Alex knew at once that he had cked out.
He had been unable to withstand the invisible pressure released by Wu Bu-the Tiger of Wuhan. Wu Bu had only leaked a trace of his Immortal force, just enough to crush the servants to their knees.
It was meant as a warning. A show of dominance. Not an attempt to harm mortals.
But Wu Bu did not know the truth.
Alex was not from Xia.
His body was far weaker than that of an ordinary Xia citizen. What others could endure with clenched teeth had shattered him.
Bones strained. Organs screamed. Darkness swallowed his vision.
That was why he copsed.
What shocked him now was what came after.
When Alex opened his eyes, he was no longer in the City Lord''s residence.
He was flying.
Cold wind tore past his face as the ground rushed far below. Endless forest stretched beneath him. Beside him—no, holding him—was Li Qingxue.
One of her hands was clenched in Alex''s cor, lifting him effortlessly. His body dangled in the air, feet useless, like prey caught by the neck. If his robe tore—if the fabric failed-he would fall and die without even a scream.
They were flying more than a hundred meters above the ground.
They were heading toward the mountains.
Alex''s throat tightened.
"Where am I?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
He truly did not understand. One moment he had been unconscious in the City Lord''s house. The next, he was suspended in the sky, carried through the heavens by Li Qingxue herself.
She did not answer.
Her expression was cold. Silent. Unreadable.
Ten long minutes passed in suffocating silence.
Then Alex saw it.
Below the mountains stood a massive stone gate, ancient and imposing. Carved into it were two characters that radiated authority and history.
Wudang Sect.
Alex''s mind stirred.
He had heard these stories while living in Prussia.
Prussians searched for the meaning of life through technology-through machines, artificial intelligence, and systems built by human hands.
Xia was different.
Xia pursued immortality.
They chased the meaning of life through cultivation, through the refinement of body and soul, through istion and discipline, and through time measured not in years, but in decades.
Some cultivators locked themselves inside caves for fifty years.
Some for a hundred.
That path was wildly inefficient.
The new generation would need decades—lifetimes—to reach perfection through cultivation alone. It was far easier to put on technology and gain power instantly.
The difference was brutal.
For example, a kung fu master trained for twenty years, hardening his body and sharpening his skills until he was terrifyingly strong. Then someone spent a hundred dors on a gun and killed him with a bullet that cost one dor.
That was the greatest weakness of Xia whenpared to Prussia.
And Xia knew it.
So they found a way to cover that w.
In the distant past, the founders and grandmasters of the great sects had reached what was called the gods Realm. They lived for thousands of years. Space bent under their will.
They could cut open space itself—tear it apart—and create gates. Wormholes that led to distants. Worlds where time flowed differently from Earth.
Almost every famous sect in Xia possessed such a gate.
A realm dedicated to cultivation. A ce where disciples could chase immortality without being crushed by the limits of time.
Wudang Sect was one of the ten great orthodox sects.
Its space gate led to a where time moved a hundred times slower.
One year on Earth meant a hundred years inside that world.
And now, Li Qingxue was carrying Alex straight toward the massive gate of the Wudang Sect.
About twenty guards stood watch before it, their presence sharp and disciplined. The moment they recognized Li Qingxue, they straightened and bowed deeply, not daring to dy her even for a breath.
She passed through without a word.
Alex passed with her.
As they crossed the space gate, Alex felt almost nothing.
No pain. No dizziness.
Just a brief, weightless sensation-like stepping through a shadow anding out somewhere far, far beyond the world he had known.
The new ce looked almost identical to Earth.
Endless forest stretched across thend, broken by towering mountains that pierced the sky. About ten massive peaks dominated the horizon, with the three in the center rising higher than all the rest, like pirs holding up the heavens themselves.
Li Qingxue brought Alex to the first mountain.
At its base stood a tall, imposing building, its structure severe and ancient. At the entrance rested a massive stone b, polished smooth by time. Three bold characters were carved into it
vel
mboyant,manding calligraphy:
Department of Servant Affairs.
The area was crowded. Men and
women moved in disciplined
patterns busy yet orderly The
moment they caught sight of t
Qingxue, every single person
stopped what they were doing. They
rose to their feet at once and
sped their hands in salute.
"Greetings, Pure Snow Sword Maiden, Li Qingxue."
Li Qingxue did not respond.
She released her grip and threw Alex to the ground like discarded baggage.
"Send this man to the kitchen," she said coldly.
"Yes, Senior,” a fat woman replied, bowing deeply.
But the moment the words the kitchen registered, shock shed across the woman''s
face.
Li Qingxue turned her gaze to Alex.
"I saved you from Wu Bu-the Tiger of Wuhan," she said. "He won''t be able to harm you here."
Her voice hardened.
"You will stay here forever."
"What?" Alex blurted out.
She ignored him.
Without another word, without even sparing him a second nce, Li Qingxue rose
into the air. Her figure streaked across the sky, flying toward one of the distant
mountain peaks until she vanished from sight.
Alex stood there alone.
Confused. Disoriented. Still trying to understand what had just happened.
No one paid attention to him.
Heart pounding, Alex reached up and touched the side of his neck, activating the nanobots beneath his skin.
“Gaia,” he whispered, keeping his voice low. "Tell me what''s happening. How did I get here?"
Even though he had fainted, Gaia was supposed to record everything.
There was a brief pause.
Then Gaia responded.
"Master, you are currently outside the service area. I cannot establish a signal with
the Mother Al. All cloud connections where long-term memory is stored have been lost."
Alex''s stomach tightened.
"For now, I am unable to connect to cloud storage,” Gaia continued calmly. "I will switch system protocols and store all new data locally within the cellr core."
"So you''re saying you don''t know how I ended up here?" Alex demanded. “How can technology this advanced not have a storage system inside my own body?"
"By default, all long-term memory is uploaded to the Mother Al through cloud systems," Gata replied evenly. "believed our technology could cover all locations on Earth, However, we are no longer on Earth."
"Damn it, you''re useless," Alex snapped.
"Master," Gaia said again, her tone subtly shifting.
"What?" Alex shot back.
"You''re not wearing your storage ring."
Alex''s heart dropped.
He immediately looked down at his hand.
He had forgotten to wear the ring.
The storage ring was from Prussia, not Xia. He had always kept it hidden beneath
the bedroom floor. He feared an Immortal might sense it, recognize it, and expose
his secret, so he never carried it on his body.
But now he had been dragged here without warning.
No chance to retrieve it.
His escape route from Xia.
The V?XEN Lucifer.
His wealth.
His leverage.
All of it-gone.
Panic surged through him.
At that moment, the fat woman approached. Without ceremony, she shoved a bag
into his hands. Inside was a servant''s uniform and a few basic items.
"All servants must wear this," she said tly.
"I think there''s been a mistake,” Alex said quickly. "I need to return to Xia.”
The fat woman smiled—a slow, knowing smile that carried no warmth.
"Yeah. Everyone says that the first time they arrive," she said. "But servants here
only do one thing."
She leaned closer.
"They live here. And they die here."
Her smile widened.
"There''s no hope of ever going back to Xia."
Alex fell silent.
"Oh, I almost forgot," the fat woman added with a grin. “You can go back to Xia if
you die."
Her eyes glittered with cruel amusement.
"They''ll just send your head."