Chapter 1: One Door at the Start

In the azure sky, a few white clouds drifted by.

Zhou Shuo stood on the firm dirt road, gazing at the distant massive city wall, then turned his head to look at the sparse passersby on the road. Those passersby mostly wore cloth long robes, with sashes around their waists; their clothing style resembled antiquity, though it was impossible to tell which dynasty. Their hair, oily and long, was either tied up or hung loose, their complexions had a sallow yellow tint, and each bore an air of the era. To Zhou Shuo, a modern person, they seemed rustic, especially their eyes, which held a hesitant gaze—wanting to look but daring not to look at him.

Zhou Shuo involuntarily lowered his head in the dirt road, looking at the dust-covered ground, suppressing his pounding heart. If a few people could still be dismissed as a film set, but an entire city of this scale had been constructed—surely this counts as a transmigration, right?

Zhou Shuo was a twenty-three-year-old born in the twenty-first century, a homebody code slave who never went out. While working one night, he suddenly, in the blink of an eye, summoned an ancient-looking gate. At first he thought it was a hallucination, but after truly going back and forth through that gate several times, he finally concluded his experience was the legendary transmigration—and a two-way one at that.

Having gained the ability to transmigrate, Zhou Shuo felt extremely excited; images of wandering the martial world, roaming heaven and earth, summoning wind and rain, even achieving immortality—all the things associated with transmigration—spontaneously surfaced in his mind.

"Go, go, go—you're thinking too far ahead. First, figure out where you are." Zhou Shuo slapped his forehead, forcing himself to snap out of it. He glanced at the surrounding crowd in ancient attire, then looked down at his own jeans and T-shirt, touched his short hair, and wondered whether entering the city like this would be too conspicuous, whether he should go back and tidy himself up.

The thought of going back to prepare himself was instantly shut down by Zhou Shuo, because he felt the ancient people's gazes toward him were evasive—they didn't even dare to look at him. His outfit, while striking, wasn't necessarily a bad thing; a distinctive appearance might intimidate these natives. Even if it didn't, he had ways to preserve his life. Caution wasn't wrong, but there was no need to be timid and shrinking.

"However you say it, I'm someone who gets protagonist treatment." Zhou Shuo raised his head, puffed his chest, and strode toward the distant city. On the way he felt his steps extraordinarily light, as if he were about to fly.

Up close, the massive city resembled a giant beast lying on the ground, its mouth guarded by soldiers. Zhou Shuo strode into the city under the soldiers' surprised gazes. Of course, before entering, he hadn't forgotten to look up at the characters on the city gate. Seeing those words, he couldn't help but chuckle: the three neat block characters 'Jade Capital City' gave him the feeling that the whole universe used Chinese characters and spoke Chinese.

It wasn't just the writing; the city's tiled roofs, with most eaves curling upward—those were flying eaves, a feature of Chinese architecture—but Zhou Shuo carefully recalled that, in history, no city seemed to be called Jade Capital, though in mythology it did exist: the heavenly emperor's abode in Daoist legend is called Jade Capital, also referring to Mount Kunlun, and Li Bai's poems once described it:

"White Jade Capital in the heavens, twelve stories, five cities. Immortals touch my head, binding hair to grant longevity."

Thinking of all sorts of things, Zhou Shuo wandered around Jade Capital City, observing the local customs and scenery. Unlike the sparse, hurried passersby outside, the inside of the city was extremely lively. The ground was stone-paved, with vendors setting up stalls of various heights on either side, and shops and eateries hung with banners and archways. Pedestrians filled the streets—some leading horses on foot, others riding in sedan chairs.

Walking down the street, Zhou Shuo used his eyes and ears to gather any information he could. From idle chatter, he learned that the native inhabitants called their land 'Our Great Qian'. It was a feudal dynasty, and the state name was simply the character 'Qian', the first trigram of the Eight Trigrams, representing Heaven. Using this trigram as the nation's name, its aspirations must be considerable.

Besides the Great Qian Dynasty, Zhou Shuo also picked up some scattered remarks. He dared not directly ask people what era it was or what the reigning emperor's name was—such names were always taboo when spoken outright. However, he did hear that the current court had two marquises: Martial Warm Marquis Hong Xuanji and Champion Marquis Wang An. Among them, Martial Warm Marquis served as Grand Protector in the court, wielding great power for a time, while Champion Marquis was fighting the Yunmeng in the north, with victory reports arriving from time to time, so the marketplaces were full of gossip about the two.

"Why does this sound somewhat familiar!" Zhou Shuo turned around, organizing the information he'd heard, feeling a bit amused, because the news was too familiar—especially Martial Warm Marquis Grand Protector Hong Xuanji, who seemed like a very famous novel character.

"Never mind." Zhou Shuo involuntarily shook his head. Whether this was a novel world or not, he didn't need to worry about it for now; he should first satisfy his own needs.

People are beings with needs. Zhou Shuo knew his own limits well, and, based on his observations along the way, he set his first small goal according to his conditions: to become a small-time trader between the two worlds. The material and technological gap between this feudal world and modern times was considerable, and he could earn a fortune of ten thousand strings of cash from it.

Having a portal that could shuttle between worlds, the precondition for being a two-worlds small trader was already met. Zhou Shuo thought to act immediately, because today's experience was too miraculous, leaving him with a sense of unreality, as if he might lose it at any moment; thus everything had to be seized quickly, starting with securing his finances.

In a corner of Jade Capital City, Zhou Shuo returned to the modern world. After careful consideration, he took some money, went to a gift shop and bought a transparent glass sculpture, then returned home, changed into attire for Jade Capital City, and, having already inquired beforehand, knew where to sell it.

The world where the Great Qian Dynasty exists is, to some extent, similar to ancient China, so places that have persisted from antiquity to the present in China—such as brothels and pawnshops—must also exist in the Great Qian Dynasty, although the names may differ; in the Great Qian Dynasty, a pawnshop is called a quality store.

"What a pity, what a pity!" The pawnshop owner Wan An raised the glass eagle in his hand, unable to stop sighing.

"What's wrong?" Zhou Shuo looked at the old man sighing repeatedly, unable to help blinking his eyes.

"Brother Zhou, where did you get this eagle?" Wan An put down the eagle, carefully sizing up Zhou Shuo from head to toe. He was a man in his twenties, wearing a long robe and small cap, his frame looked somewhat lax, he had no martial arts training, yet his vital energy was far more robust than the average person's. He didn't resemble a Great Qian person, nor a Yunmeng, nor a Yuan Tu person, nor a Rouran, nor the peoples of the sea nations such as Shenfeng, Chuyun, or Baimu—where did this guy come from?

"Is the origin important?" Zhou Shuo countered.

"That's not it. My pawnshop accepts everything except foul goods; it's just that this eagle's carving technique is truly inferior. Although the feathers are lifelike, the spirit lacks any luster, wasting this pure, water-clear crystal glass in vain." Wan An shook his head and sighed.

"So Old Man Wan also dabbles in carving craftsmanship." Zhou Shuo looked at the head-shaking, sighing Old Man Wan, a dozen thoughts flashing through his mind, but he merely replied with a meaningless remark.

"I know a little, just a little. Looking at Brother Zhou's manner, I won't say more. A damaged glass eagle, worth fifty taels of silver—do you want to pawn it dead or alive?" Wan An glanced at Zhou Shuo's evasive words, didn't press further; in his line of work he'd dealt with all sorts of riffraff and knew some things weren't to be pried into.

"Dead pledge." Zhou Shuo understood the difference between dead and alive pledges—dead pledge versus alive pledge—so he chose dead pledge outright. Thus a glass trinket worth a dozen or so coins was quickly exchanged for a small bag of glittering, frost‑white silver ingots.

Zhou Shuo hefted the somewhat heavy bag; his feeling of unreality vanished instantly, replaced by a strong surge of excitement—he had really succeeded. Silver wasn't worth much, but the value of this silver far exceeded that of a few dozen glass trinkets; his business was off to a start.

"Brother Zhou, may I ask, old brother—can this business be long‑term?" Wan An looked at the man hefting the bag, his fair face flushing with a rosy tint, and couldn't help asking with a smile.

"I don't know how you'd like it to grow, old brother." Zhou Shuo looked at Wan An's unchanging expression, suppressing his excitement. Although the pawnshop accepted his goods and he stood to profit, overall he was sure to lose money, but he didn't care about this small profit.

"That's easy to say; old brother wants those pure raw materials—uncarved crystal glass." Wan An made no secret of his desire.

"Then how much are you prepared to pay, old brother?" Zhou Shuo countered. A steady, modest profit would be fine, but if he resold it, it wouldn't be like this—pawnshops have always been cheap‑selling places; the money he earned here would be recouped several times over by them.

"There really is such a thing!" Wan An widened his eyes.

"There is, although it's difficult, but it does exist—just…." Zhou Shuo raised his eyebrows, adopting a negotiating stance. Now he felt no stage fright, because as long as he wasn't killed on the spot, he could escape anywhere through the transmigration gate—this was his trump card.

"As for payment, old brother will settle with gold ingots—one ingot per piece, as many as you want—but no more carving of this sort. Old brother, I'll go find the Fangxian Dao immortals to get started." Wan An lifted the glass eagle in his hand, gesturing its size.

"The Fangxian Dao immortals' craftsmanship is naturally superior to mine." A muscle twitched on Zhou Shuo's face. If Hong Xuanji were merely a coincidence, then this Fangxian Dao could not be escaped—he had actually entered the Yang Spirit World.

"How so?" Wan An asked, unable to wait.

"If old brother speaks up, I'll do my best, but I also have a few things I'd like to ask of him. Since childhood I've been interested in martial arts and Daoist arts, but my family never allowed me to cultivate, so I hope old brother can…." Zhou Shuo raised his eyebrows, looking at Wan An without continuing, since this was the Yang Spirit World he saw no need to be polite—what was due must be taken.

"No problem. Old brother has a collection of martial and Daoist scriptures, plus some connections; getting you some martial arts manuals is no trouble, but these Daoist arts are closely guarded secrets, and the court now suppresses them heavily, so old brother can't help." Wan An readily agreed.

"Then thanks, old brother. As for the price of this crystal glass…." Zhou Shuo looked at Wan An, who had readily agreed and slapped his chest, feeling compelled to point out that what ought to be collected should be collected.

"Didn't we already agree on that?" Wan An furrowed his brows.

"Fine, then I'll follow old brother's lead." Zhou Shuo looked at the frowning Wan An, quickly settled in—he feared Wan An would give the goods and then withhold payment, so he'd asked; since the money would still be paid, there was no problem.

"Well, that younger brother lives there, leave a contact method and time, right, brother, how much can you give me at once..." Wan An looked at Zhou Shuo, who didn't mention a higher price, his face instantly broke into a smile, showing exceptional smoothness.