---
"Again…"
Ryu Hanjun whispered to himself as he stared into the rippling waters of the mountain spring. The reflection staring back didn't lie.
He was 22. Again.
His jaw tightened as the cold wind cut across his face.
No one else remembered. Not his friends, not his masters, not even the enemies he had once bested.
Only he returned.
Only he bore the weight of forever.
---
The Loops Begin to Count
By the fourth loop, he had already surpassed who he once was.
By the tenth, he crushed first-rate warriors with ease.
By the fortieth, he felled a Peak Master in a duel beneath a blood-orange sunrise.
By the ninety-third, he abandoned orthodox teachings and crafted his own energy system.
Still, the loop never broke.
So he began to count.
One loop, two loops, three… a thousand… a million…
Survival faded into irrelevance. Mastery became his sole obsession.
He raided forbidden sects. Unlocked ancient vaults. Committed the philosophies of every dead sage to memory.
He learned every sword style known to man—then discarded them all.
He created something new: the Endless Mirror Sword, a fluid, ever-changing form that evolved with each return.
---
By Loop 50,000
He had wielded every weapon known to the martial world:
The nine-ringed saber.
The twin daggers of Snake Valley.
The Iron Shadow Sect's weighted chains.
The open-handed elegance of the Southern Lotus Temple.
He became a myth—an anonymous force drifting through the martial world. Sometimes savior, sometimes shadow.
He challenged masters in disguise. Tested their limits. Disappeared after victory.
No one remembered his name.
No one could.
---
Loop 190,566
Boredom crept in.
So he tried love.
He courted noble daughters, sect heiresses—even the Eastern Empire's crown princess.
He knew the right words. The right timing. The flowers she adored. When her secret wound would flare.
He saved them. Wooed them. Danced between rogue and romantic.
And just when they began to fall for him—
He looped.
And they forgot.
---
Loop 99,889,721
The world burned.
The Murim Alliance crumbled.
The Blood Cult and the Heavenly Demonic Cult plunged the continent into chaos.
Ash fell like snow. Villages vanished. Codes of honor shattered.
Hanjun didn't care anymore.
But when he passed a ruined village he once saved a thousand lifetimes ago—and saw their corpses—something shifted.
He entered the war.
Alone.
In one night, he slaughtered the Blood Cult's leadership.
He infiltrated the Heavenly Demonic Palace and severed its patriarch's head.
He dismantled armies without spilling unnecessary blood—cutting supply lines instead of lives.
He ended an apocalyptic war in seven days.
But still, the loop returned.
---
Loop 99,932,127
He broke.
He waged war on the world. No cause. No ideology. Just curiosity.
He left a single message with every sect:
"Try to stop me."
They tried.
They failed.
He slew sect masters. Leveled mountains. Burned scrolls he'd written in past lives.
He didn't just erase history.
He was history.
---
And Then…
Loop 100,000,000.
He turned 26 again.
He lay down, expecting another reset. Another loop.
He smiled, hollow.
"I'm the only god in this world now… and even gods get tired."
He closed his eyes.
---
The Morning After
Sunlight touched his skin. Birds sang.
But something felt wrong.
He sat up, breath caught in his throat.
He rushed to the mirror.
His reflection… blinked.
Still 26.
His hands trembled.
"No reset…?"
He collapsed to his knees, laughing and weeping all at once.
"I'm free…" he whispered. "I'm free."
Then his eyes hardened.
"I'm free… and no one can stop me now."
---
And so began the true journey…
A man forged by 100 million lives.
Master of every art. Wielder of every truth.
A soul who had seen every path—every betrayal—and still chose to move forward.
Now unleashed.
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