_Nine Sword Sect_
It is said that a great cultivator passed through a mountain range ten thousand years ago. Seeing that this place was filled with spiritual energy, he decided to settle here. After that, he founded a large sect known as the Nine Sword Sect.
After ten thousand years of development, the Nine Sword Sect had already become one of the overlord forces in the Great Martial Domain.
The Nine Sword Sect was renowned for its unique structure of nine sacred peaks, also called the Nine Sword Mountain Range. Each peak symbolizes one of the foundational principles of sword cultivation. These peaks were named after ancient sword styles brought by the founder of the sect.
There was a special place in this mountain range. It was a small valley between the First Sword Mountain and the Second Sword Mountain.
The valley wasn't very big, but it was several miles wide. There were several rotten and dried corpses scattered in the valley. The corpses there were of both humans and beasts. From time to time, black crows circled around it, letting out horrible cries that can make one's hair stand on end.
This was the "Trash Valley" where all sorts of miscellaneous things were thrown, including but not limited to corpses, trash pills, rotten herbs, wastes, and more.
The valley was silent, and under the moonlight, it appeared ghostly.
Shua~
All of a sudden, the silence was broken by a hand that emerged from the ground.
"Ugh!"
The hand that broke through the ground was thin and pale, its fingers trembling as if struggling to find strength. Dirt crumbled around the hand.
Slowly, another hand pushed through the soil and clawed at the ground as if trying to pull itself out of a grave.
The moonlight fell on the scene and made the hands look even more ghostly.
A moment later, a head rose from the ground, followed by the rest of his body.
The person who emerged was a young man.
The young man drew in a deep, shaky breath, as though he were breathing for the first time. He lifted his head toward the sky, causing moonlight to spill across his pale face. His lips trembled slightly, but no sound came out.
He stood there for a moment, his body swaying as if it might collapse at any second. Slowly, he looked around.
"Why am I alive?"
Li Xuan muttered in confusion as he examined himself. He clearly remembered the agony of his body exploding into pieces. He hadn't died instantly. Instead, his soul had lingered for a brief moment before being swallowed by darkness.
There was a reason his soul had not been destroyed along with his body.
Although Li Xuan was born with the Absolute Mortal Body and could never absorb spiritual energy into his flesh, his soul was not bound by the same restriction. As the son of a Heavenly Monarch, his father had long anticipated the dangers surrounding him.
Over the years, Li Tianji used countless precious treasures to temper his soul directly.
Through special techniques, he refined their essence himself and infused it into Li Xuan's soul, strengthening it to the limits of the Mortal Realm's Fourth Stage.
His body remained mortal. But his soul had been forged far beyond that of ordinary men.
Talking about the Mortal Realm, it is divided into nine stages of cultivation realms, starting with the Qi Refinement Stage, Foundation Building Stage, Core Formation Stage, Golden Core Stage, Nascent Soul Stage, Spirit Origin Stage, Origin Sea Stage, Heavenly Completion Stage, and Divine Transformation Stage.
Through years of painstaking effort and priceless treasures, Li Xuan's soul had reached the strength of a Golden Core cultivator.
But that was its absolute limit. To progress further required the formation of a Nascent Soul, something only cultivators could achieve. As a bearer of the Absolute Mortal Body, Li Xuan had no such possibility.
A mortal could be killed by a powerful cultivator with nothing more than a casual push.
Li Xuan's father, Li Tianji, knew this all too well. So, he did not ask his son to become strong and rule the world. He only hoped for his son to live a long and safe life.
That was why he chose to temper and strengthen his son's soul, granting him even the slightest chance to survive against overwhelming odds.
And it seemed that the gamble had paid off.
Perhaps because Li Xuan was merely a mortal, Mo Yushan hadn't bothered to use any technique or unleash a serious attack. He had simply snapped his fingers. The sharp, piercing sound of his finger snap alone had shattered Li Xuan's body into countless fragments.
But since no true skill or destructive force had been directed at his soul, his slightly strong soul survived.
But what about this body?
He clearly remembered his body being shattered by Mo Yushan. So how was he standing here now, whole and unharmed?
How?
Li Xuan's brows furrowed as confusion churned in his mind. He couldn't understand how he had come back to life.
None of it made sense.
Why was he still alive?
Why was his body whole?
The answers seemed just beyond his grasp. He couldn't understand why he was still alive.
He should have been dead. So why wasn't he?
He stood there with a confused and lost expression.
After a long while, he shook his head and clenched his fist in anger.
"I don't know why I'm still alive… but since I am, I won't waste this chance." Li Xuan's eyes turned cold. His fists clenched tightly as killing intent flickered within his gaze.
"Mo Yushan, just wait. One day, I will take your head. Even if I must defy the heavens, even if I must walk a path no one has ever walked, I will cultivate. I will grow stronger. And when I return, you will pay for everything."
Hatred flickered in his eyes. He didn't even feel the pain as his nails dug into his palms, blood dripping steadily to the ground.
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down and looked around once more.
This was an unfamiliar place. It was a place he had never seen before.
Under the moonlight, he could see countless rotten and dried corpses, skeletons, waste, broken weapons, and many other things.
The world before him was simply a nightmare. However, since he had seen the worst, he remained calm and composed.
"What is this place?"
"A battlefield? No… It isn't."
As Li Xuan observed his surroundings, his gaze soon fell upon a corpse not far from him.
Unlike the others, this one was still fresh. The blood around it had not yet fully dried. A single clean sword wound marked the man's neck.
Li Xuan thought for a moment and then approached the corpse cautiously. After confirming there was no movement, he crouched down.
"My clothes are useless anyway."
His own garments were torn and stained beyond recognition. Without hesitation, he stripped the corpse and changed into the dead man's robes under the cold moonlight.
He also found an identity token beside the corpse. This person was Yang Fann, an outer disciple of the Nine Sword Sect.
Li Xuan frowned in confusion.
"Nine Sword Sect? Never heard of it."
His father had been a Heavenly Monarch. He was familiar with many major sects and powers of their region. Yet this name meant nothing to him. He had never heard of a sect called the Nine Sword Sect.
"Just where exactly am I?"
He looked toward the horizon, where mist coiled like silent serpents across the land of corpses.
Suddenly, a chilling thought crossed his mind.
"Was I transported here? Reincarnated? Or…"
Now that Li Xuan thought about it, something felt off.
His voice wasn't the one he was familiar with. It sounded younger and strangely unfamiliar.
Thinking about his tragic death and the fact that he now stood here unharmed, Li Xuan couldn't help but arrive at a bold conclusion.
He had most likely been reborn in another man's body.
"However…"
Li Xuan carefully examined his body again, only to frown.
He was far too familiar with certain sensations. Feeling some limitations in this body, his heart sank.
This body was also an Absolute Mortal Body.
"How is that possible?"
The Absolute Mortal Body was a cursed physique even among forbidden bodies. It was a known truth that an era could give birth to only one such existence. Never two.
Then how could there be another?
Li Xuan's thoughts raced rapidly.
In his ordinary life, he had read countless ancient records and books. So, although he was unable to cultivate, he had an unfathomable foundation of knowledge and information.
That's why, when he truly started thinking, a bold idea suddenly surfaced in his mind once again.
What if this body hadn't originally possessed the Absolute Mortal Body?
What if the curse, this physique, had followed his soul during reincarnation and fused with this new body?
Hiss~
Li Xuan took a deep breath and immediately suppressed his bold thoughts. Then he shook his head and stopped thinking.
There was no way to confirm his conjecture, and there was no need to.
As long as he was alive, that was enough.