Chapter 2

He felt his sleeping consciousness awaken. The process of reincarnating into a new body was very familiar to him, having mastered the Nine Lives Reincarnation Spell, an ancient forbidden art of the Eternal Life Sect. Through it, he reincarnated again and again. Like its name suggested, it was a mysterious forbidden technique that allowed its caster to be reborn nine times. And this was his ninth and final reincarnation.

The moment he woke up, he naturally remembered the last moments of his past life.

After defeating the Hell-Blood Demon, those he had believed to be his companions betrayed and killed him. His inability to send them to death's door was his greatest regret.

If he didn't reincarnate due to the Nine Lives Reincarnation Spell, he wouldn't have been able to rest in peace.

'If they're still alive, I'll kill them all.'

He gritted his teeth and vowed revenge.

Nothing good would come from having lingering feelings for what happened in his past life. However, he did lose his life. Despite having changed vessels, his resentment remained.

He wasn't certain they'd still be alive, though. He would usually reincarnate around a hundred years after his past life. Since they were already in their mid-late forties when they killed him, there was a high possibility they'd already be dead by now. Still, he could check that out later.

"I need to fix my consciousness first."

The consciousnesses from his previous life and this life had jumbled up together in one body. If left as it was, problems like personality disorders could occur. Before he awakened, he had to absorb the consciousness that dominated his new body and merge them into one personality, which wasn't a difficult task.

Compared to his previous lives' consciousness, which had existed for nearly a thousand years, his current life's consciousness was small and weak in comparison. There was some resistance, but it was futile. His previous life's consciousness absorbed his current life's, naturally transplanting his current consciousness' memories and emotions into him.

The process gave him information about the present world and himself. For starters, it had been exactly thirty years after his last death.

His killers, the patriarchs of the Seven Great Families, were still alive and well. They had already retired from murim and stepped down from the frontline, but he didn't have the slightest intention of letting them go. It wouldn't be easy to get revenge, though.

After the Hell-Blood Crisis, the patriarchs of the Seven Great Families were revered as the heroes who defeated the Hell-Blood Demon and saved murim, causing the authority of the Seven Great Families to become increasingly powerful.

The Seven Great Families had also formed the Seven Saints Alliance and exerted strong influence over murim. In fact, it was safe to say that they basically ruled murim.

Getting revenge on the ex-patriarchs of such a powerful force would be difficult. However, he possessed martial prowess stronger than anyone else, as he had been able to inherit the techniques from one of the three great secret sects of all times, the Heavenly Descent Thunder God Sect. He also had the strength he had amassed through his eight previous lives. With all of those combined, it was possible to destroy not only the ex-patriarchs but the Seven Great Families themselves.

The state of the vessel he reincarnated into was important. The body's owner was the twenty-three-year-old Baek Mu-Gun. He was the first son of the Baek Sword Sect, which was based in Wenzhou of Zhejiang.

He was a promising talent of the Baek Sword Sect. With excellent wisdom and martial talent, he displayed outstanding accomplishments in martial arts. Hence, his family had a lot of expectations for him.

However, their great expectations turned into poison instead. The pressure of meeting their expectations made him train excessively until his cultivation eventually went berserk. Although he managed to avoid death, he had tangled up and lost control of his eight major meridians, and he had lost all the internal energy he had amassed through hard work. As a result, he could no longer learn martial arts again.

The shock that the then-twenty-year-old Mu-Gun felt was indescribable. Desperate, he gave up on life, fell into depravation, and resorted to women and alcohol. His family tried to rekindle his spirit at first, but they gave up on him in the end. From a promising talent of the family, he turned into nothing but a nuisance.

"How pathetic."

The moment he gave up, it was all over.

Instead of living in desperation and drowning himself in alcohol and women, he should've tried his best to find a way to somehow recover. The heavens only ever helped those who helped themselves.

Mu-Gun blamed himself for who he was before he awakened and observed his internal body.

'Hmm, it'll take a month at most to recover.'

The Baek Sword Sect searched high and low for a way to treat Mu-Gun's qi deviation but ultimately failed.

However, having reincarnated, it wasn't that difficult for Mu-Gun to recover since he could just use the Heavenly Thunder Constellation Divine Art's Qi Transfer Healing Technique. He just needed some time.

"How much did this guy drink?"

Mu-Gun frowned. His head was throbbing and he felt nauseous. He had drunk until late at night at the brothel, and the hangover made his head throb and his stomach ache.

Clack clack.

As Mu-Gun pressed down on his temple, the door opened and a woman wearing a Luoshan[1] came inside carrying a tray.

Seol Hwa was the

gisaeng

[2] whom Mu-Gun was infatuated with these days. He had embraced her after drinking a lot of alcohol last night.

"Oh my! You're awake already? Here, drink this honey tea first."

Though surprised to see Mu-Gun sitting up, Seol Hwa handed him a cup of honey tea she had brought over. Mu-Gun looked straight at her.

Just like her name suggested, she was extremely beautiful, and had snow, flower-like white skin and striking features. On top of that, her body, showing itself between the Luoshan's thin threads, was slim and sensual. She had features that any man would fall for, let alone the former Mu-Gun.

However, he didn't find her particularly impressive, as he had held numerous women more beautiful than her in his previous reincarnations. Moreover, he wasn't in a situation where he could leisurely be interested in women.

Mu-Gun stood up after indifferently drinking the honey tea given by Seol Hwa. Getting out of the blanket, he found not a single thread covering him. His skinny body, with his desiccated muscles, was unappealing.

'Hmmph, money sure is nice.'

If not for money, who would sleep with a man with such an unappealing body? Above all, Mu-Gun's eight major meridians were tangled up due to his cultivation going berserk, and, as a result, his privates had weakened beyond comparison, reaching a point where it would be difficult for him to make love nine out of ten times.

Of course, from a gisaeng's perspective, it could even be a good thing, given that she would've had to serve a customer in whom she had no interest.

Mu-Gun smiled bitterly and quickly put on the clothes neatly folded on the side.

"You're already leaving?" Seol Hwa asked as she saw Mu-Gun get dressed.

She wasn't used to Mu-Gun acting like this. He would usually laze away under the blanket and barely get up and go back after the sun was at high noon, yet he somehow got up early and dressed up today.

"We have nothing else to do even if I stay longer, is there?"

"But you usually stay longer. Are you sick of me now?" Seol Hwa asked in an upset tone.

Her expression looked sincere, but Mu-Gun wasn't naive enough to be deceived by the expression of a gisaeng since they made a living by putting on a fake smile.

"No. I'm just tired of this lifestyle."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"It means that I am done with this lifestyle from today onward. Take care of yourself."

Before she knew it, Mu-Gun had finished dressing up, turned around, and left the room without hesitation. Seol Hwa, now left alone, was baffled at Mu-Gun's sudden change in attitude.

However, she didn't believe his words. Mu-Gun was the kind of person who frequented the brothel every day to drink and sleep with a gisaeng. Old habits died hard, and she was confident that he would come back to the brothel again in a few days.

***

After leaving the brothel, Mu-Gun immediately headed for the Baek Sword Sect. He arrived via carriage at the family manor, which appeared quite large. The Baek Sword Sect was one of the top ten forces in Zhejiang, so that wasn't surprising when taking their status and authority into consideration. Mu-Gun entered the manor without hesitation.

The members of the family stopped whatever they were doing and greeted him as they saw him. Judging from that, the authority of Mu-Gun, the first young master of the Baek Family, still had weight. But their scornful and ridiculing gaze hidden as they bowed their heads proved otherwise.

Mu-Gun didn't see it with his own eyes, but he could sense how the members of the family looked at him. He had no intention to blame them, however. He would've acted the same if he was in their shoes.

It was the future that mattered. Mu-Gun would no longer live a pathetic life. He would learn the martial arts from his previous lives and become powerful, then he would make the Baek Sword Sect the strongest clan in the entire murim.

That had also been Mu-Gun's dream before his past self awakened—a dream he had desperately yearned for but could not achieve. It was impossible for the Mu-Gun of that time, but it was now possible for him.

As he was heading to his residence with determination, someone blocked his path.

He was a young man one or two years younger than Mu-Gun, and he looked quite similar to Mu-Gun. His name was Baek Mu-Ok, Mu-Gun's younger brother.

"Did you stay the night at the brothel again?" Mu-Ok asked furiously.

"Why? Are you going to scold me again?" Mu-Gun replied with a smirk.

"Do you think this is funny? How long are you going to live pathetically like this? And just because your cultivation went berserk and you can no longer learn martial arts? Not everyone lives irresponsibly like you, brother. You are the first son of the Baek Sword Sect. You have to stand back up so that the Baek Sword Sect can do so too." Mu-Ok angrily scolded his brother.

Having followed and regarded his brother, Mu-Gun, as his idol since childhood, he truly felt sad and angry to see Mu-Gun slowly going to ruin after his cultivation had gone berserk. He desperately wanted his brother to come to his senses and return to his old self. Even if he couldn't learn martial arts, there was so much he could do for the family.

However, Mu-Gun had no intention to do that at all. On the contrary, he got worse as time went by.

Mu-Ok was angry. He couldn't bear seeing him like this. He couldn't help but feel frustrated for not being able to do anything for his brother.

"You'll lose your seat as the successor to the Baek Sword Sect if I return to my senses, though. Is that alright with you?"

"Can you hear yourself right now? I never wanted to be the successor of the Baek Sword Sect. That position is rightfully yours, brother."

"Tsk tsk. What use is a man without greed?"

"No, in my opinion, a man is someone who knows their place and does not become excessively greedy."

Feeling how worried his little brother was about him and how sincere his words were, Mu-Gun couldn't help but see his little brother as cute.

"I promise you. I will never let you down anymore from today onwards." He responded with a serious expression, thinking it would only be right for him to reciprocate his younger brother's sincerity.

"Do you really mean what you just said?"

"You'll see for yourself if I meant what I said or not," Mu-Gun replied with a determined gaze.

Mu-Ok could feel it. There was something different about Mu-Gun. People did not change easily, but some could do it in an instant. Mu-Ok became excited, thinking that his brother could really have come to his senses and returned to being his old self.

Mu-Gun and Mu-Ok went their own ways, and as soon as Mu-Gun returned to his residence, he took a hot shower. After a simple meal, he sat in the lotus position in his room.

He had to prioritize straightening out his ruined eight major meridians no matter what. Mu-Gun indeed had a regeneration secret that could treat his condition. However, in order to carry out the Qi Transfer Healing Technique of the Heavenly Thunder Constellation Divine Art, internal energy was required.

Activating it even if there was no internal energy was possible, but it would take too long. It would take six months at the fastest, maybe even one year. He couldn't waste that much time.

Fortunately, Mu-Gun had a solution to his internal energy problem.

The Soul Power Transfer Spell also transferred the internal energy in the soul of the user's previous life to the vessel they reincarnated into. Through the Soul Power Transfer Spell, he could receive exactly thirty years' worth of internal energy.

Considering the internal energy of his previous life was worth six hundred years of cultivation, that was an insignificant amount.

It would've been better if he could fill his soul with more internal energy since he was going to use this spell, but the greatest amount that the Soul Power Transfer Spell could contain was exactly thirty years. Still, he was thankful for even that much, considering his current situation.

Mu-Gun concentrated and began to invoke the Soul Power Transfer Spell. He had performed it during each of his eight reincarnations, but Mu-Gun did not relax. Rather, he focused.

The spell made the internal energy planted in Mu-Gun's soul permeate through his body and naturally break through the clogged meridians in his lower abdomen. The transfer took half an hour.

Upon gaining thirty years' worth of internal energy through the Soul Power Transfer Spell, he took a short break and stretched, having been in a lotus position for half an hour.

Mu-Gun stretched, drank a cup of tea, then sat down and assumed a lotus position again. He used the Qi Transfer Healing Technique of the Heavenly Thunder Constellation Divine Art afterward, beginning his qi deviation treatment.

This healing technique had amazing efficacy, but correcting his eight major meridians, which were tangled up due to qi deviation, in one go was impossible.

In addition, Mu-Gun had drowned himself in women and alcohol while his eight major meridians were in ruins, so he had a lot of pent-up toxic energy. If he hadn't awakened his reincarnation and continued leading this life of debauchery, his eight major meridians would have been completely blocked, and he would've been totally paralyzed, which would've eventually led to his death. Fortunately, he had awakened his reincarnation before that happened.

Hence, even with the Heavenly Thunder Constellation Divine Art's Qi Transfer Healing Technique, which was considered the greatest healing technique, it took a considerable amount of time to treat his qi deviation.

Instead of acting hastily, Mu-Gun slowly treated his condition.

1. First known as the half-clothing and popular in ancient China, Luoshan is a women's shirt clothing. It is basically a very short and tight version of the Cheongsam. ?

2. Gisaeng, also known as Ginyeo, are women from outcast or slave families trained to be courtesans, providing artistic entertainment and conversation to men of the upper class. ?