Chapter 1: Ink Brush Realm

In a state between waking and sleeping, Lv Fang felt as if he were submerged in pitch-black darkness.

His mind was muddled and his thoughts sluggish; he could not move his body, speak a word, or see a thing. Even his perception of the outside world was incredibly vague.

It felt as though this body did not belong to him.

This "sense of detachment" made him anxious and restless!

Faintly, he heard footsteps approaching. Someone lifted Lv Fang's wrist, as if taking his pulse.

Then came a conversation; judging by the voices, it sounded like two elders talking.

"Physician Xu, why is my young master still unconscious?"

"There is no danger to his life. It is merely caused by overexertion and fatigue. I shall write a prescription for him to recuperate properly."

"As you say, then. My young lady has gone to inspect the farmstead and has yet to return. If anything were to happen to the young master..."

Lv Fang heard a few sentences through the haze before exhaustion overcame him and he fell back asleep.

He did not know how much time had passed when he suddenly felt his feet slip into empty air. Startled, he jolted awake and hurriedly opened his eyes.

'So it was just a dream!'

Lv Fang's heart had just begun to relax when he suddenly realized something was wrong.

He felt utterly drained, his head dizzy, as if he had been a "fourteen-times-a-night man" for an entire night; his body felt completely hollowed out.

Sitting up "laboriously" from the canopy bed, Lv Fang was stunned.

The bedroom was antique and elegant, featuring a beauty's dressing screen, a yellow rosewood eight-immortal table, and grand master chairs, with exquisite and refined ceramic wares placed everywhere.

'What is going on! Where is this? Why am I sleeping here?'

Lv Fang struggled to recall what had happened last night when suddenly, a surge of unfamiliar memories rushed in like a tide, and scenes of memory flashed rapidly before his eyes.

After sorting through his thoughts, Lv Fang realized he had transmigrated! He had transmigrated into the body of an individual with the same name, Lv Fang, in this world.

Lv Fang, courtesy name Xun Ge, twenty years old, parents both deceased, had a younger sister and a house. He was the head of the Lv household in Po County, Jiangzhou, a family of wealthy merchants and scholars.

He cursed at three, fought at five.

At seven, he resolved to become a scholar (because his sister said that girls all liked scholars).

At fourteen, he snuck off to the pleasure houses to listen to music for the first time.

At fifteen, he went to the pleasure houses to listen to music.

At eighteen, he was still going to the pleasure houses to listen to music.

At twenty, he was grounded at home by his sister.

Lv Fang cried, made a scene, and threatened to hang himself, but seeing that no one paid him any mind, he gradually quieted down.

From then on, he grew thinner day by day.

Outsiders who saw him assumed it was because his studies were too taxing on his mind.

Only Lv Fang knew it was because a pretty beauty accompanied him every night.

On a dark and windy night, Lv Fang was lying on the bed reading a book with great interest when a pretty beauty pushed the door open and walked in.

At the time, he also felt it was strange!

The door had been locked from the outside; how had she gotten in?

The pretty beauty claimed to be the daughter of a certain martial arts school, "waiting in her chambers to be wed." She had long admired Lv Fang's literary talent and could no longer bear the affection in her heart, so she had boldly visited Master Lv at night.

Glancing at the pretty beauty sitting shyly on the chair, demure yet dignified, her eyes looking over like spring water, full of admiration and worship.

Lv Fang felt as if insects were crawling all over his body; his heart was like a wild horse off its tether, wanting to gallop away immediately.

He narcissistically believed that the pretty beauty had a discerning eye for talent!

He threw the few doubts in his heart ten thousand miles away, dug a hole, buried them, and even stomped on the dirt twice before leaving to pack the earth down tight.

Ten days or so passed.

Lv Fang slept during the day to conserve his energy, and every night he would bathe, change clothes, burn incense, and sweep the bed, waiting quietly for the beauty to come and teach him "knowledge."

Worried that his sister might hear wind of it and ruin his good fortune, he kept his mouth shut to everyone.

It was not until last night, just before he died, that he finally realized there was no pretty beauty serving him; the land of gentleness was merely an illusion.

He saw clearly that it was an ugly ghost-thing beside him, sucking away his Yang energy.

Before he could even scream, he had already kicked his legs and breathed his last.

"..."

Lv Fang mourned for his predecessor, thinking that his predecessor had been killed by an evil ghost, and he had transmigrated by borrowing this body.

He only worried: what if the evil ghost discovered he wasn't dead and came back to claim his life?

In his memories, Lv Fang learned that in this world, there were great scholars who could "punish with words and denounce with pens," Daoist True Persons who could summon "heavenly thunder," and Buddhas with ten thousand marvelous methods...

The two alien races, the demons and the barbarians, coexisted with humanity.

The talk of ghosts was also truly and tangibly real.

A ghost! It was an evil, sinister thing.

Since ghosts existed, they could also be eliminated.

The Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist schools could all destroy them.

The Confucian school cultivated a body of Haoran Zhengqi; when ghosts saw it, it was like a brilliant, blinding light—they could not look upon it, nor could they harm it.

The Great Zhou Dynasty was founded on Confucianism and also revered the Daoist religion.

A Daoist's ghost-catching methods were "officially" professionally certified and trustworthy.

The Buddhist school also had methods for deliverance, but in this world, Buddhism was a national power, and they were not permitted to establish temples within the Great Zhou Dynasty.

'Strange!'

Lv Fang rummaged through his memories and suddenly discovered a strange thing: that ghost! That pretty beauty had been secretly probing for information—what treasures did the Lv family have?

Uh... heh! His predecessor had actually shown the "big treasure" to the pretty beauty; he was quite the talent.

Just as Lv Fang was caught between laughter and tears, he suddenly felt worried: Confucian scholars who could eliminate ghosts with Haoran Zhengqi were always aloof; even if offered silver, they might not necessarily come.

Not to mention that the household didn't know any, and there was no way to find anyone.

'The Buddhist school?'

Lv Fang shook his head like a rattle; the household had no connections to find an enlightened high monk.

'The Daoist religion?' Lv Fang furrowed his brows and hurriedly walked out of the bedroom to look up at the sky. Judging by the position of the sun, it should be around four in the afternoon.

To go outside the city to the "Yuyang Mountain, Lingdu Temple" to invite a Daoist priest would take three or four hours for a round trip; he feared it would be too late.

Could it be that he had to pray that the evil ghost thought he was dead and wouldn't come back tonight? That was treating his life too much like a child's game.

"Someone come..."

Lv Fang opened his mouth to call for someone, when suddenly a thunderous sound exploded in his ears, as if an ethereal voice had descended from the heavens:

"Heaven and earth define the universe with characters; wielding the brush, the Dao of ink creates heaven and earth; gathering ten thousand idle books and elegant collections, providing the Dao within the books to manifest meaning—this is the 'Ink Brush Realm'."

"Ink Brush Realm... Realm of Ink Brush... Ink Brush Realm—"

Amidst the melodious "book" sound that seemed to drift to the "ends of the earth," Lv Fang tilted his head and passed out.

Lv Fang seemed to have had a dream.

In the dream, the sky was ink, and the earth was also ink. A giant brush exuding an ancient aura stood between heaven and earth, like a divine pillar supporting the ink sky and ink earth.

The giant brush wielded itself freely in the air—Ink Brush Realm.

As soon as the characters were formed, the ink sky and ink earth shook violently.

Pop, pop...

Books of various colors, shimmering with spiritual light, emerged from thin air—some the size of a palm, some as tall as a person, and others were giant books like mountain peaks...

The books frolicked between heaven and earth, flying through the sky and escaping into the earth, spinning in circles, jumping, shaking their heads, performing shoulder-checks, and even fighting each other.

Where were these books?

They were clearly mischievous children frolicking, adding a touch of vitality and color to the dead, silent ink sky and ink earth.

Suddenly, the giant brush above swung left and right in the air! The restless books were restrained by an unknown force to the opposite side.

A horizontal stroke of seven-colored ink appeared in the middle of the ink earth, separating Lv Fang from the books.

That horizontal stroke of seven-colored ink was endless, as if it had no limit.

It seemed to have some kind of magic, or perhaps it was a barrier, preventing the books from coming over and preventing Lv Fang from going across.

Just as Lv Fang was feeling anxious, a book descended from the ink sky above and struck him on the forehead. A surge of memory flooded into his mind, and a passage of content leaped out in his heart—

"Liaozhai Zhiyi: Nie Xiaoqian"! ===== CHAPTER 2 =====