Shen Li didn't know how long he drifted. There was no light, no sound, no sense of time. It felt like floating in an endless void. His consciousness remained thin, barely held together. Every few moments, he felt a pull or a twist, but he couldn't react.
Eventually, his body hit something solid.
A dull thud echoed through the darkness.
His senses slowly returned.
He felt rough ground under him, a faint breeze brushing against his skin, and a type of energy he didn't recognize. It was weaker than spiritual qi but more chaotic. He opened his eyes.
A forest canopy stretched above him. Sunlight passed through the leaves, hitting his face. The air smelled different from the cultivation world-lighter, less saturated with qi. He felt the difference immediately.
He sat up slowly and checked his body.
His qi was almost gone. His meridians felt thin and fragile. His dantian had collapsed to a primitive state, similar to early-stage Qi Gathering. His physical strength also dropped significantly. His limbs felt heavier.
He tried circulating qi.
The flow was sluggish and thin.
He exhaled. "So it dropped all the way down."
The failed breakthrough was the cause. The spatial crack pulled him in the middle of forming his Nascent Soul. The incomplete core shattered, and his foundation reset. That was the consequence.
He didn't panic. Cultivators understood this risk. The solution was simple: rebuild.
He stood up and looked around. The forest was ordinary. No beasts. No qi-rich plants. No sect formations. This wasn't the Profound Sky Sword Sect. This wasn't even his world. He could tell by the air.
Shen Li checked himself again, more thoroughly this time.
Clothes damaged but intact. Body intact except for weakened qi. Space around him didn't contain spiritual qi-it had something else, thinner and less refined. He could still cultivate with it, but it was inefficient.
Then he checked the most important thing: his spatial ring.
He raised his hand.
The spatial ring on his finger was still there-simple silver, no decoration. In the cultivation world, this ring alone could cause a few sects to fight to the death. Here, it looked like cheap jewelry.
Shen Li sent a thread of spiritual sense toward it.
Nothing.
He frowned. The ring stayed cold and unresponsive. No ripple, no pull, no space fluctuation. It was like touching a stone.
He tried again. This time longer.
Still nothing.
Shen Li leaned back and exhaled. "So it really came to this."
His spiritual sense was too weak. Dropping from Peak Core Formation into early Qi Gathering had crushed it. His soul felt thin, unstable. Even forming a proper thread of sense was already pushing his limit. Opening a ring bound at his old cultivation base? Impossible.
He closed his eyes and focused, sending the largest thread of spiritual sense he could manage. His forehead tightened from the strain. A weak ripple touched the ring-
Then snapped instantly.
A spike of pain shot through his mind. Shen Li pressed two fingers to his temple. "Tch. Not even a reaction."
Back in the Profound Sky Sword Sect, this ring answered his thoughts before he even formed them. Now it ignored him completely. The connection between him and the inner space was too distant, like a door sealed behind thick stone.
He tried again, slower this time. He sank his mind into a meditative state, circulating the tiny bit of qi he could gather in this crude world. He nudged the ring with a careful strand of spiritual sense-
The ring flickered.
Shen Li opened his eyes slightly.
There was a reaction. Barely noticeable, but it was there. Like a locked mechanism shifting by a hair.
He didn't feel excitement. Just confirmation.
"So it really has tiered seals. Of course it does."
High-grade rings weren't simple. They responded to soul imprint, cultivation realm, and spiritual force. His old self was worthy of opening the entire ring. His current self? A weak Qi Refining novice.
He tested it again.
Small thread of sense.
Tiny ripple.
Immediate collapse.
The ring stayed shut.
Shen Li dropped his hand onto his lap. He didn't speak for a moment. His thoughts moved quietly, steady and logical.
'At Foundation Establishment, I might unlock the outer layer. At Core Formation, I should recover full access. Nascent Soul, that's for the inner vault.'
He wasn't frustrated. Shen Li rarely wasted emotions. The ring being locked was inconvenient, but not surprising. His main concern was regaining his strength. Everything else followed naturally.
He stared at the ring again. In his old world, this was filled with.
Pills, cultivation manuals, formation flags, spirit stones, talismans, his personal sword, and several dangerous items he never planned to use.
All of that was sealed from him.
He rubbed his thumb across the cold surface. "Useless for now."
He exhaled slowly. Getting angry wouldn't fix anything. He circulated what little qi he had left and attempted to draw in spiritual energy from the surroundings. Even with the qi being thin, he should at least be able to pull in a strand or two.
Nothing entered.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Shen Li blinked. "Huh?"
He pressed his palm against the ground and focused harder. Still, not a wisp of qi responded to him.
Not even a flicker.
The result was so absurd that he sat there for a moment, expression blank.
"Did my dantian become defective? Or is this forest truly that barren?"
Cultivators relied on absorbing spiritual qi. If he couldn't do that, he wasn't even a cultivator, just a man pretending to be one.
He pulled his hand back. "Alright. Don't panic. I just need to figure out where I am."
He stood up, dusted off his robes, and took a step.
Voices sounded from the east.
"Over here! Tracks!"
"Someone definitely passed through recently."
"They said a strange mana ripple was detected. Could be the one we're looking for."
Mana?
Shen Li frowned. That wasn't a term used in the cultivation world. Cultivators absorbed qi, not mana.
A group emerged from between the trees. five young men and women wearing light leather uniforms with a crest on the chest; a stylized tower with swirling symbols around it, unfamiliar to Shen Li.
The leader, a man with messy brown hair stopped when he saw Shen Li standing there awkwardly.
Both sides stared at each other for a heartbeat.
The brown-haired man raised his staff instinctively. "You there! Identify yourself!"
Shen Li raised a brow. "Why are you shouting? I'm standing right here."
The leader hesitated at the tone. "We are the Search Party of Thorn Academy! State your name and your rank!"
Thorn Academy? Shen Li's suspicion deepened.
"Rank?" he said slowly. "I don't have a rank."
The group murmured among themselves.
"He has no rank?"
"Maybe he's a rogue scholar?"
"His robes look damaged, maybe he escaped something."
Their discussion grew louder until Shen Li rubbed his forehead in irritation. "I can hear all of you, you know."
The brown-haired leader cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Ahem. Apologies. It's just that we detected an unusual mana fluctuation in this area. And since you appeared out of nowhere, we assumed..."
Shen Li gave him a blank look. "Assumed what?"
"You're a Mage Scholar, right?"
Shen Li froze.
A what?
He opened his mouth to explain, but the group's eyes suddenly lit up with excitement, curiosity, and admiration.
"Look at his robes! Definitely ancient!"
"His aura is so faint he must be injured from experimenting with high-tier spells!"
"Or maybe he just traveled through a long-distance teleportation array!"
"That would explain the mana distortion earlier!"
Before Shen Li could say a word, they had already arrived at their conclusion.
The leader nodded firmly. "No wonder your mana feels so thin. You must've overexerted yourself while researching. Mage Scholars are always like that. Honestly, you people really need to take care of your bodies."
Shen Li's eye twitched.
He wasn't a mage. He wasn't a scholar. He wasn't researching anything. Worst of all, he was unable to absorb qi, unable to access his original cultivation, and now a bunch of strangers thought he came from their academy.
He took a breath. "You're misunderstanding."