The night was colder than Luo Yanxue had expected.
The fire had burned down to glowing embers, casting a weak red light on the surrounding stones and grass. Beyond that small circle of warmth, the forest sank into darkness, deep and silent, as if it were an ocean of shadows.
He hugged his thin body tighter, rubbing his arms to keep some warmth.
The clothes he wore were little more than rough cloth, worn and patched. They barely blocked the wind. Each gust slipped through the fabric and touched his skin like icy fingers.
So this is how poor people live here… he thought.
In his previous life, even in the hospital, the room had always been warm. Controlled. Safe. Here, the world made no such effort to protect him.
A strange cry echoed from afar.
Not a wolf.
Not a dog.
Something deeper, heavier.
His heart tightened for a moment. Instinctively, he grabbed the sharpened stick he had used for fishing and held it close, even though he knew it would be useless against anything truly dangerous.
The sound faded.
Only the river remained, whispering endlessly.
He slowly relaxed, though his nerves stayed tense. Sleep did not come easily. The ground was hard, the cold persistent, and his mind refused to quiet down.
This body… its memories were faint, broken, like pieces of a dream. He knew the boy had lived in this village. He knew his parents were gone. He knew hunger had been a constant companion.
But the details were blurred, as if time itself had tried to erase them.
"Guess it's just you and me now," he whispered to the empty night.
At some point, exhaustion finally won.
His eyes closed.
And in his dream, he felt warmth.
Not the warmth of fire.
But something gentler. Deeper. As if a small sun had been lit somewhere near his chest.
In his pocket, the ring gave off a faint glow, unseen in the darkness.
Inside it, an endless expanse of grey mist slowly shifted.
Land, dry and cracked, stretched as far as the eye could see. No trees. No rivers. No life.
Yet at the very center of that barren world, a single drop of light fell from nowhere.
It sank into the soil.
The ground trembled—just a little.
And from that point, the grey began to change.
Very slowly.
Almost imperceptibly.
As if something that had been dead for countless years… had finally taken its first breath again.
Luo Yanxue slept on, unaware.
Unaware that the ring in his pocket did not merely hold a treasure.
It held a world.