Darkness.
Absolute, suffocating darkness.
There was no light, no sound, not even the flow of wind.
In this space where time seemed to have stopped, consciousness flickered like a dying ember.
'...'
Am I dead?
He remembered the last moment.
The sensation of the Spear of Heavenly Lightning piercing his dantian. The cold laughter of the Orthodox Alliance Leader.
'The Great Demon of Blood, Yeo Woon-hyeok. Today, your legend ends.'
It was a fitting end for one who had stained rivers red. He did not resist. He closed his eyes, ready to sink into eternal nothingness.
But.
-Thump.
A sound.
It was faint, but distinct.
-Thump. Thump.
It was not a sound coming from outside.
It came from within.
It was the sound of a heart beating.
'I am... alive?'
Yeo Woon-hyeok tried to move his hand.
-Clunk.
Something heavy and hard blocked his movement.
He tried to raise his head.
-Thud!
"Ugh."
His forehead hit something solid. Stone? No, wood. Very thick, high-quality wood.
The space was narrow. Just enough for a single human body to lie straight.
The smell of stale air and dried herbs filled his nose.
'A coffin.'
He realized his situation instantly.
He was inside a coffin.
'Did those hypocrites from the Orthodox Alliance bury me? Impossible.'
They would have taken his head and mounted it on the gates for all to see.
Even in death, he would have been denied rest.
Yeo Woon-hyeok took a deep breath.
The air was thin. If he panicked, he would suffocate within an hour.
But the Great Demon did not panic.
He focused on his body.
'...?'
Strange.
The dantian, which should have been shattered by the spear, felt intact.
No, it wasn't just intact. It was clean.
Too clean.
'Empty.'
There was not a single drop of internal energy.
It was a dantian that had never accumulated qi. A complete blank slate.
Moreover, the feeling of the body was unfamiliar.
The hands were too small. The skin felt soft, lacking the calluses earned from decades of wielding a saber.
'This is not my body.'
Transmigration? Possession?
He didn't know. But one thing was clear.
He had returned.
-Kwak!
Suddenly, a massive vibration shook the coffin.
-Crumble...
Dust fell onto his face from the wooden ceiling of the coffin.
Voices could be heard from outside. Muffled, but audible.
"Dig faster! The sun will rise soon!"
"Captain, are you sure this is the place? It looks like just a pile of rocks."
"You idiot. This is the 'Grave of the Nameless Sword'. The map definitely points here."
Grave robbers.
Yeo Woon-hyeok's lips curled up in the darkness.
It seemed he wouldn't have to worry about suffocating.
"Found it! I found the entrance stone!"
-Clang! Clang!
The sound of pickaxes hitting stone grew louder.
Yeo Woon-hyeok closed his eyes and waited.
He needed to conserve oxygen.
'Grave of the Nameless Sword...'
He had never heard of it.
In his era, there was no such thing.
This meant a significant amount of time had passed.
-Creak!
A heavy grinding sound echoed. The stone slab covering the tomb was being moved.
Fresh air flowed in through the gaps in the coffin.
"Whoa... Look at the goods."
"It's a jackpot, Captain! Look at these burial items!"
"Don't touch the porcelain, you fool! Look for the manuals or elixirs!"
The footsteps approached the coffin.
"This is the main coffin. Help me open it."
"Yes!"
-Screech!
A crowbar was wedged into the lid of the coffin.
With a tearing sound of wood, the lid was lifted.
Light.
The torchlight pierced the darkness, stinging his eyes.
Yeo Woon-hyeok narrowed his eyes.
Three men stood above him.
They wore rough hemp clothes and had scarves wrapped around their faces. Typical tomb raiders.
"Huh?"
The captain, holding the torch, flinched.
He looked down at the boy lying in the coffin.
"What is this? A kid?"
"He looks perfectly preserved, Captain. Is it a mummy?"
"He looks like he's sleeping... Wait."
The captain's eyes widened.
He saw the chest of the 'corpse' rising and falling.
"He... he's breathing."
Silence descended on the tomb.
The grave robbers froze, staring at the boy.
At that moment.
Yeo Woon-hyeok opened his eyes.
"Ack!"
The youngest robber screamed and fell backward.
Yeo Woon-hyeok slowly sat up.
His joints creaked, stiff from disuse.
He looked at the three men with an indifferent gaze.
"Who... who are you!?"
The captain drew a rusty saber from his waist. His hand was trembling.
Yeo Woon-hyeok tilted his head.
"Water."
"What?"
"My throat is dry. Give me water."
The robbers were dumbfounded.
A corpse just sat up from a coffin sealed for who knows how long and asked for water.
"D-D-Demon! It's a Jiangshi!"
One of the robbers swung his shovel in panic.
-Whoosh!
The heavy iron shovel flew towards Yeo Woon-hyeok's head.
It was a crude attack, full of openings.
Yeo Woon-hyeok didn't even blink.
He simply raised his left hand.
-Tap.
He caught the handle of the shovel.
"...!?"
The robber's eyes nearly popped out.
He tried to pull the shovel back, but it wouldn't budge.
It was as if it was stuck in a boulder.
Yeo Woon-hyeok looked at his own hand.
'Weak.'
His grip strength was pathetic compared to his past life.
But against these thugs, it was enough.
"You have no manners."
Yeo Woon-hyeok twisted his wrist.
-Crack!
The thick wooden handle of the shovel snapped like a twig.
"Ah...!"
Before the robber could scream, Yeo Woon-hyeok lunged forward.
He grabbed the broken handle and thrust it.
-Puk!
"Kugh..."
The sharp splintered wood pierced the robber's throat.
Blood spurted out, splashing onto Yeo Woon-hyeok's pale face.
The warm sensation of blood.
The irony smell.
Yeo Woon-hyeok smiled.
It was a smile that would make even ghosts cry.
"Now, I feel a bit more alive."
...
The robber with the pierced throat collapsed, gurgling blood.
-Thud.
The sound of the body hitting the cold stone floor echoed in the tomb.
"Y-You crazy...!"
The captain and the remaining robber stepped back, their faces pale.
It happened in a flash.
The boy, who looked no older than fifteen, had killed a grown man without hesitation.
More than the killing itself, it was the boy's expression that terrified them.
He was calm. Bored, even.
"Ki... Kill him! Captain, kill him!"
The remaining robber pulled out a dagger.
The captain gritted his teeth and gripped his saber.
"You evil spirit! Die!"
The captain charged.
He had learned some martial arts. His footsteps were steady, and the trajectory of his saber aimed for the neck.
'Third-rate.'
Yeo Woon-hyeok analyzed the attack instantly.
Too slow. Too wide.
If he had his original internal energy, he could have killed this man with a mere thought.
But now, he had a fragile body and zero qi.
'I must use the environment.'
The tomb was narrow. Burial items were scattered everywhere.
Yeo Woon-hyeok kicked a porcelain vase at his feet.
-Clatter!
The vase flew towards the captain's legs.
"Hmph!"
The captain avoided the attack by stepping aside.
In that instant, his balance faltered.
That was the opening.
Instead of retreating, he stepped into the saber's range.
"What!?"
The captain panicked. Normally, an unarmed person would run away.
Yeo Woon-hyeok lowered his stance and struck the captain's wrist with his palm.
-Smack!
It wasn't a hard hit.
He targeted a specific nerve cluster on the wrist.
"Ack!"
The captain's hand went numb, and he dropped the saber.
Yeo Woon-hyeok caught the falling saber in mid-air.
It was heavy. His wrist complained at the weight.
'This body is truly garbage.'
But a weapon was a weapon.
-Slash!
A silver line was drawn in the dim light.
The captain's eyes widened. He looked down at his chest.
A thin red line appeared on his clothes.
Then, blood erupted.
"Ho... how..."
-Thud.
The captain fell to his knees.
Yeo Woon-hyeok looked at the last robber.
"H-Hik!"
The robber threw his dagger and ran towards the exit.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Yeo Woon-hyeok picked up a stone from the floor and threw it.
He didn't use internal energy. Only flawless mechanics and rotational force.
-Whack!
The stone hit the back of the robber's head accurately.
"Ugh!"
The robber stumbled and fell face-first.
Yeo Woon-hyeok walked over slowly.
He wiped the blood from his cheek with his sleeve.
"Hey."
"S-Spare me! Please spare me! I have a mother...!"
The robber crawled on the ground, begging.
Yeo Woon-hyeok crouched down and looked him in the eye.
"I asked for water earlier."
"H-Here!"
The robber frantically unhooked a water skin from his belt and offered it.
Yeo Woon-hyeok took it and drank greedily.
The cool liquid flowed down his parched throat.
"Haa."
He tossed the empty skin aside.
"Now, talk."
"Y-Yes?"
"What year is it?"
"I-It's the year of the Red Dragon... Imperial Calendar year 480."
Yeo Woon-hyeok frowned.
Imperial Calendar 480.
When he died, it was Imperial Calendar 150.
'Three hundred and thirty years.'
More than three centuries had passed.
The Orthodox Alliance, the Heavenly Demon Sect... everyone he knew was dust.
A hollow laughter escaped his lips.
"Ha... Hahaha."
"Sir...?"
"The 'Grave of the Nameless Sword'. Whose grave is this?"
"I-I don't know the details! I just heard rumors that a cursed child of the Namgung family was buried here secretly!"
"Namgung?"
The Namgung family. One of the Five Great Families.
Known for their sword arts and righteousness.
"Why would the righteous Namgung family bury a child alive in a secret tomb?"
"I-I heard... the child was born with the 'Nine Yin Severed Pulse'."
Yeo Woon-hyeok's eyes narrowed.
Nine Yin Severed Pulse.
It was a cursed constitution.
The meridians are blocked by extreme yin energy.
Those born with it cannot accumulate internal energy and usually die before the age of twenty due to the cold energy freezing their organs.
'So that's why this body felt so empty.'
The Namgung family, unable to cure the child and fearing the bad omen, likely buried him here to let him die and be forgotten.
'And I woke up in this dying body.'
It was a cruel joke of fate.
But Yeo Woon-hyeok smiled.
"Nine Yin Severed Pulse..."
For an orthodox martial artist, such a body meant death. A body incapable of cultivating martial arts.
But for the Great Demon of Blood?
"It is the perfect vessel."
The extreme yin energy was the best fuel for the 'Blood Heaven Art' he had created in his past life.
He looked at the trembling robber.
"You possess some internal energy. Not much, but..."
"P-Please..."
Yeo Woon-hyeok placed his hand on the robber's head.
"It will be a good starter for my engine."
"No! Aaaargh!"
Yeo Woon-hyeok activated the Blood Heaven Art.
Although he had no qi, the technique itself could devour external energy.
The blood in the robber's body began to boil.
A faint red mist rose from the robber and was absorbed into Yeo Woon-hyeok's palm.
-Sizzle.
The amount was small.
But once the first drop was taken, there was no return.
The robber was reduced to a dried husk and collapsed.
Yeo Woon-hyeok stood up.
He felt a tiny thread of warmth in his cold dantian.
"Three hundred years..."
He looked at the exit of the tomb, where the moonlight was pouring in.
"The world has changed. But..."
He picked up the captain's saber.
"The strong still eat the weak."
Yeo Woon-hyeok, now Namgung's abandoned child, stepped out of the grave.