Lu Jiangxian had a very long dream. He dreamed of planting rice in the fields, of the gleam of swords and the flash of blades, of immortal sects, a woman, and a vast lake.
"Hand over the Taiyin Breathing and Qi Cultivation Technique and the Secret Directives of the Moon Essence Compendium, and we may spare your life with only your cultivation destroyed."
A woman's voice, melodious yet cold, sounded beside his ear. Lu Jiangxian faintly glimpsed a hazy face, but could make out nothing clearly.
...
Clang!
A violent jolt jerked Lu Jiangxian awake.
Bizarre, kaleidoscopic colors surged through his mind. Lu Jiangxian tried to open his eyes, tried to sit up, but as if gripped by sleep paralysis, his body completely ignored his commands.
Just then, a brilliant white light pierced the thick darkness before him. Though darkness kept rolling in like a tide, that pillar of light stood firm, unchanging and eternal as the sun.
Dense clusters of golden incantations burst forth from it, stretching out in the darkness and scattering across the sky like stars.
"So beautiful," Lu Jiangxian thought blankly.
As more and more incantations appeared, as if reaching some critical limit, he heard a crisp snap like shattering glass.
The world lit up.
Lu Jiangxian saw a sky as vast and blue as an ocean, a dense, boundless primeval forest, and, not far away, a crescent-shaped lake. In that direction, a streak of white light drifted down into the shimmering waters.
Below lay a small cluster of thatch-roofed cottages and spreading rice paddies.
From his wildly tumbling perspective, he flew like a weightless sparrow past the small, brownish-yellow village and its rising hearth smoke, sweeping over a clear brook.
In a fleeting glimpse, Lu Jiangxian caught his reflection in the brook.
"It looks like something round and shiny..." Lu Jiangxian thought in bewilderment, a faint premonition surfacing in his mind:
"Am I not human anymore?"
Splash! Another violent jolt hit him. Lu Jiangxian sank rapidly into the water. The brook was too shallow to absorb the entire impact, and he struck the bluestone at the bottom with a gentle clatter.
That bump made Lu Jiangxian feel as though he had taken a punch to the chest, leaving him breathless and tight. Yet with the churning water and the rebound of the impact, his body managed to roll smoothly over, facing upward toward the sun rippling across the surface.
"Wasn't I pulling an all-nighter in my rented apartment revising a proposal?"
Lu Jiangxian quietly gazed at the sun above the water. The swift current caused ripples of light to twist endlessly across the riverbed.
Quietly searching his memories, Lu Jiangxian felt a splitting headache. All he remembered was collapsing onto his bed in exhaustion, the cigarette smoke and neon glow in his rented room drifting around him.
He had popped open a beer and sat before the dim computer desk. Then came a wave of dizzying vertigo; his heart began pounding furiously, and breathing grew harder and harder.
"Did I... die?"
"Maybe this isn't so bad. No need to worry about the future, no need to stress over making a living."
Perhaps because he had been repressed for too long, such a thought actually surfaced in his mind, and his mood even lifted a bit.
He observed his surroundings: overhead were dark-green treetops trailing aerial roots, nimble fish darting past above him from time to time, and the faint, tinkling murmur of splashing water.
Lu Jiangxian sighed.
"Still, if this goes on, I'll probably be bored out of my mind."
And so he stared blankly as the sun slowly sank overhead. A brilliant sunset spread across the sky, and the waters beneath the treetops gradually grew dim.
During that time, two fish swam curiously around him on patrol, and a crab even tried to flip him over.
It was not until the moon climbed above the treetops and its clear light drifted softly over the river that Lu Jiangxian pleasantly sensed a cool aura seeping down to the riverbed, bringing with it a faint sense of comfort.
Watching the moonlight gather bit by bit above his body, forming a pale white lunar halo as though coming alive, Lu Jiangxian was astonished, his state of mind shifting completely.
"What is this? Absorbing the essence of the sun and moon? Are there really immortals in this world, marvelous supernatural powers, demons, and spirits?" he thought in shock. "Then what have I become? An artifact spirit?"
Deep inside, curiosity and delight surged. The pale lunar halo seemed to have gathered enough power and drifted down onto his body.
A cool sensation washed over him, and he sank into a meditative state between sleep and waking.
He did not know how much time had passed, but as the stream of qi grew thinner, Lu Jiangxian woke with a start. The crescent moon had faded from the sky, the sun leaped above the treetops, and warm morning light scattered over the river.
"That was fast."
Lu Jiangxian could hardly contain his joy. Sensing closely, he found that a faint stream of qi was indeed circulating inside him, moving in a circle along his rounded perimeter.
Moreover, when Lu Jiangxian focused his breath and settled his mind, he could vaguely see a grayish-cyan mirror resting quietly on the riverbed, lying atop multicolored pebbles while a few fish foraged along the bottom...
The river crab was digging in the silt nearby. His field of vision spanned about a meter around him. It was not very clear, resembling the bulky, thick-backed televisions he had watched as a child.
"So this is what I am now," Lu Jiangxian thought with a wry smile. He then deliberately directed the stream of qi to settle at the center of the mirror, and a faint glimmer radiated from the grayish-cyan mirror.
"Aside from glowing, I haven't found any other use for it."
"I'll focus on absorbing the moon essence first. Maybe there'll be a qualitative breakthrough," he planned secretly. "I don't know what material this mirror is made of, nor how the outside world views sentient artifacts. I'd better make sure some cultivator doesn't discover me and casually wipe away my consciousness."