The sky above Qinshui Town had already turned dark by the time Lu Yuan returned to his small house on the outskirts.
His steps were heavy, and every movement made the soreness in his body more obvious. The rough leather boots beneath his feet were stained with mud and dried blood, while the hem of his gray robe had been torn by thorns during the day's hunt.
Today, he had gone out with two other loose cultivators from the outer district of the town: a thin, sharp-eyed man named Zhao San, and a broad-shouldered hunter called Wu De. The three of them had entered the low hills and sparse forest several dozen li away from Qinshui Town, a place where weak demon beasts often roamed. It was one of the few hunting grounds loose cultivators like them dared to enter.
The goal had been simple: hunt one or two low-level demon beasts, strip the valuable materials, and sell them in town for spirit stones.
Reality, however, was never so kind.
They had tracked a horned mountain boar for nearly half a day, only to discover that it had already been injured and driven half-mad by another hunting party. The beast nearly charged through Zhao San's chest, forcing the three of them to join hands and barely bring it down after an exhausting fight. Even then, the harvest was disappointing. The beast's hide had been ripped, one tusk was broken, and much of its blood essence had already leaked away.
After dividing the spoils, Lu Yuan's share amounted to little more than a few scraps of demon beast meat, a small section of usable bone, and a pitiful handful of broken spirit stones.
Not enough to make him smile.
Not enough to make tomorrow easier.
By the time he reached home, the exhaustion in his body had already sunk into his bones.
His house was small and crude, little more than a weathered wooden hut leaning against a patch of barren land. The roof creaked when the wind blew, and the walls carried the faint smell of old dampness. To ordinary mortals, it was barely passable. To a cultivator, it was simply the cheapest place one could stay without sleeping on the street.
Lu Yuan placed his hunting knife on the table, dropped the demon beast materials into a corner, and sat down heavily on the edge of the bed.
He did not even bother to cultivate.
He was too tired.
The fight with the mountain boar, the long walk back, and the constant tension of spending a day in the wild had drained him completely. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and after lying down on the hard bed, he fell asleep almost immediately.
Deep into the night, the world outside was silent.
Then, without warning, a mysterious green flash appeared high in the sky above Qinshui Town.
It came too suddenly and vanished too quickly, like a streak of light that had no business existing beneath the heavens. In the span of a breath, it disappeared.
But a moment later, it reappeared.
This time, it was no longer far away in the sky.
It was already above Lu Yuan's house.
A strange green radiance descended soundlessly, passing through roof and wall as though they did not exist, and instantly covered Lu Yuan's sleeping body.
At that moment, Lu Yuan felt an overwhelming pressure crash down on him.
His sleeping mind trembled violently.
He tried to wake up.
But no matter how hard he struggled, he could not open his eyes.
He could not move his body.
It was as though an invisible mountain had been pressed over him, sealing every limb, every breath, every thought.
In the darkness, panic surged up from the depths of his heart.
What the hell is happening to me?
His thoughts became more and more chaotic.
Was this some old monster trying to possess his body?
In this cultivation world, such things were not unheard of. There were many stories passed around among loose cultivators—stories of demonic cultivators seizing the bodies of the weak, of injured powerhouses preserving a sliver of soul to search for a new vessel, of ancient remnants hiding in the dark and waiting for the right moment to take over another's life.
The more Lu Yuan thought, the colder his heart became.
He wanted to shout, to resist, to struggle with all his strength.
Yet he could do nothing.
Time passed slowly in that terrifying stillness.
Then, just as fear and helplessness reached their peak, Lu Yuan suddenly felt his consciousness beginning to slip away.
It was like falling into a bottomless abyss.
At the same time, another set of memories began to appear in the darkness of his mind.
They did not belong to the Lu Yuan who lived in Qinshui Town.
Towering buildings.
Blazing city lights.
Crowded streets filled with endless noise.
Vehicles moving like steel rivers.
A completely different world.
A completely different life.
The memories surged forward one after another, mixing with his current memories until the boundary between the two became blurred. Thoughts, emotions, fragments of life, familiar names, and unfamiliar scenes all began to merge together.
Neither side understood what was happening.
Neither side could stop it.
In that endless darkness, the two streams of memory and soul fused unknowingly, quietly, and completely.
By the time dawn arrived, the green light had long since vanished.
Morning sunlight filtered weakly through the cracks in the wooden walls.
On the bed, Lu Yuan's fingers twitched slightly.
Then, little by little, he opened his eyes.
His gaze was unfocused at first.
He stared blankly at the worn wooden ceiling above him, while his head felt as though it had been split in two. Countless images were still colliding inside his mind, one after another, refusing to settle.
He saw the lonely roads outside Qinshui Town.
He saw the crowded streets of another world.
He remembered demon beast hunting.
He remembered sleepless nights beneath neon lights.
He remembered cultivating under moonlight.
He remembered living on a world called Blue Star.
The clash between the two lives left him stunned.
For a long time, Lu Yuan simply lay there, breathing unevenly, his face pale and uncertain.
Then, bit by bit, clarity returned.
He was no longer living on Blue Star.
That much was undeniable.
The memories of that modern world were vivid and complete, but they were no longer his present. His present was this body, this room, this harsh and unfamiliar cultivation world where strength determined everything.
Lu Yuan slowly sat up, forcing himself to calm down.
Panic would solve nothing.
If he wanted to understand what had happened, he first had to sort through the memories in his mind carefully.
He closed his eyes and began reviewing everything little by little.
The name came first.
Lu Yuan.
His current name was Lu Yuan.
The same as in his previous life.
That strange coincidence only made the situation feel even more unreal, but it also helped him accept the merging memories more quickly. At the very least, when he thought of himself, there was no conflict in the name.
After that came the details of this life.
The Lu Yuan of this world was not someone important.
Not even close.
He was a loose cultivator with no background, no master, and no family support. He had no great inheritance, no powerful elder standing behind him, and no clan willing to protect him from danger. He lived alone in Qinshui Town, surviving from day to day by relying on his own strength.
Qinshui Town itself was not some prosperous center of cultivation.
It was merely a remote town, and even that small place was not truly free. The town was under the control of the Bai Family, a local cultivation family with real authority in the region. Above the Bai Family stood the Profound Water Sect, which ruled this territory from a much higher level.
And Lu Yuan?
He was at the bottom of all of it.
Just a loose cultivator trying to survive in the cracks of a world ruled by stronger people.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, Lu Yuan remained silent for a long time.
The fresh morning light fell across the floor of the room, but there was no warmth in his heart.
He had awakened with memories from another world.
But the reality before him was simple.
He was still Lu Yuan.
Only now, he understood more clearly than ever just how small and powerless his place in this world truly was.