Ming Xuan Ji soared through the canopy, her body a whisper against the wind. The forest blurred beneath her in a rushing sea of green and shadow, ancient trees with bark like weathered armor and leaves rustling in a constant symphony that drowned out the distant calls of nocturnal beasts.
Every leap sent a rush of wind through her hair and robes, the fabric fluttering like living wings behind her. She could feel the air resistance against her skin, the way her muscles coiled and released with perfect, instinctive timing. This body was responsive in a way her old one had never been.
Each powerful leap carried her farther, where the spiritual energy thickened like sweet honey in the air, pulling her forward with an invisible, irresistible force. She could taste it on her tongue, rich, dense, full of potential. The kind of energy that made her Dantian hum with anticipation every time she drew more of it in.
The sun had dipped below the horizon hours ago, painting the sky in deepening shades of indigo and violet, but her [Divine Eye of Veritas] pierced the gathering dusk without effort.
The world unfolded in vibrant threads of Qi before her eyes, every living thing glowing with its own signature. It was beautiful in a way that made her chest ache a little. This wasn’t a screen. This wasn’t pixels. This was real, and she was flying through it.
Greens and blues pulsed through the undergrowth with steady life force, the trees breathing slow and ancient. Faint reds flickered in hidden dens where predators waited, their hunger visible as crimson threads.
Here and there, golden sparks marked the essence of living creatures moving through the darkness, small lives going about their business unaware that something far more dangerous was moving above them.
She moved with clear purpose, but caution still tempered her excitement. This was not the game world anymore.
In here, there is no chat full of memes and encouragement to keep her company when things go wrong. This was raw, unforgiving reality. One wrong step could mean the end, with no benevolent system or entity to pull her back from the void. There was no quick respawn if she made a mistake...
'Probably, right?' though she has no intention of testing that out.
The thought made her lips twitch. Even now, part of her still half-expected a game over screen to pop up if she died.
Anyway, she had already tested the limits of her new body many times over the past day. The way her muscles coiled and released like springs forged from starlight. The effortless flow of Qi through meridians that now felt as natural as her own veins. The way her senses sharpened when she focused, turning the forest into a living map of threats and opportunities.
Yet she was still weak. Her dantian was only a mere spark compared to the roaring inferno it had been at the endgame. Survival demanded caution and strategy, not reckless bravado. She had to build herself back up, one kill at a time, one level at a time, until nothing in this world could touch her.
Activating [Divine Eye of Veritas] fully, she scanned miles ahead. Her vision extended like tendrils of mist, revealing every hidden detail.
Massive serpents coiled around ancient roots, their Qi slow and patient. Birds with wings like obsidian blades perched on high branches, watching the forest floor for movement. Packs of beasts prowled the forest floor below, their auras flickering like campfires in the dark.
She cataloged them all, assessing their Qi signatures with practiced ease, the way she used to read boss mechanics.
‘Too strong, that one,’ she noted silently as her gaze passed over a colossal ape-like creature radiating energy.
Its aura was a stormy vortex of crimson and black, the kind of thing that would have been a field boss in UBAO. Definitely something to avoid for now. She wasn’t ready to test herself against that kind of power yet.
But farther ahead, a cluster of weaker presences caught her attention: four wolf-like creatures whose Qi hummed at a steady low mid-tier threat level. Manageable, especially with a good ambush. Perfect for grinding without unnecessary risk. The kind of fight where she could test her limits without dying.
‘Hunting time,’ she thought, a predatory gleam flashing in her eyes.
She pushed aside the nagging question of whether this world mirrored anything from UBAO’s Xantia continent at all. That question could wait until she wasn’t in the middle of the woods with an empty stomach and an even emptier social calendar.
The flora here felt strangely familiar. Towering pines with needles that shimmered faintly under her enhanced sight. Ferns curling like emerald scrolls across the ground. Yet subtle differences nagged at her. Some leaves carried faint traces of metallic Qi, like they’d been growing near veins of ore for centuries.
Others pulsed with energies she had never seen in the game, colors and patterns that didn’t match any element she recognized.
'No matter.' She would focus on the prey first. The mysteries of this world could reveal themselves one corpse at a time.
She adjusted her trajectory, leaping silently from branch to branch until she hovered directly above the wolf pack. The creatures were grotesque parodies of their earthly counterparts: sleek bodies covered in midnight fur, with jagged black spikes protruding from their spines like cruel thorns.
They moved in a loose formation, noses to the ground, tracking some unfortunate smaller creature. Their eyes glowed with feral hunger, and faint wisps of dark Qi trailed from the spikes, suggesting some kind of poisonous or corrosive ability that would probably hurt like hell if it connected.
Ming Xuan Ji’s [Divine Eye of Veritas] pierced deeper. Their dantians were compact but potent, brimming with earth-aspect energy that made them tougher than they looked. Not pushovers, but not impossible either. Good practice.
She didn’t hesitate.
Coiling Qi into her legs, she dropped like a falling star, landing squarely on the largest wolf’s back. The impact drove it to the ground with a crunch of spines and a surprised yelp that cut off almost immediately. She was already channeling power before the others could react.
[Demonic Echo Palm] surged through her right hand, a vibration of pure destructive force that bypassed flesh and armor to resonate directly with the beast’s internals. Her palm slapped against its skull, and the echo boomed inward like a thunderclap trapped in a cave. Brain matter liquefied in an instant. The wolf’s body went limp beneath her, dead before it could even finish its yelp.
The pack reacted instantly with snarls that echoed through the trees, but the ambush had bought her precious seconds. The remaining three wheeled around, spikes flaring with dark energy as they charged, their movements coordinated in a way that suggested they’d hunted together before.
Ming Xuan Ji twisted away from the first lunging jaw, her hanfu fluttering like ink in water, the fabric somehow managing to avoid every claw and tooth. She felt the rush, the addictive thrill of combat heightened by the hyper-real sensations of this world.
The cool night air kissed her skin. The scent of pine sap and beast musk filled her nostrils. Every muscle sang with potential as she moved, the feedback from her own body so much richer than any VR pod could ever simulate.
She struck the second wolf mid-leap, her palm connecting with its temple using [Echo Strike], a lighter but faster variation she had been testing. The true damage multiplier kicked in as it targeted the vulnerable weak point at the base of the skull.
The beast’s head jerked sideways with a wet crack, blood spraying in an arc that caught the moonlight like red rain. It crumpled, twitching, as its essence began to unravel, golden threads drifting toward her like smoke to a flame.
The last two wolves circled warily now, growling low in their throats. Their spikes quivered, releasing faint tendrils of black mist that corroded the nearby leaves and turned them brittle and brown. The air around them smelled faintly of rot and chemicals.
‘Poison Qi,’ she noted clinically. Dangerous up close, but she had no intention of letting them dictate the pace. She’d seen enough poison mechanics in UBAO to know that staying mobile was the key.
Instead of finishing them quickly, Ming Xuan Ji decided to test her limits further.
‘Let’s see how this body handles Qinggong in the real world. Let’s see if I can actually dance with death like I used to in UBAO.’
She adopted a fluid stance, weight shifting to her toes, Qi circulating through her meridians in a light, buoyant flow that made her feel almost weightless.
The wolves lunged in unison, one high and aiming for her throat, the other low for her legs. She predicted their trajectories with ease, her enhanced senses picking up the subtle tells: the twitch of muscles, the flare of Qi in their limbs, the way their eyes tracked her.
With a graceful pivot, she employed [Yin-Yang Dance Stride], her form blurring as frost trailed one foot and faint embers the other. She dodged the high attack by a hair’s breadth, the wolf’s jaws snapping shut on empty air with a sound like a bear trap closing.
Then she vaulted over the low one with minimal effort, her body moving like it had been waiting its whole life to do this. Landing lightly, she spun, her ponytail whipping like a banner. The wolves skidded to a halt and charged again, faster this time, their spikes lashing out like whips.
She danced between them, every movement economical and precise. A sidestep here avoided a poisoned spike that would have torn through her side. A gentle leap there carried her over a sweeping paw. The wolves were quicker than her base speed; their levels were higher after all, but her Qinggong elevated her agility to another realm entirely. It wasn’t just evasion. It was art. The forest became her stage: branches as handholds, roots as pivots, the wind as her partner.
One wolf overextended, and she rewarded it with a teasing tap on the flank using [Vibration Pulse], not a full powered strike, just enough to stagger it and send ripples of disrupted Qi through its body. The other snapped at her sleeve, missing by inches. The fabric rippled but remained completely unscathed thanks to the [Heavenly Demon Raiment]’s indestructibility. She felt the brush of its teeth against the silk and smiled.
Laughter bubbled up in her chest, wild and free. This body felt perfect. Responsive. Intuitive. As if she had been born to it. No lag from neural interfaces. No artificial constraints or frame drops. Just pure, unfiltered motion and the wind in her face.
The wolves grew frustrated, their howls echoing their rage, but they could not touch her. She was playing with them now, testing the limits of her new reflexes, seeing how close she could let them get before moving. It was the same thrill she used to get during perfect no-hit runs, except this time the stakes are real.
Finally, satisfied with the warm-up, she ended the charade. A quick dash closed the distance to the first. Her palm struck its forehead with [Demonic Echo Palm]. The resonance dropped it like a puppet with its strings cut. The last one met the same fate a heartbeat later, her hand blurring in a final, merciful slap that ended its suffering before it could even register what happened.
As the bodies hit the ground, their essence flowed into her, a warm cascade of power that made her dantian hum with satisfaction. Bones strengthened. Meridians expanded. Qi reserves deepened. She could feel the changes happening in real time, her body rewriting itself with every kill.
It was euphoric, like the rush of a perfect stream highlight, but amplified a thousandfold. She flexed her fingers, feeling the subtle increase in strength, the way her vision seemed just a little sharper, the way the forest sounds were just a little clearer.
‘Leveled up again. This Heavenly Demon Scripture is completely broken in a fresh start.’
No time to bask. Survival meant resources. She knelt by the carcasses, her [Divine Eye of Veritas] scanning for valuables, the way she used to loot boss chests on stream.
‘The spikes looked alchemical. Perhaps venom glands beneath? Maybe I can sell them or use them myself later.’
She quickly stored them whole into the [Void Storage Ring], joining the tiger from earlier. They would be potentially sellable once she found civilization. No money meant no shortcuts. She would grind her way to wealth, just like in the game. One corpse at a time.
Energized rather than exhausted, she pressed on, leaping back into the treetops. The forest unfolded before her, an endless expanse of shadows. Hours blurred as she hunted methodically, her [Divine Eye of Veritas] guiding her to prey after prey, each kill feeding the growing fire in her Dantian.
Each kill brought fresh essence. Each herb spotted along the way (Jade Spirit Grass here, a cluster of Moonbloom Flowers there) was either absorbed for quick boosts or stored for future trade. She was building a stockpile, preparing for the day when she would need more than just her fists.
The night deepened. The air grew crisp with dew. Three moons rose high, their silvery light bathing the forest in an ethereal glow: one large and pale, flanked by two smaller orbs that cast triple shadows across the leaves. Ming Xuan Ji paused on a high branch, staring upward, the wind tugging at her robes.
‘Three moons? Xantia only had two, the Twin Sisters, as the lore called them.’
The realization hit her like a cold splash of water, the kind of detail that made her stomach twist with something between excitement and dread.
‘This wasn’t UBAO’s world. No familiar continents. No quest hubs she could exploit with meta-knowledge. Hundreds of NPCs, thousands of side quests, all useless now. I’m flying completely blind.’
She wanted to curse, to rail against the unfairness, but no tears came. Instead, a wry smile tugged at her lips.
'At least I wasn’t starting completely from zero. At least she had her cheats. At least she wasn’t some random teenager who almost got hit by a truck and died from a heart attack.'
‘Oh well. Could be worse.’
The [Divine Eye of Veritas], the ring, the raiment, the scripture, they were her anchors in this unknown realm. And whoever had summoned her here, whispering of salvation? They implied a world worth saving, one with people, civilizations, and real threats. She wasn’t alone in this.
There had to be someone out there who needed saving. Or maybe she was the one who needed saving and they just hadn’t told her yet.
'Sentient beings had to exist somewhere. Monsters alone wouldn’t need a “savior.” But power was key.'
In a city full of high-level cultivators or mages, she would need real strength to navigate alliances, rivalries, or worse. She couldn’t afford to stay weak. Weakness got you used. Weakness got you killed.
Pushing the thoughts aside, she focused on the present. The hunt called, and with it, the joy of motion. She resumed her trek, bounding from tree to tree like a shadow ninja from an old manga she used to read between streams.
The wind whipped her hair, and the moonlight turned the canopy into a sea of silver waves. VR had tried to mimic this, but it had always felt flat, lacking the visceral thrill. Here, every leap sent adrenaline surging through her veins. Her body responded with a grace she had never known as Adam. It was exhilarating. Addictive.
She couldn’t wait for the day she unlocked true flight, soaring through the clouds with nothing but her own power, leaving the ground and all its problems behind.
Her reverie broke as a new, powerful signature appeared in her [Divine Eye of Veritas]: a massive bear-like monster, three meters tall at the shoulder, its Qi a roaring torrent of raw power, stronger than the tiger or wolves. Its aura was a storm of earth and metal, the kind of thing that could probably tank a small army.
Fur like rusted iron. Claws that gleamed with metallic sheen. Eyes burning with primal fury. It lumbered through a clearing, uprooting small trees in its path, its aura thick with earth and metal Qi, making the ground tremble with every step.
Confidence swelled in her chest. After hours of adaptation, this body felt like an extension of her will, familiar, potent. She charged her Qi fully, not holding back.
No stealth this time. Speed was her ally. She dropped from the heights, accelerating into a dive that carried her straight at the beast, the wind screaming past her ears.
She accelerated into a dive that carried her straight at the beast.
The bear sensed her approach instantly. Its massive head snapped upward with surprising speed for its bulk. A thunderous roar shook the clearing as it reared onto its hind legs, right paw sweeping in a wide, devastating arc. Claws the size of daggers gleamed with metallic sheen, cutting through the air with a vicious whistle that promised instant death if they connected.
Ming Xuan Ji twisted mid-air at the last possible moment, her body moving on pure instinct. The claws passed so close she felt the displaced wind brush her cheek and ruffle her hair.
She landed in a low crouch, knees flexing to absorb the impact, then surged forward like a shadow. She channeled [Demonic Echo Palm] and slammed her right hand into the bear’s shoulder with every bit of force she could muster, putting her entire weight behind it.
The vibration ripped through muscle and bone. Flesh exploded outward in a spray of blood and fur. The bear’s entire limb went limp, dangling uselessly at its side like a broken branch. The monster howled in agony, the sound reverberating through the forest like thunder, pain only fueling its primal rage.
It countered immediately with its good paw, smashing downward in a strike that cratered the earth where she had stood a heartbeat earlier. Ming Xuan Ji was already moving.
She used [Yin-Yang Dance Stride] to circle its flank, frost trailing one foot and faint embers the other, the ground freezing and burning in her wake. The bear pivoted, slower now with the injured limb, and lashed out again with a furious swipe that would have taken her head off if she’d been a second slower.
She exploited the opening perfectly. Her palm slapped against its back with [Vibration Pulse], a lighter but faster variation she had been testing. The strike stunned the beast, sending ripples through its spine and locking its muscles for a precious second. She could feel the Qi disruption traveling through its body like a shockwave.
Seizing the moment, she leaped high, twisting in mid-air like a dancer. Her palm descended like judgment from above and connected squarely with the top of the bear’s skull, the impact sending a shockwave through the clearing.
[Demonic Echo Palm] boomed inward, true damage multiplying against the weak point at the base of the skull. The bear’s eyes bulged. Blood erupted from every orifice as its brain turned to pulp. The massive body collapsed in a heap, the ground trembling under its weight like an earthquake.
Ming Xuan Ji landed gracefully beside the fallen giant, breath steady, a wide grin splitting her face. Golden threads of refined essence unraveled from the carcass and flowed straight into her dantian like a black hole devouring light. The Heavenly Demon Scripture activated automatically, devouring, converting, and strengthening her body with every passing second.
Her dantian swelled. Bones creaked as they densified. Muscles tightened and refined themselves. Meridians widened by another measurable fraction. She could feel herself growing stronger in real time, the power settling into her bones like it belonged there.
‘Leveled up again,’ she thought, flexing her fingers and feeling the subtle surge of new strength. ‘I’m going to be unstoppable if I keep this up.’
She allowed herself one short moment of satisfaction before kneeling beside the carcass. Her [Divine Eye of Veritas] scanned the body for valuables. The fur looked incredibly durable, the kind of thing that could be turned into armor or sold for a fortune.
The claws and fangs could probably be forged into excellent weapons. The core pulsed with thick earth and metal aspect Qi, a dense sphere of power that would be worth a lot to the right alchemist or blacksmith. All of it would be useful later.
With a single thought the entire bear vanished into her [Void Storage Ring], joining the growing collection of trophies. She stood up, brushed a few stray leaves from her flawless hanfu, and looked toward the night sky, the three moons staring down at her like silent judges.
The hunt continued without pause.
She leaped back into the treetops, her body moving with increasing fluidity. Hours passed in a blur of motion and combat. She encountered a flock of razor-beaked birds that burst from the canopy in a swirling storm of wings and sharp talons, their movements coordinated like they’d practiced this ambush a thousand times.
Their Qi signatures flared with sharp wind-aspect energy. She met them head-on, testing a new combination she had been refining: [Flame Jab] followed immediately by [Qi Burst Strike].
Small explosions detonated in the air, knocking the birds out of formation and sending feathers flying. She finished the survivors with rapid [Echo Strike] palms, feathers scattering like dark confetti in the moonlight. The fight was over in less than a minute.
Later, deeper in the forest, she sensed a burrowing mole-beast armored in thick crystalline scales. Its Qi read as Mid Tier 3, stronger than anything she’d fought so far. The creature erupted from the ground in a spray of dirt and rock, trying to impale her with its spiked body, the crystals glinting like knives in the moonlight.
She used [Echo Vortex] to rattle its shell from a distance, creating a swirling field of vibrations that cracked the crystal armor in a spiderweb pattern. Then she closed in with a point-blank [Demonic Chain Palm], a rapid series of strikes that sent cascading shockwaves through its body. The mole-beast shuddered once and collapsed, its armor shattering like glass.
Each kill brought fresh essence. Each herb spotted along the way was either absorbed for quick boosts or stored for future trade. Her ring was getting heavier with every hour, but she didn’t mind. Resources meant options. Options meant survival.
The night deepened. The air grew crisp with dew. The three moons continued their slow arc across the sky, casting triple shadows that made the forest feel almost magical, like something out of a dream or a nightmare.
Ming Xuan Ji paused again on a high branch, staring upward at those three moons, the wind tugging at her ponytail.
The loneliness crept back in, quiet but persistent, like a shadow that followed her no matter how fast she ran.
Back on Earth she had never truly been alone. Even during the longest grinding sessions, the chat had been there. Thousands of people watching, cheering, donating, teasing, memeing in all caps. Even when she was at her lowest, there was always someone typing “FIST GOD” or just spamming hearts.
Now there was only the wind, the trees, and the occasional distant roar of some unseen beast. No notifications. No donations. No one to share the moment with when she pulled off something insane.
She talked to herself more often these days, just to hear a human voice in the silence.
“You know what would be nice right now?” she muttered aloud, her voice sounding small in the vast emptiness. “A hot meal. Actual seasoning. Maybe some rice. God, I miss rice. And salt. And someone to argue with about whether pineapple belongs on pizza. Even if it’s just chat spamming ‘ratio’ at me.”
She laughed at her own words, but the sound felt small and hollow in the vast emptiness of the forest. The laugh died quickly, swallowed by the trees.
Still, she kept moving.
The grind was everything. Power was everything. Loneliness was just another debuff she had to manage.
She would keep hunting until the loneliness became background noise. Until she was strong enough that nothing in this world could threaten her. Until she finally found civilization and could decide what kind of life she wanted to build here; whether she wanted to be a hero, a villain, or something in between.
The night was still young.
She leaped back into the shadows, black hanfu fluttering like raven wings, [Divine Eye of Veritas] blazing as she searched for her next target, the golden threads of essence still warm in her veins.
The scared girl who had woken up alone in the forest was already fading away.
In her place was something much more dangerous.
Something that was only just getting started.