"What the hell is going on here?"
Xiaotian stared in utter confusion, completely at a loss for how to describe his current situation.
Tang Xiaotian, an orphan who had grown up in an orphanage, found himself in a very bizarre predicament. An unfamiliar young woman was holding him in her arms, looking down at him with boundless affection.
When Xiaotian shifted his gaze, he nearly jumped out of his skin. A middle-aged man was standing right beside them, grinning broadly at him.
*How did I end up here?*
Xiaotian thought to himself as he surveyed his surroundings. There was nothing modern about this place; the architecture looked distinctly ancient.
"Since his name is Xiaotian and he shares the surname Tang, it means he is fated to be with us. My wife, from this day forward, he is our son."
As soon as the man spoke, Xiaotian grew even more bewildered. Tang Xiaotian was indeed his name, but how on earth did this man know it?
The young woman nodded gently. "I agree. The more I look at him, the more I love him. Xiaotian, from now on, I am your mother."
Xiaotian could understand every word they said because they were speaking standard Mandarin Chinese.
"My dear, look, he's smiling."
The man extended a finger and gently tickled Xiaotian. The young woman laughed as well. "Indeed. It seems he agrees."
Xiaotian desperately wanted to say something, but every sound that came out of his mouth was just incoherent baby babble.
How should he put it? Xiaotian's mind was in absolute, chaotic turmoil. He had no idea how he had gotten here, nor why he had suddenly been turned into an infant.
It was only after the young woman placed him onto a bed that he finally began to piece things together.
"No, I need to sort this out. I remember going to the park... there were police officers and armed police everywhere. Then I ran into something, and suddenly I fell... Right, a bullet! I think I got shot."
It all rushed back to him. The police had told him to leave, and the moment he turned around, he felt as though a bullet had blown right through his head. And then he had ended up here.
"That means... I've been transmigrated..."
As someone who had been reading web novels since he was ten years old, Xiaotian naturally understood the concept of transmigration. But while other people only wrote about it in fiction, he was experiencing it for real. That meant...
"Holy crap! Is there a system? System, come out!"
Xiaotian called out in his mind for quite a while, but forget about a system—there wasn't even a single digital beep in response.
Xiaotian's heart sank. He never expected that he wouldn't get a system. That was the ultimate cheat code everyone dreamed of having! If he didn't even have that, what was the point of transmigrating? Was he just supposed to go out and get himself killed?
"No, wait. Where on earth have I ended up? I need to take a good look around before I make any plans."
Xiaotian made up his mind to observe the situation first. If things looked bad, he would figure out a way to run away. If things looked good, he would stay put. Besides, the two people raising him seemed quite wealthy; even the clothes on their backs felt silky and smooth—definitely silk, which in ancient times was something only wealthy families could afford.
The very next morning, while Xiaotian was still half-asleep, he saw a crowd of officials gathered below. Why did he know they were officials? Because they were all kneeling on the ground.
As for his "father," the man was currently holding him in his arms and proclaiming, "From this day forth, Tang Xiaotian is my son."
"Congratulations, Lord Ruler! Long live the Lord Ruler!"
The officials chorused in unison. Xiaotian snapped completely awake. *Whoa,* he thought to himself. *I don't know how big of a realm a Lord Ruler actually rules, but did I just transmigrate into the royal family? This is great! This is fantastic, haha... I can officially scratch my escape plan off the list, haha...*
Seeing how happy Xiaotian looked, the Lord Ruler beamed with matching delight.
Before long, Xiaotian was picked up by the woman from yesterday—though he needed to update his terminology now. Since she was his mother, it was time to start calling her Mother Tang.
Back in his bed, Xiaotian began mapping out his future path. After all, he was the son of the Lord Ruler.
*Wait a minute. This isn't right at all. This Lord Ruler... doesn't have multiple sons, does he?*
Panic set in. Xiaotian had watched plenty of historical palace dramas, and he knew all about the brutal fights for the throne and the vicious power struggles within the inner court.
He could ignore the inner court intrigue—being a guy, he had no intention of sticking his nose into that. But a struggle for the crown was an entirely different story. Yet, try as he might, he couldn't ask how many sons the Lord Ruler had, simply because his vocal cords hadn't developed yet.
The mere thought of getting sucked into a succession battle filled Xiaotian with gloom. He was just an orphan who had graduated from college, worked in sales, skyrocketed to the top of his company, and then reined as the sales champion for three consecutive months.
What happened to the fourth month? Well, he had transmigrated, hadn't he?
The more Xiaotian thought about it, the more alert he became. Sales required a deep understanding of human psychology—figuring out what the customer wanted and tailoring the pitch to win them over.
"Alright, I still have that advantage. The next step is arming myself."
By "arming himself," Xiaotian meant acquiring the means to protect his own life. As everyone knew, succession struggles were riddled with conspiracies and assassinations. He wasn't afraid of political plotting; as a college graduate who possessed both a formal education and a voracious appetite for fiction, he had a pretty good idea of how to handle things.
"Sigh, I guess I just have to wait until I grow up."
Xiaotian cursed his infant body more and more by the day. If he weren't a baby, he wouldn't have to just sit around thinking—he could actually take action.
And so, Xiaotian began longing to grow up, and time seemed to pass faster and faster.
In the blink of an eye, Xiaotian turned five.
By now, Xiaotian had managed to confirm a few key pieces of information. First, he had no brothers or sisters because his parents were unable to have any other children.
However, his own "appearance" had left him utterly baffled. According to his father, he had descended directly from the heavens, surrounded by seven-colored auspicious clouds.
Xiaotian never imagined that was the story of his origin. Ridiculous? Absolutely ridiculous! Descended from the heavens with seven-colored auspicious clouds? If that were true, why didn't he remember any of it? And if he really possessed such a miraculous origin, why didn't he have innate divine strength or superhuman intelligence? Instead, he was just like any ordinary human child.
Second, this country was tiny—far smaller than his motherland, Huaxia. It consisted of only a few fortified cities, and the very name of the country was the Tang Kingdom.
And the final point—the most crucial one, which made Xiaotian want to scream in frustration—was how utterly pathetic the nation's weaponry was.
The ironwork was full of impurities. Xiaotian had once touched a piece of their iron equipment, and the weapon quality was so abysmal that it struggled to chop through a rock. Even trying to cut down bamboo carried a high risk of chipping the blade.
Their bows and arrows were equally garbage, with an effective range of only about fifty paces.
It was clear that Xiaotian had a mountain of work to do.
"No way. Since I'm here and I'm the only heir, I have to bring about change. Compound bows, steel weapons—all of these need to be prepared."
Xiaotian resolved to strengthen the Tang Kingdom. Otherwise, he would be in grave danger. To his astonishment, there were dozens of tiny states surrounding the Tang Kingdom—wait, wasn't this a complete betrayal of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's ideals? *Ahem, let's not get carried away.*
With so many hostile neighbors around, Xiaotian himself would be in constant jeopardy.
Besides, since the palace succession drama wasn't going to happen the way he'd feared, Xiaotian naturally had to strive for greatness. Even if he couldn't become a master conqueror of a ruler, he at least had to protect his own country.
That very day, Xiaotian kicked off his self-improvement campaign. Relying entirely on his memory, he sketched out blueprints for a compound bow and designed a high-blast iron smelting furnace. He didn't even spare gunpowder from his plans.
Would that be enough? No. Xiaotian knew the financial state of the Tang Kingdom. While the national wealth was merely average, he wanted to generate even more revenue. Consequently, advanced salt-making and sugar-refining techniques all ended up on his parchment.
After writing through the night, Xiaotian stretched his sore wrists and muttered to himself, "Thank goodness this country also uses simplified Chinese characters, or I'd have to spend time learning a whole new script. And thank goodness my memory is decent enough to retain all this. Alright, time for bed."
Xiaotian stepped away from the desk, climbed into bed, and fell fast asleep.
As soon as he was fast asleep, the heavy door slowly swung open, and his mother stepped into the room.
Seeing how peacefully Xiaotian was sleeping, Mother Tang didn't dare to disturb him. Instead, she walked over to the desk and picked up the pile of written plans. *Did Xiaotian really write all of this?* she wondered.
Mother Tang picked up the sheets and looked them over. She could read the words, but she didn't fully comprehend the significance behind the technical jargon.
"My dear."
The voice of the Lord Ruler echoed softly. When he stepped inside, he happened to catch sight of Xiaotian resting soundly. Mother Tang shot him a glare and whispered, "Keep your voice down, Xiaotian is still sleeping. Come here, look at this."
Seeing the papers in Mother Tang's hands, the Lord Ruler took them and began to read. A second later, his eyes widened in sheer disbelief. The technologies detailed within were lightyears ahead of their current era—leaps and bounds beyond anything they possessed.
"Wh-who wrote this?"
The Lord Ruler raised his eyes to look at his wife. He was trembling with excitement because with these blueprints, he could elevate his nation to unprecedented heights of power.
Mother Tang chided playfully, "You don't even recognize your own son's handwriting?"
"Xiaotian wrote this?"
The Lord Ruler was utterly stunned. He hurriedly looked over at Xiaotian, wishing he could rush over and shower the boy with kisses.
"Brilliant! With these, our Tang Kingdom will rise to greatness once again!"
The Lord Ruler was brimming with excitement. He knew the immense value of these inventions; calling them national treasures was no exaggeration. What did a country rely on to grow strong? Weapons, naturally. True dignity only existed at the edge of a sword.
If Xiaotian hadn't been fast asleep, the Lord Ruler surely would have scooped him up in a tight embrace and praised him to the heavens.
"Let's go. Xiaotian is still sleeping, don't wake him up."
Mother Tang tugged gently on the Lord Ruler's sleeve, leading him out of the room.
The next morning...
Xiaotian woke up feeling groggy. Having overworked his brain the previous day, he had slept all the way until noon.
*Sigh... I need to go tell my father today, but what excuse should I use?*
As he pondered this, several female attendants rushed forward to help him wash up the moment they saw his eyes open.
After washing his face and brushing his teeth, Xiaotian let out a helpless sigh and thought, *Ah, the evils of this old feudal society.*
When Xiaotian walked over to his desk, however, he found that his stack of plans was gone. A jolt of panic shot through his heart. "Where are the papers that were on my desk?" he demanded.
His personal maid answered respectfully, "The Lord Ruler took them."
"My father?"
Xiaotian blinked in surprise, then let out a breath of relief. If anyone else had taken them, he would have been worried. Those were genuine state-shattering weapons of the realm; if they fell into the wrong hands, the consequences could be disastrous—perhaps even leading to the destruction of the kingdom.
"Alright, I don't need to worry about that anymore. Time to eat."
Xiaotian tucked his hands behind his back and strolled leisurely out the door.
In truth, Xiaotian still harbored one lingering question. From the time he was a baby, he had always acted with an unnatural, mature composure. Yet, not a single soul had ever suspected a thing.
What Xiaotian didn't realize was—who on earth would ever suspect him? After all, he had descended directly from the heavens amidst seven-colored auspicious clouds. In this world, what did that make him?
A god walking among mortals.