And then the girl says words that really scare the crap out of me.

“Who are you?” she asks. “Because you are not Xian Qigang.”

My immediate instinct is to lie. Bluster and hope that I can convince this girl who clearly has history with this unfortunate Xian Qigang chap whose body I’ve shanghaied that I am him.

But, as soon as the idea comes, I let it go. That’s a pointless endeavour if I’ve ever seen one.

I mean, what am I going to do? Pretend to be someone I know nothing about for the rest of my life?

How would I even manage that? It took this girl all of two minutes to see right through me, how long would it take others?

Not to mention, Xian Qigang has a betrothal he has to get to. What, am I going to marry his wife too?

Which, speaking of, why does this guy have a nineteen-year-old who wakes him up with blowjobs when he has a betrothal lined up?

Is this just that kind of place, or is Xian Qigang just that kind of guy?

… No matter, I decide after a moment. That’s not important, the important thing is— “You’re right,” I say. “I’m not Xian Qigang.”

“Clearly,” the girl says, looking me up and down. “Yet, that is his body; flowing with his qi. Therefore, you are either the most incompetent Body Snatcher in The Sunrise Empire, or you’re something else.”

“Body Snatcher?” I can’t help but ask, and the question only deepens the girl’s scrutiny of me.

“Who are you?” she asks again.

I open my mouth to answer, then sigh and close it.

“Look, this will be difficult for you to believe,” I say finally. “Maybe even impossible to understand—” I brace myself for what will probably be the most ambitious attempt at a paradigm shift ever made in this world “—but, I’m not from this world. I’m from a different universe. A different reality.”

Expected as it was, the disbelief on her face is still a disappointment.

“You’re right,” she says. “That is difficult to believe.”

I sigh, trying to hold back my frustration.

“Look, I get that this must sound insane to you,” I say. “I mean, for a long time in my world people would definitely have looked at you crazy if you went around talking about alternate realities and other worlds, but I need you to believe me, they exist, and I really am—”

“I know they exist,” the girl cuts me off.

I blink. “You do?”

“Everyone does,” she says. “Cultivators strive their whole lives to ascend to a higher plane of existence that many believe is heaven. And our lower plane has countless mirror planes, and sometimes, things do slip through the cracks both ways.”

Okay, now I’m confused. “If you know all of this, then what’s the problem? What makes my claim so hard to believe?”

“Because, by all accounts, the creatures that slip through either way are always savage beasts; creatures so twisted by the wild Qi between planes that their very existence is an abomination. And as unique as this situation is, you’re no twisted abomination.”

“But, can’t there be exceptions?” I ask. “I mean, there have to be exceptions. What about those cultivators who ascend? They switch planes, don’t they get corrupted by wild Qi or whatever?”

The girl gives me an unimpressed stare. “Comparing yourself to cultivators at the gates of heaven is beyond hubris. Even for you,” she says.

I frown for a moment at the ‘even for you’ comment, before shaking it off.

“Well, hubris or not,” I say, “I must be an exception. Because, like you said I’m not a twisted abomination, and I know for a fact that I’m not from this world. My world has no qi, no cultivators, no twisted abominations from mirror planes.”

“It doesn’t?” the girl asked, eyeing me strangely.

“No, it doesn’t. Over there our understanding of other realities is theoretical at best. No one, as far as I know, has ever actually accessed an alternate reality. In my world, qi and cultivators are the stuff of fiction, not real life.”

“How do you make stories of them if they don’t exist?” she asks and that actually stomps me.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “But, actually, it’s more than that; this very scenario right now of me waking up in someone else’s body in a world of cultivation is the premise of like a million webnovels back home. And I can’t help but wonder if it’s simply coincidence, or if it’s something more.”

The girl hums thoughtfully, then asks after a moment; “What are webnovels?”

“Hmm? Oh, um, they’re online stories.”

She gives me a blank look.

Right, that doesn’t help.

“Stories on the internet. The internet is a… okay, imagine that every book in the world was connected to every other book, and you could pick up any book and tell it what book you want to read. And, as long as that book you want to read was connected to the worldwide web of books, the information on it would show on the book in your hand.”

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The girl looks awed. “And you say your world has no qi?” she asks.

“No, we don’t. But we have science. That’s how we made things like the internet.”

“Science,” the girl says testing out the word. “Can you do this science?”

“Um… not really?” I admit. “It takes years of study. And some natural talent. Not to mention materials that I don’t even know how to begin to get my hands on.”

“Like cultivation,” she concludes.

“Huh. Yeah, like cultivation.” I never thought of that before.

The girl watches me silently for a minute, mysterious thoughts swirling behind her brown eyes, and right when I get so uncomfortable with the silence I want to say anything to break it, she says; “Come with me.” And leads the way out of the room.

We walk through a hallway decorated with vases and ostentatious portraits of the face I’d seen in the mirror.

The smallest of the paintings are life-sized, and all of them feature Xian Qigang in noble, heroic poses with mountains and dragons in the background for good measure.

Huh. Okay.

We come across a maid cleaning one of the many vases lining the hallway, and the girl quickly bows as we pass.

“Good morning, Young Master,” she says.

“Good morning,” I say back, and the girl starts then looks at me weirdly.

I catch her looking, and she quickly averts her eyes, bowing even deeper.

Huh. Okay.

The girl, whose name I really should ask, leads me to a door of thick, rich wood, and gestures me forward.

“Place your hand on it,” she says.

A little confused, I obey, and as soon as I do, I hear a click.

“Open it,” she says, and again, I obey.

The door swings open, and at my first look at the room, my mouth drops open.

See, it’s been obvious to me this entire time that this Xian Qigang individual is crazy rich; the clues are everywhere after all.

Nothing quite drives in the Scrooge McDuck levels of wealth he apparently has though, like a literal room full of gold.

Like, seriously, it’s like Fort Knox in here, with bars of gold stacked up to chest height, glittering like a stripper’s bum.

Weirdly enough though, despite all the wealth in the room, what seems to be the most precious item in the room is a silver book.

It sits on a pedestal, covered in what I can only describe as a forcefield.

I walk up to it.

There’s a strange energy that can only be qi coming from the book, and the black words on the cover help me understand why a book would have qi.

“The Path of the Glowing Noon Cultivation Method,” I say, reading the words aloud. It’s in kanji, or something like it, and I try not to dwell too much on the fact that I can apparently read a whole new language now.

“That’s your cultivation method,” the girl says. “It’s peasant ranked.”

I make a face. “Peasant ranked?” I can’t help but ask. “Isn’t this Xian Qigang guy like crazy rich? Why is he using a cultivation method that’s ranked for peasants?”

“It isn’t,” the girl explains. “Not really. Actual peasants can’t afford it. Most can’t even afford beast ranked cultivation.”

“Ah,” I say in understanding. “I’m guessing that the ranks were named by the assholes at the top of society who look down on everyone else then. I mean, beast ranked? They’re literally calling those who use it animals.”

The girl makes a noncommittal gesture.

“So, beast rank, peasant rank, I’m guessing there are others?”

“There are five ranks; beast, peasant, sage, noble and divine, each rank five times better than the rank before.”

That catches my attention. “Five times!?” I ask. “Damn. So, if beast rank is a one, then peasant rank is a five—”

“Sage rank twenty-five, noble one twenty-five, and divine six twenty-five,” the girl finishes.

She’s either very good at math, or I’m not the first person to measure cultivation ranks with numbers.

“That’s crazy,” I say. “So, one divine rank cultivator is worth six hundred and twenty-five beast ranked ones?”

“In principle,” the girl says. “Although, there aren’t many divine ranked cultivators.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Because it is punishable by death to even look at divine ranked cultivation materials, unless you are of royal blood, or have the permission of The Sunrise Empress herself,” the girl says.

I shake my head. “Of course it is.”

This is the problem with monarchies; entitled rulers.

I look back at the forcefield protected book on the pedestal, feeling the qi pouring from it.

If a peasant ranked cultivation manual feels this impressive to be around, then what would a divine ranked one feel like? I wonder.

“Can I touch it?” I ask the girl.

She shrugs. “It is yours,” she says.

I stare at her weirdly.

I mean, it isn’t. She knows that. But if she doesn’t have a problem with it then, why not?

“How do I get through the—” I gesture at the forcefield.

“It’s keyed to your qi. It will let you through.”

Ah. Convenient.

Slowly, I reach through the field, feeling a slight tingling as my hand passes through.

Carefully, I pick up the book, feeling the power of it clearer now than ever before.

As I hold it up to my face though, something crazy… well, crazy-er happens.

In my mind’s eye, like how it looks when you lose yourself in a memory, I see a screen.

1 – 500 (Beast Rank)

501 – 800 (Peasant Rank)

801 – 950 (Sage Rank)

951 – 999 (Noble Rank)

1000 (Divine Rank)

Roll: Yes || No

What on earth am I looking at?

Is this some sort of luck based reward ability?

Reward for what though?

I look at the silver book in my hand.

I put it down and the screen disappears.

Carefully, I pick it up again. The screen reappears and my heart skips a beat.

Okay, based on the look of things, it’s some sort of RNG between one to a thousand.

What does it do though? Why are the numbers segmented into cultivation ranks? And what does it have to do with the cultivation manual?

Well, the best way to understand is by doing, so…

Roll: Yes || No

Yes.

Rolling…

962 (Noble Rank)

Reward: The Path of the Sun Emperor Cultivation Method

It takes my brain a minute to comprehend what just happened. And then it takes a minute more to truly grasp the enormity of it.

When it does though, there is only one thing I can say.

“Holy Shit.”