Bumbling down a narrow alley, Lin Yang knocked a garbage can over, the metallic container falling over with a resounding clang. He struggled to find the wall, to find support, lest he topple and fall among the garbage, where he felt he distinctly belonged that night.

Behind him, his girlfriend of two hours screamed about a limp thing that rhymed with tick. In the background, some probably popular pop song blared into the night. 

It was sort of typical. They only wanted his body. He never understood people like that, being honest. 

No, he just didn't understand people, finished. Maybe it was time he accepted that. After not returning to his home town all three years of university, he still didn't miss it that much. And he was supposed to go back the next day. Maybe that was why he finally accepted his friend group's insistent and incessant invitation to a night on the town.

Lin Yang sighed, trying to move with the support of the flaky wall, wrinkling his nose at the smell of urban waste. 

“Whoa, there, buster,” an unfamiliar voice said.

He looked around, and after not finding anything, looked down. That was where he noticed a pile of what he'd first thought was trash. Was there a person sleeping on the cold hard pavement?

“Watch where you're going, aye, kid?” the pile of whatever spoke.

“What are you doing in a dark alley at this time of night?” Lin Yang asked, his voice a little slurry even to his ears.

It occurred to him that maybe this person was a thief hiding out and waiting to ambush unsuspecting drunks like him. But then why had he said anything before? He could have just finished him off without warning. 

“Are you some kind of thief?” he asked. “Well, even if you are, I don't got no money on me. My ‘friends’ made sure of it.”

“What thief? I'm just trying to grab me a few hours of shut eye here. I was waiting for someone. Could be you, for all I know. Maybe you should take a seat if you can't walk.”

That was not a terrible idea. He wasn't in any state to be walking around, but he'd needed to get away quick. The world was revolving, like they taught them in school. Only, you couldn't see that on normal nights. You could only see that on nights like these.

Turning back, he could still see the neon sign of the ‘immortal’s night lounge’ shining blue and red. The girl under the sign was there no more. Probably she'd picked some other sucker to go to a motel with. 

The guy sleeping in the alleyway sat up, and there was something about his eyes. Lin Yang was forced to do a double take, but it was probably just the alcohol. He couldn't remember anything about the old man's face except a long white beard and eyes that sparkled more than a cat's in the dark, and a bold pate. Lin Yang shook his head to clear it, and in the end found himself subconsciously avoiding staring directly at his conversation partner.

“So?” the old man asked. “Are you? A limp di—”

“Of course not. My body works just fine, thank you very much,” Lin Yang interrupted him promptly, not wanting to discuss that particular topic.

“Then why didn't you? She wasn't bad, from what I saw.”

“I just didn't want to,” Lin Yang said.

“Strange. Then why were you dating her?”

“For two hours? I'd hardly call that dating.”

“Hmm, feels like you have a story kid. You got any smokes.”

Lin Yang dug into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He gave the old beggar one, and lit one for himself as well. 

“So, why were you dating the chick?”

“I told you I wasn't.”

“But you seemed to know each other quite a bit.” 

“We went to university together for years. Of course I know her. And she me.”

“So what's the problem?”

“It's only superficial, you know. I'm quite a handsome guy. She probably only wanted me for my looks. And money.”

“What's wrong with that?” the alley sleeper asked, sounding very confused.

“I don't know. I guess I just don't like it. I've tried it you know, sex. It's not all it's cracked up to be.”

“You've tried it before? You didn't like it?”

“Not even a little bit.”

“Were your expectations high, going in? Were you excited, full of anticipation? Did you like your first girl?”

“No, on all counts,” Lin Yang answered. “Say, you don't sound a lot like an old beggar should.”

“Who said I was an old beggar?”

Well, no one had. Lin Yang shrugged the matter off. It's not like they were suddenly going to become best friends or something. 

“Are you maybe not attracted to women?”

Lin Yang almost snorted in amusement, wondering whether this drunk sleeping in an alleyway was truly qualified to be a therapist of some kind. Still, it was quite nice to talk. To sort of just let it out. There was no chance of ever meeting this beggar again, so whatever he said here would stay here.

“I'm not attracted to men if that's what you're getting at.”

“So…you just don't like anyone?”

“I wouldn't go that far. I have had a few crushes, enough to know I maybe like girls.”

“Hmm, why did you do it back then? Why did you date that girl for two hours tonight?”

Lin Yang frowned as he looked at the old man. “I don't know. I guess because everyone was doing it.”

“Everyone?”

“My friends.”

“Hmm, your friends. Do they not understand you're not interested?”

“They didn't really force me into anything. They just…”

“Pressured you into it. Purposefully or not.”

Lin Yang frowned and narrowed his eyes in thought.

“What were you studying at college?”

“Law,” Lin Yang said without thinking.

“Did you want to?”

“I don't know. I just did it, I guess. My parents always spoke well of lawyers. And medical professionals. It was an easy choice to make.”

“Is that why you haven't gone back home in years. And why you are dreading going back tomorrow?”

Lin Yang forgot to breathe for a moment, and suddenly he was coughing, chocking on the thick nicotine smoke. 

“How did you know that? I haven't said anything about —”

The old man got up from the pile of rubbish and started to dust himself off. He was wearing some kind of white robe. He stretched his body and was rewarded with a few resounding pops. 

“Don't sweat the minor details. Anyway, all I can tell you is that you might need new friends.”

“Hey, what are you…?”

But between one blink and another, there was nothing where the old man had been.

Lin Yang looked around the dark alley furtively, not quite believing his eyes. He took a long puff of his cigarette. Then he looked at the smoky white stick and frowned.

“Could I have imagined everything that just happened?”

He was more than a bit inebriated after all. Perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him. Well, it didn't matter either way. He needed to get moving.

He didn't have any money left on him, and his phone was dead, and he didn't want to stay near this bar any longer. The world was not spinning as much as before, so resting had indeed been the right choice.

Popping up on the tiny two way road behind the Shenxi plaza, Lin Yang looked left and right. It was past eleven in the evening, not exactly prime time for vehicles in Tsungua district. Still, he ought to be careful, lest that encounter earlier in the night portend something like a truck accident.

He took his first step on the road when a horn blared loudly, as if it was warning him or something. He heard the screech of rubber on gravel, and from experience knew it was a heavy vehicle.

His heart pounding uncontrollably, Lin Yang looked up in horror, only to realise the truck was on the other side of the street, not exactly headed for a collision with him. His shoulders sagged, the adrenaline draining fast. He sighed in relief, waiting for the truck to barrel past him before he attempted to continue his bumbling crossing.

He shouldn't have sighed too early. Suddenly he heard the revving of a super engine, and then his feet were swept out from under him, and he was moving at supersonic speeds. It took a few seconds for the pain of his abdomen and lower limbs being utterly decimated to kick in. He smelled iron on the air, and then he saw the bonnet of the Porsche. The car didn't even look like it was planning to stop.

As his vision started to darken, he looked towards the wind shield, trying to make out who, if anyone, was behind the wheel. He saw a familiar white beard and a bold head and shiny cat-like eyes before the darkness claimed him. 

He thought that was the end. That should have been the end, but it seemed fate had other plans. 

Suddenly, Lin Yang could see something. It was so sudden. It's not like his eyes suddenly opened or anything. If anything, he didn't feel he had eyes. It was like he was the air itself for an instant.

In a tiny room with a large canopied bed, a window shattered open to let in strangely abundant sunshine, stood two strangely dressed women. 

There was a sandalwood table on one side wall, empty except for a bunch of herbs Lin Yang had never seen. Next to it was a cabinet filled with ancient looking scrolls. A faint medicinal smell covered the relatively quiet room; relatively quiet, except for a hushed conversation happening in it.

The two women, teenage girls really, were speaking in hushed tones. Their clothing was weird. They were both dressed in very colourful silk, one in green and one in violet, but their dresses shouted ancient imperial period drama. So too did their dialogue.

“You think he is going to die?” the one in the violet dress asked. 

“There should be no chance he survives through tonight,” responded the other.

The one in violet let out a relieved breath. “Then my senior brother can continue his journey in peace.”

The one in the green robe only frowned down at something. The bed, Lin Yang noticed, which had someone lying on it. Lin Yang focused his attention on that someone, and that was when he noticed the strangest thing. 

‘Is that me?’ he tried to say, but he could not hear his own voice. 

It looked like him, but this version of him had sunken cheeks and circles around his clumped shut eyes, and some kind of blackening around the lips, and his breath was so thin it was almost non-existent.

Had he survived the accident? But he wasn't in a hospital now. He was lying on a large bed and his injuries looked wrong. A part of his chest was exposed, and Lin Yang could see what appeared like a palm print there. The world did not make sense anymore.

“I think my senior brother is taking his last breath,” the girl in green said with staged grief.

And that was when the suction started. Pulling Lin Yang’s consciousness. 

Lin Yang gasped as he suddenly started to feel again. New sensations, mostly of discomfort and pain. Then he took a heavy breath, unable to control it. His ribs were broken, and the breath left him in more discomfort than before. 

“What the? Didn't you say he was about to die? That last breath seemed stronger than the ones before.”

Lin Yang could hear the panicked voice, the shuffling of feet, but could do little to react in his shocked state. From what he could tell, he'd just possessed someone. As in he'd transmigrated, like someone in a webnovel.

“Let's make sure!” another said. 

And then he heard the shuffling of fabric, and he felt the air change, like there was someone in his personal space. But at the moment he was too weak to open his eyes, let alone move the rest of his body. 

Just then, there was the sound of a wooden door violently flung open, perhaps with some sort of kick. Then a few uneven footsteps.

“What are you two little flowers doing here?” a slurred voice said. 

“We greet the fifth elder,” both girls said in unison, their voices respectful.

“I was worried about my senior brother,” one of the girls said, “and so were all our fellows disciples at the Luoying hall.”

Another set of uneven steps. “Ohh? Is that so? And here I thought you came to see old me?”

“Apologies for the misunderstanding, elder Bai—”

“Well then, go on and get. I have to check on the patient.”

The man's breath hit Lin Yang first, and it carried an acrid and familiar stench. The smell of strong liquor he'd also been steeped in not a while back. He heard the sound of gulping, probably this fifth elder was taking a swig of drink even as he touched the emaciated body on the bed.

“Hmm? Why does he suddenly feel a lot better?”

“He does? Are you sure it isn't some kind of mistake?” one of the girls asked.

Quiet for a moment. “What are both of you still doing here? I'm pretty sure I asked you to leave.”

There was a reluctance to the foot steps, but Lin Yang was inwardly relieved when he heard the door close. 

“Brat, how can you survive the dragon only to be killed by its little pets. Hurry up and wake up, won't you? My senior sister won't go easy on me if you die under my watch.” Then the proceeded to take another gulp of his acrid smelling liquor before promptly starting to snore right next to the bed.

With the excitement dying down for a bit, Lin Yang started to calm himself down. 

He focused on breathing, on trying to think through the debilitating pain. It was quite the struggle. 

And that was when the unfamiliar memories started to assault him.

His name, or the name of his new body, was also Lin Yang, his name from his old life. He was the oldest disciple of the Luoyin hall of the Hehuan sect. Apparently he was in a cultivation world. Yeah, he wasn't even going to touch that one yet. 

One of the girls, the one in green silk, who'd been contemplating his murder just then was from the same hall as him, and in his memory she was as close to him as any blood-related sister would be. But now she was attempting to kill him?

Perhaps it had something to do with their master's special position in the sect, her being the oldest disciple of the sect master and thus a candidate for the successor of the sect leader. That meant her oldest disciple would also become her heir if they were worthy, and guess who that was? And she was the second oldest. It was reasonable to guess she wanted him dead so she could take his place as the first disciple.

But that couldn't even start to explain how he'd ended up in this position in the first place, his cultivation abolished and his body poisoned. He'd lost in a duel. A duel for something stupid, if Lin Yang thought so himself. 

Apparently his host was a strong lover. He was unwilling to lose his dream girl, who apparently didn't care too much for him, so he'd accepted a challenge from another of her suitors. Absolutely ridiculous reason to die. In his defense though, it was absolutely inconceivable for a genius at the ninth layer of the initiate realm to lose to someone at the seventh layer. Well, if there was no poison involved.

And of course, the sect he was part of was a demonic sect. Wonderful.

And now Lin Yang was left here to pick up the pieces. It was not fair. He already had his own, relatively uninteresting problems to deal with back on Earth. He was absolutely not equipped to deal with some cultivation world drama. Especially if there was politics involved. One of his biggest weaknesses was his people skills. He absolutely couldn't read people, and that was a big

weakness in any political scene, from what he knew.

‘Shit, shouldn't I get some kind of cheat, now that I've transmigrated? I'm pretty sure that's how these kinds of things usually go. Where the hell is my status window?!’

Right here host. The installation is complete. The bonding is finished.

Welcome to tutorial mode.