I felt sore all over. My eyes were clamped shut and I just felt miserable, I must've fell asleep.

  Fighting my body I slowly opened my eyes to see the that I was still in the same room as last night, I could hear the chirping of some birds in the distance and the glare of the bright sun coming through the window behind me.

  Although I felt sore, I could feel that the swelling had disappeared and most of my wounds seemed to have almost healed, clearly the pills worked.

  Fighting my body slightly, I sat up, positioning my pillow to behind me and closed my eyes to think.

  I need information.

  How is information stored throughout all of history, regardless of time or culture? Writing. I need some books.

  I got out of the bed, finding some slippers that somehow got there, and made my way to the frame of the doorway I came through.

  When I go there, my eyes lit up as I saw the boy that brought me the pills yesterday walking towards me.

  I raised my hand to get his attention, “Hey there, thanks for the pills yesterday.” I said as I leant on the frame of the entrance for some support.

  The boy flashed a look of surprised but quickly bowed slightly and said, “Of course young master, it is my duty.”.

  It felt weird to be called ‘Young master’, but I moved on without comment.

  “Either way, I appreciate it. Thank you.”, this clearly made him a little happy, he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.

  I didn’t want to seem like I was buttering him up by asking something from him right after, I truly meant my thanks, but I needed to ask him a favour.

  “Sorry to trouble you, is it possible that I could have some books to read?”. I asked him.

  The boy raised his eyebrows a little, but didn’t seem too surprised by my request, “Of course, I can get some for you. What kind of book would you like?”.

  “Hm, some on history and geography please.”, if he was surprised by my selection he didn’t show it. He simply bowed yet again and assured me they would be with me within the hour.

  The boy worked fast, and he returned not long after. He carried 4 books and placed them on my bedside table for me.

  “Thanks again… Sorry what is your name?”, I realised I hadn’t even asked his name, how rude of me.

  “This little one is called Bai Hui” he again bowed. All the bowing threw me off a little, I would have to get used to this new culture.

  “Then, thank you Bai Hui.”, he smiled and said, “Just Hui is fine young master.”, to which I nodded in understanding.

  “Then you can just call me Duyi”, his eyes went wide, and he quickly went to say something, but I looked him in the eyes. Something he saw there made him stop, then say “I understand, please call if you need anything else”, before bowing yet again and taking his leave.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I liked the boy, very polite and he seemed hard working, but I have other things to focus on right now.

  I took the first book on the pile, it was titled “Grand History of Eastern Jade Continent”, well that sounds important, I’ll start with this.

  I opened the first page and got right into it. Then it hit me. How the hell could I read this? This was a script I had never seen before, it looked like Mandarin from my old world with many differences, it had many more swirls and curves.

  Well, whatever. I read on.

  The introduction told me about the name of the continent. The Eastern Jade Continent was named after a powerful ‘Cultivator’ who roamed the continent over 5,000 years ago.

  His title was ‘Divine Jade Sword’, he was devastatingly powerful and unrivalled during his time. Under his protection, the continent thrived, however he ‘ascended’ around 4,000 years ago.

  My heart was pounding at this point. I was familiar with some of these terms but wasn’t so sure of the accuracy. I had read some stories that included these terms back on Earth.

  The term ‘Cultivator’ was relatively diverse, many times differing from story to story, but they usually were people who harnessed energy called ‘Qi’ to do unbelievable things, beyond anything I could imagine from my life back on Earth.

  I assumed ascending meant that there was another place, probably much more advanced than the world I was in, usually the most powerful cultivators could go to that place once they met the requirements.

  I would need to investigate these a lot more, hopefully there is more information about these cultivators in the book.

  Carrying on reading, I found that after the Jade Divine Sword left, there was peace for a very long time, until around 1,000 years ago the demonic factions started to thrive.

  There has been a lot of conflict between the so called Righteous and Demonic factions, they have reached a sort of equilibrium in the recent couple hundred years.

  Not ideal, but at least the demonic are not stronger, on the surface at least.

  I didn’t have time to read it all, so I skimmed through the book, it was a big book, about a thousand pages, but it couldn’t be helped. Even if I missed some information I can always come back when I have time.

  There were some references to the rest of the world, although the information was very limited, it hinted that the Eastern Jade Continent had a big decline after the ascension of Divine Jade Sword.

  The book told me there were 6 other continents, and it told me about 3 of them not including Eastern Jade Continent.

  There was the Central Beast Continent, Northen Righteous Content and the Southern Demon Continent. The Northern and Southern continents were like fire and water, they had a fierce rivalry and unbridled hatred for each other.

  The Central Beast Continent was dominated by Beasts with unimaginable power, however they did have some human factions, they were hinted to be extremely powerful, after all they lived alongside such powerful creatures.

  Danger. There is a lot of danger in this place. I need power.

  I put the book down and picked up the next one, titled “Landscape of Eastern Jade Continent”. It opened to a simple map, there were not many details on them, except in the south.

  To the East there was a drawing of a simple flame, underneath the flame it had the name ‘Yang Palace’.

  To the North it had a spear and had the name ‘Yong Family’.

  And to the West there was a skull, with the name ‘Death Sect’.

  Finally, to the south there was a sword, with the name ‘Cloud Sword Sect’. Around the Cloud Sword Sect there were many other drawings, mountains, rivers and cities all around.

  The next page gave more details onto these, the Cloud Sword Sect was a righteous sect, it ruled over the southern part of the continent and had a good reputation among the people.

  The Cloud Sword Sect was relatively hands off when it came to its rule over the land, it allowed other sects and factions to thrive within its borders.

  The book also detailed the relationships between the most powerful 4 factions of the Continent, the Death Sect and Yang Palace had a good relationship, the Death Sect is a demonic sect, and the Yang Palace was unorthodox, but leaning more towards demonic than righteous.

  The Yong Family in the North was also unorthodox, however it was much more righteous leaning.

  The Yong Family has an alliance with the Cloud Sword Sect, while the Death Sect and Yang Palace also have one.

  They have a tumultuous relationship with each other, a deep feud between them that seemed as though it could cause chaos at any moment.

  Too much yap?