently at what he hoped was her general direction but was actually a mop.
"But what's happening out there is definitely something that only affects people with intact meridians. I ran a scan with my Qi sense, and it's all centered around the Vice Head."
Sarah nodded thoughtfully, a gesture completely wasted on her audience, then spoke up. "Is this something that's going to kill you if you're in its range for longer than an hour? Like the violent Qi? Because if so, we need to get going ASAP. You still owe me that favor to fix my meridians, and I don't want you to die before I can cash it in."
David shook his head, "I don't think so. Juliya's Qi was flowing in reverse when she was exposed ton the violent Qi for too long yesterday, and with the small dataset of the two of us, all I can tell is that our natural circulation has been slowed down." He gestured toward Juliya, to no one's benefit, before continuing, "Juliya should be affected less than me because she's still in the Body Tempering stage, but I think I'm taking a pretty big hit combat wise."
David grimaced inwardly.
'I seriously just got the ability to do that rad slash I did against the Mutated Beasts, and now it's been taken away once again.'
Juliya spoke up this time, carrying on for David who seemed to be done speaking, "We don't know for sure though right? We should probably get away from the Vice Head ASAP."
David and Juliya nodded affirmatively in response.
A tense silence broke out between the three of them in this closet before Sarah finally spoke up.
"Alright you weirdos, lets stop standing silently in the dark and get going."
And with that she turned to reach for the door handle and grabbed an open paint can, spilling it all over her scrubs.
"Oh mother fu-"
[1] Because these are new discoveries, David has decided to coin Earth animals changed in to Beasts by violent Qi as "Mutated Beasts".
[2] Chinaboo as defined by google:
A Chinaboo is a term, analogous to "weeaboo" or "koreaboo," used to describe someone who is excessively obsessed with Chinese culture, often to the point of viewing it as superior to other cultures.