"...Shit!"
After a dizzying spell, Gu Zhao opened his eyes to a sight that was definitely not his balcony, nor the young woman across the way who would occasionally open her window to practice yoga.
The sunlight was still warm, but the air carried a salty, damp tang. The forest chirped and buzzed with the sounds of insects and birds.
Lush green trees still provided ample shade, and a few farmhouses stood not far away, from which the faint sound of voices drifted.
He felt a coarse, gritty sensation under his feet. Looking down, Gu Zhao saw he was barefoot on rough soil, still dressed in his light, comfortable loungewear.
As his gaze lifted, he knew. He had transmigrated.
Even though there were farmhouses and voices nearby, nowhere on Blue Star was the sun the size of a millstone!
Stunned, Gu Zhao instinctively reached for the Five Thunders Order on his chest, only to find nothing there.
"My token! Where is it!?" Gu Zhao cried out, his eyes wide with panic.
He looked down to see only a single red string dangling from his neck, swaying in the wind. The Five Thunders Order that had been tied to it was gone.
The Five Thunders Order was the very thing that had brought him here. How could it have just vanished?
"Don't tell me this is a damn one-way ticket!"
Gu Zhao's pupils dilated and a cold sweat broke out on his brow. His head swam, and his mind went blank, as if it had been filled with sludge.
But in the next moment, he "saw" the Five Thunders Order.
A black-and-red token, about half the size of his palm, floated in the void of his Sea of Consciousness. It was surrounded by flashes of purple lightning, and the faint sound of thunder rumbled deep within Gu Zhao's mind.
The Five Thunders Order!
Gu Zhao was dumbfounded. 'The Five Thunders Order is inside my head!'
Flashes of lightning sparked around the Five Thunders Order, and something that looked like a seed was circling it in a constant dance.
The moment Gu Zhao "saw" the Five Thunders Order, bolts of lightning shot out from it, surging down from his mind and pouring straight into his chest.
As the lightning coursed through him, Gu Zhao felt a tingling numbness spread through his body. Then, it felt as though an opening had been torn in his chest. A current of energy surged forth, rapidly growing in power as the lightning merged with it.
Somehow, Gu Zhao knew. This was the wisp of Innate Qi he had spent ten years cultivating since he began practicing Daoism as a child.
In the blink of an eye...
His spirit stirred his Qi, his Qi filled his body, and his Essence, Qi, and Spirit surged. With his Innate Qi as a foundation, Gu Zhao's body began to voraciously absorb some unknown substance from the air around him. Then, Magical Power brimming with Spiritual Qi started to fill his depleted frame.
Gu Zhao stood frozen to the spot, completely dumbfounded. The change was so staggering that for a moment, he couldn't find the words to describe how he felt.
One second, he was in his comfortable three-bedroom apartment getting ready for a nap. The next, he was standing practically naked in the rural outskirts of an Otherworld.
One moment, he thought he was on a one-way trip to hell. The next, his cheat ability suddenly activated and granted him power.
'Not even a movie starts this fast!'
Feeling the Five Thunders Order in his mind, the wisp of Innate Qi in his chest, and the Magical Power gradually filling his Dantian Meridians, Gu Zhao was completely bewildered.
'Who am I?'
'Where am I?'
'What am I supposed to do?'
After a moment of utter confusion, Gu Zhao finally snapped out of it.
His first instinct was to look inward again, into his Sea of Consciousness, and focus all his attention on the Five Thunders Order.
He felt a faint pull from the Five Thunders Order, but it was tinged with a sense of exhaustion.
Gu Zhao sensed that the Five Thunders Order could take him back, but it seemed to have been weakened for a long time. Having been suddenly activated, it needed to recover before it could transport him again.
WHOOSH—Gu Zhao let out a long breath. 'As long as I can get back, it's fine!'
Even though coming here had granted him the Magical Power he'd always dreamed of, if he couldn't go back...
He was from a well-off family, living in a peaceful country with material comforts, endless entertainment, a loving family, and good health. A future of comfortable, easy living awaited him.
Who could possibly handle being suddenly ripped away from all that?
'But... if I can travel between the Two Realms...'
Gu Zhao's eyes grew brighter and brighter. As a modern young man of the internet age, he'd already read several web novels about protagonists who could travel between two worlds.
"Boss, there's another one over here!"
Just as he was starting to dream about his bright future, a hoarse voice snapped him back to reality.
Gu Zhao looked up to see two burly men in rough linen clothes approaching him. Their eyes glinted with malice, and they brandished blades and spears.
'What's going on?' Gu Zhao flinched, startled.
The two men looked Gu Zhao up and down. The man on the left asked with some confusion, "You're soft-skinned. Are you from this village?"
The man on the right sneered. "Who cares if he's from the village? This kid's all fair and pretty. We can drag him back to the stronghold and have some fun with him."
Gu Zhao: ???
'Transmigrating to a world that looks like ancient times, I get that. But "soft-skinned," "fair and pretty," and "drag him back... and have some fun with him"? What the hell is that about?'
'What the actual fuck...'
Seeing the cold glint of a long saber slashing toward him, Gu Zhao—still unaccustomed to his new strength—scrambled backward in fright. He dodged away from the two men and circled around a house. Only then did he see the source of the noisy voices he'd heard earlier.
In a small clearing at the village entrance, over a hundred people were gathered.
Villagers of all ages, from the elderly to young children, were huddled together, trembling. They were surrounded by more than a dozen men armed with cold steel, while a dozen more were busy ransacking the nearby houses.
Gu Zhao was the one fish who had slipped through their net, and he had just been discovered.
After forcing Gu Zhao into the clearing, the two men laughed and broke off their pursuit, heading off to kick down other doors instead.
Standing alone to one side, Gu Zhao found the eyes of both the villagers and the bandits fixed on him.
Gu Zhao's gaze, however, landed with alarm on a massive man standing at the center of the bandits' circle.
He was a burly man, nearly six-foot-three and built like an iron pagoda. He had dark skin, the broad back and thick waist of a bear, and a thick, curly beard. In his left hand, he held a Nine-Ring Saber as if it weighed nothing, perfectly fitting the image of a domineering bandit chief.
The bandit leader, however, merely spared Gu Zhao a single glance before looking away.
Clearly, Gu Zhao wasn't his type. His interest lay with the target right in front of him.
Standing before him was a slender woman in a green dress.
Watching from the side, Gu Zhao could see that the woman's expression was placid. She showed no signs of fear.
The bandit leader stared at the woman like a predator eyeing its prey. He grinned, his tone dripping with licentiousness. "My lady, for you to be seeking lodging here at this very moment... surely this is a fated encounter, destined by the heavens?"
He reached out to touch her chin. "Why don't you return to my mountain with me? How would you like to be my wife, the mistress of my stronghold?"
The woman turned her head, easily dodging his touch. She let out a soft, disdainful snort. "You're too ugly."