Loren Charles, or now Cie Lin, lay sideways on the bed while he tried not to look at his last meal, which was now placed beside the bed.
He began to make himself familiar with his surroundings. The bed's color is dark blue with white strips. It reminded Loren of a fisher's hat. The stereotypical one, which is also commonly associated with the guy who likes spinach very much.
The ground was a solid stone formation, quite intricate, when someone looks at it for a prolonged amount of time.
Loren put his hat on the white-striped pillow and looked up, contemplating his life choices. He was never really striving for success, but was much more after a peaceful life, in which he only needs to care about small things and not the big things like politics, war or marriage.
Okay, maybe marriage is a bit misplaced, because he still married someone in the end. That woman was very persistent.
Loren chuckled when looking back at those memories.
'Maybe that was also why I loved her so much.'
Anyways. Loren put that thought away and started to think about his current situation. He is stuck in this guy's body. His life was absolutely full of miserable experiences, his thought process was a total mess. Very negative.
'Normally, such a situation leads to suicide in the long run. If he wouldn't have managed to stop himself in this hellish circle, that would have been the most likely outcome based on my experience and some of the books I've read in my past life.'
Getting into a sitting position on the bed, Loren started looking around the room. Most of the items here are made of wood. The chair, the bed, the table. On the table was some food, which wasn't recognizable to Loren. But first he decided to clean up the last meal, he accidentally dropped.
One looked like a blue apple, the rest looked like some herbs in different colors. Loren tried to resist the urge to test how they may taste, but his curiosity was too strong.
There were 5 white herbs, 4 blue ones and just two red ones. Loren didn't want to die of food poisoning, so he began to examine Cie Lin's memories for any information about them.
The white herbs are called "White Death". If eaten unprepared, it may lead to extreme skin bleaching and the body losing all of its resources.
Loren gulped and shuddered in silence. He didn't expect such an extremely good-looking herb to be so dangerous for him.
The blue ones are "Sea Leafs". They taste like wet leafs. Quite fresh and not poisonous. Loren instantly came up with many different kinds of salats, it could be eaten with. They also make a slight crunchy sound when bitten into.
Or maybe a burger with these juicy, blue leafs. Loren decided that this is a matter for later when he knew the other two materials.
Looking at the two red herbs first, Loren was very interested in their effects.
Apparently, the red herbs are called "Meat Loafs". Not because of their taste, but because of their color. The veins in the herb looked life the fat of an animal. They are quite thick and not really crunchy. Maybe a bit chewy.
'This definitely has potential if you cook it the right way, but I would first have to get to know its reaction to heat. Here is so much to try. The intricate stone pattern on the ground was also something I've never seen before.'
Positively surprised by the Meat Loaf Loren looked at the last item on the table. The "Blue Apple" like Loren called it the first time.
After another not so thourough examination of Cie Lin's memories, Loren found out that this is a Qi fruit. Some fruits are able to cultivate themselves to some point.
It is quite the treasure since it helps one recover lost Qi when eaten. If one were to consume too many and one's body isn't able to hold the Qi, the body will subsequently explode.
That alone was reason enough for Loren not to try how it tastes even though the curiosity was really strong.
Qi is some form of energy, gathered from possibly any source, as there are my different subforms of Qi. Basically everything is Qi and Qi is everything. Or a bit more logically: Everything could be Qi if someone is able to transform it into Qi.
And cultivators gather that Qi in their body to create wonderful effects. Gathering, Storing, Refining. That is the premise of cultivation in the Qi Gathering Stage.
Loren looked baffled. He was surprised that he understood every single word contained in his memories. At the same time he asked himself if something like that would have ever been possible on the world he came from.
"No." Immediately after "waking" up in this body, Loren sensed the existence of Qi. Either the humans on Earth are lacking something crucial in their bodies or Qi can't exist there for some reason.
Albeit having eaten one Sea Leaf and one Meat Loaf Loren was still not totally without hunger, but he decided to put a stop to "Trying foreign unknown substances for personal desire".
Therefore he decided to use his focus on other things like discovering the house of his old body.
There were five rooms in total. His bedroom, where also the table with the foreign substances is.
The bathroom, where a bath tub for hot water is and the ground made out of some white stone is.
The living room, where a long table presses on the ground and makes Loren feel like it could break down at any moment.
'It is a miracle that thing is still standing.' The next room isn't really a room, but more the foyer, which leads to all other rooms. There isn't really anything significant.
The last room is under the roof. To go there one must go to the living room and get the ladder. That part was a bit annoying for Loren, who was only at the third level of Qi Gathering.
Under the roof was the air quite warm, he felt the desire to strip himself from his outer robe.