Qingyun City, a county town under the rule of the Great Liang Dynasty.
It governs several thousand households, scattered inside and outside the city, in villages and townships.
Inside the city, there are tens of thousands of people, with various livelihoods: restaurants, eateries, tea houses, markets, snacks, etc., spread throughout the city, on every street, with an endless stream of people coming and going. The hawkers' shouts rose and fell, one after another, a lively scene.
Though it looked prosperous, beggars and vagrants were not uncommon. People in simple, ragged clothes were everywhere. All the myriad phenomena of the Mortal World were contained within it.
At this moment, the sun was rising, and the day was bright.
Inside a restaurant.
A young man dressed in a dark-colored, tight-fitting martial arts attire sat by the window on the second floor. Before him, a plate of oil-blasted peanuts, a plate of sliced cooked beef, and a pot of aged Daughter's Red wine. He watched the window, nibbling on peanuts, picking up beef, and sipping his wine.
A long saber lay across his lap. A gentle breeze blew, stirring his black hair and revealing a face with sharp, chiseled features. It wasn't handsome, but neither was it ugly; it could only be described as ordinary. Yet, there was a resolute expression that, upon first glance, made one realize that such a face belonged to someone with a tenacious character.
Subtly, there was a faint pressure.
Guests sat in groups of three or five, ordering a few small dishes and a pot of wine, chatting heatedly.
From time to time, glances fell upon the young man in martial attire by the window, with respect, awe, envy, and pride in their eyes.
"Look, Captain Zhuang is here to drink again. It's always the same seat. It's said that Manager Dong of Qingyun Restaurant specifically reserves this seat for him. No matter when he comes, no matter how many guests are in the restaurant, this seat will always be kept. It's reserved specifically for Captain Zhuang," a guest remarked.
"Three years ago, Manager Dong got involved in a murder case. His third wife died unnaturally in her room. At the time, all the evidence pointed directly to Manager Dong. The officials came and were about to arrest and imprison him. The situation then was almost certain; Manager Dong was going to lose this lawsuit, and he might even be executed in autumn. It was Captain Zhuang who discovered that his third wife had been strangled first, then stabbed through the body with a sharp dagger. At that time, the strangulation marks on her neck had not yet appeared; it was Captain Zhuang who made them visible using a special method. He found that the murderer who strangled the third wife was missing three fingers. Manager Dong had all ten fingers intact, so his suspicion was largely cleared," a knowledgeable person, Xu Hanshu, recounted as if listing Family treasures.
"Yes, Captain Zhuang followed the clues and found that in the city, there were only three people missing three fingers. One was an old man, lying on his sickbed, unable to commit murder. The second was a filial daughter, mourning her father for a full two years, with one more year to complete her mourning period. Moreover, she was a delicate woman with a gentle disposition, a rare good girl in the surrounding villages. The third was a gambler who originally had all ten fingers, but had three fingers cut off after losing a bet at the gambling table."
A man excitedly said, "This gambler is Chen Qizhi, a notorious rotten gambler in our Qingyun City."
"Indeed, this Chen Qizhi is a rotten gambler, addicted to gambling like his life depended on it. For gambling, he even sold his wife to a brothel. For gambling money, he would squander his Family fortune, regardless of anything. It's just a pity that his beautiful wife, Ru Hua, followed him; it was simply eight lifetimes of bad luck. This guy, unlearned and unskilled, that time, he wanted to steal something from Manager Dong's house, was discovered by the third wife, and in fear, directly strangled her to death. If it weren't for Captain Zhuang, Manager Dong would truly have suffered this lawsuit and been wronged."
People in the restaurant sighed when they talked about this matter.
Listening to the conversations in the restaurant, Captain Zhuang, sitting upstairs, shook his head slightly, not paying attention. He looked at the street outside, with its bustling traffic and constant flow of pedestrians, and the hawkers' shouts rising and falling, truly lively. However, if one looked closely, one would notice that although his gaze was directed outside, his attention was not there at all.
He seemed to be lost in thought, reminiscing.
"It's been three years. Unknowingly, it's almost three years since I came to this world. Zhuang Zhou's Dream Butterfly, or Butterfly's Dream Zhuang Zhou."
Zhuang Buzhou shook his head, sighing inwardly.
He was not from this world; rather, he had Transmigrated, Reborn.
Originally, he was an ordinary commoner on Earth. Although there was a legend in his Family that his branch had an extremely long history, a branch descended from Zhuang Zhou, his ancestor being Zhuang Zhou—this claim was absurd. After hearing it, Zhuang Buzhou treated it as a joke. After all, among descendants, everyone wanted to find a famous ancestor to show that their Family Legacy was ancient and their status extraordinary. It also gave them more capital for bragging. He just listened and let it go.
But his father was a firm believer in this Legacy. When Zhuang Buzhou was born, his father insisted that he had dreamed of a butterfly before, and when naming him, he immediately decided to name him Zhuang Zhou.
This was problematic. Zhuang Buzhou's grandfather, upon hearing this, thought it wouldn't do. How could he have the same name as an ancestor? Wasn't this disrespectful? So, when registering the household, he secretly added a character in the middle, changing Zhuang Zhou to Zhuang Buzhou. In the end, the deed was done, and his father couldn't do anything about it, so he had to accept it. In fact, he tried to change it back midway, but his grandfather hid the household registration book so tightly that he never found an opportunity.
Eventually, he just had to let it be.
Zhuang Buzhou was Zhuang Buzhou.
Zhuang Buzhou usually had no other hobbies than strolling around antique streets and shops. He was very interested in antiques and curios. With some dedicated study, he actually gained some Dao in antiques. He had made mistakes but also found bargains. In the end, he didn't lose money.
And that day, when he was strolling on the antique street again, he accidentally saw a bronze small gourd on a street stall. The gourd looked like a small, delicate ornament. With a string, it could be hung around the neck like a jade pendant or something.
At that time, he immediately saw that the gourd, no matter how one looked at it, was just an ordinary small gourd ornament. There were no traces of age; it didn't look like an antique or a curio at all. But he felt a special connection to it, so he bought it. The price was secondary; the most important thing was that it's hard to buy what your heart desires, and he had an inexplicable fondness for this gourd.
Later, he had it tested and examined in various ways, but still couldn't figure out its origin, or even what material it was made of.
He had Transmigrated, and his body was still his original body. However, during the Transmigration through space and time, his body seemed to have undergone some miraculous tempering, resulting in a rejuvenation effect. He was originally in his twenties, but instantly reverted to the appearance of an eighteen-year-old. The original small gourd, however, was gone.
Zhuang Buzhou had a feeling that the small gourd should still be inside his body, but where exactly, he hadn't been able to ascertain yet.
"Gourd, oh gourd, what is your origin? Why has there been no movement for three years? And this world, it's not normal."
Zhuang Buzhou sighed inwardly as he drank his wine.
Recalling the scene of his Transmigration, it was during an astronomical observation. That day, for some unknown reason, it was daytime, with the sun high in the sky, yet the moon also appeared without warning. A strange celestial phenomenon of the sun and moon shining together appeared in the sky, a phenomenon rarely seen in ten thousand years. He was on the rooftop then, witnessing the process of the sun and moon shining together with his own eyes.
This wasn't the most bizarre thing. What surprised him was that the small gourd, which had always been quietly worn around his neck, suddenly glowed, frantically absorbing the light of the sun and moon. Then, in the next second, as the gourd absorbed the light of the sun and moon, a black hole-like tunnel mysteriously formed around him, irresistibly sucking him and the gourd into it. In the last moment, he only remembered that the gourd transformed into a divine light, drilled into his body, and disappeared.
When he woke up, he was already outside Qingyun City.
There's nothing more to say about what happened later. He eventually entered Qingyun City and became a constable. Relying on his intelligence, he solved several major cases and was promoted to Captain, becoming a respected figure in the city.
One could say that with these accomplishments, Zhuang Buzhou, if not wealthy, was at least free from worries about food and clothing, could marry a beautiful wife, have children, and achieve Perfection in life, no problem. However, this world was not an ordinary world.
"Demons, ghosts, and strange anomalies emerge endlessly. There are extraordinary beings appearing, playing in the Mortal World. This world is truly both familiar and strange."
Zhuang Buzhou shook his head slightly, a hint of yearning in his eyes.
His Zhuang Family had always firmly believed they were the direct Bloodline of Zhuang Zhou, and naturally had an unusual pursuit of various extraordinary things. Back then, he entered the antique trade precisely to seek out unusual traces of the extraordinary among antiques. Unfortunately, he didn't gain much. It wasn't until the small gourd's anomaly brought him to this world that his desire for the extraordinary was completely ignited and became even more unwavering.
The most crucial thing was that this world had a path to stepping into the extraordinary.
"Curse Masters, Paper Masters, Talisman Masters, Yin and Yang Masters, Beast Tamers—truly inspiring."
Zhuang Buzhou had not wasted these three years. In three years, becoming a Captain allowed him to enter the archives room, where he could consult various case files. The other side of the world often existed within these case files. He eagerly absorbed and extracted all the hidden information from the various bizarre case files.
Over the years, relying on his keen observation, he found some traces of the extraordinary and learned some things.
For example, near Qingyun City, there would be an annual trade fair among the extraordinary beings.
This was a trade fair among the extraordinary. According to the information he had gathered, those who could appear there were either extraordinary themselves or had an unusual connection with them. As long as one could enter, there was hope of becoming extraordinary and the possibility of stepping into another world.