---
The dawn wind rolled off Cloud-Ridge like a tide of breath.
Mist streamed through the courtyards, curling around meditation stones and sparring circles. Bells tolled three times. The disciples gathered for morning cultivation.
Ria sat cross-legged beneath a pine tree, its needles whispering overhead. The mountain's qi flowed through her lungs, cool and sharp, weaving into the faint silver glow at her center. Her Core pulsed softly—no longer a spark but a tiny sun.
> Core Progress — 7 % → 8 %.
Qi Threads: Stable.
Each inhale fed the core; each exhale sent light through her veins. The threads glittered under her skin, silver rivers looping from heart to fingertips. She guided them carefully, shaping their rhythm the way one shaped music—slow, steady, patient.
Across the courtyard, Ren groaned. "Do you ever blink?"
"Sometimes," she murmured.
"You've been sitting there since moonset."
"And yet," she said, smiling faintly, "you're still louder than the wind."
He laughed, falling back on the grass. "That's cultivation too. Building endurance in everyone else."
Instructor Kao's voice sliced through the mist. "Focus! Today you will learn to project your qi threads beyond your skin. Let them touch the world—gently, as wind touches water."
---
Ria extended her awareness. The energy inside her swirled outward in shining strands, thin as silk. They brushed the air, the grass, the pulse of the mountain. Every contact hummed back like a note of music. She could feel the world breathing with her.
> Qi Resonance — Detected.
Core Progress — 9 %.
Then something shifted.
Her focus stretched too far, a fraction of will reaching past the valley. The threads quivered, catching on unseen currents. The hum deepened until it was no longer sound but vibration through existence itself. The mountain trembled; the clouds stilled.
"Ria," Kao barked, "release your focus!"
But it was too late. The threads had found something vast.
---
A light burst behind her eyes—white, endless, silent. She was no longer sitting under a pine tree. She stood within the web Elder Hanzo had shown them, only now it filled all directions: an infinite lattice of light connecting worlds. Each filament pulsed like a heartbeat. When she breathed, they answered.
She saw through the lines:
—A continent where swords floated like constellations.
—A desert of glass where time rewound with every sunset.
—An ocean whose waves sang the Mother's lost lullaby.
—A fox child with eyes of twilight chasing starlight through ruins.
—A battlefield on a sky-island where countless sects clashed beneath twin moons.
Every vision shimmered, then dissolved into the network's light. The web itself seemed to look back at her.
"Who stirs the chords of creation?" a thousand voices whispered.
Ria gasped. "I… didn't mean—"
The light brightened. "Then learn why they exist."
---
Back in the courtyard, wind exploded outward. Dust and petals swirled into a golden storm. Disciples stumbled as ripples of qi shook the training ground. Ren ran toward her, shielding his eyes. "Ria!"
Instructor Kao threw up a barrier of light, anchoring the field. The shock faded, leaving only the whisper of falling petals. At the center, Ria sat trembling, her eyes glowing faint silver before dimming.
Kao crouched beside her. "What did you touch?"
Ria swallowed. "Everything."
---
High above, in the Cloud-Ridge observatory, Elder Hanzo watched the sky. The patterns of fate flickered across his scrying mirror—waves spreading outward from their mountain to the edges of known reality.
He whispered, "The Web awakens."
From distant realms, others felt it too.
In a city of clouds, an emperor opened his eyes as mirrors cracked around him.
In the deep sea, sirens halted their song, sensing foreign resonance.
In a desert temple, monks paused mid-chant, the sand beneath them humming.
Across thousands of worlds, seers looked up and saw a single silver thread flash across the heavens—brief, bright, and gone.
A fox-haired woman cloaked in moonlight smiled in an unknown realm. "So, the child has found the strings."
---
Back at Cloud-Ridge, the sect masters convened. Scrolls and crystals covered the great table, glowing with recorded energy waves.
"It came from our mountain," one elder said. "A resonance pulse spanning seven thousand realms."
"An invasion?"
"No… a conversation."
Hanzo stood silent until they pressed him. "We will not punish the wind for stirring the leaves," he said finally. "Whatever caused this, it seeks harmony, not war."
"You would protect the culprit?" another snapped.
"I would protect the future," Hanzo replied.
He knew exactly who had touched the Web, but he also knew that destiny could not be caged.
---
When Ria woke that evening, she found Ren sitting beside her with a bowl of soup and a worried look. "You fainted," he said. "And the sky sang. Everyone's been talking about it."
She sipped the soup slowly. "I didn't mean to do it."
"I know." He leaned back. "But whatever you did, it was big. The elders are terrified."
Her eyes drifted to the horizon. "I saw… other worlds. Thousands of them. Each connected. They're real, Ren. The map wasn't just theory."
He whistled. "So the rumors are true—our universe is basically a spiderweb."
"A living one," she whispered. "And we're part of it."
> System Update — Boundless Resonance Triggered.
Core Progress — 10 %.
New Quest: Weaver of Worlds.
Status: First Ripple Complete (Chapter 25 of 1 000+).
The words shimmered before fading into light. She felt them more than saw them—a pulse deep in her chest, in rhythm with the stars.
---
Later that night, Elder Hanzo visited her quietly. "Do you understand what you touched?"
"Barely," she admitted.
He looked out toward the sleeping valley. "When the Web stirs, the universe listens. Every ripple draws attention—from friends and foes alike. But it also opens doors. Many of those doors lead upward."
"Upward?" she asked.
"To realms where even gods still learn," he said. "You have begun a path that will not end with this mountain. Remember that when the way seems endless. The thousand is only a number. The Dao has no ceiling."
Ria bowed her head. "Then I'll climb until the stars run out."
Hanzo smiled. "Good. Just don't forget to eat."
---
After he left, she stepped onto the balcony. The moon hung full, its reflection shimmering across the lake. She raised her hand, tracing a finger through the air. Faint threads of silver appeared, stretching outward until they vanished among the constellations.
Somewhere, on another world, someone might be looking back along that same line.
Ria closed her eyes. "To the thousand realms," she whispered. "May each one teach me something new."
The threads pulsed once, as if answering. Then they dissolved into the night, leaving only starlight and the steady glow of her growing core.
---