Chapter 1: First Steps

Lu Jiangxian had a very, very long dream. He dreamt of rice growing in the fields, of flashing blades and shadows of swords, of immortal sects, women, and a great lake.

"Hand over the *Taiyin Breathing and Qi Refining Manual* and the *Secret Essence of Lunar Radiance*, and we may spare your life by merely crippling your cultivation."

A pleasant yet icy female voice rang in his ears. Lu Jiangxian vaguely saw a hazy face, but could make out nothing clearly.

……

"Clang!"

A violent shaking sensation jolted Lu Jiangxian awake.

Grotesque and kaleidoscopic colors emerged in his mind. Lu Jiangxian wanted to open his eyes and sit up, but his body ignored his commands, as if he were suffering from sleep paralysis.

At that moment, a brilliant white light pierced through the dense darkness before him. Although the darkness surged forward like a tide, that pillar of light stood firm, as eternal and unchanging as the sun.

Dense, golden incantations burst forth from within, stretching their bodies in the darkness and scattering across the sky like stars.

"So beautiful," Lu Jiangxian thought blankly.

As the incantations grew more numerous, as if reaching some limit, he heard a cracking sound like shattering glass.

The world brightened.

Lu Jiangxian saw a sky as vast as the ocean, a boundless, dense primeval forest, and not far away, a crescent-shaped lake. In that direction, a stream of white light fell into the shimmering water.

Below sat a small cluster of huts with thatched roofs and patches of rice paddies.

In his violently tumbling perspective, he felt like a light, airy sparrow flying over the small, brownish-yellow village and its hearth smoke, gliding over the surface of a clear river.

In a fleeting glimpse, Lu Jiangxian caught sight of his own reflection in the river.

"It looks like a round, shiny object," Lu Jiangxian thought in confusion, a vague premonition surfacing in his heart

"Am I no longer human?"

"Splash!" A violent jolt struck again. Lu Jiangxian sank rapidly into the water. The river was too shallow to absorb all the impact, so he gently knocked against the bluestone at the bottom.

This collision felt like a punch to the chest, leaving him feeling somewhat stifled and short of breath. However, his body used the turbulent water and the recoil of the impact to steady itself, flipping over to face upward, directly toward the sun rippling on the river's surface.

"Wasn't I staying up late in my rental apartment, revising my project?"

Lu Jiangxian watched the sun on the river in silence. The water flowed rapidly, causing the light patterns on the riverbed to twist constantly.

Silently recalling the past, Lu Jiangxian felt a splitting headache. He only remembered collapsing onto his bed in exhaustion, the smoke in his rental room and the glow of neon lights passing by his side.

He had opened a beer, sat before his dim computer desk, and as a dizzying, world-spinning sensation rose, he felt his heart racing and his breathing becoming increasingly difficult.

"I think... I died?"

"This is actually quite nice. No need to worry about the future, no need to worry about life."

Perhaps due to having been suppressed for too long, such a thought actually surfaced in Lu Jiangxian's mind, and he even felt a sense of elation.

He observed his surroundings: the dark green treetops with hanging aerial roots above, the nimble fish darting past his face from time to time, and the faint, tinkling sound of splashing water.

Lu Jiangxian sighed.

"But if things go on like this, I'll be bored to madness."

And so, he stared blankly as the sun slowly slid from overhead, a brilliant sunset crawling across the sky, and the water beneath the treetops dimming bit by bit.

During this time, two fish swam around him curiously, and even a crab tried to flip him over.

Until the moon moved above the treetops and clear, bright moonlight drifted softly onto the river, Lu Jiangxian felt with pleasant surprise a cool breath permeating the riverbed, bringing with it a faint sense of comfort.

Watching the moonlight gather bit by bit above his body, forming a pale white lunar halo as if coming to life, Lu Jiangxian was shocked, his state of mind undergoing a drastic change.

"What is this? Breathing in the essence of the sun and moon? Does this world really have immortals, miraculous divine abilities, monsters, and ghosts?" he thought in shock. "Then what have I become? An artifact spirit?"

Deep within, a sense of curiosity and joy rose in Lu Jiangxian. That lunar halo seemed to have accumulated enough strength and drifted down onto him.

He felt a chill throughout his body and fell into a state of meditation, half-asleep and half-awake.

He did not know how much time had passed, but the airflow grew thinner. Lu Jiangxian woke up abruptly; the crescent moon had faded from the sky, and the sun had leaped over the treetops, casting warm morning light onto the river.

"So fast."

Lu Jiangxian was overjoyed. Upon careful sensing, there was indeed a faint current of air lingering within his body, moving in a circular motion around the round edge of his form.

When Lu Jiangxian focused his spirit, he could even vaguely see a grayish-blue mirror lying quietly on the riverbed, the ground beneath it covered in colorful pebbles, with a few fish foraging at the bottom.

The river crab was digging in the mud nearby. His visible range was about one meter around him; it wasn't very clear, like the thick-headed televisions he watched as a child.

"This must be me now," Lu Jiangxian thought with a wry smile. He then deliberately controlled the airflow to stagnate in the center of the mirror, and the grayish-blue mirror emitted a faint glimmer.

"Aside from glowing, I haven't found any other use."

"I'll focus on breathing in the lunar radiance first; perhaps there will be a qualitative change," he planned to himself. "I don't know what the mirror is made of, nor how the outside world views sentient objects. I hope I won't be discovered by some cultivator and have my consciousness wiped away on a whim."

The white bird mirror stands in the center, the painted boat sails in the sky.

(End of chapter)