The mountain air was crisp and cold, but the fire inside Wang Lin burned hotter than ever.
Days had become weeks.
Wang Lin had finally succeeded in forming his first true Qi cycle — not stolen, not borrowed, but entirely his own. A fragile, flickering current of energy now flowed through his body, slow as a dying candle, but steady.
Elder Shu stood by, nodding once.
> "You've taken your first real step. From here, the path becomes dangerous."
> "More dangerous than absorbing a killing technique that nearly shredded my soul?" Wang Lin asked, forcing a small smile.
> "Yes," Shu said grimly. "Because now, the Abduction Path knows you exist. And it is hungry."
---
The Hunger Within
That night, Wang Lin couldn't sleep.
The dreams had returned.
Whispers in forgotten tongues. Hands reaching through void and flame. Eyes — endless, hollow — watching him from every direction.
He awoke in a cold sweat, Qi shaking wildly inside him. The pendant around his neck throbbed, faintly glowing.
The Abduction Path was calling to him.
He staggered outside and sat beneath a gnarled tree, focusing on his breath.
Inhale. Exhale. Anchor. Repeat.
But then — a surge of power swelled in his dantian, twisting, snarling.
He heard a scream.
His scream.
Then—SNAP.
His control shattered.
Suddenly, memories — not his own — flooded into his mind.
> A man slicing through twenty cultivators with wind blades.
A woman freezing a city with a breath.
A child exploding into golden flames as a sect collapsed.
None of these were Wang Lin.
But their techniques, their traumas, their madness—he felt all of it.
He collapsed, gasping, vision red.
> "STOP!" he cried out. "I don't want this power like this! I don't want to become… them!"
He lay trembling until dawn.
And only then… the whispers faded.
---
The Pact
Elder Shu found him the next morning.
> "You survived. Good."
Wang Lin looked up, pale. "It's… like it's alive."
> "It is," Shu said quietly. "The Abduction Path is not a tool. It's a devouring will. If you use it without control, it will absorb you."
Wang Lin swallowed. "So how do I stop it?"
> "You don't. You contain it. You learn to feed it drops of what it craves. Not floods."
And so began the second phase of Wang Lin's training.
Learning restraint.
He was taught forbidden breathing techniques to resist absorption.
Taught to anchor his soul during meditation.
Taught how to touch a technique's essence… without taking it.
It was excruciating.
But with each success, the hunger in the pendant grew quieter.
And with each failure, Wang Lin lost pieces of himself — memories faded, emotions dulled, as if the Abduction Path were punishing him.
But he endured.
Because this time, he chose to fight.