Chapter 1 - The Headless Visitor.

“Ah—no matter how beautiful the scenery, seeing too much of it makes you sick!! Now I understand why ancient people could calm down and cultivate. It's simply because there's no entertainment and they're bored!!” Looking at the beautiful scenery in the mountains and forests not far away, Xu Xuan stretched on a large tree between the cliffs.

Then he leisurely took a bite of the roasted meat in his arms.

“Indeed, I still want to play games!! I still want to look at my phone!! Everyone says transmigration is good, but facing a world without electricity or internet, what's good about it? Especially a world full of dangers like this! System!! Where's my system? Where are the transmigrator benefits?”

Of course, Xu Xuan complained like this almost once or twice every day. After all, he had been transmigrated to this world for seventeen years, and besides retaining the memories of his previous life, he had brought nothing else. Moreover, he was just a baby when he transmigrated.

The only stroke of luck was that he seemed to have transmigrated into a wealthy family. But just as Xu Xuan was celebrating that he would be a rich second-generation in this life, reality once again slapped him hard. For some unknown reason, his family left the city with guards and him, still an infant. Not long after, Xu Xuan witnessed the darkness of this world for the first time.

On a mountain path, a grotesque, big-headed flesh ball, dragging a child-like body, approached their convoy. Then, right before Xu Xuan's eyes, that bizarre creature slaughtered everyone in their group in an extremely cruel and bloody manner!! This was also Xu Xuan's first encounter with the so-called Demon-Ghost.

Fortunately, he was eventually rescued. Perhaps because he was still an infant, everyone protected him. This delayed things until his current master appeared. A flying sword directly pierced the monster's body, then cut the monster in half. Seeing this scene, Xu Xuan once thought he had entered a world of immortal cultivation.

After that, his master took him to a towering peak and accepted him as a disciple.

Hidden Sword Peak, the two ancient characters “Sword Hall” above the mountain gate displayed the ancient heritage of this sect. However, Xu Xuan did not recognize these two characters at that time. There was no other way; the script of this era was completely different from that of his past era, and it seemed that before the Great Qin unification, the scripts of various states in this world were all different.

Ultimately, Xu Xuan settled down in the Sword Hall. He became one of its disciples. At the same time, through years of understanding the outside world, Xu Xuan finally gained some knowledge of this world. What disappointed him first was that this world was not a fantasy immortal cultivation world. Their practitioners were not called cultivators, but rather Qi Practitioners or Dao Seekers.

The outside world was somewhat similar to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, but it seemed that due to Demon-Ghosts and cultivators, history had completely deviated from its normal course. For hundreds of years, since the beginning of the division, the conquests among various states had never ceased. However, one historical event did occur: the Hundred Schools of Thought.

Among the Hundred Schools, other schools specialized in one technique, only the nine schools known as the Upper Nine Streams were different. In the words of Xu Xuan's master Ouzi, “The ambition of the Upper Nine Streams sects is the entire world.”

As for their sect, the Sword Hall, it was somewhat well-known in the martial world. After all, it was a sect famous for its swordsmanship. Currently, there were only two elders in the sect: his master Ouzi, and his martial uncle Yezi. What the Sword Hall worshipped year-round was a longsword constantly burning in a cauldron at the mountain's summit.

What also annoyed Xu Xuan the most was that there was no paper in this era; written traditions were almost all on bamboo slips. What pained him most was that even for going to the toilet, they relied on bamboo...

“Forget it, time's almost up, let's go back to the mountain. I'll practice two sets of sword forms, cultivate for a while, work up a sweat, then go to the mountain spring for a shower and get a good night's sleep!!” Stretching, Xu Xuan flipped and jumped down from the tree, then with a few leaps, he climbed up the cliff.

Regarding cultivation, Xu Xuan was indeed excited for a while at first, and he worked hard for a while. After all, this was extraordinary power. But after some time, Xu Xuan got tired of it...

After all, in his previous life, he was a homebody, and his ability to endure hardship was truly limited. Besides his daily mandatory lessons, Xu Xuan basically gave up on extra practice. Moreover, cultivation in this world was not like the Qi cultivation and meditation in immortal cultivation novels, where you just needed to calm your mind. Instead, it was genuine hard work to temper the body. Xu Xuan was sure that anyone who could endure hardship and extra practice definitely possessed great perseverance.

Even with great perseverance, success was not guaranteed. After all, not long after, Xu Xuan personally witnessed a junior disciple crippling himself by practicing desperately. That junior disciple could no longer practice martial arts for the rest of his life.

It was also then that Xu Xuan realized that in martial arts, diligence seemed utterly unable to compensate for the gap in talent. As for Xu Xuan's own talent level, it was completely mediocre. In his master Ouzi's words, at this rate, Xu Xuan would reach his level in another thirty years...

Furthermore, Xu Xuan had never received the so-called transmigrator benefits, the system's voice. He had entered the mountains so many times but never encountered any fortuitous opportunities. Over the years, Xu Xuan's mindset gradually shifted from ambitiously wanting to dominate this world to a state of "lying flat" and "giving up."

The change in his mindset also made his life these past years comfortable and peaceful. After his morning lessons and cultivation, he would go to the back mountain to farm, hunt some wild game in the mountains and forests, and pick some wild fruits. He would find a beautiful spot, lie down, eat some wild mountain fruits, roast some game, and enjoy the mountain scenery. When it got dark, he would go back to sleep. Then, the next day, he would wake up refreshed to cultivate.

Day after day, this kind of life surprisingly gave Xu Xuan a sense of tranquility and peace. Gradually, Xu Xuan found himself immersed in this lifestyle. Thus, Xu Xuan made a decision that went against the typical transmigrator's path. He wanted to live as a recluse on this mountain for the rest of his life, until he died of old age. After all, outside were monsters and demons everywhere, and nations schemed against each other. To this day, Xu Xuan still vividly remembered what happened that day; the grotesque, flesh-ball-like Demon-Ghost devouring people had left a severe psychological trauma on him. Moreover, almost every year, news of Sword Hall disciples being killed while eliminating demons down the mountain would return. On one side, demons ran rampant; here, the mountains were clear, waters beautiful, and all was peaceful. Plus, he was naturally a homebody. So, he planned to live his life this way...

As for his master, what Xu Xuan didn't expect was that the sects of this era didn't care how strong their disciples were in Qi cultivation or martial arts. They cared more about the disciples' understanding of the sect's doctrines and their state of mind. So, even though he spent most of his time slacking off and not practicing his sword much, no one in the entire sect made things difficult for him.

After a simple sword practice and a shower, Xu Xuan took out a roll of bamboo slips and started reading before dark. He returned to the sect's cliffside, reading in the afternoon sun. After all, being idle was still idle. He always had to find something to do.

“This really is a strange era. According to old novels, which sect didn't have minor competitions every three years and major ones every ten? The strong entered the inner sect, the weak the outer sect, and geniuses received true inheritances. This era is quite good. All of the Sword Hall's sword art manuals are there, free to read and practice. Instead, subjects like character building and mind cultivation, which are unrelated to cultivation, have become mandatory readings.”

This bamboo slip was named Sword Discourse. It generally spoke of the sword being the king of all weapons, a gentleman among arms. One should also be like the sword, upright and honorable, acting as a gentleman, rather break than bend. The sword is a weapon, yet it was created to protect oneself and loved ones, and so on. In short, the content on the bamboo slip was basically about teaching disciples how to be proper people.

With this reading, the rest of the afternoon passed by for him.

“Progress in sword cultivation isn't tested, but this is tested every year,” Xu Xuan said, putting the bamboo slip into his arms and stretching. At this time, the distant sun had already set. It was time to return to the mountain gate. However, just as Xu Xuan flipped and leaped onto the cliff, the sky had already darkened.

In these past few years, Xu Xuan had only mastered a single flying sword technique, allowing his longsword to leave his body by a maximum distance of fifteen paces. Instead, by hunting wild game in the mountains, he had inadvertently developed a decent movement technique.

When Xu Xuan returned to the mountain gate and closed it, the sky had completely darkened. And tonight's night was exceptionally eerie. In the sky, the stars were gone; only a blood-red moon hung above. Its crimson light cast an incredibly eerie glow over the entire Hidden Sword Peak. Read at Novels Haven (novelshaven.com)

Just as Xu Xuan closed the mountain gate and prepared to go back to rest.

“Thump, thump, thump,” three knocks sounded from outside the mountain gate behind Xu Xuan. The sound was very heavy, as if someone was pounding hard on the gate with their fist.

“Which fellow disciple is it? Returning to the mountain so late?” Hearing the knocking, Xu Xuan asked curiously.

“Thump, thump, thump,” the knocking continued in response to Xu Xuan. The knocks had a strange rhythm.

“Stop knocking, the mountain gate isn't locked. Just open it yourself. There's also a small door next to it. If you find it troublesome, you can open the small door too. The small door isn't locked either.” Receiving no reply, Xu Xuan said somewhat impatiently. Hidden Sword Mountain allowed free coming and going; disciples who had mastered martial arts often descended to travel or become honored guests of some king or prince. So, it was common for fellow disciples to return unexpectedly late at night. However, this time, Xu Xuan's eyes narrowed. An ominous premonition began to envelop his heart.

No matter how slow a normal person's reaction, they would feel that something was wrong by now. After all, the person outside the gate wasn't answering him at all, just kept knocking!! Knocking!!

Thinking this, Xu Xuan opened the small door and looked outside.

Indeed, there was a disciple knocking, but the next second Xu Xuan drew the longsword from his back. The reason was simple: that fellow disciple had no head!!

Just outside the Sword Hall's mountain gate, a headless body was rhythmically knocking on the Sword Hall's gate.