Lin Yuan did not realize how hungry he was until the smell of food reached him.
It came in waves, carried on the warm air drifting across the square, sharp with oil and spice and something sweet he could not recognize. His stomach tightened painfully, the reminder unwelcome but effective. Whatever else had changed, his body still obeyed simple rules, and one of them was that it required fuel.
Lin Yuan adjusted his position slightly, letting himself drift closer to a food stall where steam rose in fragrant clouds from a wide iron pan. He joined the loose line forming near the stall, grateful for something simple to focus on.
As he stood there, listening, fragments of conversation brushed past him.
"Did you hear? She's coming back today."
"Of course I heard. The mayor's been insufferable about it for weeks. She's so proud of her daughter!"
"Five years at the Azure River Sect. Five years. That's not something just anyone gets."
Lin Yuan frowned faintly. The name stirred something vague in his mind, like a half-remembered dream, but no clear memory followed.
Azure River Sect.
The words felt significant.
He leaned slightly closer, pretending to examine the skewers laid out on the stall's counter.
"They say she's already at Foundation Establishment," a woman said, her voice tinged with open admiration. "At her age. Heaven really is unfair."
Another laughed. "Unfair? That's what favor looks like. If you're born with it, you might as well use it."
Foundation Establishment.
Lin Yuan repeated the term silently. It carried weight, even without meaning. The way it was spoken, with reverence and resignation, told him enough to know it was not something ordinary.
Before he could listen further, someone stepped directly in front of him.
She was tall, dressed in a fitted robe of deep red, her hair pulled back neatly. Without even glancing in his direction, she gestured toward the vendor.
"One skewer. Extra seasoning."
The vendor nodded immediately and reached for the meat.
Lin Yuan blinked.
He opened his mouth, then hesitated.
No one else in line reacted. No protests. No annoyed glances. The people behind him simply adjusted their positions, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
"…Right," Lin Yuan muttered to himself.
He stepped back half a pace, letting the line rearrange itself around the intrusion. The woman took her food and left without a second look.
Lin Yuan stood there for a moment longer, staring at the space she had occupied.
Interesting, he thought, filing the observation away without fully understanding why it bothered him.
He eventually received his skewer and paid with a small copper coin. As he ate, he continued to listen.
"She should be arriving any minute now."
"I heard the guards have already cleared the main road."
"Of course they have. Wouldn't want anyone getting in her way... especially if she's retained her temper."
The crowd's attention shifted gradually toward the far end of the square. Conversations quieted, voices lowering as more people turned their heads in the same direction.
Lin Yuan followed their gaze.
At first, he saw nothing but the street stretching outward, lined with stone buildings and banners fluttering lazily in the breeze. Then the sound reached him.
Footsteps.
Measured. Rhythmic.
The guards appeared first.
They moved in formation, boots striking stone in unison, their presence cutting a clear path through the crowd. Lin Yuan's eyes widened slightly as he took them in.
They were all women.
Each wore fitted armor that emphasized mobility over bulk, polished metal catching the sunlight as they advanced. Their expressions were calm and professional, hands resting near their weapons with practiced ease.
No one challenged them. The crowd parted instinctively.
Lin Yuan felt a strange tightening in his chest.
Behind the guards came the procession.
She walked at its center.
Lin Yuan nearly forgot how to breathe.
Her robes were a pale, flowing blue, embroidered with fine silver patterns that shimmered subtly as she moved. The fabric draped around her with an effortless grace, as though it had been tailored not just to her body but to the way she carried herself.
Her hair fell freely down her back, dark and glossy, catching the light with every step. Her face was composed, serene, and striking in a way that made it difficult to look away. High cheekbones. Clear skin. Eyes that held a quiet confidence, arrogance and certainty.
The crowd's reaction was immediate.
Whispers rippled outward like a wave.
"She's even more beautiful than I remembered."
"Five years at a sect does that to you."
"No, that's just her."
Lin Yuan stood rooted in place, skewer forgotten in his hand.
"She's the prettiest woman I've ever seen," he murmured before he could stop himself.
A dry, distinctly unimpressed sensation brushed against his thoughts.
"Barely average," a dry voice remarked faintly inside his mind.
Lin Yuan stiffened.
The words had not been spoken aloud. They had not even sounded like a voice. More like a comment dropped carelessly into his mind, sharp and dismissive.
He nearly choked.
"What," he muttered under his breath, coughing lightly as he forced himself to swallow. "No she isn't. That's objectively wrong."
There was no response.
Lin Yuan glanced around, heart pounding, but no one nearby seemed to have noticed anything unusual. The crowd remained transfixed on the procession, their attention wholly captured by the woman at its center.
He exhaled slowly.
Hallucinations, he decided. Stress-induced. That made sense. Probably.
He focused his attention back on the scene unfolding before as someone stepped forward to greet her. Lin Yuan could not hear the exchange, but the way people leaned in told him it was ceremonial, important.
"She's the mayor's daughter," someone whispered nearby, as if afraid of being overheard. "Chosen by the Azure River Sect's fifth Grand Elder herself."
Lin Yuan's brow furrowed.
Chosen.
The word echoed faintly against the strange impressions already lodged in his mind. He watched as the guards shifted subtly, their stances tightening, eyes scanning the crowd with practiced vigilance.
Again, all women.
Lin Yuan swallowed.
He began to notice other details he had overlooked earlier. The shop owners calling out prices were mostly women. The guards. The officials flanking the procession. Even the woman who had cut in line earlier fit neatly into the pattern he was only now becoming aware of.
It was not blatant.
It was simply… accepted.
A man near Lin Yuan spoke too loudly, his voice carrying above the rest as he boasted about knowing someone who had once sparred with a sect disciple. A guard's gaze flicked toward him briefly.
The man fell silent mid sentence, flushing as he looked away.
No one laughed. No one commented.
Lin Yuan swallowed.
He was beginning to understand that power here did not need to announce itself.
The procession eventually moved on, the mayor's daughter escorted toward the inner streets as the crowd slowly dispersed. The square returned to its earlier rhythm, though something lingered in the air, a residual excitement that refused to fade completely.
Lin Yuan remained where he was, watching people resume their routines, their conversations now colored by speculation and pride.
As the ceremony concluded and the procession resumed its movement, the crowd gradually relaxed, conversations picking up once more. Lin Yuan found himself moving with them, drifting through the square as people dispersed.
He caught snippets of admiration and envy, speculation about cultivation levels, whispered hopes for favor or opportunity.
Foundation Establishment came up again and again.
"Do you think she'll stay in the city long?"
"Why would she? This place is too small for someone like her."
"Heaven always takes its favorites away eventually."
Lin Yuan felt oddly hollow listening to them. Not jealous, exactly, but acutely aware of his own insignificance in the face of whatever hierarchy governed this world.
As the square returned to its usual rhythm, he realized how exhausted he felt.
Not physically.
Existentially.
He found himself wandering without direction, letting the city guide his steps. The buildings grew more cramped, the streets narrower, until he recognized the path leading back toward the lodging he had emerged from earlier.
The room that should have been empty.
As he walked, the earlier irritation brushed against his awareness again, faint and fleeting.
Lin Yuan stumbled slightly, catching himself before he fell.
"…I really need to stop zoning out," he muttered.
The word lingered anyway, heavy and unexplained.
He reached his door and paused, hand hovering over the handle.
The city behind him buzzed with life and ambition, its rhythms steady and unhurried. Somewhere within it moved those favored by Heaven, cultivators whose influence was felt without being named.
And here he stood, a man with a borrowed body, borrowed problems, and a growing sense that optimism alone would not be enough.
Lin Yuan let out a slow sigh and pushed the door open.
For now, he would focus on adaption and survival.
Understanding could wait.