Because he is teaching Galahad, and because he vowed to keep watch over the rabbits, Lan Wangji tethers himself to greater awareness of his surroundings than he would if he were meditating on his own. Still, he skims the surface of it: the still, crystalline waters of the cold spring; the branching waterways of Caiyi that lead to Biling Lake; his own consciousness, calm and assured, gathering qi in the core of himself.

"Continue to breathe, and to follow your own breath." His voice is pitched low and steady. "Notice how it nourishes you. You share that breath with the universe. With me, with Xiaoxue and Danding, with the woods outside this building."