Eva woke up the next morning feeling strangely refreshed.
She brewed a cup of coffee, sat at her desk, and began writing down everything that had happened, the light, the rooftop, the golden page, the strange messages. Her hands still tingled with that faint, pulsating warmth, like something alive inside her.
After breakfast, she closed her eyes and tried meditating, hoping to calm her thoughts.
When her breathing slowed, the world around her dissolved. Darkness stretched endlessly once again. But this time, she wasn't afraid.
The golden page floated before her, words glowing across its surface:
"A limited number of non-Dao beings should come into contact with the Dao."
"An Eternal Body's strength cannot exceed its strongest Dao descendant by too much."
She didn't fully understand, but the message felt… restrictive, like a warning.
Then pain slammed into her skull. Information flooded in a torrent of knowledge about thousands of species that absorbed Qi from the air to strengthen themselves.
Some hardened their skin and bones.
Some infused muscles and blood with Qi.
Others shaped it outside their bodies, bending the world with a thin Qi layer.
She analyzed them all,thousands of variations,each method more complex than the last. As she sank deeper into that ocean of knowledge, she lost all sense of time. Minutes, hours, maybe even days none of it mattered. Time itself felt meaningless to her now.
Finally, she reached a conclusion, the best method was to infuse Qi into every part of the body.
Focusing, she sensed tiny particles drifting through the air. She drew them in, channeling the energy through her veins, muscles, bones, and blood.
It took only ten minutes.
When she opened her eyes, the world felt different.
Sharper. Louder. Clearer.
Her strength had multiplied hundreds of times over. Her mind was faster, her senses razor-sharp.
More text appeared on the golden page:
"Lifespan - 300 years."
The language was alien, yet she understood it instantly. At least this measurement made sense unlike those impossible "99,999 cycles."
Excitement surged through her, mixed with fear. She forced the fear down.
Back in her apartment, things didn't go smoothly.
She cracked eggs and the bowl. Then the plate. Then the stove.
"Great," she muttered, staring at the mess.
After a while, she adjusted to her new strength and ordered breakfast instead.
At work, everything felt almost laughably easy. She no longer needed a computer to run calculations,her brain could process hundreds of data entries in seconds.
But the phrase from the page kept echoing in her head:
"Limited number of non-Dao beings."
Was she supposed to teach others?
And how many was "too many"?
What even separated Dao beings from non-Dao beings?
During her tea break, she decided to experiment.
She found her manager, Anya, and her colleague, John, in the lounge.
"Hey," she said casually, "do you two want to learn a Qi training method I found?"
John raised an eyebrow. "You've been reading too many web novels, Eva."
"Just listen," she said.
As she explained, strange words slipped from her mouth,a language she didn't recognize, yet couldn't stop speaking. The language of the Eternal Verse.
Both of them fell silent, eyes unfocused, like in a trance.
Halfway through, Eva's body began to pulse. The golden page burst out of her chest, floating in front of her.
She froze.
So that's where it had gone.
New words appeared:
"Number of non-Dao beings exceeds Eternal's strength."
Her heart sank. She understood immediately,right now, the limit was one.
Eva stopped speaking at once. The glow faded.
Anya blinked, rubbing her temples. "Did you… put something in my tea? My head's killing me."
John groaned. "Same here. What was that?"
Eva forced a nervous laugh and changed the subject until they calmed down.
Later, back home, she sat on her bed, thinking hard. She couldn't risk spreading this knowledge directly. If contact triggered something, she had to find another way.
Lost in thought, she eventually drifted to sleep.