Hu Yumei had lived two lives before her death. The first, as a soldier; second, as a veterinarian.
She was a orphan raised by the state, she grew up in military barracks, cradled by the sound of gunfire and the cold clarity of commands.
Discipline shaped her. Combat hardened her. By sixteen, she was already on deployment and twenty she had survived two wars.
She fought in deserts, in jungles, in cities choked by dust and flame. She buried comrades whose names she still whispered in dreams. When her final tour ended, she didn't return with medals. She returned with silence.
So instead of staying in uniform, she chose a different path one not paved in orders and blood. She went back to school, studied late into the nights, and became a veterinarian.
It surprised people, but not those who knew her heart. She had always been good with the wounded. Whether human or beast.
Her new life became one of gentle paws, wet noses, and long days tending to the broken and wild. Rescue missions, shelter work, forest patrols she traded rifles for syringes, boots for rubber gloves. The world finally softened around her.
Until the day it all went wrong.
The mission was simple: rescue and relocate an endangered snow panther from a remote archipelago. But no one accounted for pirates.
The ambush was sudden. Explosions rocked their research vessel. Men with guns boarded, taking hostages. Hu Yumei, calm under fire, fought tooth and nail she was no stranger to death. But this time, she wasn't wearing armor. Just a blood-stained lab coat.
Still, she saved the young biologist, shielded the ship's cook, and bought time for others to escape into the jungle. Then she was shot. Even so, she swam. Bleeding, gasping, crawling toward shore. Toward safety. Toward nothing.
Even as she collapsed in the under a bush, she tended to the wounded , shoving aside her pain. Her last thoughts were not of regret, but of the lives she was leaving behind.
Her six loyal dogs. Her three aloof cats. Her five golden fish all waiting, unknowing. Alone.
And Maximus her golden eagle. Her soulmate. Hatched from a cracked egg in her hands. Who would feed him now? Her best friend was scared of butterflies. Her husband no, ex-husband didn't even like birds.
"Oh dear," she murmured with a fading breath. "Maximus…"
She felt it first: weight. As if her body had been swapped for stone. The air was thick, the sounds near and far, as if underwater.
Rushed voices. Terrified.
She wanted to move. Couldn't.
Then shaking.
A woman's hands, rough and trembling, yanked her upright.
"Wake up, little darling! We have to leave now!"
Hu Yumei gasped, coughing, lungs filling with air that wasn't hers. Groggy. Disoriented. She blinked, then squinted up into a tear-streaked face full of fear.
Who…?
Reality began to spin.
This wasn't the jungle. Not the mission. Not even Earth. The air pulsed with something older, stranger.
Her limbs were… tiny. Her arms, soft and pudgy. Her chest? Flat.
A child's body.
The woman clutched her protectively, grabbing a worn bag and bolting for the door.
As Hu Yumei bounced against her shoulder, memories of another life crashed into her like pressure. Memories that weren't hers.
A girl named Fan Yumei. Age seven. Kind, curious. Died just last night from a fever after a dangerous attempt to awaken her core a process need to awaken her system for cultivating her profession.
The poor girl had traveled two villages away, desperate to unlock her potential.
Inspired by the boasting of a wealthy classmate claiming his older brother found them a few 2 star spiritual core plants in Dew Springs mountains.
Proudly, he would say that his brother had gotten him a lot of resources to help him awaken with higher core purity.
Thanks to that support, he was able to aim for a better core, class, and profession. And would definitely become a soul functions awakener.
Fan Yumei wandered through the Dew Springs mountains, hoping to find her spiritual core treasure.
Her family didn't have much. Neither of her parents had high awakenings her mom, Ka Sanni, was a low-level herbalist, and her dad, Fan Yangwei, had a dual core awakening as both a hunter and an Elemental Caller: a rune master.
But without enough resources, he only managed to learn a few basic runes to make life a bit easier.
They'd poured everything they had into her schooling at the city academy, hoping she'd be the one to finally turn things around for them.
Instead, before she could enjoy the fruits of her hard work, she passed from a fever, caught during her time in the mountains.
Now… Hu Yumei was in her body.
They shared a name Yumei. But this world was filled with magical beasts, beast raids, mages, beast masters and more.
And right now, one of those raids had reached their doorstep.