The chill of the mountain valley seeped through the crimson silk robe. Alex crouched by the stream, staring intently at the unfamiliar reflection in the water.
Ten years old. Chen Fan.
This was not his name, nor was it his body. He closed his eyes as fragmented memories surged like a tide, slowly and steadily reorganizing within his mind—resembling the extraction of a core algorithm from a mass of corrupted code. The chaotic data began to piece together into a coherent picture.
The owner of this body was indeed named Chen Fan, a scion of the Chen Clan—a marginal family so small its coordinates likely didn't exist on any significant map.
"Fan'er! Fan'er, where are you?"
A frantic shout echoed from the depths of the woods.
Alex stood up to see a girl of about twelve years old, dressed in coarse hemp clothes, stumbling toward him. That was his sister, Chen Xiao'yun, two years his senior. Following behind her was a weary-looking woman—Chen Fan's mother, Madam Lin.
"You child, what are you doing all the way out here!" Lin pulled Alex into a fierce embrace. The sudden warmth of her body made Alex feel a momentary daze. In his high-tech lab back in Boston, he had never experienced such a suffocating, earthy manifestation of maternal love.
Upon returning to the low-walled, blue-brick courtyard of the Chen estate, Alex began to construct a mental model of this world's underlying logic through observation and eavesdropping.
The Chen Clan was merely a minor vassal of a great sect. Among its hundred-odd members, only two names were associated with "Cultivation." One was his deceased father, Chen Tianli; the other was the current Clan Head, Chen Tianfang.
"Did you hear? The Clan Head went into seclusion again yesterday. They say he's touched the threshold of the 'Second Level of Qi Condensation.'"
"The Second Level... that's the real deal, capable of shattering boulders with a palm strike from a distance. If our Chen Clan could just produce another Cultivator, we wouldn't be bullied like this by the Liang family next door."
The hushed chatter of the clansmen drifted over the courtyard wall into Alex's ears.
"The Liang Clan?" He searched for the name in his memory.
The fragments slowly merged. The Liang Clan was another minor vassal of the Guiyun Sect, similar in size to the Chen Clan. To call the relationship between the two "ancestral enmity" would be an understatement. Three months ago, the Guiyun Sect had issued a mission to investigate a Spiritual Spring guarded by a pack of Gray Wolves deep in the jungle. The Chen and Liang clans had joined forces for the task.
The result was disastrous.
Chen Tianli was killed in action, while the Liang Clan suffered only two wounded cultivators at the First Level of Qi Condensation. The mission failed, the spring was lost, and both families took a loss. However, while the Liangs only lost men to injury, the Chen Clan lost its only active cultivator. Since then, the Liang Clan's attitude had shifted. The clan elders whispered that the Liangs blamed Chen Tianli's death for their failure.
"Qi Condensation." Alex repeated the term in his mind.
As a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, his brain was wired to digitize all mysterious phenomena.
If he defined "Qi" as a type of unknown high-energy particle within the cosmic background radiation, then the human body was essentially a crude magnetic confinement device. An ordinary person's body was transparent to these high-energy particles—they passed through without leaving a trace. The so-called "Spirit Root" was, in essence, a biological coupling resonator capable of producing quantum coherence with particles of a specific frequency.
In his logical model:
1st Level of Qi Condensation (Ground State Equilibrium): Preliminary particle capture is achieved. Mitochondrial efficiency increases, and bone/muscle density rises. This manifests as increased strength, stamina, and resistance to disease.
2nd Level of Qi Condensation (Energy Level Transition): Particle concentration reaches a critical threshold, triggering a local phase change. Chen Tianfang's "boulder-shattering" ability was essentially a directed mechanical shockwave produced by high-density particle streams.
But in this clan, Qi Condensation was everything. The Clan Head was at the Second Level; his father had been at the First. Aside from them, the hundred-plus members of the Chen Clan were all "mortals." Without the protection of a Cultivator, mortals in this world were nothing more than ants.
"Fan'er, stop daydreaming. Drink your porridge," Chen Xiao'yun said, pushing a bowl of thin rice water toward him. It was so diluted he could see his own reflection in it.
Alex looked at the porridge and then at his small, childish hands. He now understood the rules of this world: there were no "laws of science" to protect the weak here. The only hard currency was the Energy Level. His father was dead, and the Liang Clan was circling like vultures. This home now consisted only of his mother, his sister, and himself.
"Mother," Alex suddenly spoke, "how did Father die?"
Lin's hand faltered, spilling a few drops of porridge. "Why ask such things, child?" Her voice was raspy. "Just eat."
Alex didn't push. He had already pieced together the answer from his memories. Chen Tianli died under the claws of the Gray Wolves. He had used his body to hold back the pack so the Liang Clan could retreat. The Liangs made it out; he didn't. They claimed he had "voluntarily stayed behind," but the elders grumbled that the two Liang cultivators had plenty of strength left to help—they just chose to run.
Alex lowered his head and took a sip of the porridge. There were few grains, but the water had a faint sweetness. He thought of his lab in Boston and the precision instruments. Back then, he believed the world could be measured, calculated, and understood. Now, he wasn't so sure.
However, one thing was certain: if he wanted to survive and protect the two women in this house, he had to figure out exactly what "Cultivation" was.
The next morning, a knock came at the courtyard gate. "Fan'er, the Clan Head is here."
Alex set down his wooden bowl and stood up. A middle-aged man entered the yard wearing a gray robe with a jade pendant at his waist. His face showed the passage of time, but his gaze was sharp and his gait steady. This was Chen Tianfang—Clan Head and a cultivator of the Second Level.
Following him was a girl of fifteen or sixteen, dressed in a pale green skirt. Her features bore a resemblance to the Clan Head. Memory told Alex this was Chen Qingwan, Tianfang's only daughter.
"Sister-in-law," Chen Tianfang nodded to Madam Lin. He walked straight to Alex and crouched down. "Fan'er, do you still recognize me?"
Alex nodded. In his memory, this uncle would occasionally visit and bring sweets, though he hadn't been seen since the funeral.
"About your father..." Tianfang paused. "I failed him." Alex said nothing, simply watching the man and waiting for the rest.
"I was the one who sent him that day. The Guiyun Sect mission should have been mine, but I was at a bottleneck in my breakthrough to the Second Level. Your father said he would go in my stead." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I didn't expect those cowards from the Liang family to run so fast. Even less did I expect your father to stay behind for them."
Alex noticed Tianfang's hand was trembling slightly. "Sister-in-law," Tianfang stood and turned to Madam Lin, "from now on, Fan'er's expenses will be covered by the clan. I will treat him as my own." Lin's eyes reddened, but she only nodded.
Tianfang turned back to Alex. "Fan'er, in two months, the Guiyun Sect will open the Spirit Root Trial. Any child under fifteen can go for testing."
"Spirit Root Trial?"
"It's a ceremony to test if one has the aptitude for cultivation. Only those with a Spirit Root can sense the Qi of heaven and earth. Without it, one remains a mortal for life." He paused with a flicker of hope in his eyes. "Your father was at the First Level. Your sister, Xiao'yun, was tested last year—she has a Low-Grade Spirit Root, average talent. But you are young, perhaps..."
The Chen Clan currently had only one cultivator. If Chen Fan could test positive for a Spirit Root—especially with decent talent—the clan would have a future.
"Uncle... can Cultivators go to very distant places?"
Tianfang blinked, surprised. "Of course. Cultivators have stamina far beyond mortals. At the Foundation Establishment stage, one can travel hundreds of miles a day. The most powerful can even fly on swords. Why? Where do you want to go?"
Flying on swords?
Alex recalled the painting—the verdant mountains, the golden light, and the crowd of immortals riding swords and beasts. He needed to find a way back, and Cultivators might hold the answer.
"I want to see the world," Alex said, his gaze calmer than any ten-year-old's should be. "I want to know what is beyond the mountains."
Tianfang stared at him for a long time, then laughed. "A grand ambition. Truly Tianli's son." He patted Alex's shoulder. "Prepare yourself. I'll take you to the Guiyun Sect in two months."
He left with Chen Qingwan. Before departing, the girl looked back at Alex with a hint of curiosity in her eyes.
Night fell. Lin and Xiao'yun were deep in sleep. Alex quietly sat up, crossing his legs on the stiff wooden bed.
"If Qi is a wave, then it must have a frequency." He took a deep breath and began to adjust his breathing to an incredibly precise rhythm.
Moonlight filtered through the window paper, illuminating the crimson silk robe. Alex felt the invisible particles in the air begin to vibrate ever so slightly in response to his breath.
Observation: Start. He whispered in his mind.
One. Two. Three.
The invisible particles began to gather toward him in an agonizingly slow, faint manner. He didn't know if he had a "Spirit Root" or if he could produce the necessary "quantum coherence." But he knew that if this world followed any physical laws, he would find the correct frequency to capture those wandering particles.
Two months. The Spirit Root Trial. The Guiyun Sect.
That was his first step toward the answer.