Life comes at you fast. Or rather death comes at you fast. Don’t even remember what happened, but it must have been truck-kun, because my ass is getting the Isekai experience.

Or at least I think I am. I’m a little unsure if I'm the dude from the other place, or if I suddenly got an influx of memories after my ass got pasted.

Whatever the case? Well, it's all a bit wonky, ya know?

I breathe in, hold it for ten seconds, then breathe out, finally completing my cultivation for today.

Man, meditating fucking sucks. I probably wouldn't even be cultivating, but the ladies in charge here said they had “great hopes for my healing and future development” and I didn;’t want to know what happened if I disappointed them.

I grunted, and opened my eyes. The tree I’m sitting under provides a nice amount of shade, but it looks like something out of Dr. Suess. It's a cross between an oak and a dandelion; thick strong boughs terminate in giant piles of fluffy, floating seed pods that disperse on the breeze.

The grass is green, and the entire island just oozes tranquility. The architecture is straight out of a wuxia film, elegant and flowing, a private little spot to contemplate the mysteries of the universe.

I take another breath and let the tension bleed out of my shoulders.

Even with the stress placed on me, I have to say, I’m thankful for the second chance at life. Hells, if you were to take a look at what I’ve got going on? You’d be forgiven for getting pissed at me.

Because the body I woke up in is the body of the one and only Young Master of the Soaring Heaven’s Isle Sect, one of the strongest sects in this world. Jin Rou was the son of Tianzhe Minyan, the Divine Falcon of the East. A cultivator whose strength is peerless, a divine beauty whose name echoes throughout the world.

I wake up every morning in an utterly luxurious mansion on a floating island reserved for my sole use. I have practically all the amenities of a modern life using crystals to pour water or light my room. I have techniques and training at my fingertips most people would kill for.

Hells, I’m even the only man here. Soaring Heaven’s Isle is an all female sect—and the girls here are all very curious about their new Junior Brother.

It was like something straight out of a standard harem isekai. The kind of story where the main character obtained phenomenal cosmic power with his super OP cultivation system, got all the pretty girls, and then ruled the universe or something.

It seemed like I would be set for life. Just sit around, cultivate, and reap the rewards of being the Young Master of one of the most powerful sects in the world.

There were just two tiny problems. Or rather three. First, I don’t have a system. Or if I do I sure as shit can’t find it. The second? Tianzhe Minyan isn’t my mother.

But Rou, you say, you’re an isekai! Of course she's not your soul’s mother, but you should treat her with love and kindness!

Which, fair enough, I actually agree with you. It would suck to have your kid supplanted by some stranger from an alternate dimension.

But that brings us to problem three.

This body isn’t Tianzhe Minyan’s son. I had memories of two mothers. One was a nice Canadian lady who I love very much. The other was an equally lovely lady from Crimson Crucible City who enjoyed her tea, waiting tables at the family’s tavern, and died of the plague… along with the rest of Rou’s family.

No. Jin Rou was a street rat from Crimson Crucible City, thousands of miles away. He had been picked up and trained by an eccentric old bastard I only knew as Gramps, who taught him how to cultivate. Then one day, out of the blue, he said he needed me to stay with a friend for a while. I had been expecting a minor sect. Instead, I woke up to the veiled face of Tainzhe Minyan… who hadn’t been entirely happy to see me.

Still, the monstrously powerful old woman who didn’t look a day over twenty had taken care of me. She stuck me on an island that was abandoned with a small house on it, because by the rules of her sect I couldn’t live there, being a man and all. Still, it wasn’t too bad. The island was really nice, and she even came by once a week to see how I was doing.

I’d like to think I had grown on her, at least a little. I was no longer an annoyance, but an acquaintance, at least. She’d slowly relaxed around me over the months. We drank tea and swapped stories about the old man. I think Minyan had a thing for Gramps… or she was getting blackmail. She was happy for nearly a month after I told her about the time I made him a ‘hand warmer’ that was full of cow crap.

That was going to be my life. Hiding out on an island, cultivating, and talking with a nice and probably kind of lonely old lady.

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Well, that was going to be my life until two disciples from Soaring Heaven’s Isle decided it would be a great idea to test out their newly learned techniques by having a knock-down drag-out brawl through the abandoned islands, and conveniently smashed into my house with the force of a thermobaric bomb.

I think… that had killed me. Maybe. I felt my heart stop, that's for sure, and then a bunch of memories flooded in.

But well, after that, the cat was out of the bag, the sect had found out about me, and I assume, in a moment of panic, Minyan had claimed me as her son so I could stay instead of being unceremoniously chucked off the floating island.

I had still been hopped up on whatever medicine these guys used when they called me into a big meeting, instated me as the Young Master of the sect, and told me to get better.

The other Elders of the Sect had looked really fucking suspicious of me while the entire thing had gone down.

I was an imposter paying at being the son of a super powerful woman who had stuck her neck out for me because of a deal she made with the man who had adopted me… and if any of that was revealed she would lose a massive amount of face and I would probably die at the hands of said female sect for deceiving them.

So yeah. Welcome to the new world. Here's your complimentary stress ulcer and tension headache.

I turned my gaze to the thing I had purposefully made sure wasn’t in my line of sight. The Soaring Heaven’s Isle Sect. It was a massive ship, as big as a city, shattered and beached on a floating Island just slightly above mine. The ship that could no longer fly had been turned into a fortress, and now just kind of floated there menacingly, casting a shadow over the land, and serving as a dock for other, but less powerful ships.

It was simultaneously beautiful and terrifying.

Quite frankly? I kind of just wanted to get out of here. I briefly entertained a fantasy of leaving the floating islands and starting up a small farm…before I sighed.

There was no way I was escaping Soaring Heaven’s Isle… at least not with the tools I had currently available to me.

I turned away from the Sect and looked up into the wild blue yonder, the azure horizon dotted with the occasional island or flying ship.

The sky had always meant freedom… but right now, it just seemed stifling.

I needed to be somewhere other than here, but I couldn’t leave the sect. But even if I couldn’t leave the sect, there were a few places I could visit… but that meant, well, asking for help.

I debated the thought for a moment, before reluctantly deciding that my desire to leave the island was greater than my desire to not have to deal with my ‘help’.

“Bailu. Seiyu.” I called, getting the attention of my… minders.

“Yeeeeessssss, Young Maaaaasssterrrrr!” I heard a voice call, as a stunningly beautiful woman with long blue hair and electric blue eyes sprinted towards me. She leapt, tucked her knees in, and landed on all fours, her head grinding against paving stones as she skidded the last few meters until she was in front of me, and offset just slightly.

Another, equally beautiful woman, one with violet hair, grey irises, and a little mole under her left eye just plummeted out of the sky like a meteor, slamming forehead first into the ground directly beside the other woman in a perfect kowtow.

“How may these slaves serve the supreme, benevolent and handsome Young Master?” they chorused, both of them shamelessly trying to kiss my ass.

Internally, I grimaced at how they had addressed themselves. I mean yeah, they were the two who had killed me, but it had been a complete accident. They thought the place was abandoned. I had said as much to the Elder Council when they asked me what I wanted to do with them for their ‘sin’.

I honestly hadn’t actually wanted to see them again, when I had said I didn’t want them dead.

Instead, Minyan assigned them to me as servants. To “work off their debt.” Lanlong Bailu, the Typhoon Wing, and Wakokukin Seiyu, the Tsunami Wing. Two women who could tear apart mountain ranges with their bare hands, and literally cause typhoons and tsunamis. They were immensely powerful cultivators.

My minders and maids. So loyal to the sect they had been willing to die for it.

They scared the shit out of me, honestly.

They also fucking sucked at anything domestic, and despite the fact that they were ostensibly to do anything I asked them too, I ended up doing all the cooking and cleaning. Normally they just “stood guard”, and watched me while I cultivated or tended to the only thing that brought me some measure of peace… my garden.

I sighed again. “Get the ship ready.” I commanded. “I want to see the town.”

“Yes, Young Master!” Both of them shouted.

“And ladies?” I asked pleasantly.

“Yes, Young Master?” both of them asked.

“This time can you not constantly shout ‘Make Way for the Young Master?’”

The cultivators blinked, obviously confused.

“But then somebody might get in your way, Young Master.”

I took a deep breath and counted to five.

…..maybe this wasn't such a good idea, but damn it, I was going stir crazy!

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Going to the city turned out to be a pretty good idea.

This was a place I, or rather Rou, was more familiar with. The hustle and bustle of a medieval city…. Albeit a medieval city with really good waste management, and effectively most modern conveniences in the form of crystals.

It was a cool place. If one ignored the two women giving death glares to anybody who stepped too close to us.

They were seriously harshing the vibe… but I had learned a secret technique since the last time I had been here.

“Bailu. Can you pick up some good wine? And Seiyu, get some of the best rice you can. I was thinking of seared Cloud-Eater Tuna for dinner tonight.” I said, mentioning the flying fish that was absolutely delicious.

The alcoholic and the glutton froze at my words, both of them swallowing thickly as they imagined my cooking.

“Yes, Young Master!” they shouted. And then they were off.

I smiled, as they disappeared, and once more, the city seemed kinder and more welcoming.

I had a wonderful time, just wandering around, and being… well, me again, rather than the Young Master of the Sect.

Eventually, though, I ended up in the lower, poorer districts, and came across a man selling chickens.

One caught my eye. He was a young, handsome devil—the quintessential rooster. Fire red feathers transitioned to cobalt blue wings, and he had a jade green tail.

I smiled at the rooster, and the little man puffed himself up before me. I reached into the cage, and stroked his developing wattles. The rooster was obviously pleased by my scratches, and leaned into my fingers.

I fell in love instantly. He was so cute! I kept scratching him. Men except me may not be allowed… but they didn’t say nothin about a rooster.

“I’m going to call you Big D.” I told him.

He let out a terrific cry, just ever so slightly reedy on account of his age.

I chuckled. “You tell ‘em, Big D.”

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