Pain. A searing, bone-deep pain shot through her body, dragging her from the abyss of unconsciousness. Her fingers twitched, her breath came in shallow gasps, and her head throbbed like it had been split in two. She wasn’t dead? Her last memory was of a battlefield soaked in blood, her sword heavy in her hand as she cut down enemy soldiers. Then, a sharp pain in her chest; the fatal strike. She had fallen, knowing her life was over. Yet here she was, breathing. Alive. Her eyes snapped open, adjusting to the dim light filtering through the cracks of an unfamiliar ceiling. This wasn’t the open sky of a battlefield, nor was it the luxurious chamber of her general’s estate. It was... a strange room, stark white, with many strange metal things attached to her body beeping steadily. She tried to move but her limbs were weak, refusing to obey. She couldn’t even lift a finger. While she was struggling to understand how she was still alive after a spear went through her heart, a sharp, splitting pain shot through her skull. Unfamiliar memories surged forward. A different life. A different name. She was no longer Chu Yue. But Chu Miao. Eighteen years old. A modern girl from a world completely different from her own. A car accident had left her in a coma for two weeks. And now... she was her. The realization sent a shiver down her spine. She had transmigrated; and not just into another body, but to another space and time. Wait... Suddenly, she realized something; her soul was stable. Too stable. As a cultivator, she knew that a soul possessing a new body needed time, heaven, and earth treasures to stabilize. But her soul felt like it belonged with this body from the beginning. But why? Then, as if answering her unspoken question, a voice echoed in her mind. A voice she hadn’t heard in many years. It was the Priestess’s prophecy: The clock sighs its final breath, Shadows curling like dying embers. I walk the thread of twilight’s edge, where echoes of fate murmur in riddles. Death lingers, a whispering tide, a hush before the storm of rebirth. Not into the silence of forgotten names, but into a world where the sky burns red. The wind howls of ruin to come, a month’s grace before the earth shatters. Steel and ash, hunger and blood I stand where hope and horror entwine. The end was only a door, and beyond it, the war of my second life begins. A prophecy. It hadn’t been mere superstition after all. The priestess had told this prophecy when she was only nine years old and starting to cultivate. And now that part of it had come true, it could only mean one thing; the apocalypse was coming in this modern world. In a month. Everyone had taken it lightly, except her grandfather, the feared general of their kingdom. He had used his spare time to train her relentlessly, molding her into a warrior feared by all. As a result, her cultivation had progressed much faster than her peers and even older children in their clan and other families. At twelve, she had stepped onto the battlefield with her grandfather. By sixteen, she had earned the title of Little General. She had perished at the age of eighteen at the great battle between their kingdom and an alliance of the three surrounding kingdoms. Even though she had fallen and was reborn in a different era, she was content knowing that she had secured victory for her kingdom. Her family was safe. But what about her family in this era? Would they survive the apocalypse? Chu Miao came back to her senses and her fingers clenched the bedsheet. This world was strange, but it was now hers. She had to adapt. But as she took a slow breath, something else stirred within her; a familiar presence. Her heart pounded as she closed her eyes and reached inward. Space. An ancient, boundless space existed within her consciousness, just as it had before. Relief flooded her as she willed it to respond. The next moment, a black ring carved from an unknown material appeared in her hand. It was her storage ring. It had crossed into this world with her. With another thought, it disappeared. Her space ring had always been different from others. While other rings were just a space that could be transferred to someone else after erasing one’s divine sense, hers was attached to her soul. It was a family heirloom that her grandfather had given her. It is said to have been in their Chu family for generations but had never recognized a master since their ancestor died. She was the first to get the ring to recognize her. Nevertheless, she had not discovered many functions of the ring except for storing items and using it for cultivation. It has rich spiritual energy and a spiritual spring that can help restore spiritual energy faster. Her grandfather had warned her about letting others know about it. He had given her another normal space ring to use as a cover. She knew that if others found out that her ring was a cultivation paradise then she would be in trouble. She could be hunted down, hence, apart from her grandfather, she never let anyone else know about it. Not even her mother. Speaking of her mother, she became sad, thinking that she would be heartbroken because of her death. Chu Miao was only sad for a moment when she remembered the prophecy and realized that she didn’t have the luxury of wallowing in her emotions. She only had a month before the earth was thrown into destruction. She had to get better and prepare. Thanks to the memories of the host, she already knew what to do. Luckily, the host loved reading fantasy novels about the apocalypse. So, she had an idea of what to prepare. But first, she had to take stock of what she had in her space and plan how to get stronger before the apocalypse hit. With a thought, she pulled an object from within. A glimmering jade bottle landed in her palm. She opened it and the scent of spiritual energy filled her nose. Elixirs. This was a jade bottle of spirit-gathering elixirs. There were other similar bottles with different types of elixirs. They are her capital for becoming stronger. Everything she had accumulated in her past life was still there. Her lips curved into a sharp, knowing smile. The gods had not forsaken her.