“Ah—no matter how beautiful the scenery is, if you see it too much, you’ll feel sick!! Now I understand why ancient people could settle down to practice. It’s simply because they had no entertainment and were free! ” Looking at the beautiful scenery in the mountains not far away, Xu Xuan sat on a big tree on the cliff and stretched lazily.
Then he leisurely took a bite of the roasted meat in his arms.
“Sure enough, I still want to play games!! Still want to look at my phone!! They all say crossing over is great, but facing a world without electricity and internet, what’s the point! Especially in such a dangerous world! System!! Where is my system? Where are the benefits of being a transgressor?”
Of course, Xu Xuan almost complains like this once or twice a day. After all, he has been in this world for seventeen years. Besides retaining the memories of his past life, he brought nothing. And he had only been a baby when he crossed over.
The only good fortune was that it seemed he had crossed over to a wealthy family. But just as Xu Xuan was relieved to think he’d be a rich second generation in this life, reality slapped him in the face once again. His family, for some unknown reason, took him with guards and left the city, and not long after, Xu Xuan witnessed the darkness of this world for the first time.
On a small path in the mountains, a strange meatball with a big head and a body resembling a child approached their convoy. Then, right before Xu Xuan’s eyes, that strange species brutally slaughtered all the people in their group!! This was also the first time Xu Xuan encountered what they called demons and spirits.
Fortunately, he was ultimately saved. Perhaps because he was still a baby, everyone was protecting him. Eventually, they managed to delay until his current master arrived. A flying sword pierced through the monster’s body and then cut the monster in half. Upon seeing this scene, Xu Xuan felt for a moment that he had entered some kind of immortal cultivation world.
Afterwards, he was taken by his master to a towering peak and accepted as a disciple.
Cangjian Peak, the two ancient characters “Sword Hall” above the mountain gate displayed the ancient heritage of this sect. However, at this time, Xu Xuan could not recognize these two characters. There was no way, the characters of this era were completely different from those of their past era, and it seemed that before the Unification of the Great Qin, the characters of various countries in this world were not even the same.
Ultimately, Xu Xuan lived in this Sword Hall. He became one of the disciples of the Sword Hall. At the same time, through these years of understanding of the outside world, Xu Xuan finally had a certain cognition of this world. First and foremost, he was disappointed to find that this world was not a fantasy immortal cultivation world. They did not call these practitioners cultivators but Qi Practitioners or Seekers of the Dao.
The external world was somewhat similar to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, but due to the demons and spirits as well as the practitioners, history had completely deviated from its normal course. For hundreds of years, since the split began, the wars among the countries had not ceased. However, a historical event did occur, which was the contention of a hundred schools of thought.
Among the hundred schools, other families focused on a specific technique, only the nine factions known as the “Upper Nine Streams,” according to Master Ou’s words, ‘the aspirations of the Nine Upper Streams sects are for the entire world.’
As for their sect, the Sword Hall had a bit of fame in the Jianghu. After all, it was a sect that became famous for its swordsmanship. Currently, there were only two older generations in the sect, one was his master Master Ou, and the other was his Shishu Master Ye. The sword that the Sword Hall had been worshipping for many years was a long sword that had been burned by fierce fire in the furnace at the mountain top.
Another thing that made Xu Xuan very unhappy was that this era had no paper, and the literary heritage was almost all on bamboo slips. The most painful part was that even for going to the bathroom, it relied on bamboo…
“Well, time has been passing by, time to go back to the mountain. When I get back, I’ll practice a couple of sword techniques, cultivate for a while, break a sweat, and then go take a shower in the mountain spring, and have a good sleep!!” Xu Xuan stretched, flipped, and jumped down from the tree, then climbed up the cliff with a few leaps.
At the beginning of his cultivation, Xu Xuan was indeed excited for a while and worked hard for a period. After all, this was about extraordinary power, but after a while, Xu Xuan got tired of it…
After all, in his past life, he was a homebody, and his ability to endure hardship was truly limited. Except for his daily essential training, Xu Xuan basically gave up on additional practice. Moreover, the cultivation in this world was not like in the immortal cultivation novels where it was merely about practicing Qi and meditation; you just had to keep your composure. Rather, it was about genuinely enduring hardship and tempering the body. Xu Xuan could be sure that those who could endure pain and practice harder were absolutely people of great willpower.
Even having great willpower didn’t guarantee success. Not long after, Xu Xuan witnessed a Shidi who practiced so hard that he became crippled. That Shidi would never be able to practice martial arts for the rest of his life.
It was at this time that Xu Xuan realized that in martial arts, hard work seemed to be unable to make up for the gap in talent. As for Xu Xuan’s own talent level, it was completely in a mediocre state. In Master Ou’s words, at this speed, in another thirty years, Xu Xuan would reach his level…
Plus, Xu Xuan had never obtained the so-called transgressor benefits, nor had the system’s voice sounded. After going into the mountains so many times, he hadn’t encountered any opportunities. Over these years, Xu Xuan’s mindset gradually changed from being ambitious about dominating this world to lying flat and giving up.
And the shift in mindset also made his life over these years start to become comfortable and peaceful. After finishing his morning classes and cultivation each day, he went to the back mountain to do some farming, hunted some game in the mountains, and picked some wild fruits. He would find a beautiful place, lie down, eat some wild fruit, and roast some game. He enjoyed the scenery of the mountains. By the time it got dark, he would return to sleep. Then the next day, he would wake up refreshed to cultivate.
Day after day, this kind of life unexpectedly gave Xu Xuan a sense of tranquility and harmony. Gradually, Xu Xuan actually immersed himself in this life. Thus, Xu Xuan made a decision that went against the transgressors’ tendency. He wanted to stay in this mountain for a lifetime until he grew old and died. After all, outside were all demons and monsters, and the intrigues between nations, to this day Xu Xuan still had a deep memory of that day, the appearance of the meatball-like demon feasting on people left a serious psychological shadow on him. Not to mention that almost every year, news of Sword Hall brothers being killed while eliminating demons came back. On one side were demons running rampant, while here was a peaceful mountain with clear waters, coupled with his naturally reclusive personality. So, he planned to live like this for the rest of his life…
As for his master, Xu Xuan was not expecting that this era’s sects didn’t care at all about how strong their disciples’ Qi cultivation and martial arts were. They cared more about their disciples’ understanding of the sect’s teachings and mindset. So even though he spent most of his time slacking off and not training hard with the sword, no one in the entire sect made things difficult for him.
After simply practicing some sword techniques, taking a shower, Xu Xuan, taking advantage of the daylight, took out a bamboo slip to read and returned to the cliff position of the sect, basking in the afternoon sunlight as he read. After all, if he had nothing to do, he had to find something to occupy himself.
“This really is a strange era. According to the novels from before, which sect doesn’t hold a small competition every three years and a large competition every ten years? The strong enter the inner sect while the weak enter the outer sect, geniuses receive true transmission, and so on. But in this era, the entire sect’s sword technique manual is all right there, freely available for looking and practicing. Instead, the works involving personal conduct and mindset, which are not related to cultivation, have become required readings.”
This bamboo slip was called “Sword Discourse.” Essentially, it discussed that the sword is the leader of a hundred weapons and a gentleman among weapons. One should also act like a sword, upright, do gentlemanly deeds, and be unbending. It stated that the sword is a deadly weapon, but its creation is for the purpose of protecting oneself and friends. In short, the content on the bamboo slip basically teaches disciples how to be a good person.
As he read, the remaining time of the afternoon passed by quickly.
“Progress in cultivating sword techniques isn’t examined; instead, they test this every year.” While saying this, Xu Xuan tucked the bamboo slip into his arms and then stretched. At this moment, the sun was setting in the distance. It was time to return to the mountain gate. However, just as Xu Xuan flipped over and jumped a few times to reach the cliff, the sky had already darkened.
In these years, Xu Xuan had only mastered a sword technique that allowed him to make his flying sword leave his body up to fifteen steps away. On the contrary, due to hunting in the mountains, he had inadvertently developed quite a good body technique.
When Xu Xuan returned to the mountain gate and closed it, the sky had completely darkened. And tonight’s night was particularly eerie. In the sky, the stars were gone, leaving only a blood-red moon hanging above. The blood-red light illuminated Cangjian Peak in a strange manner.
Just as Xu Xuan closed the mountain gate and prepared to return to rest,
‘Thud, thud, thud,’ three knocking sounds came from outside the mountain gate behind Xu Xuan. The sounds were very heavy, sounding as if someone was fiercely banging their fist on the mountain gate.
“Which senior brother is it? Why are you only coming back to the mountain so late?” Hearing the knocking sound, Xu Xuan curiously asked.
‘Thud, thud, thud,’ the knocking sound continued to respond to Xu Xuan. The knocking had a strange rhythm.
“Stop knocking, the mountain gate isn’t locked. Just open it yourself. There’s also a small door nearby. If you find it troublesome to open the small door, that’s fine too. The small door isn’t locked either.” Not receiving a response, Xu Xuan said impatiently. Cangjian Mountain allows free access, and it’s common for disciples who have mastered their martial arts to go down the mountain for travel. Or to serve as esteemed guests to some country’s royal princes. So it was also common for senior brothers to return at night. But this time, Xu Xuan’s eyes narrowed. A sense of foreboding began to envelop his heart.
No matter how slow a normal person’s reaction is, at this moment, they could feel something was off. After all, the person outside the door was not responding at all; they were just continuously knocking!! Knocking!!
Thinking of this, Xu Xuan opened the small door and looked outside.
There was indeed a disciple knocking on the door, but the next second, Xu Xuan drew out the long sword from his back. The reason was simple, because that fellow disciple actually had no head!!
Outside the Sword Hall’s mountain gate, a headless body was rhythmically knocking on the Sword Hall’s mountain gate.
