Rain hammered down on the city streets like heaven had finally lost patience.
John stood at the edge of the sidewalk, soaked to the bone.
His umbrella lay in the gutter behind him, flipped inside out and forgotten, like everything else in his life lately.
His phone screen flickered in his trembling hand.
"I didn't mean for you to find out this way."
The last message from Mia, the woman he thought he'd marry.
The photo had made it clear.
Her and his best friend. In 'his' apartment.
His lips parted, but no sound came out. Just rain.
His parents' voices echoed in his head, from the fight last week:
"I never loved you, Thomas!"
"Don't use our son as an excuse for your failures!"
"We're done!"
He tried to breathe, but it felt like the weight of the entire sky was sitting on his chest.
His job interview had failed that morning. He hadn't eaten. He hadn't slept.
He wasn't sure if he was still alive or just pretending.
The crossing light blinked green.
He stepped forward.
And then...
A horn.
Blinding headlights.
A metal scream that tore through bone and soul.
...Silence.
A breeze touched his cheek, soft and warm like a mother's whisper.
He opened his eyes.
The sky above was no longer grey and polluted, it was vivid blue, with wisps of mist drifting like silk across the clouds.
The smell of wet soil, smoke, and fresh herbs filled his nose.
Was he... in the countryside?
He tried to sit up and immediately winced. His body felt weak, starved even.
As he looked around, he saw a small, cracked wooden table, straw bedding, and gaps in the walls where sunlight leaked in.
This... this isn't a hospital.
His hands trembled as he touched his face. The skin felt... different.
Thinner. Younger. Then it hit him, a rush like a tidal wave of thought that wasn't his own.
Memories.
A different John.
A boy in a small mountain village called Stonewind.
Parents dead from a bandit raid three winters ago.
No cultivation.
No spirit roots awakened. Just a mortal scraping by, gathering firewood and collecting herbs from the forest edge.
His head throbbed.
The two lives collided, folded, and finally settled.
He was John Coral.
And somehow... so was the boy.
He staggered to the edge of the room and pushed open the wooden door.
Fields of spirit grass danced in the breeze. Chickens clucked.
A few children ran barefoot past the cracked stone well.
In the distance, mountains floated, actual mountains, held in the air by clouds shaped like dragons.
A woman walked by with a basket of herbs glowing faintly in the sunlight.
This was not Earth.
This was... a world of Cultivation.
He swallowed hard.
No system window popped up.
No cheat power.
Just the memories of a starving boy with no talent.
He chuckled bitterly.
"Seriously? You give me a second life and I'm still at the bottom?"
But despite everything, the pain in his chest was lighter.
The sky was beautiful.
The air felt clean. And for once in a long time, no one was shouting.
No one was cheating. No one expected anything of him.
Just him.
A hut.
And a world waiting to be understood.
Then, something strange happened.
A soft chime echoed in his mind, like the gentle ring of wind through chimes made of crystal.
And a voice, calm and ancient, whispered:
"Emotion detected: Longing, Heartache, Hope."
"Initializing Heavenly Dao Companion System…"
John blinked.
"...What the hell?"
"Initializing Heavenly Dao Companion System..."
The whisper faded into silence, like a stone dropping into a still pond.
John stood frozen at the doorway of the hut, blinking at the empty sky.
"…System?" he muttered. "Like... in novels?"
No answer came.
Then, just as he turned to step back inside, a translucent screen flickered to life in front of his eyes, hovering in mid-air like a dream.
---
[Heavenly Dao Companion System]
Welcome, John Coral.
Your soul bears the weight of two lives, and the Echo of Longing has reached the Heaven's Ears.
The Dao of Emotion, severed in the Age of Collapse, has chosen you as its vessel.
---
John blinked.
The screen pulsed softly, like a heartbeat.
"You've got to be kidding me…"
But the weight in his chest, the pain, the betrayal, suddenly made a strange kind of sense.
Maybe it hadn't all been random.
The screen shimmered again.
---
Core System Functions Unlocked:
Fated Companion Slots: 0 / 1 unlocked
Emotional Resonance Points (ERP): 0
Affinity Realm: None
Heavenly Heart Mirror: [Offline]
---
A small "?" icon blinked in the corner.
John focused on it, and another screen unfurled like a lotus blossom.
---
Fated Companions:
Some people are born to walk beside you beneath the stars.
Others, you must reach through storm and fire to earn their trust.
Form bonds not just through attraction, but understanding, sacrifice, and shared cultivation of the soul.
Each Companion grants:
Dao Resonance Buffs
Unique Heart Techniques
Access to Inner Realms & Spirit Trials
Note: The heart is the true medium of the Dao.
---
John stared at the line: "The heart is the true medium of the Dao."
"…So... dating cultivator girls gives me power?"
He immediately cringed. "Wow. That sounded way worse out loud."
Still, the screen didn't disappear. He focused again, and a final message bloomed:
---
A Fated Encounter approaches...
Location: Stonewind Village, Eastern Herb Field.
Time Remaining: 1 hour.
Suggested Action: Interact sincerely. Do not force fate.
---
The screen dimmed and vanished like mist.
John stood there, staring at the herb fields in the east, where the sun now painted the world in gold.
His heart thudded.
He didn't know how to fight, he had no spirit root, and he was still hungry enough to eat weeds.
But somehow, something had shifted.
His second life had truly begun.
John's stomach growled as he made his way toward the herb fields.
His memories of this place were blurry, like faded paintings, impressions left behind by the original John Coral.
But the path was clear, a narrow dirt trail snaking through wild grass and scattered spirit herbs, dew glistening on their leaves like stardust.
A low mist clung to the ground, swirling around his ankles as if the land itself was holding its breath.
"A Fated Encounter approaches..."
He snorted. "Let's hope she's not a chicken vendor or something."
But then he saw her.
At the far edge of the field, surrounded by blooming spirit blossoms, a girl knelt in silence, her white robe fluttering in the wind.
Her long black hair was tied with a strand of red silk, and a woven basket rested at her side, half-filled with radiant herbs.
She wasn't just pretty, she had the kind of presence that felt like it belonged in a story.
From this distance, she looked calm.
But the way her fingers trembled as she reached for a glowing leaf told another story.
[System Alert: Fated Companion Detected.]
Name: Lin Xue
Affinity Realm: Stranger
Dao Resonance: Winter Petal – "Silence hides the deepest pain."
Hidden Status: ???
John blinked.
"Wait, I can see her... Dao Resonance?"
He hesitated, then walked closer.
His steps were soft, careful not to scare her.
She noticed anyway.
Her eyes snapped to his, a deep, clear grey, like storm clouds that hadn't decided whether to rain or rage.
"I didn't hear you approach," she said softly.
"I walk quietly," John replied. "Or maybe you were thinking too loud."
Lin Xue raised a brow. Not annoyed. Just... intrigued.
She turned her attention back to the herb in her hand.
A delicate blue petal with veins that glowed faintly.
"I've been trying to gather Spirit Fronds since sunrise," she said. "But this one refuses to be picked."
"Maybe it only likes people who smile once in a while."
Her hand froze.
She looked at him again, not sharply, but like someone seeing a crack in a wall they thought was solid.
Then she smiled. Just a little.
And the flower released its stem with a soft shimmer.
John's system pinged.
---
+2 ERP
Lin Xue's Affinity Realm advanced: Stranger → Acquaintance
New Trait Detected: "Wintry Kindness" — Affinity increases faster when approached with sincerity and wit.
---
Lin Xue gently placed the flower into her basket. "What's your name?"
"John," he said.
Her gaze lingered on him a little longer this time. "That's... foreign."
"Everything about me is," he muttered under his breath.
"I'm Lin Xue," she said, straightening up. "You're not from the village, are you?"
John considered lying, but something in her presence made it feel pointless.
"I just got here."
"Then... welcome to Stonewind." She looked up at the floating mountains. "Not much, but the sky is always beautiful."
Their eyes met again not romantically, not yet.
But there was a quiet recognition.
Two strangers, both displaced, both hiding things.
The Dao of Emotion stirred.
After that she nodded at him. "I have to go now." She said and walked out of the field.
John looked at her disappering back and a smile formed on his face.
Seems like this life would be better than my previous one.