CHAPTER
3
Plot and Protagonist
I
As Hao Zhen stared at Tian Jin’s sleeping form, he did his best to stop himself from slamming his head against one of the nearby trees.
He had just dismissed the possibility of being inside a novel—he had just managed to convince himself that he was simply in another world instead and that all similarities were simply coincidences—and yet…
No matter how he looked at it, Tian Jin’s trajectory so far, not to mention his appearance and behavior, were just like those of the protagonist of a cultivation novel. He ticked all the boxes, missing not even a single one.
But no. No. He wasn’t inside some kind of cultivation novel. Hao Zhen couldn’t accept that. There was no way Tian Jin was this world’s so-called protagonist. This was an alternate reality, and everything that had happened so far could simply be attributed to coincidences.
Then again… Hao Zhen furrowed his brow, another idea occurring to him.
Parallel universes. Infinite possibilities.
Right.
He could accept the world and the people resembling the setting and characters of cultivation novels, so why couldn’t the events of the world resemble the plot? Events were, after all, the result of people interacting with each other and with the world. Following that logic, since both the world and the people of his current life appeared to follow different rules, it’d make sense if the same applied to the product of their interactions—to events. To fate.
Still…
Hao Zhen gritted his teeth, stopping himself from dwelling on this matter any further. Now wasn’t the time for this. He’d have plenty of time to theorize and agonize over the nature of reality in the future. Right now, there were other things he had to take care of.
He looked at Tian Jin, debating whether to wake him up, before finally deciding against it. After realizing a couple of things about Tian Jin, he decided that there was something else he needed to do first.
Ignoring Tian Jin for the time being, Hao Zhen made his way over to Ke Li’s corpse.
As he walked, he reviewed what he knew of the plot of cultivation novels. Usually, there was something on the corpse of enemies that would be useful in some way. It wasn’t always the case, but it happened more often than not, and it was particularly common at the beginning of novels. Based on what he knew of Tian Jin, Hao Zhen believed that that was where the trajectory of the world was currently at, analogously.
He couldn’t act as if every event would develop according to the plot of cultivation novels. That would be a highly reckless and dangerous thing to do. However, that was an avenue he had to at least consider and explore. At the very least, there was a good chance that there was something on Ke Li’s corpse that would point to his relationship with Du Qing and could come in handy later on.
Now that he was closer to the corpse, Hao Zhen couldn’t help but avoid looking at the sword impaled through its chest. As Hao Zhen, he had already seen corpses before, some in an even worse state, but that didn’t mean that he liked the sight. His memories of his life as Amyas, a modern person from Earth with modern sensibilities, only made it worse. Gingerly, he reached forward and grabbed the corpse’s hand, scowling the entire time, then retrieved a ring on it.
The ring was red and shaped like a band with intricate carvings on it. It was a spatial ring—a magical artifact in which objects could be magically stored inside.
On their way to the Gentle Green Valley, Hao Zhen had seen Ke Li taking pills out of this very ring. The way it had emitted a soft red glow just before the pills appeared was what had made Hao Zhen realize what it was. Previously, Hao Zhen had only heard about spatial rings, having never seen one before.
Hao Zhen also remembered stealing a glance at Tian Jin’s and Duo Lan’s hands after realizing that Ke Li had a spatial ring. Even though they were new outer disciples like him, both of them had been wearing similar rings. He also recalled Tian Jin having a second ring, though he didn’t think it was another spatial ring, as it was a dull metallic gray in color and didn’t have any intricate designs or patterns on it.
Stepping away from the dead inner disciple, Hao Zhen quickly turned around, glad that he didn’t have to look at the corpse anymore. He then closed his eyes before channeling his spiritual power into the ring. Finding no obstruction, he sighed in relief. He had heard that some spatial rings were keyed to their owner and as such couldn’t be used by other people, but it seemed like not even inner disciples had access to that kind of stuff.
In his mind’s eye, Hao Zhen saw the contents of the ring, floating in what appeared to be a void. Tentatively, he channeled more spiritual power inside the ring, and he saw his flow of spiritual power being reproduced inside his mind’s eye in the form of a continuous red stream of radiance. Then, not really sure of what he was doing, he directed his spiritual powers toward a sword that was inside the ring. The moment his spiritual power came into contact with it, the sword disappeared from the mental image in his mind, and reappeared in the outside world, falling down to the ground in front of him.
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So that’s how it works, Hao Zhen thought to himself in satisfaction. He repeated the process over and over again until on the ground in front of him was a small pile of weapons, flasks filled with pills, paper talismans, jade slips, and strangely enough, a small wooden puppet. Ignoring the rest of the items on the pile, Hao Zhen reached out with his spiritual power, this time in the outside world, and wrapped it around a handful of jade slips, lifting them off the ground and into his hands.
Jade slips were small, narrow strips of jade in which information could be magically stored, and if there was any incriminating evidence to be found, it’d be in one of them.
Hao Zhen couldn’t help but grin at what he was doing. This wasn’t his first time using spiritual power to interact with the physical world. Most recently, he had done so yesterday, when gathering magical plants. However, now that he knew that what he was doing was effectively telekinesis, something he had only been able to dream of in his previous life, he appreciated this ability of his a lot more. Existential crisis or not, there was no way he wouldn’t get excited about having superpowers.
Choosing one of the jade slips at random, Hao Zhen channeled his spiritual power into it, and in his mind’s eye, a series of incantations and images appeared. Realizing that it was a cultivation method, he made a mental note to check it out later, before sending his spiritual power into another jade slip.
He was looking for some kind of correspondence between Du Qing and Ke Li, or some sort of proof of the deal between the two of them. There were over three dozen jade slips, and it was only after viewing the twenty-sixth one that he found what he was looking for: a request from Du Qing to kill Tian Jin and a promise of a hefty reward. There were also instructions to also kill the other two outer disciples, just to make sure there wasn’t anyone to contradict Ke Li’s version of the events or cast any suspicion on what happened in the mission.
Hao Zhen believed it was rather stupid of Du Qing, to not only reveal his name, but also so helpfully provide incriminating evidence when he could’ve just met Ke Li in secret and left no physical proof of their agreement. On the other hand, Hao Zhen reckoned that this was pretty in line with a cultivation novel antagonist, which was precisely what Du Qing seemed to be shaping out to be. Then again, maybe Du Qing wasn’t that stupid, and he already had a plan for silencing Ke Li after he returned to the sect.
Just to be sure, Hao Zhen went through the remaining jade slips, but they had nothing to do with Du Qing. One of them contained a cultivation method, however, bringing the total number of cultivation method jade slips to three, as the jade slip he had checked just before finding the one with Du Qing and Ke Li’s deal also had a cultivation method recorded in it.
Hao Zhen then placed all the items back inside Ke Li’s spatial ring and spent a few moments organizing his thoughts.
First of all, he wondered what his plans for the future would be. Would he be returning to the sect, or would he go rogue? Du Qing was back at the sect, and if he and Tian Jin returned alive and dandy, but Ke Li didn’t, Du Qing would most likely try to get rid of them. Hao Zhen wasn’t confident in staying alive if a prime disciple wanted him dead.
Becoming a rogue cultivator would be dangerous, certainly, but as he was a mere outer disciple, he didn’t believe that the sect would send anyone after him for desertion. And if he hid in a small mundane village and laid low, he could probably live a long and peaceful life. He even had the things in Ke Li’s spatial ring, as well as the spatial ring itself, all of which he could find a way to sell and get himself enough money to start a new life.
But was that what he wanted? He was in a magical world—did he really want to live a simple life in the countryside, no matter how safe it’d be?
After all, he had many questions about why the world was the way it was and his transmigration, and he wanted—he needed—answers. Answers he wouldn’t have any chance of getting while leading an ordinary life. He didn’t think he’d be able to live an ordinary life anymore, even if he wanted to. He had no doubt that his questions about the nature of reality and his transmigration would keep eating away at him, giving him no peace of mind.
Before deciding on his plans for the future, however, Hao Zhen wanted to know what Tian Jin thought of the situation. He’d then think some more about his plans going forward based on what the potential protagonist had to say.
Having come to a decision, Hao Zhen made his way over to Tian Jin, who was still asleep. As he walked, he was suddenly struck by the feeling that he was forgetting something, but quickly dismissed it. If it was important, he wouldn’t have forgotten it.
And then he froze.
He felt like he was forgetting something, and he had just decided to ignore it.
His instincts as Hao Zhen were telling him to just move on and that it wasn’t important. Ignoring his intuition had become the norm for him. On the other hand, his newfound instincts as Amyas were screaming at him to stop and rack his head to remember whatever it was he was forgetting.
Hao Zhen decided to listen to his Amyas side. He had already raised enough red flags.
He closed his eyes, focusing. There was something he was forgetting, and it was probably significant. Something that would probably become a problem later on. He recalled the recent events: waking up, struggling with his memories, and getting Ke Li’s spatial ring from his corpse. Nothing wrong so far. He went further back. He had arrived at the clearing, at the fight scene… No, still nothing. Further back, then. He had arrived at the meet-up location but found nobody there. No sign of Ke Li, Tian Jin, or… Duo Lan.
Duo Lan.
His heart skipped.
Right. She was what he had forgotten. Was she in on Ke Li’s plot? She certainly didn’t seem like she had any goodwill toward Tian Jin. However, she had yet to make an appearance, so that was unlikely. But if she had nothing to do with this, where was she? And why hadn’t she been at the meet-up location last night?
Hao Zhen had no time to lose. He hurriedly walked over to Tian Jin. He had to wake him up and get the situation in order before Duo Lan came back. She had gotten second place in the entrance examination and was probably at the second level of the Red Spiritual Realm already. He didn’t think he would be able to handle her if she turned out to be an enemy.
He first tried to call out to Tian Jin, but he seemed to be in deep sleep. Only after he started shaking him did the taller boy stir. Hao Zhen took a step back and collected his thoughts, carefully considering what he was about to say.
Tian Jin opened his eyes.