"C-cultivation?" Chang Qin Fei could not conceal the incredulity in her voice.

The helpless Emerald Fairy doesn't know how to put it into words, and so she pulled out two small crystal-like object she had prepared.

"There are a lot to explain, if by words, so that's why I brought Stella Belle here." Gesturing to the prettier mannequin flanking her, Engelina hustled the fiberglass mannequin to sit on the gel-bed beside Chang QinFei. Wah, such a pretty English name too. Stella Belle, suggesting the sound of tinkling of bells echoing through the vacuum space. Thumbs up, fellow dummy!

"Here," Engelina handed them one crystal-like object each, "This is a Drystal, absorb it and the information inside will tell you all the basics that you can finally have an equal footing with the rest."

Taking the Drystal with stiff limbs, Chang QinFei admired the prismatic refracted shine that splintered in her vision. "Absorb?"

"Yes. Just hold it and imagine the data in it being absorbed into your mind." Engelina's tip didn't quite explain how, but there was some instinctive understanding behind it. Stella Belle and QinFei each looked at each other and then back at their Drystal. Stella Belle closed her eyes and held the Crystal tightly, as if focusing. Chang QinFei glanced at Stella Belle again and followed suit.

***

In the beginning, there was the Void. Out of the Void, comes forth the Creator. The Creator created the Divider. The Divider divides everything and the universe came to be. Anti-matter and matters were such examples of this divide. The Divider created life and death, which became chaotic, due to the infant-like ignorance of their existence. So, The Teacher came forth from The Divider to teach and set down the laws.

The Teacher created The Three Shi Brothers of Knowledge: Shi SuiRen to teach creatures about fire, Shi YouChao to teach creatures about shelter, Shi ShengNong to teach about sustenance.

The Creator disappeared, and the Teacher was busy guiding every existence, and giving laws to various forces that no one can truly break.

The Divider divided itself. Because it had divided itself, it's divided self divided again, thus becoming smaller and many. Because it was smaller and many, it scattered. It became as small as the matter and anti-matter it divided that it became Qi, the force of consciousness and energy. It no longer is the Divider.

As the Qi scattered, it gets absorbed into many existing creatures that had been, is being, and will be. This is how consciousness and the essence¹as in, the soul, or spirit, if you will came to be.

Chang QinFei is one of the creatures, like every other existences, so monotonously unique to their own.

There was nothing and everything special about everyone, that came to be. All intelligent organic existence, that evolved their way to the top of the energy web, had basic structure of a main torso and two pairs of limbs. Other sensory organs would depend on how each tribe of existence agree to use to their advantages—or disadvantages. Everything had originally comes in pair. If they weren't, fate will eventually bind two single existence, regardless of the acceptance of the existences' will.

Upon seeing the Divider's self-division, the Teacher mourned for the lose of it's originality. The Teacher then set the laws of cultivating the Qi, and began to travel through the tribes of various planets. The Teacher taught a few curious creatures about the Qi, and the Cultivation of Qi. Those who cultivates the Qi are called cultivators, regardless of race.

The law of cultivation that are set down for these mortal creatures is that; There are five Mortal Ranks of Cultivators, the sixth allows ascension of a mortal soul into the realm of Immortal. Each ranks consist of four stages: Initial, Middle, High, and Peak.

When a cultivator steps into the Peak of each rank, they are to prepare for breakthrough that allows them to step into the Initial stage of the next rank. This breakthrough brings forth Heavenly Tribulation. The Heavenly Tribulation will test the limits and faith of that cultivator.

When a cultivator gets distracted by any of the seven demons of the heart²The seven deadly, sins if you will during the Heavenly Tribulation, the cultivator will become Yao, and fall into Qi Deviation, where a second test of faith will initiate. If the person manages to curb the demons of their heart, they will emerge with new existence, as a YaoJing, as a cultivating spirit of another existence. If the person succumbed into the demons of their hearts, they will also emerge as new existence, as a YaoMo, but they will lose all merits they have accumulated and gain the features of the devils onto their forms.

Regardless, a cultivator who reach the sixth ranks, a Yao or not, are able to enter the realm of the Immortals. The Realm of the Immortals had many different names, but it was more commonly spoken of as the Galaxy of Celestial, sometimes dubbed as the Celestial Galaxy.

There are many ways in becoming a cultivator. Some by various physically enhancing technique of martial arts.  Some by various mentally manipulating Qi with the art of alchemy or blacksmith. Some by pure spiritual intent of meditation, which is the hardest of most.

Cultivating Qi naturally allows the cultivator to tap into their Spiritual Roots. The Spiritual Roots of each existence varies vastly, sometimes due to nature, sometimes due to nurture. The main five elements of any existence Spiritual Roots are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Metal. Although it had been quite a quite a rare and new addition, Metal is indeed one of the Spiritual Root's elements.

Chang QinFei may be just a mortal, a humanoid-turned synthmanoid, with knowledge barely covers the total accumulated knowledge of the earth's collection. But this mere enlightenment did not collapse any of her existing knowledge. If anything, it enhanced her understanding of her own world. Things she did not even remember reading about became something she understood.

This... this is what people mean when they say knowledge is weapon, ah!

The world around her suddenly exited muteness, and Chang QinFei snapped out of the reverie of enlightenment and stared blankly at the Drystal for a while. It reflected the rainbow as if it knew nothing of the earth-shattering content inside it.

Chang QinFei looked up and her sight fell upon an entering NurseBot, which was holding a thin slab of glass. This one was different from the first one she encountered. Chang QinFei couldn't identify how she know that there was some subtle differences. Engelina turned her attention towards the NurseBot, looked at the glass slab, and tapped on it in some pattern as if one is interacting with a electronic tablet.

QinFei turned to see her fellow life-form and saw that Stella Belle's facial features contorted into a confused state.

Whatever enlightenment the Drystal showed, it was still considered as information overload for them, as they have never really considered the subject revolving aliens, advanced tech, and magic altogether like this.

"So, what do we do now?" Chang QinFei couldn't help but ask. There was too much paths to take, and she don't know where to begin and what was allowed to be done. At the same time, she passed the Drystal back to Engelina.

The NurseBot retreated, leaving with the glass tablet.

"Do what you want to do," Engelina shrugged, "I have to attend to the humanoid native here. Plus, you're free to enter and exit Lotus Lab." Engelina paused and then explained, "Lotus Lab is where you can find safety if you need a place to hide from the anyone. The Regulators, space pirates, androids, even immortals. We have rights to shelter anyone as long as there are no violence in this area. And you're entitled to be healed, if you're injured, no requirements of trade."

"Oh."

"Anything else?"

Chang QinFei think about the situation her fellow humans would have been, and shook her head. There are probably people who need attending to.

Engelina waved a greeting and retreats from the room.

"What the heck?" Stella Belle finally returned to her senses. Her voice very much hoarse.

"Well, what do we do now?" Chang QinFei remembered the vague objective she have had in mind prior to the grand revelation. But she was curious what Stella Belle might have in mind.

Cultivation really opened a whole network of world for them.

Unsure, Stella Belle stayed silent with contemplation. Chang QinFei also fell into contemplation of her own growing objective. She should go and take a look at her family. They might be cold and indifferent, but they are her blood-relatives after all. Well, blood-relatives before she changed vessels. Speaking of that, she also wouldn't mind finding out what happened to her original body. And... perhaps, on A'Xue³"A'" is added infront of a nickname/name to show endearment. In this case, Xue is the nickname/name and A'Xue shows that this Xue person is close to Chang QinFei.

A dull imaginary throb echoed in her as Chang QinFei remembered the last time they parted ways. She knew that somehow, A'Xue felt that it was his fault she met with the motor accident almost immediately after their last disagreement.

"I didn't know your name..."

Chang QinFei realized that Stella Belle's voice wasn't hoarse, rather it was smoky. Like one of those singers. "I'm Chang QinFei," she smiled at Stella Belle, "I love your name, it's cute."

Instead of friendly smile-back, she received a look of disdain. "Chang QinFei? The Chang princess? The fiancee of Wu BingAn?"

"Y... yes?" Chang QinFei peered at her expression with some bafflement. Has she offended Stella?

"I'm sorry, I know you can choose name and all, but you don't have to pretend to be the lost princess. Chang QinFei has already been found last week, you know." The sneer was hurtful.

"But—"

"Anyways, her Wu BingAn is not stupid. She's his childhood sweetheart, there is no way you can take her place." Stella huffed proudly and sashayed out of the room, not wanting to spend another minute with a copycat.

Stunned, QinFei gawk at the leaving back.

Doesn't matter. Chang QinFei just found a new set of motivation to drop a visit on her family.

***

In front of the Wu Villa, which was still intact unsurprisingly, a mannequin and a human was silent. If Chang QinFei had her normal body, she would not be able to hold back her tears. She was grateful for the rigid mask as her new face right now.

"I'm sorry. I really meant it." The man in front of her was apologetic, and truly regretful.

He didn't have a emotional expression, but being a longtime friend, she knew Wu BingAn well enough that he wasn't the cold calculative man the whole company portrayed him as. She also knew that despite guilt, he wouldn't make a choice that was simply convenient. BingAn have decided way before she could think of persuading him, so QinFei just said, "It's okay. I am glad you and the family are safe."

When the aliens had made their presence known, they had come with gentle dispositions. They were polite and stayed in an deserted areas, in order to allow the native humans to get used to their existence. Of course, there were some disagreeing groups, therefore the short battle between our primitive humanoid and the advanced alien with both technology and magic at their disposal. No one wanted to reject them violently after that.

A large area were given to the aliens to settle down, but it wasn't as large as the area the native human kept for themselves. They had to have something better than the alien to feel a little bit secured. Therefore, most of the capitals are untouched by the aftermath of the short riot. The capital was safe for the most part.

When she had left the Lotus Lab, which was situated in the area given to the aliens, she received no surprised looks. As if synthmanoid like her were common.Only when she reached the capital, the staring gets intense. Some were pitying looks, some were fear. A few looks of curiosity.

Chang QinFei was dreading the spotlight that was to come as she turned back to leave, but she had to suck it up. And so, our mannequin walked though the streets of the capital aimlessly, looking around as she survey the change.

Now that she had solved her curiosity and the problems of her past life—she had accepted that she is now a synthmanoid with a body of a mannequin, it could have been worse, anyways—a new life was the obvious course of path to take. It was practically an option surrounded by neon lights and blinking arrows pointing to it.

It would be a very different life, though, given that she no longer needed to eat, or attend to other bodily functions like sleep, washroom break, and doctor visits. Surely, there are something else to do.

As she wandered around the streets, there was a commotion up ahead, where people are loudly whispering and pointing. On any other day, Chang QinFei wouldn't care. But this is the new era of lifeforms, and she needed to know as much as possible about her surroundings and the limit that triggers people's reaction.

The source of the crowd gathering was five figures. Two child-like and three adult-like. All of them looked like hybrids of human and animals. They must be the aliens.

The two children are half humanoid, and half goat. Their legs are shaped like that of a goat's, and their torso and arms are human-like. Their heads are humanoid too, apart from the small baby goat horns that sat right above their temples. One seemed to be female, the other, male.

The female child was hopping beside a male adult hybrid with side shoulders. He had long bushy mane of unrestrained golden brown hair. A lion's tail seemed to hang and sway from his tailbone.

The male child was being flanked by a busty-looking female and a bulky male. The male seemed incredibly tough with hulk-like frame. His skin looked like they're made of stones. He have a kind expression, though. The female, has got orange-brown stripes over the cheeks of her sharp face. And, like the male with lion's tail, she had a tiger one. There is a wise and noble air about her.

Chang QinFei's gawking must have been much more subtle than the rest that when the male with stony skin met her gaze, he smiled and nodded politely at her.

QinFei ducked her head in a nod to show embarrassed greeting, and her movements caught the sight of the male with bushy mane. He grinned a toothy grin and taps onto the shoulder of the female feline-humanoid. She, too, whips her head around and spotted the mannequin. 

Chang QinFei was bewildered by the sudden attention it brought. Now, the whole street is looking at her too. The whispers got a tad bit louder.