The Immortal Commoner: Sowing Chaos

Chen Feng chipped away at the pond's edge.

Chunk after chunk of crystal-laced rock gave way.

"Operation Pond Drain is still underway, people," he muttered to himself, though the only people around were, well, him. Unless you counted the cave bats, but they didn't strike him as the gossipy type. Hopefully. "Status report: progress slow, but steady. Pond, quote, 'getting smaller,' unquote."

He paused, wiping a bead of sweat – or was it pond water? – from his brow. Hard to tell these days. Everything was damp and cool in the cave. And slightly Qi-infused, probably. He squinted at his hand, glistening faintly. "Am I glowing?" he wondered, bringing his hand closer to his face for a better look. "Nah, just wet. Though, you never know with this Qi stuff. Might be subtle glowing action happening. For my own personal amusement, of course."

The pond was definitely… shrinking.

Slowly, painfully slowly, like watching grass grow, but shrinking nonetheless. Each chunk he removed made a tiny, satisfying splash as it tumbled into the shallows. Progress! Even if it was the sort of progress that could be measured in geological time, instead of, you know, normal people time. "Still counts as progress," he decided. "Gotta stay positive."

He glanced around the cave again. Empty, blessedly empty. Just the familiar cave walls, the soft light filtering from who-knows-where, and the gentle gurgle of diminishing pond.

"Good," he thought, "no nosey cultivators stopping by for a swim." Imagine the chaos. It'd be like stumbling into someone's private bathroom while they were in the middle of a… a spiritual cleanse. Except the spiritual cleanse involved slowly and deliberately demolishing the source of said spiritual cleansing.

He shuddered dramatically. "They would absolutely lose their minds if they saw this." He could practically hear the outrage. The indignation. The sheer, unadulterated disbelief. "And then," he added with a mischievous grin, "the sword fights. Definitely sword fights."

"Imagine," Chen Feng continued his one-sided conversation. "The sacred Qi pond, being drained by some nobody herb gatherer." He paused, picturing the scene in vivid detail. "Me, with my… herb gatherer clothes. And them," he gestured grandly at the empty air, "in their… cultivator robes. Very swishy. Very judgmental."

He chuckled, the sound echoing slightly in the cavern. "It's almost… insulting to them, isn't it?" He chipped a bit harder at the rock, sending a spray of damp grit into the pool. "Like, 'oh, this magnificent source of power? Yeah, I'm just gonna… dismantle it, piece by piece. No biggie.'"

He pictured stern-faced cultivators, robes billowing, pointing accusing fingers. Facial hair was a must for maximum sternness, in his mental image. And definitely narrowed eyes. Super narrowed.

"Heresy!" they'd probably shout. "Blasphemy! Desecration! And… uh… Qi-drainy-thingy!" He struggled for a suitably dramatic term. "Yeah, Qi-drainy-thingy! Definitely that too."

He went back to chipping. The crystal edge, surprisingly durable despite its delicate appearance, bit into the rock with satisfying precision. Chunk by chunk, the edge crumbled.

With each layer he removed, the air felt… thicker. Richer. He paused again, his crystal tool hovering mid-swing. The air hung heavy around him, almost viscous. It felt like… like breathing in liquid sunshine, if sunshine had a smell and a texture. Which, now that he thought about it, it probably did, in some mystical Qi-sense way.

Like inhaling pure energy. It tingled pleasantly in his lungs. Not unpleasantly tingly, like when your foot falls asleep, but invigoratingly tingly, like… like really good minty toothpaste, but for your whole respiratory system. And with Qi. Much, much better than toothpaste.

"Whoa," Chen Feng mumbled, pausing again. "Is it me, or did the Qi just get a serious upgrade?" He took a deeper breath, drawing the energized air into his lungs and holding it there, feeling the power thrum through him. It was like a jolt of… something. Something good. Definitely something good.

He sniffed the air dramatically, like a connoisseur sampling fine wine. Except instead of swirling and sniffing wine, he was swirling and sniffing… cave air. Classy.

"Nope, not imagining things. This is potent stuff." He grinned. "Operation Pond Drain: now with extra Qi potency! Bonus feature, completely unintentional, but greatly appreciated!"

The drained water wasn't just disappearing; it was concentrating, condensing into something… else. Something thicker, heavier, almost… syrupy. It was hard to describe. Like water that had leveled up.

Something stronger. Definitely stronger. He felt it in his bones.

He stared into the ever-shallower pool. The remaining water shimmered with an almost oily sheen. Rainbow colours danced across its surface, even in the subdued cave light. It looked less like water now and more like… well, like liquid Qi, actually. If Qi were a liquid, which, maybe it was? He wasn't exactly a Qi expert. Just a humble herb gatherer turned… pond drainer? Qi pond deconstructor? He'd work on the job title later.

"Okay, source is definitely getting closer," he realized, excitement bubbling in his chest. This was getting good. Really good. Almost 'discover-buried-treasure-chest' good. Almost 'win-the-lottery-except-the-lottery-is-pure-energy' good. Almost… 'maybe-this-talentless-herb-gatherer-might-actually-get-somewhere-in-this-crazy-cultivation-world' good. Okay, maybe he was getting ahead of himself. But still. Exciting.

"This is it, the grand Qi-reveal!" He declared to the cavern, the echoes carrying his enthusiasm back to him in faint whispers. "Showtime!"

He swung his crystal tool with renewed vigor. Forget geological time. It was Chen Feng time now. And Chen Feng time was significantly faster.

What secrets lay beneath?

A Qi spring? A vein? He imagined a miniature, perfectly formed geyser, shooting shimmering Qi into the air. Sparkling rainbows, maybe a little musical chime sound effect. Very aesthetically pleasing. And, more importantly, very, very Qi-rich. Or perhaps a vein, a deep, pulsating line of pure energy, waiting to be tapped, like a cosmic juice box. Yeah, a cosmic juice box of power. He liked that analogy.

Maybe even a… dare he hope… a Qi geyser? A proper, full-sized geyser. Like, erupting from the ground, powerful enough to… to… to power a small Qi-based vehicle? Or at least, you know, give him a really, *really* good Qi bath. The possibilities danced in his mind. Each one more ludicrous and exciting than the last.

He worked faster now, driven by curiosity and a growing sense of anticipation. He could almost taste it. Not literally taste the Qi, that would be weird. But taste the *anticipation*. The thrill of the unknown. The delicious, almost giddy feeling of 'something amazing might be about to happen'.

Another chunk of rock dislodged, falling into the almost-empty basin with a soft splash. The sound was muted now, swallowed by the increasing… something-ness of the Qi. It was less like a normal splash and more like… like dropping a stone into honey. Or, again with the mystical analogies, into liquid Qi concentrate.

The water level was seriously low now, barely ankle-deep. The bottom of the pond was emerging, bit by bit, revealing a circular patch of darker stone in the very center. Closer now. So close. He could practically feel the reveal-tension vibrating in the air.

And the Qi… the Qi was almost palpable. It felt like a physical pressure, pushing against his skin. Subtle, but definitely there. Like a gentle, invisible hand, pressing all around him. A Qi-hand. Creepy, yet energizing.

"This is intense," Chen Feng breathed, his heart starting to race a little. It wasn't just the exertion of chipping away at rock, it was the Qi. The sheer volume of it. Or maybe density was the right word? Dense Qi. Sounds fancy. Dense, potent, amazing Qi.

He could feel the Qi seeping into him, invigorating, powerful. It was like drinking an energy drink, but without the artificial flavour and the sugar crash afterwards. Just pure, unadulterated, natural cave-pond-derived energy.

He felt… different. Stronger? He flexed his arm experimentally. Hard to say definitively stronger, but definitely… more *present*. More awake. More… *himself*, but slightly amplified. Maybe even… slightly less bored? He considered this last point with genuine surprise.

That last one was a definite bonus. Immortality and mild cave boredom: his constant companions. Anything that chipped away at the boredom was a welcome development.

He scraped away the last bit of the edge, creating a wider opening in the bottom of the pond. The circle of dark stone was now fully exposed. A target, dead center. A bullseye of mystery.

Now he could see it – a darker patch of stone, right at the center. It wasn't smooth and uniform like the rest of the pond floor. It was rougher, textured, almost… like it was a different kind of rock altogether. Intriguing. Very intriguing.

"Jackpot?" Chen Feng whispered, leaning closer, his eyes wide with anticipation. This had to be it. The culmination of Operation Pond Drain. The moment of truth. The Qi-source-reveal-apalooza! Or something like that.

He poked at the dark stone with the crystal tool. Solid. Just rock. Plain, ordinary, annoyingly solid rock.

"Huh," he said, a little deflated. "No glowing source rock? No magical fountain?" Disappointment, a small, prickly feeling, poked at him. He had let himself get carried away with the geyser fantasies, hadn't he? Serves him right for getting his hopes up.

He prodded it again, harder this time. Still just rock. Stubborn rock. Mocking rock.

"Come on," he muttered to the stone, "work with me here." He addressed the rock directly, as if it were personally responsible for his current state of slightly diminished excitement. "We've come this far. The Qi is epic. The anticipation is killing me. Don't let me down now, rock."

He needed to dig deeper. The source *had* to be under there. It just had to be. The escalating Qi levels were undeniable. It wasn't just a surface pond. It was connected to something bigger, something deeper, something… well, something source-y. And it was his destiny, as the accidental pond-drainer of this hidden cave, to uncover it. Probably. Maybe. Okay, definitely he wanted to uncover it. Destiny or not.