Sam put the phone down on the small table. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the cool night air.
He crossed his legs and began to meditate.
He guided his mind down into his Dantian, looking at the glowing pond of liquid pink Qi.
It was beautiful and bright, but something was wrong.
Sam tried to pull more energy from the air around him.
The energy flowed into his body, but the pond didn't grow. The extra energy just bounced off and faded away.
Sam opened his eyes and let out a long sigh.
He had hit a bottleneck.
"Just breathing is not enough anymore,"
Sam whispered to himself in the quiet night.
When he was at the Qi Gathering Stage, drawing energy from the world was easy.
But now that he was in the Foundation Establishment Stage, his body needed much more.
The problem was the Earth itself.
This world was filled with science, machines, and radiation, but its natural, spiritual energy was very thin.
Trying to fill his deep Qi pond by just breathing was like trying to fill a swimming pool with a dripping faucet.
He needed something faster. He needed something stronger to break through the invisible wall in his body.
He thought about Natasha.
Dual cultivation was the best way. When they shared their energy, his warm Yang and her cool Yin created a perfect circle. It multiplied their power.
But Natasha was far away in New Mexico, dealing with the God of Thunder.
Even if she were here, Sam knew that relying only on one method was not the path of a true cultivator.
A tree needs both water and sunlight to grow.
Sam looked up at the moon and searched through the ancient memories in his mind.
"If the air is too thin, I have to eat the energy directly,"
He realized.
He needed to make Heavenly Pills.
In the ancient stories, cultivators didn't just meditate. They were also masters of alchemy. They gathered the rarest herbs, roots, and magical items in the world. Then, using their Qi as a fire, they cooked these ingredients until they turned into powerful, concentrated pills.
One good Heavenly Pill could give him the energy of ten years of breathing.
A new fire lit up in Sam's eyes. This was the answer.
"I need rare herbs. Old ones. Things that have soaked up the sun and earth for hundreds of years,"
Sam thought.
He was suddenly very glad he had a rich girlfriend and a billionaire best friend.
Natasha had given him access to hidden bank accounts, and Tony Stark could buy anything on the planet.
"I will need a cauldron. A very strong one that can handle high heat,"
Sam planned, his mind working fast.
"Tony has the best metals in the world. He can build me one."
The bottleneck didn't make Sam feel sad or defeated. It made him excited.
Cultivation was like climbing a giant mountain. Whenever the path was blocked, you just had to find a new way to climb.
He stood up and stretched his arms.
His bones made a satisfying cracking sound.
He couldn't wait for morning to come. He had to call Tony to build an alchemy lab, and he needed to start looking for the rarest plants on Earth.
Miles away, in a large mansion in New York, the Xavier School was dark and quiet.
Jean was sitting on her bed alone.
For the first time since her mutant powers woke up, she was truly happy.
There were no loud thoughts from the other rooms. There were no sharp headaches. She didn't have to build heavy mental walls just to survive the night.
She looked down at her hand. She was holding the simple white card Sam had given her.
She traced the numbers with her thumb.
She was hesitating.
Should she call him right now to say thank you again? Or should she wait until the shield of his Qi finally faded away?
Jean closed her eyes. She focused on her mind. She could still feel it. His energy was right there, sitting inside her head. It was warm, soft, and completely safe.
Thinking about the fact that a piece of him—his pure energy—was inside her made her face grow suddenly hot. It was a very strange, very intimate feeling.
No one had ever touched her mind like that. When the Professor helped her, it felt like a strict doctor. But Sam's energy felt like a gentle embrace.
She remembered the way he looked at her.
She remembered the deep, calm ocean in his eyes and the sweet smell of cherry blossoms that seemed to float around him. It made her heart beat a little faster.
She found herself blushing alone in the dark room, her fantasies drifting to the handsome, powerful stranger.
Then, she frowned. She thought about Scott.
Scott was a good friend, but he was always trying to be the hero. He was always trying to control things.
If Scott hadn't stepped in with his jealousy at the mall, she could have stayed longer. She could have talked to Sam. She might have learned more about him.
Jean let out a frustrated sigh and fell back onto her soft pillows. She pressed the white card against her chest, right over her heart.
She didn't know what a "Cultivator" was. She didn't know how his pink energy worked.
But as she lay there in the beautiful, peaceful silence, she knew one thing for sure. She was going to call him.
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