Return of the Heavenly Sword

Chapter 1. Contemptible Sword

From a young age, I hated it. A life trampled upon by the strong.

Was it because of my rebellious nature?

I couldn't comprehend what authority they had to torment me, to torment us.

When I was young, I even asked the owner of an inn, an elder who had his wealth stolen by men of the black faction.

“Why do you just let them do this? Don't you feel wronged?”

Even now, the elder's reply from that day remained vivid in my mind.

“Tsk. You foolish boy, what’s the use of blaming a typhoon for destroying your house? You just have to live on, thinking it was bad luck.”

He was right.

Blaming a natural disaster was a foolish thing to do.

But how could I treat those people, who were human just like me, the same as a natural disaster?

“Look at the glint in this boy's eyes. People like us just have to live like this. If you step up for no reason, you might end up having a funeral today.”

Leaving behind the elder's resigned words, I left the village.

I wanted to become strong.

I wanted to take away the right they had to trample on those who worked hard with their blood and sweat.

I took the money I earned working as a waiter at the inn and wandered the Jianghu.

I sought out renowned orthodox sects that claimed to eradicate the evil factions and begged them to take me as a disciple.

But no matter where I went, the answer was always the same.

“With your meager talent, you cannot learn our divine arts.”

“It seems you are already too old to learn martial arts.”

I couldn't understand.

What did talent or age have to do with the will to beat down the bad guys?

In the end, I used my remaining money to enter an ordinary martial arts academy, and when there was nothing more to learn there, I returned to my hometown.

In vain, those men from the black faction were no longer there.

A new group of black faction men had settled in my hometown, and the previous ones had long become guests who would never return.

It didn't matter.

The new black faction men were just the same when it came to tormenting the residents.

I fought a gruesome life-and-death battle, a chaotic mix of blood and flesh, shouts and screams.

The final life-or-death duel with the Iron Blood Gang’s leader was a fight where it wouldn't have been strange if I had died.

But, in the end, it was I who survived.

I fainted with joy. And when I opened my eyes, the elder, who had aged by a decade, was looking down at me.

The first thing the elder said to me was not thank you for punishing the black faction men.

“Leave the village right now and run away.”

There was another group that had wiped out the previous black faction. The Iron Blood Gang was just a kind of collection agency they had set up.

“Didn't I tell you? People like us should just live quietly. Resisting will only bring bigger problems.”

The elder spoke with a face that seemed to have seen through the world, to have given up on everything.

Was it because of my rebellious nature? I couldn't accept those words.

I remained in my hometown, and a few days later, those men came to kill me.

In the end, I was the one who survived, but it wasn't due to my own skill.

The moment I was on the verge of death.

Swish!

By a stroke of once-in-a-lifetime luck, a passing master saved me.

The master, who had wiped them out with absurd ease, said to me.

“I know it's rude to say this on our first meeting, but I'll give you some advice for your own good. Just give up on martial arts and live quietly. The Jianghu is too cruel a place to survive with such meager talent.”

At that moment, I could clearly realize it.

That I had no talent.

For a full ten years, my level, after striving with the sole focus of becoming stronger, was at best second-rate.

The kind of level where I had to wage a life-or-death battle even against the street thugs of a countryside back alley.

But, I couldn't accept that master's advice.

If you have no talent, should you not even start?

Does one with no talent not even have the right to try?

If that was the will of the heavens, I did not want to follow it, even if it was the will of the heavens.

I lived a life of training day after day.

The skin on my palms peeled off, and new calluses formed. When the calluses grew too large and interfered with my grip on the sword, I cut them off with my sword.

I brandished my sword again and again, each time reviewing the fight with the black faction and the swordsmanship the master had displayed.

When another ten-odd years had passed like that, I had become a reasonably famous first-rate master in the vicinity.

Since I hadn't trained to gain fame, I once again set out into the Jianghu.

How long had I wandered the Jianghu in search of bandits and black factions?

I finally witnessed it.

What a thing called brilliant talent was.

While fighting a group of bandits as usual, a prodigy from a prestigious great sect happened to intervene.

I was naturally captivated by the beautiful sword path that the young Taoist drew.

After the fight was over, I knelt before that prodigy, who looked about ten years younger than me, and begged for his teachings.

The young Taoist replied with a troubled expression.

“I just swung it as I felt like it. I thought it might be good to swing it like this.”

At first, I thought he was mocking me.

But, it wasn't long before I realized the truth.

The fact that geniuses are originally like that.

They knew instinctively. The way to obtain the best results.

The anguish of ordinary people did not exist there.

When I realized that fact, I felt despair for the first time.

For over twenty years, I had held aspirations for the Jianghu, trained relentlessly, and focused solely on beating down villains.

For the first time, I let go of my sword for five days and drowned myself in alcohol.

But on the sixth day, I found myself swinging my sword again without realizing it.

I had accepted reality, but I didn't want to bend my will.

‘Geniuses have their ways. Ordinary people have theirs.’

I repeated it to myself as if deceiving myself.

I thought that if geniuses found answers instinctively, then I, an ordinary person, could just find the answers after countless hours of agony and research.

I thought that even as an ordinary person, there were people I could save.

Since that day, I lived while wandering the Jianghu again.

I sought out the reclusive masters of the orthodox sects, threw away my pride, knelt and begged, and requested duels.

I sought out the villains I could at least punish and waged life-or-death battles to try and kill even one of them.

After every duel and life-or-death battle, I would review the fight, always wandering in search of a slightly better sword path.

After living like that for another ten-odd years, I was given a moniker.

Contemptible Sword Gray Ghost.

My actions were that of a sword demon mad for the sword, but because my skills were lowly, I was the Contemptible Sword Ghost.

The reason ‘Gray’ was attached was simple. It was because I was in between the orthodox and unorthodox.

I was treated as such because I didn't care about the means or methods in the process of killing members of the evil factions.

It was laughable.

How could not caring about the means or methods to kill bad guys be called evil?

“I understand your noble intentions, but try to take it easy.”

Looking down at me, wrapped head to toe in cloth, a man with the strange alias of Poison Immortal clicked his tongue with a complicated expression.

Despite being a physician, he was called the Poison Immortal, and despite being a physician, he was a master who had reached a far more reclusive realm than I.

Over a decade ago, my first meeting with that physician was when I almost died after seeking him out for a duel, as usual.

The Poison Immortal, who had driven me to the brink of death, had asked me.

“How does it feel to have almost died and come back to life?”

“Thank you for the lesson.”

“Is there something wrong with your head? Is martial arts more important to you than dying?”

“That's right.”

“...What is the reason you want to become so strong?”

“I want to smash all the bad guys' heads in.”

At my calm reply after having just escaped death, the Poison Immortal burst into a sudden, mad laugh.

“Hehehehe. The way you act is truly amusing. I was feeling lonely anyway, so it seems it won't be so bad to find entertainment in hearing rumors of your deeds.”

Spouting strange words, the Poison Immortal made a promise.

That I could come to him for treatment anytime I was about to die from an injury sustained while doing something stupid.

He said he wouldn't charge me, as my stupid acts would make him laugh.

The Poison Immortal, who for the first few years had greeted me with a face full of ridicule whenever I visited, was now looking down at me with a complicated expression for some reason.

“A man with no talent to begin with has his bones breaking and wounds piling up day after day. You are now beyond having no talent and are close to being a cripple. Far from reaching the peak, all that's left for you is regression.”

It was the same sharp criticism as always, but for some reason, a hint of sadness was laced in his words.

I deliberately avoided his gaze and asked.

“Is there truly no way to heal it at all?”

“Hah. Either you die and come back to life, or you succeed in Body Reformation. Those are the only two ways.”

He was telling me to give up, since both were impossible.

But funnily enough, an unexpected opportunity came my way.

A few days after leaving the mountain where the Poison Immortal stayed, I came across a certain rumor.

It was a rumor about the grotto of an absolute master called the Sun Moon Divine Sword, who was said to have ascended to immortality some five hundred years ago.

“Body Reformation, huh.”

Since there was no other way anyway, I decided to bet everything on that grotto.

After breaking through countless traps and a hellish, chaotic battle, and with a miraculous stroke of luck from the heavens, I barely managed to get my hands on the secret manual hidden in the grotto.

But, it seemed that luck had now run out.

“Tsk. I thought you were at least a man who knew his place.”

Taoist bastards, dressed in the robes of a reclusive and prestigious great sect, were surrounding me.

“Do you truly think that this is something a man who remained a first-rate his entire life can obtain?”

Jade Cloud Master, known as Yunnan's Greatest Sword, asked mockingly, and I spat out phlegm and replied.

Kaak. Ptui.

If I'm going to die having lived my whole life as a first-rate, I might as well try something. Right?”

While provoking the enemy and simultaneously searching for an escape route with a sidelong glance, Jade Cloud Master took a step forward.

“You all, step back and maintain the encirclement. His skills may be lowly, but he is an experienced man, so I shall deal with him myself.”

Jade Cloud Master, who had given the order to his disciples, drew his sword with a fluid motion and said.

“Congratulations. Know that it is an honor to die by the hand of this, Yunnan's Greatest Sword.”

Jade Cloud Master finished his piece and swung his sword in a surprise attack.

Swish!

To avoid the sword flying at a tremendous speed, I boldly threw my body and rolled on the ground.

At the sight of me rolling on the ground, the Taoist bastards who had formed the encirclement let out sneers.

Regardless of them, I focused solely on Jade Cloud Master's sword. I had to find a path to survival, no matter what.

But despite those efforts, I was eventually cornered at a dead end.

Swish!

Jade Cloud Master's sword, having sealed off all possible escape routes, flew towards my neck.

‘Is this... the end.’

It was a thought that momentarily crossed my mind, but I couldn't accept it.

I had experienced this kind of despair countless times over the past years.

‘Find it! I must find it!’

With a pain as if my brain was burning, the world began to flow slowly.

It was a phenomenon I was experiencing for the first time, despite having fought over a thousand life-or-death duels and matches in my life.

Countless sword paths were drawn between Jade Cloud Master's endlessly slow-approaching sword and me.

They were all familiar sword paths. The ones I had trained and researched countless times.

The sword path of the master who saved me. The sword path of the young Taoist who killed the bandits. And the sword paths of the countless others who had brought me despair.

Those hundreds of sword paths tangled together, and then, a single path to life unfolded before my eyes.

I moved my body instinctively, and the sword in my right hand pierced through that sword path and advanced.

Crack!

At the same time, an eerie sound echoed.

The sound of my thrust-out sword piercing Jade Cloud Master's side. And.

“Cough...”

The sound of Jade Cloud Master's sword tearing through my chest.

I had seen the sword path, but my talent was too meager to perfectly execute a sword path I had seen for the first time.

I had aimed for the heart but cut his side, and I couldn't even dodge Jade Cloud Master's sword.

A deep wound formed on my chest, and blood gushed violently from it.

The world that had been so slow was regaining its original speed.

“Elder!!”

“You bastard, Contemptible Sword!!”

As the Taoist bastards who had formed the encirclement rushed towards me all at once.

Thump.

Suddenly, the flow of the world stopped completely.

An old Taoist I had never seen before was looking down at me with his hands behind his back.

“Hoh. What a truly strange thing. To summon me with just this much skill and talent.”

I cautiously asked the old Taoist, who was muttering to himself.

“Venerable Sir, who might you be?”

“Hahaha. I am the owner of that secret manual you are holding onto like a treasure.”

“...Are you saying, Venerable Sir, that you are the Sun Moon Divine Sword who was said to have ascended to immortality five hundred years ago?”

“Hahaha. To think my alias still remains in the mortal world. This too is a surprising thing.”

It was a hard story to believe, but it was also a story I had to believe.

While the flow of the world was stopped, only that old man and I were conversing normally.

Countless questions arose, but the old Taoist spoke first.

“Hooh. You, your eyes have opened.”

With an expression of interest.

Releasing his clasped hands, the old Taoist stroked his white beard with his right hand and muttered as if to himself.

“Hoh. To succeed in opening your eyes with just that much talent.”

The old Taoist suddenly approached me and extended his hand towards my head.

“There is no time, so I shall be rude for a moment.”

The old Taoist placed his hand on my head and closed his eyes as if concentrating, then opened them a moment later.

“Hahaha. You. You've lived a rather interesting life. To open your eyes with just effort and will. Indeed.”

Muttering so, the old Taoist furrowed his brow as if contemplating something, then, as if he had made a decision, he nodded once and said.

“Not bad. I shall try betting on you for once.”

“Betting, what do you mean?”

“I apologize, but there is no time to explain that.”

As the incomprehensible situation continued, the old Taoist once again placed his hand on my head and said.

“After you return, try living just as you did in this life. With those eyes, you should be able to make it this time.”

Return?

What in the world does that mean?

But I couldn't ask.

As the venerable master with his hand on my forehead muttered an unknown incantation, the world swirled chaotically, and the moment the incantation ended, the world was dyed in darkness.