The cold morning light leaked into the room at the Nine Clouds Inn.
The lotus incense from the corridor disappeared beneath the thick smell of sweat and continuous friction. The air in the chamber burned with the heat exhaled by the flesh of the two cultivators after an entire night of physical collision.
The massive structure of the bed creaked loudly. The force of the successive impacts dragged the furniture across the floor until the headboard slammed directly against the redwood wall at the back of the room.
Pressed against the wall, Yù Qíng kept her spine arched. Her pale face burned a feverish red, her hair stuck to her damp forehead. Her slender legs wrapped around Zhì Yuǎn's wide hips, her heels digging into the man's back.
The man's large hand grabbed both of the girl's wrists at once. Zhì Yuǎn pulled her arms upward and pressed the thin bones against the wall, locking his wife's movements with pure brute force. He drove his hips forward in another heavy thrust. The thermal shock of the invasion tore a ragged gasp from the woman's throat.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The sound of small fists pounding on the oak door cut through the rhythm of the room.
— Sister! The sun is already hitting the corridor! — Yù Méi's shrill voice echoed through the wood, followed by the sound of shoes striking the limestone. — The entire inn has already gone down to eat! How much longer are you two going to stay in there?!
Yù Qíng twisted. Her black eyes locked onto the direction of the door, her jaw clenching at the audacity of the interruption. The young woman pulled her arms in an attempt to free herself and shout at her younger sister, but the pressure on her wrists did not give even a single millimeter.
Zhì Yuǎn ignored the noise in the corridor. The man's breathing maintained its mechanical cadence. He lowered his face against the sensitive skin of his wife's neck. His teeth scraped her pale collarbone, sinking into it in a territorial bite. In the same second, he thrust his pelvis deeper, accelerating the movements.
The man's gravity crushed Yù Qíng's belly against the limit of the wooden planks.
— Nnnngh! — The reprimanding scream she had planned to spit out failed and transformed into a strangled moan.
The girl's small body trembled beneath the feverish invasion. Yù Qíng clenched her teeth, sweat dripping from her chin as she struggled to force her voice out in a controlled manner in front of her sister.
— Go… ahn… to your… room, Méi… — the order hissed, broken and trembling from lack of air. The eldest's spine stretched backward as his lips sucked on her collarbone. — Just give me… nngh… a few more… minutes.
The corridor floor creaked under the teenager's feet. She muttered something inaudible before marching back to her own solitude.
Inside the dim room, the corner of Zhì Yuǎn's lips curved into a silent, warm smile against the marked skin of the woman. The warning of "a few minutes" evaporated into the air. The carnal gears resumed with even more weight and violence. The wood of the wall would continue cracking under the weight of that friction for a long while before the door's bolt was even touched.
———
Hours later, Zhì Yuǎn tossed the leather scrolls onto the table in the room.
He had already dressed in clean gray pants and a tunic. The young man's large hand unrolled the map of the human body. He looked at the drawing of the chest and compared it with what he remembered of his sister-in-law's bones.
Yù Méi's chest was hollow inside. The channels near her heart were broken. If he simply poured his own Qi into it, the energy would swell and burst the girl's ribs from the inside out, like an old clay jar.
The solution required brute force.
He would have to pull her bones back into place with his own hands. His Qi would not enter like water; it would enter tearing, rubbing against the open fissures with heavy density, cleaning and welding the channels as it passed.
Soft footsteps sounded on the stone floor.
Yù Qíng stopped beside his arm. She wore the high-collared navy-blue tunic to hide the marks on her neck. The woman looked at the drawings of the veins on the paper with complete boredom.
— Did you find a way to fix her chest? — Yù Qíng asked, her voice still a little hoarse from the night.
Zhì Yuǎn released the edge of the paper. The scroll closed with a dry snap on the wood.
— Yes, it's more or less what I had formulated — Zhì Yuǎn replied directly, turning his face toward his wife. — The medical manuals from these cultivators only confirmed the path for me.
He pushed the scrolls to the corner of the table, clearing space in the middle of the room.
— Unlock the door and call your sister — he ordered.
Yù Qíng gave a short smile. The boredom vanished from her face at once. Without saying anything else, she turned her back, walked to the entrance, and pulled the thick iron bolt to open the passage.
———
Shortly after being called by her sister, Yù Méi crossed the doorway. Her almond-shaped eyes swept across the room. A sweet smell saturated the air. The massive bed had been dragged and pressed against the redwood wall, the sheets completely wrinkled.
In the center of the stone floor, Zhì Yuǎn pointed at the limestone.
— Sit — he ordered.
The girl walked over, bent her knees, and crossed her legs on the hard floor. Behind her, Yù Qíng pushed the heavy door shut. The iron bolt slid and locked with a dull thud. The eldest leaned her spine against the wood, crossing her arms as she curiously observed what her husband was going to do with her sister.
Zhì Yuǎn walked around her until he stopped behind the teenager. The man's shadow engulfed the girl.
— Your meridians are broken and your dantian is fragmented — his rustic voice dropped into the room. — My Qi will enter tearing through the fissures dry. The friction will melt and reshape the channels according to what they should have been.
Yù Méi swallowed dryly. Dread tightened her stomach, but the memory of how weak she had been on the road boiled her blood. Her teeth clenched. Nervous, she pulled at the ties of her dress with both hands and opened the fabric at the back, exposing her shoulders and part of her chest.
Only after the cold air touched her skin did she realize what she had done.
Near the door, Yù Qíng closed her hands into fists. Her gaze hardened at the sight of her sister's bare skin.
The room fell silent for a few seconds. Zhì Yuǎn had to control himself not to laugh.
— Actually, I only need to touch your spine — he said, his voice calm. — Close your dress. I don't need to see anything. But if you move too much during the process, you might end up breaking a rib. So hold on tight.
Yù Qíng let out a short, mocking laugh upon hearing her husband.
Yù Méi's face burned with shame. She tried to pull the dress back up, but the ties were torn and the fabric no longer returned to its place. With trembling hands, she only held the cloth against her chest, trying to cover what was still exposed. The silence in the room only made everything worse.
Zhì Yuǎn ignored the girl's paralysis. He raised his right hand and concentrated the flow of Qi into his index finger. A single dense, glowing drop formed at the tip, heavy like mercury. The air around it seemed to grow heavier the moment it appeared.
His two hands descended. The left one steadied itself in the middle of Yù Méi's back, holding her in place. The right one pressed directly against her chest, pushing the drop into the bone.
A sharp hiss cut through the silence when the energy made contact with the damaged channels. The Primordial Qi invaded her hollow chest with brute force, scraping against the torn walls and pushing out the dirt and stagnant blood that had accumulated for years. The pain was immediate and violent. Yù Méi's spine arched backward with a jolt, her teeth grinding so hard they bled. Her entire body went rigid, as if something was being ripped out from the inside.
The internal friction cleansed the rot and rebuilt the channels. The girl's stomach suffered a sudden spasm. Unable to withstand the pressure, she leaned forward and vomited a thick pool of black sludge and coagulated blood onto the stone floor. The stench of dead matter rose in the room.
But Zhì Yuǎn did not let her collapse. Treating the teenager's skeleton the same way he would adjust the heavy beams of a roof, he grabbed her bare shoulders and pulled them backward with pure brute force, using his own hands as leverage.
Crack.
The bone in her chest snapped loudly. Zhì Yuǎn pulled her shoulders with force, realigning the broken structure. The Qi descended through the bone fissures, clearing what was blocked and welding the channels as it passed. The girl's entire structure swelled under the invasion. The pain was so intense that she could no longer support her body. Her eyes rolled back and she fainted, going limp against her brother-in-law's forearm.
The emptiness in the girl's chest no longer existed. Yù Méi's foundation had finally been cemented.