CHAPTER 10 (Part 1)
Outer Sect, Inner Storm
Zheng Wen Te woke up to the smell of damp earth and old wood.
His eyes snapped open.
For a moment, he thought he was back in that cold apartment—the smoke, the silence, the photograph of his family.
But the ceiling above him was not cracked concrete.
It was bamboo.
Rough, uneven bamboo beams tied together with rope, swaying slightly as wind passed through gaps in the walls.
He lay on a straw bed.
His body felt… strange.
Lighter.
Not hollow like before.
Not poisoned by years of cigarettes and alcohol.
He sat up sharply.
His hands trembled as he lifted them.
They were not the hands of a fifty-year-old broken man.
The skin was smoother.
The fingers stronger.
He flexed them, feeling an unfamiliar vitality.
His breath caught.
"…What is this?"
Outside, voices echoed.
Young voices.
Laughing.
Arguing.
The sound of life.
Zheng Wen Te swung his legs off the bed and stood.
The ground was packed dirt.
A small clay bowl of water sat beside him, and in its reflection—
He froze.
The face staring back was his.
But younger.
Not a boy.
Not a teenager.
A man in his early twenties perhaps.
Sharp eyes.
Unfamiliar strength.
But still… him.
His throat tightened.
Shangdi's words returned like thunder:
"Go to that world and solve it."
"This may be useful to your journey."
The tiny orb.
Zheng Wen Te looked down.
His right palm was clenched.
Slowly, he opened it.
A small sphere rested there, no larger than a pearl.
It shimmered faintly, like mist trapped inside glass.
Warm.
Alive.
He swallowed.
"So this is… my beginning?"
A sudden shout outside interrupted him.
"Hey! New trash disciple!"
Zheng Wen Te flinched.
The bamboo door slid open with a loud crack.
Three young men stood there in grey robes.
Outer sect robes.
Their belts were loose, their expressions arrogant.
The one in front smirked.
"You finally woke up."
Another laughed.
"We thought you died on the way here."
Zheng Wen Te stared at them, confused.
"On the way…?"
The first disciple stepped closer, looking him up and down like livestock.
"You don't even know where you are?"
He spat to the side.
"This is the Outer Sect of the Azure River Sword Sect."
Zheng Wen Te's heart thudded.
A sect.
A cultivation world.
Real.
The disciple continued, voice dripping disdain.
"You were dragged in with the other village recruits."
"Lowest of the low."
"Don't get any ideas."
Zheng Wen Te's fingers curled slightly.
His mind raced.
So this is the world Shangdi sent him to.
The unfinished karma.
The matter of heart.
But before he could speak—
A bell rang.
Deep.
Ancient.
It vibrated through the air and into bone.
All three disciples straightened immediately.
The arrogant one clicked his tongue.
"Training yard."
He pointed at Zheng Wen Te.
"You. Move."
Zheng Wen Te hesitated.
His old life had been full of humiliation already.
He did not want to bow again.
But…
He was not on Earth anymore.
This world had rules he did not understand.
He stepped outside.
The outer sect sprawled across the mountainside.
Hundreds of wooden buildings.
Disciples in grey robes moving like ants.
Above them, higher peaks were shrouded in mist.
Stone stairs climbed into clouds.
Somewhere far above…
true immortals lived.
Zheng Wen Te felt small.
But something deep inside him stirred.
Not despair.
Not resignation.
A spark.
The arrogant disciple shoved him.
"Walk faster, trash."
Zheng Wen Te stumbled forward.
The orb in his palm pulsed faintly.
Warm as a heartbeat.
And for the first time in many years—
Zheng Wen Te felt something other than emptiness.
He felt…
possibility.