In his small house, at the edge of the town, Fan He was currently conducting a battery experiment. What for? Well, no reason really. Some may call it passion, others obsession, but Fan He has always loved science-specifically chemistry in all it's forms. It wasn't event set in the curriculum for his 2nd year high school students to make batteries, he just enjoyed doing them himself.
Though after dozens of experiments, Fan He might have been getting too confident in himself. In the end he wasn't sure if it happened due to wrong calculations, improper safety measures or just plain carelessness, but the explosion by the advanced lithium battery he made was what inevitably killed him.
And there he was. Dead at the age of 28. Without family to call his own nor a girlfriend to mourn for his death. Thankfully, his death didn't hurt much, it all happened quite fast to be honest. And now he was experiencing a raging headache and bile seemed to rise up through his throat.
Fan He immediately threw up a pile of yellow bile on the ground next to him and slowly opened his eyes that felt like it was covered in those crusty things after you wake up from a long nap. 'Wait, I'm alive?' This was of course, great news to him! But why was he sleeping on the floor in a dark room and not inside a hospital?
His hands shot up to touch his face where the explosion happened, but his skin felt like marble. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. There was a small light source coming from the bamboo door which allowed him to see his much smaller hands, which were covered in blue and purple bruises. 'What the heck is going on? Whose body is this? And more importantly, where am I?'
Maybe he had been in shock, or maybe it was the adrenaline from realizing he was still alive that allowed him to be calm up until this point. However, once he started to analyze the situation, Fan He realized how much his body ached. It was the feeling of being run over by a car. Not that something like that ever happened to him, but he imagined this would be what it felt like. In less time than it takes for a frog to eat a fly, memories come flooding in. Like himself, this body was named Fan He.
This owner of this body was a 16 year old orphan, born of two farmers, a middle child that did not receive much attention. His parents had died out of starvation, whilst his brothers are given to different relatives, he was sold to a neighbor that wanted a son. Things changed, however, when an inner disciple from an immortal sect came to find new disciples in the mortal realm and discovered the original owner had a five spiritual root. At first the original owner was over the moon. He was bought back from his adopted parents by the sect, recognized in the village and quickly taken away to the Bo Fu sect. Along with other newly discovered disciples, Fan He felt special. That was until he discovered that having this five spiritual root was not a blessing, but a curse. Five spiritual roots were considered trash in the cultivation realm. This was because their cultivation rate was considerably much slower and more difficult to cultivate than that of a single root disciple. Furthermore, with little to no resources due to his background, he was labeled a "waste" in the sect he has just joined. With a body that had been malnourished since a young age, he became the punching bag among new disciples. And eventually ended up in this abandoned shed after one of his in-demand "sparring" sessions with the other new disciples. Eventually, Fan He's soul from earth took over his weak body.
Fan He could just about imagine the black lines straight down his forehead thinking of his current situation. By now, he had realized what happened. His summary:
1.) He did die from his failed experiment.
2.) He transmigrated to a cultivation world where immortals apparently exists.
3.) He took over the body of the most poor, unpopular teenage boy in all the realms.
'Conclusion? Maybe the next transmigration would be better.'
Not knowing where to put his hands, he decided the best place would be under his head. Just as Fan He was about to close his eyes and wake up from this nightmare, the door to the shed was kicked open from the outside. Bright lights entered the previously blackened room and he could only initially see a foot wearing the white cloth shoes like those seen in Chinese dramas.
Fan He could feel his heart-rate increasing by the millisecond. He thought one of those bullies might have come back to torment his body some more, but in the next second his initial theory was proven wrong.
"Fan He! There you are!" The sound came from the owner of the foot who looked at him with a smile of relief, he could not see any malicious intent behind that smile. Searching through the original owner's memories, Fan He could not recognize this boy seemingly 18 years of age in front of him. He decided to remain quiet and see how things played out. Besides, he could not even speak if he wanted to, his throat still felt like lava had come alive and been scratching in his esophagus. In the end, he decided to give the boy a small smile.
"I-I'm glad you're okay. He-here. Let me take you to see the physician." The 18 year old boy swiftly put Fan He's arm over his neck and gave him support to walk. Slowly accepting his new reality, Fan He accepted the support and gave his all to walk with the boy wearing the white clean uniform that belonged to all new disciples. His was probably stained with dirt and patches of blood.
It took around 15 minutes of walking a torturously long path to reach the "physician's quarters" as mentioned by the boy helping him. Fan He took in his surroundings the whole way there. This world was too incredible, they were walking on a mountain surrounded by floating grounds in mid-air! Clouds were so close that it could practically be touched with his fingertips. He would've examined more of his surroundings had the boy helping him not talked so much.
The boy's name, Fan He had discovered, was Liang Wei. Unlike his initial awkwardness, the whole way to the physician's place was filled with his chatter, which consisted mainly of concern for Fan He's well-being and a few random facts of the sect. Fan He was analyzing the information he had received from Liang Wei while being treated by the physician (who had received a couple glowing stones from the bowing Liang Wei).
He realized that the original Fan He was really too isolated, he did not even know the overall situation of his standing in the sect. So, he was not just a "new" disciple, but a new utility disciple. Which placed at the very bottom of the ladder in this sect, next comes an outer disciple where you're more considered official members of the sect. Above outer disciples, there are inner disciples, teachers, peak masters, and the head master of the Bo Fu sect. As to how to get promoted? Cultivation! Everything is about cultivation in this world where the strong devours the weak.
At this point, Fan He has completely accepted the fact that he had transmigrated and was thinking of how to proceed from his current situation. He had entered the sect four days ago and tomorrow was the day where the new utility disciples will be sorted to one of the five peaks in the sect. The five peaks consisted of: Combat, Talisman, Farming, Alchemy and Forging.
'First objective: Find the best peak to join and stop getting beat up!' Just as Fan He was spacing out in his thoughts, Liang Wei called out to him for the third time, "Fan He?" Realizing he was acting odd, Fan He quickly felt better and was able to answer Liang Wei as his throat felt better after drinking some water given by the physician's assistant.
"Liang Wei, thank you for your help. I will remember this favor." He also tried to speak more like people in this world does, though unsure if he successfully did so, he smiled through the act. Seeing Fan He was able to answer him well, Liang Wei felt relieved. The truth is that they were not close. The only reason Liang Wei helped Fan He was due to the guilt he felt if Fan He died and he did not do anything when he could've helped. He actually saw the group that bullies Fan He, but was too scared to confront them himself. Though the two small spirit stones he spent to get the physician's help was by no means a small amount for utility disciples like them, he had a good heart and thought this was the least he could do.
"No need to mention favors. I have to go back to cultivate now. I hope you get better soon." Soon enough, Liang Wei disappeared through the bamboo doors of the physician quarters.
By this time, it was already quite late and Fan He was allowed to rest the night in the physician's quarters. Not wanting to go back to the utility disciple's grounds, even if that meant he could retrieve the basic cultivation technique given to all new utility disciples, Fan He decided to spend the night here and rest for tomorrow's sect peak placement.
'It's not like I can magically get stronger overnight anyways. Let's take this one step at a time.'