Chapter Text
They didn’t exactly remember how they died, but they must have, to end up in such a place.
Okay, let's back up for a second. The last thing they remember is walking home from school, reading the latest chapter from a frankly terrible web novel, seeing if there were any new monsters or plants to add to their field guide. In fact, the only reason they kept reading was because of the flora and fauna, the author, Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, Airplane for short, decided to shove in with no idea on how any of the animals they mis-matched actually worked.
Take the Glittering-Snow Pinguin-Snail for example, the animal could fly with it’s half-formed wings, even though neither of the animals it was based off of could actually fly, and one of its favorite treats was the salt rocks that grew in the caverns they favored, even though such a thing would dry out the creatures soft underbelly. Also! The fact that it was called Glittering-Snow in the first place was just terrible, it got its name from the ice growing out of its shell, not snow, and not once did the author even describe it as “glittering” in the actual novel! Only with words like “shimmering” or “sparkling”
That could be a translation error though, the original novel was written by a guy in China, and the version they were reading was just a fan-translation into english. Proud Immortal Demon Way was the name, they knew that the original was many chapters ahead of where the translation was, in fact, it was already finished if some of the commenters were to be believed. They knew PIDW was just an excuse for poorly written fan service, but when you have unrestricted access to the internet at age eleven, you see some stuff. They mostly skipped over those parts anyways, only skimming it to see if there was a mention of some effects of a plant or something.
It had actually started off with a decent storyline, the classic tale of the protagonist going through tremendous trauma and abuse before discovering he’s ~special~ in some way. For this novel it was that he was secretly half heavenly demon, the most powerful of all demons. But soon it just turned into a harem novel, where the protag, Luo Binghe, collected women left and right. The only reason they kept reading at that point was for the mess of world building and creatures.
That was the reason they created the fake field guide, so they would have a reason to keep reading. They had started the book, damn it, and they were going to finish it. The writing was truly atrocious though, plot holes everywhere, forgetting the names of places and creatures. Forgetting the names of some characters even!
The field was only digital of course, they didn’t have the time or materials to make it physical, though they did end up posting updates on different forums about every five chapters of PIDW or so. And about every twenty updates did they post the full ‘Novel’ of all of the most recent updates compiled. Not a lot of people seemed to be interested in the creatures, but they did get comments on how people looked through their work just to see what the original text was even referencing as it got on to the later chapters.
What they found amusing though was the account “Peerless Cucumber-Translations”, an account that translated all of the rants of the infamous Peerless Cucumber. At least someone else knew how terrible Airplane’s writing was. The rest of the comments on the chapters were apparently just people asking to see Luo Binghe get a new wife, even though the previous arc hadn’t even finished.
Anyways, as they said, they were just walking home from school then Bam! Darkness. They had the vague thought of “Did I just die?”, but that didn’t make any sense, there wasn’t anything that could have killed them, unless it was a random heart attack, but they didn’t feel any pain.
They didn’t expect to wake up again, but when they did, a flood of memories that weren't theirs came rushing in.
Wandering through a thick forest, they don't know if they were injured or just fatigued, everything was blurry. There seemed to be energy leaking out from every pore of their body. They could taste blood on their tongue, running from where their nose was still throbbing.
Did they just get out of a fight? That didn’t seem right. They looked down and their vision blackened before they felt their body hit the ground.
The name “Meng” was important. Was it their name? Their parents' name? Siblings? Friends?
Meng means dream, was this a dream? No, they could feel their joints faintly aching, like they just finished hand writing an essay. They tried to open their eyes, but immediately squeezed them back shut due to the bright light.
Faint images of a truck losing control, a person walking, not paying attention. A Crash.
Oh, that was them, wasn’t it? Did they seriously get done in by Truck-kun? They didn't even live anywhere busy, they lived in a peaceful suburb, and they didn’t hear any cars or trucks coming while walking, they didn’t even have any earbuds in!
They opened their eyes once again, realizing they were definitely not in a modern hospital by any stretch of the word.
They looked down at themself, as was startled to see white robes and flowy pants, definitely nothing they had ever worn before, and their hair was longer too, still keeping with its wavy-curly texture, and copper red color though. It looked like their hair before it was cut short on one of their birthdays a few years ago, going down to about their waist.
They sat up to get a better look around the room they were in. The only way they could describe it was someone had been to a doctors office, and then just replaced all the cabinets and junk with wooden versions of them. There were also those paper-like sliding doors you see in those old temples, with a yellow piece of paper with red writing on it sticking to the door.
Silencing Talisman, Their brain supplied, Most likely to keep noise from the outside coming in, not the other way round, if this is truly a hospital and not some weird prison.
Well, now either this was a really strange dream or they had died and transmigrated. Based on the art they had seen, the room screamed ancient china, but if the creator didn’t know what ancient china was supposed to look like and was just guessing based off of their highschool textbooks. Or they were in a coma, and their brain came up with something to keep them occupied. Still better to treat this as their new reality, in case they really had transmigrated.
Now where did they transmigrate to? Hopefully it was something they at least read before, instead of the thousands of other stories based off of ancient china, ancient fantasy china if that talisman on the door said anything about it.
Okay, in most transmigration novels it was the last story the protag read before dying, or their favorite one. They didn't really have an absolute favorite in that genre so it must be…
Oh no
Really?
Of all the places?
Proud Immortal Demon Way?
That mess of a world?
Okay, probably best to figure out where and when they were before panicking in a potentially dangerous situation. But given how they hadn’t died a second time just yet, it was probably fine for now. They should probably figure out who they were, or if they just ended up as a random NPC.
They still had the same hair, that seemed like an important character trait that Airplane would mention, so not a major character. Unless they were one of Luo Binghe’s wives? Please say no.
They looked down at themself again. Okay, flat chest, probably not a wife then.
They took the time to examine themself a little more closely. Birthmarks and freckles are still in the same spots. There was a black ribbon on their wrist, seemingly replacing the hair tie they usually wore. They also noticed they didn’t have their glasses, maybe there just wasn’t a xianxia equivalent? Wait, they could see perfectly fine, no glasses needed! Well if there was one good thing about dying it was that they didn’t need to worry about their glasses breaking.
What was disappointing is that there didn’t seem to be an equivalent for their clothes. They really liked that hoodie they were wearing! It was a nice deep purple, not lavender, not a weird dusty purple, it was like a royal purple. They wore it almost every day. The rest of the clothes were plain white, there seemed to be three top layers, with the most outer one having slightly flowy sleeves. Also, a pair of baggy pants that tied off below the ankle. No socks though! What if their feet got cold?
Their attention was pulled away from their very serious assessment by the door opening. Sounds of people talking and moving about filled their senses before it shut once again. A woman wearing white and tealish blue robes gave them a warm smile. It was obviously practiced though, like a doctor's smile. Her hair was a dark brown and pulled into a braid, tied off with a white ribbon. Very professional of her, that just confirmed that this was probably a medical ward of some sort. How kind they are to take care of someone who probably just popped up out of nowhere. Unless they were also a doctor of some sort? Unlikely, but still possible.
Then the woman started to speak to them.
Then they realized that PIDW was based in ancient fantasy China, and the common language was definitely not english. And there didn’t seem to be a magical universal translator that came installed with their death.
“If you’re trying to speak to me, just know I can’t understand you,” They said, probably better to let them know they don’t speak the language than to think they were deaf, wouldn't want their medical records to be inaccurate, now would we.
“Hold up two fingers if you can understand me” They added, in case this was just a one way thing.
Seeing as how she didn’t hold up any fingers and instead made a note on some papers she was carrying, they don’t think she could understand them either.
She walked closer to the bed that they were currently on, and started talking to them again as she went. Once she was standing next to the bed, she held out her arm, palm up out to them.
Welp, time to play charades!
They copied her, hoping that was what they were supposed to do, instead of handing her something they didn’t have. It seemed that they had guessed correctly, because the woman put two fingers on their wrist, as if checking for a pulse.
Then they felt tendrils of something in weaving its way through their veins. Was that spiritual energy? Most likely not demonic, she didn’t seem like a demon, but who knows at this point. Either way, the energy felt very calming, probably practiced that way if it was for checking possibly unruly patients.
Their own energy seemed to flow and react to the calm energy. The only way they could describe it was playful and curious, like it was nudging at the woman’s energy and seeing if it would play along with it.
She seemed slightly surprised at this, with how quickly she turned back to her notes, but she didn’t let it show on her face. Very Professional. They approved.
The door slid open once again, this time a man with a kind of ugly mustache. He was definitely older than the woman and seemed to be in a higher position given how the woman immediately bowed to him.
“Shizun” the woman greeted as she stood up from her bow.
Oh! They knew that one, they could only read a few characters, but they had gone to google translate to see how some of the words were supposed to be pronounced while reading, because there weren't really any English equivalents after all, or not any good ones. They weren’t completely incompetent!
The only people who were called Shizun in PIDW were either sect leaders, or the Peak Lords of Cang Qiong. This guy didn't really give off leader vibes of a whole sect, unless they were in a really small local sect, so that probably meant he was a Peak Lord.
The only Peak lord that dealt with anything medical was Mu Qingfang, and the mustache was the only defining factor that got described for the man.
Well now they knew where they were for sure, and a rough timeline of when. They were in Cang Qiong mountain sect, most likely on Qian Cao, the medical peak. As for when, it was before Luo Binghe came to raze down the sect, and after the current Peak Lords actually became Peak Lords. Which still left a good few possible decades, but at least they knew there were some things that would be familiar.
As they were thinking the young woman started talking to who they now recognized as Mu Qingfang.
There was very minimal gesturing, but with the way Mu Qingfang kept shooting them curious glances, it was obvious the two of them were talking about them. Hopefully this wasn’t the curious glance of a doctor who had never heard of whatever weird rare xianxia disease they had. Hopefully it was only because the young woman reported not knowing the language they spoke.
After the woman stopped talking, Mu Qingfang nodded and pulled a piece of paper out of his sleeve. The paper hovered over his hand a few inches before folding itself into a paper crane and folding onto itself.
Mu Qingfang then spoke to the woman, supposedly explaining what the paper crane was all about.
The woman nodded and bowed again before leaving.
Mu Qingfang then smiled at them, it was a warm smile, but obviously practiced and curated to specifically sooth patients. He then nodded and left the room, leaving them alone again.
Welp. That didn’t go terribly, at least they think so.
They honestly could have probably at least said hello, but they didn’t want to embarrass themself with getting the tones wrong.
Time to wait for whatever plan they had for them to be put into action.