Quantum Dao

Chapter 1: Initiating

"Ming! go wake up your siblings, breakfast is ready." Li Ming who woke up early to prepare for his entrance test, heard his mother's voice from downstairs and left his chair and dashed to the rooms of his younger sister and brother.

Knock, knock.

"Wake Up!! Wake Up!! breakfast is ready."

Li Ming's fist hammered the doors. The doors creaked under the immense force of his onslaught.

He placed his ear close to both doors one by one, and a satisfied smile bloomed on his lips when he heard the sound of his younger siblings waking up from inside their rooms.

With a content expression, Li Ming walked downstairs. This was his favourite part of the day. Since, he had started preparing for the entrance test; He could also pour out all his frustration and stress by shouting early in the morning but instead of getting an earful; he was praised by his mother and father.

He carefully descended the stairs, holding onto the railing. these stairs were built a long time ago; almost 3 or 4 decades must have passed. The stairs had now become uneven and one miss-step and you would be on your way to the heaven.

"Mom. I have knocked on the door and after I heard some noise from inside, I came downstairs."

Li Ming replaced his hammering on the door to a much more polite word knock.

Father just gave a side glance to Li Ming and then continued reading news on his phone.

Li Ming just give a cute smile, at least to his mother it looked cute, His mom also knew that he was lying not because she was his mother but because they lived in a small house where what was happening in the neighbours house could also be heard with crystal clear audio.

"MOM! DAD! Tell your son to control himself or I will k*ll him." Li Ming did not dare to turn his had and just continued eating his breakfast. His sister was a total demon, and because she was father's favourite child she got away with almost all of her mischievous acts.

"Calm down, sweetie." Mother walked closer to Li Ming's sister and embraced her. Mother gently swiped her hand over the head of her daughter.

She saw that her daughter had calmed down a little and took her hand and guided her to her seat on the table.

Li Ming had almost finished his breakfast.

"How is your studies going?" A deep voice came from opposite Li Ming.

Not Again!

Li Ming had grown tired of hearing the same question every single day since he had started preparing for the entrance test. His father had even asked the same query the day he had joined the course that prepared you for the entrance test.

"I have confidence that I can ace the English but... Maths and Computer are a little confusing sometimes." Li Ming took a pause mid-sentence to think what to tell his father so that he would not continue the topic any longer.

"I read on the website of the institute you are applying to, that Maths and Computer have more weightage in their exams as compared to English."

"I know, which is why I am giving most of my time to them instead of English. Now, even the teachers have started ignoring my messages, it must be because I have started asking such advance questions that even they have difficulty in answering them."

"Good." His Father also started eating after saying one word.

How could I tell you that the teachers have blocked me on all their social platforms because they think my questions are too stupid.

Li Ming stood up after he had cleaned his plate, he saw that his youngest brother was also descending the stairs.

His youngest brother was only eight years old and was the apple of the eye of the whole family.

"Brother~" the youngest threw himself in the arms of Li Ming. Li Ming also hugged him tightly. Li Ming was different from most siblings. He as an elder brother tried to act more mature and also controlled his sister because she was short-tempered. He did not treated his younger siblings like a punching bag, which was why they also treated him respectfully. Although, his sister played naughty pranks but she also did it when he was relaxing or taking a quick break from his studies.

There was not grand reason behind his act. He just did not do anything that his parents did not do to him when he was their age.

...

Li Ming was back inside his room, he had sat up a candle on his table to help him concentrate on his studies, He gave himself a aim that was to continue studying until the candle ran our of wax.

Moreover, he was not filming any short video where it shows that someone is studying using the candle but when he flips through the pages in his book the small flame on the candle is blown away.

Tick tock!

The hand of the wall clock kept on rotating clock-wise and before Li Ming knew, the golden hues of the sun sank beyond the horizon, painting the sky with streaks of amber and crimson before surrendering to the encroaching veil of twilight. Shadows stretched long and thin, dissolving into the growing darkness as the world slipped into the quiet embrace of night. One by one, the stars began to puncture the heavens, their faint glimmers heralding the arrival of a tranquil, moonlit calm.

Yawn~

Li Ming stretched his sore muscles from sitting in the same position for more than 10 hours. His neck was hurting like he'd been carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Just joking, this body that could not even handle some studying how would it be able to hold the weight of World on his mortal shoulders.

ping!

His eyes burned with the weight of exhaustion, each blink feeling like sandpaper against raw skin. The pages before him blurred into a haze of ink and paper, the words swimming as if mocking his relentless efforts. He rubbed his temples and pinched the bridge of his nose, but the dull ache behind his eyes refused to relent, a reminder of the hours stolen by the merciless grind of study.

As he rubbed his weary eyes, trying to chase away the fog of exhaustion, a sharp ping broke through the silence—a notification from his phone. The sound was crisp, almost jarring, slicing through the haze of his fatigue like a sudden flicker of light in a dark room.

Li Ming expression started changing as he continued reading the notification on his phone.

"Oh, Finally, after waiting for four whole weeks." Li Ming's favourite Novel had gone on a break after completing of one volume. Now, the author was finally back with a new volume.

A chill ran down his spine just when he was about to click on the notification.

Something feels off..

Li Ming glanced at his lock-screen and saw that the date was 11/01/2025, but didn't the author's not say that he would be back after two months break.

Whatever, the author might have felt restless after reading his story himself and could not help but share the story early than the promised date.

Li Ming clicked on the notification and...Nothing happened. What were you expecting? Just Clicking and he would be sucked inside by his own phone. This was reality not some novel.

A new page opened on his lock-screen asking him to enter his password. After bypassing it he was greeted with an author note, just at the beginning of the new volume of his novel.

He looked at the header and it said six minutes read.

Li Ming was a little disappointed but still he waved off that feeling of loss and continued on the new journey of the MC in the novel.

There was not much action and the MC was also smart and intelligent. Plus the main character hid his power while being over-powered and helping his friends and allies from the shadows without them ever knowing it was their friend who they thought was the weakest.

The clock ticked and soon six minutes had flew away. Li Ming closed his books and went to bed. It was already 10:00PM and he was an "early to bed, early to rise type". He tucked himself inside his blanket and browsed through some new novels but nothing caught his eye. He revisited some old novels he had dropped but still there was no improvement even now just opening the latest chapter he knew what would have happened in all the chapters he had missed.

Yawn~

He looked at the time on his phone and it was already 11:20PM, he got up and put the phone on charge, and placed his spectacles by the side.

Li Ming went back to lie-down on bed and soon his mind drifted to sleep. It was always a strange feeling, whenever he closed his eyes. In complete darkness, he felt an unknown pull. His head started feeling heavy as it usually did whenever he gave his mind some rest after studying for a long time.

...

"Li Ming! Li Ming!"

Li Ming who had just fallen asleep, heard someone calling his name deep within his consciousness. However, his body refused to wake up. His ears started ringing and a strange frequency was sending shockwaves inside his brain.

It was a strange feeling. His heart wanted to get up and respond to whoever was disturbing his nap but his body refused to follow his commands.

Shut up! Shut up!

Moreover, he tried using his lips and vocal cords to produce some sound but that too was futile no matter how much he shouted the individual calling out to him did not listen.

This feeling made him remember the time when he had his first blood test and because of fear he had almost lost his consciousness just moments after the syringe had been removed. The doctor had said it was because his blood pressure had dropped suddenly.

However, he could not remember anything that could have caused him to suddenly faint. He had just slept and had done nothing else.

Li Ming knew for now he could do nothing but wait for his body to start functioning on its own. He sometimes laughed when he saw people who were going to gym to build their physique.

Human body was just so fragile. If the Blood Pressure became low or too strong than it was a problem or if just one vein in our did not receive enough blood circulation then it could cause so much pain that people wished that someone could just cut that part...

Even when all these thoughts were going through his brain, Li Ming did not stop his attempts to try and move any part of his body. Finally, he felt some sensation through the tip of his index finger.

From what his senses conveyed he was lying right now and on some hard surface.

Slowly but surely the blood had started correcting its circulation and his fingers had started moving but his eyes still refused to open.

"Look, come here, Li Ming's fingers just made a movement."

"Move, Move, let me check."

Again the voice that had became silent started shouting. But this time there were more than one people present around him.

Li Ming became vigilant because he could not recognize who these people were.

He felt someone lifting up his arm, might be a doctor, checking my heart-beat. Then the hand started pressing his chest, may be performing acupuncture.

Who still uses acupuncture, in this day and age?

Li Ming had many questions that could only be answered once he regained his senses.

He just lowered his guard but not completely as whoever these people were they were not trying to harm him instead they were treating him and worry was evident in their voice.

Could it be... No, no.

Li Ming brain generated a sudden thought, but he hurriedly popped the balloon of imagination that was swelling from his over indulgence.

How could that be possible? that was something limited to only the pages and ink of novels and sometimes comics.

But no more than that.

...

Time continued flowing, Li Ming did not know how much time had gone. During the morning someone comes and just pours something extremely bitter in his mouth that would have made him vomit previously but now he could do nothing and he felt that after drinking whatever he was made to drink he condition was improving.

It might be some medicine.

Li Ming's world was a haze, a chaotic mix of pain and fragments of unfamiliar memories.

As his consciousness sharpened, a faint shimmer appeared before his closed eyes. At first, he thought it was a dream. But the text was unmistakable—floating, faintly glowing in the void of his mind.

Name: Li Ming

Age: 18

Reputation: Trash Disciple

Talent: ...

Li Ming's brows twitched. "What the hell is this?" he thought, his confusion eclipsed by the absurdity of the situation.

Although, there were some fragments of memories but when he tried to remember the film that had just played inside his mind, the the void in which he could see no one, not even himself started shaking.

Just reading the text, he knew his situation was doomed. He could not see further, it might be because his mind had overloaded. Or this all was just hallucination. He was just in a very long dream, that might be only 3 or 4 hours long but for him it felt like hundreds of year had passed since he had been trapped like this.

But he had not became ill, or had a panic attack after staring at complete darkness for who knows how long, might be a sign that this was all just his imagination.

Chapter 2: Awaken

A few days later, inside a cave, Li Ming had regained consciousness hours ago.

Finally, he left.

He was waiting for the person who was taking care of "Li Ming" to leave.

"I don't know, how something that should have only been possible in fantasy came to reality."

Right now, only the thought of his family, and how devasted that might be after seeing his dead body.

I hope, father and mother don't starve themselves.

Li Ming, instead of thinking that he was left alone in an unknown world, was worried if his family was doing okay without him.

Or he might be trying to not let his line of thinking flow in that direction.

He rubbed his chin and fell in deep thought.

The condition he was in, did not know how to express his emotions.

He had seen the status window inside his consciousness and also the 'cliché' of suddenly getting transmigrated into this world of cultivation. He did not feel any joy, simply because his life, although sometimes good and sometimes bad, was still much better compared to living like an orphan in this world.

Li Ming had a hollow feeling inside his chest, like someone had took away his heart leaving only a shell, his body.

He knew, there would no longer be anyone, who would take care care of him like his parents did. No siblings whom he hated so much he wanted to kill them but also loved them so much that he could not bear to.

No more would he hear the sweet sound of his little brother calling him 'Brother~' and hugging him every time he was being bullied by his elder sister.

At the end, Li Ming could only shook his head. His upbringing was not so weak that he would cry after experiencing some problems, even if that problem was leaving his world and getting transported here.

I promise, I will return.

Li Ming made a promise to himself, which he knew his chances were pretty close to non-existent. This was a completely different world, and who knows how many seconds, hours, days or lets hope not, years might have passed on Earth. Li Ming buried the emotions that were trying to flow out of him in the form of tears.

...

He stumbled to his feet, the coarse fabric of his robe brushing against his battered skin. A cracked mirror hung on the wall of the cave, tilted at an odd angle. Li Ming hesitated, then limped toward it, the sound of his uneven footsteps echoing in the cavernous space.

When he finally stood before the mirror, he grimaced at his reflection. His face was pale and gaunt, a testament to the days he had spent unconscious. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, making him look more like a ghost than a disciple. His once-neatly tied hair now hung in a tangled mess around his face, strands matted with dried blood and sweat. A faint, swollen bruise on his left cheek added to the pitiful sight.

Li Ming raised a hand to touch the reflection of his face. His fingers paused halfway, trembling. "I look like I've crawled out of a grave," he muttered bitterly.

The tattered robe he wore was barely holding together, with several tears revealing the thin frame underneath. He pulled at the collar, revealing faint scars crisscrossing his chest—souvenirs from the beating that had left him in a coma. His body looked frail, far from the strong, intimidating image of a sect disciple.

Li Ming exhaled sharply and looked away from the mirror. "Trash disciple," he repeated, this time with a mix of anger and resignation. The System showed his reputation plus nickname for him wasn't entirely unwarranted. He was always at the bottom of the rankings, his techniques clumsy, his progress slower than anyone else's. And now, after losing so miserably to the protagonist—the so-called "better-trash" of the sect—his name was likely the punchline of every joke in the outer disciples' quarters.

He turned back to the mirror, forcing himself to look into his own eyes. Behind the exhaustion and humiliation, a flicker of determination began to spark.

"So what if I'm trash?" he whispered, his lips curling into a faint smirk. "Even trash can burn if you throw it into the right fire."

"But... if that right fire is the protagonist than, thankyou, next."

Li Ming grabbed a cloth from the corner of the cave and began cleaning his face, wincing as the fabric scraped against the bruises. He pulled his robe tighter around himself, hiding the evidence of his weakness.

His mind drifted into the memories of 'Li Ming', and he also knew that he had been hired with many others as well by some third-rate villain, to do the dirty work of the villain.

"Now that I am viewing the memories of 'Li Ming' from a passer-by perspective, its clear that the way the authors of these cliche novels showcased villains, was not the way they really acted."

"That third-rate villain is also pretty smart, only hiring people who had some past with the protagonist."

If he had just transmigrated a little early then he would not have become an enemy of the protagonist. He was lucky that the protagonist was only in the early stages of his growth and his hands had not been stained with the blood of his enemies.

This Body's previous owner was just jealous of protagonist, Xiao Chen. Just because they both had the same low-grade spiritual roots but Xiao Chen's progress was much faster then Li Ming's.

As usual, in cultivation worlds, these people liked to divide everything into tiers. Same with the spiritual roots, After low-grade there were mid-grade and after that High-grade Spiritual roots.

Status window.

Name: Li Ming

Age: 18

Reputation: Trash Disciple

Talent: [Extreme Space-Time sensitivity]

Cultivation: Semi-Earthen Seed Realm (2/10)

Spiritual root: Low-grade spiritual root (0/1000)

Attributes: Five Elemental Attributes

Skills: Roar (Mortal) [initial (90/100)], Iron fist (Mortal) [Initial (40/100)], Mist-weave Chi Art (Low-Grade Yellow-rank) [Initial (20/100)]

"What?!" Li Ming had a shocked expression, "This body had five elements and he was still termed as Trash Disciple."

"No, in the memories of this body there was only two attribute: wood and fire. That means that other three are attributes that I already had in the previous world."

Li Ming was honestly brimming with excitement, he was more talented than the previous body owner. Something else also made him curious, as from the memories 'Li Ming' did not have anything like "Extreme Space-Time sensitivity". Then it could only be associated with his transmigration because that was the only time he had came into contact with Space.

Woohoo~

He became thrilled and took out a notebook from his sack and just when he was about to right some future plans. he stopped.

"Hoo~ Survived." Li Ming had forgotten that in this world of cliche anything that was considered impossible in the real world could be possible here. For example, Li Ming writing about his experiences and suddenly a notebook being delivered to the heroines on this whatever 'world' and than for some reason them flocking at him.

Li Ming wiped the no-existent sweat on his forehead and threw away the notebook.

He continued reading his stats. and his eyes narrowed when he reached the cultivation section "Earthen Seed Realm".

"what realm is this? where is the Qi-Condensation realm?" Li Ming brain had short-circuited after reading an unknown name of the realm of cultivation with 'semi' written before it.

It was common sense, that no matter the what the realms would remain same From cultivating Qi-condensation to Foundation Building and so on.

Before he could continue pondering the entrance of the cave opened and someone walked-in. Li Ming was confused.

wasn't the cave supposed to open only when the owner is outside?

Li Ming was an outer disciple of 'Mist Sect', living in the cave residence provided by the sect to its disciples. Like every Xianxia novel, the protagonist starts from a backwater sect, situated in some desolate corner of the world. He was only connecting the dots of his current and previous memory, It was also a possibility that he might be wrong and he would too love to be proved wrong. However, the chances of that happening were pretty close to none.

"Li Ming!" the disciple who entered was also wearing the robes of outer disciple. The person who entered name was Chen Yuan.

"Thankyou, for looking after me while I was in coma, and also hiring a physician to prescribe me medicine."

Li Ming was not an ungrateful person, and he knew if Chen Yuan wanted to harm him, he wouldn't have called the physician in the first place.

"Huh?!" Chen Yuan stared at Li Ming with a blank expression.

"Li Ming, are you really alright now. Do you want me to go and call the physician one more time."

Li Ming knew why Chen Yuan acted like this, but he had to change himself or if he continued on the path he had previously walked as 'Li Ming' in this world than sooner or later he would either get killed by the protagonist or by the enemies of Xiao Chen for not fulfilling whatever was said by them.

"I am alright Chen Yuan, being so close to death made me realise my past mistakes. From now on I will no longer live how I used to."

"Why are you talking like some demon emperor joining the righteous path, although you bullied others but you too in return got beaten by them and your recent going into coma was for the same reason, right?" Chen Yuan laughed at Li Ming.

Li Ming also understood because he was just a small fish in a huge aquarium, for some what he considered acts of bullying might be cute in the eyes of other.

"Say, why do you have entrance token of my cave?"

"..."

"Forget it. Give it back." Li Ming stretched out his hand, just fifteen inches away from Chen Yuan.

"Li Ming, how could you be so heartless." Chen Yuan feigned crying and wiped his tears. Then he rubbed his thumb and index finger together.

"Here." Li Ming stuffed a stone in Chen Yuan's robe. This was no ordinary stone. It was a low-grade spiritual stone. Like every other thing stones or specifically spiritual stones were divided into classes. A low-grade spiritual stone was enough to feed a mortal family of 5 for three full months; if they were frugal.

"Is your life only worth this much?" Chen Yuan asked his voice sounding cold, Although he had helped Li Ming but that was only because he was short on money and, Li Ming was known to be someone whose ego inflated with the amount of praise and sometimes he would give rewards to these people. Chen Yuan had thought that saving this type of person would at least increase his wealth by 10 or 20 low-grade spiritual stones. But he got only a minute stone that too of low quality.

"Right now, Yes." Li Ming moved back and did a 360 rotation. Showing the condition he was in currently.

Even talking to Chen Yuan was difficult, his voice sounded hoarse. Thankfully, Chen Yuan was not paying attention to his voice.

Appearing weak right now would be like: bleeding in-front of a shark.

Chen Yuan also saw that Li Ming's robes were tattered, and his whole body radiated smell of sweat. Li Ming had not taken a bath for a whole week nor had he gone out in the sunlight. Lying inside the cave all the time covered in darkness most of the time leading to Li Ming's skin looking more pale.

He does not seem to be lying. Chen Yuan thought and decided to give up on asking for extra money.

"Okay. I will accept this but... the fee of physician and the medicines that you have been prescribed were money that had been loaned by the sect. Now that you are alive you would have to return it."

Mist Sect was a place where the Xiao Chen resided, and the Mist Sect had a tradition of loaning money to disciples who were just accepted into the sect in case of severe injury or for increasing their strength by purchasing pills and skills, something like: health insurance in his previous world.

Only catch was that if the disciple died then the loan would be waved off. If the disciple survived than he would have to pay back the loan with interest that was 4% of the loaned sum. It was different for everyone, For inner disciples the interest was only 1.5%. Because they were the real future pillars of the sect. Us Outer disciples were only cannon fodders except Xiao Chen.