First Death
Once again, I was living a miserable life.
When I opened my eyes in the morning, my throat was dry, I craved a bowl of porridge, and even after quenching my thirst, an unmeasurable emptiness pricked at me. Soon after, I walked outside and, as had become a habit, began practicing the Six Harmony Sword Technique (Liuhe Sword Technique).
Liuhe Sword Technique—
The most common sword technique in the martial world.
The most basic form among them is Liuhe Kaishan (Six Harmony Mountain-Cleaving Strike), where one twists the body halfway to the left and then slashes upward to the right using reverse momentum. In simpler terms, it's nothing more than a diagonal slash. Even a little child could mimic it a few times and understand it.
So what is a full sequence of movements—the form—of the Liuhe Sword that includes Liuhe Kaishan?
It consists of a total of 32 movements across 8 techniques. For the average person, it takes about a month to learn. Even low-tier escort warriors from the market spend a month just learning this basic sword form.
Moreover, to fully execute those moves in actual combat without any wasteful motion, it takes at least five years of real-world fighting experience. Reaching the level of a true expert requires a high degree of internal energy as well, so it's fair to say that it takes over 40 years to attain the level of a top-tier martial artist.
And as of this year, I had been training in martial arts for 45 years.
Yet, unable even to dream of becoming first-rate, I was still training the Liuhe Sword every single day in a shabby little hut. My skill level in the martial world? At best, second-rate—if not downright ordinary.
How did things come to this?
"..."
Whoosh, whoosh!
I clenched my mouth shut and swung my sword. If I opened it, I would've just started swearing.
Swearing wouldn't change my life. So I kept my mouth shut. That was the one bit of comfort I'd managed to master after living such a garbage life.
Why don't I train in other sword techniques?
It's not that I don't want to—
I can't.
Because I only know the Liuhe Sword and the Samjae Internal Technique (Three Talent Heart Method)!
I stopped swinging my sword.
The more I thought about it, the more pathetic it felt. In the end, I cursed out loud.
"Goddamn it…"
I was a wannabe master.
From the beginning, I wasn't born into a renowned martial family. I wasn't trained by some famous master either. Despite having no innate qualifications to succeed in the martial world, I forced myself into the trade by working as a bodyguard in a courier guild—just for one reason:
Because I believed that was the only path left for someone like me to succeed.
I was ugly. So ugly that even women would frown when they saw my face. The cruel ones would even spit at me. Among men, it wasn't any better. The handsome ones would make me the butt of their jokes or pull my pants down for fun.
I wasn't from a wealthy family either. I lived my life teetering between poverty and mediocrity. When I was twelve, both my parents died, and I was taken in by the village chief. He treated me like a servant, and his son treated me like one too. Things only got slightly better after I became an independent courier, but the scars from that time remain burned into my psyche.
So when I became old enough to hold a sword properly, I joined a courier guild as a bodyguard. I worked there for decades. They provided basic martial arts training, and I figured if I mastered that, maybe—just maybe—I could make something of myself. I believed that even an ugly, talentless, family-less man like me could survive if I had power.
Now, looking back, I realize how wrong I was.
Two years ago, the courier guild I worked for was destroyed—by a single top-tier martial artist.
Blood Phosphor Hand, a well-known name around the Zhongzheng region, had taken a job from a rival courier guild and attacked us. The warriors of our guild were slaughtered helplessly. Eventually, the guild master came out and barely managed to kill him, but by then the damage was already done.
The guild was disbanded, and I was kicked out into the world with what little money I had saved. "Kicked out" is the right word, because all I had was fifty nyang—barely enough to scrape by, let alone survive into old age.
In the end, I had to consider becoming a tenant farmer—a life not far from being an untouchable.
But I refused. Out of sheer stubbornness, I rejected the life of a farmer.
From my late teens, I had trained in martial arts for decades. Even if all I had were the Liuhe Sword and the Samjae Internal Technique, maybe—just maybe—I'd have a breakthrough. With that hope, I built a hut deep in the mountains and began training endlessly to reach the peak of swordsmanship.
"Achoo!!"
Now, two years into that training, I was crouched in a corner of my hut, shivering, too exhausted to swing a sword any longer. It was too cold. I couldn't bear it.
"Is… is this a cold…?"
What a joke.
In martial arts novels, masters live in the mountains, training with vigor and peak physical strength. But I quickly realized something: I had no money. I survived by eating wild game, roots, and mushrooms. With the frail body of someone in his mid-to-late 50s, there was no way I could push myself without consequences.
And a cold… was dangerous. It wasn't just a minor illness. I had no way to recover. At this rate, I'd be just another corpse found in the mountains. So I hurried to pack my things and prepare to descend the mountain.
As I stuffed my belongings into a bundle, tears started falling.
"Achoo!! Cough… cough… Ngh… sniff…"
Even with my fevered, foggy head, sorrow surged up from within me.
How did it come to this?
Wasn't I supposed to descend the mountain after mastering the sword, ready to shake the world?
But now I was going down just to survive—defeated by malnutrition, weakness, and a cold. It was absurd.
Still, I had to live. I wiped my tears and slung my bundle onto my back, then began making my way down the mountain trail. It would take at least two hours to reach the village, so I carefully started pushing through the rough brush.
Then, it happened.
"Uwaaack!!"
Thunk!
Suddenly, the ground beneath me gave way, and I felt myself falling. Instinctively, I grabbed a tree branch and hung on. When I looked down, I saw a sheer cliff—at least ten meters deep.
Panic surged. If I were a martial arts master, I could land safely even from this height. But I wasn't. My internal energy wasn't even enough to fight off a cold. If I fell, I'd die or be crippled for sure.
As the branch creaked ominously, I quickly tossed my bundle down the cliff.
Crash!
I heard my belongings shatter below. But at least I wouldn't die—yet. I carefully shifted my hands and feet toward the cliff wall, searching for a foothold. After fumbling a few times, I managed to let go of the branch and land on a small ledge.
Now I had to either go down or climb up. I imagined which would be easier, but I felt that going down would be better. This cliff, although small, had more ledges and contours to place my feet, and if I fell while climbing up, the consequences would be disastrous. I forgot that I had a cold and moved with all my strength.
Shivering
Finally, after sweating profusely as if it were raining from my entire body, I managed to reach a spot where I could properly place both feet. While catching my breath, I noticed a cave next to the cliff. A cave in the middle of a cliff was clearly artificial, and I felt curious, so I shifted my body toward the cave. After all, I couldn't hang on the cliff forever—this was a necessary choice.
Once I entered the cliffside cave, I felt like I could live. I wanted to just collapse and sleep, but I had to find out what kind of place this cave was. So I decided to walk a little deeper inside. The cave was quite deep, with no light at all, so I had to grope along the walls as I walked.
Thunk!
I hit my head on a stalactite and got a bump. I stifled a scream from the pain and sat down on the spot. Then, I saw light seeping in from far away and carefully began crawling toward it.
The source of the light was a room with a glowing orb embedded in it. It was clearly a man-made place! The moment I saw it, I was overwhelmed with joy.
"Hurrah!"
Was this what they call a miraculous encounter?
Was something that only happened in novels now happening to me?
I was so happy that I felt a hot sensation rising from my throat. I began to approach the orb.
And then it happened.
Shooo—Thud!
"..."
What just… happened?
I felt an excruciating pain surge through me and my vision blur. Then, shaking off the sudden amnesia, I realized what had happened. A metal stake had suddenly flown at me from the front and pierced straight through my abdomen. My organs were impaled, so of course the pain was unbearable.
Bright red blood poured out. Blood gushed violently from my mouth.
"Ugh… guh… uuaaack…"
I knelt down and waited for the death that was surely coming.
And I bitterly regretted it. If only I hadn't come into this cave, I wouldn't be dying like this…
Of course there would be a trap guarding a miraculous treasure…
Why was my life so foolish and unlucky?
…Die?
I'm really going to die like this?
"Ugh… uuurgh…"
No, I can't accept that.
Even if I'm going to die, I have to at least find out what's inside that box!
With the last of my strength, I crawled toward the box. It was a copper box that could be opened even with my dying strength. No—more accurately, it had been designed to open as soon as someone touched it.
"This… this is…"
And just before dying, I reached inside the box with my right hand and felt a book.
At the same time, I had lost so much blood that my consciousness faded.
Now I was dying.
This was my first death.