Dawn arrived like a held breath, pale and expectant. Li Wei woke before the bell, the Obsidian Heart a familiar warmth against his ribs and the ledger he'd been keeping folded beside his pillow. The fourteen-day inquiry was still in force; the elders had promised oversight. That made today both dangerous and oddly sanctioned—a window in which responsibilities and possibilities met on a tight rope.
He had planned everything down to the inked signature. Consent forms, individualized aftercare plans, witness rotations, rota sheets for supervised practice, notations in the envoy's log. Hua Lin had helped him draft the script that each participant would read aloud before the exchange. Master Han had agreed to be a distant witness and to step in if any line bent toward coercion. Elder Ji, curt and watchful, had been given copies of the protocols. The system, inscrutable and pragmatic, blinked in polite interest.
[DAILY NOTICE]
Host: Li Wei
Event: Supervised Multi-Bond Exchange (Group Sync) — Sanctioned under Elder Inquiry.
Participants: Mei Ling, Yun Shuang, Lianxi (Chef), Ruo Yan (Scholar), Host.
Supervisors: Hua Lin (Coordinator), Master Han (Witness).
Objective: Controlled group synchronization; document outcomes and aftercare.
Reward: High Qi payout conditional on full protocol compliance.
Warning: Inner monitors active; emotional checks required.
They met in the pavilion behind the herb garden, a place chosen for privacy that nonetheless sat on a well-trod path—visible enough to discourage rumor, sheltered enough for focus. The four women arrived with different energies: Mei Ling's steady calm, Yun Shuang's blunt practicality, Lianxi's warm, practical presence, and Ruo Yan's sharp, watchful intellect. It would have been easy for Li Wei to think of them as instruments to press into service; he kept remembering Hua Lin's counsel about governance and the envoy's caution about magnifiers. He looked at each face and felt the responsibility settle like a garment.
"Everyone agrees?" Hua Lin asked, voice precise.
Each replied in turn, the three words they had rehearsed—intent, signal, aftercare—spoken with the kind of clarity that made the hall listen. Master Han sat with the relaxed posture of someone whose years taught him the value of measured observation. Elder Ji had chosen not to attend personally; his absence felt like the tightness of a rope that could be tugged at any moment.
They began with stabilizing breathwork, the same measures Li Wei had learned from Hua Lin: four in, two hold, six out—slow enough that the mind could not sprint. Hands hovered, fingers touching knuckles, palms a respectful inch apart where contact would be communicative but never invasive. The Obsidian Heart lay secured beneath Li Wei's robe; relic and ritual were kept distinct.
The system tracked them in its dispassionate way, little blue ribbons of data flaring and settling.
[SESSION INITIATED — MULTI-BOND SYNCHRONIZATION]
Configuration: Group (4 + Host). Safety: Witness present; written consent logged. Target: 60–75% group concordance for safe yield.
They moved into co-breathing, then to shared micro-cues—small touches that served as checks rather than signals of escalation. Lianxi's hands were warm from the kitchen; her touch steadied. Ruo Yan's fingers—callused by ink and scroll corners—were deliberate. Yun Shuang's presence was blunt and anchoring; Mei Ling, as always, folded and widened the space with her quiet warmth. Li Wei functioned less as a pursuer and more as a pivot: equal measure of giving and receiving, making sure the weave did not pull a seam.
Minutes passed with the soft gravity of practice. Qi, when it moved in a group, did not explode like a firework; it pooled, like rain gathering in a channel. Each person felt the current differently—some buoyed, some stretched, some steady. At the thirty-minute marker Hua Lin adjusted their cadence, instructing Mei Ling to breathe a half-count longer, asking Yun Shuang to soften an anchor, reminding Ruo Yan to soften the intellect and let the body lead. Those small calibrations mattered. The system chimed a modest approval.
[HALFWAY]
GroupConcordance: 58% — within safe window. EmotionalIndex: Muted-High. Observe for late fatigue.
A different emotion rippled through the group then: a private relief, the sort that candidates for trust feel when an experiment does not end in shrapnel. They pushed a little further, intentionally—but not recklessly—allowing the harmony to thicken until their breaths blurred together. The Obsidian Heart hummed faintly, an echo beneath the larger current; it was not driving the session but it listened.
When the system finally registered the successful alignment the blue ribbon unwound into a clear outcome.
[SESSION COMPLETE — MULTI-BOND SUCCESS]
Result: Group Concordance 72%. RewardGranted: +900 Qi (distributed: Host 40%, Partners shared 60% per protocol). SecondaryEffects: Yin Bloom +25, Temporary Group Trust +40. Advisory: 72-hour emotional monitoring required.
The Qi settled into Li Wei like a new layer of armor and warmth at once—enough to step him forward in cultivation, but not so much as to make him careless. He felt the benefit across his limbs, a clean pressure in his lower dantian that spoke of solid foundation rather than brittle spike. The women next to him showed similar signs: eyes clearer, posture steadier, cheeks flushed not with fever but with robust health.
Hua Lin immediately ordered individualized aftercare. Lianxi received a warmed poultice and broth that settled her muscles; Yun Shuang went through muscle rolling and blunt, honest talk about boundaries and needs; Mei Ling and Ruo Yan received longer conversations—one gentle and protective, the other analytical and reflective—to anchor the subtle emotional ripples. Li Wei sat and listened, making notes, asking how each felt, confirming the precise time for the 24- and 72-hour check-ins. Every gesture was recorded in the ledger and initialed.
Word moved fast; inner monitors hummed. Later that afternoon Master Han came by with the envoy's acolyte at his back. He did not scowl. He did not praise noisily either. He asked one practical question about the distribution schedule and then another about the cooling-off protocols. When Li Wei answered with numbers, times, and names, Master Han's face gave the smallest of nods.
Elder Ji did not issue a punishment. He sent a brief note—formal and tight—reminding Li Wei that the inquiry remained active and that any deviation from protocol would be met with sanction. The absence of immediate reprimand felt like a verdict more generous than Li Wei had dared hope.
[NOTIFICATION]
Effect: Inner Attention Elevated. Envoy Favor +1. Reward: Minor passive Reputation stabilization granted for full compliance.
That night, before sleep, Li Wei closed the ledger and looked at the signatures: consent scripts, witness initials, aftercare confirmations. The rewards were real; the attention had sharpened. He had crossed a border and returned with more than a prize—he had come back with a fuller responsibility. The Perverted Dao had offered a shortcut; he had used it under watchful eyes and with paperwork that smelled of ink and care. Elders were tense because such success always makes them uneasy, but they did not punish because he had built the house before the rain.
He lay back, feeling the Obsidian Heart's faint rhythm against his sternum, and thought of the coming checks, the conversations to be had, the procedures to refine. Power had been gained that day; trust had been stretched and, by careful tending, held. The crossroads he stood on was no longer a simple choice between ambition and restraint. It was a road paved with both, and he would walk it with paper in one hand and people in the other.
End of Chapter 20