When he was just around the age of seven, Mu Chen's father had brought a sword with him. A simple single-edged sword with a slight curve. It was sheathed in an unadorned wooden scabbard.

The sword was the heirloom of a family of mortals who his father saved from a disaster. To express their gratitude, they gifted it to his father. Unable to reject their feelings, his father acquiesced.

When Mu Chen saw the sword he immediately fell in love with it and begged for it. But his father was worried he would end up cutting himself, so he lied to him that it was a sacred sword and only those who were skilled in the art of the sword could wield it, otherwise they would be cursed. Even his father was just a keeper of the sword and couldn't use it.

Mu Chen was just a snotty little kid back then and easily fell for the story. In order to be worthy of the sword, he decided to practice swordsmanship. He found a piece of wood, shaped it like that of the sword, then started swinging it around. His father thought he would give up after a few days once his interest waned.

Who could have guessed, Mu Chen persisted? He practiced with his makeshift sword for days and nights. His body became sore and riddled with bruises, but he didn't stop. His mother couldn't bear to watch him get hurt because of improper training and tried to intervene, but Mu Chen didn't listen. So she blamed her husband. His father also felt a headache since Mu Chen wouldn't listen to him. Eventually, he found someone to teach Mu Chen some basics of the sword so that he would at least learn properly.

In just a few years, Mu Chen became an expert at using a wooden sword. When he became ten years old, his Father finally gifted him the sword and Mu Chen started practicing with a real sword. It had to be said Mu Chen had quite the talent for the sword. In just a few more years, he became an expert at using the real sword as well.

Part of the reason Mu Chen became a Spirit Gathering cultivator at a young age of fifteen could be attributed to his rigorous training with the sword. The foundation Establishment stage required one to meditate for extended periods of time. Children usually didn't have that degree of patience.

But because Mu Chen had been practicing sword, he had long been used to training with intense focus for extended periods of time. As such he had a much easier time than others in the Foundation Establishment stage.

After he started cultivating, Mu Chen would often practice his sword. However, the time he dedicated to the sword gradually dwindled. Mu Chen was now old enough to understand that the sword he had was not any sacred treasure.

Moreover, only cultivators who were in the foundation stage would use melee weapons. True cultivators would use magical techniques and treasures to fight. Even if they used swords they were mostly flying swords, without a hilt. Or the sword would be a treasure sword and used to channel some martial technique. Fighting melee was not the style of a cultivator. Mu Chen, who was on the road to becoming a true cultivator also believed it would be a waste of time to train in skills he might never use.

By the time he had become a Spirit Gathering cultivator, Mu Chen had all but abandoned the sword. He would only occasionally take it in the hands. The sword became a showpiece which he adorned on the wall of his bedroom. And it would have stayed there for who knows how long, had it not been for his injury.

When Mu Chen first realized the gravity of his injury, he was utterly devastated. Everyone tried to console him but to no avail. Zhou Mei even tried to sneak into his bed naked and seduce him, but even that failed. Mu Chen was like a zombie and laid in his bed for days without food or water.

It was not until Mu Chen's eyes fell on the sword on the wall, that there finally was a change. When he saw the sword, Mu Chen recalled his training sessions and reminisced about the past. When he used to practice the sword, he was also a mortal just like now.

Mu Chen was suddenly stimulated. He grabbed the sword from the wall and caressed it, drawing it out of the sheath for the first time in over a year.

Although Mu Chen had become a sword expert in the eyes of his others, he himself was aware that he was far away from the pinnacle of swordsmanship.

With the sword in his hand, Mu Chen was suddenly inspired. So what if he couldn't cultivate? Was that all that was there in life? Weren't there other things he could still pursue? Since he could no longer walk the path of cultivation, he will pursue the pinnacle of swordsmanship as a mortal.

One mortal, one sword. Since the sword didn't abandon him, he won't abandon the sword.

With his sword in his hands, Mu Chen walked out of the shadows of despair. He once again started practicing swordsmanship. Since then the sword had become his spiritual support.

Mu Chen refused to die as a crippled cultivator. He would die as a legendary swordsman.

#

The visions flashed by. It was but a fleeting moment, yet Mu Chen felt as if he had relived his entire life.

As Mu Chen swung his sword, his entire being was focused on it. He wanted to give his best. He didn't want to disappoint his years of training. He didn't want to disappoint his sword.

Mu Chen no longer thought of his family or his lovers. He was no longer sad or happy. He did not think of his pain or his body. He did not think about defeating or killing his enemy. At this moment, Mu Chen had become indifferent to even life or death. He had poured his heart and soul into this sword.

The sword fell. A light flashed. Under the dark cover of the forest, it looked particularly dazzling.

Clink!

Something fell on the ground-it was a piece of a sword.

Thud! Thud!

Two pieces of a body followed suit.

#

A lithe figure of a girl was flying rapidly over the treetops. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a brilliant flicker of light flash by.

"Some people are fighting?" The flash of light attracted the girl's attention and she stopped moving and looked towards her side with some curiosity.

The girl hesitated for a bit. If there were indeed cultivator's fighting, it was best to avoid that place. The place was far enough that she couldn't tell the cultivation level of the people fighting. In case she foolishly stumbled upon something she wasn't supposed to know, she might end up getting killed for being a soy sauce. Like they said, curiosity killed the cat.

Moreover, that place was not really along her route, so there was even less reason for her to make a detour to just investigate something that could potentially lead to her death.

Thinking about this, the girl resumed her flight. But she had just gone a few feet further, she stopped again. Her eyebrows creased in a slight frown as she once again looked in that direction.

She didn't understand why. But she felt a very strong sense of foreboding. Her instincts were screaming. If she continued moving in the current direction, she might lose something very dear to her. The feeling was so strong, it made her nauseous.

The girl finally made a decision. Instead of moving forward, she turned and began to move in the direction of the place where she had seen the light flash by.

As she came closer to that place, she unconsciously increased her speed. As a cultivator, her eyesight was very good. Even without relying on her divine sense, she could clearly see everything below in the low light. In fact, for cultivators at her level, one could see further than the range of their divine sense.

From above the trees, she saw a gruesome sight. A person's body was split into two starting from left to the groin. The entrails had been sprawled over the ground in a pool of blood. An expression of utter disbelief was etched on the dead man's face.

And besides that body, was someone she knew. Although she could only see his back, she was intimately familiar with him and recognized him in an instant.

"Mu...Mu Chen!!" The girl screamed and her flying sword nose dived as she almost lost control of it. She struggled to regain control of her flying sword and desperately made her way towards Mu Chen.

The girl knelt beside Mu Chen and gently turned him over. Tears had already welled up in her eyes and began to fall like a waterfall.

Mu Chen's face had turned pale, and his breath was very weak. The girl immediately took out a pill bottle from her spatial pouch and fed a blood-red pill to Mu Chen.

"Mu Chen...Mu Chen...wake up! D-don't d-die!! P-please...d-don't die!" The girl sobbed as she began to transfer her spiritual qi into Mu Chen's body in order to help him refine the medicinal pill. Her tears fell on Mu Chen's face.

Mu Chen had already lost consciousness. His mind was enveloped in darkness. As if death itself was singing him a lullaby, making him want to sink into the darkness and go to sleep, forever.

However, the girl's cries were like a beacon of light that penetrated that darkness. At first, he thought he was just dreaming. He wanted to just roll over and go back to sleep into the darkness. However, the echoes of her cries kept reverberating inside his mind like thunder. Soon he sensed something warm drip onto his face.

"Ugh…" Mu Chen groaned and opened his eyes. He saw a teary-eyed face of a beautiful girl. She had long silver-white hair with light blue eyes. She would have looked even more beautiful if she hadn't been crying.

"Mei...er?" Mu Chen asked in some confusion. He wasn't dead?

"You-you woke up!" Zhou Mei sobbed. Seeing her red and puffy eyes, Mu Chen felt a pang of pain and he raised his hand in an effort to wipe away her tears.

"Don't move too much! I am going to summon Mu Family reinforcement." Zhou Mei said as she held Mu Chen's hand and brought it closer to her face so Mu Chen could touch it. With her free hand, she pulled out a tiny flying sword from her spatial pouch.

The tiny flying sword was only palm-sized. It was engraved with special formation. Once infused with qi it would fly up in the air and explode like fireworks forming a pattern, usually a symbol, in the sky. The pattern could be seen with clarity even from several miles away.

"N-no!"

Zhou Mei was just about to launch the signaling sword into the air but froze hearing Mu Chen speak.

"But you are hurt!" Zhou Mei said as she looked at Mu Chen in worry and puzzlement. She had fed Mu Chen a blood replenishing pill because she saw he had lost a lot of blood. However, the pill could only help with the replenishing of blood and bleeding. His other injuries still need to be treated. Because she often trained in the Dark Forest, she had already consumed all her healing pills, long ago. Mu Chen didn't have any pills with him, since he had given them to her.

"No! L-listen to me...bring me...to Grandpa Wu…" Mu Chen gasped.

Mu Chen didn't want to see his little sister cry. He had already made two girls cry today. That was enough for a day.

Moreover, he suspected that the killer was sent by someone from the Mu Family itself. It was better to stay hidden away from everyone's eyes. That would give him the time he needed to heal and recuperate.

Although Zhou Mei had a lot of questions, she suppressed her doubts for now as she prepared to lift Mu Chen carefully and take him to the city.

"Wait! Get that...guy's ring...and my stuff…"