Water sloshed softly around her, the steam curling in gentle waves over the rim of the stone tub. Candlelight danced on the surface, casting fleeting patterns across the tiled walls of the bath chamber.

  Alice tensed. Moments ago, she’d been ready to settle into the warmth and forget about the chaos for at least a few precious minutes. But the instant her fingers brushed the water, her vision had exploded in a kaleidoscope of colour.

  Threads. She could only describe them as threads, thin tendrils of shimmering light that stretched from the water and wound into her own skin.

  They were faint, ephemeral, as if they would vanish if she so much as blinked too hard. Yet she could feel them, a subtle tingle that rushed up her forearms and settled somewhere below her navel, right where a traditional cultivator’s dantian was said to reside.

  “What the…?” she murmured, her voice a hushed echo against the bath’s high ceiling.

  For half a second, her mind fluttered back to the mysteries of new memories—of how this world’s inhabitants spoke reverently about essence, Qi, and even more exotic energies.

  They called them the building blocks of cultivation. But no part of those memories ever mentioned seeing colorful threads in bathwater.

  Then again, the that had flashed across that bizarre system screen might be something new, something even Alic Hong’s memories didn’t cover.

  Reflexively, she tried to draw her hand back from the water. The threads clung like spider silk, trailing after her in arcs. When she finally broke contact, they snapped away with a soft crackle, dissolving into nothingness.

  She stared at her damp fingers, heart hammering. Part of her wanted to rationalise it—maybe she was hallucinating from stress, or maybe the warm bath had triggered some weird synesthetic phenomenon in her new body.

  But the rational engineer in her took hold: Test it again.

  Slowly, carefully, she submerged both hands this time. 'Come on… show me.'

  Sure enough, the colourful threads reappeared, drifting toward her. But now, curiosity replaced her initial shock. The threads weren’t just random colours.

  She noticed faint differences: some were a gentle cerulean hue, others flickered with a subtle greenish tint. A handful shimmered white, almost invisible if not for the small glimmer around her fingers.

  Each tendril vibrated with a distinct feeling, as if each one represented a unique property or aspect of the water.

  Aspects. She remembered. “This is… aspects…”

  The strange system message had said something about forging and aspects. From the memory of Alic, she had a rough idea that aspects were unique properties of an object which structuring them as . Every animated or unanimated objects had aspects.

  She bit her lip, recalling that water, even on Earth, had countless properties.

  It quenched thirst, cleaned dirt, absorbed heat. In her old lab, she’d even leveraged water to cool quantum processors. So maybe, in this new reality, those properties were more than just scientific concepts.

  They were energies or essences that could be extracted. And they were aspects.....of water.

  Her heart kicked into a faster rhythm.

  She pictured forging the sharpness of a blade into her own nails, or the resilience of a mountain into her bones. The idea alone made her giddy. But first, she needed to figure out how to do it at all.

  She gingerly pressed her palms against the water’s surface. “Aspects,” she muttered, half-expecting some pop-up or tutorial to appear. “How do I…?”

  A warmth shimmered in her chest, right near her heart. Her soul. Something intangible flowed from her soul into her arms and out through her fingertips, coaxing the threads closer.

  She gasped when she felt a slight pull. It was like she could grasp the threads, at least mentally. Her breath shuddered, excitement intermingling with apprehension.

  Tap… She tried to will the threads into herself. On command, a single, pale turquoise line slipped into her hand. The moment it entered her body, a faint tingle shot up her veins, like a mild electric current.

  It found a place in her soul, her eyes rolled as she watched a intricate pattern appearing in her soul, then disappearing.

  Dazed, she opened her eyes to watch the thread vanish within her skin, feeling it settle inside her soul, she felt a single call from her would summon it.

  A whisper echoed in her mind:

  [Aspect Extracted: Purification (Minor)]

  [Imprinted on soul space, evolutions left : Beginner -> Intermediate -> Master (Maximum capability of bath water.)]

  Alice jerked her head up, nearly splashing water out of the tub. 'Purification? Minor?' That had to be from the so-called system. She stared at her own reflection in the water, her breath coming quicker.

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  Master was maximum evolution a bath water could reach, would that mean aspects extracted from a pure water, or perhaps a mountain dew or something would have higher evolution possibilities?

  Anyway, It was real—somehow, she had extracted a property of the bathwater.

  She wanted to test it, but had no idea how.

  Purification presumably implied cleaning or removing impurities. She tapped a finger on the water, thinking.

  She sighed, a small smirk on her lips at the ridiculousness of the situation.

  Now, she was a new soul inside a disguised noble, practicing a magical forging technique on bathwater.

  What next? Test it on herself? On an inanimate object? She chose the latter. She glanced around, spotting a small wooden bucket near the edge of the tub, presumably for rinsing off.

  Perfect. She lifted the bucket, which contained some leftover lukewarm water, and set it on the tub’s rim. Then she drew a deep breath and tried to will the power outward.

  “Purification,” she whispered, imagining that minor aspect swirling in her soul, traveling down to her arm, and into the bucket.

  At first, nothing happened. She squinted, furrowing her brow. 'Come on.' The weird warmth in her soul flickered, reluctant, uncertain.

  She inhaled again and tried to replicate the sensation she’d felt when she pulled the thread in, only in reverse—like reversing the polarity in a circuit.

  Slowly, her arm tingled. The faint turquoise glow reappeared around her fingertips, winding out of her skin in wispy coils. A second later, the bucket’s water began to shimmer.

  Alice’s eyes widened. For a moment, it glowed, bright as a tiny star in that dim bath chamber. Then it faded, leaving the water clear and still.

  She hovered her hand over it, feeling a faint hum.

  'Purified water?' She reached in, scooped a handful, and sniffed. It smelled like pure mountain spring water, no trace of the slight metallic tang that city water often carried.

  She let out a soft laugh of disbelief.

  'So that’s extracting?' She’d turned ordinary bathwater into purified, presumably drinkable water by shaping that aspect. Maybe it was a small feat, but the principle was astonishing.

  If she could do that with water, then forging bigger, more powerful aspects might be within reach.

  'Huh,' she marveled, heart pounding with excitement. 'This world truly is insane.'

  A sudden knock on the bath chamber door jolted her. She froze, nearly dropping the wooden bucket. Her mind whirled, searching for an excuse if someone discovered her performing this bizarre magic trick. And above all about her gender.

  “L-Lord Alic?” a timid voice called. It sounded like the same boy who’d brought the towels. “Do you need help?”

  'Help?'

  Alice stared down at her bare body. The fabric bounded her breast's were removed, albeit alot of smaller than her previous body it was still round. And she was a not a as everyone thinks.

  She’d prefer some privacy, thank you very much. But she realised that as Alic Hong, the city’s notorious young master, it might be normal to demand personal attendants. She swallowed a bit of pride.

  “No,” she barked, attempting to mimic the arrogant edge she’d shown earlier. “I can handle myself. Go away.”

  A moment’s silence. Then the boy mumbled an apology and scurried off.

  which explained the reason why this boy left without further words.

  When Alice was sure he was gone, she sank back into the tub, letting out a tense breath.

  'That was close.' She turned her attention to the water again. If there was one lesson she’d learned as an engineer, it was to test thoroughly.

  She’d extracted one aspect from the bathwater—Minor Purification—but the glimmering threads remained. The water still had other aspects waiting to be pulled. She bit her lip, torn between experimentation and caution.

  She was exhausted—mentally, emotionally, physically. The day had been a roller coaster from lab meltdown to alien dimension.

  Would her soul support absorbing more aspects? If not, what would happen to her if she overexerted?

  Still, curiosity won.

  “One more test,” she told herself quietly. If the first extraction gave Minor Purification, maybe a second thread would produce something else, like Calming or Warmth. If she was going to survive in this world, she needed to understand her extracting ability inside and out.

  She steadied her breathing, dipped both hands in again, and let the shimmering threads swirl around her arms. By focusing on them intently, she realised some threads felt softer, carrying a mellow vibration—possibly something like Tranquility or Relaxation.

  Another glowed with a faint pinkish hue, reminiscent of the warmth you feel in a hot tub. She chose one that felt soothing, like a gentle lullaby. Carefully, she drew it inward.

  [Aspect Extracted: Tranquility (Minor)]

  [Imprinted on soul realm, evolutions left : Beginner -> Intermediate -> Master (Maximum capability of bath water.)]

  A wave of calm rippled through her entire body, draining the tension from her neck and shoulders. She actually had to fight the urge to doze off right there in the bath.

  It felt blissful, like that perfect moment right before falling asleep.

  'Incredible,' she thought, blinking blearily. If she ever needed to quell a panic or help someone relax, this aspect might be invaluable.

  She took a deep breath, letting the synergy of purification and tranquility settle in her soul. Two aspects, just from bathwater.

  That meant… countless more from her environment.

  she reminded herself.

  This world had high-level cultivators who could probably fling her into the stratosphere if she stepped out of line.

  If her memory was correct, any cultivators could learn aspects. She had no idea could they learn it like her. But it was possible that some might have talents similar to or may be higher than her.

  Her focus returned to the bathwater again. She could see the threads, but two colors among them had turned grey, indicating she had already extracted them.

  'Can I extract more?'

  The answer was no. But she tried anyway, and an excruciating headache hammered her brain. The pain was so intense that she immediately lost consciousness.

  When she opened her eyes, a robotic voice sounded—a voice that somehow carried a tinge of mockery.

  Maximum extraction capacity for your soul is two.

  To upgrade this capacity, further advance in cultivation.

  Way to advance: Extract any fundamental aspects into your soul. Forge this aspect into a metal.

  “Ugh…” The sourness in her brain was one thing, but above all, the itching on her skin after lying in the water for so long gnawed at her.

  Jumping out of the water, she covered her naked self with a cotton cloth.

  “Why didn’t you say that before?” she accused the air.

  You didn’t ask.

  Alice was too taken aback to respond. Finally, she took a deep breath, calming her nerves. The system—or whatever entity it was—was surely trying to mess with her, right?

  Or teaching you how to think twice before jumping into action.

  “Whatever.” She now had a mission to complete: forge the extracted aspects into metals and improve her cultivation so she could extract more aspects. Alice rubbed her palms together with a smile.

  Maybe she could experiment with new things, like trying to extract the aspect of the sun… or of the wind.

  'I can’t wait…'