Pain came before awareness.
It was dull at first, like a distant echo, then sharp enough to drag Liang Chen back from the darkness. His chest rose with a ragged breath as cold air filled his lungs. He coughed, rolling onto his side, fingers digging into damp soil.
"So… I'm not dead?"
He forced his eyes open.
Above him stretched a sky unlike any he had ever seen—deep violet clouds drifting slowly, threaded with faint lines of glowing blue, like veins of light pulsing across the heavens. The air itself felt thick, heavy yet invigorating, seeping into his pores with every breath.
Liang Chen froze.
This wasn't Earth.
He sat up abruptly, ignoring the protest of his aching body. Jagged mountains loomed in the distance, their peaks floating slightly above the ground, defying gravity. Strange trees with silver leaves swayed despite the absence of wind, and the ground beneath him shimmered faintly, as if alive.
Memories rushed back.
The fall.
The ancient jade mirror.
The sensation of being torn apart—and stitched back together.
His hands trembled as he examined himself. His clothes were gone, replaced by a coarse gray robe tied at the waist. His skin looked… cleaner. Younger. Stronger.
Then came the sensation.
A warm current stirred inside his lower abdomen, slow and gentle, like a sleeping dragon breathing for the first time.
Liang Chen's heart pounded.
"I've read enough web novels to know what this is…"
Qi.
Before he could revel in the realization, a sharp pain stabbed into his head. He cried out, clutching his temples as foreign memories flooded his mind—fragmented images of a boy with the same face, kneeling in courtyards, being mocked, failing tests, and finally collapsing in this very forest.
When the pain subsided, Liang Chen breathed heavily.
"This body… already had an owner."
The boy's name surfaced naturally: Chen Yu, an outer disciple of the Azure Cloud Sect. Talent—low. Status—lower. Expelled during a trial and left to fend for himself in the Spirit Burial Forest.
And then… death.
Liang Chen clenched his fists.
"So I transmigrated into a discarded disciple in a cultivation world."
A bitter laugh escaped his lips, but his eyes burned with determination.
On Earth, he had lived an ordinary life, struggling endlessly, bound by limits he could never break. But here?
Here, strength ruled all.
As if responding to his resolve, the jade mirror appeared before him, floating silently in the air. Its surface rippled like water, and glowing characters slowly formed:
Heavenly Dao Mirror
Status: Bound
Function Unlocked: Spirit Perception
Cultivation Level: Mortal Body (Incomplete)
Liang Chen's breath caught.
"A cheat item…"
The mirror pulsed once, and suddenly the world changed. Streams of light—thin, multicolored threads—became visible, flowing through the air, into the ground, the trees, even into his own body.
Qi was everywhere.
And for the first time, Liang Chen smiled—wide and fearless.
"Chen Yu may have died here," he whispered, standing tall, "but Liang Chen won't."
In the depths of the Spirit Burial Forest, beneath an alien sky, the path of a cultivator quietly began.