She stood up and walked toward the thatched cottage.
When she pushed open the door, the hinges let out a soft creak.
The inside was cleaner than she had expected. There was no dust and no cobwebs, as though someone had cleaned the place not long ago.
The cottage was small. On the left was a wooden bed covered with a straw mat, with a thin quilt neatly folded at the head of the bed. On the right stood a wooden table and a chair. An oil lamp rested on the table, and there were still traces of soot on the wick, as though it had once been used.
A painting hung on the wall directly opposite the door.
It depicted a woman, though her face could not be seen clearly because the painting had been damaged by water. Her features had blurred into an indistinct smudge, leaving only the impression of a tall, slender figure dressed in flowing robes, as though she had been standing in the wind for a very long time.
Beneath the painting was a line of small writing, the ink already beginning to fade: “Within the Realm of Ningyuan, where the heart desires, all things may flourish.”
Jiang Wanning silently repeated the words once before beginning to search through the cottage.
There was a wooden chest beneath the bed. It was unlocked, and when she opened it, she found several books neatly arranged inside.
The one on top was titled Lightness Art. On the first page was a diagram of the human body, covered in densely marked meridians and acupoints. Beside it, written in tiny, neat characters, was a cultivation method for circulating internal energy.
There were several other books underneath. One was titled Records of Ningyuan, while others had no titles at all and contained only various symbols and diagrams.
She took out Lightness Art and flipped through it. It was not some mysterious, incomprehensible heavenly text, but an extremely detailed martial arts manual.
It explained everything clearly, from which acupoints to circulate energy through first and which meridians to open afterward, to how long one should practice each day and what reactions might occur.
It read almost like an instruction manual.
On the final page, there was only one sentence:
“One day within this realm is equal to one hour in the outside world.”
Jiang Wanning closed the book and sat down on the edge of the bed.
She needed to sort through everything.
First, she had acquired a personal space.
The space covered roughly ten mu of land. It contained farmland, a water source, a cottage, and books. Time flowed differently here from the outside world. One day inside the space was equal to one hour outside.
Second, the jade bangle had recognized her as its owner.
After her blood had touched it, the bangle had changed from grayish white to dark green. She could also sense a faint connection with it, as though the bangle had become one of her own organs. She could enter whenever she wished and leave whenever she wished.
The feeling was strange. She did not need to recite an incantation or perform any particular gesture. The moment she thought about entering, her consciousness and body were simply pulled inside.
Finally, the thing that concerned her the most was the phrase, “Realm of Ningyuan.”
Ningyuan! Those were the same words engraved inside the jade bangle.
Jiang Wanning suddenly felt as though an invisible thread had stretched toward her from somewhere far away, somewhere she could not see, and gently brushed against her.
For the time being, she set that thought aside and got up to explore the area outside.
She had no idea where the stream originated or where it flowed after leaving the space, but the water continued to run at a steady pace, and its temperature remained constant.
She crouched down and took another sip.
This time, the sensation of that current became more obvious. It spread from her throat into her limbs like a thin, warm current of electricity, making her fingertips tingle slightly.
She walked to the edge of the field, crouched down, and grabbed a handful of soil.
The earth was black, loose, and moist. When she squeezed it in her palm, it formed a clump, yet the moment she touched it again, it crumbled apart. It was excellent soil for cultivation.
She brought it closer and smelled it.
The earthy scent was strong, but there was none of the smell of chemical fertilizer.
She stood and looked toward the grayish white mist in the distance.
She tried walking in that direction. After roughly two hundred steps, she reached the mist. It was like a soft wall. When she extended her hand into it, she could feel resistance, though it was not particularly strong.
She did not try to force her way through.
Instead, she retreated and walked along the misty boundary, eventually confirming that the space was roughly circular and several hundred meters in diameter.
Twenty mu of land.
It was not particularly large, but it was far from small. If she planted the entire area with crops and rationed them carefully, it would be enough to feed one person for several years.
But Jiang Wanning was not thinking only about herself.
She stood beside the field and felt something brush past her.
Wind?
No! There was no wind here.
Then what was she feeling?
The air was moving, but very slowly, as though the entire space was breathing evenly and gently.
She returned to the thatched cottage and picked up Records of Ningyuan.
This book was thicker than Lightness Art, and its pages were yellowed and brittle, forcing her to turn them with great care.
The first few pages described the origin of the space.
They stated that a woman named Ningyuan had cultivated herself to an extremely high realm before refining her own divine consciousness into a jade bangle. Within it existed an independent realm, which she left behind for someone destined to find it.
Someone destined to find it.
Jiang Wanning silently turned those words over in her mind. The corner of her lips twitched slightly, not in a smile, but with the helpless feeling of thinking, Here we go again.
She continued reading.
Most of the remaining contents recorded the methods for using the space. It explained how planting could accelerate the growth of crops, how the spirit spring water could nourish the body, and how cultivation could expand the size of the space.
The spirit spring referred to the water in the small stream.
According to the book, drinking it over a long period could strengthen the body, prolong one’s life, and provide immunity against all poisons.
She read those words twice before closing the book.
Then she decided to do something.
She sat cross legged on the bed, opened Lightness Art, and began from the first page. Following the cultivation method described within, she attempted to guide the current of energy that had been wandering through her body.
According to the book, the spirit spring water had awakened her body’s sensitivity to its meridians. A faint trace of qi was already circulating within her, and as long as she guided it according to the cultivation method, it would gradually grow stronger.
She closed her eyes and focused her attention on her chest.
At first, she felt nothing.
She tried guiding her awareness downward from her chest, through her abdomen and dantian, then along the inside of her legs to her knees, ankles, and finally her toes.
The moment she reached that point, she suddenly felt a faint current of warmth rising from her toes and slowly following the same path back toward her chest.
It was like a tiny snake crawling through her body in a complete circle.
She opened her eyes and looked down at her hands.
Her fingers were still the same, yet she felt different.
It was not that she had become stronger.
She felt lighter.
It was as though something new had formed within her, wrapping around her bones and muscles and making them feel less heavy.
She walked around the cottage again.
Her stride was the same as before, but with every step, she felt as though she were walking through water, supported by a faint buoyant force.
Jiang Wanning stopped and took a deep breath.
Then she thought of something.
The world from her dreams was about to face earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, extreme cold, plagues, and man made disasters.
She had a space.
Could those dreams be trying to tell her something?
Was it possible that she would one day transmigrate into that world?
If that happened, she, Jiang Wanning, an emotionally detached orphan with no real strength or special abilities, would arrive there empty handed.
She had to prepare.
She needed time.
A great deal of time to learn the things recorded in these books, to stockpile enough supplies, and to turn herself into someone capable of surviving in a chaotic world.
And the one thing this space gave her was exactly what she needed.
Time! One hour in the outside world was equal to one day inside the space.
If she slept for eight hours every night, she could spend seven of those hours entirely inside the space.
That meant seven days.
One night was equal to seven days of time.
One month would give her two hundred and ten days.
She had enough time.
When Jiang Wanning emerged from the space, less than ten minutes had passed outside.
The time on her phone had changed from 7:23 in the evening to 7:32.
She stared at the numbers, making sure she had not read them incorrectly.
The jade bangle was still around her wrist, but its color had changed from dark green back to grayish white, as though it had fallen asleep.
She turned on the faucet and prepared to wash her face.
Water rushed out with a steady sound, and suddenly, she noticed a faint smell of rust in it.
She had never noticed it before.
Because she had never tasted water as pure as the water from the spirit spring.
Jiang Wanning turned off the faucet and raised her head to look at herself in the mirror.
Outside the window, the night breeze blew softly, making the curtains sway.
The lights of the city stretched across the distance in a blurred band of brightness, like a river of stars from another world.
And inside this small rented apartment, a woman who had once believed herself incapable of feeling sadness was making her final preparations for a disaster she had never experienced, yet which felt terrifyingly real.