1 To shoelaces and beyond!

"Ughh" Zhen Shi groaned as he tried to make sense of the darkness surrounding him.

With his mind working on figuring out the current situation, he realized that he was completely frozen in place and unable to move. The last thing he remembered was the sound of a rumbling engine and some strange images.

Like most other days, he had been walking back to his apartment after spending a day in the regional library. He had to get ready for the flight on the next day, so he was in a bit of a hurry.

Having almost reached the top of the mountain road, he could vaguely see some of the village farmland. However, that was also the moment he realized that his damned shoelaces had become untied.

As such, like any other normal person who had no desire to trip, he had bent down to tie them up.That was when he had heard the sound of a strange rumbling vehicle which he had simply proceeded to ignore.

After all, he had to tie his shoelaces! Not look at passing vehicles like a village nincompoop!

However, to Zhen Shi's great annoyance, the sound of the rumbling engine grew closer and louder, forcing him to raise his head and... that was the last thing he did.

All he saw was a rusting bright red machine with strangely mismatched tires dashing towards him. It was puffing out clouds of pitch-black smoke that would cause the environmental authorities to scream in despair.

He also saw a fat sweating uncle running in a hurry behind this evil machine while shouting, "Aiya! My tractor is rolling down the hill!"

Just like that Zhen Shi died, pushed down the mountain by a freaking tractor.

'SHIET! I died like that?? Wait, could this be the true meaning behind the danger of untied shoelaces?'

Shaking his head to forget about this shameful matter, Zhen Shi began to think about the rest of his memories. He could remember his entire life, what he had done, what he hadn't, his hopes and dreams, all useless now...

Now, he had nothing besides those memories. He couldn't feel his body, and he couldn't sense anything else either. Just a vast, cold, unending darkness...

Even after hours of thinking and contemplating, he couldn't make sense of anything around him.

There was nothing but the dark void and his own thoughts to keep him company. To make things worse, as time passed, the darkness seemed to weigh mercilessly on to his very sense of self. Under that terrifying pressure despite his struggle not to, he almost gave up completely.

Time seemed to be frozen, as seconds felt like hours, hours like years, and days like decades. As time continued to pass, Zhen Shi was barely holding on, while on the verge of flickering out forever.

Suddenly, after a moment that seemed like an eternity, a vague spark of light appeared connecting him to something… somewhere out there.

Like a dying beast grasping for straws, Zhen Shi struggled against the darkness and tried to push himself towards the light; the only real change that had happened in this endless void since the day he had been stuck here.

To Zhen Shi's horror, he realized that he was unable to get himself to move. Almost as if he had become a part of the terrifying darkness itself.

Fortunately, before he could fall into despair, the spark of light seemed to stretch out through an immeasurable distance and wrapped around him. As it did, the darkness surrounding him began to boil and squirm, as if in disagreement. Immediately, the light increased in intensity decisively pushing the darkness away.

As this light saved him from the clutches of the dark void, for the first time in a long while, Zhen Shi could feel again. He was slowly getting his senses back!

Whatever it was that had wrapped around him, it felt light and warm, like a mother's embrace.The exact opposite of the cold merciless darkness; a warm hopeful light.

The light seemed to be expressing its regret and remorse for his current situation, as he was slowly pulled away from the dreary dark to a growing light...

❄️❄️❄️

Zhen Shi opened his eyes with that vast unending darkness still fresh on his mind. He was unable to move or talk, but stared up at the full moon and the star-lit sky with relief.

'FUCK! That was close. I'm glad I was saved from that dark void!'

Gradually he began to feel his body as a sense of control was slowly returned to his limbs. But he was still unable to move as he wished, so he lied down and calmly observed the beauty of the night sky; a stark contrast from the dark empty void.

"Eh? Isn't the moon a bit too large?" he surprised himself by speaking out.

Putting that aside for a moment, with the ability of speech returned, he realized that he was now strong enough to move. As such, he slowly pushed himself off of the grass and stood up.

Or at least he tried to, as his entire body was suddenly wracked with horrendous pain.

Under the mind-numbing pain, he lost control of his barely working motor functions and fell back on to the ground face forwards...

SPLASH!

With his body falling on to the rock hard ground, his right arm had somehow found its way into a small pond.

Zhen Shi growled as he bit his teeth trying to stop himself from screaming out in pain. He heaved deep breaths for several moments until the pain receded to a certain degree.

Now with the pain lessened, he struggled as he slowly sat himself down on the grass. He surveyed the surroundings trying to get his bearings and muttered, "This has to be some sort of afterlife, right? Well, at least it's better than that empty darkness."

He was in a wide clearing, rather small in comparison to the large seemingly endless forest surrounding him. The trees were majestically reaching towards the sky and their aged trunks were wreathed in ivy, ever frozen in its embrace.

Excluding the small dots of light barely visible amidst the thickness of the forest, the only source of light was the moon and the stars in the night sky. Zhen Shi could only conclude those small dots of light were signs of some manner of civilization.

Now having calmed down, Zhen Shi could hear the sound of crickets chirping along with the usual sounds of nocturnal creatures. Granted there were some that he found unfamiliar and even down-right scary.

'But this goes against most known concepts of the afterlife. How could it be so similar to a night of ordinary life?'

Just after he thought this, Zhen Shi's eyes widened as a revelation hit him, 'Could it be, but it's impossible, that I reincarnated?'

Now with great interest, Zhen Shi stood up ignoring the lingering pain and observed the sky. He noted the overly large full moon along with the unfamiliar pattern of stars up in the sky. No matter how much he tried, he was unable to find a single constellation that he was familiar with.

As such, with increasing confidence, Zhen Shi looked at his reflection in the pond which was responsible for soaking his hand. He stared wordlessly with widened eyes at his reflection in the water.

The reflection was of a refined-looking young man with scruffy coal-black hair and dark brown eyes. His body was well-defined with hints of trained muscle, but what made Zhen Shi surprised and speechless were his clothes... this was because he was wearing nothing but a loincloth covering only his front!

Zhen Shi laughed in embarrassment, while covering his face with one hand, 'The constellations and this new body confirm the possibility that I have truly reincarnated.'

Once again observing his reflection, 'This body is pretty suitable for me. In fact, I look pretty good looking, scholarly even. However, why do I not have any memories of this world? Was there no original owner of this body?

And most importantly, why the hell am I wearing this shameless piece of cloth? Are the heavens making fun of me for dying due to untied shoes and a rolling tractor? Is that why I've been dressed in this thing that some aboriginal farmers use?'

He stared at his reflection while wallowing in embarrassment and confusion.

Whoosh!

Suddenly a light shadow dashed past him slowly revealing itself as a girl.

Zhen Shi's face froze in surprise, as he stared at this sudden and unexpected arrival.

This girl had long luxurious silver hair tied up into a ponytail shimmering under the moonlight. Dressed up in dark golden robes that were tightly wrapped around her petite body, her face was scrunched up in worry as she stared back at the direction she had come from.

She wordlessly unsheathed a yellow-earthen sword from her back.

Whoosh!

Several more shadows formed right in front of her, revealing a group of ten men dressed in dark black robes. The man who was in the very front of the group took a single step forward.

With a lecherous grin, he shouted, "Zou Rou, running away is pointless. It's obvious that we'll catch up with you once you run out of energy. So, obediently hand us the pill and come back with us to the sect. That is if you know what's good for you..." Hearing that, the other men laughed in agreement.

Zhen Shi was mind blown, 'People who can dash about like the wind? Pills? Sects? Could it be that this world is one of martial arts and cultivation?'

Zhen Shi didn't dare believe it completely, afraid of being face slapped back to reality. Still, he gripped on to a small hope that everything was true exactly as he had figured!

As such, perhaps because he was delirious after his reincarnation, Zhen Shi couldn't help but start imagining about flying in the sky, fighting evil, killing monsters, saving people and maidens in distress, and face slapping all those who dared to underestimate him!

However, his joy did not last long, as he suddenly paused in realization and fear. He could feel that these people in front of him could kill him as easily as breathing and thought, 'Fuck! Am I expected to handle mid-level bosses when I just started a new game?'

Conflicted about the current situation, Zhen Shi began to contemplate his next move.

He could either wait for some cheat power to be granted to him like in most fantasy stories and save this girl or... make a 'tactical retreat' if things ended up differently.

Zhen Shi was aware that events would more likely be biased towards the latter and so was slowly planning his escape. After all, he wasn't planning on dying immediately after reincarnating into a new world.

Fortunately, none of these 'martial artists' paid any attention to this scantily clad mortal who was frowning his brow in deep contemplation.

"Bastards of the Xue Yue clan, you'll have to take it back over my dead body. Let's fight!" shouted Zou Rou as she took the initiative to attack dashing forward with her sword.

"Well you asked for it," said that man still grinning lecherously. He waved his hand and the entire group of cultivators unsheathed identical dark black blades. They shifted into a strange formation and held their blades with calm eyes, causing a dark black miasma to appear over their bodies and blades.

At the same time, Zou Rou slashed her sword at the Xue Yue cultivators, launching a deadly streak of golden sunlight.

In response to that, all of the black-robed Xue Yue cultivators swung their blades in retaliation, syncing with each other perfectly. These dark black slashes combined and strengthened each other, ultimately forming a terrifying shadow streak!

A vague image of a roaring monster appeared within this shadow slash, as it streaked towards the slash of golden sunlight, roaring in anger.

Whoosh!

The energy slashes clashed generating a violent gust of wind and energy.