Perfect. Here's Chapter 2 of your Tang San novel, continuing with a slower, logical progress
The mountain was quiet.
Tang San stood atop a stone platform, gazing over the shattered remains of what had once been the Tang Clan's ancestral grounds. Ruined buildings, broken stone halls, and rotting wooden frameworks lay scattered like corpses of a forgotten era.
Xiao Wu approached, holding their infant daughter, Tang Yuexin, wrapped in a fur-lined cloth. "Will you… rebuild it here?"
Tang San nodded slowly. "This is where it began. And this is where it will begin again."
Three months passed.
During the day, Tang San rebuilt with his own hands. He planted new pillars, reforged iron tools, and laid foundation stones where the old halls once stood. Not with spirit energy, but with physical effort—a discipline that kept his mind focused as he slowly deciphered the ancient technique's first layer.
At night, he meditated in silence.
He called the technique the "Primordial Breathing Method."
Not flashy. Not divine. But subtle and brilliant.
Each breath pulled in not just spirit energy, but traces of intent from the world.
Each cycle of focus slightly expanded his mental sea.
The method didn't grant levels, but refined his foundation. His absorption rate increased by less than ten percent—but it was permanent. Steady.
In one of the oldest scrolls salvaged from the ruins, he found a damaged record: "Sun Moon Continent techniques favor machines and spirit weapons… dangerous, but efficient."
Tang San narrowed his eyes.
"I'll need to prepare."
He began developing a new branch of the Tang Clan: Spirit Weapon Crafting. Not like the mechanical soul tools from the Sun Moon Continent—but a hybrid, merging Tang Clan ingenuity with insights drawn from ancient relics.
He started by forging spirit steel bolts using techniques once used for hidden weapons—but modified so they could absorb ambient energy from the world over time.
It was slow work.
But slow was acceptable.
Half a year passed.
The rebuilt Tang Clan compound was now small, but sturdy.
He took in orphans and wandering martial souls—rejects from sects destroyed in the divine war. He didn't teach them spirit rings. Instead, he taught discipline.
Hammer forging. Meditation breathing. Energy sensing.
He created three internal principles:
Clarity over Power.
Patience over Speed.
Will over Fate.
Not many stayed.
But a few did.
One night, alone in his cultivation cave, Tang San broke through the first stage of the Primordial Breathing Method.
There was no explosion. No thunder. Just... stillness.
And then—clarity.
His perception extended just a little beyond his body.
His mental realm became stable, even under stress.
And for the first time since he rejected godhood, Tang San smiled faintly.
In the dark sky above, a projection flickered briefly—a divine watcher from the God Realm.
But it did not act.
Because Tang San was no threat to fate.
Yet.
End of Chapter 2