A Fight

The living room, the sofa, and the lights outside the window all twisted into a blur of light and shadow.

A gentle but irresistible force enveloped his body. The sound of wind in his ears abruptly vanished, and he was plunged into a fleeting darkness and a feeling of weightlessness.

The moment Shen Jingchuan found his footing, he froze.

Cracked yellow earth stretched as far as the eye could see. The wild grass had withered into scorched-yellow fragments, and bare earthen hills rolled into the distance, without a decent tree among them. The sky was a dry gray, and even the wind carried the bitter taste of dust.

Shen Jingchuan crouched down and scooped up a handful of yellow earth with his fingertips.

The coarse grains scraped against his finger pads, dry and slightly cool, no different from the soil on the hill behind his old home.

He took a deep breath. The air held only the dry, gritty smell of sand and soil, with none of the fresh, soothing Spiritual Qi described in cultivation novels. Even the rhythm of his breathing was exactly the same as it had been on Earth.

He stood and walked a few steps forward. Gullies rose and fell beneath his feet, and the wind whipped yellow dust against his trouser legs. For a moment, it was as though he stood on a loess slope in the mountains of Northern Shaanxi. It seemed much like Earth. Could this be Earth in a different era? If only it were a cultivation world.

The excitement in his heart over transmigrating ebbed a little. He was all alone and completely unprepared. If he ventured deeper and ran into wild beasts or bad people, he wouldn't even have a way out.

First things first, he had to settle one question—could he go back?

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than the scene before him abruptly shifted.

The next second, the familiar old living room came into view: the coffee table, the sofa, the wilted spider plant. Everything was exactly as he had left it.

Shen Jingchuan stared for a moment, then understood: wherever he left from when he crossed over was where he returned. The starting point was fixed.

He steadied himself and focused on the thought of crossing over again, but the ring on his finger remained perfectly still. Nothing happened. He tried twice in succession, but the familiar white walls and old furniture still surrounded him, without the slightest sensation of the world spinning.

He looked down at the copper ring on his index finger and saw that the faint glow on its surface had faded. Its brass color was dull and dark, no different from an ordinary old ring.

Frowning, Shen Jingchuan spent quite a while trying to communicate with the ring, but he still couldn't figure out how it worked.

But the crossing... could I only use it once?

Shen Jingchuan sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing the cool surface of the ring with his fingertips.

It was a bit of a pity, but on second thought, he'd gained a portable space large enough to hold an entire bed out of nowhere. That was already an enormous stroke of luck. Even if he really could only cross over once, he had no reason to be greedy.

He leaned against the headboard, his thoughts drifting involuntarily to the difficulties he faced in real life.

Now that he had this space, could he use it to make some money?

Before he could come up with anything, he fell fast asleep, still wrapped in his coat.

When he opened his eyes again, it was pitch-black outside, with only a dim yellow glimmer filtering in from a distant streetlight.

Shen Jingchuan reached for the phone beside his pillow and lit up the screen. The light made him squint—it was 4:07 a.m.

He instinctively raised his left hand, and his pupils abruptly contracted.

The copper ring on his index finger had taken on a faint glow again, warm and gentle, exactly as it had been before his first crossing.

Shen Jingchuan's heart gave a violent leap, and he sensed something in the Unseen.

It seems that once the glow returns, I can cross over again?

He held his breath and focused his thoughts—cross over.

The light and shadows before him abruptly twisted, and the familiar dizziness swept over him.

His feet once again landed on solid, dry yellow earth, and a breeze brushed gently over his cheeks.

In the moonlight, he could dimly make out the same barren slope, gullies, and withered grass around him, exactly as they had been when he last left.

The barren slope was shrouded in darkness at night. It had been eerie enough in daylight, and now it was even more unnerving. Shen Jingchuan didn't dare linger. With a thought, he returned to his own bed in an instant.

He raised his hand to look, and sure enough, the ring had gone dark again. Now he understood the pattern completely:

The ring had to glow for him to cross over, and the arrival points in both directions were fixed. Time passed at roughly the same rate on both sides. It was four in the morning here, and night over there too, though it was a little warmer there than in the Capital in late spring, more like early summer.

Shen Jingchuan's heart pounded wildly. This was a genuine golden finger, something he'd only ever seen in novels, and it had actually fallen into his lap.

Travel between two worlds! He could buy goods in one and sell them in the other, though he still didn't know exactly what the world over there was like.

But in any case, the hundreds of thousands he owed and the days of poverty stretching as far as the eye could see suddenly had a prospect of improvement. He had to go over and take a good look.

He valued his life highly. That place was so desolate, heaven only knew what dangers lurked there. He wouldn't dare venture around without equipment to defend himself.

Shen Jingchuan picked up his phone and checked his balance. After paying for his father's funeral, he had just over 3,200 yuan left in his account.

Shen Jingchuan was a man of action who did things as soon as he thought of them. In just three days, he had everything he needed.

Fortunately, he could find anything online: a stab-resistant vest, a tactical helmet, and a manganese-steel Tang saber. He also found a way to get a heavy folding crossbow and thirty carbon-fiber bolts.

Afraid he wouldn't have enough money, he bought everything in installments.

He sharpened the straight-edged Tang saber on the whetstone at home. His tools weren't suited to the job, and it took him a full three hours.

He remembered how dry it was over there, so he also stocked up on two cases of bottled water, two cases of cola, ten large packs of instant noodles, tomatoes, and apples. He got a complete set of other supplies too: an outdoor wood-burning stove, charcoal, toilet paper, and lighters.

He thought the unused things around his home, changes of clothes, and even the food in the refrigerator might come in handy, so he stuffed all of it into the ring's space as well.

There was plenty of room anyway. After piling all that in, more than half the space was still empty, so he put his bed in too.

At seven in the morning, Shen Jingchuan finished breakfast at home and got ready.

He figured taking things out of thin air would be too conspicuous, so he found a large outdoor backpack and put it on as cover. When he needed to take something out, he would pretend to pull it from the bag and avoid drawing attention.

After checking that the ring was glowing brightly enough, he willed himself across. The world flashed before his eyes, and he was standing on the familiar loess slope, without another person in sight.

He picked a direction where the ground sloped a little more gently and walked for about half an hour. A stretch of low hills appeared ahead, with a sparse stand of trees growing on them.

As soon as he approached the woods, he faintly heard the sharp clash of weapons coming from an earthen slope, mixed with shouts, curses, and sounds of fighting.

Shen Jingchuan's heart tightened. Remembering that he could return at any time, he summoned his courage and crept closer on quiet feet, then hid behind a ridge and peered down.

Several men in black were chasing a person in white with sabers in hand, fighting as they ran in his direction.

The person in white stabbed a pursuer down with a backhand thrust without breaking stride, running closer and closer.

He instinctively glanced down at the glowing ring again, and his confidence immediately surged.

Only when the person ran closer did he see that she was a woman.

Shen Jingchuan hurriedly took out the folding crossbow, quickly cocked it and loaded a bolt, then looked over through its scope.

Through the scope, he could see clearly that the woman had already been wounded in the shoulder. Blood seeped through her white clothes, and her face was streaked with sweat and blood, yet neither could conceal her stunning beauty. His heart skipped a beat at the sight.

Two men in black remained behind her, shouting something, but they were too far away for him to make out the words.

He didn't want to meddle and only intended to watch from a distance.

Who would have thought the woman would stagger toward where he was hiding? She took another saber slash to the back and stumbled forward seven or eight steps. At last she could hold on no longer and fell to the ground forty or fifty meters away from him.

The two men in black pursued her until they were close, and one of them suddenly looked up and spotted Shen Jingchuan on the ridge with his crossbow raised.

The man let out a low shout and exchanged a glance with his companion. Ignoring the woman on the ground, they charged straight at Shen Jingchuan with their sabers in hand.