Xuan Ming stared out the window watching the verdant French countryside pass by at high speed. The comfortable minibus carrying six of his colleagues all of them were top engineers from Sichuan sped toward their destination to Germany.
"A billion-euro bridge project Xuan" Liu Wei said leaning back in his seat with a broad smile "If we win this tender our company will soar."
Xuan Ming simply nodded his eyes still fixed on the scenery outside, his thoughts drifted back to home to memories of spicy Sichuan food burning his tongue something he missed so much during these long business trips.
Next to him Chen Lin the only woman on their engineering team was reviewing a presentation document "Our presentation is perfect, and our design is the most innovative."
The other three colleagues Zhang Wei, Li Hao, and Wang Jing were in a deep discussion about structural details but the atmosphere in the minibus was filled with enthusiasm and a hint of anxiety they were the best team, and this project could change all of their lives.
Xuan Ming was lost in his thoughts when suddenly Wang Jing shouted "Look! Up in the sky!"
All eyes were fixed on the glass they see a gray light not the color of a typical meteor that thing descended at an impossible speed and it wasn't a shooting star, but more like a giant fiery bullet leaving a trail of grey plasma in the twilight sky.
"Driver stop...!" Liu Wei shouted but it was too late.
Xuan Ming's world turned white for a moment before a massive explosion destroyed everything, and the last sounds he heard were the thud of metal and the screams of his colleagues drowned in the wave of destruction unimaginable heat enveloped him and then... darkness.
Consciousness returned gradually but not as an explosion but as a calming flow.
He felt warmth a soft hissing sound the soothing scent of herbs.
"Lux Noctis..." a woman's voice whispered softly "A name given by a woman. A name full of determination for you, my son."
Xuan Ming or whoever he was now opened his eyes, his vision was blurry but he could distinguish two faces staring at him lovingly a man with a sharp hawk-like gaze and jet-black hair, and a woman with a calming aura and a face that looked utterly blissful.
"Who they are? my new parents?" he thought but then was shocked by his own realization Haa... wait, I can think! In a baby's body!
Memories began to flow like a flooded river the name called Xuan Ming, the taste of mapo tofu and the faces of his five friends and then the explosion of the gray meteor.
But here... in this woman's arms all those memories were filtered through his new reality, and he heard some words spoken with such reverence from his parents.
"Could this be a reincarnation huh?" he thought, finding it hard to believe but why do I remember everything?
He tried to move his hand and saw the tiny slow-moving hand the sound of his own cries the shrill sound of a baby made him even more certain of his new reality.
In the following days or weeks as time felt different for a baby, Xuan Ming began to try to make sense of his new world, strangely he began to understand what they were saying at first he was confused, but slowly accepted it all and by listening to the conversations of his parents and the people around him he gradually came to terms with it.
His name is Lux Noctis, a baby born to a cultivator couple in a city protected by the Burning Sky Sect one of the six most powerful sects in the Verdant Lotus World.
His parents as he understood from their conversation, were members of the sect his father's name Noctis and his mother's name lumina were a core member of the sect.
One night as the moon cast its silvery light through his bedroom window a realization struck him, That gray meteor... what an unearthly feeling, was that thing brought me here?
he saw her parents standing guard unconsciously channeling subtle energy to calm him, they were warriors in a world filled with powers she had thought only existed in legends.
"If I'm here" Lux thought, with Xuan Ming's old soul residing in a baby's body "then where are the others? Liu Wei, Chen Lin, Zhang Wei, Li Hao, Wang Jing... Are they also stranded in this world?"
He surveyed the city outside the window the towers of the Burning Sky Sect towering like mountains claiming the sky, this world was full of danger and opportunity the five lost souls were out there scattered across this vast and cruel world.
With determination burning behind his innocent baby eyes lux noctis made a promise to himself, he would master this path of cultivation he was determined to understand this new system of power and he will try to find his friends, comrades from his previous life stranded in the same world and he would try to uncover the truth behind their reincarnation a truth that might be tied to that strange gray meteor.
While trapped in his own thoughts, deep within Lux's soul something strange began to awaken a sensation like an endlessly spinning ring a paradox waiting to be unlocked but for now, it was only a vague feeling a promise of power he would one day master.
His new life had begun and his name wasn't Xuan Ming anymore but now Lux Noctis.
A year has passed and Lux Noctis, Xuan Ming's soul that trapped in a toddler's body is slowly adjusting to his new reality, he understands the language he hears and realizes that his parents Noctis and Lumina are Foundation Establishment cultivators quite respected in their city under the protection of the Burning Sky Sect.
One afternoon while Lumina was bathing him in herbal water something strange happened, Lux who was busy patting the water suddenly noticed the air bubbles she had created were not rising to the surface but instead swirling in place forming small spirals before finally bursting.
Lumina blinked rubbing her eyes "I guess I didn't get enough sleep" she muttered to herself, thinking it was just her imagination.
But Lux knew it wasn't a hallucination in his mind he felt a faint vibration like an invisible wheel slowly turning in his consciousness it was the same sensation he had felt since birth but now it was becoming more and more pronounced.
A few weeks later while Noctis was practicing basic sword skills in the courtyard an incident occurred, a plate that Lux had accidentally knocked off the high table supposedly falling and breaking bounced strangely through the air as if hitting an invisible cushion before landing gently on the floor unscathed.
Noctis watching the scene was stunned "Growing fast and strong my son" he praised amazed at his son's "reflexes" which he considered extraordinary but he had no idea that it was a manifestation of something much deeper.
Lux however began to understand each such "strange event" was always preceded by the same feeling the sensation of the "spinning ring" in his soul becoming a little faster more alive.
One night waking from sleep Lux decided to try something new he sat cross-legged in his crib a pose that was cute for a toddler's body and tried to focus on the sensation of the "ring", he didn't know how to cultivate Qi but as an experienced engineer he knew how to concentrate and tried to focus on the feeling of the spinning ring.
He visualized it a ribbon twisting and connecting to itself, a Möbius Ring with an Impossible geometry.
And that's when he "saw" it for the first time.
Not with his eyes but with something he didn't know what, but he was aware of a faint blueprint a paradoxical measuring instrument engraved in his soul.
He thought of a question in an instant was this the essence of his reincarnation? Or was this some kind of a legacy of that gray meteor?
With dizzying focus he tried to "see" one of the fluctuating scales on the Gauge his mind trained in logic and precision struggled to make sense of this measured chaos and suddenly, the rattle beside him which had been making a "krik krik" sound when shaken suddenly emitted a deep "krok krok" sound for a moment before returning to normal.
Lux was amazed he had just done something to the sound, just a little for a moment and with immense mental effort but he had succeeded.
"This... this wasn't cultivation" he thought, his breath catching this was something else a mysterious ability he was trying to understand.
He looked at his tiny hands, If he could distort sound what else could he do? Was this what saved him from the falling plate? Was this what made the water bubble swirl?
Then a bigger thought came to him If he became a cultivator possessed a tool like this ... what were its limits?
And most importantly if he possessed this, what kind of power did his five friends bring to this world? Or... did they bring nothing?
With his heart pounding the heart of a baby now filled with the determination and soul of a dead man Lux smiled for the first time since his rebirth, this world of cultivation was full of ancient rules and rigid laws.
And he had just discovered that he possessed a certain natural talent that he needed to explore further.