BAB3 -Chapter 15

# Chapter 15: Morning Vitality

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The next morning, Xay slept in longer than usual.

The excitement from the day before—and having his internal organs thoroughly discombobulated—had really taken it out of him.

The moment he emerged from the basement, the ladies gave him an earful.

Lexi hurled a few creative variations of “idiot” his way. Kimi, while understanding his intentions, still told him: “You could’ve gone about it in a better way.”

Tyra and Ezra fussed over him, doing their best to heal him further.

Rox thought the whole thing was hilarious, and they had to talk her out of trying her luck with Grandmaster Wu.

Shifu Wu just shook her head, more upset with her grandpa for taking things that far.

Amy and the twins didn’t say anything directly, but Xay could see the concern etched across their faces.

Willow watched it all from above, haughtily as ever.

Even Dragon gave him the cold shoulder for fighting without her, opting to spend the night with Kimi instead.

Xay took it all with a smile.

To him, it just meant there were people who cared for him as deeply as he cared for them.

And that only fueled his desire to grow stronger to protect them.

After a light stretch, Xay checked over his two Jetnir Orbs for any signs of damage.

They’d been colliding with the Grandmaster’s bead talismans at incredibly high speeds.

But after a thorough inspection, they were flawless—still as solid and shiny as the day he’d first opened the box.

He’d have to thank Auntie Leah the next time he saw her. The metal was beyond exceptional.

Xay stood and found an outfit neatly folded for him on a small wooden desk.

The room itself was bare-bones and minimalistic. The walls were a ruddy, clay red and the bed sat low to the ground, with what felt like straw beneath the thin mat.

The only other item of note was a square meditation mat tucked into the corner.

It wasn’t the plush penthouses and high-rise apartments Xay had grown used to—it wasn’t even the cramped capsule unit he’d lived in during primary—but it had a charm all on its own.

Deciding to go with the flow, Xay unfolded the incredibly soft and smooth cream-colored outfit and got dressed. He thought it might be made from bamboo.

The pants were lightweight, a cross between a martial gi and joggers.

They were fitted at the waist and ankles, but loose and roomy from thigh to calf, offering a full range of motion.

The shirt was a long, drop-cut design that reached his thighs in the front and back but hovered at his waist on the sides.

Sleeveless, with a folded V-neck, it draped over his skin like a gentle caress.

There were no shoes—not even a pair of sandals or slides.

Xay really liked the outfit. It felt as if he were in martial pajamas.

But he had to fight every urge in him to not throw on some socks and low tops. He even had a pair that was cream-colored and would match the outfit perfectly.

Exercising an immense amount of willpower, Xay left his room—barefoot.

The dormitory where he and his friends were staying was already empty. Clearly, he was the last to wake, and no one had bothered to rouse him.

He stepped outside and paused to take in the atmosphere.

The sun was high in the sky, birds chirped in the distance, and a few butterflies fluttered near one of Grandma Xiu’s blooming flowers.

Their dormitory sat just behind her courtyard, where she tended a small herb garden, a few crop beds, and a tall, flourishing peach tree.

The air up here was thinner, but far more crisp and refreshing with a soft, warm sensation that he didn’t quite understand.

Xay felt closer to nature than ever before—and he hadn’t even begun exploring the mountains in earnest yet.

Once he was satisfied, he made his way to Grandma Xiu’s back door and gave it a knock.

“Oh, come in. I’m in the nook,” came her voice from behind the door.

Xay walked inside and found Grandma Xiu sitting at a small table down the hall, sipping a cup of tea.

She looked up and smiled warmly. “Well, good morning, young man. How did you sleep?”

“I slept great,” Xay said, taking a seat. “It’s much easier when it’s voluntary.”

Grandma Xiu gave him a look.

But before she could respond, Ezra’s head popped around the corner—and a moment later, Valiant came bounding in, hopping right into Xay’s lap.

“Good morning,” Ezra chirped. “Want me to heat you up some breakfast?”

“Oh, sweetheart, you’re a guest here,” Grandma Xiu said, starting to rise. “You don’t have to do that.”

“It’s no problem,” Ezra and Amy said in unison, their voices overlapping.

“We just want to thank you for having us.”

Grandma Xiu gave a small shrug and sat back down, grinning as she leaned toward Xay.

“They’re quite the little helpers,” she whispered. “Up cooking and cleaning before daybreak. They could teach Li-Li a thing or two.”

Xay chuckled, scratching between Valiant’s furry little ears.

Clearing her throat, the atmosphere around Grandma Xiu shifted. She gazed intently at Xay, her warm demeanor giving way to something more terrifying.

“I’ve heard my husband’s side of the story,” she said calmly. “But I’d like to hear yours.”

Xay sat up a little straighter as his heart rate ticked upward.

This wasn’t like staring down Grandmaster Wu’s aura—it was far, far worse: the possibility of disappointing a grandma.

“I—um. I’m sorry,” Xay said, nervously bowing his head. “I just wanted him to train me. I wanted to be stronger. He said no, and I tried to force the issue. It’s my fault.”

Grandma Xiu said nothing for a moment, allowing the silence to linger.

During that time, Ezra returned with Xay’s breakfast—a warm egg scramble mixed with bean sprouts, nuts, and grains.

“Eat your food,” Grandma Xiu said firmly, “and explain to me why you need to be stronger so badly that you’d put yourself—and your friends—through all that.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Xay blurted, immediately starting to shovel food into his mouth.

“Aht!” She popped him lightly on the hand, and somehow, a small pulse of pressure reverberated through his entire body.

“Not so fast—you’ll choke. And don’t call me ma’am. I’m Grandma Xiu.”

“Yes, m—” Xay caught himself. “Yes, Grandma Xiu.”

He slowed down, chewing properly now. The food was actually really good—not quite on Theo’s level, but the ingredients were incredibly fresh.

Once he’d finished eating, he took a long breath, then began telling Grandma Xiu his story—all of it.

He spoke about growing up as an orphan, haunted by the fear of being trapped forever as a mana crystal miner.

About meeting Lexi and her chaotic, loving family. About surviving Anton Morwen.

He told her how he’d spent years feeling like he had to awaken—or else—and then finally did, with a skill in the Artificer Sphere.

How his Bloodline had manifested. How he met Dragon.

He talked about Kimi, Tyra, Rox, the Blakes, and their first near-death experience in the dungeon.

He told her about Amy, the lab, Valiant, the S4, the Vermilions, their first rift—and, finally, the explosion at the Aero Cup.

“—that was honestly the main reason we came here,” Xay concluded, wobbling his head side to side.

“To let everything blow over and decompress. There’s also the twins.. but that’s a whole different set of problems.”

Grandma Xiu let him speak, patiently listening as he got everything off his chest.

When he finally finished, she stood, walked around behind him, and wrapped an arm around his shoulder in a gentle, comforting hug.

“You’ve been through far too much for someone so young,” she said softly, gently rubbing his back. “And I’m so sorry for that, sweetheart. No one deserves to be under so much pressure.”

She stepped back, studying him slowly. “Your heart is in the right place. But you have to remember—just as much as it would hurt you to lose them, it would hurt them just as deeply to lose you.”

Xay blinked dumbly, the weight of her words fully sinking in.

“Those few hours you were passed out,” Grandma Xiu continued, “those girls were beside themselves with worry.”

Xay looked down, his shoulders dropping—defeated, and properly chastised.

Grandma Xiu chuckled lightly. “Come, follow me,” she said, heading toward the back door.

Then she raised her voice slightly, without turning around. “And you girls pretending not to listen in the kitchen—come too.”

Xay heard the sound of scrambling footsteps as a guilty-looking Ezra and Amy—with her bunny ears flattened to the sides of her head—sheepishly rounded the corner.

The also finally noticed that each of them wore muted-colored, flowing qipaos with no shoes.

“Sorry,” Ezra mouthed silently.

Shaking his head with a small smile, Xay followed Grandma Xiu outside, as Valiant ran back to Amy.

She stood facing her garden, arms folded behind her back.

Grandma Xiu wasn’t a tall woman, but her presence was still imposing, grounded by her strong legs and powerful thighs.

“Have you felt the buzz?” she asked, inhaling deeply. “That little, warm hum of energy in the air since you’ve been here?”

“Yes, Grandma Xiu,” the three answered together.

“These mountains sit atop one of this world’s vital energy vents,” she explained, turning to face them with a warm smile. “What you’re feeling is vitality—the world’s own vitality.”

Xay lifted his hand, trying to feel the energy hanging heavy in the air.

“It allows people like me—and you,” Grandma Xiu nodded at Amy, “non-Awakened—to empower ourselves far beyond what we’d normally be capable of.”

“The human body is a miraculous thing,” she continued, walking to the edge of her courtyard where a five-foot, dense boulder sat nestled in the grass.

Without hesitation, the little old woman spread her arms, squatted down, and lifted the boulder as if it were a basket of peaches.

She easily walked it over to the side of the courtyard and set it down gently.

“Awakened reforge their bodies with mana, through their stats,” she said, not even winded as she turned back to a stunned Xay, Ezra, and Amy. “But as an internal energy, vitality control can do much the same—even for those of us without mana.”

She stepped closer, her voice lowering just a bit. “And for those of you with mana.. learning to harness your own vital energy will amplify your techniques, accelerate your healing, and even reverse internal attacks.”

Xay nodded slowly. That had to be what Grandmaster Wu had done to him yesterday.

“How do we learn?” Ezra asked beside him, more eager than Xay had ever seen her.

Her Sphere Skill dealt directly with life and death energies, but it was clear she hadn’t ever heard of harnessing vitality in such a direct way.

Xay was the same.

Grandma Xiu’s smile widened. “The first step,” she said, moving her hands to just above her stomach, “is to breathe deeply.”

They spent the rest of the morning learning complex breathing methods.

They involved multiple short inhales followed by long, drawn-out exhales—even after it felt like all the air had already left their lungs.

Apparently, they’d just been breathing the vital energy in—and then right back out before.

The breathing methods allowed them to actually retain far more of it within their bodies.

Grandma Xiu explained that each person has a vitality reservoir located in their diaphragm, where the energy then flows into the heart.

From there, it travels throughout the body, carried by the blood and coursing through the veins.

It was a natural process that controlled self-healing, but once they learned to redirect their internal vitality, they could apply it in more focused and intentional ways.

Grandma Xiu gave the example of having both arms broken. Normally, the body would heal them simultaneously.

But by consciously directing vitality, one could accelerate the healing of a single arm, allowing it to recover in half the time.

For Amy, she explained how condensing and infusing her muscles and organs with vital energy could strengthen them.

It was the same basic principle as pumping stats with mana—but slower and safer like reaching stat peaks by mana conditioning the body.

Xay, however, was already physically infused with mana, so that specific method wouldn’t work the same way for him.

But he could still condense vitality into his bones, allowing him to hold far more than usual.

It was the same concept as his crystallized channels allowing him to store more mana than the average Awakened at his level.

Ezra was the first to grasp it, which made sense given her Sphere Skill.

“I can’t believe I never thought to use vitality like this,” she said between breaths.

“Being here in the mountains is helping you immensely, sweetheart. Don’t beat yourself up,” Grandma Xiu said with a warm laugh.

“There’s so much abundant vitality in the air that even novices can do things at a master’s level.”

“But once you go home, you’ll need to be far more disciplined in your breathing for any of this to continue to work.”

Xay was close behind Ezra, using a breathing technique to spin his internal energy in a new direction for the first time.

He quickly grew familiar with the sensation of vitality, and his command over both mana and psychic force made the transition smoother. It wasn’t too much of a stretch for him to adapt.

He also cheated.

With *Extrasensory Perception*, Xay could sense the energy directly—and with *Psychokinesis*, he could move it at will.

But once he got a feel for the process, he switched to doing it the proper way.

“Cycling my mana doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy like this,” Xay said, grinning absentmindedly.

“You’re taking in the life energy of the world and attuning it to yourself,” Grandma Xiu explained with gentle pride. “It’s a beautiful thing, sweetheart. It should feel warm and fuzzy.”

Amy struggled the most, but Grandma Xiu remained endlessly patient and encouraging.

With a warm tone and a gentle expression, she talked Amy through each step—again and again.

She refused to give up on her, and just as firmly, refused to let Amy give up on herself.

For someone who had never touched mana, doing something as esoteric as willing her own internal energy to move on command was a massive leap.

Xay understood why it would be so difficult for her.

Grandma Xiu sat behind Amy and gently placed both palms on her back. “I’ll help get things started for you, sweetheart,” she said softly. “Try to follow what I’m doing as best you can.”

While they worked off to the side, Xay and Ezra continued refining their own breathing, gradually beginning the process of condensing vital energy within themselves.

Moving it had only been the first step.

During the process, Xay also got his first true look at himself through his *Extrasensory Perception*.

He’d never thought to look before.

Psychic force flowed through him just like mana and vitality—but unlike them, it had no channels. It moved freely, without structure.

It reminded him of Virgil Diamond shining bright like a sun over the candlelit vigil.

Xay eventually came to the conclusion that it wasn’t about the density or power of the psychic force flowing through him—but about how Virgil projected his interpretation of psychic force onto the world.

It was an interesting train of thought—one that was promptly interrupted by Grandma Xiu clapping her hands.

“I’m going to keep working with these two,” she told Xay, “but you have an appointment with Hui in Dragon Hall.”

“I do? Xay’s brows knitted together.

He had wanted to check out Dragon Hall first—but he hadn’t told anyone.

“You challenged the Grandmaster with Dragon Style across the sky yesterday,” Grandma Xiu said. “Of course, the Dragon Hall Master wants to see you.”

She glanced up at the position of the sun. “Honestly, I’m surprised she hasn’t stomped over here already.”

Xay shrugged and stood.

“Could you take Vali with you?” Amy asked, still focused on her breathing. “I wanted him to at least see Leopard Style.”

“Sure.”

Xay scooped up Valiant with *Psychokinesis*. The playful little dude had been chasing butterflies around the garden while they practiced.

Xay teleported them both into the air and began walking toward Dragon Hall. He didn’t just teleport directly there because of his personal limitations.

Grandma Xiu lived on a minor peak behind the grand plateau—about four miles away and a mile below the Dragon Hall summit.

Although Xay’s psychic sphere of perception had expanded tremendously, it still couldn’t cover multiple miles.

He could sense his bonds over long distances, and could probably get to them in an absolute emergency—but he’d never attempted to teleport somewhere outside his sphere.

He wasn’t eager to test it either. Ending up halfway inside a wall wasn’t high on his to-do list.

As he neared the hall, Xay sensed Kimi and Dragon inside.

He teleported down with Valiant, only slightly concerned about what the Dragon Hall Master might want with him.