Morning light spilled into the balcony through gaps among tall structures, painting the stone floor in soft hues of gold. Alice leaned on a column, covering her eyes with the long silk fabric that covered her whole arm.

  For a moment, she felt a rare lull of contentment, remembering the previous day’s events with serenity.

  ? She’d teleported from Earth to this strange cultivation world.

  ? She’d discovered she was now Alic Hong—a disgraced noble’s child, secretly female, for reasons still half-buried in her borrowed memories.

  ? She’d unlocked the Absolute Path of Forging as her path to cultivation, extracting two minor aspects—Purification and Tranquility—from bathwater.

  ? The cryptic system told her she had to forge extracted aspects into metal. Only then could she advance in her cultivation and free up more capacity in her soul to absorb new aspects.

  Her eyes slid shut again as she inhaled, letting the morning air calm her thoughts.

  she told herself.

  If the quantum gate had flung her here, perhaps a similar process could take her home someday. But she had no clue how to replicate that. And she doubted if she really wanted to go back.

  First, she’d have to survive in this new world. Sure, Crimson City was protected by her brother. Still, that didn’t make her completely safe. After all, there was a never-ending war happening between monsters and humans.

  What if an abomination capable of fighting her brother appeared? Her gaze wandered into the distance, toward the figure of a mountain range appearing in the distance—Crescent Fang Mountains.

  From afar, this mountain range looked like the opened mouth of a giant monster ready to swallow the world in an instant. It was rumoured that deep in these mountains, even a Nascent Soul cultivator like her brother would fall.

  Alice took a deep breath. Nascent Soul was the peak cultivation one could reach in the Great Planes. There was no knowledge about the power beyond, but she was sure it wasn’t the end.

  For such power to fall there...she couldn't imagine what exactly hidden there.

  There were many mysteries for her to unravel… and the path for her to solve them wasn’t just through fighting.

  She dreamed of making this world a perfect engineering craft. For that she need a plan.

  Her mind rasped with the things this world lacked, and her eyes lit up with a word: transportation.

  High-level cultivators could move fast; she remembered her brother could traverse a hundred miles in half an hour. However, what about low-level cultivators or commoners?

  This world had more commoners than cultivators, yet they participated in everything just like cultivators. Some commoners trained themselves as warriors to fight in wars; their merits weren’t any lower than cultivators.

  Alice remembered from Alic’s memory that the main problem Crimson Army faced was transporting injured personnel and resources they scavenged back to the city safely. She thought perhaps she could do something about it.

  Her imagination ran wild as she thought about creating a container truck or something similar. She recalled every structural and functional detail of a container truck before returning to reality.

  thought Alice, frowning,

  Her creative mind formed a plan. For that to work, she had many objectives to finish. The first was to advance in her cultivation so that her soul would open up space for filling another extracted aspect.

  Gingerly, she pressed her palm over her abdomen, where she could sense a faint hum— while two small pools of energy swirled in her soul.

  Purification felt fresh and vital; Tranquility was a gentle lull. Both remained carefully nestled inside her, waiting to be used or forged.

  Her dantian started absorbing essence from the surroundings, within a night it completely filled. Alice felt she could use these two aspects continuously, maybe five times.

  Every advancement in the minor realm will increase the amount of essence you can store in your dantian. You are just on the edge of the Mortal Realm now, not even in the Qi Gathering stage. So your essence capacity is 10.

  Each minor realm in Qi Gathering increases this capacity, multiplied by two. There are three minor realms in Qi Gathering before Body Refinement. A minor stage aspect would cost you 1 essence.

  The mechanical voice of the system was serious this time. Alice felt it was a little more reliable here. So, she would have a maximum of 80 essence capacity after crossing Qi gathering stage, meaning she could use a minor stage aspect eighty times!

  What are you going to do with minor stage aspects, though? Wash yourself or burn a stove?

  Those words were like a basin of cold water sprinkled all over her head. Yes. If she wanted to achieve anything notable, the aspects she had to extract couldn’t be something like minor Purification or Tranquility.

  A critical question rose in her heart. She had filled her soul with two aspects already. Did that mean she had wasted her slots?

  No. You can combine aspects with the same properties and improve their evolution possibilities.

  Alice thought. Anyway, she took a mental note to extract aspects wisely in the future. Before that she had to advance into Qi gathering.

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  'How many slots i would unlock after this advancement?,' she asked in mind.

  “My Lord?” came a muffled voice from behind her. “Can I receive your presence?”

  She squinted at the door, then spun herself to face it.

  “Yes. What do you want?” she called, remembering to channel that aloof arrogance Alic was known for.

  “I’ve brought fresh clothes and tea, my Lord. May I enter?”

  She glanced down at her robe—wrinkled and slightly damp from last night’s bath fiasco. Her hair was a frizzy mess too.

  “Fine,” she said grudgingly.

  The door to the balcony slid open, revealing a slender maid wearing a simple tunic. She approached with practiced caution, eyes lowered in the presence of the infamous Alic Hong.

  In her hands, she clutched a folded robe of crimson silk, embroidered with gold threads at the sleeves and collar—clearly high-quality attire. Behind her trailed the timid boy from yesterday, balancing a tray of steaming teacups and a small teapot.

  “I hope this suits you, my Lord,” the maid said, setting the clothes gently on the table.

  “Lord Crimson’s personal tailor made it for you a few months ago, but you haven’t worn it yet.” Her voice contained a slight accusation that she failed to hide.

  At the mention of Lord Crimson, Alice’s stomach fluttered uneasily. The older brother—Aidan Hong. A powerhouse cultivator rumored to have more than enough strength to flatten a city if he wished.

  she mused. Alic had minimal contact with this older brother, and memories about those contacts weren’t pleasant.

  She nodded curtly at the maid. “Thank you. Leave it here.”

  The maid inclined her head. “Will you need help dressing?” Her gaze scurried to the surroundings. “Isn’t this place a little open? Perhaps you should grace yourself to a room.”

  Alice’s face warmed. '

  She was still grappling with the fact she had to pretend to be a young man while possessing a female body. Getting help would expose that secret instantly.

  “No,” she snapped, injecting a bit of an edge. “I’m not a child. Out.”

  Both servants bowed, carefully placed the tea on a nearby table, then left in haste. Exhaling, Alice allowed herself to relax.

  She looked at the clothes to study them. The robe was indeed fine—a deep crimson with subtle patterns of swirling dragons in golden thread.

  The cloth itself felt smooth beneath her fingertips, lighter than typical silk. Possibly imbued with a trace of Qi or essence.

  'Wait…' Alice touched the clothes, feeling the familiar sensation of spider webs. Threads, thicker and stronger than those in bathwater, appeared in her sight. But the amount of them was a lot less.

  She counted three. Two of them were white, while one glared red.

  There are different types of aspects. Pale colours represent creation. Dark colours represent destruction, There is another type of aspect. That’s a mix of these two. Its properties depend on the perception of a cultivator.

  “Is that so?” murmured Alice as she walked to her room.

  Inside the room, she busied herself with the frustrating process of binding her chest again—though smaller than in her old Earth body, it was still enough to need restraint to pass as male.

  ‘I hope they never stop growing.’ It would be a lie to say she never cared. Which woman would want her breasts to stop growing or perhaps turn into an ugly shape?

  She donned the robe, fussing with the sash until everything felt secure. Finally, she examined herself in the tall mirror by the window.

  A slender, androgynous figure looked back, the crimson robe accentuating pale skin and dark red hair, pinned in an artful topknot. She tugged on the hair clasp, wondering if it had sentimental meaning for Alic, but her memory fragments revealed little.

  Perhaps it was just for style. Anyway, as a male or female, Alic was a perfect piece of art.

  She turned to the tea, pouring a cup with a shaky hand. The steam billowed upward, carrying a sweet, herbal scent.

  she thought, sipping gingerly. She had to push away the feeling of threads on her tongue, but the warmth settled in her stomach, biting down the last bit of discomfort.

  Over the rim of the teacup, her gaze fell on a stack of wine jars in the corner.

  Alic’s stash, presumably. Her borrowed memories told her the old Alic used to drown himself in cheap liquor to numb insecurities. But she wasn’t tempted. She had bigger goals now.

  With the tea half-finished, she set the cup aside and squared her shoulders.

  The system had said the way to advance was by forging these aspects into a metal. But how exactly? She scoured Alic’s memories—fuzzy around the edges—for any clue about forging.

  Traditional forging in this city typically involved heating metal in a smithy, then hammering it to shape with Qi-infused strikes. But Alic had never bothered learning such skills; he was too lazy and preoccupied with debauchery.

  She sighed, resigning herself to a more hands-on approach.

  But that meant venturing into the city.

  She grimaced.

  She wasn’t fond of playing the role of a spoiled brat, but it served as an effective disguise.

  

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Yes?” she called.

  A familiar voice. “My Lord, it’s Gu Shen. May I enter?”

  Ah, Gu Shen—the middle-aged steward she had seen yesterday. She was polite yet carried an air of disapproval, as though she believed Alic caused trouble at every turn. She wasn’t wrong either.

  Alice sighed. “Fine. Come in.”

  The door slid open, revealing Gu Shen’s austere figure. She wore formal robes and a meticulously groomed hairstyle. Bowing, she spoke in a measured tone.

  “Good morning, Lord Alic. I trust you slept well.”

  She gave a small nod. “Well enough. What do you want?”

  Gu Shen’s eyes flicked to her outfit, then the half-empty teacup, but she kept a polite mask.

  “I came to inform you that Master Aidan—Lord Crimson—has not yet returned from his expedition. There’s still no word on when he will come back.” She cleared her throat.

  “I also wish to remind you of your training schedule. You have not attended the clan’s martial drills in over a week.”

  Martial drills? Right, apparently Alic was required—at least nominally—to attend some clan training sessions. But the old Alic usually skipped them.

  Still, it might be a prime opportunity to observe how people here channeled Qi. At the very least, she had to learn how to absorb essence faster, right?

  She feigned indifference, adjusting her robe’s collar. “I might drop by later.”

  A flicker of surprise crossed Gu Shen’s face. “Very well, my Lord. I’ll inform the instructors.”

  She paused. “Is there anything else you require?”

  Alice hesitated. Maybe this was her chance to glean directions to a forge. “Yes,” she said curtly, improvising. “I need to check the forging halls. I’m… in need of a new weapon.”

  she told herself. "I wanted to design it myself."

  ‘Spoiled brats may want random new toys, right?’

  Gu Shen blinked. “You—wish to visit the forging halls?". She acted as never heard Alice's second sentence.

  A trace of skepticism coloured her tone. “With all due respect, my Lord, you’ve never shown interest in forging or weaponry. Are you certain?”

  She squared her shoulders. “I’m certain. I think I would look cool when forging.” She rose her chin high into the sky, acting how a narcissistic brat should. “Now, is there a problem?”

  Gu Shen bowed hastily. “None at all. The Hong Clan’s main forge is in the western quarter of the estate. You can’t enter there unless the Lord allows it. But if you wish to see the broader selection of public forges in Crimson City, I will order an escort through the gates.”

  She weighed her options. An escort meant all her actions would be scrutinised by them; without an escort, she might lose her way. After all her sense of direction was abysmal.

  She considered both options and finally decided.

  “I don’t want people to waste my time,” she replied curtly. This way, she could act as herself. It wasn’t Alic who was going to become a forger—it was Alice.

  It was time to create a dual identity. Her lips curled upwards.