Due to a near death experience, a young man from modern Earth, Lin Fan, experiences a "Freaky Friday" Flip situation with Qi Zixao, a saintess from a cultivation world, transmigrating into one another's bodies. Once every three days, the mysterious connection between them causes them to switch again. The two occasionally cause one another problems in their daily lives, but they also learn to use the situation to their benefit and leave one another messages.
On Earth, they discover that it was once a low level cultivation world too, but the Background Magic Field's weakness and instability resulted in The Magic Goes Away. Using the knowledge of the cultivation world, they gather the tiny sparks that are left and nourish them so that The Magic Comes Back.
In the Cultivation World, the two create Magitek inspired by Earth technology. They focus on increasing Qi Zixao's power and influence so that she can escape the Arranged Marriage she is stuck with.
The two come to share the goal of bridging the two worlds, so that they can one day meet in person.
General Tropes
- Accidental Truth: Qi Zixao and Lin Fan borrowing her body scam resources out of fellow sect members by offering them made-up techniques. The made-up techniques turn out to have actual benefits.
- Arranged Marriage: Qi Zixao has one with the son of a wealthy family due to having humble origins, yet having talent. Both of them hate the situation and one another, but her fiance also uses it to put her down. Qi Zixao hopes to build up enough influence to end the marriage agreement.
- Background Magic Field: The cultivation world has spiritual energy in the atmosphere that living things can absorb to augment themselves. Lifeforms, especially plants, release more energy than they take in, sustaining it and making it stronger. Earth once had this too, but it was too thin to sustain itself. The two protagonists manage to salvage the traces that are left, use Geometric Magic to keep it from dissipating, and allow plants to absorb and release more, with the goal of eventually creating a self sustaining cycle on Earth as well.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: One of the disciples of the sect winemaker is an absolute genius at Geometric Magic, purely for just in case he needs to protect himself, but keeps a low profile and has no interest in actively cultivating immortality, preferring to enjoy life. When Lin Fan figures out he is a hidden genius, he blackmails him with it.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: The two main protagonists switch places on a cyclical three day basis.
- Hiding the Handicap: While the soul connection between Lin Fan and Qi Zixao has benefited both, it also comes with inconveniences. Qi Zixao particularly fears that her sect master will see her as no longer suitable for her position if he finds out, so the two agree to keep their condition a secret.
- Holy Halo: By reciting certain proverbs from Earth, triggering the Enlightenment Superpowers of the cultivation world, Qi Zixao wins a blessing from the heavens in the form of a halo that protects her from malice via fortune.
- Ki Manipulation:
- All living things have internal energy, even on Earth. Mortal martial artists use it in the cultivation world. However, without spiritual energy to augment it, people on Earth are unlikely to notice it. When Lin Fan figures it out from his experiences in the cultivation world, he obtains Super-Strength. However, to his disappointment, it won't allow him to cultivate immortality, though it does help him get started.
- Spiritual energy is similar to internal energy, but far more powerful and versatile, and is what makes immortal cultivation possible. Unlike internal energy, it is not intrinsic to living things, meaning that you need at least a seed of it to get started with.
- The Magic Comes Back: The main protagonists' goal on Earth becomes to revitalize its Background Magic Field.
- The Magic Goes Away: Earth used to have a Background Magic Field, but it wasn't stable enough to form a self-perpetuating cycle and gradually dissipated. Internal energy still works in theory, but without spiritual energy to complement it, no one notices that it even exists.
- Magitek:
- When Qi Zixao describes what a gun is to her alchemist confidant, he manages to use his skill at alchemic explosions and blacksmithing to create a cultivator version.
- When Lin Fan convinces the sect leader to leave Qi Zixao an artifact mirror with a spirit capable of rapid calculations, he uses the tool spirit as a cloud server and has her connect to countless jade slips shaped like phones to introduce a cultivation equivalent to the smart phone.
- One of Lin Fan's confidantes, a professor, figures out how to convert electricity into spiritual energy.
- Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Defied! On his third day in Qi Zixao's body, Lin Fan, not yet knowing that the transmigration works on a cyclical basis, decides to take a bath, only to be interrupted when the two revert to their original bodies. When they switch again, Qi Zixao leaves a message warning that she will castrate him if he attempts anything perverted with her body.
- Mistaken for Gay: The saintess of an all-female sect insists on sleeping the night together with Qi Zixao (while Lin Fan is in her place) for some girl talk. This results in certain rumors, much to the real Qi Zixao's annoyance.
- Obsessed with Food: Cultivators don't need to eat as much as mortals and the cultivation world also has a lot less variety in the first place. Qi Zixao takes full advantage of Lin Fan's life to enjoy meals that do not exist in the cultivation world.
- Secret-Keeper: The mirror spirit, A'Wu, can see just about everything in the cultivation world. She cannot see beyond it, but she notices Qi Zixao apparently leaving messages for herself and figures out about the soul switching. She doesn't care much, so she agrees to keep their secret.
- Self-Made Man: Qi Zixao is an orphan from humble origins that was accepted into the sect for her talent. Via her talent and hard work, she became the top ranked female apprentice, roughly tied with the top ranked male apprentice, who is her rival and fiance. Both of them hate one another, but her fiance still gets satisfaction out of using the marriage agreement to put her down, so she hopes to surpass him enough to end the agreement. Lin Fan's help and inspirations from Earth rapidly promote her from the star of her sect to the star of her generation, making her influence felt throughout her entire world.
- Soul-Powered Engine: The tool spirit, A'Wu, was once tied for World's Strongest Woman in Qi Zixao's world, but lost a battle to the death with her equal, who grabbed her soul and forged it into a tool spirit.
- Supernatural Martial Arts:
- There are various supernatural combat techniques in the cultivation world. Qi Zixao's fiance for example has one allowing for Super-Speed.
- Even with the spiritual energy of Earth pretty much dead, it is theoretically possible for a mortal martial artist to obtain Super-Strength by training their internal energy. In practice however, the lack of spiritual energy means that normal humans will never notice their internal energy. Lin Fan is only able to achieve this due to his experiences in the cultivation world allowing him to learn what internal energy feels like.
