Chapter 1: The Eyes of Providence
Nie Lianfeng had given up on life.
After years of fighting and losing, all he wanted was peace and nothingness.
When the hospital lights flickered and dimmed, he thought his suffering had come to an end.
But…
He was wrong. Instead of nothing, he woke up in pain. His head throbbed with a sharp, relentless pain.
He tried to move, but his body felt heavy. He was lying on something rough. It didn't feel like the ground, but something else, something unfamiliar.
His fingers brushed against it, but it didn't make sense.
Where was he? How had he gotten here?
The air was thick, heavy with the smell of damp soil, spilled alcohol, and something sharp, like the air after a storm.
He slowly pushed himself up, feeling lighter than he expected. His body was thin, weak like a boy just past his teens.
When he finally sat up, he caught sight of his reflection in a small mirror nearby. The face staring back at him wasn't his.
It wasn't the worn, tired face of the man who had given up on Earth.
This body was young but felt hollow, with a strange energy moving inside him, something he didn't understand or know how to control.
Confusion hit him hard, but the weariness of a middle-aged man kept him from panicking. There was no point in shouting, no one would understand anyway.
He looked around. The room was small and bare, just big enough for the wooden bed he was on.
It felt like a cheap shelter, hidden in some rundown back alley. Bright afternoon light came through a tiny window covered with dirty paper.
A sharp sound broke through his thoughts a quick, high chime, followed by a sudden rush of wind, like a whip cracking.
He got up and walked to the window. With one pull, he tore off the greasy paper.
What he saw outside didn't feel real.
The houses were packed tightly, old and worn.
But beyond them, huge stone walls rose high into the sky. Behind the walls, tall pagodas stretched so far up, their tops disappeared into the clouds.
Across that vast sky, a small, graceful figure in red robes floated by, casually standing on a glowing green sword blade.
Even with all his experience, Nie Lianfeng felt his heart skip a beat.
The sight shocked him deeply something he hadn't expected to see in real life. His stomach tightened, and for a moment, he was speechless.
For a long moment, he could barely move or speak, frozen in disbelief.
He forced himself to look again, unable to tear his eyes away.
The figure in red moved with a calm grace, completely at ease on the glowing sword. It was as if the laws of reality bent around them, and Nie Lianfeng felt painfully aware of how small and out of place he was in this world.
"This can't be real," he whispered to himself, but deep down, he knew it was.
This was no dream or trick it was something far greater than anything he had faced before.
His mind raced with questions, but the only thing he could do was watch, captivated and trembling.
The figure in red suddenly turned its head, as if sensing Nie Lianfeng's gaze. For a brief second, their eyes met calm, ancient, and knowing.
A chill ran down Nie Lianfeng's spine. He felt exposed, like a mere shadow under the weight of something far older and more powerful.
The glowing sword shimmered, cutting through the sky like a thread of light, and the figure began to drift slowly away, disappearing behind the stone walls.
Nie Lianfeng swallowed hard, his mind spinning.
This was no ordinary place. Every legend he'd ever heard about cultivation worlds seemed suddenly real and terrifying.
He realized that if he wanted answers, or even a way out, he would have to face whatever mysteries this world held.
He took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart, but a cold sweat soaked through his clothes just from the memory of that immortal's piercing gaze.
The weight of it pressed down on him heavier than the rough bed beneath him.
Now, he was in a world where people could fly and battle gods.
To survive here, you needed spiritual power, lots of money, and a strong master. But he had nothing no money, no skills, and no one by his side in a place locals called the Outer District of Azure Sky City.
"Great," he hissed bitterly to the empty room. "I went from drowning in crushing debt to staring straight into the jaws of instant death."
He sank back onto the plank bed, the reality hitting him like a bucket of cold water.
No cultivation, no money, and no clue how to survive in this strange world.
All he had left were the memories of a wasted life and this fragile, unfamiliar body. The thought of surviving here felt hopeless.
He stared at the muddy floor, wishing he could just close his eyes and let it all end this cruel joke of a second life.
The silence around him was heavy, pressing against his chest until he could barely breathe. It wasn't anger or fear anymore, just a deep, aching despair.
And in that stillness when he finally stopped hoping for anything something inside him cracked open.
An instant later, a sharp, searing pain exploded behind his eyes.
It felt as if fire and molten metal were reshaping them from the inside out.
He screamed in unbearable pain, collapsing to his knees, clutching his face desperately as the world around him faded into a bright, blinding white light.
If someone had seen him then, they would have been shocked. His eyes glowed with a strange, pitch-white and gray light, cold and endless, as if they had seen everything.
A quiet, mysterious air surrounded him, like a wise sage who carried the weight of time.
When the pain finally eased, he forced his eyes open, gasping for breath. He was covered in sweat and shaking, he looked around at a world that didn't feel real anymore.
Everything was covered in glowing, shining lines.
Every wall, every bit of dust, every shadow was connected by these bright threads.
They weren't just tricks of the eye. They were real, glowing threads linking now to futures that hadn't happened yet.
He didn't know what he was seeing, but his mind looked for patterns.
The sight was overwhelming, but three colors stood out. He focused, trying to figure out what they meant by watching how the energy moved.
There were thick, golden ropes glowing warmly, winding toward futures that seemed full of comfort and luck though he wasn't sure what that really meant.
Then there were silver strands, twisting and shimmering quietly. They seemed to show paths not yet decided choices that might still shift, or maybe not.
And closest to him, where a small mouse nervously scurried along the baseboard, was a short, thick cable of deep, terrifying black.
The black thread shook with deadly energy, running tight from the mouse's small body to a dark crack in the floor.
Something bad was coming. Nie Lianfeng felt a cold fear as he watched what seemed like the path to death.
Then, a shadow slipped out of the crack a fast, black scorpion with pincers raised. It moved too quickly, cutting the mouse's thread exactly where the black line had shown.
The vision faded, pulling him back to the real world. He felt dizzy, cold, and completely drained of energy.
The black thread was a sign of doom, he was sure of that. This power didn't obey him, it only showed what might happen.
He didn't know much about the other threads yet, but he knew the black one was something bad.
He had no Qi to practice, no power to fight with right now.
But he could see something no one else could, the hidden truth behind life and death.
Fate wasn't a mystery to him. It was a clear, visible path.
His old doubt came back, but now it was mixed with a cold, desperate plan.
He had no skills in this world, but he had one thing everyone wanted even if they didn't know how to find it.
He sank back onto the rough bed, his heart pounding as a storm of thoughts crashed through his mind.
'Should I use this power openly, or keep it hidden'? The question twisted inside him, bringing a sharp mix of fear and uncertainty.
He was afraid people would see him as a threat.
Afraid he might lose control.
Afraid he would become a target.
But hiding his power was just as scary, it felt like losing his only chance to survive in this new world.
Confused and full of doubt, his chest felt tight and his hands shook.
He wanted to believe in himself and be brave for what was coming. But right now, the choice felt heavy and hard to bear.
Still, deep inside, a small spark of hope stayed alive. This power was his only chance and he wasn't ready to give up yet.
He took a deep breath, steadying himself.
No matter the danger, he knew what he had to do next.
Slowly, he stood up and walked to the corner of the room. He picked up a rough piece of wood and a broken shard of clay.
With careful strokes, he carved five simple words into the clay:
'One Copper Coin for Divination'.
He refused to fall to his knees and beg for help.
Instead, he would use what he had his gift to see fate itself.
This was the fragile start of his new life, the only way to survive and carve out a place in this strange, unforgiving world.
For the first time in two lifetimes, Nie Lianfeng felt something he hadn't before, a flicker of hope, a fierce fire.
This power wasn't just a gift. It was a weapon. Something that could change everything.