Chapter 1: Black Mage Returns To Earth

"I remember that the sun in An City was especially bright that afternoon on the 1st of September, 2019. It was so bright that I couldn't open my eyes.."

"Wait a moment." An indifferent young woman raised her hand to stop him. "Although you seem like you are talking about a time in the distant past, today's date is only the 2nd of September, 2019." historical

The middle-aged man with a face full of stubble and a melancholic gaze muttered, "It might only be yesterday to you, but to me, that was 300 years ago."

The woman took a deep, long breath as veins bulged on her forehead and neck. Fist clenched, she gritted her teeth as if trying her best to control her anger. "Alright then.. Yesterday to today is equivalent to three hundred years for you, and so?"

The scruffy middle-aged man suddenly got excited. "So that's why, Sis, I'm your brother Yang Qiu! That afternoon, you snatched my gaming computer and sent me to buy groceries. I got mad and went to play games at the internet cafe instead. Eventually, when I returned home in the middle of the night, I suddenly transmigrated and was thrown into an especially dark and vexing magical world for 300 years! I only made it back with great difficulty—"

"Get lost!!!"

BAAM! BAAM!

The gate and door to unit 3-2 were consecutively slammed shut, leaving the scruffy middle-aged fella who called himself Yang Qiu standing alone in the corridor.

"Sis, listen to me, I'm really Yang Qiu!" The scruffy man had no choice but to pound on the door again. "Your name is Yang Ying, and our mother's name is Ni Keping. It's been 300 years, but I still remember the both of you!"

No sound came from inside, but instead, it was the door of adjacent unit 3-1 that opened slightly, and a vaguely familiar-looking auntie peeked out and stared blankly at the scruffy man.

Then, the auntie slowly closed the door and the sound of the door locking could be heard. The scruffy man heard the nervous voice from beyond the door. "Old man, what's the number for Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital? Some crazed fella is knocking on the Yang family's door.."

The melancholic and scruffy man, Yang Qiu, dejectedly left Sequoia Estate, a place where he had spent 16 years of his life in.

With a face full of messy stubble and oily, shoulder-length hair, Yang Qiu was still wearing the clothes from the otherworld when he had transmigrated back—a beige long-sleeved shirt, matching vest, black rune-imbued cloth trousers, and deer-hide boots. A black hooded cloak was draped on his shoulders and in his hand was a small, exquisitely crafted staff.

As he left the estate, two high school students that had just returned from school stared at him curiously. One whispered to her friend, "Still cosplaying at such an age? I wonder who he's cosplaying as?"

Yang Qiu turned to look at the two high school students, his gaze mainly focused on their blue and white sports school uniforms.

Three hundred years.. One day ago on Earth, he had been wearing this uniform when he transmigrated. This warm and thick school uniform meant for autumn had accompanied him through those difficult early days..

"Eek!" The two high school students felt uncomfortable being stared at and ran away holding hands.

Yang Qiu didn't care that he was seen as a weirdo and watched them with nostalgia. They weren't just girls running away, but a representation of his lost, carefree youth...

Sequoia Estate was located in a good area, a short two-hundred-meter alleyway just beyond the estate led directly to the pedestrian street of An City's commercial district.

Because of the popularity and human traffic of the commercial district's pedestrian street, this narrow alleyway had quite a number of shops along its sides. There was also a vegetable stall at the corner, where some of the elderly residents of the estate frequented for groceries.

The alleyway wasn't as crowded as the pedestrian street, but it wasn't deserted either. Yang Qiu had stood at the estate gate for a while, and at least a dozen people had passed by, giving curious or weird glances at his black mage attire that seemed like a cosplay.

Fortunately, in this era, people wore all sorts of strange clothing, such as Han costumes, lolita dresses, and cosplay. Thus, while slightly out of place, Yang Qiu's outfit still didn't seem that out of the ordinary.

As a middle-aged couple walked past Yang Qiu as they headed into the estate, the woman whispered to her husband, "This cosplay looks really professional. Is it a character from your League of Legends game?"

The man had merely given Yang Qiu a passing glance, but having heard what his wife said, he turned and stared at Yang Qiu for a bit before replying, "It.. doesn't seem so. There's no hero that has this sort of appearance."

Yang Qiu lowered his head and left quickly.

Half an hour later.

Homeless, penniless, and with nowhere to go, Yang Qiu sat alone on a bench in the northwest corner of Tashan Park's square, facing a bed of flowers with a pensive look on his face.

"Can't feel any magic power at all. Does Earth truly lack magic..?" Yan Qiu raised his right hand and smoothly traced spell runes in the air, but Spellcaster's Hand, which he normally could control easily even without the need for runes, couldn't be summoned.

Yang Qiu mulled for a bit, then took out his dragon bone staff.

With a gentle wave of his staff, a seemingly translucent and incorporeal hand about half the size of a person suddenly appeared.

However.. the successfully summoned Spellcaster's Hand merely lasted for a second before it ran out of strength and dissipated.

"That huge battle before I returned depleted all my magic power, and I haven't had a chance to recover.." Yang Qiu sighed. "I don't have much magic power left and have also lost my identity as 'Yang Qiu' on Earth.."

While it seemed like the circumstances were tough, Yang Qiu's didn't appear that downcast. In fact, he even seemed relaxed. So what if he no longer had an identity? Surviving on Earth was always going to be much easier than in that goddamn magical world!

Why had Yang Qiu, who had struggled hard for three hundred years to become a high-level black mage and had curated a certain degree of self-preservation, rushed into a spatial rift without a care the moment he saw it?

Apart from sensing the familiar temporal and spatial fluctuations resonating from the rift that had abruptly appeared before him, the most important reason was because he had been chased by those crazy religious zealots of the Inquisition for decades!

Even when he fled to the Dimensional Demon Realm to survive, those lunatics still followed after to try and cut him down.

Just because I killed a few of their red cardinals and holy prophets because of their injustice.. How great is their enmity?!

"At least on Earth, I don't have to worry about those bunch of crazies tossing alchemy bombs into the latrine."

Breathing in the peaceful air around him, Yang Qiu relaxed and took off his overly conspicuous black cloak. After checking to make sure no one was around, he kept away the cloak and his equally noticeable dragon bone staff into his spatial ring.

Without the cloak and staff, his beige elven-made sleeved shirt, vest, and black rune-imbued trousers were no longer that conspicuous. But of course, he still couldn't let others have a good look at the material.

"I got too carried away upon returning and rushed home to check.. Yang Ying surely wouldn't recognize me if I showed up like this. But it's alright, I'll find another chance. I've survived all these years after all, and there's no need to rush."

Yang Qiu yawned and laid down on the park bench, and in no time, started snoring. He hadn't slept well for a long time, having been chased by crazy religious zealots to the ends of the world before chancing upon the dimensional rift with those familiar spatial fluctuations.

He slept till the sky turned completely dark and all the street lamps and neon signs in and around the park turned on. Only then was Yang Qiu awakened by the jarring sound of classic dance music in the square.

He sat up and stretched lazily before noticing that someone had placed a plastic bag with two large steamed buns under the bench, along with a bottle of mineral water.

"It's really great to be back on Earth." Yang Qiu sincerely gave thanks from the bottom of his heart to this unknown good Samaritan, tore open the plastic bag, and wolfed down the cold steamed buns. Before he returned back, he could only run into the depths of the monster forests to escape from the Inquisition's crazies and hadn't had proper food in ages!

Perhaps the way he was gorging the cold steam buns into his mouth was so startling, two office workers that had just gotten off work glanced over and stopped in their tracks.

The two female office workers exchanged a glance and saw the sympathy in each other's eyes. One of them, with long hair, walked over quietly and placed the supper she had just bought on the bench where Yang Qiu was sitting.

"For me?" Yang Qiu shuddered as he smelled the spicy aroma wafting from the packet of food. The lady was startled, then nodded before quickly stepping back.

"Thank you so much, pretty lady with a kind heart!" Yang Qiu swallowed the last bit of the cold pastry, then tore open the packet of food savagely.

The lady's short-haired companion stepped forward and grabbed her friend's wrist, urging her softly, "Let's go," and the two left hurriedly.

.

It wasn't until they reached the northwest corner of the park, where it was more deserted at night, that the two female office workers breathed a sigh of relief.

"You were being too impulsive! That fella is big, strong, and able-bodied yet is homeless and stays at the park. Who knows if he has some mental issues? What if he got too worked up and hurt you?" complained the short-haired lady.

"I just thought he looked pitiful.. Never mind," the long-haired muttered. "Let's not continue this discussion. If it isn't because of bad luck, would anyone be willing to fall so low to such a point? Sigh, in this day and age, even a normal person can make ends meet by doing physical labor. Who would want to sleep on the streets for no reason?"

"Take a look at those homeless people in the news.. If they aren't mentally ill or suffering from dementia, then they are fugitives," her short-haired woman disagreed. "If you can't help it, you could at least put the food far away so they can pick it up themselves instead of taking a risk and delivering it yourself."

"Alright, I got it.."

Elsewhere, Yang Qiu had once again gotten to enjoy mala soup after three hundred years. He licked the plastic container clean, not leaving a single sichuan peppercorn or oil stain.

"Earth is still the best!" Yang Qiu, nearly moved to tears, put the immaculately clean plastic container into his spatial ring.

Then he realized something was wrong..

"The heck! On Earth, plastic containers are trash not worth saving. Something must be wrong with me!" muttered Yang Qiu to himself as he fished out the clear plastic container once more.

Yang Qiu, the black mage, had been living a rough life. His spatial ring was only ten li in size and was mostly filled with bedding, clothes, and daily necessities. The rest were just some materials collected while on the run, such as monster parts and bits of herbs, and materials with magical properties that were reduced to just a small leather bag.

"Huh?"

As he was taking out the plastic container, Yang Qiu found a white sphere inside the spatial ring.

As someone who valued his belongings, he would remember everything in his inventory down to the very leaf of a herb. Therefore, Yang Qiu was certain that he didn't own this thing.

Slightly puzzled, Yang Qiu took out the white sphere. This ball, made up of some rock-like material, was about the size of a fist. It looked somewhat coarse, but was smooth to the touch.

"Where did this thing come from.. F*ck!"

As Yang Qiu touched the sphere with his palm, he realized that it was absorbing the little remaining magic power in his body. Instinctively, he wanted to throw the sphere away.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Whoosh~

In the next instant, Yang Qiu disappeared. All that remained was an empty plastic container that had been licked clean on the park bench.