In a flash, everyone was on their feet.

“Senior Brother, your sword,” Lu Xiuying hissed.

Heng Xiaowen blinked dumbly and then realized that both of his junior sisters had drawn blades and Ling Hong had knocked an arrow and held his short bow low and ready to fire. Fumbling, he pulled his own sword from his scabbard.

“Senior Brother, what should we do?” Yang Jingfei asked.

It was sinking in now, the fact that Heng Xiaowen knowing nothing about this world might really have consequences. So far, he had managed to bullshit his way through Song Jiayi’s pop quizzes and his juniors expecting him to lead the way. It was different to stand in the dark with a sword clasped in his sweaty palm, listening through the wall to something make horrible wet mashing sounds. Liqiu Hua Sect finding out someone had replaced their head disciple wasn’t the only thing he should be worrying about.

He glanced back at his juniors’ expectant faces. He had never been responsible for people before like this.

Heng Xiaowen swallowed. “Follow me.”

Steeling himself, he edged around the side of the shed and approached the door. He took a shallow breath in. He pushed the door open.

In flickering candlelight, something with long black hair and pale limbs crouched over a pile of glistening pink flesh.

Before Heng Xiaowen could understand what he was looking at, the thing jerked and screamed, scrambling back against the wall.

Praying he was holding it right, Heng Xiaowen raised his sword.

“Don’t hurt me!”

Heng Xiaowen froze. Narrowing his eyes in the dim candlelight, he saw that creature plastered against the back wall was… A skinny child with his hair down. He glanced down to the pile of viscera on the ground and upon further inspection realized that it was a watermelon that had been torn into with wild abandon.

“Oh, fuck me,” Heng Xiaowen exhaled. He sheathed his sword, and sat down on the ground where he was.

“Senior brother?” Yang Jingfei asked.

“We’re good, I’m good. Put your weapons away.”

“Who are you?!” The kid demanded. “Why are you in my shed?”

“Why are you eating watermelon in the dark with your bare hands, dude?” Heng Xiaowen asked. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“None of your business! Answer my question!”

“We are disciples of the Liqiu Hua sect and are investigating the missing livestock in Li Village.” Lu Xiuying supplied.

The kid, who was no longer cowering against the wall, looked nonplussed. "Aren't cultivators just misty immortals? You look more like a group of homeless people."

Yang Jingfei’s sword made a reappearance. “Watch your words and deeds! You dare be disrespectful to Liqiu Hua Sect!”

Heng Xiaowen was about to stand up to intervene when there was a flash of blue light and a thin chain came whipping out of the darkness and knocked Yang Jingfei’s sword to the ground.

Qiu Jucheng stepped through the door and retracted the chain with a flick of his wrist. “Jingfei,” he said, coolly. “Mind your temper. It is not appropriate for cultivators to threaten unarmed civilians.”

Yang Jingfei, chastened, bowed and stepped back.

"I'm sorry that my nephews scared you, but because your village is busy with work, you asked the Denglong Palace for help, so our humble sect also intervened in this matter. I hope it won't cause us too much trouble."

“Oh. Uh.” The kid deflated. “Okay. Thank you then. An arrogant sect like Denglong Palace cannot come to trouble us.”

Qiu Jucheng glanced briefly at Ling Hong, who was slouching against the wall and scowling, and then turned his attention back to the watermelon boy, smiling his odd mild smile. “Denglong Palace has some interesting priorities.”

Ling Hong scoffed. “What a nice saying. The Zhu Family thinks they are better than everyone else,” he sneered.

While it hadn’t taken long for Heng Xiaowen to learn that Ling Hong was an acerbic little guy, something about the way he said that seemed more intense than his typical sarcastic remarks. He raised a questioning eyebrow to Lu Xiuying, but she just gestured to Ling Hong as though the reason for his attitude was self evident.

A mystery for another day then.

Heng Xiaowen was still recovering from the adrenaline crash of not having to fight anything and decided to go get some fresh air before he blurted out any more anachronisms.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

In the cool night air, Heng Xiaowen let out a long breath and tilted his head back to appreciate a sky without light pollution. He never thought he’d get to see something like that.

It was hard to make sense of having a new life. A new world. A new body. He hadn’t been able to think much about it ever since he had woken up here, and he still couldn’t think much about it now. But, he wanted this life to work out. He might not have any idea what was going on, and he might be navigating it via some kind of dubiously reliable mystical translation, but he thought he had a chance here. There was a chance he could enjoy himself this time.

On the wind, he heard a gentle melody being played on a flute. He also heard the quiet clucking of chickens. Heng Xiaowen didn’t know much, but he knew that chickens were diurnal. He was partial to birds.

Curious, he followed the noise and stumbled upon a small flock of hens wandering into town in a row.

“Shouldn’t you guys be roosting for the night right now?” he asked, scurrying after them.

So far, Heng Xiaowen hadn’t discovered any magic powers, and tragically, communicating with chickens didn’t seem to be an ability of his either. At least not yet. Maybe when he had a better grasp on the magic system of his new reality, he’d ask his master to teach him to talk to birds.

Heng Xiaowen trailed behind the chickens, following the sound of flute music into town. They didn’t end up traveling very far, eventually marching down a dark street and up to an old well.

Then, Heng Xiaowen watched as the chickens, one by one, walked up to the well, hopped up onto the ledge, and dropped down inside.

Heng Xiaowen did what anyone would do when they saw an entire flock of chickens disappear into a musical well. He walked right up to it and looked inside. And when it was too dark to see anything, he squinted his eyes and leaned over the edge to get a better look. And then, he felt a whirl of wind come up from the well, and he tumbled in with the rest of the chickens.

Heng Xiaowen hit the bottom with a yelp and spent the next minute trashing against the slippery walls of the well to get himself upright while spitting up water and getting hopped on by frightened chickens. The chickens were using him as a launch pad to fly back out of the well.

After the last chicken escaped, Heng Xiaowen managed to get himself back onto his feet. He stood knee deep in water, and something was crunching underfoot. He had also gotten pretty poked and scratched up while he was thrashing around.

He already had a pretty good idea of what he would find, but he reached into the water and felt around anyway, coming up with a handful of bones. Gross.

Hey, System! I solved the mystery of where all the livestock were going! This well is cursed or something!

[System: The issue of the missing livestock in Li Village is not yet resolved.]

Heng Xiaowen, who was covered in bone water and stuck in a well, didn’t care for that response at all. He'd have to go get the others to uncurse the well.

System, I'm stuck in a well, any advice?

[System: The protagonist should get out of the well.]

Heng Xiaowen made a couple unsuccessful attempts to scramble up the damp walls, but even his newfound upper body strength couldn't save him. It wasn’t good to be stuck in a bone well. Heng Xiaowen didn’t like it at all.

In the distance, Heng Xiaowen heard people calling for him. It really hadn’t taken them long to go looking for him.

“I’m over here!” he shouted. “Master, I’m over here!”

“Wen-er?” Song Jiayi called, already sounding closer. “Where are you?”

“Down the well! I fell down a well!”

“You what?!”

“I fell down a well! I’m stuck in this well!”

Heng Xiaowen heard the footsteps of several people approaching and then one by one, the silhouettes of five heads popped over the side of the well. Heng Xiaowen bravely resisted the urge to try to explain whack-a-mole to them.

“Heng Xiaowen! What are you doing there?” Song Jiayi asked, exasperated.

“I already told you, I fell in.”

“That's all I heard! Why on earth did you fall into the well? Why did you run away alone?”

“Oh, right. I think this well is cursed! I heard a flute and followed some chickens here and they all jumped inside the well! And when I bent over to check on the chickens, I got sucked down inside!”

There was an extended silence.

“You…” Ling Hong started saying. “Did you follow the chicken and get sucked into the well?”

“Yeah! It’s cursed or something, it’s full of bones and makes flute music! It’s probably where all the livestock has been going!”

“What?” Song Jiayi said. “Xiaowen, come up quickly.”

Heng Xiaowen opened his mouth to explain that he’d already tried climbing out of the well, but what came out instead was a scream.

Something had bitten deep into his calf.

“Xiaowen!”

“Senior brother!”

“MOTHERFUCKER!”

Heng Xiaowen heard a crackle from above and a floating symbol of light drifted down into the well, illuminating what had latched onto his leg and started gnawing.

“Jesus fucking Christ!”

There was a fucking zombie in the well. A desiccated corpse with stringy hair and gray flesh and long yellow fingernails.

“Oh, fuck me! Absolutely, fuck me! Why is there a zombie in here?” Heng Xiaowen screamed, lifting his leg and thrashing the zombie against the wall, which dislodged it and left it momentarily stunned. “What the fuck?”

“Xiaowen, your sword!” Song Jiayi shouted.

Heng Xiaowen didn’t seem to hear his master though, and continued his hysterics. “I didn’t know there were fucking zombies in this! Why didn’t anyone ever post about the fucking zombies!? THE ZOMBIES SEEM PRETTY IMPORTANT!”

“Eh? That’s not a zombie,” Ling Hong called down. “Senior brother, that’s just a ghost.”

Personally, Heng Xiaowen thought the staggering horror trapped with him was giving Night of The Living Dead more than it gave Casper, but he had more pressing concerns.

The ghost recovered from being slammed against the wall and lunged at Heng Xiaowen, who dodged to the side with a profoundly undignified shriek.

“HENG XIAOWEN! USE YOUR SWORD!” Song Jiayi bellowed.

This time, Heng Xiaowen heard her. “Oh my god. Right! I have a fucking sword!” A burst of manic laughter escaped him. “Sword!”

Still giggling with frantic energy, Heng Xiaowen drew his blade, and wholly unconcerned with proper form or the logistics of using it in such a cramped space, he lopped the head off the zombie's body.

“Ahahahaha! Holy shit! Holy shit!”

The headless corpse twitched and jerked and then threw itself against the wall of the well, a few inches to the right of where Heng Xiaowen was standing.

Heng Xiaowen, operating entirely on adrenaline and instinct, pivoted to the other side of the well and took off one of its emaciated legs. Headless and one-legged, the corpse toppled over and became too tangled in the bones to stand back up.

“Heng Xiaowen, jump!” Song Jiayi barked down at him.

Sometime between getting bitten and hacking off several body parts of the ghost, Heng Xiaowen had lost the ability to think coherent thoughts, so he did what he was told and jumped.

Straight up.

Heng Xiaowen landed with grace he didn’t know he had on solid ground outside of the well.

His whole body felt like it was buzzing. He was cold. He was covered in bone/zombie water. He felt decidedly untethered from his body. He was faintly aware that he had probably sounded completely unhinged while he was screaming his head off down there, but that did not stop him from between panting and helpless laughter, incredulously choking out, “Eight foot vertical leap.”

[System: Congratulations, Protagonist. You have solved the issue of the missing livestock in Li Village. (+100) points have been rewarded.]