Li Yunhao pressed his face against the weathered window of the small house, feeling the light breeze that blew just before dusk. The silence around him was broken only by the murmur of the village going about its daily activities. The simple surroundings, far from the lights and concrete of Earth, felt almost surreal. He let out a tired sigh, his back aching from the lack of comfort in the beds compared to the modern ones he was used to.
The sound of footsteps pulled him from his musings. Outside, three villagers were approaching the house. One of them carried a small bundle wrapped in dark cloth, while the others wore hesitant expressions. Li Yunhao turned to Zhao Leng, who was sitting on the floor, examining a yellowed piece of paper—probably a rudimentary map found in the house.
"We have visitors," Li Yunhao murmured.
Zhao Leng raised his gaze, nodding. The two quickly adjusted themselves, trying to appear more prepared than they were when the timid knocks echoed on the door.
"Excuse me," called a rough voice from the other side.
Li Yunhao opened the door, facing three villagers: a middle-aged man with graying hair, a woman with a headscarf, and a young boy with a gaze too curious to ignore. The gray-haired man was the first to speak.
"We come on the orders of the village leader, Li Mu." He extended the bundle, from which the smell of fresh meat began to escape. "We thought you might need this… for food."
Li Yunhao hesitated for a moment. He noticed the cautious respect in their eyes—a mix of reverence and fear, perhaps the remnants of stories of villages burned for displeasing outsiders.
"Thank you. Please convey our thanks to Chief Li Mu," Zhao Leng said, stepping beside Li Yunhao and taking the bundle. The meat was fresh, but the villagers' gaze lingered on Zhao Leng for a few moments, only to receive a faint smile from him.
"We'll be off then," the gray-haired man said, quickly bowing before backing away with the others.
When the villagers were gone, the two closed the door, exhaling in synchrony. Li Yunhao looked at Zhao Leng with raised eyebrows.
"Any idea how to cook this?"
Zhao Leng pursed his lips, inspecting the contents of the bundle. "If I had a microwave or an air fryer, maybe."
"You're right, it would be a lot simpler." Li Yunhao couldn't help but laugh. Indeed, coming from the technological 21st century, neither of them knew what to do in a situation like this.
With some effort and a lot of experimentation, the two managed to improvise a meal using the stone stove in the house. The meat ended up cooked unevenly, one side nearly raw and the other burnt, but, given the circumstances, it was enough to keep them alive.
After their improvised dinner, the accumulated fatigue weighed on them. The small house had only two rooms, and in one of them, two aging beds stood side by side. Li Yunhao stood at the foot of the bed, his eyes fixed on the simple surroundings. An old, forgotten cloth doll under one of the beds, a pair of children's shoes in the corner. He didn't need to say anything; Zhao Leng noticed too.
"Probably a couple… and a child," Zhao Leng murmured. His voice held no emotion, but Li Yunhao noticed the weight behind the words.
They lay down in silence, each occupying one of the beds. The stiff mattress and the faintly damp smell of the room were nothing like the comfort of Earth. Li Yunhao turned on his side, staring at the poorly finished wooden ceiling while unwanted thoughts began to accumulate.
"Are they all alive?"
Images of his classmates appeared in his mind. He thought about their families, the familiar faces he had left behind. His parents. His friends. Earth.
"Are they looking for us? Well, considering the ability to reconstruct our bodies before sending us here, they might have forged corpses for each of us, and our families might already think we're dead."
Li Yunhao let out a bitter laugh, muffled by the darkness. He had read enough web novels and watched enough anime to know how these kinds of stories usually went. The protagonist, strong and fearless, would fall into a new magical world and, feeling homesick, would grow and become more powerful with the thought of one day returning to his homeland—some even succeeding in that.
But him? He wasn't a protagonist. Besides, he was in a cultivation world where years passed just to ascend from one cultivation realm to the next. Perhaps when, and if, he reached a level where he could cross these so-called "heavens" and dimensions, and return to Earth, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years might have passed. Then, returning to that place wouldn't make sense.
Silence prevailed. On the other side of the room, Zhao Leng appeared to be sleeping, or at least pretending to sleep. Li Yunhao sighed, closing his eyes. "The reality is that I'm stuck here. I don't even know if I'll make it through tomorrow."
---
The following days passed unexpectedly quickly. Li Yunhao and Zhao Leng slowly adapted to the village routine, being visited daily by villagers seeking treatment for minor ailments or injuries. Zhao Leng, with his serene expression and measured words, took on the role of the skilled doctor with surprising ease. Li Yunhao, on the other hand, served as an assistant, helping to prepare some remedies that were also part of the knowledge transmitted by Yu Hu Tao.
"This should ease your fever. Be sure to rest and drink plenty of water," Zhao Leng said to a worried mother holding a sick boy in her arms.
Outside the house, Li Yunhao watched the clouds move slowly across the orange sky of late afternoon. As much as he tried not to admit it, there was something comforting about the simple life of the village—the genuine gratitude of the villagers, the small moments of calm.
"If you keep that contemplative look, they'll think you're a lost monk," Zhao Leng teased, approaching and wiping his hands on a worn cloth.
Li Yunhao let out a sigh, shifting his gaze from the horizon to his companion. "And you? You're so comfortable in the charade of being a doctor that you even look like you've been doing this your whole life."
Zhao Leng smiled wryly, raising an eyebrow. He paused, looking at the orange sky while the silence of the village filled the gaps in their conversation. "Speaking of which... have you thought about when we'll finally start cultivating?"
Li Yunhao crossed his arms, feeling an unexpected weight on his shoulders. "Cultivate..." He repeated the word as if testing the sound of it for the first time. "If only we had any idea how. So far, we've just been pretending to fit in. We barely understand how this world works, let alone how to absorb energy or ascend through realms like the stories I used to read."
When he first arrived in this world, he was incredibly excited about the prospect of cultivation. But it had already been seven days, and the most information they had gotten about cultivation so far was that the only cultivator in the village was the village leader. But that man, Li Mu, always looked at them with an extremely cautious and analytical gaze; it wasn't easy to get close to him.
As he and Zhao Leng sighed melancholically, a child's voice caught his attention. A frail boy in patched but clean clothes ran past them, carrying a small bucket of water. "Doctor! Assistant!" he shouted as he ran.
Li Yunhao exchanged a quick look with Zhao Leng before bending down with a hesitant smile. "Yes?"
The boy stopped in front of them, catching his breath. "Grandpa said to bring this. It's mountain water. Purified and good for wounds." He raised the bucket, letting the water shine under the golden light of the evening. "The mountain has a higher concentration of aquanium, so it's better."
Li Yunhao kept a neutral expression, though his mind was racing. "Higher concentration of aquanium... that explains a lot. So, this substance is the magical energy of this 'heaven'?" He looked at Zhao Leng, who appeared equally thoughtful.
"Is it true that the aquanium from the mountains is stronger?" Zhao Leng asked casually, as though he already knew about it.
The boy grinned proudly, nodding enthusiastically. "Of course! My dad says even the spirit beasts prefer the mountains because of that, so only the village leader, who's a cultivator, can gather anything from there."
"Interesting." Zhao Leng nodded with a slight smile before taking the bucket from the boy's hands. "Thank your grandfather for us."
"I will! I'll thank him!" the boy said, running back to the village.
Silence fell between the two. Zhao Leng finally broke it, his voice low and thoughtful. "That would explain a lot. This aquanium is probably the energy of this world. Imagine... absorbing this substance directly to strengthen the body or the mind."
Li Yunhao nodded, having thought the same. "Right, now that we know this, the question is: how do we start absorbing it?"
"We probably need a cultivation method," Zhao Leng responded. "A manual, technique... some kind of guide. The village is too small to have something like that, but... maybe in the nearest city."
Li Yunhao sighed, letting out a bitter laugh. "Of course, as always. The big city has everything."
"It could be a good starting point," Zhao Leng retorted seriously. "We can't stay here forever. The villagers are kind, but we don't belong here. We need information, resources, and most importantly, strength."
Li Yunhao looked at the horizon again, where the sun was slowly sinking behind the mountains. "And how do we propose a trip to the city without raising suspicions?"
"We won't need to propose anything." Zhao Leng crossed his arms, thoughtful. "If I know the kind of narrative we've gotten ourselves into... some opportunity will knock on our door."