Understanding the World

"Careful..." Fang Bie's hands trembled slightly as he held a thread only as thick as a strand of his hair, while Yinsen held a long sword, cutting with extreme caution.

"Phew, finally done. Tell me, Yinsen, when you were grabbing these tools, why didn't it cross your mind to bring a couple of knives?" Fang Bie's fingers were still shaking, though not from nerves, but because he had just been nicked twice by the blade.

Yinsen rolled his eyes at him, his polished bald head reflecting the blue light from above. "And who was it that told me this place had no shortage of knives and that I didn't need to bring any?"

Fang Bie hung his head in resignation. "Fine, that's my fault. Tomorrow, I'll craft some small knives from Food Craft for you to use. Using an iron sword to cut surgical thread—ugh!"

"Alright, the wounds on her body have been cleaned. I used catgut to stitch her up; there's no need to remove the stitches. They should fuse directly with the skin and won't leave any scars. She should be quite happy when she wakes up."

Yinsen said this while tidying up his medical instruments, a lingering sense of excitement on his face. Performing a surgery in a world like this was truly a marvelous experience.

"So, here's the question," Fang Bie turned his head to look at Xiao Yan and his companion. "Do you two know who this woman is?"

The old man and the young man both shook their heads hurriedly, as if they had been wound up like clockwork.

"No idea. This brat insisted on saving her."

"I just saw that she was pitiful, so I saved her. She wasn't in my hands for more than a few seconds, so I don't know either."

Fang Bie waved a hand. "Alright then. She's already had an IV and a bit of anesthesia, so she shouldn't wake up too quickly. Let her lie on the bed for a while longer."

"Yinsen, can we let her stay in the lab for now?" Fang Bie turned to ask.

"OK, OK. It's just an operating room; I basically never come in here anyway." Yinsen had no intention of leaving the lab at all. He gently closed the door and turned back to his own business.

This was also something Tony had set up last time. He insisted on trying out the physical and mathematical rules of their world in this one. The two of them had been having a blast, and even if Yinsen came here alone, he would still find time to tinker with these things.

Fang Bie had no choice but to take the two of them back to the courtyard. After this series of events, their relationship had gradually shifted from tense hostility to that of strangers who knew nothing about each other.

"Sit down. I believe you, like me, have many questions." Fang Bie rummaged around in a box nearby for a while, took out two stone steps, and placed them casually on the ground. These would serve as their temporary sofa.

Before Xiao Yan could even fully sit down, he asked impatiently, "Brother, are you also from Earth?"

"Not only am I from Earth, but I'm also your fellow countryman!" Fang Bie answered him with a smile. "We're all Chinese, descendants of Yan and Huang, after all!"

"That's true, heh, that's true!" Xiao Yan rubbed his head and laughed, pleasantly surprised.

"What? Disciple, was that sentence some kind of secret code?" Yao Lao was unhappy. He looked at the two of them exchanging smiles, feeling confused and sensing that they had reached some kind of agreement behind his back.

"It's not like that, Teacher. This concerns my true origins. I'll tell you about it slowly when you have time." Xiao Yan said hurriedly, "I'm just too happy to actually meet someone from my own world here!"

"Not necessarily." Fang Bie poured a bucket of cold water on his excitement. "Yinsen is also from Earth, but he's not from the same Earth as me."

"Multiple Earths... are you talking about parallel universes?" It was as if Fang Bie had unlocked a long-sealed memory gate for Xiao Yan, and those distant memories came flooding back layer by layer.

Although he could be considered a native of the Dou Qi Continent, as long as his identity as a transmigrator remained, he could never forget his past memories.

"Perhaps. After all, I'm no deity; I'm not omnipotent." Fang Bie left him with a simple thought. "You're also from Earth? Then how did you end up in the portal?"

"If you can appear in this world, I can certainly appear in a portal. It's all just a matter of fate and coincidence!" Xiao Yan, who had the true mental age of someone in his thirties, said with a world-weary gaze.

"Heh, fair enough!" Fang Bie nodded. Although their identities were different, this sense of melancholy shared by two people stranded far from home was exactly the same.

"I may not understand what you two are talking about, but I've grasped the basic meaning." Yao Lao quickly stepped in to make his presence felt, while glaring at Xiao Yan. What's this? Found a fellow countryman and forgot your master?

"You two come from the same place and happened to meet here? I wonder if anyone can tell this old man what exactly is going on?" Even with his vast experience, he found it hard to comprehend such a thing as transmigration.

"Actually, you can consider yourselves victims of a freak accident. I was originally preparing to open a portal to another world, and you just happened to run into it." Fang Bie explained simply. "As for this matter of world-traveling, you should ask your disciple. He should know no less than I do."

"It's all bizarre travel; who's to say who knows more than whom?" Xiao Yan said noncommittally. "Teacher, you can understand it as the moment we passed through that door, we were no longer on the Dou Qi Continent, but had arrived here—a place completely different from the Dou Qi Continent."

"Hmm, that explanation is correct. At least here, there is no such thing as the Dou Qi you speak of." Fang Bie nodded. "Simply put, you have left the Dou Qi Continent and arrived in a brand-new world."

"What old world, new world? Are you saying that in the blink of an eye, we've already left the Dou Qi Continent?" Yao Lao, on the contrary, looked skeptical.

"Legend has it that for over ten thousand years, no one has been able to successfully leave the Dou Qi Continent. Are you saying that in the time it took this old man to close his eyes, we've already achieved a goal that countless Dou Saints couldn't?"

"The world is full of wonders. Before you arrive in this world, you will never know what has happened to it." Fang Bie said. "Just like the Dou Qi produced on your continent, or the portals I open in this world, everyone has their own destiny. That we can meet here can be considered fate."

"Then what is the name of this world?" Xiao Yan asked again.

"Name?" Fang Bie smiled, a hint of inscrutability in his expression. "It is called: My World!"

As his voice fell, it was as if a thunderclap had struck, and at that very moment, a few raindrops happened to fall from the eaves.