Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, it is the sole intellectual property of Monty Oum and of Rooster Teeth.

However, I do set claim to any original characters outside of the juridiction of Rooster Teeth. (For the lot of good it'll do me...)

Prologue:

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."

These were the last words he heard before it happened. A flash. A brilliant burst of light, but not only from around him, but from within him.

And that's when it happened.

In a moment, a torrent of memories both unfamiliar and familiar flowed through his brain.

Memories of events he never remembered experiencing, of places unknown to him, of creatures and of persons he never met in his entire life wielding powers coming right from fantasy books. But one memory out of the lot superseded every single one of them...

The memory of a name. A name that should not be his own and yet still felt like it fitted him all the same.

"Jaune?" No, not that one, another one, more foreign sounding. "Jaune..?" That voice again, why did it felt like he knew that voice? Not important. The name! He had to- "Jaune!"

With a gasp and in what felt like mere seconds everything receded in the back of his mind, like some kind of daylight dream.

He blinked a bit to shake the cobwebs off of his mind and refocused on his new partner, one worried looking Pyrrha Nikos.

"Pyrrha..?" Asked the aforementioned Jaune. "What's going on?"

"I feel like I should be the one asking you this. Are you alright? When I unlocked your Aura you became absent for a moment..."

"I did? Well, I feel alright, I guess... It's just that when you unlocked my Aura I..." He started before his eyes unfocused looking nowhere in particular, as a few of the memories he saw before flashed randomly in his mind.

"Jaune..?" Asked again his still worried partner.

With a start he shook himself up again and put up a front, with a smile plastered on his face.

"I'm fine. Perfectly fine even. I never felt this fine in my whole life! So it's how it feels like to have your Aura unlocked? I've never felt this invigorated!"

"Yes…" She answered with a worried uncertainty. "It's one of the effects of Aura, and it seems like you have lots of it. But are you sure that you feel fine?"

"Don't worry, I am, it's just that it kind of caught me by surprise, really." He insisted with a forced smile.

"Well then, if you're sure..."

"Totally! C'mon! We're loosing time!"

At that he headed forward, as he tried to put what he just saw in the back of his mind. His partner right on his heels still with a slight worried frown marring her face. He knew that he should try to make sense of what he just saw, no, remembered. But that wasn't the right time after all...

They had an Initiation to complete.

A few hours later, at night.

As he lied on his bed waiting for all the members of his new team to fall asleep, which after today's event should only be a matter of a couple of minutes, Jaune's mind was very much active.

'Alright. Now that I have time to process it all, let's get to it... First thing first, I'm pretty sure I'm not going crazy. All these memories are too much more complex to be a mere sign of early dementia. Second, these aren't just simple dreams. For one, as I just stated, they're just too complex for them to be simple dreams. Heck the more time passes, the more I remember! Dreams should work the other way around right!?

And who on Remnant has vivid daylight dreams such as these anyways? I mean, I know I always had a great imagination what with all the times I pretended as a kid to be a Huntsman having adventures, saving people and slaying Grimm and whatnot but not at that point...

And let's not forget those memories popped up the very moment Pyrrha unlocked my Aura. If that's not a sign I don't know what is.

From what I can tell, these memories are from an entire life... The life of a man called Xiao Long... Long of the Xiao Clan, or alternatively, the Dragon of the Little Clan. That language sure was full on poesy and double, or more, meanings...'

With a sigh he looked at his teammates and noticed their soft breathing, they were finally all asleep. He turned on his side his back facing them.

'Which is totally not going to be confusing with Ruby's big sister but not the point.'

He sighed again.

'What was saying again? Each time you sigh a little bit of your happiness goes with it or something? Or was it unhappiness? Argh confusing memories and confusing language... Language that I'm still in the process of relearning by memory, which is wierd, like, really wierd.' Another sigh. 'Anyways... There's really one way for me to see if it's all real. If I remember correctly I was quite the master at that one practice of refining one's Qi or life-force through meditation which leads to an entire way of life, a way of life leading to become an Immortal, a god among mortals, the way of life of the one who was once called Xiao Long...

Cultivation.'

As he sat up on his bed he crossed his legs and brought his hands to rest on his knees, his thumbs and indexes connected in a closed loop the rest of his fingers facing the sky.

'Or facing the Heavens.' He added as a faint afterthought.

After having checked Pyrrha, Nora and Ren were still fast asleep he closed his eyes, relaxed his tense muscles, and took a deep, slow breath, making sure to not breath from his lungs but from his belly.

'And now to start I need to pull Qi from my Dantian-' "Gasp!"

Took completely by surprise he barely managed to tone down his gasp as he felt energies coursing through his body.

'What the- What was that!? It both did and didn't felt like when one circulate his Qi through his Meridians. There was something else mixed in with the Qi, by the way good news I'm not crazy, but what could it be- Aura! Of course this body is not the same as the one my soul inhabited in my previous life... In this world, the bodies of the denizens of Remnant are much more attuned to their souls than those of the previous world... Sure there were arts and technics focused on the soul, but they were very specialized and necessitated years, if not decades, of mastering before any genuine results could be shown. Aura is definitely a game changer.

Basically, now I have to contend with managing two forms of energy in one body. And concidering both energies comes from two different sources, one my life-force and the other my very soul, it'll be quite the journey but also a great advantage for me.

While Qi is a more passive and permanent kind of enhancement, Aura is its opposite, active and temporary. And while at first glance Qi would be considered more advantageous, which with its versatility is a no-brainer, Aura still has much to offer. By example, with Qi I can permanently reinforce my skin at the level of iron while with an application of Aura I can make said iron skin the level of steel, giving me a boost in strength and defense not to scoff at! Which, in certain situations such as battles against Grimm or other foes would give me quite the advantage...

And from what I just saw of my fellow initiates today Aura also has the ability to evolve as time passes... Meaning that by both cultivating my Qi and Aura in this life... I'd be able to go levels much beyond than my peers in my former world and this one...'

He let out a small laugh, full of mirth, barely restrained for the sake of his teammates' sleep.

'I'll be able to realize the dreams of both of my lives. The dream of my previous life to stand above everyone else and to be able to protect those who I care about and the dream of my current life, to be a Huntsman, a hero...'

Jaune Arc the Huntsman-in-training, formerly the Immortal once known as Xiao Long, looked out of the dorm's window having a full view of the shattered moon of Remnant in all its broken beauty, a promising smile full of eagerness and happiness at this new chance at life.

'But first, I must cultivate both my Qi and my Aura, eh, eh... I truly have my work cut out for me. But that's not something I should do in the presence of my teammates, asleep or otherwise. Today was an ordeal, first things first sleep and then... Tomorrow will be another day.'

So he lied back on his bed and let sleep take hold of him.

A/N:

Hi everyone! It's so good to go back into the writing game after so long… I've never really stopped, but it's a "story" for another time.

Before I start to go tangents I want to say that I've been greatly inspired to write this fanfic in great part by the story "Legacy of the Sword Saint" written by Wushy.

Go check it out!

So, tangents, let's go...

As you must have all understood by now I'm writing a RWBY fanfic with elements of Xianxia/Cultivation, and oh boy I don't think that I've yet to realize in what kind of mess I've landed myself in.

Along the way I might make mistakes about my understanding of this genre, it's so huge! And the fact that it's from a country with a language that I have only the minimum basis of understanding sure doesn't help much! The barest really...

But I fell in love with this genre so much, and with RWBY too of course, that I couldn't help myself but to try my hand at it.

For weeks I couldn't stop to have ideas popping up left and right. And especially at night when I'm just about to fall asleep... Show of hands to anyone it happens too? I'm genuinely curious.

So I'll appreciate every bit of advice and criticism you guys can provide.

Though I'm not really worried about getting/mixing things wrong. From my understanding, this genre has so many iterations that even professional writers, both western and eastern, cannot agree with each other about how everything in the genre should work.

Basically it's like a carte blanche for me to go wild! Though I'd still very much appreciate any input.

For those that might be wondering why I chose Jaune as my protagonist the answer is because I genuinely like his character, he's the underdog that at first doesn't look like much but then if you give him time manages to reach his peers and this is something that I always looked forward to in a protagonist. Basically he's my favorite character out of the entire RWBY series, we've all got one and it turns out he's the one I like best.

So I'd figured, why bother with making an original character from the ground up and not use him?

Though I guess Xiao Long does counts as an OC...

Anyways!

I look forward to see where this little adventure of mine will lead me.

Fyr out!