"Host, welcome to the thousandth world," the system chirped. Elyse grinned and stretched despite the ache in her limbs. She lay on a thin straw pallet in a cramped storeroom that smelled of damp wood and old tea leaves. "Where am I now?" she muttered, rubbing a wrist. Her fingers met foreign skin, callused and bruised. "Check: identity locked. Vessel: Female, age: sixteen by documents, sect: Bellan, name: Li Yun," the system said in a flat tone. "Of course," Elyse said. "They always pick the good ones." A woman's boot hit the pallet. "Wake up, lazybones. Master said you still owe him for last month's rice." The boot owner leaned down, face sharp with cheap rouge. "You're useless like your dead father." Elyse kept her voice small. "I'm sorry. I'll—" "Apologies won't fix the rice shortage." The woman slapped Elyse across the cheek. The slap echoed on the wood. "You arrogant cow," Elyse's step-sister spat. "You think your face is pretty? You think anyone will care? Get up and clean." Elyse let the breath out she hadn't been holding, measured pain, and smiled like a broken thing. "Yes, sister." A crowd gathered in the hallway: two senior disciples, a meal boy, someone sweeping. Voices threaded through the cracks of the door. Elyse heard a soft laugh, distant and unfamiliar. "Don't just stand there," her stepmother hissed. "Make her scrub the corner until the sun sets." Elyse stood slowly, knees stiff