To most people, the world was ordinary.
A patchwork of cities, concrete, and tired faces framed by glowing screens.
Morning coffee, deadlines, and traffic — humanity's unchanging routine.
But if one looked closer… if they stood still long enough between the noise of life, they might notice something strange.
The alley that always felt colder than it should.
The abandoned shrine no one remembered building.
The whisper of wind that carried faint chimes even when there was no wind at all.
Those were seams — thin fractures in reality. Invisible doors that opened not to another country, but to another world.
Beyond those cracks were places where logic bent around Qi, where rivers flowed with spiritual light, and mountains held cities suspended in the air.
Ancient sects, hidden clans, and old gods who had never truly left — all tucked away in layers of space folded around Earth itself.
The common folk walked above them, unaware that entire civilizations pulsed beneath their feet.
The barrier between worlds wasn't built of stone or distance — it was made of ignorance.
Every few decades, a human might stumble into one of these sub-realms and vanish. Most were dismissed as urban legends: hikers gone missing, strange lights in the sky, forgotten towns erased from maps.
Yet those who crossed over found themselves in lands where a single breath could shatter mountains… or kill them instantly.
And still, both worlds continued, side by side — one powered by technology, the other by Qi.
Until one evening, a single notification bridged the two.
A faint chime echoed from an old phone left charging beside a history textbook.
Han Rui, freshly graduated and unemployed, squinted at the glowing screen.
> [You have been invited to join: "Heavenly Path Discourse Group."]
He frowned. The name sounded like one of those odd philosophy chatrooms. Probably spam.
He pressed accept, and the world quietly shifted.
Somewhere beyond the reach of satellites, ancient cultivators felt a new presence enter their sacred network.
A mortal — unrefined, unaware, unworthy.
And yet, the system didn't reject him.
The heavens simply whispered:
> "Connection established."