The gates with sun images on their posts opened.

  After much one-sided arguing, where Isadora ignored what her father said, Noah was taken to her room, which was in one of the main courtyards. The grass was well-maintained, and the trees grew vigorously. The residence extended along the entire corridor.

  The argument persisted even after he had already been placed on the bed, and only stopped when another woman entered the room.

  — Mom, dad is fighting with me.

  Wearing a long blue dress embroidered with silver threads, the woman entered the room gracefully just to embrace her daughter. They stayed that way for a while, and then she chose a side. Isadora had won, receiving her support.

  When he opened his eyes, Noah witnessed the scene, both looked too unreal to be taken seriously. They didn't even seem human, so perfect as they were, he knew it, but couldn't hold that thought for long.

  That woman was very similar to Isadora in appearance, with the same long silver hair, blue eyes, and sharing even the sweetness of her voice. However, what differed was her presence, it was more welcoming and noble, as if she should be followed and respected. It was a strange feeling, something that seemed to accompany and emanate from her at every instant.

  Suddenly, she covered her mouth as she tried to smile. She appeared to have trouble maintaining her balance and needed Isadora's help.

  — Mom?!

  — Darling! — her husband exclaimed, running over to support her by the shoulders. — Are you alright?

  The dry cough took a while to subside and, when it did, Noah noticed the scarlet shine staining her fingers and dripping onto the wooden floor.

  She wiped her lips with a handkerchief and forced a serene smile.

  — I'm fine... It's just a passing cough, don't worry.

  She winked discreetly at her daughter before leading her husband away, dragging him out.

  The silence grew heavy and Isadora remained motionless for a moment. Her gaze fixed to the floor, staring where her mother's blood stained the dark wood.

  Noah sat through the quiet, growing uneasy. The feelings her sobs stirred in him seemed wrong. Out of place. Concern for that family seemed nonexistent and, at some level, natural...? He even wondered if wanting to help them was normal. But why that question even came up seemed cloudy to him. Disturbing. Almost unconscious.

  Sniffling and drying her tears, Isadora hurried out. She was gone for some time, only returning when the moon hung high in the sky, its silvery light spilling on the rooftops and through the windows of the Radiance residence.

  Her footsteps were timid and cautious, a bit restrained. With several towels in one hand and a bucket of water under her other arm, she entered the room slowly.

  — Come on, boy. It's... time to... take... a bath... — she whispered shakily, almost inaudible.

  Noah noticed her approach but didn't understand the darkness that followed when something fell over his face. The trembling hands, the hesitant movements, the gentle sound of a knot being untied and the fabric moved from his skin. Isadora tried to remove his shirt with extreme care, but even the lightest touches caused Noah's body to react with small, silent spasms.

  Is she really planning to do this...?

  The shirt was only pushed aside, allowing just enough access to clean that part of his body. His body... Now that she was truly facing it, Isadora froze. She thought she'd mentally prepared herself, but she was still far from it.

  Her throat tightened and a tear slid down. She couldn't understand how anyone could survive something like this. Everywhere she looked, Noah's bones jutted out beneath his skin.

  Slapping both sides of her face, she struggled to regain composure. She had to manage this. She wet the cloth and readied herself.

  Carefully...

  A gentle touch and his whole body reacted. Muscles tensed and a spasm shook his chest. It was as if the bones vibrated in response, pushing their tips outward.

  She recoiled, eyes wide. The cloth trembled at her side.

  — I'm so sorry... — but her voice wouldn't come — Sorry, please...forgive me...

  She knelt beside the bed and held his hand tenderly, not realizing even that hurt him.

  As the pain radiated, Noah reacted with anger. He insulted her dozens of times in his mind. Yet, as her hand warmed his palm, the anger faded, and those thoughts vanished in a second. Strangely, from then on, it hurt less.

  Noah's stifled moans echoed around the room until the moon reached its zenith. Isadora stayed by his side almost the entire time, holding his hand gently and trying to soothe him with her presence alone. Eventually, though, overcome by sleep, she drifted off with her head resting on the mattress, still holding him.

  Noah blinked slowly after the vibrations subsided. His body felt light. Broken, but light. And something else. Warm and soft. Something that touched his palm with the tips of its fingers. For some reason, that gesture affected him deeply, making his heart race oddly and warming him up.

  He tried to move his hand away from hers, but the pain demanded its price. It lasted only briefly; when it stopped, he stayed still, staring at the ceiling.

  Not needing sleep was a blessing, but the lack of movement was a curse. He remembered what the system told him earlier, about the stabilization of cultivation. With so much free time and little to do, he decided to try. But what exactly did "stabilize cultivation" mean? He didn't know.

  He closed his eyes and tried, following his intuition. According to the system, he could no longer absorb Qi, so it couldn't relate to that.

  My foundation, is that it? he supposed. If so, I will have to go back a few steps.

  Turning in the void, his steps moved slowly. That wasn't his real body, so why did the pain seem so overwhelming? Was he really affected even here? Was he doing it wrong? Maybe he should stop? However, Noah failed to do so.

  [Warning!]

  [A breach has been created in the limitations.]

  [Some of the contained energy will be released!]

  [Warning!]

  [Large amounts of Qi are rapidly entering the body of Noah Evil.]

  [Commencing assistance in Qi control process.]

  [10... 7... 4... 2... 1]

  [Assistance has been activated.]

  System? Are you finally—Wait, what—?!

  An uncontrollable energy invaded him, no beginning or end, like an infinite ocean drowning him. Noah struggled for breath, and when he surfaced, he screamed. For the first time, his voice echoed beyond the room, alerting even the guards posted at the door by Isadora's father's orders and who whispered jokes at the moans. They banged on the door with swords in hand.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Isadora trembled beside the bed, not knowing what to do except watch as Noah's bones shook, gradually forcing themselves out of his body. Blood leaked, darkly hued, where the tips erupted.

  One of the guards rushed from the room, running to their masters, while inside, where the voice resounded throughout the courtyard and consciousness was absent, something was transforming.

  There, where not even pain reached, something took shape. In the darkest depths of his being, where the purest Qi rested. An untouched space, where energy didn't destroy but molded. It was the Dantian. And in it, chaos wasn't destruction. It was creation.

  The once unstable energy now condensed. It vibrated as light caged in darkness. It was dense, almost alive. The center spun, everything around it curving. Raw matter turned into essence. It toughened. And in the silence of nothing, a unique brightness appeared. A vortex. A shell. Brilliant. Where essences united as colors fought not to blend. White ran through the center, struggling to stay firm, while darkness and red surrounded it.

  A core.

  [Congratulations, Noah Evil.]

  [For beginning the formation of your Golden Core.]

  Isadora's parents rushed into the room in a panic, guided by the scream that directed them from the courtyard gate. They ran to the bed and saw what had happened, the bones forcing their way out as the boy screamed.

  Servants in charge of the area gathered outside the door, startled, confused, and trembling after being awakened by the shrieks. What was happening? Who was screaming in such agony? They did not know, but they were sure the suffering was immense.

  Isadora was taken outside by her mother — — Someone bring a compress, now! — her father exclaimed, wondering how mere cloth might help with that situation.

  The guards left to make space and the servants scattered in all directions, searching for what was requested.

  [Warning!]

  [An error was found nearby.]

  A maid rushed in, breathless, holding a bundle of white cloths.

  — Here you go, sir!

  Taking the cloths, he quickly wrapped some around Noah's body and tried to use another to stop the blood pulsing from his chest, where the bones threatened to break free. Yet something escaped everyone's notice, Noah's bones... were vibrating? Moving, as if something inside him was still not at rest. Something neither pain nor blood could contain.

  Feeling something prick his palms, Isadora's father recoiled suddenly, his hands soaked in blood. He turned to Noah and watched the boy's bones burst completely through the flesh, protruding like sharp stakes.

  — Sir! Step away from this boy—sir, this could be dangerous!

  He might have retreated, seeing the ominous tremors of the exposed points, but didn't have time. The bony protrusions, once contained, erupted outward from Noah's limbs like living lances, slicing the air and piercing walls.

  Seizing a nearby maid by the arm, he yanked her to the floor and looked back in panic. To his relief, his wife and daughter, along with everyone else, lay flat. Isadora watched the desperate and chaotic scene, unable to do anything. Bone shards flew everywhere, and what once seemed a single outburst turned into a continuous eruption. It was as if Noah's body was shattering from the inside and still wouldn't stop... The screaming continued.

  The bone stakes went on for hours, isolating the area completely. No servant came close. No guard dared enter. But the voice could still be heard.

  All the while, Isadora cried in her mother's arms. She thought Noah was dying in the most painful, inhuman way possible, and worse, that it was all her fault.

  When the sun rose, illuminating the tragedy of last night, a silent crowd gathered before the destroyed wing of the residence. The holes caused by the bones were everywhere. Some shards still clung to walls, others stuck in trees or strewn across the grass outside. Servants, soldiers, and onlookers circulated with buckets, nets, and rags, collecting the remains of what may no longer have been a human body, alive or otherwise.

  — What happened in there? — one servant murmured.

  — I don't know... — answered a newly arrived guard. — Ask someone who was here when it started.

  The whispers continued until Isadora and her parents approached. The servants made way. They all wondered if the person inside was so important that their young lady cried until her eyes were bloodshot.

  Gaining courage, her father slowly pushed the door open. The sound of the creaks was all the motivation needed, Isadora, who until then had turned her back and refused to look, ran into the room. Her mother followed, then her father.

  Arriving first, having ignored the destruction, Isadora smiled seeing that Noah was alive, to the astonishment of all, of course. However, realizing he was practically naked, and knowing her parents were right behind her, she turned and pushed them outside.

  — What are you doing? Is he alright?

  Both parents were immediately confused, but as her mother caught a glimpse of the boy's state, she understood and turned from someone needing to be pushed to the one pushing her husband away, leaving the two alone in the room.

  — Okay, you can all go back to work now, — she said, holding the door with a gentle smile.

  They dispersed, some more curious than others, some even disappointed they hadn't seen anything. What both groups had in common was their lack of courage to speak out. Many blamed themselves for not having checked through the holes in the wall.

  As she walked through the veranda with a bucket in hand, one servant was called by Isadora’s mother who spoke near her ear:

  — You saw what the boy was wearing earlier, right?

  The girl nodded, happy to be remembered.

  — Then find similar clothes and bring them here for my daughter. The color doesn't matter, just something similar is enough.

  — Yes, madam.

  With a short bow, the servant stepped away, carrying the bucket with her.

  Isadora's mother knew that if her husband discovered their daughter with a naked man in her room, he would probably barge in, and even if that young man had been lucky enough to survive the strange incident, he might not be so fortunate now.

  — Has everyone left already? Can we go in now? — asked Isadora's father as he walked toward the door, hand raised.

  — What?! Of course not. We are going to our room now, — she replied, moving in front of him.

  — But—

  — No buts. Look how we're dressed. Do you think it's right for us to be outside our room in pajamas? — she exclaimed, spinning him around and pushing him away.

  — But we're at home...

  — That doesn't matter.

  — ...

  Once again, he wasn't able to win the argument.

  The servant Isadora's mother had sent to find clothes for Noah hurried to the room where the laundry from the previous day was stored, a place with many shelves full of different clothes. She started looking for something similar to what she'd seen him wear, which took a few minutes. The clothes she found were mostly blue, with some white details on the chest, flowers, like the sash at the waist, which also turned out to be white. Since she was told the pain didn't matter, she took that set and quickly delivered it to the young lady as instructed.

  Knock! Knock! Knock!

  Hearing the knock, Isadora took her hand from her eyes so she wouldn't see Noah and went to answer. She breathed deeply to calm herself, but after a brief glance, she was embarrassed once more. She opened the door only a crack, just enough to see outside.

  The servant froze, mouth agape upon seeing her more clearly. She was just as beautiful as the lady, surely. New to this wing, she had only seen her masters occasionally, always just a blur. But today, she saw them all, up close. It was impressive.

  — Hmm... Is there something on my face...?

  — What...? Oh, no, nothing. Sorry, I just came to deliver these clothes.

  Doing as she was told, she left as quickly as possible, embarrassed about her behavior.

  When she shut the door, Isadora sighed. Still, she couldn't turn around. She still couldn't handle the fact that Noah was unconscious and almost naked just ahead. She needed to, after all, as her parents would return soon, so she considered asking someone else to do it. But she quickly refused the idea. She didn't want anyone seeing him like that. The approaching voices made her act quickly, it was her parents. The options were to stop her father from coming in or...

  She sighed, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. Holding the clothes tightly, Isadora quickly dressed Noah, starting with the pants to spare herself some embarrassment before having to put on the shirt. She took away the rags from his front and, before pulling up the shirt, placed the pants above his ankles, so that, eyes shut, she could pull them up with care. Noticing they wouldn't go further, she cautiously opened her eyes and checked, everything fit perfectly. She tied the white sash at his waist and dressed him in the shirt, much faster and easier than she'd imagined, then tucked it under the sash, done.

  She sighed.

  *Knock! Knock! Knock!*

  — Why are you knocking?

  — What do you mean why? This is still our daughter's room.

  — Alright, alright, you don't have to get mad.

  Isadora laughed as she walked to the door, hearing her parents quarrel over something so simple.

  — …Why are you laughing? — her father asked, seeing her smile as she opened the door.

  — No, it's nothing... — she replied, still laughing.

  Her father entered the room and, after looking her up and down, muttered quietly:

  — You women really are complicated: one moment you cry, another you laugh, one moment you're calm, the next you're nervous... Who invented such complicated creatures?

  He sighed.

  Hearing this, Isadora, still smiling, tugged on her mother's arm and asked:

  — Mom, what did you do to him?

  — Me? Oh, nothing special, just made him change clothes three times, — her mother replied, laughing too.

  — See? One moment crying, the next laughing... What did I do to deserve this? I need a user manual! — her father joked, with a light smile, looking at both of them.