I woke up to the smell of smoke and the taste of ash in my mouth. My entire body felt sore, so damn sore it hurt to move. It hurts to even breathe.
I didn’t know what was happening or why I felt like I had just been crushed. This didn’t make sense, I was supposed to be in bed still, snuggly under my blanket and in my Pjs, not lying here in the most pain I’ve ever been in.
I let out a pained cough as I tried and failed to move, my body was unresponsive. I felt everything, all the soreness and pain, but my muscles refused to move at my command.
Everything was dark, every gasp was followed by a cough as my lungs protested as I focused on the one thing I could control, my breath.
I couldn’t open my eyes, move my head, or wiggle my toes, but I could control my breathing. So that’s what I focused on, I needed to focus on breathing. If I still drew breath then I was still alive, and that’s all I needed to know to keep going.
So I forced my breath to even out, the shallow gasps slowly petered out as I took light but steady breaths. I couldn’t tell you what I was breathing out of, my mouth or nose, but it helped. Slowly but surely I was becoming more aware of my surroundings.
I was lying face down, the ground surprisingly warm for what felt like dirt and stone. I took another breath, the smell of smoke stronger now that my senses were coming back to me.
Oh god, did my house burn down? Is that why I can’t move? Did I get burned so badly that I lost all mobility? Did I lose my eyes? Am I dying because of it? Is every breath actually drawing me closer to dying by smoke inhalation?
I coughed again, my entire body shuddering and causing more pain to shoot into my brain. My breath had become erratic, and I was panicking which was making the coughing worse.
I need to calm down. I need to get my breathing back under control so each cough doesn’t rack my body with pain. Focus on my breath, focus on what I can control, not what I don’t know.
I took a deep breath and held it. I held it and focused on my chest. I could feel the ground beneath it, slightly warm. I could feel the way it burned with the need for oxygen. I could feel my heartbeat, however faintly.
I released my breath, exhaling through my mouth. The taste of ash became more prevalent before I closed it and breathed in again through my nose.
This time I focused on two things, my breath and my heartbeat. Breathe in through my nose on one beat, and breathe out through my mouth five beats later. I repeated the cycle, focusing on the two things that proved I was stillalive.
Each breath brought in more air, air that was then taken by the heart and pumped throughout my body. I could picture it, I could feel my pulse slowing drawing a map of my body with each breath and beat.
The breathing continued, the oxygen reaching down further and further into my limbs. Wherever the pulse reached, my awareness was restored more and more. Each breath, each heartbeat, brought my body more and more into my view.
Finally, I reached the end of two paths, my fingertips. My left hand was curled into a fist above my head, the ground beneath it soft and flaky. My right hand was palm down near my waist, the ground was harder there but warmer than on my chest and left hand.
My pulse continued to flow down until it reached the tips of my toes. My left leg was curled up to my side, with my right one extended fully straight down.
My focus came back up to my chest, my lungs now drawing in deeper breaths, my heart beating stronger than when I first started feeling my pulse.
My pulse turned upwards now. Traveling up my neck before reaching my skull and giving me a feeling in my face. I was lying on my left cheek with my head turned sideways. I felt the air rush past my nostrils, the scent of smoke almost suffocating before it was released through my ash-filled mouth.
I wiggled my eyelids, feeling them trying to open but failing. There was something on my face I needed to wipe off if I wanted to see where I was.
I twitched the fingers on my right hand, feeling them respond, and repeated the process with my wrist and elbow. Slowly, gently, I moved my arm up towards my face, the pain not as bad as I had been expecting as it moved.
My knuckles meet my eyelids, rubbing them gently before I try to open them again. This time the resistance was gone and the first thing that greeted my sight was my hand.
It was dirty. Covered in black and white ash, the nails had dirt underneath them. But it wasn’t burnt and still had all five fingers. It was my hand and it was still intact, something I was immensely grateful for at the moment.
I put my hand down and took in my surroundings from the ground. A burned house was the first thing I saw. It was a pile of blackened rubble, burnt pieces of wood stuck out in odd angles while the stone steps were scorched black and covered in white ash. I could see another pile of rubble a few feet to the side of it, another burned-down home I assumed.
The ground was uneven and covered in soot. I seemed to be in a clearing, maybe a path or a courtyard. Whatever it was, it didn’t match the layout of anything near my house.
I need to move, to figure out where I am and how I got here. But to do that I first need to get up. I took a breath and held it, breaking the cycle that had been going on. The feeling of my heartbeat faded from my consciousness as I slowly released it and brought my hands to my sides.
My left hand moved without much protest, the soreness seemed to have lessened to feeling like I pushed too hard on a workout the day before. Still unpleasant to move but a far cry from the agonizing pain I had felt previously.
I pushed myself up while bringing my legs underneath me to stand up. I heaved and felt myself rise, my legs protesting as they took my weight. I wobbled a bit from the dizziness that followed from getting up to fast but I managed to keep myself from falling over.
Now that I was on my feet, I could turn around and confirm that I was in a courtyard surrounded by houses. Or what used to be houses. All of them were currently smoldering rubble, meaning that the fire that burned them down happened recently.
I looked down at my body, finding that I was wearing different clothes than what I last remembered. I was no longer in my PJs but in what I could only describe as middle age clothes.
They were nothing elaborate, just a simple tunic, pants, and boots, but they did look like they were ripped straight from one of the many fantasy games I played. The ones set in the Middle Ages, ones that had magic.
Magic.
No, No, I’m jumping to conclusions. There are many explanations, perhaps I went to a Renaissance fair and got drunk. There was an accident that burned the place down and I needed to get somewhere where the paramedics and firefighters could check me out.
Except, I’ve never been to a Renaissance fair.
I took a deep breath again and focused on my heartbeat again. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Let my pulse take the oxygen up to my brain and take all thoughts away with my pulse.
I slowly began walking to an opening in the rubble piles. I tripped a few times and had to catch myself from falling because of the uneven ground but I eventually steadied my feet and began a slow walk through the ruined town I found myself in.
Judging from the trees I could see off in the distance over the scorched wall, it was in the middle of a forest very far from the city I was supposed to be in. Another piece of evidence to add to a growing pile that I pushed out of my mind.
There was smoke still rising into the sky, meaning that the fire was just going out. I wanted to shout for people, to see if anyone was around but my throat was too scratchy and dry to let out more than a strangled whisper.
So I continued to walk, looking for water and people. The further I went from the black soot-covered walls the less the houses became damaged.
They were still burnt with the roofs caved in, but the walls were still standing. A good sign that the damage had been mitigated by people. So on I walked, navigating the town’s twisting streets moving further from the walls and towards what I hoped were people.
I eventually make it to what I assume is the town’s center. It was a big open center with streets crisscrossing every which way outwards from it. It was also home to the less damage buildings I have seen so far.
They were made of wood and stone in a style that was very reminiscent of medieval Europe with Asian influences. I walked over to the biggest one in the middle of the square and knocked on the door only for it to swing open.
I hesitantly entered the dim house. The furniture was made of wood and leather, there were ceramic plates and mugs on the table with a candelabra in the middle full of unlit candles.
I walked over to it to find that some food was still on the table. Some bread, rice, veggies I couldn’t identify, and what looked like smoked meat. And in the center of the table sitting in a jar was water.
I lunged at the jug and hurriedly brought it up to my lips. Water came flooding in my mouth, washing away all the ash on my tongue and down my throat. I only stopped when I started choking on it and had to cough some of it out of my lungs.
I took a second drink of it after I finished coughing, being more careful with it but still pouring as much as I could down my throat before it was emptied.
I lowered the jug from my lips, having emptied it before setting it back on the table.
“I hope that was safe to drink”, I said out loud, my voice coming out with more strength than the last time I tried to talk. Though it sounded different, it was higher and less mature than I remember.
BOOM
I jumped at the sound of something heavy dropping. My heart pounded in my chest and I turned around and slowly walked to see what happened outside. I slowly peeked my head out of the door frame and came face-to-eye with a monster.
I froze as I stared into the eye that was bigger than I was tall. A vertical pupil surrounded by a yellow iris stared at me, into my very soul. I wanted to look at the rest of it, but to do that I would need to move either my head or my eyes.
That would mean breaking eye contact with this creature, something that my entire being screamed at me not to do. The moment I looked away, was the moment I died.
It dared me to move, to look away. To show weakness to it. Then it would gladly kill me and move on with its day. That’s what it whispered in my soul.
So I didn’t. I stood still and focused on what had been keeping me going this far. My breath and my heartbeat.
I fell into the rhythm again, in through the nose, holding for five heartbeats, and out through the mouth again. I did that as I continued to stare my would-be death in the face.
I don’t know how long we stayed like that, time has lost all meaning as I stood there. Eventually, though, the eye blinked before drawing further away, allowing me to see what I had been staring at.
It was a dragon. Honest to god, no doubt it was a real dragon. Its scales were stained black by the malice that swirled around it, its wings blocked out the sun, and its teeth were sharper than anything I had seen. It was hatred, malice, suffering, and death incarnated.
It extended a clutched claw, slowly placing it near the ground before opening its claw causing a woman to fall out. She was dressed in a qipao covered with blood and ash.
I looked up at the dragon as it gestured to the woman it just dropped before leaping into the air. I watched as it flew further and further away until I could no longer see it.
As soon as it was out of sight I ran towards the woman, hoping she was still alive despite the staggering amount of blood loss and burns.
As I drew closer I saw that I was worse than I could have imagined. Her left arm was missing, her legs were completely burned black leaving only stumps that extended past her burned dress.
Her remaining arm was broken and bruised in so many places I could hardly recognize it as an arm anymore. I could see a little of her stomach from where her dress was torn, revealing slash marks so deep her intestines were spilling out.
Despite everything, I could still see her chest rise and fall as she drew her last shallow breaths.
I reached her side and collapsed to my knees. I wanted to reach out, to help her in some way but I didn’t know how. I knew CPR sure but that didn’t translate to helping whatever this is.
“Hang on! Don’t worry, I’ll find help! I’m sure the doctors can help you, you just need to hold on a little longer okay?!” I blabbered as I reached out and tried to put her intestines back in her body.
They’re not supposed to be outside right? Right, Right of course not. They are called internal organs for a reason. I put them back and held my hands over her bleeding abdomen.
I need to stop the blood. How can I stop the blood? I need gauze, bandages, something! I whipped my head back and forth trying to find something before I looked down and saw my shirt.
I ripped it off as quickly as I could, hurriedly folding it before stuffing it over the wound. The shirt bloomed red as the blood-soaked into it but I held it still as I looked down at the stumps that were her legs.
They were completely black at the ends, the smell of burnt flesh slowly reaching my nose causing me to gag. I quickly breathed through my mouth, getting my gag reflex under control before looking at her left shoulder and seeing that it too was burnt.
‘At least those are cauterized,’ I thought, trying to find something positive in this situation. Still, all of these are stopgaps. She needed to get to a hospital, I needed to get her help.
I took a deep breath and let out a shout, “ HELP! SOMEONE HELP! PLEASE!”
My voice echoed through the streets before fading entirely. I waited a few moments before shouting again,” SOMEONE PLEASE. GET HELP! She’s Not gonna make it…” my voice went quiet towards the end as a thought struck me.
‘What if they’re all dead? I didn’t see anyone on my way here,’ I thought. What if there is no one left? If the dragon killed everyone then no one’s coming to help. No one knows this woman is here.
Except me.
I know she’s here. Sure I could go run around looking for help but that’s just an excuse.
The only thing that would accomplish would be leaving her to die alone. I pushed down harder on the shirt as I gritted my teeth.
“I’m not going to leave you,” I whispered to her, a voice so quiet I could hardly hear it myself. I can’t leave someone to die in front of me because I can’t do anything. Not again.
I may not be able to fix her, to perform surgery or donate the blood she’s lost. But I refuse to run away from reality like a coward. I may only be able to watch and keep her company in her last moments, but even that is better than leaving her to die alone.
So I will stay. I will stay and shout while trying to slow the blood loss as much as I can so that a miracle might happen. I closed my eyes, focused on my breathing and my heartbeat again. I needed to remain calm, growing hysterical isn’t going to help anyone.
In through the nose, ignore the smell, hold the breath for five beats, exhale through the mouth. I repeated it before shouting again. Breath, hold, exhale as a shout before breathing again.
I was just about to shout again when a voice, barely audible, reached my ear, “There’s no need to shout. No one’s coming.”
I paused my shouting, letting the breath leave through my mouth before turning to face the woman.
“There has to be someone. A doctor or medic or someone that can help you,” I was desperate. I can’t have someone dying in front of me, in my arms as I watch powerless to do something.
“There’s no one left here other than you and me. Every other life signature is gone. The beast killed them all. He is very thorough in his work,” The woman responded with a rasp.
“Why it brought me to you I do not know, but I am grateful to the heavens for this chance. Do you want to help me child? I shall grant you a suitable reward if you do,” The woman’s voice was tinged with hope and desperation.
“What do you need me to do?” I responded with no hesitation. I can’t refuse someone’s dying wish. I just hope it’s something I can accomplish.
“Thank you child. The request is simply, do you see the pendant around my neck? When my soul has left this body, I want you to take the pendent and place it around your neck. Once you do so, take the ring on my right hand and rub it with your thumb. What's inside will be your reward. It suits you perfectly,” the woman’s voice was flooded with relief leaving me confused.
“That’s all? Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” I asked. She just wanted to give me some jewelry? If it was delivering them back to her family I could understand it, but just giving me them?
“You are a kind child. Worry not, you will understand soon enough. Now tell me, do you promise me to do what I have asked of you?” The woman let out a small smile as she heard my question.
In the back of my mind, the more reasonable and cynical part of me was suspicious. This was a completely different world after all, who’s to say that she’s not tricking me so she can body snatch me? It was pretty common in these types of stories after all.
But the main part of my brain couldn’t refuse her request. It may make me an idiot, okay it made me an idiot, but I couldn’t help it. Something in my gut said she wasn’t trying to hurt me and I always followed my gut more than my head. What can I say, it was a trait that ran in the family.
“Okay, if that’s what you want then I will do it.” I agreed despite my better judgment. The woman left a smile, one that showed her teeth as well as a little laugh before it turned into a cough.
“Thank you, child. May we meet again under better circumstances,” The woman’s breathing slowly grew more and more shallow after that until finally it ceased altogether.
I slowly took my hands from her abdomen and reached up to check her pulse. No heartbeat and slightly cold skin. She was gone.
I just sat there for a few moments, looking at her. She had a smile on her face still, despite the pain I’m sure she was in. While she didn’t look at peace, she most certainly looked relieved.
My hands reached up and gently took the pendant from her neck. I slowly untied it before slipping it off of her neck and holding it in my hand.
It was a gorgeous white and blue stone that had swirling patterns and specks of green throughout. I was faintly aware that this was my chance to just leave the pendant here, to back out on my promise.
But I didn’t. I hardly even registered the thought as I put it around my neck and tied the string so it was secure. The gem settled on my bare chest as I waited for something to happen but nothing did.
The stone dangled from my neck as I leaned over to the woman’s right hand and gently as possible took the ring off of it. It was a silver ring with what looked to be jade embedded in it. On the inside and outside of the ring, were some markings that looked like constellations, though I didn’t know which ones.
I put the ring on my right ring finger before slowly running my thumb over it. The moment I did, I was suddenly standing in a room that looked like it had just come out of a period drama.
It was empty except for a book in the middle of the floor. I looked around to make sure that there was nothing else before taking a few hesitant steps forward until I arrived at the book.
I gently picked it up before everything went back to normal and I was kneeling by the woman’s body again, this time the book I picked up held in my right hand.
“Nine Color Purifying Elemental Body Manual” I read the title aloud before feeling my heart stop and my brain click everything into place.
“I transmigrated into a xianxia world!” I shouted as the realization came over me. Randomly waking up in a place I didn’t know, the dragon that defined death itself, the mysterious woman, the name of this book! Everything fits a xianxia world to a tee.
Come on, why a xianxia world! They’re one of the worst places in fiction right up there with Warhammer and other grim dark settings.
A world where everyone is always killing each other over ‘honor’ and ‘face’. Where there’s always some hidden expert that’s ready to come and fuck your shit up if you offend them by just existing.
The worst part is that if this is a xianxia world, then the dragon that I just met, the one that seemed to incarnate death itself, was probably just some low-level mod to the real big dogs in this world.
The dragon might not even be all that impressive in the grand scheme of things. Hell the woman that just died was probably some expert that was being hunted by people and the dragon just happened to show up and wiped them out when they were injured.
This pendant is probaly some stupid fucking soul gem or SOS beacon. This ring is a spatial ring and this book is a hidden treasure that everyone was after, hence why the woman was getting hunted.
There’s going to be some stupid fucking shit that comes form this, I just know it! I just got involved with something that’s going to rear its ugly head in like five hundred chapters if this was a book.
But this is real life. My life now. And while I may not know if the tropes are going to come true or not, I'm going to err on the side of caution until I’m proven wrong. Which means I need to get stronger really, really fast.
Breath. I need to breathe before I hyperventilate. In through the nose, hold, feel it get carried away before releasing it and repeating until clam.
However, before I could repeat, two things happened. First, the pendant around my neck glowed and the body of the woman who was on the ground disappeared in a flash of light. The blood that had soaked the ground, my shirt, and my hands disappeared along with it, leaving the area clean except for the soot.
Second, the book I was holding in my hand flashed before disappearing in a green light leaving me clutching air.
I sat there for a moment, stunned before I took a deep breath and exhaled. I got up from the ground, put my now clean shirt back on, and made my way back towards the house that I was in before the dragon came crashing down in the middle of the town.
I walked up to the dinner table, and seeing that the food looked relatively clean, I reached out and started eating some. Now that everything had calmed down, I realized I was starving and since I don’t know when my next meal will be, I’m going to enjoy the feast that was laid out before me. For original chapters go to novęlfire.net
By the time I was done, the sun had dipped down a bit in the sky. I guess the time was a little past noon right now? Still, with my belly full and no immediate dangers in sight, it was time to read that book.
I rubbed the ring again, went to the storage room, and picked it up off the ground again before leaving and sitting down on the bed in the house I found. It was surprisingly comfortable all things considered, though then again it was probably so hundred-year-old wood with specially cultivated sheep wool for the mattress or something else equally ridiculous.
I stared at the title, “Nine Color Purifying Elemental Body Manual”, willing it to change into something less xianxia but it remained static. I ignored the fact that I could somehow read it, considering I doubt they speak English in fantasy land China. Or the fact that I could understand the woman’s request before she died.
I sighed again before slowly opening the cover, knowing that this was my best chance to gain power and prepare for whatever bullshit plot that was about to happen.
“If you seek to use and understand this manual, you must bind it to you by blood. Be warned, once it is bound to you, you will never be unbound until death do you part,” I read aloud feeling some trepidation building up as I did.
If I did this, that was it. I was bound to it and it was bound to me and if someone wanted to take it from me, they would need to kill me for it. Something I am sure they will have no problem doing if this world operates how I think it does.
On the other hand, I’m going to have to deal with the people of this world sometime and I rather have a means to defend myself before I do. And at the moment, this manual was my only option to gain that.
I felt my thoughts flip-flop back and forth before I stopped thinking altogether and focused on how I felt. And my gut feelings remained the same as before, this manual wouldn’t harm me, it would help me. I’m sure of it.
And with that realization, everything was settled. I got up off the bed and then into the kitchen area of the house, I was staying in. After rifling through some drawers, I found a clean and sharp knife.
I went back to the bed with steady steps before sitting back down on it and placing the book in my lap while holding the knife in my right hand.
I brought the tip of the blade to my forearm, and very gently pressed it against the skin. I felt a bit of pain from it but I pressed on and drew the knife up away from my torso to my hand, making a small vertical cut.
I placed the knife on the bedside table before bringing my arm to hover just over the book as I let the blood drip down from my arm and onto the pages.
The moment my blood made contact with the pages a multicolor light show broke out. The lights danced around each other before they converged and rushed straight at me.
I barely even had enough time to process what had happened before it slammed into my head and I felt very dizzy and tired all of a sudden.
‘Well, it’s a good thing I did this on a bed,’ was my last thought before my consciousness faded to black and I entered the sweet realm of dreams.