Chương 1: Open Your Eyes Wider

"Name?"

"Hey! You little runt, I'm asking you, what's your name?"" Um~ What? Where?"

"I'm asking for your name. Are you an idiot or just deaf?"

"Ah! An... the name's An!" Out of breath, he blurted it out without thinking." Hmph! Move along! Don't hold up the others!" With growing irritation in his voice, the old man waved his hand, shooing him away. Disoriented and with a foggy mind, An tried to look around, but a sudden shove to his back sent him sprawling. A second later, he was on the ground several meters away.

"I told you to move, you damn slave!"

"Hahaha! Look at this wretch, he can't even understand human speech! How did he even end up here?"

"Haha! Yeah, even a stray dog gets lucky once in a while!" An shook off the daze and turned toward the voices, and in that same second, he froze. In front of him stood a group of children around fourteen or fifteen years old. In their eyes, he saw nothing but contempt and mockery. What made him freeze, however, was their clothing. Most of those laughing and looking down on him wore long, floor-length robes, the kind he'd only ever seen in movies or comics.

The robes were lavishly decorated with jewels and intricate patterns that looked like ancient emblems. Some fabrics featured golden dragons soaring through clouds, while others displayed weapons and shields, ships and buildings, and even simple items like hourglasses or books.

"Where am I?" With a pale face, An tried to stand up and look around. But at that same moment, a terrible pain struck his head, and a massive flood of foreign memories began pouring into his consciousness. Each memory was darker than the last, the entire life of the body's original owner was a relentless cycle of failure. He had been born into a peasant family.

When he was only one year old, his father went fishing and was eaten by an underwater beast, according to the village hunters who used to hang around with his father. At three years old, his mother, unable to feed him any longer, sold him to traveling merchants. From three to nine, he was raised as a slave, mostly for grueling work in the fields. A year ago, when he was just over nine, the boy was working in the field when he noticed a cultivator flying overhead on a massive ship.

That cultivator saw that the boy possessed spiritual roots and plucked him away from the fields. For nearly a year, he followed this cultivator through various villages and towns, joining a group of other children who also possessed spiritual roots. And finally, one of the most vivid memories: intense, gnawing hunger. He hadn't been fed for more than two weeks, nor had he been given a drop of water.

He had barely managed to hold on, and at the last moment, just as his will was about to break, An's soul took over this dying body.

"What the hell?" he cried out, not caring how many people were around him. Immediately, a mix of mockery and insults started coming his way. But An didn't pay attention. Lowering his head, he began mumbling to himself.

"How can this be? How did I die... My health was in perfect condition... How can this be?!" Clutching his head, he lowered his gaze.

"The last thing I remember is dragging myself home exhausted after a hard day, and finally going to sleep..." An began rubbing his head, as the pain was still throbbing behind his eyes.' Wait, then where am I? Could it be... No, wait...' Just then, An heard a strange sound, very similar to a jet tearing through the air, only much quieter. He looked up, expecting to see an airplane. But what he saw was anything but an airplane.

In the sky, on the horizon, he saw a girl in blue robes standing atop a massive sword, racing through the clouds and tearing them apart. Suddenly hovering not far from where An was standing, she sharply dove down. With one graceful movement that defied every law of physics An knew, she landed on the ground next to several youths in identical blue robes.

After staring wide-eyed at the group, one thing caught his attention: a guy was idly playing with a small sword, manipulating it with one hand and making it dance right in front of him. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Another guy stood with his eyes closed, his hands pressed together like a Buddha's, yet not fully closed. Between his palms, several glowing orbs were flying in rapid circles. With difficulty, An tore his gaze away.

Slightly further off, he noticed two older individuals. They were also dressed in blue robes, though of a slightly darker shade. At first glance, they seemed to be leisurely walking along the edge of the crowd, but looking closer, he realized they were walking on air, floating just a few dozen centimeters above the ground. An began to panic. His breath caught. His hands started shaking.' It's real... I've been reborn! And not just reborn, but into a cultivation world! A world from novels and comics!'

Immediately, An began spinning his head, trying to confirm that this was all real. And then he finally saw the full scale of where he was. In the distance, two massive islands floated in the sky. From both of these enormous heavenly islands, huge waterfalls dumped torrents of water straight down into the thick clouds, partially hiding the islands themselves. The mist was so thick that little could be seen of the land above.

Even through this haze, An could see a vast number of trees in various colors and sizes, hundreds of different shades covering every color of the rainbow. With difficulty, he tore his gaze away. He lowered his head and looked ahead, seeing a vast number of mountain peaks piercing the clouds, showing only their massive bases and the hazy outlines of their shapes. Each peak was decorated by nature in its own way, boasting a unique style and color.

These mountains were so enormous that An could only clearly make out the silhouettes of three of them. But as he tried to look beyond those three, An was certain he could see the faint outlines of others, many others, stretching endlessly into the distance. Lowering his gaze, An focused on his immediate surroundings, trying to orient himself. He realized he was standing on a massive square, enclosed by a small, knee-high wooden fence.

Along its entire length hung countless little ribbons of various colors, though from this distance, An couldn't tell exactly what they were. The entire low fence converged at a set of massive, imposing gates. Near the gate, papers and colorful ribbons were pasted all over the stone. What surprised him, however, was that the fence ended several meters short on both sides of the gate, not actually connecting to it.

Only the heavy stone frames at the edges of the wooden gates extended into the ground like massive piles. After examining everything he could, An turned back toward the direction he had arrived from. Looking down, he realized he was on a high elevation; far below in the lowlands, a massive river snaked through dense, dark forests.

"How tall are these mountains?" An muttered, not noticing that the children nearby could hear his low voice. Dong! Dong! Dong! Suddenly, the air vibrated with the tolling of a heavy bell. The sound echoed from far away, somewhere beyond the three peaks standing before him. Turning back toward the massive gate, he saw a woman hovering in the air above it. She looked to be about thirty-five years old, with piercing gray eyes and hair, wearing simple white robes with sharp red accents.

What immediately struck An was the simplicity of her attire. He noticed that the elders recording the children's names were also dressed modestly, just like the woman above the gate. In contrast, the children and the younger cultivators in blue robes were dressed luxuriously, as if desperate to impress one another and stand out from the massive crowd. The visual contrast was jarring.

"Attention!" the woman exclaimed. An noticed it wasn't a shout, but rather a whisper so loud and clear it seemed to resonate in the air itself.' Maybe it's a skill, like in the novels? Something like 'Lion's Roar' or 'Dragon's Voice'?' he wondered.

"The first thing I want to say is... Welcome to the Heavenly Soul Sect! All of you are incredibly lucky to be here! You can even consider yourselves the chosen ones of this world! You possess spiritual roots, which means the gates to the path of conquest are open before you! The path to glory! The path to enlightenment! The path to immortality!" Suddenly making an unexpected pause, she seemed to chew slightly on her next phrase.

"Oh~ I almost forgot... I am Li Deng, the head of the Dragon's Breath Peak!" Even An, standing in the crowd below, felt a wave of secondhand embarrassment.

"Um, that ending was kind of awkward..." he muttered. He looked around, but none of the other children showed any sign that Elder Li Deng had stumbled in her speech.' Wait, Li Deng? I've heard that name somewhere.' An frowned. The name felt familiar, as if he had seen it in another life. Li Deng cleared her throat and continued "Ahem! All your names, your clans, and your families have already been recorded in our archives! That means you are already part of our sect, part of our big, happy family!"

Whispers broke out as the children began to smile. Joy spread through the crowd; some even blushed or clenched their fists in excitement. Even the children in the most luxurious robes, who usually maintained a mask of indifference, showed flickers of pride on their faces. But An noticed something else. The elders recording the names were smirking as they watched the children. These weren't kind smiles, they were mocking, as if the elders were expecting a punchline to a joke.

Watching them closely, he saw them whispering and gesturing to one another with cold amusement. An tensed up ' Something's not right here... To be honest, this speech sounds more like a politician's hollow assurance during a crisis.'

"Now! As you pass through the gate and the elders call your name, a special artifact called the 'Transparent Eye' will determine the grade of your spiritual roots and assign you to the Peak where you belong!" Having said this, Li Deng's gaze swept across the square, a practiced smile on her face.

"Elder Ken Tua, we may begin." Li Deng lowered her head and fixed her gaze on the empty space next to the gate.

"Hahaha, little girl Li, excellent!" Out of nowhere, an old man appeared. He wore gray, tattered robes, and his long white beard was tied at his waist so it wouldn't trip him. As soon as Old Man Tua appeared, the children around An gasped in surprise. An gasped too, unable to take his eyes off the figure. In the sky, Li Deng's brow furrowed at being called 'little girl,' and she gave a faint, irritated snort.

"What are you all standing around for? Huh? Ahaha!" Ken Tua laughed loudly, his expression like that of a grandfather looking at his beloved grandchildren. But his eyes, empty, cold, and calculating, completely betrayed the warmth on his face.