The cold sensation disappeared so quickly that Dhiraj almost thought he imagined it.
He opened his eyes.
The reactor chamber looked exactly the same as before.
Dim blue light moved slowly through cracked structures buried beneath Graystone Mountain, and somewhere deeper underground metal groaned softly like an old ship shifting in water.
Nothing mystical happened.
Then pain hit him hard enough to fold forward.
Dhiraj caught himself against the floor with one hand while a sharp pressure spread through his chest and ribs.
It felt wrong immediately.
Too cold and too hot at the same time.
His breathing turned uneven.
“…circulation failure detected,” ASTRA said.
Her voice remained calm in the same way hospital machines stayed calm while people panicked beside them.
Dhiraj stayed where he was for several seconds, waiting for the dizziness to settle.
The stone beneath his palm felt damp.
One of the seams in the floor contained a thin layer of frost.
So much for the glorious beginning of cultivation.
He let out a slow breath through clenched teeth and leaned back against the damaged formation pillar again.
The freezing air inside the chamber should have cooled him down, but sweat still clung uncomfortably to the back of his neck.
The first attempt had lasted less than a minute.
Apparently that was enough to injure himself.
The Infinite Reactor Scripture drifted through his thoughts again in incomplete fragments.
Instructions without context.
He could still feel the circulation route clearly in memory.
Breathing patterns.
Spiritual intake.
Meridian synchronization.
Rotational stabilization.
At least that was how the Scripture described it.
Actually attempting it felt more like trying to force electricity through exposed wiring using bare hands.
Dhiraj rubbed one sleeve across his face.
“How do cultivators survive this?”
“…traditional cultivation systems differ substantially from the Infinite Reactor Scripture.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
A short pause followed.
“…physical suffering during early cultivation stages is considered normal across most Lower Heaven civilizations.”
Dhiraj laughed once under his breath.
Of course it was.
People here talked about broken bones and qi deviation the same way miners on Earth talked about back pain.
Just another part of work.
Somewhere in the darkness behind him, a loose piece of metal hit the floor with a soft clang.
The chamber went quiet again afterward.
Dhiraj closed his eyes.
This time he ignored the Scripture at first and focused on himself instead.
For a while he felt nothing except exhaustion and a lingering ache in his chest.
His thoughts kept drifting in annoying directions.
Back to Earth.
Back to reactor labs.
Back to how badly security regulations would have failed this place.
Then gradually he noticed something else.
Faint pathways spread throughout his body beneath muscle and skin.
Hard to sense clearly at first.
Not imaginary exactly.
More like trying to notice nerves you normally ignored.
Meridians.
The realization unsettled him more than he expected.
Cultivation always sounded vague and mystical in Shen’s memories.
Ancient masters.
Heavenly qi.
Spiritual enlightenment.
But this felt mechanical.
Channels.
Flow systems.
Connections.
Some pathways felt stronger than others.
A few barely responded at all.
And several areas near his chest and left shoulder pulsed painfully whenever he focused too closely.
Damaged.
Not because of the reactor inheritance.
Because Shen’s body had already been falling apart long before Dhiraj arrived here.
Years in the mines had done their work.
Poor food.
Constant labor.
Untreated injuries. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Probably lung damage too, considering how often he coughed dust.
The body of a starving laborer was not designed for advanced cultivation techniques.
Dhiraj exhaled slowly through his nose.
“Great.”
The word echoed faintly through the chamber.
He tried again anyway.
One breath.
Then another.
This time he followed the Scripture more carefully instead of forcing the process forward.
The technique felt strangely restrained compared to the cultivation methods Shen remembered hearing about from wandering sect cultivators.
No violent absorption.
No aggressive expansion.
The Infinite Reactor Scripture emphasized balance first.
Synchronization before growth.
Dhiraj inhaled carefully.
The cold sensation returned.
Spiritual energy drifted faintly through the chamber around him.
Thin enough that he would never have noticed it before.
Now he could barely sense it brushing across his skin like weak static.
He concentrated.
Guide it inward.
Follow the pathway.
For a brief moment, it worked.
The energy entered his body smoothly.
Then everything collapsed.
Pain tore through his meridians so suddenly that his concentration shattered instantly.
The cold sensation twisted into burning pressure that spread across his chest and down his left arm.
Dhiraj gasped sharply.
The qi dispersed out of control before completing the circulation route.
His stomach lurched hard enough that he nearly threw up beside the formation pillar.
“…meridian rejection detected.”
Dhiraj stayed hunched forward breathing heavily while his left arm trembled uncontrollably.
“What does that even mean?”
“…host meridian structure incapable of sustaining stable circulation at current synchronization levels.”
“That sounds bad.”
“…accurate.”
He wiped sweat from his face again and noticed faint blood staining the edge of his sleeve.
Wonderful.
He had managed to injure himself absorbing what was probably the weakest amount of spiritual energy possible.
So this was cultivation.
Not enlightenment.
Not wise old masters meditating peacefully beneath waterfalls.
This felt closer to forcing unstable reactor output through damaged infrastructure and hoping nothing exploded.
One of the overhead lights flickered twice before dying completely.
The chamber dimmed further.
ASTRA’s projection destabilized briefly beside him.
Sections of her outline dissolved into static before reforming again.
“…reactor reserve energy continuing to decline…”
Dhiraj looked across the enormous structures surrounding the chamber.
Pipes thicker than buildings disappeared into darkness overhead.
Ancient metal surfaces reflected weak blue light across the floor.
“How long before this place shuts down?”
Silence.
Then:
“…unknown.”
Not ideal.
He pushed himself upright again despite the pain running through his chest.
Every practical instinct told him to stop before he damaged something permanently.
Unfortunately stopping solved absolutely nothing.
He was still trapped underground.
Still weak.
Still surrounded by cultivators capable of cutting him apart without effort.
No matter how much his body hurt right now, remaining weak was worse.
He tried again.
And failed again.
The second failure happened almost immediately.
The qi dispersed before entering his meridians properly.
The third attempt lasted longer.
Long enough for spiritual energy to circulate partially through his chest before instability twisted the flow sideways again.
After that he sat motionless for several minutes staring at the floor while the chamber hummed quietly around him.
A thin crack ran through the stone near his boot.
He found himself staring at it for some reason instead of thinking about the pain.
Cultivation was difficult in a way he had not expected.
Not intellectually difficult.
Physically difficult.
The body resisted it.
Meridians resisted it.
One mistake turned spiritual energy harmful instead of useful.
No wonder mortals feared cultivators.
Every person who walked this path had survived this process somehow.
Dhiraj thought about the battle above again.
Sword qi tearing tunnels apart.
Spiritual pressure forcing workers into the dirt.
How many years had it taken those cultivators to reach that level?
How many failures happened before anyone succeeded?
How many simply died?
“…host emotional state destabilizing,” ASTRA observed.
Dhiraj let out a tired breath that almost became a laugh.
“You think?”
This time ASTRA did not answer immediately.
“…recommendation: temporary suspension of circulation attempts.”
Dhiraj looked up toward the distant ceiling of the chamber.
Blue light pulsed weakly through broken structures overhead.
His chest still hurt.
His meridians felt scraped raw from repeated failures.
Even breathing carried faint traces of pain now.
Stopping would be reasonable.
Logical.
The problem was that Dhiraj had spent most of his previous life dealing with systems that failed constantly.
Engineering research rarely worked correctly on the first attempt.
Reactor synchronization tests failed all the time back on Earth.
Half the prototypes he worked on became unstable disasters before producing anything useful.
You observed the pattern.
Adjusted variables.
Tried again.
The Infinite Reactor Scripture felt incomplete, but not random.
Failures had causes.
Which meant they could probably be understood.
Dhiraj closed his eyes once more.
The circulation route appeared clearly in his thoughts again.
He replayed the earlier attempts carefully.
Same failure point every time.
Chest meridian junction.
The qi entered correctly.
Then the flow destabilized during redistribution.
Like pressure escaping through damaged pathways.
His eyes opened slowly.
“…ASTRA.”
“…awaiting query.”
“The instability happens after intake synchronization,” Dhiraj said while thinking through the pattern carefully.
“Not before.”
Silence followed.
Longer than usual this time.
ASTRA’s projection flickered faintly beside him while glowing symbols shifted rapidly through the air.
Then she spoke again.
“…analysis confirmed.”
Dhiraj straightened slightly despite the soreness running through his arms.
“You found something?”
The symbols around ASTRA accelerated.
“…host circulation failure displays recurring structural pattern…”
His heartbeat slowed a little.
Pattern.
That mattered.
Random failure was difficult to solve.
Patterns could be studied.
ASTRA continued speaking in the same calm tone.
“…meridian instability originating from asymmetrical energy redistribution within damaged circulation pathways…”
The projection paused briefly.
Then:
“…possible solution pathway detected.”