As the light faded, I was greeted to the site of the same house but built sturdier and almost looking brand new. I looked around and started to feel nauseous, as my perspective had changed. I felt shorter and weaker than a Second ago. I also didn't see the pendent or the podium. I looked down and saw the pendent around my neck, but I also saw my body.
I run to a nearby mirror and see that I am both younger and more feminine-looking than before. I looked like my gran gran when she was this age. I remembered a photo of her looking close to this at the funeral. I had long black hair, streaking green eyes, a button-like nose, and pale white skin. I looked down at the clothes I was wearing. They were 3 times too big and hid a slightly curvy body and a bubble butt.
"What's going on? Why did my body change? What's going on?" As I start to spiral, a voice fills my head. "Calm down, young one. Take a deep breath and sit down. Focus on one thing and one thing only." I follow what she said, take a deep breath, and Use all my willpower to push away the many questions I have. "Thank you, whoever you are."
"Haha!" I hear a small feminine laugh. "You are welcome, young one, and my name is Xie Qiuyue. But you can call me Xie. If you haven't guessed, I am communicating to you from the pendant on your neck." she said. Where am I, and are you the pendant or just communicating through it." I say and get a small chuckle response. "I am not 'the pendant,' merely a spirit inside 'the pendant.'"
"And to answer your first question, you are in a parallel world. It is much like your old world history-wise, but the major difference is this world's inner energy; your old world had almost no inner energy. This world is abundant in inner energy. This world is also connected to many other worlds abundant in inner energy. They all feed off of each other and propagate more and more inner energy, creating a perfect harmony and synergy between them all." she said, sending through a loop.
I stand up and try to brush past her somewhat complicated words. "so this is a parallel world. and the pendant transported me here. So why do I look like a boy version of my great grandmother." she giggles again. "you do, don't you? but honestly, I don't know if I had to make a guess I would say your great grandmother slowly infused you with her inner energy over your past life which shortened her lifespan, but slowly nurtured and kept your cultivation core from dying."
"If she had not done that, what is happening now would have never happened, and she would most likely still be alive for at least another 50 to 100 years. But because she did, your core stayed healthy, and when you came into contact with the pendant, you were able to activate it and transverse the worlds."
"But that is just a guess. I was asleep while in your old world. There just wasn't enough energy for me to stay awake over there, and I'm so glad to be off of that world. It was so suffocating, you have no idea. And I guess the slow infusion of her energy into yours impacted your growth in ways that would take a master to understand. I can only think that maybe her yin energy slowly took over your yang energy within your core, so when you transferred over to a world that was abundant with inner energy, you transformed to look more like a girl than a guy. However, you're still a boy, that's good, but you might start looking more like a girl as you grow stronger, though it's like a double-edged sword.
"So she gave up her life so I could live in a world full of magic and wonder." I fall to my knees and cry, knowing I was the cause of my gran's death. "there is no need to cry, young one. Death comes for all! She may have lived another hundred years, but she still would've died, and her suffering would've been worse and worse as the years went on. The world around her was slowly sucking all the energy out of her, almost like she was a leaky tap."
"If she had had a solid foundation, she might've lived up to 1000 years in your world, but because of her shaky foundation, the world was slowly draining her of all of her energy, so those last hundred years of her life she would've been slowly withering away and till there was nothing left but a bag full of bones laying in the bed. So she chose to give up her life so that one of her descendants could keep on her tradition of being a cultivator. So don't be sad. Just know that her sacrifice was done knowing what she was doing. She would have died now giving you a shot then to live the rest of her life in pain." she said in a calm tone. Trying to reassure me.
I get up and start pacing around the house, trying to focus on anything else. " So where am I exactly, and why don't I hear anyone?" I say, trying to change the subject. "From what I can feel, you are currently alone in this building, and you are on the outskirts of, and I don't know the name of it, but there is a city nearby with many people in it," Xie said.
I walk to the front door and am stopped by a shout from Xie. "wow, wow, wow. You are not properly dressed to go outside. You may still be a boy, but even boys shouldn't be walking out into the world naked. There should be some clothes in this house somewhere that fit. Then you can go check on your surroundings." I looked down in embarrassment, realizing in the first two steps, my pants had fallen off of me, and I rushed to one of the bedrooms of the house to find some Clothes.
I found some girls' clothes in light blue and purple. Some T-shirts fit perfectly, coming in light blue. A pair of khakis capris, the only underwear I could find that fit, was a pair of light blue panties. I let out a sigh of resignation and put it all on. I look at the pendant and say, "I'm only wearing this because it's the only thing that fits me." all I get back is a giggle. I slip on some socks and sneakers that are a little bit too tight for me, but they'll do for now, and walk outside.
As I walk out of the once small house, I see now that there is a massive courtyard surrounded on all sides by a high wall with an intricate gate at the front. The house itself has grown by almost 5 times. It's original size, having multiple rooms and probably multiple bathrooms. I can see over the top of the walls that towering buildings are not far from here, which I was sure from my old world. There was only a forest before. I walk to the gate, and open it, and see a garage leading down a gravel pathway, eventually hitting a pavement Highway. Following the Highway, I can see it's a 10 to 20-minute drive from here to the city.
"What happened? I'm pretty sure there was only a forest there. And this place had a major facelift. This is like a manor of some sort of Asian aristocrat or something." I then walk back to the manor and look from room to room. Most of them are old storage rooms with furniture. It seems ancient in origin, covered in sheets to protect it from dust. Eventually, I found a study that had a computer in it. It looks more advanced than my world's computers.
I sit down in front of it, marveling at this holographic, see-through screen and an almost touchpad like a keyboard. And luckily, it's still in English, so thank god. I start fiddling with it, finally turning it on. I find a few familiar-looking sites, just with wired names. It gave me the feeling of when Twitter became X. Google was Goodle, YouTube was YouView, and so on. I click on YouView and look for the latest news and popular videos. I find videos about wars going on in the Middle East. Nothing new there. I see a few stupid videos of people doing pranks to other people again nothing new.
I then found a few videos that intrigued me. They were about magic systems. At first, I thought it was some kind of fan video from a TV series, but as I watched it, I realized they were comparing magical systems from country to country, and I learned that the inner energy Xei was talking about developed in many different ways throughout the world in the east developed like well eastern cultivation and Taoism and Buddhism. But in the West, it developed into a more fantasy-like magic. Still, when America was formed, it took more of a scientific approach to its development, and eventually, this idea spread across the world. All the inner energy was developed to a more scientific level. Some magical people resisted and tried to keep it pure, but they are the outliers compared to the majority of the rest of the world.
I spent a few hours researching my address and, eventually, the city name nearby, looking up local history about it, and finding out it's basically the central hub for all Magatech, as it's referred to in America. As the sun starts to set from my day of research, I find a bedroom that looks like it has been lived in for a while and go to Bead, hoping I wake up from this dream.