Chapter 0 – Aged Face
The first sight that the baby’s eyes, as pure as the first snow, captured was the tiger’s open mouth. No, this wasn’t a metaphor but reality. The tiger had its mouth wide open.
How the loving embrace of parents was replaced by the greedily opened jaws of a tiger, I don’t know. Anyway, at that moment, I truly thought I was going to die.
If it weren’t for the ragged old man who fortunately happened to be passing by at that time. Perhaps my second life would have withered away without even properly blooming.
Yes. What is there to hide? I am a reincarnated person.
I don’t remember how I came to be reincarnated. From the few strands of memory I can grasp in my foggy recollection, in my previous life I enjoyed web novels.
Among them, I particularly enjoyed reading martial arts novels. Perhaps because of that? I could immediately recognize that this place I had been reincarnated into was a martial arts novel world. Of course it had to be..
I saw a ragged old man in plain clothes tear a tiger’s mouth in half with his bare hands. If this isn’t a martial arts world, what is? Fortunately, I survived thanks to him.
Having been taken in by the old man, I grew up healthy without any problems. It was when I was five years old that I finally asked the old man to teach me martial arts.
“Please teach me martial arts.”
“…I never taught you the term ‘martial arts’.“
“Where did you hear that word?”
“I watched you training from behind and listened to your words.”
“No one has taught you anything. So you’re saying you observed on your own and wanted to learn.”
At first I thought I had slipped up, but fortunately, the old man willingly taught me martial arts. The first martial art he taught me was the Three Disasters Sword Technique. As someone who enjoyed reading martial arts novels.
I already knew what the Three Disasters Sword Technique was, but. I agreed that one must build from the basics step by step. So I followed along without any complaints.
That is, until the old man suddenly died after two years. Becoming an orphan all of a sudden, I fell into emptiness and sadness, but I couldn’t just give up.
After burying the old man and holding a funeral as best as I could, I had no choice but to contemplate my future course. All the martial arts I had learned so far was just the Three Disasters Sword Technique.
‘There is one mental cultivation technique, but I have no idea what kind of technique it is.’
Since it was a mental technique the old man had taught me directly by pointing out the meridians, I named it the Spear-Sword Mental Technique for now. But honestly, it didn’t seem like an extraordinary technique.
Therefore, judging it was still too early for me to debut in the martial arts world, I began training alone again. Originally, the Three Disasters Sword Technique is typically dismissed as a third-class martial art.
Conversely, the setup where all the mysteries of swordsmanship are contained in just three moves of an ultimate sword technique is quite common in martial arts novels. So, that was the only possibility I could pursue right away.
‘They say a true master doesn’t blame his tools. I will definitely master the Three Disasters Sword Technique and understand the profound principles hidden within it.’
Throwing down the gauntlet confidently was all well and good. But if everyone could grasp the profound principles just by working hard, would they still be profound? It’s been 25 years since I started practicing martial arts.
Far from any meaningful insights or profound principles. I’ve only just reached the level where I can surround my sword with sword energy. Normally, the level of surrounding a sword with sword energy is considered at most first-class.
In the common cliché, even a master of a hundred generations is at least at the peak of this level. Among them, the superior masters reach the transcendent level. At the very least, if I don’t reach the transformation state…
With such thoughts, 25 years have already passed. With a bone-cutting determination, without missing a day. Every day, I vigorously swung the Three Disasters Sword Technique moves that the old man had taught me into the air.
“Whew.”
Horizontal slash, vertical slash, thrust. I swing these three moves more than ten thousand times every day. But each time, I couldn’t hide a sense of something lacking. What is this unsatisfaction?
‘I feel like I could wield the Three Disasters Sword Technique perfectly with just a bit more training. It’s like an illusion, seeming within reach but not quite.’
Trapped in this small but undeniable obsession. I’ve been postponing my debut in the martial arts world for 10 years already. Thinking that I could reach perfection with just a little more training.
Captivated by that lingering attachment, I continue to practice the moves today and tomorrow. But unfortunately, I can’t go on any longer. The moon has already pushed the sun away and stands tall in the center of the night sky.
If I don’t go to sleep soon, it will disrupt my farming work tomorrow. Living alone in the mountains, farming and barely surviving on the harvest. I can’t allow even a small exception.
Still, perhaps thanks to the small satisfaction of getting a little closer to the profound principles, my returning footsteps weren’t entirely heavy. However, an unexpected visitor had come to this place.
To say it was just a coincidence would actually be unfair. I was just taking my usual path as always, and today too, I was simply returning home as usual.
But what do I see but a group of bandits I’ve never seen before occupying the road? Dressed in black with masks and even carrying swords. They were clearly not ordinary people.
Fortunately, they didn’t seem to have noticed me, so I tried to quietly slip away through another path. But one of the people surrounded by the bandits saw me and shouted:
“I don’t know who you are, Master, but please don’t ignore our situation!!”
“……”
Thanks to the desperate cry of a young man, the attention of all the bandits was directed at me who was behind them, which was secondary. There was something I absolutely couldn’t ignore.
‘Master? Who’s that? Could they be talking about me?’ I’m only thirty years old this year?
