CHAPTER 1

Prologue

I had

no talent.

I was ugly.

I had no friends.

Even my family was a mess.

So, everyone despised me.

I lived on, being denied everything until the end.

So then,

Are you saying someone with no talent should just die?

Fine, then I'll die.

Just like you all want—I'll gladly die.

And after I die, I'll try again.

Until I destroy this damn world!

****

1. First Death

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I was enduring a bleak, miserable life.

When I opened my eyes in the morning, my throat felt dry and scratchy.

I craved a bowl of porridge, and once I had something to soothe my throat,

a burning emptiness would wash over me.

And then, a little while later,

I would walk outside and, like a habit, begin practicing the Six Harmonies Sword Technique .

The Six Harmonies Sword Technique…

In the martial world, the Six Harmonies Opening Mountain is known as the most basic and dullest sword move. It involves twisting the body halfway to the left, then using the recoil to slash upward to the right. Simply put, it's just a diagonal slash. Even a three-year-old could copy it two or three times and figure out how to do it.

So, what does a full form of the Six Harmonies Sword Technique look like when it includes Six Harmonies Opening Mountain?

The full form consists of 32 movements and 8 techniques. For an average person, it usually takes about one month to fully learn the Six Harmonies Sword. Even the low-ranked bodyguards in town need about a month of training to master the form.

Moreover, being able to use the Six Harmonies Sword fluidly in real combat—without unnecessary movement—requires at least five years of actual combat experience. To reach a refined, expert level, internal energy (inner power) must also be developed. It's said that it takes more than 40 years to approach the top tier of mastery.

As for me, it had been 45 years since I began training in martial arts.

Yet, I hadn't even come close to achieving a first-rate level.

Every day, I was still stuck in a shabby hut, endlessly repeating the Six Harmonies Sword Technique.

At best, the martial world would rank me as mid-tier, the kind of martial artist you'd see anywhere—just a regular face in the crowd.

How did things end up like this?

Whing, whing!

I kept my mouth tightly shut and swung my sword.

I didn't want to open it because I felt like I'd just end up screaming.

No matter how many times I swung that sword, it wouldn't change my life. So I just kept silent.

That was the small comfort I'd learned after living a life like a piece of trash for so long.

Why didn't I train in any sword techniques other than the Six Harmonies Sword?

It's not that I didn't train.

It's that I couldn't.

Because all I knew were the Six Harmonies Sword Technique and the Three Essences Heart Method for inner power.

I stopped swinging my sword.

And after thinking everything over again, I couldn't help but curse in frustration.

"Damn it…"

I was a wannabe master.

I wasn't born into a famous martial family.

I hadn't studied under any renowned master either.

I had no natural gifts that would help me succeed in the martial world.

Still, the only reason I kept learning and clinging to martial arts—working as a bodyguard at an escort agency—was because:

I believed it was the only way I could ever succeed.

I was ugly.

So ugly, in fact, that even when I was a child, women would frown just looking at me. Some mean girls even spat at me.

Men were no different. A few handsome guys made me the butt of jokes, sometimes even pulling down my pants for laughs.

And it's not like I came from a wealthy family. I grew up in the limbo between poverty and mediocrity.

When I was twelve, both of my parents died, and I was sent to live with the village chief.

He worked me like a monk slave, and I had to live like a servant to his son.

After becoming an independent escort warrior for a security bureau, life got a little better—but what happened back then still remains a lasting scar on my soul.

At that time, as soon as I was able to properly grip and swing a sword, I applied to become an escort at the bureau and worked there for decades. Since the job provided basic martial arts training, I believed that if I fully mastered that, I could eventually succeed. I thought that even with my ugly looks, no background, and life as meaningless as a rock, I could still make something of myself if I just had the power of martial arts.

But now, I finally realized that it had all been a delusion.

The security bureau I worked for was destroyed just two years ago—all because of a single top-tier master. A martial artist known as Blood Phosphorus Hand , who was infamous throughout the Central Plains, had been hired by a rival bureau and came to attack ours. Our warriors were slaughtered helplessly by him. Eventually, the head of our bureau managed to kill Blood Phosphorus Hand—but the damage had already been done.

In the end, the bureau head declared the bureau disbanded, and I was thrown out into the world with only the money I had saved.

And when I say "thrown out," I mean it—because all I had was fifty nyang. That wasn't even enough to survive for a short while, let alone live on. So I had no choice but to become a tenant farmer, barely different from the lowest class, living like a commoner.

But I refused.

As one final act of defiance against life, I rejected the path of a tenant farmer.

From my late teens to now, I had trained in martial arts for decades.

Even though I only knew the Six Harmonies Sword Technique and the Three Essences Heart Method, who's to say I couldn't suddenly achieve enlightenment and hit it big?

With that desperate hope, I built a hut deep in the mountains and began training endlessly, without end or bottom, in the pursuit of sword mastery.

"… Achoo!!"

But now, in the second year of training, I found myself too weak to swing my sword anymore. I was curled up in a corner of my hut, shivering uncontrollably.

The cold was unbearable.

"Is this… a cold?"

Unbelievable.

Aren't the masters in wuxia novels supposed to live in the mountains and train with unwavering health and stamina?

But I knew this was reality.

With no money, I had survived for two years by catching wild animals, digging up roots, and eating mushrooms.

At my age—well into my fifties—my body simply couldn't take the strain anymore. If I moved recklessly, I would break down. That was inevitable.

And a cold was dangerous.

It wasn't just a minor illness—not for me. In my current state, I had no way to recover my strength and overcome it.

At this rate, I'd just end up as another corpse in the mountains.

With that realization, I hurriedly began packing up my belongings and preparing to descend the mountain.

As I wrapped up my few possessions in a bundle, tears suddenly welled up.

"Damn it… cough… cough… damn it…"

Even while my mind was fogged up from the fever and the illness, sorrow surged up and overwhelmed me.

How did things end up like this?

Wasn't I supposed to descend the mountain after mastering my sword and shaking the world?

But now I was climbing down—just to survive—because of a cold brought on by malnutrition and exhaustion.

It was absurd.

Still, I had to live.

So I wiped my tears, slung the bundle on my back, and began descending the mountain trail.

To get to the village, I would have to walk for two hours through rugged forest paths. I carefully began pushing my way through the rough terrain.

Then, as I walked for a while—

"Ugh, wh-what the—!!"

Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet gave way, and I felt myself being pulled down into the earth.

I quickly grabbed a tree branch before I could fall, and as I dangled there, I saw that beneath me stretched a cliff over three jang deep (about 9–10 meters).

Fear surged through me.

If I were a martial arts master, I could easily jump down from that height using a lightness technique.

But I wasn't a master.

My internal energy was so weak I couldn't even fight off a cold—if I fell, I'd be dead or crippled for sure.

Afraid the branch might snap, I hurriedly threw my bundle down toward the ground below.

I heard a crash—the sound of all my belongings breaking into pieces.

Still, it was better than dying on the spot.

Carefully, I started shifting my hands and feet sideways along the cliff wall, searching for a foothold.

After fumbling a few times, I finally found a ledge where I could step down and let go of the branch safely.

Now I had two options: climb up or continue down.

After weighing both options, I decided it would be easier to go down.

The cliff had enough footholds and crevices to make descending manageable.

Climbing back up seemed far more dangerous.

I forgot about my cold and pushed myself with everything I had.

Shiver, shiver…

Finally, soaked in sweat from head to toe, I managed to find a flat spot just big enough to stand on solidly.

As I caught my breath, I noticed something beside me—

A cave.

A cave right in the middle of a cliff.

It was clearly man-made, and my curiosity flared up.

I had no choice but to check it out—I couldn't just cling to the cliffside forever.

As I stepped into the cave, I felt like I might finally survive.

I wanted to collapse and fall asleep right there,

but I needed to check what kind of place this was first.

So I cautiously walked deeper into the darkness.

There was no light at all, and I had to feel along the walls as I slowly moved inward.

Thunk.

I bumped into a stalactite and hit my head—leaving a big bump.

I suppressed the scream rising from the pain and sank to the floor.

That's when I noticed something—

A faint light, shining from deeper inside.

I carefully crawled toward it.

At the source of the light was a room, illuminated by a glowing orb embedded in the wall.

Someone had clearly made this space.

The moment I saw it, I felt a wild surge of joy.

"This is it! Yes!"

Was this a heaven-sent opportunity?

Was this one of those legendary turning points, the kind you only read about in novels?

The excitement rushed up in my chest and nearly choked me with emotion.

I began approaching the glowing orb.

That's when it happened.

Shwoop—FLASH!

What… what just happened?

A horrific pain shot through me, and my vision blurred.

Then, as I slipped into unconsciousness, I could feel something had changed—

though I had no idea what it was…

Ah… that was it.

Out of nowhere, an iron spike shot out directly in front of me and pierced straight through my abdomen.

It drove through my guts—how could unimaginable pain not follow?

Blood spurted everywhere.

It gushed from my mouth uncontrollably.

"Ugh… gahhh… ugh, bleghhh…"

I collapsed to my knees, unable to move,

and could do nothing but sit there, waiting for death to come.

And in that moment, I was filled with bitter regret.

If only I hadn't entered that cave…

I wouldn't be dying like this.

Of course there would be a trap protecting a miraculous treasure…

How could I have been so stupid?

Was my life always meant to be this pathetic, this unlucky?

…Am I dying?

Is this really the end?

"Kh… groan… uhh…"

No.

I couldn't accept that.

Even if I was going to die… I had to at least find out what was in that box before I did!

With the last of my strength, I crawled toward it.

The box was made of copper.

Even with my dying body, I was able to open it.

No—actually, it was probably meant to open as soon as someone touched it.

"This… is…"

Just before I died, I reached into the box with my right hand…

and grabbed a single book.

At that same moment, the blood loss became too much, and my consciousness began to fade.

I was dying.

This was my first death.

****

2. The Beginning of Rebirth

When I came to, I was shivering in the cold wind, surrounded by the sound of rustling straw.

There was straw blocking some of the breeze, but the early morning wind still leaked through, making me cough softly.

"…?!"

What… what's going on?!

I panicked as soon as I realized I had lost consciousness and woke up in a completely unknown situation.

I hurriedly looked down at my chest—

There was no wound. Everything had completely vanished.

But more than that…

The clothes I was wearing were completely different, and—

my body… it was much smaller.

I had become a child.

I raised my upper body and looked around.

In the darkness, I could feel the cold air drifting through gaps stuffed with straw.

There was the smell of cow dung, and the eerie shadows of old wooden beams.

I sat there in a daze for a while, but I knew this place all too well.

'Am I… dreaming right now?'

No. I knew.

I knew exactly what this scene was.

This was unmistakably the time when I was around 13 years old,

right after I lost both my parents to an epidemic and was dumped at the village chief's house.

At the time, I lived like a servant in the chief's home,

and I used to sleep in an empty shed next to the cowshed.

With trembling hands, I cautiously pushed aside the straw that had been used to block the wind.

There it was.

The cowshed.

"Wh-Wh-What the hell…!!"

I nearly screamed.

There was only one possible explanation for what was happening.

I had returned to the past!

To none other than my childhood—more than 40 years ago!

Could something this insane really happen?

I felt my mind spiral into panic and confusion, but I forced myself to stay calm.

First, I tried moving my body.

My arms and legs moved just fine.

The dull aches from sleeping curled up and the chill of dawn brought me back to my senses.

No illusion could feel this vivid.

I sat down in a light lotus position and began to circulate Small Heavenly Cycle .

Then I discovered something incredible.

"Oh…!! My internal energy—it's still here!"