I opened my eyes to pitch darkness.
Not figuratively, but truly, jet-black darkness.
What was this? For a moment, I thought I'd gone blind.
Fearful, I huddled up, and only after spotting a faintly flickering shape could I confirm that my eyesight was fine.
Ah, thank goodness.
'I'm not blind.'
I breathed a sigh of relief. After the fear subsided, I tried to grab the fluttering object.
'What is that?'
And after a while, I realized that the thing flapping whenever I moved was my sleeve.
'Do… clothes usually do this?'
As my vision adjusted to the darkness, I realized I was wearing unfamiliar clothing.
Feeling my hair, it seemed to be the long hair unusual for a man, wrapped in cloth.
'Why do I have hair like this?'
Lost in thought, I examined the clothes, and this time, the smooth, silky texture felt unusual.
The long, flowing sleeves, which made movement quite uncomfortable, were distinctly different from anything I knew.
After fumbling around for a while, I unconsciously placed my hand on my belt and paused.
Long hair wrapped in cloth, ancient clothing, a sword at my waist?
'Wait a minute!'
I frantically searched my body and found a jade pendant.
Reading the characters engraved on it, I was struck by a shock as if hit by a hammer.
'Namgung.'
…This is a wuxia novel.
A normal person would probably dismiss this situation as a dream or a malicious prank, but a chill ran down my spine.
Belatedly, I realized what the unfamiliar feeling of wearing these clothes had been about.
It wasn't the clothes!
My body had changed.
'Seriously? How is this possible?'
After standing blankly for a while, I tightly gripped the cool, bluish-green jade pendant in my hand.
With blue veins popping out on the back of my hand from the force of my grip, I was overwhelmed by shock, not knowing what to do.
'Suddenly, the Namgung Clan.'
I was a huge fan of wuxia novels and have devoured every cliché.
To be precise, I'd loved wuxia since I was young, and as I grew older, I became engrossed in 'Absolute Sword Saint'.
So, I had a rough idea of the situation.
This flowing attire, the sword at my waist, and the family name engraved on the jade pendant were telling me an undeniable truth.
This was a wuxia novel, and I had somehow entered it.
'What should I do?'
It didn't feel real at all.
'Is this a dream?'
I'd read a lot of possession stories, but… now that it was happening to me, my mind went blank.
For a while, I was in shock and denied reality, but soon enough, I came to a conclusion.
'This is real.'
The sensation of my body was too vivid.
The subtle feeling of perceiving reality was drastically different from a dream.
My senses even felt much sharper.
So, did I possess the body of a martial artist?
'That's a relief, at least.'
The treatment of civilians in wuxia novels… well, there's an unwritten rule that martial artists shouldn't harm the innocent, but that's all bullshit.
Ultimately, wuxia novels are about the survival of the fittest.
Civilians are routinely sucked dry as ingredients for elixirs, become sacrifices, or are massacred by villains.
They usually just serve as a catalyst for the hero's actions.
At least I'd avoided the worst-case scenario.
'Now what do I do?'
Everything felt hopeless.
I stood blankly for a long time before moving my body. I intended to search the space I was in.
'Let's try something, anything.'
It didn't take long to confirm that I was inside a small cave.
The entrance was very small.
Small enough to understand why I'd mistaken the darkness for blindness.
The exit path was angled, cleverly concealing the entrance.
The entrance was difficult to see from both inside and outside.
I had to bend over considerably to get out.
I bent down to go outside but hesitated and stepped back.
'What if something bad happens?'
I went back to the cave entrance, pondered for a moment, and then lowered my head.
I peeked through the dimly lit space to check outside.
It wasn't very bright outside either.
The light coming through the entrance was a veritable radiance in the dark cave, but in reality, it was a very faint, thin, almost feeble light.
And that light was coming down from above, outside the cave.
I examined the area a bit more and confirmed that the light was emanating from a round jewel.
…A night-luminescent pearl?
A staple item in wuxia novels.
A treasure worth an entire castle.
Why a glowing orb with no on/off switch held such value, why there were so many of them in circulation, and how the market was maintained were all mysteries.
Regardless, it was a very precious jewel.
Usually, powerful groups like clans, sects, or cults would embed them in walls to display their wealth, use them for closed-door cultivation, or place them in tombs.
In the latter case, the tomb usually concealed a fortuitous opportunity.
'Fortuitous opportunity. Previous generation martial artist. A deceased supreme expert.'
At that moment, a realization flashed through my mind.
'Could it be Absolute Sword Saint?'
This is crazy!
'Why is that here?'
'Absolute Sword Saint' was the novel I was obsessed with.
It was the story of the protagonist, Muk Cheon-woo, who accidentally gained the power of a hermit from nineteen hundred years ago and rose to become the supreme expert.
The narrative was sprawling and over a thousand chapters long! However, it gained popularity due to its unique characters.
The author had a real knack for creating compelling characters.
They definitely captured the elements of fandom, and the successful webtoon adaptation propelled the once moderately popular novel to sweep the charts.
I was an early reader, having started from chapter 3.
Having watched the process of its rise to fame and the characters' growth for four years, I naturally developed an attachment to it.
At first, I cheered it on casually, but as the novel I'd supported since its less popular days skyrocketed in popularity, I became very excited.
Four years is a longer time than you might think.
Somewhere along the way, I became attached to the characters as I read about their journey through the martial world.
I rejoiced in their successes, grieved their hardships, and shed tears if any characters became crippled or died.
I harbored so much affection for these fictional people.
I reread the novel countless times, reliving their journey over and over, and etched the first sentence of the novel into my memory.
'Muk Cheon-woo survived the Sword Saint's Tomb, didn't he?'
The interior of the Sword Saint's Tomb was like a world of its own.
The high ceiling was studded with night-luminescent pearls, emitting a soft glow.
However, the light wasn't strong, only enough to barely discern what was right in front of you.
The interior was vast, with rows of buildings and even a pond.
There were also the usual things you'd expect in a tomb, like caves, a chamber housing a coffin, a storeroom filled with burial goods.
Mazes, cliffs, and even a river.
And this mysterious Sword Saint's Tomb was structured so that those who entered could never leave.
****