Damon's Ascension-Chapter 100: War in Xiangyang 1

The shuttle hissed open as Damon stepped out, greeted by the sharp chill of spring air over Hubei province and the even sharper gazes of the soldiers flanking the landing pad.

A small unit of Chinese military personnel stood at attention, all in dark-gray uniforms with dark red highlights, their expressions unreadable behind advanced tactical visors.

One of them stepped forward, being an older officer with a clean-shaven face and silver insignia on his collar.

His Mandarin was crisp but cold. "Prime Representative Damon Arnan. Welcome to the People’s Republic of China. I am Colonel Ji Sheng. I have been assigned as your local liaison during your time here."

Damon gave a polite nod, his own Mandarin somewhat shaky since he was using it for the first time. "I appreciate the welcome, Colonel Ji."

The colonel didn’t smile. "Please understand, your presence here carries weight. Many in the administration are... skeptical of your intentions."

"I’d be disappointed if they weren’t," Damon replied calmly, unruffled by the probing.

Ji Sheng narrowed his eyes but didn’t rise to the bait. "You will be restricted to specific zones unless formally approved. The Instance you requested entry to is within a protected cultural reserve. Under normal circumstances, no one is allowed near it."

"But I’m not normal circumstances, and the final decision rests on me." Damon replied sternly, eyes narrowing.

The soldiers tensed slightly at the tone, but Ji simply turned, gesturing for Damon to follow. "You’ll be transported directly to the Instance gateway. You are expected to maintain full transparency. Any disruption, and we lock it down."

"I can temporarily agree to that for the sake of diplomacy, but do not let it happen again." Damon said, adjusting his coat.

As they moved toward the armored convoy waiting beyond the landing strip, one of the junior soldiers murmured in Mandarin under his breath, just loud enough for Damon to hear.

"This blasted African pauper thinks he can come here and steal our legends."

Damon’s eyes turned toward him, but he didn’t respond. He merely smiled as he didn’t need to argue.

This kind of xenophobic behavior was cute and childish in his eyes, because it was a common occurrence for newly discovered races. The individual political identities of a species were strong in its initial 20-year grace period, but after that, it became utterly useless.

In 20 years, there might not even be a China, America, or Europe, just Zone A, Zone B, etc. Likewise, when the 20-year period elapsed and the region lock was removed, other humans would be free to come here and enter any Instance as they wanted.

Putting aside humans, even aliens would be entering to excavate!

Your precious cultural history and legacy was destined to become a commodity in the galactic market, used by the entire race as well as various individuals to trade, so protecting it fiercely like this was nothing short of laughable.

Of course, you could be hyper xenophobic and lock your Instances from foreign use, but that was cutting off one major source of income for your entire species, and even the dragons did not dare to do that, much less humans who were in a tough spot money-wise.

Damon put his thoughts away as they arrived at the location of the Instance, which was a congested national reserve. True to the Chinese nature, the line outside was orderly and everyone was carefully verified before going in, also reporting their gains to military officers when they came out.

It was clear that, like most first-world countries, the Chinese government believed that Instances were a state resource and were to be carefully controlled and exploited mainly by the state.

Well, their officials were not stupid, they definitely did research and knew that this would become useless 20 years later, but they seemed intent to control this as much as they could within that time.

This was also why they did not have much fear towards Damon. Until the 20-year period was over, other species simply could not enter, not to mention that Damon kicked everyone away, so he couldn’t take away Instances from them.

However, his scope of power extended to all areas concerning humanity, so no matter how unwilling, they had to give him some basic ’face.’

Haha, that was a new term he learned recently, which he found quite interesting.

When they disembarked, the citizens of China were shocked to see a dark-skinned person get down in escort by their esteemed military, but many began to whisper and point as they recognized him then shared it with others.

One thing that was uncomfortable to talk about—but was true—was that in most homogeneous countries and societies, people could hardly tell the individual differences between people of certain ethnicities or races.

Just as you complained that you couldn’t tell Asian people apart due to the racially similar features, they too struggled to tell you apart for the same reason.

So even though it took some a bit of time, they eventually recognized Damon because putting aside his frequently appearing face on social media, there was the fact that he was still the number one trending topic on the galactic network and second place was getting only half his publicity and views.

Damon did not hesitate to smile and even wave a little to the onlookers, making their expressions shift to one of strangeness and speechlessness.

This African fellow... is he alright in the head?

Soon he reached the checkpoint and he was unceremoniously patted down and scanned by the soldiers, which he endured in order not to cause a diplomatic incident. However, when they even wanted to test his blood and take samples of urine, he directly slapped the hand of the aide away and walked past the checkpoint heading towards the Instance portal.

The soldiers were stunned then reacted sharply, lifting their guns, but Colonel Ji raised a hand to stop them, watching Damon as he entered the Instance portal, his black eyes flickering with a deep light.

The moment Damon stepped through the shimmering barrier, the world twisted.

Gone was the metallic irritating glare of the military and mockery of the populace. In its place was the pervasive scent of damp earth and cherry blossom, mixed with a faint hint of iron and smoke.

The young man stood in the heart of a small county town nestled along the edge of Xiangyang’s ancient outer province, surrounded by forested ridges and worn stone paths.

The walls of the town were high and weathered, built with layered brick and wooden ramparts, and the loud clang of a distant gong echoed through the fresh spring air.

Damon looked down and saw that he was dressed in a simple but elegant black scholar’s robe with silver embroidery across the cuffs and belt.

His sleeves were wide, his collar neatly folded, and a jade pendant hung loosely from his sash, marking him as a wandering cultivator or wandering scholar, neutral and without ties to any one faction.

The Universe Will had likely auto-generated this attire based on his entry options, subtly fitting him into the narrative structure of the Instance.

It was early morning, but the town was already awake as vendors pulled carts of steamed buns and sesame cakes through the narrow streets.

Farmers hauled sacks of grain into tall wooden storehouses under the watchful eyes of armed men dressed in faded bronze armor.

Soldiers from two different factions, one being the white-crested banners of the Sun family and the other being the green-scaled armor of the Liu clan, patrolled the opposite ends of town.

Tension hung like a blade in the air.

Damon could feel it in the way everyone moved with tight steps, careful gazes, and whispers exchanged in alleyways while furtively looking around.

Then he noticed the cause.

At the town square’s center, a small raised platform had been set up where three men knelt in the dirt, bloodied and bruised, while a furious soldier read off charges.

A crowd had gathered around, eyes wide but silent.

"...accused of spying for Cao Cao’s forces," the soldier barked.

"Traitors to the Sun family! Sentence: Execution by arrow formation!" He concluded as he tossed the decree away.

There was a murmur from the crowd, but no one dared object. Who was going to stick their heads out at this time to be chopped for free?

Damon’s eyes narrowed as he recognized the names being thrown around... Sun, Liu, Cao.

This wasn’t just a random martial arts Instance based on Chinese history, this one threw him deep in the political minefield of the fabled Three Kingdoms period!

At this time, a small window blinked open on his field of view.

[Essence Augmented Reality (Earth) - Hubei Instance 2]

[Duration: 7 days.]

[Details: Welcome to the twilight years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, where loyalty is a liability, and martial philosophy is dictated by the size of your faction’s treasury. The province of Jing is a simmering powder keg wedged between the claws of three great tigers, the Sun, the Liu, and the Cao, all claiming legitimacy and none particularly fond of outsiders.

As a mysterious scholar with no allegiances and just enough aura to arouse suspicion, your presence alone is a provocation. Fortunately, in a world ruled by swords, fists, and ideals, your only way to survive - and thrive - is to fight, adapt, and maybe pretend you know kung fu until you actually do.]

[Objective(s):

a. Survive and win three public duels hosted in Jiangxia’s annual Spring Challenge Festival. Failure to participate results in being branded a coward and thrown out of town.

b. Uncover the fate of Master Yao, the county’s missing martial judge whose sudden disappearance threatens to plunge the local power balance into chaos.

c. Navigate the growing tension between the Heaven’s Dew Sect and the Iron Banner Hall. Aligning with one may turn the other against you. Staying neutral will cost you trust from both.

d. Expose or eliminate the unknown third-party agitator sowing conflict between civilian militia groups under the guise of ’protection efforts’ before open rebellion ignites.]