Wuyuan Kingdom, Cangji Province, Shifeng Village
Xuhen jolted awake, drenched in sweat. His wide eyes darted around the unfamiliar room.
"This isn't my room," he muttered, voice dry with confusion.
The walls were wooden, unpainted. A single table stood in the corner—empty. The bed creaked beneath him as he shifted, pushing off the coarse, scratchy blanket.
He stood, unsteady, and froze.
His hands—dark, rough, and calloused—looked like they belonged to a farmer who had worked the fields his whole life. But he hadn't touched a plow in years.
"Where the fuck am I?"
His clothes were worn and unfamiliar. Even his feet looked different.
He scanned the room, searching for a mirror. There wasn't one. He really wanted to check his face.
"Maybe I'll find one outside," he said, rushing towards the wooden, almost rotten door. And that was when it came. Pain. He clutched his head and fell to his knees, shivering.
His mouth opened in a silent scream, and unfamiliar images poured into his mind. It continued for a minute, then suddenly stopped.
By then, Xuhen was on the floor, gasping for breath, drenched in sweat, face bewildered after the pain went away.
He was finding the situation more strange and terrifying by the second. He was in a stranger's body in a strange room with no knowledge of how he got here.
But as the foreign memories assimilated in his mind, all things became clear.
He was in the body of a boy named Xuhen, which was strangely the same name as his. And this place was Xuhen's home—an orphan living alone in a cottage on the outskirts of Shifeng Village.
But the most startling discovery was that this world wasn't the good old Earth that Xuhen knew. This world was called Xuheng, also eerily similar to his name, which meant that he had reincarnated in a new body and a new world.
"What is this creepy, cliché situation?" Xuhen muttered as he observed his calloused hands.
All his questions were answered despite how disbelieving they seemed, but there were still some unanswered ones.
"Who and why did they do this?" Xuhen thought as he slowly sat up. He was having a hard time believing. Maybe it was a dream.
He lightly pinched his thigh, and the pain proved that it was real. The situation was so absurd that Xuhen almost wanted to laugh.
"What the hell?" he muttered as he slowly sat back down on the creaking bed, his hand reaching for the messy hair on his head. His thoughts were in disarray. What about his life back on Earth? Why on Earth was he here, and how even? It made no sense to him.
Was he dead, then? Did he really die? That thought alone sent a cold shiver down his spine. It was terrifying to know that he had probably died, but now here he was—alive and well.
But as he slowly examined his surroundings and his body, it became clear. It had really happened, and he had no choice but to accept it.
Xuhen sighed suddenly after mulling over his situation for some time. It still felt like a dream. The world he had reincarnated into was ancient-like. There were kingdoms and martial artists who could exhibit supernatural strength. Or that was what the old Xuhen believed.
"It's like ancient China but with real martial artists," Xuhen thought as he stood up, finally ready to explore outside.
He stepped out the door, and the first thing that entered his vision was the distant Shifeng Village, which was around a kilometer away from his home. His house was pretty far, unprotected by the wall of the village or their guards. But his predecessor had no choice but to call this place home, which was located at the edge of a forest called the Qingling Forest. Living in the village required paying taxes to the government, which was a kingdom here called the Wuyuan Kingdom, and his predecessor had no income except hunting in the Qingling Forest, which was a dangerous job since the forest held dangerous beasts deep inside. A lot of villagers had gone missing after entering the forest, never to be seen.
While the forest was dangerous, it also meant it was out of the kingdom's borders, which allowed Xuhen to live here without any problem. He just had to look out for some occasional animals that wandered too far and some bandits, but they never really targeted him since he wasn't worth the effort.
Xuhen sighed and went back in to examine the house. The house was poor, with only two rooms—one kitchen and the other bedroom where he had woken up.
"Gurgle"
Xuhen's stomach grumbled as soon as he thought about the kitchen, so he went there to check if there was anything to eat. If there wasn't, then he was in trouble.
Fortunately, there was a piece of bread wrapped in a leaf beside the mud stove, which Xuhen ate reluctantly. Hunger barely satiated, he went back to the bedroom to contemplate his situation.
This wasn't something he was familiar with, but he had read some reincarnation novels and seen some movies about them back on Earth. But most of them were just obnoxious and edgy with no real value. So, in the end, he was still clueless. But they did teach him one thing, and that was: reincarnators usually turned out to be some heaven-defying genius.
Xuhen didn't wish for the world to bow at his feet, but it would have been nice if he had some power. And that was when it came—a sudden ding echoed in his head.
A voice. Calm, emotionless, machine-like.
"Initializing Assisting System... Complete."
Xuhen blinked. "Wait, what?"
"Hello, Xuhen. System is now active."
"...What system?" he said out loud, eyes darting around the empty room. "Who are you?"
"This system is bound to your consciousness. It tracks your physical condition and personal status. You may view your current state now."
Before he could react, a glowing screen appeared in front of him, just floating in the air:
║ Name: Xuhen
║ Age: 16 years
║ Affiliation: None
║ Physique: None
║ Skills: None
║ Body Condition: Fatigued
║ Merit Points: 0
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Xuhen stared. "What the hell… is this some kind of character sheet?"
"Correct. This interface shows basic information about your current body and status. It updates automatically."
"So you… just keep track of me?"
"Yes. System monitors and displays this data at present."
"No powers? No instant upgrades?" he asked hopefully.
"No. Current feature: Merit Point tracking."
"Right… that. What are Merit Points?"
"Points used to improve skills or body functions. They can be earned by absorbing Ether-rich materials."
Xuhen frowned. "Ether-rich materials? Like what?"
"Herbs, crystals, stones, or objects that naturally contain Ether energy. System will notify when such items are near or absorbed."
"So… I need to find stuff with Ether in it to get these points?" he asked.
"Correct."
"And then I can use the points to get stronger?"
"To improve skills. Yes."
Xuhen leaned back and groaned. "Alright. New world, new body, and now a weird robot voice in my head giving me homework."
The screen floated quietly in front of him. It was a simple interface, which he found easy to understand. But the abrupt way it had appeared messed with his mind and confirmed one thing. He had been sent here by someone. Maybe a god, ghost, or demon. He didn't know. He was never the religious type.
He put aside those messy thoughts and focused on the system interface.
"Alright," he muttered, rubbing his chin. "Let's see what this thing's actually telling me."
"Name: Xuhen. Yeah, no kidding. Still weird how it's the same name."
He shifted his eyes down.
"Age: 16. Guess this body's younger than I was. That explains the voice… and the height, maybe."
He scrolled with a flick of his mind, or maybe it was instinct—he wasn't sure how the screen moved, only that it listened to him somehow.
"Affiliation: None. So I don't belong to any group. Makes sense. No family, no organization, nothing."
"Physique: None. Wait, what does that even mean?" he muttered. "So I'm just... normal? Not even average?"
"Confirmed. No recognized special physique detected."
"Right. No 'special bloodline of ancient warriors' then," he snorted. "Of course not."
His eyes dropped to the next line.
"Skills: None. Wow, that hurts. You could've at least lied and given me something basic, like 'Walking.'"
"System only lists relevant or trainable abilities."
"Still rude."
Then his gaze stopped on the part he'd felt earlier.
"Body Condition: Fatigued. Yeah, no surprise. I woke up sweating like I ran a marathon in winter."
He leaned back, cracking his neck.
"Merit Points: 0. Naturally."
"Fine," he muttered. "Guess step one is finding some of this 'Ether' stuff, whatever it is."
"Acknowledged."