Zhang Dong floated around in his new void dimension. It was looking quite different now after he figured out what this place actually was.

“Should I put more trees here? What do you think, bob?”

He was now standing on a small tropical island with nothing more than the deep clear ocean surrounding him. There was a certain lack of living creatures swimming in that water and it was clear enough to see the bottom.

With a flick of his finger, a set of palm trees with coconuts sprung out from the ground. Soon a nice sturdy hammock was placed between those two and Zhang Dong hopped into it.

“You’re not much of a talker, eh?”

The glowing orb didn’t react to the question as he had hoped for. The place that he was now looking at had changed to fit his vision. He could change it by sheer will as this small pocket dimension was in fact a reflection of his soul. Its size was tied to his cultivation realm, if he managed to reach the late stage it would probably expand further outwards.

“My soul realm eh?”

He glanced to the side and could see his soul beast taking a dip in the warm ocean. He could bring in some fish but they wouldn’t really be real, nothing more than a simple construct.

This was certainly new to him. Apparently, this was something that everyone in the cultivation world and other worlds possessed. It was just hidden deep inside themselves as it was inside of their soul. He was somehow forced inside of this soul world during the whole crossing over worlds fiasco.

Zhang Dong wasn’t sure about the logistics of being here. This was all done by his system that had functions that didn’t make much sense to him. From Bob’s explanation, it seemed that his soul was stuck between this world and the passage he was in previously. This was also the only way through he could survive as somehow souls wouldn’t be erased while existing outside their own world.

He already knew that there were more worlds like the cultivation one that he came from. Something brought him thereafter he clicked that email, the biggest question was why.

By how the system reacted it seemed that people weren’t allowed to travel between these worlds. If they did they would be erased out of existence just like he almost was. The system was given to him by whoever or whatever sent him to the cultivation world but it was broken during the time he almost died.

It looked like the system thought he was dead as his designation number always came up as ‘deceased’ when he was scanned. There was someone else like him who made this possible and he had left that cube behind at the old secret ground that he had been.

This was also the reason that he was somehow trusting this blue orb thing. It was helping him for now, his secret helper was going against the being that created this whole mess. Though he wasn’t sure if that being was malicious in any way, it could have just been playing games. It was giving people strange powers from a mundane world, from a certain standpoint it could be considered a blessing.

He profited from gaining this system. After coming to the cultivation world he gained everything, good looks, status, and power. He managed to turn his lesser than stellar life into something special.

The big question was, what was this being or god expecting to achieve from giving others like him powers and sending them to strange fantasy-like worlds. Would there be some payment waiting to be paid at the end of the journey?

‘Sometimes living in a delusion is bliss…’

After giving out a sigh, his new partner in the form of a blond girl was still in the middle of traveling back home. Surprisingly the people in this world were quite advanced, they looked to be in a sort of renaissance era. Though instead of venturing towards more advanced technology they were investing their time into magic.

Mana was an abundant source of energy that was just filling up the air. It recycles itself whenever a spell is cast so it was hard for it to run out. He knew this thanks to Bob’s help as well as to Beatrice that was happy to answer any of his questions. After being able to hear the girl's thoughts he thought that he might be able to download some information directly from her brain but it wasn’t happening. He would need another way to get more information about this world and this would be done through books.

“Might as well try cultivating here…”

He jumped off his hammock and tossed the coconut that he poked a hole through. It was kind of weird but he was able to feel the sweet taste of the milky liquid inside. He could even make the coconuts taste like an energy drink if he wanted in here.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

The weather was calm as he floated up while in the lotus position. Since the whole monster exterminated he wasn’t able to cultivate. He concentrated on this soul realm, there was no way of advancing his regular realm but that wasn’t true for his soul. Now while he was here the access point was at his fingertips.

The clear water that filled this ocean was quite calm and peaceful. Soon there was a change with that, the whole place started to distort and rumble. The soul beast that was Zhang Dong’s dragon looked at its master floating up and glowing in a golden color.

His body started exuding powerful bolts of lightning that shot out in all directions. They collided with something and continued to push against it. This only caused the whole place to shake even more before Zhang Dong stopped his first cultivation attempt. His face was filled with sweat and he was panting.

“It did work… at least a bit…”

The whole locked soul dimension got slightly bigger, he could feel this. He quickly measured how much his cultivation advanced and to his surprise, this form of cultivation was very beneficial. His soul had gotten slightly larger and more powerful, this also pumped up his qi reserves by a tiny amount.

“This feels like it will be better than regular cultivation… with a stronger soul all of my techniques will get more powerful, my soul-beast will also start evolving further…”

He had something to do till his new partner in crime returned home but for now, it was time to cultivate.

Beatrice was now sitting in a carriage, she had gone through all the procedures to leave the magic academy and was now heading home. The teleportation circle that she used was something that she would never get used to. It always made her sick in her stomach and she always needed some time to regain herself.

This was the only way to leave the Lestallum’s School Of The Arcane. It was a very high-class place that was hidden away from prying eyes. It was apparently located on some kind of secluded island, even the students going there weren’t sure where it was. There were various magical illusion barriers and defensive ones around it to keep unwanted visitors away.

Thus anyone that wanted to come and go would have to go through a special teleportation device. Unregistered and unknown people would be stopped before anything could happen. She had transferred close to the city that her parents lived in and where their estate was. Beatrice's full name was Beatrice Hohenberg of Dawn Lake and her family lived close to this very lake.

It had a grand name to it but in reality, there wasn’t much grand about it. Beatrice was now looking out of the carriage window and at this very lake. It had once been a focal point in the kingdom with many magical fish living in it that were a delicacy. But with bad management, the fish that had gathered were thinned out.

‘That happened about the time when grandfather was young…’

Beatrice remembered her grandfather that used to tell her stories. The lake fiasco happened before he was able to take over the estate after his own father. It was quite a hard task to manage it after they lost their main source of income. But due to being a strong summoner, he was able to get help from the main family but now he wasn’t here anymore.

Her father on the other hand couldn’t hold a candle to the late grandfather. Thus their house was in a pinch, the main family was giving them a chance if the new heir turned out to be promising. If not they would probably pull away most of the monetary help.

She was close, all the familiar-looking trees and landmarks were coming into view. The doors to her estate opened up and she was let in to her surprise there were a lot fewer servants than what she remembered.

‘Did some of them quit?’

Their reason for them moving on to a different noble house could be one, they weren’t offering much of a pay. With all the problems and even debt slowly crawling their way, there was no way of paying their servants their proper wages.

“Beatrice!”

“Mother!”

She disembarked from the carriage and was greeted by her mother. The woman was slightly taller with a different shade of hair that looked more brownish than blond. Right behind her was an older gentleman in his 40’s. His hair color was more in line with Beatrice and he had a matching mustache to boot.

“Good to see you but mother…”

The mother-daughter pair continued to hug, all until poor Beatrice felt like she was getting choked out. The older lady finally parted from her child, tears of joy clearly visible in her eyes. Before the two could converse further the father stepped forward, his greeting being far more reserved as he just nodded.

“Beatrice.”

He then glanced at his daughter’s right hand while squinting, the frown on his face changed into a smirk soon enough as he had confirmed it with his own eyes.

“Good, with this our expenses will be secured!”

“Dear…”

The mother jabbed her elbow into the father's side while glaring at him. She then moved over to her daughter and started pulling her away.

“Come, I bet you are tired after your trip, we can talk inside.”

The father gave out a weak cough after getting hit in the stomach. He had to look as his daughter got pulled away into the estate.

“Wait Beatrice… what about the summoned spirit?...”

“We will talk about that after dinner.”

The mother responded with a shout while her husband frowned some more and followed after the two.

‘The mother is fine but the father is a bit…’

Zhang Dong commented as he had broken off his cultivation session the moment the girl arrived at this estate. While the girl moved through the estate he started examining it. The whole building was quite big and expensive-looking but it also was kind of run down. It was obvious that there weren’t enough people here to take care of everything.

The food that the girl was eating at least looked good. It looked like western style cuisine with some unknown meat. From what he knew there were some magical creatures in this world but they didn’t differ much from regular farm animals. This made him wonder if these words were just being copy-pasted from some kind of preset. In his old and cultivation world, similar animals and beasts existed.

‘I should bring up the library before these two decide to go on some kind of spa trip…’

He was kind of lost in the girly talk that this mother and daughter pair was having. The father was a bit to the side and very grumpy looking. It was obvious to Zhang Dong that he only wanted to talk about the summoned spirit. He might even have to make an appearance. He was even contemplating burning off this old man’s mustache for looking this cranky...