The Fan clan is a clan once renowned for its geniuses. Their influence was wide and no country, empire, or association has ever confessed of never knowing the clan. Unfortunately, though this esteemed clan never lacked talents they did have one weakness: they die young.

Thus, it wasn't a surprise that such a powerhouse clan soon disappeared, leaving no one to continue their line, their heaven-defying weapons lost, and their beautiful crafts fading as life in the continents move on.

Many lamented yet many also cheered in the dark; for though the Fan clan is gifted, in the end, they are doomed.

Is it a kind of inheritable illness? Or, mayhaps, a curse incurred from a deity? From commoners to nobility, such assumptions were never few but the answer will forever remain unattainable.

The truth, you see, is far more tragic and miraculous.

It was their close-guarded secret; their source of blessing and the cause of their death.

Transmigration.

The movement of the soul into another body. To put simply, reincarnation.

Long ago, after the War of Dissonance and before the War of Chaos, twins were born. The other held the power of the divine while the one inherited the power of the demonic. These two founded one of the original clans of the Earthen Realm and blessed it with the name Fan¹返; This is actually not a proper Chinese surname but let's pretend it is. For Chinese speakers or natives out there, I apologize in advance, to return to the land, they said. Thereafter, their line spread and their descendents inherited their powers, bringing it up to higher heights. Their fame was true, their might unchallenged but it came with a price.

In every generation where there is no transmigration, the clan's lifespan will regress until another transmigrant appears to begin the cycle again. Only by then will the damnable death of dying earlier than their predecessors be stopped. According to the hidden annals of the clan, these beings from different worlds will appear in time of the clan's need and will lead them to prosperity.

Many generations had passed but this time, no one came. The Fan clan's numbers dwindled and their great name vanished from the eyes of the worlds, becoming mere myths that will soon be forgotten.

And so, the last surviving descendant of the Fan clan died.

Fan Shuangxi listens in a daze as the woman before her, an old lady to be exact, narrates with a solemn expression. Her white hair is pulled in a bun, her eyes are small and from a distance, they looked like thin slits dwarfed by her wrinkled skin and sagging cheeks.

She has flat eyebrows, Fan Shuangxi unconsciously notes. This set of eyebrows is the type mostly found on kind people, those who are gentle and warm at heart. She remembers her mother also has this set of eyebrows.

Fan Shuangxi's gaze softens.

“Our ancestors hadn't forsaken us after all. This servant is thankful that I was awakened to guide you, my lady. Truly, this servant is grateful that the end of our clan hadn't come to pass.” The old lady cries in her kneeling position, her tears wetting the gray robe she wears.

Fan Shuangxi's gaze sharpens. The old lady's pitiful cries are grating to her ears and serving as a reminder of the foreign place she has woken up to. What is she saying again? Fan Shuangxi tries to remember.

Ah, yes. The last descendant of the Fan clan finally died.

And lives.

It is her but at the same time, not her.

Fan Shuangxi. This is the name of this body and this is the name that the old lady addresses her but this is not her name.

Her name is...is...what?

“What is my name, granny?” Fan Shuangxi cuts off the sobbing old lady.

“My lady, this servant can be addressed as Granny Fan and you are called Fan Shuangxi with the characters Shuang for double and Xi to be happy²返双喜; Again, not a proper Chinese name but it's an easter egg. It was your parents' desire for you to have bountiful happiness in your life,” Granny Fan patiently explains while Fan Shuangxi let her.

She shakes her head and smiles, “Thank you Granny Fan but I'm asking about my real name.”

Granny Fan understands and helplessly says, “This one apologizes, my lady. I don't know the name you are called in your past life nor does this servant knows who you were.”

“I see.” She closes her eyes. “It doesn't matter. This body is called Fan Shuangxi, therefore, I will call myself Fan Shuangxi,” she mumbles. Inwardly, she wishes to remember her real name, if not only to give connection to the transmigration that happened but also to put a name to the lips of the people that call her in her memory.

Transmigration, huh?

She never imagines that one day she'll transmigrate. In her past life, Fan Shuangxi read a lot of webnovels with this premise since that was the growing trend in the Chinese market. It was her best friend that introduced her to the genre and even the sites, both illegal and legal, where she can read them. If she couldn't find her best friend's recommendations, she usually waits for summer so she can read them from her friend's collection.

A throb begins at the back of Fan Shuangxi's head.

The last she can remember of that life is the back of her best friend unlocking her guilty pleasure cabinet. Those shelves were filled with normal romance novels. It was solely created just for Fan Shuangxi while her best friends' five side-by-side bookshelves gleamed with slash fiction, or danmei³boys love fiction as it is called in China.

Her chest prickles as if small needles are being inserted.

Fan Shuangxi remembers that she laughed while her best friend once again persuaded her to read her favorite slash fic series but Fan Shuangxi declined and began to read her own preferred genre.

After that is where her memory ends.

Only darkness after.

Like a bomb, the inconspicuous pain starts to rage in her head and in her chest. She couldn't think straight, her chest is tight. Fan Shuangxi gasps in a mouthful of air while her body trembles. Her sight begins to blur, her toes and fingers are cold, and the taste of iron fills her mouth.

She heaves as liquid surges up her throat and blood spills from her pale lips.

“My lady! This servant apologizes for the seal to break like this! Please, endure for a moment. I shall reinforce it.”

The pain increases by a thousandfold while Fan Shuangxi thinks her insides are turning into a pulp.

Her eyes roll to the back of her head and she loses her consciousness.

She once thought that if she was given the choice to transmigrate, she wouldn't take it because unlike those genius doctors, godly thieves, resourceful businesswomen, deadly poison masters, and world-class assassins, she, a normal college graduate, wouldn't stand a chance.

Fan Shuangxi still thinks so even now. After she lost her consciousness and the pain subsided, she opens her eyes to the same room. This time, Granny Fan's figure is gone and with her own self as the company, Fan Shuangxi's mind wanders to the past. This train of thought circles her mind for the past hour and she closes her eyes to soak this in.

She doesn't know how long she has been in here nor how long she has to stay. At the moment, she doesn't care.

Those webnovels talked about how the main character, the MC if you will, arrived in the world in shock, in anger, then, in acceptance. After that, two goals will bolster them to strive to live in the new world. First, is to become powerful and second, use that power for revenge. Such is the formula that motivated those MCs as they heartlessly leave behind their modern life. Ah, but she can't blame them. After all, their heartlessness stemmed from the fact that they have no root to anchor them, no home to call their own.

But she has one.

A home.

She has a mother with flat eyebrows and a loving hand, the one that caresses her when she is cold.

She has a father with a beer belly and a firm voice, a voice that advises her to be the best that she can be.

She has a younger brother taller than her who loves to tease his older sister shorter than him. He has a long-term relationship with his current girlfriend so, perhaps, they can be around to take care of mom and dad in old age since, she is gone now.

Fan Shuangxi's hands clench, her closed eyes tighten and with that, a tear rolls down to her chin.

In her life, she has no one to romantically love, no person to chase but her wall is firm, her foundation is strong. That kind of support had fueled her to live and to suddenly find them nonexistent--

Fan Shuangxi's heart aches. She bites her lower lip as her throat burns and her chest heaves. Her nose is stuffy and Fan Shuangxi can feel the snot dripping yet she doesn't move. Afraid. She's afraid to break this deadlock.

But she gasps and so, the dam breaks.

Fan Shuangxi sobs as tears stream from her closed eyes.

Then, she weeps.

For she understood yet doesn't understand why the clan needs her but, why her?

Granny Fan watches her mistress bawls. The small, jade statue that is her listens quietly with a heavy heart. Granny Fan is not foolish and knows the cause of her mistress' anguish is not the loss of this clan but the loss of her family. As the head of their clan from generations past once said: “We lose in order to gain. At the same time, they gain only to lose.” Granny Fan was a young woman during that time and she hadn't understood his words. Thousands of years later, Granny Fan silently bows her head to the grievous words.

The Fan clan's secret is both tragic and miraculous. This is a fact.