In 8073 of the Star Calendar, Golden People Alley on the Xianzhou Luofu—a Commercial Street that had hardly changed in centuries—welcomed a new resident and shopkeeper for once.
The newcomer was Dan Lei, who opened a shop selling dolls and figurines.
Ever since he had inexplicably been cast into a Sustainer Egg, Dan Lei had, in principle, been on the Xianzhou Luofu for over six hundred years. By his calculations, he had been reborn on the Luofu after the Calamity of the Abundant in 7379 of the Star Calendar.
Of course, Dan Lei hadn't actually lived that long. Sustainer Eggs normally took around three hundred years to hatch, but he had taken well over five hundred, not entering the world until 7880 of the Star Calendar.
Perhaps it was because he was a soul from another world and needed more time to merge with a Vidyadhara body. But the Chizuru Clan had clearly blamed his unusually long incubation on some unknown damage to his egg during the Calamity of the Abundant.
Especially after he was born, Dan Lei discovered that he had suffered from a lack of talent in the Type-Moon World. Now, though, he'd been compensated: his body could only be described as an Innate Dao Body.
As for Magic Circuits, his body itself was a Magic Circuit. He could draw magic power directly from the Great Source outside him, and the Great Source here was unusually active.
Then Dan Lei ran into trouble.
After sleeping for over five hundred years, he'd just been born. When he discovered his extraordinary talent, he completely forgot where he was.
The Xianzhou Luofu wasn't a planet. So what was this Great Source that Dan Lei could sense?
Of course, it was the Power of the Hunt that the Aeon of the Hunt, Lan, had made endlessly available to the Luofu.
Dan Lei had only just been born and had no idea what the Power of the Path was. He directly absorbed the Hunt's Imaginary Energy from the Luofu, and his meridians were instantly scorched.
If he hadn't noticed something was wrong and stopped immediately, he would have ascended on the spot.
Of course, this accident was still blamed on his egg having been damaged, leaving him weak from birth. Nobody thought that the infant Dan Lei had brought it on himself.
Still, the Chizuru Clan treasured its own, and Dan Lei was rushed to the Alchemy Commission for treatment.
The Luofu's Alchemy Commission had such excellent medical skills that they managed to save Dan Lei from injuries akin to Magic Circuits being overloaded and torn apart. And, in his desperate desire to be healed, Dan Lei inexplicably embarked on the Path of Abundance.
All one could say was that the Pharmacists of Abundance had a sinister influence. Dan Lei had merely lain there, wishing for his body to get better, and somehow found himself able to wield the Power of Abundance.
However, a Pathstrider like Dan Lei, who hadn't awakened to the Power of the Path after catching an Aeon's notice, started with very weak abilities. He was suited to developing his medical skills in the future; in every other respect, he was like an ordinary person.
And as Dan Lei later learned, there were many cases of people who had been gravely wounded suddenly becoming Pathstriders of Abundance. Pathstriders were rare on any world, but the Xianzhou was different. Its people lived long enough that Pathstriders were far more common there than among other factions.
There were also ways in which reality differed from the game. According to the Luofu's official records, Jing Yuan had never followed the Path of Knowledge; he had always been a Pathstrider of the Hunt.
Fu Xuan had no connection to the Path of Preservation, either. She was a Pathstrider of Knowledge, after all—the third eye on her forehead was a treasure of the Path of Knowledge.
But Dan Lei's awakening to the Path of Abundance wasn't a big deal. The Xianzhou Alliance hunted the Antimatter Legion, and ordinary Pathstriders of Abundance weren't on its list of targets. Besides, Dan Lei had entered the Path simply because he wanted to heal himself, without even knowing what Abundance was.
In fact, looking back, Dan Lei thought there was probably another reason he'd grasped the Path of Abundance so easily. It likely wasn't because he wanted to heal himself.
There had been plenty of people desperate to heal their wounds during the Luofu's wars, yet hardly any of them had joined the Path of Abundance.
Dan Lei figured it was because he had entered the Root alongside the Holy Grail. The Greater Grail's purpose in connecting to the Root was to achieve the Third Magic—Soul Materialization—and attain immortality, while also providing a direct link to the Root and unlimited energy.
Dan Lei certainly hadn't mastered the Third Magic, but his soul had been washed by the Root and must have acquired some of its qualities. Combined with the Sustainer Dragon Clan's status as followers of Permanence, and the fact that the Path of Abundance had split off from the Path of Permanence, the Chizuru Clan was especially compatible with Abundance.
What's more, Dan Lei could sense that the Holy Grail was still inside him, constantly absorbing energy from its surroundings through his body. It might well have been what led him to the Path of Abundance.
But Dan Lei kept these suspicions to himself and told no one.
Once Dan Lei had recovered, he was assigned an older member of his clan to teach him, just like any other member of the Chizuru Clan.
As it happened, his teacher was the very same clanmate who had cared for him at the Alchemy Commission: Dan Zhu, disciple of Yun Hua, the Cauldron Master of the Alchemy Commission.
The name might not sound familiar, but in 8100 of the Star Calendar, she would take the name Ling Sha and become the new Cauldron Master of the Alchemy Commission.
Dan was a common surname among the Luofu Sustainers, so Dan Lei was allowed to take it as his own. Since he was thought to be weak from birth, he was given the name Lei, meaning "rock," in the hope that his body would one day be as strong as stone.
Clearly, the Chizuru Clan had seen Dan Lei enter the Path of Abundance soon after birth and decided he was a promising talent, so they entrusted him to the Alchemy Commission for training.
But Dan Lei had no interest in becoming a doctor. He completed all the assignments Dan Zhu gave him, but he had no desire to treat the sick and save lives. This often enraged his hot-tempered older sister, who would chase him around with a ruler.
The one thing Dan Lei did with all his spare time was try to make his "Innate Dao Body" absorb the Great Source.
After all, Imaginary Energy in the Star Rail Universe was everywhere. If he could directly absorb the immense quantities of unclaimed Imaginary Energy in the cosmos, it wouldn't be unreasonable to call himself a minor Aeon.
Of course, things didn't go smoothly. Even by 8073 of the Star Calendar, Dan Lei still hadn't completed his body's transformation. His Magic Circuits just kept burning, and he healed them with the Power of Abundance, deepening his understanding of the Path.
But all of Dan Lei's understanding of the Path of Abundance went into a single skill: healing himself. His body recovered quickly, but that didn't help much in a fight.
Meanwhile, everything that should have happened in the Star Rail Universe still happened.
With the Dragon Masters' help, Yun Hua performed a secret technique on Dan Heng, who was imprisoned in the Imprisonment Court, to help him recover his memories. As a result, she and Dan Zhu were driven off the Luofu and forced to settle on Zhuming.
Because of his connection to Dan Zhu, Dan Lei was also investigated by the Ten Lords' Commission.
Dan Lei knew that with Yun Hua gone, if he stayed at the Alchemy Commission, he might become the subject of a deal between the Dragon Masters and The Myriad-Self.
As for exposing The Myriad-Self in advance, Dan Lei had no evidence at all. He wasn't even acquainted with Jing Yuan. Who would believe him?
So, while under investigation and confined to his quarters, Dan Lei deliberately demonstrated some doll-making techniques he'd learned from Aozaki Touko, casually crafting a few dolls to pass the time.
His actions did indeed attract the Ten Lords' Commission's attention. After confirming that Dan Lei posed no threat, they transferred him to the Commission as an ordinary Nether Envoy, responsible for maintaining and repairing automatons and puppet figures.
Dan Lei stayed with the Ten Lords' Commission until 8073 of the Star Calendar.
That year, he decided to leave the Commission because, after more than a century of passive charging, he sensed that the Holy Grail had finally filled up.
Naturally, if he wanted to study this treasure he'd brought from the Type-Moon World, he couldn't stay in an Imprisonment Court office where every little disturbance set off alarm bells. So he resigned without hesitation.
Dan Lei wasn't a judge of the Ten Lords' Commission. Although he was responsible for repairing automatons and puppet figures, his position didn't involve any particularly sensitive information.
Besides, Dan Lei was still very young, and keeping him trapped in the sunless Imprisonment Court indefinitely would hardly have been humane.
On top of that, the Third Antimatter Legion War had ended in 8072 of the Star Calendar. The Luofu had lost more than sixty-three thousand battleships and over one hundred and twenty thousand pilots in the fighting, and it would need many years to recover.
So, after finishing repairs on the last batch of automatons and puppet figures assigned to him, Dan Lei was allowed to resign. However, the Ten Lords' Commission would periodically check on his life to make sure he wasn't using his former position to break the law or cause trouble.
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