Chapter 486: Stirring

For several seconds, Damien remained completely still on the cold concrete floor, unable to make sense of the strange sensation spreading through his body. He had no idea what had just happened or why he could suddenly feel something moving beneath his skin.

The sensation had begun as a faint warmth somewhere around the center of his chest, so subtle that he had initially mistaken it for the lingering heat caused by the beating he had just received.

However, the longer he remained still, the more clearly he could feel it. The warmth gradually spread outward from his chest, flowing through his shoulders, arms, abdomen, and legs in a slow, steady current.

It wasn’t painful. In fact, it was the complete opposite.

There was something strangely refreshing about the sensation, almost as though his entire body was being washed from the inside.

After days of exhaustion, humiliation, and physical pain, the unfamiliar warmth felt almost comforting.

Yet that only made it more unsettling because Damien had never experienced anything remotely similar before. He had no explanation for it, no knowledge that could help him understand what was happening, and no idea why his body suddenly seemed capable of perceiving something that had never existed in his awareness until now.

Slowly, Damien pushed himself up from the floor. His arms trembled beneath his weight, and the movement caused a dull ache to spread through his battered ribs.

His face was swollen from the beating, and dried blood remained caked around his lips and along his chin. A few fresh drops still trickled from one of the cuts on his face, but despite the injuries covering his body, he noticed something strange.

The pain wasn’t as overwhelming as it had been only moments ago.

Damien lowered his gaze toward his hands. They were still trembling slightly, although he wasn’t certain whether the shaking came from his injuries or the strange sensation coursing through his body. He slowly flexed his fingers, opening and closing his hands while examining them as though they belonged to someone else.

"What the hell..." His voice was barely audible.

Something felt different.

He couldn’t explain exactly what had changed, because his body hadn’t suddenly returned to perfect condition. The bruises were still visible, the cuts were still there, and his ribs still hurt whenever he moved too quickly.

Yet beneath all of that pain was a strange sense of vitality that hadn’t existed before. It felt as though something had been added to his body, some source of energy that had been absent throughout his entire life and had only now begun flowing through him.

Damien swallowed as he stared at his hands. ’What is this?’

Almost instinctively, he closed his eyes.

The moment he stopped relying on his ordinary senses, the strange energy became easier to perceive.

It was still faint, but now he could distinctly feel it moving through him. Tiny streams of unfamiliar energy traveled through his body, following pathways he didn’t know existed.

They flowed from one part of his body to another with a rhythm that seemed almost natural, as though they had always belonged there.

Damien had never studied cultivation. He had never heard anyone seriously discuss meridians, energy circulation, or the existence of Qi. As far as he knew, such things belonged in ancient legends, fantasy novels, and fictional stories.

Yet his body seemed to understand something that his mind could not.

The energy continued circulating through him.

With every cycle, the sensation became clearer. It was almost as if his body were instinctively learning how to handle this unfamiliar force, slowly adapting to its presence without requiring conscious instruction from Damien.

Then something even stranger happened.

A subtle change on his forearm caught his attention.

Damien opened his eyes and immediately looked down.

A shallow cut stretched across his forearm, one of the injuries he had received during the beating. The bleeding had already stopped, which by itself wasn’t particularly unusual. A wound could stop bleeding after some time, especially if it wasn’t particularly deep.

But then Damien noticed something that made his expression slowly change.

The edges of the wound were moving. His eyes widened as he leaned closer.

The damaged skin was gradually pulling itself together.

It wasn’t happening instantly, nor was it some dramatic transformation that would have looked unnatural to an observer. Instead, the process was slow and subtle. The raw flesh beneath the damaged skin began closing little by little, while the edges of the wound gradually drew closer together.

Damien stared at his arm in complete disbelief. "No..."

He leaned closer, almost afraid that his eyes were deceiving him. But they weren’t. The wound was actually healing.

"What..." The word escaped his mouth, but he couldn’t finish the sentence.

For several seconds, Damien simply watched as his own body repaired itself in front of his eyes. A dark bruise near his wrist slowly began to fade, while the swelling around his knuckles diminished. Even the deep ache that had been spreading through his ribs since the beating gradually became less severe.

Damien’s breathing became faster.

He reached down and touched his forearm with trembling fingers. The skin felt warm and completely normal beneath his fingertips. He rubbed the area where the wound had been, almost expecting to feel an open cut, but there was now barely any trace of the injury.

He stared at his arm for several seconds before suddenly looking around the cell.

Nobody seemed to have noticed.

The inmates nearby had already returned to their own activities. Some were talking among themselves, while others were sitting quietly or eating. None of them appeared interested in Damien anymore. As far as they were concerned, the confrontation was over and the rich boy had learned his place.

Damien slowly pushed himself to his feet. This time, his legs felt different. Stronger. Much stronger.

He stood there for a moment, testing his balance before slowly clenching his fists. The strange energy was still circulating through his body, and now that he had become aware of it, he could feel it much more clearly.