Chapter 2

Reincarnated as a Sword Emperor in the Sword Master's Family (2)

"I was definitely dead."

Yan Wuxie unconsciously felt his chest.

The pain of the Asura Tyrant Dance of the Heavenly Horse breaking his sword, severing his legs, and crushing his heart with the remaining force came back to life in an instant.

His body, remembering the final agony, squeezed out a cold sweat.

"Ugh…!"

It was a shock that his underdeveloped body could hardly bear.

His heart pounded loudly in surprise, his muscles convulsed, and it took quite a while to calm everything down.

The dizziness in his vision finally subsided.

Even a master at the Transformation Realm could be mentally cut, but Duanmu Jin of the Heavenly Horse was a master at the Profound Realm. Just recalling that single blow made his soul ache.

‘Not now. It’s too much to revisit.’

Yan Wuxie groaned softly, understanding the reason.

The battle with the Heavenly Horse was undoubtedly one of the supreme experiences in his countless struggles. Just reviewing it properly could advance him several steps. However, Yan Wuxie easily shifted his thoughts.

As a martial artist who had once reached the peak of the Transformation Realm, he knew that everything has its appropriate time.

‘Let’s first get a sense of this place.’

Stretching his still unsteady legs, he slowly got off the bed and looked around the room.

Furniture in a style he had never seen in the Central Plains or the New World.

The books and papers scattered on the table, and the characters running across them, were completely unfamiliar. They resembled Sanskrit, but the sentence structure and form were vastly different.

However, he quickly understood the purpose of this room.

The tickling smell, the liquid sloshing in transparent bottles, and the bandages and small knives scattered around.

‘This is a hospital.’

It seemed the owner of this small body had been injured somewhere and was being treated here.

As soon as he realized this, a stuffy feeling arose in his head. Feeling around with his right hand, he found several layers of bandages wrapped in his hair.

‘So, I was injured in the head? That’s why I… No, it’s too early to jump to conclusions. Let’s investigate more.’

Even though the bandages were on top, he felt no significant pain when he touched the wound.

This meant the injury wasn’t serious.

Yan Wuxie continued to think, absorbing everything he saw into his mind. Where was he? Whose body was this? Why had he come back to life? If someone intended it, what were their purpose and means?

Not long after, his thoughts, which had been flowing rapidly like an arrow, stopped. It happened at the same moment Yan Wuxie stopped walking around the room.

"Huh?"

A large mirror.

A large, transparent mirror he had never seen in the Central Plains or the New World captivated him.

Golden hair.

Crimson eyes.

Features close to those of a colored person.

A boy with an exotic appearance, someone he could never have imagined was himself, stared back at Yan Wuxie from the mirror.

"Ah!?"

At that moment.

Was it because he recognized his own appearance? The body, suppressed by Yan Wuxie’s self, spat out a few fragments of memory.

It was a situation that could have caused identity confusion in an ordinary person, but for a Sword Emperor who had cut through countless heart demons, it was merely a brief headache.

The memories of a child around 14 years old, and not even all of them, could not overwhelm Yan Wuxie.

‘Indeed. The name of this body is Leonard, and he is one of the trainees of the Cardenas family.’

Yan Wuxie muttered, quickly regaining himself.

Not only that.

The discomfort he felt from the short and thin limbs, and the language he couldn’t read or speak, now came naturally.

‘Acting like Leonard shouldn’t be too difficult.’

At that moment.

Click.

The tightly closed door opened, and a knight and a healer appeared, their eyes wide open.

Having been warned that the child wouldn’t wake up by tomorrow and would face punishment, they felt relief before surprise at seeing him awake.

"Leonard! No, 381. Are you conscious?"

"Phew, thank goodness."

The knight rushed over and checked his body, then sighed in relief. The healer, who had narrowly avoided a pay cut, had a similar reaction.

Yan Wuxie watched their reactions and clicked his tongue.

‘Even in a confused state, missing such a level of movement is something I need to reflect on.’

Being in a body that couldn’t even reach the third-rate level, let alone the Transformation Realm of his previous life, was no excuse.

Blaming himself for his vulnerability, Yan Wuxie fell silent for a moment. The knight, puzzled by his lack of response, met his eyes.

Recalling his name late, Yan Wuxie said,

"Teacher Gerard…?"

"Yes, I’m Teacher Gerard. Your reaction is a bit slow. Is there any confusion or gaps in your memory?"

"Um, why am I here…"

When he asked in a way similar to the ‘Leonard’ in his memory, the knight Gerard answered with a face that said he had expected it.

"You were hit on the back of the head by a wooden sword during training."

"Ah…"

Yan Wuxie nodded, finally understanding the reason for the bandages.

"It’s good that you’re conscious, but you don’t seem fully recovered yet. For the next week, don’t attend training and focus on recovering your body."

"Yes, Teacher."

"Move around if you can without much trouble, eat in the dining hall, and otherwise live as usual."

When he answered, Gerard nodded and left the room, looking much lighter now that his concern was gone.

The healer, sighing deeply as soon as Gerard left, said,

"Goodness, what a situation. You didn’t do anything wrong, but this is the first time I’ve experienced something like this."

"I’m sorry."

The healer waved his hand, not expecting an apology from a child.

"It’s fine. What did a child who came in injured do wrong? I’ll give you a few bottles of potion to help with your recovery. Drink one a day."

He took five small bottles from a shelf and evenly divided the green liquid from another container into them.

Then he handed them to Yan Wuxie.

"Thank you."

"Be grateful by not getting hurt again. Go on."

"Yes."

Holding the bottles to his chest, Yan Wuxie left the medical room with a more composed gait.

Fortunately, thanks to ‘Leonard’s’ memories, he didn’t get lost or wander aimlessly. Arriving at the room assigned to ‘Leonard’ without encountering anyone during work hours, he opened the door.

Creak.

Opening the door, which was much stiffer than the medical room’s, revealed a space where a person could barely sleep.

A bed and a wardrobe, but no desk. The wardrobe was mostly occupied by a few sets of training clothes and two or three wooden swords. It was far from a room suitable for raising children.

"Except for being a bit cramped, it’s not bad."

However, Yan Wuxie, who had spent decades as a wandering swordsman and often slept using the clothes stripped from the corpses of his enemies as a blanket, found it excellent. It wasn’t dirty, didn’t stink, and had clean bedding.

First, he organized the potion bottles in a corner of the wardrobe, then sat cross-legged on the bed and closed his eyes.

‘I need to learn more about myself.’

He didn’t mean to gain enlightenment through martial arts, but rather that he needed more memories of ‘Leonard.’

He had only grasped a few fragments of the body’s sensations, name, and identity, which was far from enough. He had even had to think for a moment to recall the teacher’s name, so if he had any close friends, they would quickly notice the discomfort.

‘I need to go through everything from the bottom up.’

Entering the state of selflessness without any inner energy was a skill possible only from the Transformation Realm.

Focusing his mind in less than ten breaths, Yan Wuxie’s spirit delved deep into his body and touched his brain. The realm of independently operating the essence (精), energy (氣), and spirit (神).

The memory vault, which had closed its doors to an uninvited guest, could not withstand the power of the Sword Emperor for long.

Whoosh!

The life of ‘Leonard’ unfolded in his mind, blending with Yan Wuxie’s own life.

It wasn’t about taking over the body.

It was like opening a vault left by the original owner and examining its contents. When Yan Wuxie first awakened, there was no soul of the original owner in this body.

And Yan Wuxie soon understood the circumstances.

"I was… reincarnated."

* * *

Leonard, one of the many collateral bloodlines of the Cardenas Grand Dukedom, was born and faced many hardships from the start.

Despite having the strong bones of the Cardenas lineage, he was bedridden daily, even if he didn’t have any chronic illnesses or fall and scrape his skin on a stone.

At first, his mother was suspected of having a child with someone else, but a magical examination confirmed it wasn’t the case.

―Perhaps it’s just that this child’s blood is thin.

If it had ended there, it would have been better, but the magician’s attempt to shift responsibility for not finding the cause of the illness ultimately destroyed the family.

Leonard’s parents blamed each other for the responsibility and left the child behind at the main house, separating.

He became an orphan even though neither parent had died.

"Tsk, I can’t blame them."

Yan Wuxie smiled bitterly.

It couldn’t be helped.

The reason ‘Leonard’ was often bedridden as a child was that Yan Wuxie’s memories and self were pressuring his brain.

Not only the vast amount of time spanning a century but also the hardships of a life that had crossed the bloodline and the profound enlightenment of martial arts that had reached the peak of the Transformation Realm.

If such a volume of information had flooded into an underdeveloped brain, it wouldn’t be surprising if he had died of a fever.

For that reason, his survival instinct must have blocked the memories of his previous life.

‘It must have only been ready now, at this age.’

The blow to the back of the head was just a minor trigger; it must have been ready to open at any time.

"If that old man, the Immortal, finds out, he’ll be shocked."

No matter how many times he thought about it, it was a strange event.

Yan Wuxie, who had no interest in the Daoist or Buddhist paths, experiencing reincarnation directly.

Although he didn’t encounter the Jade Emperor or King Yama, it was equivalent to realizing the existence of a principle that transcended human cognition.

If so, the legendary transcendence to immortality (羽化登仙) that only circulated as rumors in the martial world was highly likely to exist.

‘…But it’s a very distant story for me now.’

The boy, now Leonard, looked at his palms for a moment and smiled.

Soft, weak hands, just starting to develop calluses.

Although the foundation of a lifetime of cultivation had crumbled, if what the Heavenly Horse said was true, it was a blessing in disguise.

An opportunity to rebuild everything from the basics perfectly!

"Here, it’s possible."

He could confidently say that.

He was certain he could reach the Profound Realm (玄境) and beyond, which he couldn’t achieve in his previous life.

The reason was very simple.

"Whoosh, whoosh…"

When Leonard closed his eyes and took a deep breath, dense energy flowed into his body and surged within.

The amount and density of energy distributed in nature were immense.

Even the most mystical land in the Central Plains, the Mystic Forest, didn’t have this level. With just basic cultivation techniques, he could accumulate a century’s worth of inner energy in ten years.

Sorcerers and Taoists, who relied more on external energy than internal energy, would be at least ten times more powerful in this world.

‘Perhaps they are the ones called mages in this world.’

Leonard thought.

Although he hadn’t seen them with his own eyes, they were not to be underestimated. The fact that there were more formidable opponents in this world besides the martial artists ignited his competitive spirit.

Ding—Ding—Ding—

At that moment, the distant sound of a bell woke him up.

‘Dinner time.’

His stomach growled in response to the dinner bell, and Leonard chuckled as he got up.

"Hmm, it’s been a while since I had a meal that isn’t a Wall-Climbing Pill."

Although he wanted to dive into the world immediately and challenge new opponents, his small body was demanding a meal.

Still, Leonard wasn’t impatient.

Sudden enlightenment (頓悟) comes after there’s nothing more to train. Until then, he needed to gradually cultivate (漸修) his body and skills, refine his inner energy to create a great vessel.

To become a greater vessel than the Sword Emperor Yan Wuxie.

Now was the time to build and build.