2: Chapter 2: A Few Hardships

On As I Have Written, densely packed small characters flew out from the book and gathered together.

[You have returned to the 1st year of your Transmigration, the first page of this book. At this time, you are still just a little novice monk at the Shaolin Temple.]

[Only 10 years old, you are still mired in the fury of your family's extermination. After bidding farewell to the Shaolin Abbot and returning to secular life, you used Bookmarks to preserve your cultivation from your previous life. Disguising yourself with the strength of a First-rate expert, you circled back into the temple, stole the Shaolin Temple's "Muscle," and then descended the mountain under the cover of night.]

[Over five years, you used the "Muscle" to cleanse your essence and marrow. Then, you arrived at the estate of your enemies from your previous life. You planned for three months and waited for three months. On the day the Young Lord of the Ye family was born, you sealed off the courtyard and slaughtered everyone to the last person. Even the earthworms were sliced horizontally, and every egg was shaken until the yolk broke. You seized the Ye family's Cultivation Technique, the "Seven Injuries Fist."]

[At 15, you lay in wait ahead of time and assassinated a Demon Cult Protector who was a local scourge. From the Protector's corpse, you looted the "Wind God Leg" and used his sidearm to forge a divine sword named 'startling swan.' Thereafter, the reputation of 'Young Master Startling Swan' spread far and wide, attracting the attention of countless sects.]

[At 17, you mastered the Wind God Leg, reaching Major Achievement in your Lightness Skill. You crossed the Xiang River and found the underwater ruins that had been washed into the present world before the floods of your previous life, obtaining the peerless Cultivation Technique, the "Cold Ice Fierce Fire Palm."]

[At 19, you refined all your martial arts and created the "Startling Swan Sword Art," becoming a Super First-rate expert. You defeated the three Grand Elders of the Beggars Gang in succession and rescued the Wudang Sect Leader from a Demon Cult siege at Mount Huang, your fame growing day by day.]

[At that time, the Demon Cult rose. The Leader, Ren Wuchang, practiced the Blood Transformation Demonic Art. His followers were everywhere, slaughtering Disciples of the Righteous Path and burning down temples and monasteries. Everyone in the Martial Forest lived in fear.]

[At 24, the Five Mountains and Ten Sects held a "Sword Discussion Assembly" at Huashan, inviting the heroes of the world to discuss the major affairs of the Martial Forest, though it was actually to compete for the title of "Number One in the Martial Forest." You were invited to attend.]

[On the Sword Discussion Stage, your white clothes were stained with frost. With one man and one sword, you defeated all the heroes of the world. First-rate experts such as the Songshan Sect Leader, the Huashan Sect Young Lord, and the Emei Sect Abbess took turns to face you, but all fell into a disadvantage. Every guest in the audience was dumbfounded.]

[During the sword discussion, you refined the "Songyang Sword Technique," "Nine Swords of Dugu," and "Extinction Sword Technique," thoroughly mastering and integrating all the Moves to nourish your "Startling Swan Sword Art."]

[That same year, you established your own sect on Ziyang Mountain, creating the "Ziyang True Art," and began cultivating your confidants and recruiting many Disciples. More and more experts in the Jianghu came to challenge you, but you defeated them one by one.]

[At 27, the Demon Cult held a "Heaven Worship Ceremony" at Blackwood Cliff, declaring they would wipe out the Five Mountains and Eleven Sects within three months and use First-rate experts for a Blood Sacrifice.]

[The Five Peaks Sword Sects, along with Shaolin, Wudang, and other sects, formed the "Orthodox Alliance" and gathered at Mount Song to discuss countermeasures, yet they were at a stalemate over the position of Alliance Leader. Just as everyone was deadlocked, you, who had been secretly pushing for the Alliance, appeared. Relying on your Shaolin origins, the Wudang Sect Leader's gratitude for saving his life, and your past achievements in defeating a Demon Cult Protector, you became the 'Alliance Leader.']

[Three days later, the Orthodox Alliance split into three routes and struck directly at the Demon Cult's headquarters. On Blackwood Cliff, demonic flames soared. Ren Wuchang held the heavenly demon sword, having reached the Peak, acting incredibly arrogant. He defeated the Shaolin Abbot and the Wudang Sect Leader in succession, and not a single person from the Five Mountains and Ten Sects was his match.]

[Just as Ren Wuchang was boasting to the world, you disguised yourself among the rank-and-file. Seizing an opportunity while he was off-guard, you flew out like a startling swan, your sword light unsheathed, and severed his right arm in an instant.]

[Faced with the sneak attack, Ren Wuchang was utterly shocked. You then pressed the advantage, and the morale of the Alliance army soared.]

[Just as the True Qi of both of you was nearly exhausted, you expended your life's wisdom to realize the strongest strike, the "Startling Swan Glance."]

[Ren Wuchang could not dodge in time and had his head severed by your sword. The Blood Transformation Demonic Art immediately backfired, and his body collapsed with a crash, turning into a pool of bloody water.]

[Seeing their leader dead, the Demon Cult Disciples instantly collapsed and fled.]

[After this battle, the Alliance disbanded, but that heaven-shaking sword strike was permanently etched into the hearts of everyone present.]

[Your reputation in the Jianghu was gradually deified. People stopped calling you 'Alliance Leader' and began calling you 'Supreme.']

[The Emperor of Great Qǐ, Emperor Taikang, heard of your deeds and summoned you to court. He treated you like a brother and married his daughter, Princess Anle, to you.]

[You knew this was imperial statecraft, an attempt to win you over so the court could have a voice in the Martial Forest.]

[But you also wanted to glimpse the royal Cultivation Techniques to refine your martial arts, removing the dross and keeping the essence to reach the legendary Peak Realm, so you accepted the marriage Alliance.]

[When the people of the Jianghu heard of this, they were all perplexed. Some cursed you as a dog of the court, but you didn't care.]

[In the following years, the Ziyang Sect you founded recruited many Disciples and became a force that could not be ignored.]

[At 28, Princess Anle gave birth to a son for you. Looking at your son who carried the royal Bloodline, you calculated the world's situation and thought for a long time.]

[At 29, the northern barbarians invaded in force, their iron cavalry breaking through Yanmen Pass, and the northern border nearly fell. The imperial army retreated repeatedly, and Emperor Taikang issued an edict summoning Martial Forest figures to aid the war effort.]

[Hearing of the national crisis and the barbarians' atrocities that incited public outrage, you immediately set aside Martial Forest affairs. Using your prestige as the former Alliance Leader, you gathered thirty thousand members of the Martial Forest Volunteer Army to reinforce the northern border.]

[On the day the battle began, the barbarian iron cavalry surged like a tide. You led from the front, your startling swan sword dancing like a bird in flight. Wherever you went, the Tartar soldiers fell one after another.]

[With General Zhenbei's Iron Armor Army acting as a pivot, you led the volunteer army in small squads, using Formations for flexible combat, repeatedly breaking through the Tartar Formations. At night, you led a hundred Ziyang Sect Disciples with exceptional Lightness Skills to infiltrate the Tartar camp, burning their supplies and slaying the enemy's vice-general.]

[After more than a month of fierce fighting, the Tartar supplies were cut off, and their morale crumbled.]

[At the final stage of the war, you spotted an opportunity. Your sword light swept out, clearing a space, and you engaged in a decisive duel with the barbarian tribal leader, Baturu, beneath Yanmen Pass.]

[Baturu possessed immense strength, his giant axe swinging like a wild wind. You used the "Startling Swan Sword Art" to face him, your movements agile as you maneuvered around him. When his strength was spent, you used the Cold Ice Fierce Fire Palm to pierce his chest. Seeing their leader dead, the Tartar army immediately fled. Together with General Zhenbei, you led the pursuit for a hundred miles, and three months later, you recovered Yanmen Pass and a thousand miles of lost territory.]

[After this battle, your prestige reached its zenith. Everyone in the northern border of Great Qǐ knew your name as the Supreme Martial Artist, and the voices calling you a court lackey faded.]

[That same year, Emperor Taikang summoned General Zhenbei to the capital alone to bestow rewards, but General Zhenbei declined on the grounds of heavy injuries. You learned of your life-and-death friend's predicament and remained silent for a long time.]

[At 29, while traveling south of the Yangtze, Emperor Taikang fell into the water at night and died of fright. Before the incident, the First-rate close-attendant experts by his side vanished, while you spent the night listening to the rain on a painted boat on the river.]

[That same year, because no crown prince had been appointed, the Nine Dragons Struggle for the Throne broke out. The capital was in chaos, and strife arose everywhere.]

[At 30, your Disciple, the Ninth Prince, killed all other princes and ascended the throne with your help, using the era name Jingyang. That same year, you were titled the Supreme Imperial Preceptor. As a legend of the Martial Forest and the Supreme Martial Artist, you were henceforth allowed to wear your sword and shoes into the palace and were exempt from prostrating.]

[At 31, relying on your network as the Supreme, you finally found a trace of your wife from your previous life. However, she had died in the chaos of the struggle for the throne you had incited in the capital, her family destroyed. This made you feel the fickleness of fate.]

[At 40, in the Martial Forest, people only knew of the Supreme, not the Emperor. Emperor Jingyang, together with General Zhenbei and other First-rate experts, set a trap with poison at your fortieth birthday banquet, intending to kill you and interrogate you for the secret techniques of your sword dao.]

[Enraged by the betrayal, you were fortunately prepared. A Genius who had cultivated for two lifetimes, your Dragon-Elephant Prajna Skill had already reached the twelfth level, only one step away from Perfection, yet no one in the world could match you.]

[With your Peak Internal Energy, you effortlessly slew six thousand armored Imperial Guards and beheaded all those First-rate experts, killing the friends you once fought alongside with deep resentment.]

[That same year, General Zhenbei assassinated the emperor to seize power for himself. News of you Quelling the National Crisis and crushing his wolfish ambitions spread throughout the world. Only one member of the royal Bloodline remained; you installed your second son as the emperor and changed the era name to yuanchang.]

[At 45, your wife, Princess Anle, became depressed and fell terminally ill. You searched for famous doctors across the land but were powerless, watching your wife pass away in silence through the night.]

[At 50, your eldest son suffered a Qi Deviation while practicing and died from the backward surge of True Qi.]

[At 55, the Shaolin Abbot, who was once both a father and a friend, had a recurrence of an old injury and passed away peacefully. You knelt before a clay Buddha statue all night.]

[At 60, you stood at the Peak of Ziyang Mountain, looking down on all other mountains. For the first time, you felt lonely and developed the idea of seeking immortals.]

[At 62, you visited the old site of the Demon Cult's Blackwood Cliff and obtained some confusing information. The Demon Cult's Heaven Worship Ceremony back then was related to "Ascension." You were overjoyed and wanted to know more, but the trail had gone cold. Perhaps the former Demon Cult Leader, Ren Wuchang, knew something, but he was already dead, and the dead do not speak.]

[At 64, your Dragon-Elephant Prajna Skill reached the thirteenth level, achieving Perfection, making you a true Peak of the Mortal Realm on this plane.]

[At 66, after years of searching for immortals without success, you began to enjoy the rest of your life, taking many wives and concubines and traveling across the mountains and rivers.]

[At 70, two Cultivators descended upon your plane, tearing the surface of the earth apart. Ninety-nine percent of life was extinguished. Relying on your unparalleled, invulnerable Physical Body, you narrowly survived in the aftermath.]

The story of Shen Moyan's life condensed into clusters of small characters, gradually gathering onto the Bookmarks and piecing together four large white characters.

[Supreme Martial Artist (White)]

Meanwhile, in Shen Moyan's perception, the surrounding scenes constantly shifted and receded at high speed as memories surged like a tide.

[End of this life, Zhipan, Final Stroke]

[Returned to the location of the Bookmarks]

Dong—

Inside the Shaolin Temple, the heavy morning bell resonated through the thin mist, striking the eardrums.

Shen Moyan slowly opened his eyes, revealing three parts weariness and seven parts determination.

What met his eyes was a mottled plaster roof, with a few rays of sunlight leaking through holes in the window lattice, illuminating the dust floating in the air.

Faint sandalwood and damp mildew lingered around his nose. Shen Moyan let out a long breath of turbid Qi:

"It is merely some wind and frost."