After a Psychiatric Patient Transmigrated to the Cultivation World

[My new novel, Keep Your Eyes Open After Dark, is now underway!] Chen Mo, a mental patient, transmigrates to a fantasy world and becomes an ordinary disciple of an obscure sect. After seeing cultivators soar through the sky on their swords and sweep across mountains and rivers, Chen Mo's eyes shine with dazzling light. Cultivating immortality is so cool! "Cool, right? That's why I keep cultivating even though I have a crippled five-element spiritual root. Who wouldn't want to fly through the sky?" After helping a farmer push a cart of grain, the senior brother wipes the sweat from his face. Seeing Chen Mo standing there blankly, he pats him on the shoulder disapprovingly. "What are you standing around for? You can push the rest of the way. Physical labor helps build your constitution. Help ordinary people with manual work whenever you can. Diligence makes up for a lack of talent, got it?" Chen Mo has never cultivated before, but readily helps the farmer push the cart the rest of the way. As he works, he instinctively circulates his cultivation method and finds that his body really does feel much lighter. His constitution improves rapidly, and he admires his senior brother immensely. At the foot of the mountain, his second senior sister performs a series of mysterious techniques. A smooth, rounded pill slowly floats out of the furnace. The medicinal fragrance alone saves a woman suffering from a severe hemorrhage during childbirth. Chen Mo is amazed again. So this is alchemy? It's incredible. "Incredible, right? That's why I often come down the mountain to treat ordinary people. Even the most common pill is far more potent than ordinary medicine!" His second senior sister graciously takes her leave of the woman's family, who keep calling her a "bodhisattva" and an "immortal maiden." She feels that the white silk on her ceremonial robes looks even brighter, then glances at her naive junior brother and clears her throat before speaking seriously. "Don't think I'm enjoying the respect and admiration of ordinary people. I'm telling you, the principles of medicine among mortals have a lot in common with alchemy. Treating ordinary people helps improve your alchemy!" Chen Mo sees the light. He spends one day each month treating ordinary people at the foot of the mountain and discovers that his understanding of alchemy really does improve. He becomes thoroughly convinced that his second senior sister's advice is brilliant. In the Drunken Fragrance Pavilion, his third senior brother lounges on a rocking chair, surrounded by fine wine, fragrant delicacies, and beautiful women. Seeing his junior brother's puzzled look, he waves his fan and says, "This isn't neglecting my cultivation. Only by living in the mortal world can you stand apart from it. What do cultivators seek to understand? Aren't we trying to understand greed, anger, delusion, and desire? Junior brother, you should come enjoy yourself often, too!" Half convinced, Chen Mo goes out into the mortal world a few times. He catches three chicken thieves, five human traffickers who abduct women, and ten wanted murderers on the run. Looking at their vile faces, Chen Mo has an epiphany. How could the Heavenly Dao possibly favor such worthless people? From then on, he cuts off his desires, and his cultivation begins to soar. The self-righteous, good-for-nothing senior brother, who only wanted to trick his junior brother into helping ordinary people: ... The alchemy hack, who only wanted to hide her vain nature: ... The spoiled third senior brother, who only wanted someone to join him in having fun: ... Wait, there's something wrong with this junior brother! Some time later, Chen Mo becomes the most powerful disciple in the sect and grows confident in its cultivation methods. To a physical cultivator, dispirited after making no progress in their cultivation method, he offers his experience: "You cultivate your body? Help ordinary people more. Labor builds your constitution!" "You don't understand. My state of mind isn't ready. My body has already reached the limits of cultivation..." "How will you know if you don't try?" The physical cultivator, utterly disheartened, gives it a try on a whim. They rediscover their original desire to roam the martial world with a sword, punishing the wicked and helping the weak, and smoothly break through their bottleneck. They also settle down in the sect. To a bewildered alchemist lost in the vast sea of medicinal knowledge, he boldly says, "You've simply had too few samples to study. The principles of medicine are all connected. You know nothing about the medicine of the mortal world, so you've missed a huge piece of the puzzle!" The alchemist turns to studying mortal medicine. After two days, they realize they have been fixated on appearances. Knowledge in this world is vast and boundless. Mortals have passed down even their meager understanding of medicine for thousands of years. To glimpse so many truths about medicine and the Dao as a cultivator is already a great blessing. They see through the matter and, as a bonus, stay in the sect. To an otherworldly sword cultivator passing through the sect, brows knitted in thought, he says eloquently, "The most important part of the Heartless Dao isn't the word 'heartless.' It's the word 'heart.' You've never even been in love. What do you know about love? You have to feel love before you can be without it!" "I don't understand love?" The white-robed sword cultivator slowly turns around. "That's right! You look like you've been single your whole life." The white-robed sword cultivator ponders for a long while, then nods. "That makes sense. I've never been in love with anyone, so I should give it a try." So three months later, they look at the physical cultivation grandmaster who shone a hundred years ago, has since stagnated in cultivation, and still remains undefeated under heaven; the elusive alchemy master everyone longs to meet; and the white-robed sword cultivator they've never seen, whose cultivation surpasses even the leader of the top sect in the cultivation world... Senior brother / Second senior sister / Third senior brother: Good grief, our sect is starting to get weird too... [Coming Soon: Keep Your Eyes Open After Dark] In the year 2035, tens of thousands of people around the world are repeatedly pulled into a vast and absurd dream. The dream contains collapsed ruins, twisted statues of gods, towering mechanical monsters, a vast urban sewer system, and tentacles winding out from every crack. Later, they learn that they have entered another world. Here, magic can raise the living dead, mysterious springs can heal wounds, and there are countless treasures of gold and silver. And as long as they survive in the dream until the end, they can bring all of it back to reality! And so the brutal slaughter begins. ** Xie Shen is eighteen and has just received his university admission letter. On the night he is supposed to start school, he is pulled into the dream and becomes one of thirty thousand dreamers. At eighteen, the prime of his youth, he has to fight for the right to live against all these monsters who have spent who knows how many years in the adult world. Worse still, these uncles, aunties, big brothers, and big sisters are all acting like lunatics. They see a clear spring that who knows how many animals have peed in and want to scoop up a drink. They see a vicious dog that's obviously wild and untamable and want to catch it as a pet. They see a house with a coffin inside and want to go in and pry open the lid, saying they want to see a mummy. No manners, no class, no brains. Xie Shen is sick of them. What's worse is that once they mutate, they're a real pain to kill. He hates being pulled into the dream! ** Those who enter the dream through their thoughts may claim it. Only the one who laughs last is the winner. * Xie Shen is the gong, the Rain God is the shou. * Includes a tiny bit of Lovecraftian elements, but since the author has only read the first three stories, most of it is original worldbuilding. * The modern world is extremely fictionalized. Theme: Grow through cultivation and learn to appreciate the beauty of the world.