The Spring and Autumn period is the root of Chinese civilization. More than half of Chinese surnames originated during this era, and over half of Chinese idioms were formed in the Spring and Autumn period. The origins of our culture also lie in the Spring and Autumn... It is because of this period of history that we have been left with the most brilliant legacy in human history.

By a twist of fate, a certain man travels through time to the Spring and Autumn period, becoming a minor feudal lord of that era.

He is fortunate, for he has arrived in this great era... in the hegemonic state, becoming a carefree young noble. With just a bit of effort, he can become a “distinguished person” with a voice in important matters. He has his own territory, his own private army, his own retinue of vassals...

However, he is also unfortunate, for in this turbulent age, the struggles between the nobles are always bloody. The losers have their families exterminated, and the internecine strife among the nobles of Jin is the most brutal of the era.

Unfortunately, the person this transmigrator has become is none other than the legendary “Orphan of Zhao”...

Chapter Zero: Prologue

Origin: Where am I?

I woke up!

My whole body ached, and even the slightest movement felt like being pricked by needles. The stabbing pain almost made me cry out.

After a long while, my consciousness slowly returned, and what I saw gradually became clear.

The first thing I saw was half of a car’s front end. Looking out through the windshield, I saw that the hood had been neatly sliced in half. Although the cut wasn’t a straight line, the break was extremely smooth, as if an incredibly sharp wave had swiftly swept across the front of the hood, slicing off half of the car at an angle and leaving the rest of the body behind.

Luckily, the cut was still some distance from the driver’s seat, so I, sitting in the driver’s seat, was unharmed.

I tried hard to recall the cause of the accident, but my memory was a bit hazy: heavy rain... thunder and lightning... I was ordered by my boss to pick up his daughter...

By the way, I’m a senior in college. In order to find a job early, I got an internship at a company. Of course, because the job market is tough, I had to get a bunch of certificates while still in school, including a driver’s license. Maybe it was because I was still a student that my boss wasn’t afraid I’d run off with his beloved car, so he told me to drive and pick up his daughter on a stormy day...

That day, it was pouring rain. I clearly remember carefully controlling my speed in the storm. There were few people on the street, and the cars on the road were all moving slowly... My memory gets fuzzy here. After that, it seemed like I entered a bizarre tunnel, and the intense pain made me lose consciousness. When I woke up, I was in this state.

How did I get here?

I gripped the steering wheel and looked ahead—wait, something was off. Why was the remaining hood shining with a silvery metallic luster? Where was the car’s original paint? There wasn’t a trace left, as if it was a brand-new car straight from the factory that hadn’t been painted yet.

What kind of force could make the car’s paint vanish without a trace?

I raised my hand and looked at my wrist, finding my skin as red as a boiled shrimp. Fortunately, this wasn’t permanent. I could already feel my skin slowly returning to its original color, though the whole process was accompanied by intense pain and nervous twitching.

After examining my palm, I suddenly remembered something, and broke out in a cold sweat: where were the people on the road? Where was the storm? I had been driving on a city road, so why was the road gone? Looking out the window, I could only see a few treetops.

Panicking, I instinctively pushed open the car door and rushed out. As soon as my foot stepped out, I found nothing beneath me. In a panic, I desperately grabbed the door handle, hearing the sound of it cracking, as if it could break at any moment.

My whole body was hanging from the half-open car door. I looked down desperately—where was the ground? Why was the ground gone?

The ground was still there, just a bit far away.

Looking as far as I could, I realized I was hanging five or six meters above the ground.

The car door swayed from side to side, and the handle kept making strange noises, signaling it was at its limit. In my panic, I looked around and saw that the car I had been driving was wedged between two large trees, with the tree at the rear already bent slightly under the car’s weight.

These two trees were truly massive. Although their trunks were bent, they clamped the car body even tighter.

Before I could figure out how to climb back into the car, the door handle snapped with a crisp sound, and I fell from midair, brushing past many branches on the way down. I desperately tried to grab one to slow my fall, but unfortunately, all the branches seemed fragile and broke at the slightest pull—boom, I crashed heavily to the ground.

It took a long time for me to come to my senses—ah, I had fallen from five or six meters up; strangely, why didn’t I feel any pain?

I raised my hand and looked at my palm, finding it full of branches of various thicknesses. I slowly recalled what had happened, still puzzled: I landed hard on my butt, yet I didn’t feel any pain and wasn’t injured. How odd?

Looking up at the sky, I couldn’t help but laugh.