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POV: Arthur Snow
Location: Wolfsblood Ridge – Same Morning, Same Clearing
The air still hadn't moved.
Frost lingered on the rocks. Mist circled the edges of the clearing.
Arthur stood before them, breath calm. The steam from his body still drifted in soft, slow ribbons—leftover evidence of what he'd just done.
None of them spoke.
He broke the silence.
"What you saw was called Qi ."
He walked slowly around the circle of companions. None looked away.
"It is not magic."
He stopped beside the cracked line in the earth where his breath had broken frozen ground.
"It is breath, trained. Energy that sleeps in the body until shaped. Once awakened, it strengthens muscle, hardens flesh, sharpens thought, accelerates healing."
He tapped his chest. "It lives here. In the Dantian —your core."
Then gestured along the arms and back.
"It flows through Meridians —channels most never sense. You train them open. You learn to move it, direct it, store it."
Thom blinked. "You mean there are actual… pathways? Like veins?"
"Yes. But not physical. They're responsive. Like a second body beneath your own."
Redna folded her arms. "How do you know this? If it's not taught in books or the Citadel?"
Arthur didn't flinch. "Because I found it."
"How?"
"I bled for it."
He paused, choosing each word.
"I survived places where men suffocate without wound. I broke through fatigue. Held breath through fever. Ignored cold until it passed through me."
He let the silence settle.
"I didn't find qi. I earned it."
Vaeren tilted his head. "So it obeys order?"
"Yes," Arthur said. "Qi obeys pressure, heat, rhythm, intention. The same way iron obeys fire."
Now their eyes were different.
Not just curious.
Careful.
Respectful.
Arthur drew a line in the dirt with his toe. A circle around himself.
"Today you saw technique. But that was nothing. Now we begin training."
He pointed at Garron first.
"You're a hammer. You don't need flexibility. You need breath that hardens the body."
Arthur stepped up to him, pressed two fingers to Garron's lower abdomen.
"Dantian," he said. "Your center. Where qi builds. You'll breathe from here—not the chest, not the throat. Sink it deep."
Garron opened his mouth to speak.
Arthur cut him off. "Close your teeth. Breathe through your nose. In through the belly. Hold. Out through the back."
He stepped behind Garron, pressed his palm between his shoulder blades.
"Again."
Garron obeyed.
The breath came wrong. Arthur struck his back—light, but sharp.
"Again. Let it fill the base. Feel weight drop. Let it settle."
He moved to Thom next.
"You're cerebral. Over-thinker. You'll never feel qi if you can't shut your head off."
He crouched beside him.
"Lie back."
Thom blinked. "What?"
"On your spine. I'm showing you the Zhoutian."
Thom laid down.
Arthur drew a circle in the air above his body.
"The Microcosmic Orbit. A full cycle of qi through the governing and conception vessels—from your perineum to the crown and down the front. You feel nothing now. You will."
He placed one finger at Thom's navel.
"Breathe. Let the energy rise on inhale, descend on exhale."
He marked each meridian point with a tap—slow, precise.
"You're not thinking now. You're listening."
Sarra stood already.
Arthur faced her.
"You rely on motion. Fast, tight, violent. That means you breathe wrong—high and sharp."
He moved into her space. Close.
"Breathe with your flanks. Use the ribs. Expand the diaphragm."
He raised her arm. Touched the side of her ribs, just below her heart.
"That's where it locks. Break that."
She didn't flinch.
Arthur nodded.
"You'll train the Coiling Serpent Method. It binds qi to muscle through rooted tension. No wasted energy."
He turned to Redna.
"You're too reactive. Too loose."
She raised an eyebrow. "Didn't realize breathing had rules."
"It does. Or you'll die before you notice you're tired."
He sat her down.
"Knees together. Spine upright. Tongue pressed to the roof of your mouth."
"Seriously?"
"That connects the Ren and Du meridians. Do it."
She did.
He watched her breath. It danced. Flickered. Wrong rhythm.
"You'll learn Silent Inhalation," he said. "Qi enters unnoticed. Exits before it's missed."
She said nothing, for once.
He moved to Vaeren.
"You're blocked everywhere. Your body fights itself."
Vaeren chuckled nervously. "That explains the heartburn."
Arthur's face remained cold.
"You'll start with Pre-Foundation Detoxification. No qi movement. Just restoration. Diet. Breath. Cold immersion. If you build qi now, you'll rot from within."
Vaeren shut up.
Arthur placed a vial of mountain ash near him. "Boil this tonight. Drink it before breathwork."
And finally, he stepped before Lyanna.
Her breathing was already steady. Posture clean.
He studied her a moment longer than the others.
"You're not blocked," he said. "But you scatter."
She tilted her head. "Meaning?"
"Your focus is strong but unfocused. Your energy disperses before it consolidates."
Arthur placed a flat hand over her lower back.
"You'll start with Reverse Breathing."
She didn't react.
"Inhale into the Dantian, but draw the belly in, not out. Contract on the pull. Release on the exhale."
She tried it.
Arthur watched.
"Again."
Her breath was cleaner this time. More rooted.
"You'll be the fastest to progress," he said.
She didn't smile. But something behind her eyes shifted.
Arthur stepped back.
"You've all been introduced to the first gate," he said. "But there are stages."
He raised his hand and drew a line in the air with two fingers.
"Refining Breath. Gathering Qi. Opening the Eight Meridians. Establishing the Foundation. Those are the first four."
Garron muttered, "How many are there?"
Arthur didn't answer.
He just said, "Breathe."
Arthur stepped back into the center of the circle.
"You're not learning to fight," he said. "Not yet. You're learning to reshape your foundation."
He looked up at the trees.
"This path is called Foundation Establishment ."
He let that word linger.
"You fail here—everything after collapses."
He turned to the group.
"I will guide your breath tomorrow. After that, you'll do it yourselves. If you faint, don't move. If you vomit, it means your blood stirred. That's good."