Heavenly Sword Saint
Jian Chen slowly opened his eyes.
A dull ache spread through every part of his body.
His vision was blurred.
Above him was a worn wooden ceiling, its beams cracked with age.
Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the roof, casting faint rays across the quiet room.
He remained still.
The last thing he remembered...
Was death.
The Heavenfall Secret Realm.
The ancient palace.
Lin Xue'er's sword piercing through his back.
Long Tian's mocking laughter.
The rain of ancient swords.
The vow he made before darkness consumed him.
Yet...
He was still alive.
"How...?"
His hoarse voice echoed softly through the empty room.
He slowly raised his hand.
It was smaller than he remembered.
The calluses left behind by years of sword practice had disappeared.
His once powerful body had become thin and fragile.
Frowning, Jian Chen closed his eyes.
Almost instantly...
A torrent of unfamiliar memories flooded into his mind.
The pain caused his brows to knit together.
The memories belonged to another person.
Another Jian Chen.
Sixteen years old.
Young Master of the Jian Clan in Moonriver City.
Born with blocked meridians.
Unable to cultivate.
Mocked by the entire clan since childhood.
His father had disappeared many years ago without a trace.
His mother had exhausted countless treasures in an attempt to heal him.
Yet...
Nothing had worked.
Yesterday...
He had been beaten unconscious by Jian Hu and several other clan disciples.
His frail body had finally succumbed to its injuries.
Silence filled the room.
After a long while...
Jian Chen slowly opened his eyes.
"So..."
"I was reborn."
His expression remained calm.
He had once stood at the peak of the Divine Realm.
His state of mind was far beyond ordinary cultivators.
Even so...
One question lingered in his heart.
"Why?"
"I clearly died."
"My body was destroyed."
"My soul should have dispersed."
"So why am I still alive?"
He carefully recalled the final moments before his death.
Suddenly...
His pupils contracted.
"The Heavenly Sword Scripture!"
The mysterious inheritance!
The moment his hand had touched the ancient jade scroll...
It had dissolved into countless streams of golden light and entered his body.
Before he could even understand what it was...
Lin Xue'er's sword had pierced through his back.
He had never cultivated it.
He had never even examined it.
Could it...
Have been responsible for his rebirth?
Without hesitation...
Jian Chen directed his consciousness inward.
His surroundings vanished.
He appeared within an endless sea of darkness.
At the center of that darkness...
An ancient golden scroll floated silently.
It was covered in countless sword-shaped runes.
Each rune radiated an unfathomable profundity.
The scroll emitted no overwhelming aura.
Yet simply looking at it made Jian Chen feel as though he were gazing upon the origin of the Sword Dao itself.
"It really followed me..."
A hint of astonishment appeared in his eyes.
"The Heavenly Sword Scripture..."
"So it was you..."
He slowly approached the scroll.
Just as his spiritual sense was about to touch it
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
The sudden sound shattered his concentration.
His consciousness instantly returned to the outside world.
"Chen'er!"
An anxious voice sounded from outside the room.
"Mother is coming in."
Before Jian Chen could answer...
The wooden door was pushed open.
A graceful woman hurried inside.
She looked to be in her early thirties.
Although she wore plain clothes, they could not conceal her elegant temperament.
The moment she saw Jian Chen sitting up...
Tears immediately filled her eyes.
"Chen'er!"
She rushed to the bedside and tightly held his shoulders.
"You're finally awake."
"You frightened Mother to death."
Without waiting for a reply...
She carefully examined every bruise on his body.
Her hands trembled slightly.
When she saw the swollen marks on his chest and the dried blood at the corner of his mouth...
Her heart ached.
Behind her stood a young girl carrying a bowl of steaming medicine.
She appeared to be around fourteen years old.
Her bright eyes were red from crying.
Seeing Jian Chen awake...
She let out a long sigh of relief.
"Young Master..."
"You finally woke up."
"I... I thought..."
She lowered her head, unable to continue.
Jian Chen quietly looked at the two of them.
The memories of this body surfaced once again.
The elegant woman before him...
Was his mother.
Liu Ruyan.
Ever since his father disappeared...
She had single-handedly protected him from countless schemes within the clan.
She never abandoned him.
Never gave up on curing him.
No matter how many people mocked her son...
She always stood in front of him.
The young girl was Xiao Yue.
Two years younger than him.
She had entered the Jian Clan as a child after losing her parents.
Liu Ruyan had taken pity on her and allowed her to remain by Jian Chen's side.
Although she was officially his maid...
She had always treated him like family.
Liu Ruyan gently touched the bruise on his cheek.
Her eyes reddened once more.
"Chen'er..."
"What happened yesterday?"
"You left in the morning perfectly fine."
"When the guards carried you back..."
"You were covered in blood."
"They claimed you accidentally fell."
She slowly shook her head.
"I don't believe them."
"My son would never suffer such injuries from a fall."
Her expression gradually became firm.
"Tell Mother."
"Who did this to you?"
"I don't care who they are."
"They must answer for what they've done."
Jian Chen looked into her tear-filled eyes.
Then he looked at Xiao Yue, who was still standing quietly beside the bed with the bowl of medicine.
His gaze softened.
In his previous life...
His parents had loved him dearly.
But after entering the Jian Clan's ancestral grounds to cultivate at a young age, he had spent most of his time pursuing the Sword Dao.
As his talent grew...
So did the expectations placed upon him.
Eventually...
He became the greatest genius of the Divine Realm.
Countless people admired him.
Countless people feared him.
Yet very few truly cared about him as a person.
Then came the betrayal.
The people he trusted most had stabbed him in the back.
He died believing everything had come to an end.
But now...
After opening his eyes once more...
The first thing he saw was not greed.
Not ambition.
Not betrayal.
It was a mother anxiously checking every wound on his body.
And a young maid standing quietly nearby, relieved that he had awakened.
For the first time after his rebirth...
Jian Chen felt the warmth of a family once again.
He looked at Liu Ruyan.
A gentle smile appeared on his face.
"Mother..."
"I'm fine."
"I've made you worry."