Where was he?
That was the first question that arose in Lin Wei's mind, or what remained of it.
There was darkness. A void without texture, without temperature, without sound. Only consciousness floating in nowhere.
Lin Wei remembered.
The truck. The high beams. The impact that shattered his bones before everything went dark.
He was eighteen. He was returning from college, thinking about what he would have for dinner and about how adult life would finally begin. But after that, the truck came, and it ended.
Now he was here. Wherever "here" was.
The strangest thing was not being dead. The strangest thing was being conscious without having a body. Without feeling his chest rise and fall, without feeling the ground under his feet, without feeling absolutely anything. Just pure thought, floating in the void.
'Will I go to heaven? Or hell?' He asked himself.
'Do heaven or hell even exist? Or is death just this? An eternal limbo until I go insane?'
Time then passed.
Days? Weeks? Centuries? He did not know. He tried to count the seconds. He reached high numbers, lost count in the middle, returned to zero, and started again. After repeating this so many times that he lost count of the attempts, he stopped. It made no difference.
The void did not change. The loneliness did not lessen. The only thing he had were his own thoughts, echoing in an eternal loop.
Then, after an uncountable time, something changed.
It was sudden. Violent. An invisible force grabbed what remained of him and pulled. Pulled with a terrifying speed, as if his soul were a rubber band stretched to its limit.
He wanted to scream, but he had no mouth. He wanted to resist, but he had no hands. It lasted only seconds.
When it stopped, the pain came.
"Pain?"
He felt pain.
His body... he had a body again, but it hurt all over. A dull, throbbing pain that seemed to come from everywhere at once. He tried to move, and a scratch of needles ran through his ribs.
With effort, he opened his eyes.
Darkness. But not the absolute darkness of limbo. This one was different. Denser, more physical. Gradually, his eyes adjusted.
Above him, a sliver of light pierced through piled rocks. He was lying on a dirt floor, surrounded by stones.
It was a cave. The ceiling had collapsed, and he, or rather, the body he now occupied, must have fallen along with it.
Before he could process the situation, a stab exploded in his head.
Lin Wei dropped to his knees, pressing his temples with his hands. Images, sensations, and memories that were not his invaded his mind like water breaking through a dam.
A street boy. Hunger and loneliness. The spiritual root test that all the young people in the city took at fifteen.
The line in front of the elder of the local sect. The cold touch of the stone that tested talents was in his hand.
But nothing. It was empty. Then the sentence came.
"No spiritual root. Next."
The boy was named Lin Wei. The same name. A cruel coincidence or a whim of fate.
Lin Wei, the original, had entered the forest to hunt, trying to get food for a few more days.
He walked too far, got lost, and misstepped. Then, the ground gave way, and he fell. He died instantly.
And now Lin Wei, the new one, was here.
The memories kept coming, fragmented but vivid. In this world, cultivation existed. Men and women who absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, Qi, to transcend mortal limits.
They could lift rocks the size of houses, walk on water, split mountains with a blow, and fly through the skies like gods. They were the true rulers of this world.
And to become one of them, it was necessary to have a spiritual root. An innate talent to absorb and refine Qi.
Lin Wei, the original, did not have one.
He was a common mortal. An orphan beggar without a future, without hope, without anything beyond the daily struggle for survival.
In the small city where he lived, the test ceremony was the only chance to ascend, to escape misery. He failed. And he kept failing every day since then.
The flood of memories stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Lin Wei remained there, kneeling on the cave floor, processing everything.
He transmigrated. That was the obvious conclusion. He had read dozens of novels with that premise on Earth. Characters who died and woke up in the bodies of young masters, heirs of powerful clans, and betrayed geniuses.
They always started with advantages, resources, talents, and status.
But he, he woke up in the body of a dead beggar in a cave.
Lin Wei laughed. A dry sound, without humor.
"Of course. Why would it be different?"
The pain in his body was real. Some ribs were probably broken. His left leg hurt in a wrong way when he tried to move.
Cuts and bruises covered his skin. The original Lin Wei's body was destroyed even before dying. The fall only finished the job.
He should be dead. From all the injuries, he should be back in that dark limbo. But, for some reason, chance, fate, cosmic error, he was here. Alive again.
"Alive."
The word echoed in his mind. He felt his chest rise and fall. He felt the cold air entering his lungs. He felt his heart beating, weak but present.
He was alive.
The limbo awaited him if he died again. Lin Wei did not know what would happen if he returned there, whether his consciousness would dissolve, whether he would go insane, or whether he would simply continue floating in that void for another eternity.
But he knew one thing, he did not want to find out. He did not want to go back there.
With effort, he placed his hands on the ground and stood up.
The body screamed in protest. His left leg almost gave out, and he had to support himself against the cave wall to not fall. Each breath was a stab in his ribs. But he stood.
He looked up, toward the sliver of light where the ceiling had collapsed. It was very high. Impossible to reach without ropes or tools.
The original entrance was probably buried. If he wanted to get out, he would have to find another way.
Lin Wei looked toward the depths of the cave. There was darkness. The kind of darkness that could hide anything. An exit, a dead end, or his true death.
He took a deep breath, ignoring the pain, and started walking.
He had no choice. He had no time to lament. There was no one to come rescue him. It was just him, a broken body, and an unknown cave.
As he moved forward, the memories of the original Lin Wei continued to come in flashes. The small city where he lived. The dirt streets. The children who mocked him. The constant hunger. Hope died on the day of the test.
No spiritual root.
Lin Wei frowned. In all the novels he had read, the spiritual root was only the beginning. There were methods to acquire talent, to bypass limitations. Cultivation was about breaking barriers, not accepting them.
He did not know if that was true here. But he was willing to find out. He just could not give up.
The cave stretched ahead of him, dark and silent. Lin Wei's footsteps echoed against the stone walls. With each step, the pain reminded him that he was still alive.
'Alive.' He thought again.
Broken, fucked, and without an easy future. But alive.
And as long as there was life, there would be a chance. He kept walking.