As Lan Feng's Qi crashed towards me, something within me stirred. Not the dormant Qi I'd been struggling to awaken, but something… different. It felt chaotic, unpredictable, and surprisingly… potent.
It reacted to Lan Feng's attack, not by defending, but by… disrupting it. The elegant flow of his Qi stuttered, fragmented, and fizzled out like a damp firework.
Lan Feng stumbled back, looking bewildered.
"What… what was that?"
I was just as surprised. I had no idea what I had done. But I knew one thing: it had worked.
Emboldened by this unexpected advantage, I began to fight dirty. I dodged his clumsy attacks, using the surrounding trees as cover. I threw handfuls of leaves in his eyes. I tripped him with strategically placed vines.
It wasn't a graceful fight. It wasn't a display of superior cultivation. It was a frantic, desperate scramble for survival. And, surprisingly, I was winning.
Lan Feng, used to effortlessly dominating his opponents, was completely thrown off balance by my unorthodox tactics. He was powerful, yes, but he was also rigid and predictable. He followed the rules. I didn't even know the rules.
Finally, after a particularly humiliating tumble into a rose bush, Lan Feng conceded.
"I… I withdraw," he sputtered, picking thorns out of his hair. "You… you are unworthy of my time."
He stormed off, leaving me standing there, covered in mud, leaves, and the lingering scent of roses.
I had won. Not through skill, not through power, but through sheer, unadulterated resourcefulness.
And that, I realized, was the key to my survival in this strange, chaotic world. I might not be the strongest cultivator, but I could be the most adaptable. The most unpredictable. The most… inconvenient.