Chapter 1: Initial Entry

Lu Jiangxian had a long dream, envisioning rice fields, the clash of swords, immortal sects, women, and a vast lake.

“Surrender the Lunar Breathing Qi Cultivation Method and the Esoteric Principles of the Moonlight Chronicle, and we will merely cripple your cultivation.”

A pleasant yet chilling female voice echoed in his ear. Lu Jiangxian vaguely perceived a blurry face, yet couldn't make out any details.

“CRASH!” A sudden, violent jolt instantly roused Lu Jiangxian.

A kaleidoscope of bizarre colors flickered in his mind. Lu Jiangxian tried to open his eyes and sit up, but his body, as if in the grip of sleep paralysis, utterly defied his will.

Then, a brilliant white light pierced through the dense darkness before his eyes. Though the darkness surged like a relentless tide, the pillar of light remained steadfast, as eternal as the sun itself.

Intricate golden runes erupted from it, unfurling in the darkness and scattering across the sky like myriad stars.

“So beautiful,” Lu Jiangxian thought blankly.

As the runes proliferated, seemingly reaching a critical mass, he heard a cracking sound, like shattering glass. The world illuminated.

Lu Jiangxian beheld a sky as vast as the ocean, a boundless, dense primeval forest, and, not far off, a crescent-shaped lake. In that direction, a streak of white light gracefully descended into the shimmering water.

Below lay a small cluster of straw-roofed huts and stretches of rice paddies.

From his wildly spinning perspective, he drifted like a weightless swallow, passing over a small, brownish-yellow village with its wisps of smoke, and gliding above a clear, shallow river.

In a fleeting glimpse, Lu Jiangxian saw his reflection in the small river.

“It looks like something round and sparkling...” Lu Jiangxian mused in confusion, a vague premonition stirring within him: “Am I no longer human?”

“SPLASH!” Another violent jolt struck, and Lu Jiangxian swiftly sank into the water. The river was too shallow to absorb the full impact, so he lightly bumped against a bluestone on its bed.

The impact felt like a punch to the chest, leaving Lu Jiangxian breathless and with a tightness in his chest. Yet, his body, propelled by the swirling water and the rebound from the collision, steadily flipped over to face upwards, directly aligned with the sun shimmering on the river's surface.

“Wasn’t I pulling an all-nighter in my rental apartment to revise a proposal?”

Lu Jiangxian silently gazed at the sun on the river’s surface. The swift current caused the light patterns on the riverbed to constantly twist and shift.

As he silently delved into his past memories, Lu Jiangxian's head throbbed. He could only recall collapsing, utterly exhausted, onto his bed, the cigarette smoke and neon glow from his rental apartment drifting around him.

He had opened a beer, sat at his dim computer desk, and as a disorienting dizziness overcame him, he felt his heart race and his breathing grow increasingly labored.

“Did I… die?”

“This is pretty good too; no need to worry about the future, no need to worry about life.”

Perhaps due to prolonged suppression, such a thought surprisingly surfaced in Lu Jiangxian’s mind, and he even felt a flicker of exhilaration.

He surveyed his surroundings: dark green treetops with hanging aerial roots above him, nimble fish occasionally darting past, and the faint, rhythmic sound of water lapping.

Lu Jiangxian sighed: “But I’ll go mad with boredom if this continues.”

So he gazed blankly as the sun slowly descended from overhead, the brilliant sunset painting the sky, and the waters beneath the treetops gradually dimming.

During this time, two fish curiously circled him, and even a crab tried to flip him over.

It wasn’t until the moon rose above the treetops, casting its clear, soft light onto the river’s surface, that Lu Jiangxian felt a pleasant surprise: a cool sensation permeated to the riverbed, bringing with it a subtle comfort.

As he watched the moonlight gradually converge above his body, seemingly coming alive to form a faint white halo, Lu Jiangxian was utterly stunned. His mindset underwent a radical transformation:

“What is this, am I absorbing the essence of the sun and moon? Are there truly immortals in this world, wondrous divine powers, monsters, ghosts, and spirits?” he thought, aghast. “What have I become? An artifact spirit?”

A surge of curiosity and joy welled up deep within Lu Jiangxian. The faint moon halo, as if having gathered sufficient power, drifted down upon him.

He felt a cool sensation envelop him, then slipped into a meditative state, neither fully awake nor asleep.

He lost all sense of time. As the flow of energy grew increasingly faint, Lu Jiangxian suddenly awoke. The crescent moon had vanished from the sky, and the sun had crested the treetops, casting warm morning light onto the river’s surface.

“So fast,” he murmured, unable to contain his joy. Upon closer inspection, he indeed sensed a faint current of qi circulating within him, moving in a circular motion along his rounded edges.

Moreover, by focusing his qi and mind, Lu Jiangxian could vaguely perceive a grayish-blue mirror resting silently on the riverbed beneath him, surrounded by colorful pebbles. Several fish were foraging nearby.

The river crab he’d seen earlier was digging nearby. His field of vision extended about a meter around him, and it wasn’t very clear, much like an old, bulky television screen from his childhood.

“So this is me now,” Lu Jiangxian thought with a bitter smile. He then deliberately directed the qi flow to the center of the mirror, causing the grayish-blue surface to emit a faint shimmer.

“Aside from glowing, I haven’t discovered any other use for it.”

“For now, I should diligently absorb the moon’s essence; perhaps it will lead to a qualitative transformation,” he planned to himself. “I don’t know what this mirror is made of, nor how the outside world perceives sentient objects. I just hope I’m not discovered by some immortal cultivator who might casually erase my consciousness.”