Chen Yu pushed open the rickety door of his shack and stepped outside into the morning sunlight, having to squint hard against the brightness as his eyes took a moment to adjust after the dim interior he'd been sitting in.
As he started walking along the dirt path toward town, following the route burned into the original Chen Yu's memories, he couldn't help but notice how different everything looked compared to Earth. The plants along the roadside weren't just green in the normal way, they were vibrant and almost glowing with health and vitality that seemed impossible. Leaves seemed fuller and thicker, colors more saturated and intense, as if someone had turned up the saturation slider on reality itself.
The trees were the most striking difference that caught his attention. Back on Earth, a large oak might reach sixty or seventy feet tall after decades of slow growth. Here, even ordinary-looking trees stretched much higher into the sky, their trunks thicker than any ancient forest he'd seen in pictures and their canopies spreading wider than seemed structurally possible. Some of them had a faint luminescence to them, barely visible in the daylight but definitely there if you looked closely enough. Their bark seemed to shimmer slightly when the light hit it right, and the leaves caught the sun in ways that seemed almost magical.
Because it probably was magical, Chen Yu realized as he walked. This was a cultivation world after all. Spiritual energy flowed through everything here like blood through veins, nourishing the plants and trees in ways that natural sunlight and water never could back on Earth. Even the air felt different when he breathed deeply, cleaner and crisper, almost like it had actual substance to it that you could feel sliding down your throat.
The forest around his shack stretched in all directions as far as he could see, ancient and primal and untouched by human hands. Mist clung to the ground in places despite the morning sun burning overhead, giving everything a dreamlike quality that made him feel like he was walking through a painting. Birds that he couldn't name sang from the branches above, their calls more melodious and complex than any he remembered from his old world. In the distance, he could see mountain peaks rising up through layers of clouds, so tall they seemed to pierce the heavens themselves and disappear into infinity.
Chen Yu kept walking at a steady pace, following the well-worn path that the original body's memories told him led to town. The journey took about two hours at a normal walking speed, and as he walked he noticed more and more details about this strange new world he'd found himself in. Flowers growing by the roadside had colors that didn't quite exist back on Earth, blues that were too vivid and hurt to look at, reds that seemed to pulse with inner light like they had tiny hearts. Occasionally he'd spot small animals darting through the underbrush, rabbits or squirrels or things that looked similar, and even they seemed different somehow, more alert and vital and aware than their Earth equivalents.
After what felt like forever of walking through endless forest, his legs starting to ache, the trees finally began to thin out and Chen Yu spotted the town in the distance.
His steps faltered as he took in the sight properly.
The walls surrounding Silver Mist Town were massive and intimidating, easily twenty feet tall and built from large stone blocks that looked like they'd been standing for centuries without crumbling. Chen Yu blinked in surprise, his expectations completely shattered. He'd expected a small rural town based on the poverty of his shack, maybe with a wooden fence at most for keeping livestock in. But these were proper fortifications, the kind of serious walls you'd build to keep out actual threats that could kill everyone inside.
Of course, the original Chen Yu's memories supplied belatedly, this was normal and expected. Most towns had walls like this to protect against spirit beasts from the forests that could wipe out entire populations if left unchecked. But seeing it with his own eyes was completely different from just having the vague knowledge floating in his head.
As he approached the main gate, still gaping slightly at the massive stonework, two guards in simple leather armor stood watch on either side. They were both older men, probably in their forties, with spears held casually at their sides and bored expressions that said they'd been doing this job for years. When they spotted Chen Yu walking up the road, one of them grinned and called out in a friendly tone.
"Well look who finally showed up! We were starting to think you'd decided to sleep the whole day away, Chen Yu!"
Chen Yu felt a moment of panic before the original body's memories kicked in and supplied helpful context. These guards knew him from his frequent trips to town for work over the past year. They were friendly enough, had always treated him decently despite his obvious poverty and ragged clothes.
He forced what he hoped was a shy chuckle, ducking his head slightly in the submissive way the original Chen Yu would have done. "Ah, sorry Uncle Lin. I was really tired last night and slept in way too long. Won't happen again."
The guard laughed good-naturedly and waved him through without any more questions. "Go on then, get to work. Old Mei was asking about you earlier, wondering where you were."
Chen Yu nodded his thanks and hurried through the gate, trying to act natural and not like his soul had been replaced. Once inside the town proper, he took a moment to orient himself using the original body's memories like a mental map.
The streets were dirt and packed earth, with wooden buildings lining both sides in haphazard rows that had clearly grown organically over time. People moved about their daily business all around him, merchants calling out their wares from stalls, children running and laughing between carts, women carrying baskets of laundry or vegetables on their hips. It looked like any medieval town from the history books or period dramas, except for those little touches of strangeness that reminded you this wasn't a normal world at all. A lantern hanging outside a shop that glowed without any visible flame or oil. A well in the town square where the water sparkled just a bit too much, almost luminescent. Small details everywhere that spoke of cultivation and spiritual energy being normal parts of life.
Chen Yu made his way through the familiar streets toward the market area, navigating by memory. He found Aunt Mei's stall easily enough, a simple setup with large bags of rice and wooden crates of vegetables displayed on a worn counter that had clearly seen years of use.
Aunt Mei herself was a plump woman in her fifties with genuinely kind eyes and graying hair tied back in a practical bun. When she spotted Chen Yu approaching through the crowd, her weathered face lit up with a warm smile that made him feel guilty for deceiving her.
"Chen Yu! There you are, I was wondering if you'd be coming by today at all."
"Sorry Aunt Mei," Chen Yu said, feeling genuine warmth toward this woman who had apparently helped the original Chen Yu survive when his parents died and left him alone. "I overslept badly."
"Working yourself too hard as usual, I bet," she tsked disapprovingly, shaking her head like a scolding grandmother. "You're too young to be running yourself ragged like this every day. Here, let me get you some rice and vegetables. You look like you haven't been eating properly at all, you're practically skin and bones."
Chen Yu bought two shi of raw rice and a small collection of vegetables that would last him a few days if he was careful, some carrots, cabbage, and what looked like radishes but with a faint purple tinge to them that definitely wasn't normal. The total came to four copper coins, which left him with only six remaining in his pocket. Not much at all, barely anything, but it would have to do until he could figure out how to earn more.
As Aunt Mei packaged up his purchases carefully in cloth wrapping, Chen Yu decided to take advantage of the situation and fish for information. The original Chen Yu had never really paid attention to the bigger picture of the town, too focused on daily survival and finding his next meal to think about things like town structure or politics or where cultivators lived. But new Chen Yu needed that information desperately if he was going to navigate this world.
"Aunt Mei," he said as casually as he could manage, "I was wondering... how big is Silver Mist Town exactly? I've never really thought about it before."
Aunt Mei looked genuinely surprised at the question, her eyebrows rising, but answered readily enough. "Oh, quite large actually, bigger than most towns in the region. I'd say about twenty-five kilometers from one end to the other if you walked it. One of the bigger towns in this part of the province."
Twenty-five kilometers. That was substantial, practically a small city by some standards back on Earth.
"And the cultivators," Chen Yu continued carefully, keeping his tone curious but not too interested or suspicious, "they live in a different part of town, right? Separate from us?"
"That's right," Aunt Mei nodded, lowering her voice slightly in that automatic way people did when talking about cultivators, like speaking too loud might attract their attention. "The inner district is where they stay and conduct their business. That's the real Silver Mist Town, if you ask me. This outer area where we mortals live..." she gestured around vaguely at the shabby market stalls and dirt streets, "well, it's not exactly the slums, but it's close enough to it."
An older man at the neighboring stall who sold dried meats, his face weathered like old leather, overheard their conversation and chimed in without invitation. "Been that way for as long as I can remember, and I'm sixty-three years old. Cultivators don't want to mix with us common folk. Can't blame them really, we'd probably just get in their way with our mundane problems."
"Is there a fee to enter the inner district?" Chen Yu asked, trying to sound innocent. "Like, could I go there if I wanted to for some reason?"
Both Aunt Mei and the meat seller looked at him like he'd just suggested jumping off a cliff for fun.
"Technically there's no fee," Aunt Mei said slowly, choosing her words carefully, "but Chen Yu, why would you want to go there? Us mortals don't belong in that part of town. One wrong move and you could accidentally offend a cultivator without meaning to. You know what happens to people who offend cultivators."
The meat seller nodded gravely, his expression dark. "Best to stay in our part of town and mind our business, keep our heads down. That's how you live a long life without trouble."
Chen Yu nodded like he understood and agreed completely, putting on a slightly embarrassed expression like he regretted asking. But internally he was already planning and scheming. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would go to the inner district and look for shops that sold materials to make talismans. He needed to start somewhere, and hiding in fear of cultivators wasn't going to get him anywhere in this world.
But he kept those thoughts carefully to himself, just smiled at Aunt Mei and thanked her sincerely for the food and advice. As he started heading back toward his shack with his purchases bundled under his arm, his mind was already racing ahead with plans for what came next.