Dominating Sword Immortal

In a dim room, a teenage boy laid on a bed as he softly mumbled, “… So this poor fool is also named Ye Chen. We even look somewhat similar… What a coincidence… Is this fate?”

Ye Chen was a graduate student studying physics in the 21st century. He was considered the top student in his class. However, an accident occurred during his attempt to create a particle accelerator for his university. The resulting explosion ripped Ye Chen’s soul from his body, sending it into the vast reaches of the Universe. His soul wandered the empty void until finally reaching this world.

If it was anyone else facing this kind of a sudden change, especially their soul entering into another, entirely different body, they would most definitely have a rough time[1]. However Ye Chen did not even feel a thing, only surprise.

Ye Chen wondered if he was actually some kind of a freak, feeling absolutely nothing after this kind of huge change. What if he could not feel anything following this?

After half a night, Ye Chen had digested more than a decade of memories. Through those memories, he learnt that he was a member of a famous family, and that he had joined the Sky Cloud Martial School [2] at the age of twelve. Officially becoming an outer disciple when he was fourteen was one of the few happy events in Ye Chen’s bitter life.

The most frustrating part was that, over the years, the previous owner of this body had only trained his Qi[2] to the Qi Realm Level 4. Aside from that, none of his skills seemed to have had any improvement. He was only capable of performing the first three forms of the most basic “Sword Arts of Yun”.

“If I want to survive in this world… I will wash away this title of useless!” Ye Chen hated being considered a loser, even if the title was attached to the former owner of this vessel. Now that this body belonged to him, he was determined to get rid of that humiliating title.

After making up his mind, he couldn’t help but remember the things that happened before he turned twelve.

The Sky Cloud Martial School, located on the northern side of the Heavenly Wind Country, was one of the five powerhouses in the country. They were the three Martial Schools, one Academy, and one Martial Palace. Other than these five powerhouses, there were also eight families in control of thousands of martial artists in Heavenly Wind Country. Even the royal family feared them and did not dare offend them.

And the family Ye Chen belonged to was the Ye Family, one of the eight famous families.

The Ye Family had over two hundred years of history. Originally, they were merchants who had accumulated a massive fortune by selling tea leaves and silk. Unfortunately, their wealth eventually brought the worst kinds of people out, all interested in making an easy profit.

After being robbed and blackmailed countless times, the master of the family at that time decided enough was enough, and began to develop their martial art prowess using their immense financial strength. After struggling for hundreds of years, the Ye Family finally achieved the position they hold today.

Being a part of the Ye Family meant that people would bend over backwards to please you, no matter where you go. However, Ye Chen had never experienced this kind of treatment because of his lack of martial talent, and he was, in fact, bullied often.

The only factor that protected him from complete humiliation was that his father was the current head of the Ye Family, and his mother was an elder of the School of Southern Hills- one of the three Martial Schools.

His most vivid memories were when his cousins would come over for family meetings. They would take him to a place where nobody would see and humiliate him. Even his maid, Daisy, would be despised by all other maids, and every time it happened, she would run to him and start crying on his shoulders, complaining about the unfairness of the treatment they received.

“F*ck, I won’t let them get away with this!” His eyes sparked with hatred as he firmly clenched his fists.

Feeling an unquenchable rage, Ye Chen vowed for revenge, especially now that he is the combination of the two Ye Chens. He has the memories and emotions from both of their lives, in other words, he is a combination of both Ye Chens.

And no matter which Ye Chen was humiliated, he shall take offense.

After taking in a deep breath in order to control his emotions, Ye Chen carried on retrieving his memories…

The youths of the Ye Family started training their Qi when they were ten. In order to be selected by one of the five Martial Arts Schools in Tian Feng and become a disciple-in-process, one must reach Qi Realm Level 2 by the age of twelve. To become an inner disciple, they would, at the minimum, have to reach Qi Realm Level 4.

Perhaps he was motivated by the pressure, or maybe he simply didn’t want to disappoint his parents, but Ye Chen somehow managed to reach Qi Realm Level 2 in two years, and Qi Realm Level 4 soon after that. He surprisingly did this before the age of twelve and became an inner disciple in the Sky Cloud Martial School.

However, his accomplishments were quite lacking compared to everyone else from the Ye Family: Ye Feng, the eldest cousin of Ye Chen, and his third uncle’s son, Ye Ming, had both reached Qi Realm Level 4 when they were twelve. But the most impressive one would have to be the second eldest cousin, Ye Tang, and fourth uncle’s daughter, Ye Xuan, both of whom reached Level 5 at the same age, and were considered to be rare martial arts geniuses.

One’s talent and potential determined what rank of school one would be able to join. The lower the rank, the better the quality of school.

Being the worst of them all, Ye Chen joined the rank nine Sky Cloud Martial School, while Ye Feng and Ye Ming joined the rank eight School of Zi Yang. Most impressively, Ye Tang joined the rank seven Northern Snow Villa; and Ye Xuan joined Emerald Valley, also rank seven.

“In one year will be the Triennial Family Meeting. I must do well. I can’t bear to bring shame to my mother again.” Ye Chen rolled out of the bed and, after quickly cleaning himself, he walked out to the yard with his sword in hand.

The Cloudfall Sword Art had nine stages, the first six didn’t have names, but the last three were named “The Search for Opportunity”, “Walking on a River of Clouds” and “Shine in Darkness”.

Ye Chen shut his eyes, picturing the sword art in his mind. Ye Chen slowly extended his right arm into the air and began to practice Cloud Fall Sword Art from the first stage.

Ye Chen’s eyes glimmered as he recalled his previous body’s pitiful clumsy attempts. It was incomparably different! Compared to before, the sword moved like a fish darting in water, and yet his body was completely relaxed, almost like everything had already fallen into place, and there was nothing more to worry about.

Swssh!

A falling leaf was cut in half in mid air, yet Ye Chen didn’t feel a thing. He just carried on waving his sword.

The first stage, the second, the third… the seventh.

Gradually, Ye Chen’s sword skills pushed past his former limits. Even though he was comprehending new techniques, he fluidly moved at an extremely fast pace. However, it also seemed like there was nothing restraining him in any way; the sword in his hand seemed to go wherever he wanted it to. Without stopping for a breath, he finally reached the seventh stage, “The Search for Opportunity”. All of a sudden, a light glanced out from his sword, bouncing around erratically, easily cutting through a couple of falling leaves, even though they were spread out from each other.

Ye Chen opened his eyes and ceased moving as he observed the results in surprise. One must know that for a beginner of martial arts, even the most basic moves were very hard to master. It was not just about the extent of one’s potential, but also about one’s ability to adapt to new things. For example, when trying to learn how to swim, it seems to be very hard in the beginning because of the fear of drowning. However, as one began to acclimatize oneself, one’s restrictions would be removed and every move would suddenly become simple.

As you could see, to become better was not hard. But to start from scratch? Incomparably difficult.

Ye Chen took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Effortlessly, he began the movements of the Cloudfall Sword Arts over and over again.

The first stage, the second… the seventh.

The first stage, the second… the seventh.

…

After repeating this ten times, Ye Chen was finally able to comprehend the eighth routine “Walking on a River of Clouds”.

The great steel sword in his hand gave off a blurry white sheen; just like the clouds in the sky suddenly running like water in a river, condensing then splitting, condensing then splitting, condensing then splitting…

As Ye Chen continued, the Qi inside of Ye Chen started to slowly increase its speed, just like the running river, continuously completing one loop after another, flowing up through his meridians before coming back to his lower abdomen then running right back out again.

“Hm?”

Suddenly, Ye Chen felt something change in his lower abdomen.

“I achieved Mid Level Fourth Qi Realm so easily?” Ye Chen knew that in order to reach Mid Level Fourth Qi Realm from Early Level Fourth Qi Realm, it would take at least a week, yet it only took him an hour.

It could never be that simple, but there must be something else prompting this kind of growth.

[1] Normally, when a soul enters into a completely different vessel, the vessel would have signs of rejection to the newly arrived soul which would make the soul feel tortured.

[2] Qi: is life-force — that which animates the forms of the world. It is the vibratory nature of phenomena — the flow and trembling that is happening continuously at molecular, atomic and subatomic levels. In this book, it is mostly referred to the Qi inside of people’s bodies which is largely related to the practise of martial arts.