Chapter 20 — The First Bone

CHAPTER 20

The First Bone

“Don't break the bed!” Bian Cui shouted through the door.

Shi Feng looked at the stool he'd just moved away from the wall.

“It was the stool,” Shi Feng replied.

“Then thank Heaven it wasn’t the bed!” Bian Cui shouted. “The carpenter’s already sick of this house!”

Shi Feng checked the stool. One leg had cracked when he gripped it to steady his first circulation. He put it aside and sat on the floor. The floor, at least, belonged to the ground.

“Don't break that either!” Bian Cui said.

Her slippers slapped down the stairs. He waited until the sound faded, then closed the window and set the first of the two small bottles upon the table.

The Jade Marrow Dew was amber and thick. He didn't pour a mouthful just because he had two bottles of it now. The common manual advised a small amount during the first attempt.

Shi Feng touched one drop with a clean spoon and swallowed it.

Warmth spread through his chest.

He sat cross-legged upon folded bedding and placed the blue booklet where he could see the open page. The first step was clear. Gather refined qi, direct it around a small bone, and let it enter slowly.

He chose the first bone of his right forefinger. A tiny place to begin after opening three hundred and sixty-five meridians.

It was still a beginning.

Shi Feng guided his qi down the arm. The current passed through the hand without difficulty, but it spread through the surrounding flesh when he pressed toward the bone. He stopped and tried again with less force.

The manual didn't say to smash the qi inward. Refinement meant strengthening the bone, not injuring it and hoping the medicine would clean up afterward. His next attempt held around the chosen point.

He felt the hard surface resisting the current. A little strength entered, then slipped away when his attention wandered toward the rest of the hand.

Shi Feng frowned.

He thought: one point first. Don't become greedy just because the road is open.

The All-Devouring Physique had given him plenty of resources. His perfect meridians carried the qi easily. Neither could choose where he focused.

He settled his breathing and began again.

This time he kept the current thin and steady. The warmth from the dew supported his body while refined qi pressed slowly into the bone.

Something changed beneath the surface.

A tiny hard point began holding the qi instead of letting it slide away.

Shi Feng didn't celebrate yet.

He fed it another careful current, then another. The new strength stayed through each breath. It wasn't the loose warmth he'd felt while restoring dormant meridians.

The bone itself was changing.

Outside, somebody dropped a bucket in the yard. A man cursed. Bian Cui shouted that the bucket still had to be paid for even if it was old.

Shi Feng kept his attention on his finger.

The noise faded.

Then the tiny point became stable.

His whole skeleton gave a clear response.

The force passed from the forefinger into the hand, through the arm, and down the spine. His body straightened without him intending it. Refined qi settled deeper, supporting his flesh with a firmness he'd never felt before.

Bone Refinement.

Shi Feng opened his eyes.

For a moment, he just looked at his hand.

“I've reached it,” Shi Feng said quietly. “Bone Refinement.”

He was excited. He hadn't crawled out of Hanyin Well merely to return to the life he lost. He'd gone beyond it.

Before his meridians went dormant, the clan praised his channel count. He still hadn't reached this realm. Now there was no testing stone and no elder deciding how much applause he deserved.

There was only his own hand and the little point of new strength within it.

That was enough.

He examined the change carefully.

The refined portion was tiny, little more than a grain along the forefinger bone. He hadn't completed that bone, much less the whole skeleton.

Yet every bone was already connected to the strength flowing through his perfect meridian network. The first successful refinement let that strength support his entire body more directly. It didn't mean all two hundred and six bones were refined.

It meant he'd finally begun the work.

Shi Feng glanced at the two small bottles.

The dew would help, but this wouldn't be cheap. If every small section needed steady resources, completing the whole body would require far more than one lucky spring.

He wasn't discouraged.

He could hunt, and he could earn money. The important thing was that his road hadn't ended where the physicians said it had.

Near noon, Shi Feng stood and tested a few plain clan movements.

His first forward step stopped exactly where he wanted. The next turn was faster. When he closed his fist, his forearm no longer shook against the full force gathering within it.

He picked up an iron nail left beside the shutter.

The nail bent between his fingers.

Shi Feng looked at it, straightened it as well as he could, and set it back. Bian Cui would probably recognize her nail from across the yard.

The sword was next. He drew it, made a short thrust, and stopped before the point reached the wall. Qi supported the movement without spilling from him in a visible glow.

His strength had risen sharply.

An ordinary opponent in Bone Refinement wasn't going to be dangerous just because they shared a realm. His foundation before this point was far beyond theirs, and his body could finally carry more of that advantage. He wouldn't need a clever escape every time somebody swung a blade.

Shi Feng sheathed the sword and washed before opening the door. A sleepy cloth merchant stood upon the landing with an empty water bowl. His robe hung open at the collar, and he looked annoyed at everything.

“Were you the one knocking?” Qiu Sheng, a sleepy merchant, asked.

“No,” Shi Feng said.

“Good. I was trying to sleep,” Qiu Sheng grumbled.

He shuffled downstairs and began arguing with Bian Cui about whether cold tea counted as yesterday's tea or today's.

Shi Feng followed more slowly.

The lodging house was exactly as noisy as before. Nobody bowed because he'd entered Bone Refinement. Nobody even knew.

That suited him.

In the yard, Bian Cui looked him over.

“You look healthier,” Bian Cui said. “Have you finally stopped wasting money on Qian Rui?”

“Not soon enough,” Shi Feng replied.

“He still owes me for two meals,” Bian Cui muttered.

Shi Feng sat with a bowl of rice. He ate it, ordered another, then added eggs and vegetables. The new strength had left him hungry enough to think poorly of small bowls.

Bian Cui watched the dishes accumulate.

“Do you want the pot brought over?” Bian Cui asked.

“How much rice is left?” Shi Feng replied.

She stopped joking and fetched the pot.

“If you're hungry, say so before I put the fire out,” Bian Cui said.

“I'm hungry,” Shi Feng replied.

“I can see that now!” Bian Cui snapped.

She brought another plate of eggs. They weren't free, but they were hot, and the shells weren't mixed into the food.

Shi Feng ate them with satisfaction. A breakthrough deserved a decent meal. He didn't need elders beating drums outside his door to enjoy it.

Across the yard, the sleepy merchant watched the empty plates accumulate and quietly moved his breakfast farther away.

After eating, he bought food for two days and checked his pack. The damaged spear would serve as a walking staff. The plain sword was sound. Wei Kuo's better knife sat at his belt, replacing the old chipped blade.

He kept the two bottles of dew wrapped at the center of the pack. More hunting would bring more resources. He could practice along the way instead of sitting in town while every merchant tried to sell him another cure for being crippled.

Bian Cui saw him preparing to leave the following morning.

“Where now?” Bian Cui asked.

“The outer hills,” Shi Feng said.

“Don't bring anything alive into my kitchen,” Bian Cui warned.

“I'll eat it first,” Shi Feng replied.

Before she could answer, heavy boots stopped outside the courtyard gate. Gao An, the Wei household’s steward, stepped over the threshold with two armed retainers and an unrolled watch notice in his hand.

“The Wei household has reported Young Master Wei Kuo and his attendant Luo San missing to the town watch,” Gao An announced, his sharp gaze sweeping the yard before settling on Bian Cui. “They went toward the western hills yesterday afternoon and haven’t returned. Which of your lodgers took the western track before dusk?”

Bian Cui stiffened with the empty dish still in her hand. Two steps from the gate, Shi Feng adjusted the strap of his pack, met Gao An’s eyes calmly as he stepped past the retainers, and walked out into the street.