Time unknown.
Gu Xiuyuan felt as if he were floating in some viscous liquid, surrounded by endless darkness. Something enveloped his body, warm and heavy. He tried to open his eyes, but his lids were heavy as lead.
Consciousness was like bubbles in water, rising for a moment, then sinking again. When it rose, he could feel his heartbeat – one, two, three – and the warm vortex in his core, still slowly turning. When it sank, everything returned to nothingness.
This repeated countless times.
Finally, he opened his eyes.
Blinding light.
He instinctively raised his hand to block it, but found his arm wouldn't obey. He could only squint, looking out through his fingers.
Two suns.
One larger, orange-red, hanging in the east; one slightly smaller, pale gold, hanging west of zenith. Their light intertwined, dyeing the entire sky a strange orange-red hue. Few clouds, but each was stained the color of fire, as if they might fall from the sky at any moment.
"..."
Gu Xiuyuan lay on the ground, staring at the two suns for a full ten seconds. His mind went blank, then slowly started working again.
Where am I?
What happened?
Air-raid shelter... jade slip... light vortex...
He instinctively reached up to push his glasses – his hand stopped halfway, remembering the glasses were long gone. This gesture had been with him for over a decade, probably never to be broken.
He smiled bitterly.
"This isn't scientific," he said.
Then he added, "Oh, right, this place isn't scientific to begin with."
His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping his throat. He realized his lips were cracked and his throat felt like it was on fire.
He struggled to sit up.
Before him lay a crimson-red earth. The ground was hard rock, its surface covered in fine gravel, colors ranging from deep red to dark brown, as if burned countless times. In some places, there were cracks, through which faint red light glowed, as if something was burning underground.
In the distance rose undulating mountains, equally red, barren of vegetation. Some mountains were like knife blades, others like camel humps, casting twisted shadows under the strange sky.
The air carried a faint sulfur smell. Not the pungent industrial sulfur, but a more primal scent, like a volcanic area. Each breath brought that sharp odor into his lungs, slightly choking, but bearable.
Gu Xiuyuan took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
He checked his body: limbs intact, no external injuries. His clothes were still there, but covered in dust. The items in his pockets were still there – the jade slip pressed against his chest, cold to the touch; the small reagent bottles he'd brought from the lab were there too, their shapes recognizable through the fabric. They held some sulfuric acid and sodium carbonate he'd planned to use for cleaning scale, never expecting they'd become his only "scientific weapons" in a different world. The bottles were small; every drop would have to be used sparingly.
Most importantly, the warm mass in his core was still there.
Purple Flame Heart.
It was still there, beating with some regularity, like a second heart. He tried to sense it with his mind, and it responded immediately, a warm energy flowing from his core, slowly spreading through his channels throughout his body. The feeling was pleasant, like soaking in warm water, alleviating some of his exhaustion and thirst.
"Good..." he murmured.
Though he didn't know exactly what this thing was for, at least it proved that everything that had happened wasn't a dream.
He tried to stand.
His legs were weak, knees trembling, but he could stand. The rock beneath his feet was hot; he could feel the heat through his soles. He stamped on it and found the ground very hard, like fired pottery, or solidified lava.
"First, figure out where this is."
He looked up at the two suns, trying to determine direction, but had no clue. Everywhere was the same crimson red, the same desolation, not a single blade of grass in sight. If this was some alien world from a science fiction novel, the ecology was too barren.
He reached for his left wrist – empty. This gesture was just habit, but when his hand touched nothing, he felt a little hollow inside.
Just then, a startled cry came from behind.
"Ah!"
The sound was so sudden it made Gu Xiuyuan jump. He spun around and saw a figure stumble out from behind a large rock.
It was an old man.
Gray-haired, messy and piled on his head, face wrinkled, skin tanned dark. He wore a dusty robe, already tattered beyond recognition, the hem charred. In his hand, he clutched a piece of ore, which rolled away when he fell.
The old man stared at him, wide-eyed, as if seeing a ghost.
"You, you, you..." The old man pointed at Gu Xiuyuan, his finger trembling, lips also quivering. "Where did you pop out from? This old man has been mining here for thirty years and never seen a living soul!"
Gu Xiuyuan froze.
Not because of the old man's appearance – meeting someone in this desolate place, while unexpected, wasn't entirely impossible. He froze because the old man's words weren't Chinese, nor any language he'd ever heard, yet he could understand them.
Every word entered his mind clearly, automatically translating into meaning he could grasp.
It was the jade slip.
That jade slip, while imparting knowledge, had also etched something into his consciousness – possibly the common language of the cultivation world, or some direct semantic conversion. In any case, he could understand what this old man was saying.
"I..." Gu Xiuyuan began, his voice dry, "just arrived here."
"Just arrived?" The old man looked him up and down, eyes full of vigilance. "You flew here? No, you don't have any spiritual fluctuation at all – you, you're a mortal?!"
Gu Xiuyuan didn't know what "spiritual fluctuation" meant, but he roughly understood: in this world, he was an ordinary person with "no cultivation at all."
"Sort of," he said.
The old man stared at him for several more seconds, then suddenly laughed.
The laugh came too suddenly, wrinkles bunching up, eyes squeezing into slits. The laugh was also strange, like a cough mixed with laughter.
"Hahaha! A mortal, all alone, surviving in the Crimson Desert Mine? Which planet did you escape from? No, how could a mortal traverse the stars?"
Gu Xiuyuan didn't answer, but asked instead, "Where is this?"
The old man stopped laughing, looked him over again, and said, "Ganyan Star."
Ganyan Star.
Gu Xiuyuan silently repeated the name. The jade slip had mentioned some planet names – Fengyuan Star, Tianting Star, Linming Star... Ganyan Star wasn't among them; it must be a remote, insignificant planet.
"Accident with the teleportation array," he said simply. "I was supposed to go to Fengyuan Star."
"Fengyuan Star?!" The old man's eyes widened further. "That's the center of the cultivation world! What's a mortal like you going to Fengyuan Star for? To get yourself killed?"
Gu Xiuyuan didn't explain.
The old man looked down at the ore that had rolled away, then back at Gu Xiuyuan, his expression somewhat odd. He slowly stood up, dusted himself off, and asked, "You're not afraid of this old man?"
"Afraid of what?"
"This old man is at the Foundation Establishment stage!" The old man puffed out his chest, trying to appear imposing. "I could crush you with one finger!"
Gu Xiuyuan looked at him.
Foundation Establishment stage? What was that? It sounded like some kind of rank.
"What's Foundation Establishment stage?" he asked.
The old man was dumbfounded.
"You don't know Foundation Establishment?" He stared at Gu Xiuyuan as if looking at a monster. "You don't even know cultivation realms?"
Gu Xiuyuan shook his head.
The old man was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly stepped closer. Gu Xiuyuan instinctively stepped back, but the old man didn't attack, just looked him up and down with those cloudy eyes.
"Which planet are you from?"
"Earth."
"Earth?" The old man frowned. "Never heard of it."
"A remote, insignificant planet," Gu Xiuyuan said. "You probably haven't heard of it."
The old man stared at him for a long time, the vigilance in his eyes slowly turning to confusion, and the confusion to something else – something like curiosity, or pity.
"You're alone?" he asked. "No elders? No sect?"
Gu Xiuyuan was silent.
He thought of Zhang Jianguo, thought of those who once called him brother but now avoided him. Then he said calmly, "No."
The old man was silent again.
After a long time, he sighed.
"Fine," he said. "This old man is called Old Stone, a loose cultivator on Ganyan Star. What's your name?"
"Gu Xiuyuan."
"Gu Xiuyuan..." Old Stone repeated it twice. "This name doesn't sound local. Never mind, follow this old man, let's find a place to rest first."
He turned and walked away, then stopped after two steps and looked back: "What are you standing there for? Come on! Star beasts roam the Crimson Desert Mine at night. You, a mortal, staying out here, won't last a stick of incense's time!"
With that, he continued walking.
Gu Xiuyuan didn't immediately follow.
He watched Old Stone's retreating figure, his mind racing. Was this Old Stone genuinely helping, or did he have ulterior motives?
His experiences on Earth told him not to trust anyone easily. Zhang Jianguo was once the person he trusted most, and look what happened.
But right now, he had nowhere to go. This crimson planet, two suns, desolate landscape – he couldn't even tell east from west, let alone find his way back.
Besides, if that old man really wanted to harm him, a Foundation Establishment cultivator dealing with a mere "mortal" wouldn't need all this trouble. He could just act directly, why put on this show?
He hesitated for three seconds, then followed.
---
Old Stone walked fast; Gu Xiuyuan had to jog to keep up. Along the way, Old Stone said nothing, just occasionally glanced back to make sure he hadn't fallen behind.
After about a stick of incense's time, they arrived at the shady side of a low mountain.
Here there was a cave, the entrance mostly sealed with large rocks, leaving only a person-wide gap. Old Stone squeezed through sideways, Gu Xiuyuan following behind.
Inside, the space was surprisingly large, about thirty to forty feet square. There were roughly hewn stone bed, stone table, stone stools. In the corner were piles of ore, some dark red, some dark brown. A torch stuck in the cave wall flickered, casting a dim yellow light throughout.
The air carried a faint smoky smell, mixed with the metallic tang of ore, and some indefinable aged odor.
"Sit." Old Stone pointed to a stone stool, plopping himself down on the stone bed.
Gu Xiuyuan sat.
They were silent for a few seconds.
Old Stone looked him over again, then asked, "You really don't know anything?"
"Know what?"
"Cultivation!" Old Stone said. "Realms, techniques, spiritual energy, artifacts – you don't know any of it?"
Gu Xiuyuan thought for a moment, then pulled the jade slip from his chest.
"This mentions some things," he said. "But I haven't had time to read it properly."
Old Stone's eyes bulged.
"A jade slip?!" He practically lunged. "You, you, you have a jade slip?! Where did you get it?"
Gu Xiuyuan didn't answer, just looked at him.
Old Stone stared at the jade slip for a few seconds, then suddenly calmed down. He slowly sat back, his expression becoming complicated.
"This old man has lived for centuries," he said, "and never even seen a jade slip. Those are inheritance items of sects, something loose cultivators never touch. You, a mortal, actually have a jade slip..."
He paused, then asked, "Who are you really?"
Gu Xiuyuan was silent for a few seconds, then said, "Someone who was betrayed."
Old Stone was stunned.
Gu Xiuyuan didn't explain further, just put the jade slip away.
Old Stone looked at him for a long time, then sighed.
"Fine," he said. "You don't want to say, this old man won't ask. I've lived centuries, seen all kinds of people. Some come from unknown places but have good hearts; some smile in your face while stabbing you in the back. Which type you are, this old man will see for himself."
He stood up, walked to the pile of ore in the corner, and casually picked up a piece.
"You're a mortal, so you shouldn't understand cultivation. What can you do?"
Gu Xiuyuan looked at the ore in his hand, thought for a moment, and said, "Maybe I can help you increase the purity of this ore."
Old Stone blinked, then burst out laughing.
"You? A mortal? Help this old man refine ore?" He laughed so hard tears nearly came. "Do you know what refining requires? It requires true fire! Requires spiritual power! You're not even Foundation Establishment, what could you possibly use to refine it?"
Gu Xiuyuan didn't argue.
He just stood up, walked to Old Stone, and reached for the ore.
Old Stone's laughter stopped.
He looked suspiciously at Gu Xiuyuan, wondering what this mortal was up to.
Gu Xiuyuan took the ore, returned to the stone stool, and sat down. He closed his eyes, focusing his attention on the warm vortex in his core.
Purple Flame Heart.
He tried to guide it with his mind, just as it had responded to him before.
Sure enough, a stream of energy flowed from his core, traveled up his channels, and finally gathered in his eyes.
He opened his eyes.
The world changed.
That piece of ore was no longer just stone – he saw densely packed crystal structures, saw iron elements arranged in specific patterns, saw impurities like silicon and aluminum attached at grain boundaries. He could even "see" that this ore's purity was about 50%, with impurities mainly quartz and some sulfides.
But at the same time, he felt the Purple Flame Heart warm slightly – energy was being consumed.
He quickly withdrew his gaze, rubbing his temples. Just two seconds of use had consumed about 1% of the Purple Flame Heart's energy. Looks like this ability couldn't be used casually.
"This piece is mediocre," he told Old Stone. "Purity only about fifty percent. Main impurities are quartz and sulfides."
Old Stone was dumbfounded.
"You... how do you know?" He approached the ore, turning it over and over. "This old man has mined for decades, my eye is pretty good, but I can only estimate roughly sixty to seventy percent. How can you, a mortal, see so accurately?"
Gu Xiuyuan didn't explain, just asked, "If I can purify this to over ninety percent, will you teach me cultivation?"
Old Stone stared at him, his expression becoming complicated.
After a long time, he slowly nodded.
"Good," he said. "Deal."