That world, this world  

The weary students from the various departments finally arrived. 

Prior to this, all the students from the Department of Cessation of Conflict had already enjoyed a hearty meal. 

At the end of the line, a limping Meng Bai came into Lin Xi's view. "Lin Xi!" Upon seeing Lin Xi standing in line with the other new students from the Department of Cessation of Conflict, this noticeably thinner chubby boy was almost brought to tears. 

"Wow!" 

However, upon hearing that everything in this courtyard was free to eat, Meng Bai quickly surged to the front of the line. 

Lin Xi noticed that Zhang Ping and Xiang Lin were in the middle of the queue, both looking rather pale. Upon seeing Lin Xi, they nodded in greeting. Lin Xi's gaze then fell upon Gao Ya Nan. 

This girl, who made his heart race, had now removed her cloak, and her face seemed a bit gaunter. She casually picked some food and began to eat slowly while rubbing her legs, clearly feeling the toll of the recent journey. 

"When did you arrive?" 

"What did you eat these past few days?" After satisfying their hunger, those who had a closer relationship, like Meng Bai and Lin Xi, naturally began to converse softly. 

"We arrived yesterday... we had those yellow antelopes and moose." 

"Really? You ate that well?" 

"How about you? Did you have a poor diet? What did you eat?" 

"We had everything... wild rabbits, roots, snakes... even insects!" 

"Ah?" Lin Xi and the other students from the Department of Cessation of Conflict exchanged wide-eyed glances, suddenly finding the black-haired man much more endearing. It turned out that although Meng Bai and the others from different departments hadn't rushed as much, they had spent considerable time figuring out how to fill their stomachs in the wilderness along the way—and most crucially, many of them still went hungry. 

The theory of that middle-aged professor in the black robe was quite simple: only in a state of hunger can one clearly remember what is edible and what should not even be touched. 

"Isn't this something we in the Department of Cessation of Conflict should learn? Why do the students from the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Internal Affairs, and the Department of Engineering need to learn this?" Li Kaiyun couldn't help but quietly ask Lin, Meng Bai, and Zhang Ping. 

Xiang Lin whispered, "There was a senior from the Department of Civil Affairs who got trapped with a squad of border soldiers in a remote valley for half a month. He survived solely by using the skills he learned in the academy. Each department can choose to join the border soldiers during trials..." 

"Clang... clang... clang..." 

As most of the new students began to chat softly among themselves, a clear sound of bells rang out. 

A row of over twenty instructors clad in black robes walked out from a corridor, appearing before them with solemnity and composure. 

"Vice Dean Xia," all the stepping instructors bowed respectfully to the weathered, one-armed elder. 

The elder did not speak, merely nodding in acknowledgment to the instructors. 

"Everyone, form two lines and follow us." 

A gray-haired instructor in his fifties coldly addressed all the new students, then turned and walked back through the corridor they had just come from. 

This black-robed instructor had a sunken left eye devoid of light, and a long scar marred his left cheek. His appearance and tone instilled fear in many of the newcomers, prompting them to automatically form two lines and follow Vice Dean Xia and the other professors. 

... 

All the new students, including Lin Xi, were continuously surveying their surroundings. 

The corridor's floor was paved with white marble, and every few dozen steps, there was a relief sculpture depicting the Qingluan and various floral designs. Everyone noticed that the wear on the ground was quite severe, indicating a long passage of time. 

The towering halls appeared close, but as they truly navigated through them, the newcomers realized they were quite distant. 

Some were separated by vast stretches of forest, while others were divided by rocky slopes. 

The courtyard they had previously occupied felt like merely a gatehouse within this mountainous terrain. 

Upon exiting the corridor, the instructors and professors ascended a wooden walkway. 

This wooden path cut straight through a forest and unexpectedly passed through a massive clock tower. 

The clock tower was constructed from rectangular yellow stones, topped with a large bronze bell, while long mugwort grass grew in the crevices between the yellow stones. 

After passing through the clock tower, the wooden walkway branched into several paths, yet the instructors and professors continued straight ahead, toward a grand circular hall. 

Lin Xi's breath momentarily caught in his throat. 

This circular hall featured a triple-tiered roof adorned with azure, yellow, and green glazed tiles, resembling the design of the Temple of Heaven's Prayer Hall! 

However, this nearly identical triple-tiered circular hall was three to four times larger than the Temple of Heaven's Prayer Hall! 

Twenty-eight massive gilded nanmu pillars supported the structure, and the instructors and professors of Qingluan Academy lifted the hanging drapes as they entered the grand hall. 

The floor was laid with large blue bricks, and every few dozen steps, there were rows of oil lamps shaped like cranes, already lit, illuminating the beams above. Intricate reliefs depicting scenes of warfare adorned the horizontal beams, while the walls of the east and west ceilings displayed carvings of a qilin and a mandarin duck. A middle-aged man's silhouette stood atop a crumbling city wall, with a sea of corpses and an army beyond, creating a breathtaking and harrowing image. 

The interior of the hall was spacious, with twelve bronze lotus oil lamps surrounding a crimson stone tablet. 

"This stone tablet is a piece of the city wall from the Fallen Star Tomb," the cold voice of the one-eyed black-robed instructor echoed through the hall, sending a shiver through the hearts of the new students still gazing around in wonder. 

"Stand before this stone tablet and receive the admonitions left by the dean!" 

Amidst the stern voice, Lin Xi found himself positioned before the stone tablet. 

This was the most important tradition of Qingluan Academy. 

All the new students beheld the "runes" upon the stone tablet, which indeed appeared exceedingly strange and incomprehensible to them, yet the three characters "Dean Zhang" evoked a profound sense of reverence and excitement within them. 

However, as Lin Xi finally discerned the "runes" inscribed on the stone tablet, he found himself at a loss for how to feel. He was uncertain whether to let out a howl of joy or to weep uncontrollably. 

For the "runes" on this stone tablet were, to him, nothing more than simple simplified characters. 

"Fellow villager, you have finally arrived; it has not been easy... even a television cannot explain it, truly frustrating..." 

This series of characters, which even the many professors of Qingluan Academy found perplexing, bore the essence of an entire world. 

At that moment, he realized that the legendary middle-aged man was a traveler from the same place as him. In that instant, he understood that he was not merely trapped in a long dream; everything he experienced was real. In this world, he was no longer alone. 

It was an overwhelming sense of kinship that was impossible to suppress. 

He knew this middle-aged man was just like him; otherwise, he would never have inscribed such a phrase on this stone tablet. 

Lin Xi trembled slightly, staring unblinkingly at the once-familiar words on the stone tablet, reading on. 

"I come from Chongqing, and before arriving in this world, I was a high school physics teacher. Where do you come from, and what were you doing before?" 

"I come from Wuxi, and I am a student..." Lin Xi replied silently in his heart. 

"If you are reading the inscription on this stone tablet, then I am surely no longer in Qingluan Academy. Uh, that seems like a redundant statement... However, since you can understand, as a fellow villager from the same place, you should not mind if I ramble on a bit... Since you are a newcomer, your understanding of this world may not be as extensive as mine, right? Unless you are a doctoral student specializing in cosmic physics, I advise you not to waste your effort trying to decipher what kind of place this is, as I have spent many years without grasping it. The sun, moon, and stars are identical to those on Earth, yet it seems no such dynasty has ever existed on Earth... What parallel universe is this? What dimensional space? Overthinking it is meaningless. My thought is that since we have arrived, we should live well and make the most of our lives." 

"Uncle, my thoughts align with yours..." Lin Xi quietly replied in his heart, as if he were conversing face to face with this middle-aged man. 

"You must have noticed by now that the people in this world possess formidable combat abilities... They refer to this as soul power. Of course, I have always understood it as willpower or mental energy, or you could simply think of it as a special ability or the qi generated by meditation... Those who are powerful are truly remarkable; it is no exaggeration to say that for those slightly stronger, bullets are of little consequence, so do not foolishly imagine that you can dominate the world with a gun... To be honest, I have tried gunpowder, and it seems there are few materials in this world to produce it. It is better to focus on cultivating this soul power... Well, to get back on track, the most crucial question is, do you have a wheel in your mind?" 

Lin Xi took a deep breath; the question was quite abrupt, yet it stirred a feeling of wanting to cry within him. 

In a corner of his mind, he sensed a glowing azure light, resembling a luminous blue wheel. 

"Well, if you don't have one, don't be disheartened; if you can't comprehend this part, just let it go... If you do have one, have you discovered that you can use it once a day, returning to a time ten stops before, which is ten minutes ago? ... Regarding this, I have indeed spent some effort researching what kind of power generates this 'special ability.' It is difficult for me to deduce, but I have speculated a possible formation of this phenomenon... Perhaps our souls occupy the bodies of this world, and the soul power of the bodies in this world combines with the energy that brought us here, producing such a thing... This wheel, from a physics perspective, should also be a form of energy... And I can now seriously tell you that this wheel can be nudged little by little..."