Mountain breezes stirred the grass in the small clearing where Liu Xing stood alone. He studied the sleek handgun in his grip. The morning sun cast sharp shadows through the surrounding pines, creating perfect conditions for target practice. The weapon felt foreign in his hands. Having never handled a gun before, Liu Xing mimicked the stance he had seen law enforcement take. He positioned his feet shoulder-width apart and gripped the weapon firmly with both hands. The position felt natural, though different from the martial arts stances he had learned.

"Six stripes," he muttered, running a finger along the stripes. "They could be ammunition indicators." He needed to understand every aspect of the weapon's capabilities, starting with confirming his theory about the ammunition count.

Taking a deep breath, Liu Xing selected a thick pine tree several dozens meters away as his first target. He squeezed the trigger. The gun made a small sound, barely louder than a mouse click, and an almost transparent bullet streaked through the air and struck the center of the tree, boring a clean hole straight through the trunk. He inhaled deeply. While not completely silent, the gunshot was surprisingly quiet. Still, cultivators, with their superhuman hearing, would definitely detect even this level of sound. The same was true for spirit beasts. But it was at least quieter than a normal gun. A quick check of the barrel confirmed his ammunition theory. One stripe had dimmed to gray, while five remained bright green.

Methodically, Liu Xing emptied the remaining rounds into the same tree. Each shot transformed another stripe from green to gray until all six indicators had dimmed. When he pulled the trigger again, nothing happened.

"Now for the real test," he said, maintaining his stance. "How do I reload?"

Given the weapon's magical nature, he doubted it required conventional ammunition. "The bullets must be made from qi," he thought. Following this intuition, Liu Xing channeled his qi through his hands into the gun. Immediately, he felt the weapon drawing on his qi, pulling it in like a hungry beast, and the gray stripes glowed green once more.

A smile spread across his face. This was convenient. As long as he had qi to spare, he had ammunition.

To familiarize himself with the weapon's handling, Liu Xing fired several magazines' worth of practice shots. He targeted rocks, trees, and stumps, reloading between volleys. His cultivator's enhanced reflexes and perception made accuracy almost instinctive.

Ready for a greater challenge, he spotted a cluster of green fruits hanging from a distant tree, each no larger than a marble. Liu Xing steadied his breathing, took aim at one fruit, and squeezed the trigger. The fruit exploded into pulp. From then, he picked off the remaining fruits. His hands remained steady, his vision sharp. The gun felt like an extension of himself.

"Time for moving targets," Liu Xing said. He scanned the sky until he spotted a brown eagle with yellow-tipped wings circling overhead. This would test his skill. He tracked the bird's movement, calculating its trajectory and waited for the perfect moment. When it banked into a predictable arc, he fired. The eagle dropped from the sky with a single clean shot. Liu Xing's laughter echoed through the clearing. For the first time since his transmigration two years ago, he felt truly powerful. His Lightning Palm technique and enhanced strength were formidable, but this was different. It felt more personal.

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The eagle had fallen near a shallow river. To celebrate his first hunt with the new weapon, Liu Xing prepared a small fire, plucked the bird, and roasted it over the flames. As he ate, he calculated his ammunition expenditure. He had fired around fifty shots, and his qi reserves remained half full. That meant he could fire at least a hundred rounds before depletion. Impressive, but he suspected he had barely scratched the surface of the gun's true potential. A real test would require a more dangerous target. The mountains behind the sect teemed with beasts, including spirit beasts. They were perfect for pushing his limits.

Finishing his meal, Liu Xing willed the gun to dematerialize, feeling it came back into his consciousness. Through the trees, he could see the Purple Moon Sect's seven purple towers rising majestically atop their respective peaks. The sight sparked thoughts of his greater ambitions.

The Purple Moon Sect's influence extended across the Dark Forest continent, commanding countles vassal kingdoms, nations, and empires. Originally, Liu Xing had aimed simply to reach the Core Splitting realm, but his meeting with Nui had elevated his goals. He needed to become an inner disciple. This position would grant him the access and authority to investigate the darkness that Nui had mentioned. Two paths led to inner discipleship. The first required reaching the Core Splitting realm before age twenty. At nineteen and still in the fifth stage of the Lock Opening realm, this route seemed nearly impossible. The second path ran through the annual Outer Disciple Tournament. Victory didn't guarantee promotion, but the tournament attracted the sect's elders. Impressing one could lead to an apprenticeship offer. While each elder's criteria differed, at least one outer disciple earned promotion through this route each year.

Back in his private cave, Liu Xing packed supplies into a small backpack. His monthly missions were complete, giving him four weeks of freedom to train. He inventoried his medicines: three Restoration Pills, a Blood Pills and Body Cleansing Pills for poison protection. They should suffice.

Leaving his cave, Liu Xing passed one of the sect's vast training grounds. Hundreds of disciples practice simultaneously in the space. He watched a young disciple executing sword techniques, his blade striking a log hundreds of times per second. Nearby, a bald disciple with bulging muscles ran laps while carrying a car-sized boulder on his shoulders. The sight stirred memories of his first day after transmigration. He was beaten in that same training ground after unwittingly offending a senior disciple.

Beyond the training area, Liu Xing encountered a group of twenty newcomers being guided by two strutting outer disciples. The new arrivals' attire spanned the social spectrum: ornate red, yellow, and gold robes suggesting nobility. Rough gray and brown garments marking commoner origins, and flowing white robes identifying scholar cultivators. The guides carried themselves with imperial dignity, explaining the sect's three-tiered housing system: private residences for talented or well-connected disciples, dormitories for average practitioners, and caves for those deemed unlikely to advance beyond Core Splitting.

Observing the new arrivals, Liu Xing searched for anyone who might fit the protagonist's role from the xianxia stories he had read in his previous life. His own transmigration had sparked countless questions, especially since meeting Nui. Why him, out of billions on Earth? He had some theories. His friends Joni and Mamat had preferred Japanese isekai stories of sword and sorcery. Even Nui occasionally discussed such stories. But only William had immersed himself in xianxia stories, trying unsuccessfully to convert Joni to the genre. Perhaps Liu Xing's familiarity with xianxia tropes had somehow qualified him for this world?

"If this were a typical xianxia story, what would mark the protagonist?" he mused, studying the group.

While several cultivators displayed remarkable features, none struck him as having protagonist qualities. But one girl stood out. Her pearly skin and electric blue eyes drew admiring gazes from male and female disciples alike. But she seemed more likely to be a love interest than a main character.

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