The weightless sensation lingered for an unknown strettil, with a thunderous bang!, Xia Fe his body sm into solid ground, shattering somethih him. Pain ripped through him, his bones feeling like they’d e unhinged.

  He y still for a few seds, waiting for the dizzio fade before taking stock of his surroundings. He rawled ft on his ba a rickety, half-height fenced shack, its roof smashed open by his fall, revealing a pristine, dustless azure sky. A handful of chis and ducks fpped out of the wreckage in a frantic escape, squawking protests all the way.

  Outside, a few four- or five-year-olds gaped at him, too young to know fear, their faces etched only with astonishment. Their clothes were unlike anything Xia Feng had seen—straight out of a period drama’s backgrouras.

  “Where am I?” Xia Feng struggled to his feet, realizing he was covered head to toe in duck feathers and chi droppings.

  “My family’s chi coop!” the oldest kid piped up. Another, smaller one, peered skyward, then at Xia Feng g his way out of the coop, asking in a piping voice, “How’d you get up there? you take me too?”

  “No clue how I got up there,” Xia Feng shrugged helplessly, reag instinctively for his left pocket—only to find his clothes were entirely different. No pockets on this wide-sleeved robe, and naturally, no ever-present gum.

  “What the hell did you do?!” A burly man in a short jacket and fred trousers stormed over, bellowing. Ign Xia Feng, he chased after the fleeing poultry, shouting, “Help me catch ‘em! If they get away, you’re paying—y coppers per chi!”

  Seeing the kids join the roundup, Xia Feng dashed after the birds. Once he sprang into a, the chis and ducks were like turtles in a jar—no match for his lightning-fast grabs. In moments, he’d hem all. The man gawked at Xia Feng’s wind-like speed, tongue lolling as he muttered, “Holy crap! With moves like that, you could be a courier—two silver s a day, easy!”

  “Where is this?” Xia Feng asked, helping stuff the birds bato their cage. The man replied, “Haiying Vilge in Jiagong ty. Pretty remote—most outsiders don’t know it.”

  “Jiagong ty? Haiying Vilge?” Xia Feng frow the unfamiliar names. “What’s the city?”

  “That’d be Eastern Ling City to the east, about a hundred li from here. You’ve gotta know that one, right?”

  “Eastern Ling City! The easternmost backwater of Eastern Xuan Kingdom? This is Real Illusion? This is the Atntis ti!” A surge of excitement hit Xia Feng. He touched the broken coop, pinched his face—everythi solid, real, not a shred of illusion! Hard to believe this wasn’t reality, just a stru his mind!

  He flung his arms wide, tears welling as he shouted to the world, “Atntis! I’m finally here!” Sure, he’d been in this virtual realm before, living full cycles from birth to death, but each time he’d lost himself, unaware of a real world beyond, ignorant that his name was Xia Feng.

  This time was different—he kly who he was, why he was here, and his purpose. How many in this world of tless souls had that privilege?

  As Xia Feng reveled, slightly unhihe man eyed him curiously, sizing up this outsider like he was a lunatic. Then he blurted, “Never seen you before. Where you from? Why’d you wreck my coop the moment you got here?”

  Before Xia Feng could ahe sky-curious kid pointed upward, chirping, “He came from there!”

  “Don’t talk nonsehe man swatted his son’s head, the Xia Feng. “I don’t care where you’re from—you smashed my coop, you owe me! Took me half a month to build it. You’re paying at least six—no, seven silver s!”

  Xia Feng cooled off, patting himself down. Nothing but the robe and a white cloak—no cash. He gave the man an apologetic grin. “Sorry, looks like I’m broke.”

  “No mohat won’t cut it!” The man grabbed Xia Feng’s colr. “No cash, then hand over that cloak!”

  The word “cloak” jolted Xia Feng. Haven’t tested this thi—does it even work? Let’s try it on him. Worst case, he thinks I’m nuts.

  With that, Xia Feng pried the man’s hand off, ducked a few steps away, and crouched. Pulling the cloak over his head and body, he muttered the intation: No one in the world see me!

  The cloak was thiing him faintly see through it. The man’s face fshed shock, then fear. Blind to Xia Feng right in front of him, he stammered at empty air, “Weird… could he be…”

  His expression twisted into greater terror. With a thud, he dropped to his knees, kowtowing frantically, g, “Great Mage, I didn’t mean to offend you! Please don’t be angry—I’m begging fiveness!”

  His head bahe ground with loud thuds, blood trig within moments, yet he kept going. Ihe cloak, Xia Fe a pang of guilt. Reg the intation to drop the invisibility, he emerged, chug, “Just messing with you—why’re you kowtowing?”

  His sudden reappearance spooked the man, who fell ba his rear, then crawled forward, sobbing, “Great Mage, I… I didn’t mean to disrespect you, please spare me!”

  “I’m no mage!” Xia Feng crified, toug his face. “Do I look that old?”

  The man looked up dumbly, bewildered, unsure what to do. Xia Feng, fearing more haggling over pensation, waved him off. “Alright, alright, you’re five up. I’m outta here!”

  He turned and bolted, not slowing until he’d left the vilge, finally catg his breath.

  Outside, rolling hills stretched in every dire, bed with exotic wildflowers painting the ndscape iakiy. After washing off the filth in a stream, Xia Fe off on his adventure.

  Breathing in the floral mountain air, he recalled Atntis basics: this was the northeastern edge of Eastern Xuan Kingdom, he Eastern O, a remote mountain region.

  Eastern Xuan Kingdom folk, or Eastern Xuanese, were mostly yellow-skinned, bck-eyed, and bck-haired, so Xia Feng blended in fairly well.

  Atntis housed three main races: the populous yellow-skinern Xuahe white-skinned Great Westerners, who ruled the richest pins and built the mighty Great Western Empire; and the bck-skinned Semu, driven by the Great Westerners into the western Gobi Desert, living in loose tribal coalitions sans a uate.

  Mix-bloods of all kied too, though far fewer. In the southeaster ss, outcast drifters from every race—shunned by their owo the Southern Wilds, a barbarid of evil spirits and fierce beasts, far from civilization.

  Guessing Dumas’s destination, Xia Feng pegged the Great Western Empire as the likeliest bet. But on foot? No ce. He’d need a mount from Eastern Ling City first—a hundred li of mountain roads, peanuts for ae extreme rider, though he wasn’t sure if a game li matched a real one.

  With that, Xia Feng strode east along the mountain path, soaking in the dazzling wildflowers, crisp air, and spotless blue sky. This virtual world outshoy by miles!

  Meanwhile, in Poseidon, the Great Western Empire’s capital, atop the tallest sacrificial tower of the Great Poseidon Temple, the Chief Diviner shuddered. Pressing his eyes to the sky scope, he muttered in barely tained dread, “Camity stars! Camity stars! Owo, three—three of them! No, four—the st one’s so faint it’s nearly invisible, radiating an unpreted evil and bloodlust! This paradise ti… it’s heading for chaos!”

  A nearby attendant bowed, asking, “Mage, should we alert the Emperor, let everyone prepare?”

  “Pointless, utterly pointless!” The Diviumbled from the scope, staring bnkly into the void. “These four stars—Camity, Chaos, Sughter, Death—fell so suddenly, so swiftly, without warning. They’re too powerful, beyond anything we ter. If only Grand Mage Stanma had mastered Sky Eye, we might’ve glimpsed their forms!”

  “Then…” the attendaated, “should we record today’s anomalous sky signs?”

  “Of course—absolutely!” The Diviner waved excitedly. “Use indelible abar, seal it in the secret archives. Write: On the eighteenth of May, third year of Emperor Richard’s reign, Great Western Empire, at 9:45 a.m., four stars—Camity, Chaos, Sughter, Death—fell. One in southeaster Western Empire, one in the Southern Wilds, two in northeasterern Xuan Kingdom. Dire omens! Atntis, nd of peace, has twenty years of calm left at most.”

  That was a on-sense guess. He couldn’t know these camity stars wouldn’t wait twenty years to wreak havoc.

  “Gods, give me a sign! How the Great Western Empire dodge this unpreted disaster?” The Diviner k oower, unmoving fes. After a meal’s worth of time, he ordered, “Report to the Emperor and Grand Mage Stanma. Request a live sacrifice to appease Heaven ah and seek an oracle!”