A Square Inch of Land Within

"I'm back..."

The searing agony of flames consuming his body seemed to linger still. Li Shun lay flat on the bed for a long while before finally easing back to himself.

Once his emotions settled, he abruptly rolled over and sat up. His face was solemn as he chanted in a low voice, "Three Reflections Upon Myself!"

With that chant, an illusory, translucent high crown abruptly condensed above Li Shun's head, while his coarse cloth garments transformed into a sweeping robe.

Everything that had happened on the "previous day" flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern, finally freezing on the instant he had been mercilessly swallowed by towering flames.

Only after the "first day's reflection" ended did the illusory crown and robe dissipate like ripples on water.

Li Shun felt as though a heavy burden had been lifted. He let out a long breath of foul air.

"This world is becoming more and more chaotic. Cold Mountain County, especially, lies on the frontier, and its defensive forces are weak."

"If I hadn't had a supreme treasure on me, I would have died countless times already."

Li Shun sighed inwardly, then silently called out in his heart, "Square Inch!"

The light before his eyes suddenly blurred. His consciousness seemed to race through vast white mist, and in but a moment, it descended into a strange space.

This space was evenly divided into three regions of equal size.

A stone statue stood in each of the first and second regions. The difference was that the first statue was whole and unblemished, while the second seemed to have been severed at the waist, with only its upper half remaining.

As for the third region...

A tiny figure with the exact same face as Li Shun was expressionlessly and tirelessly performing the Agricultural School's [Spirit-Splitting Life-Creation Technique].

Before it, Cold Mountain Grass—the herb that had reduced Feng Guan to tears and snot after he consumed it—grew densely in a field of more than a hundred plants!

"Cold Mountain Grass is unique to Cold Mountain County. It must absorb the radiance of the cold moon for ten years before a single stalk can grow. Yet the Great Qian Dynasty can use [Spirit-Splitting Life-Creation] to forcibly increase its yield."

"Spirit-splitting and life-creation means dividing the essence of living beings to nourish the wonders of Heaven and Earth. One must feed them with the body's blood essence without rest, day and night. An adult man with vigorous blood and qi must exhaust a year's worth of painstaking effort just to barely bring forth one stalk of Cold Mountain Grass."

"Me, along with the overwhelming majority of Cold Mountain County's common folk, are nothing more than flesh-and-blood expendables for cultivating this grass."

The original owner of the body Li Shun had taken over after transmigrating was not from Cold Mountain County. He had only been conscripted here by the imperial court after being burdened with labor service.

He had entered this dead land at eighteen and had never taken a single step out afterward.

"The Spirit-Splitting Life-Forming Art drains blood essence to a terrifying degree. Ordinary laborers generally do not live past fifty. Feng Guan is only in his forties, yet his hair is already fully white and he looks utterly aged."

"But with this Square Inch Puppet, not only has my blood and qi not declined, I have even saved up more than a hundred stalks of Cold Mountain Grass without turning them in."

"Puppets neither live nor die, so there is no need to worry about excessive depletion of blood essence. They can also work without sleep or rest, at nearly five times the efficiency of ordinary people."

Li Shun's thoughts turned as his gaze slowly passed over the field of dark blue Cold Mountain Grass and settled on the half-statue in the distance.

"They're both Square Inch Puppets, but this one is much harder to serve..."

At the slightest movement of his thoughts, more than ten stalks of Cold Mountain Grass were immediately uprooted and floated down before the half-statue.

The statue wore a high crown and a long robe, but its face alone was blurred beyond recognition. Its body seemed weathered by endless years, mottled and deathly pale, faintly exuding a fragility as though it might completely shatter at any moment.

Yet as those dozen-plus stalks of Cold Mountain Grass collapsed together and transformed into specks of deep blue, cold light that enveloped it, the broken statue actually began to show traces of life like a withered tree meeting spring!

Only once the glow of the Cold Mountain Grass had completely faded did the statue's imminent state of collapse finally stabilize.

"The restorative effect of Cold Mountain Grass is getting worse and worse..."

Li Shun examined it carefully for a moment, heaviness rising in his heart.

Whether the statue or the tirelessly laboring [Li Shun], both were puppets captured by this mysterious space.

This space that had existed within him ever since his transmigration was named [Square Inch] by him.

"Though it is only a square inch of land, it contains boundless mysteries."

"Whether you are an ordinary mortal too weak to truss a chicken, or a mighty being with divine powers reaching Heaven and Earth, once you enter [Square Inch], you will become a puppet..."

When Li Shun first came to the [Square Inch] space, the one and a half stone statues and [Li Shun] had already been within it.

The puppet [Li Shun] was self-evident. It reflected the body he had possessed when he had first transmigrated here.

As for those one and a half statues...

Li Shun still had not figured out their precise origins.

At first, both statues had been covered in cracks, nearly reduced to useless rubble. Until one time, on a whim, Li Shun tried transplanting Cold Mountain Grass into the region where they stood.

After the damaged half-statue absorbed the Cold Mountain Grass, its cracks actually seemed to improve.

Then, under Li Shun's continued nourishment with Cold Mountain Grass, the statue's condition finally stabilized completely.

Thus, it awakened the divine ability of [Threefold Self-Reflection].

"Three Reflections Upon Myself. As the name suggests, once this divine ability is activated, one can experience the same day in a loop three times. Whatever happens during the first two is but illusion. Only the final time—the third—is reality, where everything is set in stone."

"It can be activated voluntarily, or passively by the statue after an unexpected death."

"It is precisely because of the protection of [Threefold Self-Reflection] that I have survived until now with this insignificant body."

"However, every activation of this divine ability damages the statue through backlash, and more than ten stalks of Cold Mountain Grass are needed just to barely repair it. Moreover, the nourishing effect is constantly diminishing..."

"The cost is simply too great. Unless absolutely necessary, I cannot use this divine ability lightly."

"Today's unexpected calamity left me with no choice."

"What a pity. If only the other intact stone statue could be awakened as well..."

"Even the half-statue possesses a great divine ability that reverses time. I truly wonder what ability the complete one has."

Li Shun's heart drifted toward that possibility as his gaze involuntarily fell upon the silent figure in the distance.

The statue was covered in dense, spiderweb-like cracks, clearly having suffered an extremely grave injury.

Moreover, it showed not the slightest reaction to the Cold Mountain Grass outside. It had remained silent all this time.

"Perhaps it needs to be nourished by a higher-grade spiritual item."

Li Shun shook his head slightly and drew his scattered thoughts back to the upheavals he had experienced "yesterday."

"The Xiang Kingdom remnants suddenly launched an attack on the Cold Mountain County yamen..."

"In truth, preserving my life would not have been difficult. I only needed to hide in the underground shelter and patiently wait for those baleful stars to leave. If I had not egged Feng Kuan on to spy with the Wind-Listening Shadow-Seizing Technique, we would not have been discovered."

"But... every use of Threefold Self-Reflection comes at a tremendous cost. If I only knew how to hide and did not understand how to profit from this rare opportunity to reset time, would that not be like throwing away Heaven's gifts?"

His consciousness withdrew from the [Square Inch] space like a receding tide. Li Shun slowly awakened and examined his real body by the cover of night.

"Over these years, I have relied on the Square Inch Puppet to suffer the hardship of labor service in my stead, avoiding the disaster of declining blood essence. But this mortal flesh will ultimately be unable to withstand the erosion of time."

"The original [Li Shun] left his home at eighteen and came here to serve his sentence. After muddling through eleven years of hard labor in Cold Mountain County, he was replaced by me, the transmigrator. And I have been trapped alive in this cage for another twenty-six years!"

"Strictly speaking, life as a Great Qian laborer was not bad. One could move freely within the county town and receive wages every month. One only had to submit a stalk of Cold Mountain Grass on time each year and never leave Cold Mountain County. Then one could live without worry. If there was surplus Cold Mountain Grass, one could even keep it, either consuming it oneself or trading it with others."

"Thus, the vast majority of laborers had long since adapted to this life."

"Now that I am already fifty-four years old, I stand out somewhat among the Cold Mountain laborers, whose average age is barely forty."

"If a few more years pass, it will be hard to say that I will not attract the attention of someone with ulterior motives."

"And besides... I am unwilling!"

In the thick darkness of night, a strange and blazing glimmer quietly surfaced in Li Shun's eyes. "Great Qian possesses methods capable of restoring one's youth, but those are certainly not things lowly laborers can learn of."

"Though the Square Inch space within me is extraordinarily mysterious, it cannot change the fact that I am steadily growing old."

"The laws of Great Qian are strict, and its classes are clearly divided. Under ordinary circumstances, it is almost impossible for someone with the status of a laborer to defy fate and change his life."

"Now that disorder is beginning to rise across the land, it is instead the perfect opportunity for me."

"Wealth and honor are sought amid danger!"

"With [Square Inch] in my possession, I will never—and should never—remain trapped in this remote Cold Mountain County for the rest of my life!"

At present, though [Square Inch] contained only three plots of land, through the surging vast white mist around its edges, he could vaguely glimpse an even broader, undeveloped domain.

Li Shun had a feeling that if he could open up new regions, perhaps he would be able to take in more and more puppets.

"Cultivate the path to Longevity, expand the land of Square Inch, gather the heroes of the world..."

After lying low and enduring at the very bottom of the Great Qian Dynasty for more than twenty years, the blazing fire called ambition in Li Shun's heart had now become a prairie-consuming inferno, impossible to suppress any longer!