Forcefully rupturing his middle dantian might be a bit of an exaggeration.
Technically, it was true—so David liked the sound of it. It gave the whole thing a dramatic, sacrificial edge he found satisfying.
In reality, what he did was closer to the technique he used when trimming Juliya's minor meridians. He rapidly spun his Qi until it reached a breaking point and forced its way out of his middle dantian. It was deliberate, excruciating, and required intense focus.
Definitely not something he could ever pull off on the fly.
But for right now it was perfect.
This condensed, rapidly solidifying Qi was the only thing capable of interacting with the ephemeral, damaged Major Meridians in her body.
The process of removing the Qi from his body took a full hour. By the end of it, he was barely upright, body trembling, mind foggy from the pain and strain.
He could already feel his Qi leaking away, draining from him at an alarming rate - and honestly, he wasn't surprised.
Hell, he had basically punched a hole in a boat while still at sea. Of course it was sinking.
Until his middle dantian healed, he wouldn't be able to retain Qi for long. Every drop would slip through him like water through a sieve.
All that to say, he needed to ensure Juliya was safe.
No matter the cost.
---
David had just roughly awoken from his nap.
He had just spent 8 hours dissolving his wife's cultivation. Before that, he spent 3 hours running from explosions. And even before that, he spent a full day hiking back to the entrance of the volcanic realm portal.
David was exhausted, and his wife was very mad at him.
That's why, when he was deep into the story explaining why he had to do what he did, it wasn't a surprise that he included the exaggeration about rupturing his own dantian.
Juliya's expression shifted, anger melting into concern, then snapping right back to anger.
"YOU DID WHAT?" she shouted, the kind of yell reserved for catching a child sprinting through the house with a knife.
And that's when David realized he'd screwed up with his theatrics.
"I'm fine," he rushed to say, holding up his hands in mock defense, "I was exaggerating! I just need to take it easy for a few weeks, and I'll be fine!"
Juliya, obviously not convinced, looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a hint of anger still in her eyes, "You better be - because now you have to protect me until I can handle things on my own again."
He gently placed a hand on her cheek and said, "You know I'll always protect you."
Retracting his hand, he rubbed the back of his neck and turned away, letting out a long sigh.
"I really didn't want to do it," he said quietly. "But I'm sure you would've died."
He kept his back to her, unwilling to show the tears forming in his eyes.
Flashes of memory tore through his mind. Chaos, screaming, the sound of bodies hitting the floor.
Five years ago, in a classroom filled with laughter and restless energy, he had watched every single one of his students collapse in unison as a wave of Qi ripped through the building.
Not one of them survived, and he couldn't do a damn thing.
His voice cracked as he spoke again, barely above a whisper.
"I can't handle losing anyone else."
He flinched slightly as he felt the gurney shift - then relaxed as Juliya climbed forward and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
"You really should've talked to me about this being an option when I passed out under all that rubble," she murmured into his back. Then, with a small huff, she pulled away.
"But... given the circumstances... I guess it's fine."
David spun around smiling and saw his bashful wife trying to avoid eye contact.
"Thank you for saving me... I guess. Or whatever."
---
Sarah had gotten over her initial shock at seeing David and Juliya. Once David began… whatever it was he was doing, she quickly delegated the task of securing their makeshift cubicle to a subordinate and moved on.
There were bigger issues to deal with.
She returned to the surface, bracing herself as the chaotic Qi hit her like a wall. Even with experience, the turbulence in the air still made her stomach lurch.
Through trial and error, it was discovered that exposure to the turbulent Qi would cause collapse within one hour - and death within two.
Her destination was the main conference room for the FOB, now located inside a museum attached to the station. The museum itself was an odd blend of preservation and repurposing. Glass display cases lined the walls, showcasing artifacts from a time when this subway station had once served as the original State House of Massachusetts.
Faded flags. Cracked signage. Bronze plaques etched with speeches long forgotten.
All relics of a world that felt impossibly distant.
She walked into the museum and was greeted with a flurry of activity. Long gone were the glass show boxes and mannequins - now it was fold out tables filled with maps and papers. Monitors lined the walls showing live drone feeds of the situation on the ground. Flanking the room there were people in regular street clothes wearing first person view headsets with controllers in their hands. Presumably piloting the drones.
"Commander Sarah!" a short, round man rushed up to her, saluting with visible urgency. "The situation has escalated since you left."
Sarah sighed. She had only been gone thirty minutes, just long enough to breathe. Of course, everything had already gone to shit again.
She shot him a tired look that said, "get to the point."
He turned on his heel and hurried to one of the central tables, pointing at a detailed map of the area surrounding the Boston Aquarium.
"Aquarium's defenses have fallen," he said, dabbing sweat from his forehead. "The EPS is digging in. From what we can tell, they took heavy losses, but they're regrouping fast. I'd estimate they'll launch an assault on us within a day or two - tops."
Sarah sighed and sat down, burying her head in her hands.
"Alright," she said after a moment, lifting her head with a weary expression. "I'll reach out to HQ, see what they can give us."
She bit her lip, thinking through the logistics, then continued with more resolve.
"In the meantime, increase our patrols around the perimeter. Groups of three. No one stays out longer than forty-five minutes."
Her eyes swept over the map again.
"I want a two-block radius around this station cleared of enemy presence. If it moves and it's not ours, I want eyes on it."
The round man saluted her and quickly turned to relay the orders.
Satisfied with the response, Sarah made her way to the HAM radio off to the side that had a soldier operating it.
It was odd, the invading EPS had quickly jammed any of the cutting edge tech the NLS had involving Qi. Various arrays were set up surrounding Boston, well in advance of the assault, and activated to disrupt Qi communications and cause the violent Qi.
However, mortal tech like HAM radio's and regular handheld radio's worked fine.
It seemed like a major oversight for the EPS and she felt like this was a trap, but Sarah wouldn't question the commands of HQ to replace all Qi communications with radio instead.
Brushing past the soldier stationed at the console, she grabbed the receiver and checked the channel, ensuring it was tuned to HQ.
She pressed the button and spoke clearly into the mic.
"HQ, this is Outer Resident Sarah Powers, acting CO of State Station FOB. I have something to report."
A beat of static-filled silence, then a curt reply: "Report."
"Aquarium has been overrun," she said. "Preliminary scouts confirm the EPS is digging in, likely to recover before launching a second offensive."
She hesitated for a moment, then continued, more firmly.
"Due to Qi interference in the area, foot patrols are no longer sufficient. I'm formally requesting additional drones for aerial surveillance. We need eyes above now that they're this close."
A longer sound of static permeated the air for around twenty seconds.
Sarah gritted her teeth in anticipation. Her mind was racing about what she could do if they declined.
The static was interrupted by the same voice, "Reinforcements that were enroute to Aquarium will instead go to reinforce State Station."
Sarah let out a long, shaky breath of relief—mirrored by the soldier sitting in the chair beside her.
"Ten drone pilots are part of their complement," the voice continued. "Prepare to receive them in four hours. They'll arrive via the outbound Orange Line tunnel."
The transmission didn't stop there. The voice continued, rolling out logistical details and updates. Sarah listened carefully, mentally filing each instruction before turning sharply on her heel.
"Chester, new orders from HQ!"
The round man popped out from around a corner, as if he'd been waiting the whole time, and hustled over to her with a half-salute and wide eyes.
Sarah gave a slight smile, "We have reinforcements coming in four hours."
Chester gave out a big smile, but seeing the grim look on Sarah's face it quickly disappeared.
"We need to hold the line in the outbound blue line tunnel to Aquarium." she said with a stern face.
With a hint of hesitation Chester asked, "What about the street? We can't defend that. You saw what happened to the inners that fought the first wave."
Chester's eyes were filled with dread.
Only hours ago, the Inner Residents the manned State Station FOB had managed to hold off the EPS assault. But even though the battle lasted just forty minutes, it was still too long.
The roiling Qi in the air hadn't spared anyone.
Because it had just appeared no one knew what the violent Qi was.
Injured NLS combatants were the first to fall, their weakened bodies unable to withstand the chaotic energy. Those who tried to establish a perimeter afterward followed shortly, cut down not by blades, but by the ambient Qi itself.
The only reason anyone had survived at all was because they had stayed underground, or inside one of the few arrays that blocked Qi manipulation entirely.
They weren't soldiers.
They were medics, technicians, support staff.
Now, with the Inner Residents gone, it was just the Outer Residents left.
And an EPS force that had just wiped out the closest FOB was heading to them next.
Sarah was having similar thoughts to Chester and spoke under her breath, "We just have to hope that they can't stay in that hellish Qi for too long either."
---
Thankfully, David and Juliya were already safe in the orange line tunnel where reinforcements would be arriving. The blue line tunnel however was in a frenzy as barricades were being built, arrays were being created, and gun emplacements were being installed.
Arrays weren't native to the NLS or to Earth, for that matter.
It was an implementation of Qi that anyone could stumble upon with enough trial and error. The concept of arrays has existed in the universal consciousness for a long time.
However, to the NLS they were the boon that allowed them to capture Boston.
They had been introduced by the Family Head himself, after he returned from a mysterious journey off the Atlantic coast. Rumor had it he discovered a treasure buried deep beneath the waves, and through it, attained enlightenment.
What he brought back wasn't just power - it was knowledge. The arrays he taught the sect allowed for the manipulation, suppression, and redirection of Qi in ways that had previously been impossible.
The secret of how to create arrays was one of the most closely guarded within the NLS. Only a select few knew the intricate process - fewer still had mastered it.
Among the survivors at State Station, only two Array Smiths remained.
Since the moment the Qi had erupted into chaos on the surface, those two had spent every waking second maintaining stabilization arrays at the sect's few remaining footholds above ground.
Now, for the first time in half a day, they returned underground.
And they went straight to work.
Sure, they wanted to collapse. They wanted to scream, sleep, rest in anyway, but they didn't. They couldn't.
If they stopped, everyone else would die.
They worked not with speed, but with diligence. While the rest of the sect scrambled to erect barricades of sandbags and twisted metal, the Array Smiths sat surrounded by paper, brushes, and ink.
Writing an array required more than knowledge. It demanded absolute focus, a steady hand, and the ability to channel Qi directly into the ink - without overwhelming it or losing control.
With every cultivator's meridians being damage - this was a tall task.
For every successful Array Smith, there were at least twenty others who had failed. The technique, bestowed long ago by the Family Head, was maddeningly precise. Few had the talent. Fewer had the discipline.
Their skin was stained with ink. Their hand's had long since began to blister as the process of controlling the Qi through their damaged meridians place immense strain on their body.
While the two of them worked in tandem on a massive array - its shape resembling a Hindu mandala, intricate and mesmerizing, with alien script forming fractal patterns along every ring - Sarah approached them.
She cleared her throat attempting to get their attention without causing them to damage the array.
The two of them carefully stopped what they were doing and looked up at who approached them.
Seeing their CO, the two of them attempted to give a salute while they were still sitting on the ground.
Sarah waved them off quickly. "No need to worry about that," she said with a light laugh, trying to ease the tension. "How are things holding up down here?"
A woman with long black hair and East Asian features looked up from her work, hesitating only briefly before speaking.
"I'm Outer Resident Emily," she said with tired professionalism. "Things are going as well as they can with only two of us."
She paused, then added with a note of restrained hope, "Any word on whether the reinforcements include more Array Smiths?"
Sarah's smile went from polite to genuine. "Actually there are. With that said I want you two to finish what you are doing, and follow me with your supplies. I have a new task for you."
The two responded in unison, "Yes Ma'am!"
A more fierce determination appeared on their faces as this was the last array they needed to finish, and they needed a break.
Ten minutes later, they both stood up stretching their sore bodies.