"Are you in there!"

A hoarse voice called out from the other side of the door.

"Your mother and brother are back home, come meet them when you're done."

The voice was rude and curt, and without waiting for a reply the old lady left.

After his bath Hou Yi put on a hoodie and a pair of pants, then headed down to the living room where his mother and brother were.

Along the way he could hear exaggerated laughter echoing through the house. From the volume alone Hou Yi could tell there was more than just family present.

When he finally reached the room he saw his brother, a year older than him but someone who, from appearance alone, could have been a stranger.

Lee Jin was considerably taller, with a fit build and a buzz cut that made him look more imposing than Hou Yi remembered.

Hou Yi noticed that Lee Jin carried the same distinct glow as Shin, which confirmed that he too was a Chi user.

Aside from his mother there were three other women, all roughly the same age as her. His mother sat at the center of them all.

"Fuyi, you are so lucky to have a son like Lee Jin,"

One of the women said, leaning into her.

"Exactly. Look at me—I have four sons and every single one of them chose encapsulation, all perfectly healthy young men. Meanwhile you have only two sons and one of them is a Chi user,"

The woman sitting to Fuyi's right continued.

"And not just any Chi user—Jin is a ethereal class. Your family is going to prosper in the coming years, there is no doubt about it,"

"Oh, you two~ I only just learned his rank not long ago myself. But as you all know my Jin has always been a talented boy, so I suppose it is no surprise,"

Fuyi, settled into the single couch at the center of the room, was clearly savoring every word.

"That's right,"

The other women agreed without hesitation.

At the same time tea was brought out from the kitchen by an old lady in an apron and a hair net—the same woman who had knocked on Hou Yi's bathroom door.

"Here is your tea,"

She said as she set the cups down on the side table.

Hou Yi stood at the entrance of the room, silent, waiting for his mother to acknowledge him.

In the few minutes since he arrived he had received nothing but a few sideways glances, and only after Fuyi took a sip of her tea did she finally look his way.

"Oh, Hou Yi, I didn't notice you there. You should announce yourself when you enter a room,"

The moment she said it Lee Jin, who had been standing with his back to the entrance, turned around.

He looked Hou Yi over from top to bottom and was visibly surprised to find that his brother had not changed in the slightest. He held the stare for a moment, but Hou Yi did not return it—not even a glance—and in the end Lee Jin said nothing.

"Could you help Madam Lian prepare the evening meal? We are celebrating your brother's achievement and the whole neighbourhood has been invited, so it would be too much for one person to manage alone,"

Fuyi said with a smile.

Hou Yi held her gaze the entire time she spoke, and when she finished he turned and walked out of the house without a word.

"Aishh, that boy—I can never get used to that stare of his. It is like you asked him to move a mountain,"

"Exactly. You stepped up to raise him on your own after your husband passed, and this is how he repays you? Tsk,"

"As they say, there is always one in every family. He and Jin share the same father yet the difference between them is like day and night,"

The three women were quick to fill the silence the moment Hou Yi was gone. They knew that comparing him unfavorably to Lee Jin was Fuyi's preferred kind of flattery.

"Come now, ladies. You have to understand—Hou Yi's mother was Wen Ning. The same woman we all thought was strange back in our school days,"

Fuyi said with barely concealed delight, and the room broke into laughter.

Lee Jin, who had been listening quietly, frowned.

"Mother. I have told you to stop speaking like that,"

His voice cut through the laughter and silenced it. Before his mother could respond he left the room.

"Ugh, that boy. Talking to his own mother that way—he has no idea what I have sacrificed for him,"

Fuyi muttered at his retreating figure.

"Don't worry. He will grow up soon enough, and when he does he will understand everything you have done,"

…

The streets were considerably calmer than they had been an hour ago. The crowd had thinned, the urgency had settled, and a few local shopkeepers had already returned to their stalls as though the day had been nothing more than a long interruption.

Fuyi and her friends mentioned Lee Jin being an ethereal class — what exactly does that mean? I came across something similar on the forums but didn't think much of it at the time. It seems I need to build a basic understanding of Chi classification before I can make any real use of the information I gather.

Hou Yi walked along the pavement with no particular destination, hoping he would run into Shin or someone who could lead him there.

After about half an hour his stomach made its displeasure known. He traced the smell drifting through the street back to a food stall set up along the roadside.

He checked his pocket and pulled out his worn wallet. Two hundred yuan—his entire budget.

I won't be going home anytime soon so I might as well eat something first.

Going home later that night meant a scolding for defying his mother and leaving the maid to manage the dinner alone. But that was still far preferable to staying and sitting through an evening of being talked down to by every guest at the table.

Hou Yi took a seat at the first stall he came across, drawing a mildly surprised look from the owner.

"One bowl of noodles please. Thank you."

The owner was an elderly man in a padded hat with a scarf wrapped around it, an apron tied at the front and plastic gloves on his hands—recently made compulsory for all commercial food vendors.

"Coming right up,"

The inside of the stall was thick with steam and the rich layered smell of things being fried continuously.

"Aya~, I thought I wouldn't see a single customer for the next few days. I was just about to reheat everything and close up for the night—looks like I was wrong,"

The old man laughed with quiet satisfaction.

Given what the entire world had just been through, it was reasonable to expect most businesses would stay dark for at least a few days. This man being open at all said something about him.

"It was an unbelievable experience, after all,"

Hou Yi offered.

There was a second reason he had chosen a street vendor over a convenience store. Interaction was the currency of a man like this—years of standing behind a stall meant he had more unfiltered information than any news outlet that had yet to run its first post-transmigration story.

"Right, right. I thought we were all finished when I saw that woman floating in the air,"

The old man shook his head at the memory.

"Were you encapsulated as well, young man?"

That word again. Chen shouted it at me earlier—said I hadn't changed at all in the capsule. So it must be some kind of preservation state, keeping the person suspended while time continues to pass around them. Which would mean those who weren't encapsulated continued aging normally during the five years.

"Yes, I was,"

Hou Yi answered without hesitation.

It doesn't matter either way. This man has never seen me before — he has no basis for comparison.

"Understandable, understandable. With all the chaos and panic I wouldn't be surprised if nearly everyone chose encapsulation. But there were still brave ones who stayed behind—and the military, of course,"

The old man said with a face of worry.

"The military?"

Hou Yi replied in a confused look, the old man stared back at him with the same expression.

"Oh I’m sorry, I actually just returned to the country. I had been studying abroad and was on a flight home when the transmigration happened. I ended up being placed in a completely different sector,"

Hou Yi had prepared this excuse well in advance, knowing it was only a matter of time before someone questioned the gaps in his knowledge.

"Ahh, I see. Well then it's no surprise you're out of the loop,"

The old man nodded as he worked behind his stall.

"You see, after the angels made their first appearance the military moved quickly, reorganizing their troops and doing what they could to keep order amid all the chaos. Then when the angels announced that encapsulation was an option, the military officers declared that any personnel who chose to remain would be granted a direct promotion, regardless of whether they developed Chi or not."

"And for those who did get stronger, additional rewards were promised on top of that. So as things stand, the majority of Chi users out there are military personnel. Civilian Chi users are few and far between."

The old man finished with another faint trace of worry settling over his face.

"Well, that is at least how things played out here. What about you? Which sector were you placed in?"

He asked as he scooped out a bowl of noodles and began adding the toppings. But before Hou Yi could answer, the sirens cut through the air with a sharp, sustained screech.

After a few seconds a woman’s voice could be heard.

[ATTENTION. ALL CHI USERS ARE REQUIRED TO REPORT TO THE CLOSEST ACCORD STATIONED TO THEM WITHIN THE NEXT 48 HOURS. THIS IS MANDATORY. ANY CHI USERS FAILING TO COMPLY WILL BE SUBJECT TO FEDERAL OFFENSE.]

The announcement repeated, cycling through until the echoes reached every corner street.

When the sirens finally fell quiet the old man let out a heavy sigh and turned back to the bowl.

"It seems we are headed toward a very difficult future,"

He murmured. But before he could finish setting down the bowl, the ground shuddered — a brief, violent tremor that rattled the stall and stilled the street.

He turned to look at his only customer, but the stall was already empty.

Then the angels appeared in the sky.

They materialized across the entire planet simultaneously, each positioned at a distance calculated so that no two voices would overlap—every person on Earth within earshot of exactly one. They floated above thousands of gathered crowds, and when they spoke they spoke as one.

(Mortals, the space-time continuum has been successfully restored. As promised, you are granted five years of peace before the great strife descends upon you.

During this period, a ranking board, The Pillar of Glory, will be maintained in each sector at all times, displaying the first hundred most competent Chi users in order of rank. But first, a recognition is due.)

A beat of silence followed, as though even the angels paused to mark the weight of what came next.

(On this day, a name previously unrecorded has surfaced. Humanity has reached a milestone—the first individual to achieve the fourth rank. Lee Hou Yi of Sector 12 has successfully attained Rank 4.)