Joshua woke to the faint scratch of coarse bedding and the scent of damp pine.
His eyes opened slowly.
Above him, old wooden beams stretched across a weathered ceiling darkened by years of rain. Morning light slipped through torn paper windows, scattering thin rays across a room so small that it held little more than a narrow bed, a wooden table, and a cracked washbasin.
Nothing looked familiar.
Joshua remained still.
He searched his memories.
Silence.
No family.
No childhood.
No home.
No face.
Only a single name remained.
Joshua.
He lowered his gaze to his hands.
They were slender.
Pale.
Calloused in places that suggested years of training.
Yet he couldn't remember holding a sword.
"..."
A soft chime echoed through the room.
Ding.
A translucent blue screen unfolded before him.
[System 001 Activated.]
[Welcome, Host Joshua.]
Joshua studied the floating words without panic.
"...Who are you?"
[System 001.]
[Your guide.]
"...Guide?"
[Correct.]
More words appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current World
Ancient Cultivation World
Current Vessel
Mo Xuanyu
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Joshua quietly read the screen.
"...Mo Xuanyu."
[The owner of this body.]
"So this isn't mine."
[Correct.]
Joshua looked down again.
"My body..."
"...Where is it?"
The screen remained silent.
After several moments—
[Unknown.]
Joshua accepted the answer without complaint.
He asked another question.
"...Who am I?"
[Joshua.]
He waited.
Nothing else appeared.
"...That's all?"
[For now.]
Joshua's gaze lingered on the floating words.
"...My memories."
[Locked.]
"...Can they return?"
[Yes.]
"...How?"
[Walk forward.]
Joshua looked at the screen for several quiet moments.
"...You're avoiding my questions."
[Correct.]
For the first time...
Joshua almost smiled.
Almost.
"...You're honest."
[Always.]
He nodded once.
"...Good."
The screen flickered again.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Vessel
Name: Mo Xuanyu
Age: 17
Affiliation: Cloud Peak Sect
Status: Outer Disciple
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
New lines appeared beneath it.
[Born with poor spiritual roots.]
[Frequently ridiculed.]
[No notable achievements.]
[Final wish remains unfinished.]
Joshua read each line carefully.
"...Show me."
The room faded.
Memories that weren't his own flowed silently before his eyes.
A boy practising long after sunset while everyone else had gone home.
A bowl of cold rice left untouched because others had overturned it.
A wooden sword broken in half.
Mocking laughter.
A lonely room.
The memories ended.
Joshua slowly opened his eyes.
The ache lingering in his chest wasn't his own.
Yet...
It felt real.
"...What was his wish?"
The answer appeared almost immediately.
[To be remembered.]
Joshua frowned slightly.
"...Only that?"
[To be remembered.]
[With respect.]
Silence settled over the room.
Such a small wish.
Such a lonely one.
Joshua stood.
His borrowed body felt unfamiliar, but balanced.
Weak...
Yet obedient.
He walked toward the cracked bronze mirror hanging beside the window.
The reflection staring back belonged to a delicate young man.
Long black hair.
Pale skin.
Gentle features.
A small teardrop-shaped beauty mark beneath his left eye.
Someone who looked more suited to reading poetry than holding a sword.
Joshua quietly studied the unfamiliar face.
"...This is Mo Xuanyu."
[Correct.]
"I'll take care of it."
The System remained silent.
Joshua washed his face with cool water from the basin before putting on the neatly folded white disciple robes resting beside the bed.
Simple.
Worn.
Carefully patched in several places.
Whoever Mo Xuanyu had been...
He had taken good care of the few things he owned.
Joshua straightened the sleeves.
Then opened the wooden door.
Cold mountain air greeted him.
The scent of pine drifted through the courtyard.
Far away, an ancient bell echoed across the mountains.
Dong—
Dong—
Dong—
Outer disciples hurried between buildings carrying wooden practice swords, steaming breakfast buns, and bundles of bamboo scrolls.
Some laughed.
Some yawned.
Some complained about waking too early.
For the first time since opening his eyes...
Joshua felt the world moving around him.
It was alive.
Then someone noticed him.
"...Mo Xuanyu?"
Conversations slowed.
A disciple nudged his friend.
"Look."
"He actually came out."
Another snorted.
"I thought he'd be hiding after yesterday."
Someone else laughed.
"Careful."
"If you glare at him too hard, he might cry."
The laughter spread.
Not cruel enough to be called hatred.
Not kind enough to be ignored.
Simply...
Habit.
The Mo Xuanyu they knew would have lowered his head.
Apologized.
Walked away.
Joshua merely looked at them.
His calm grey eyes swept across the courtyard.
No anger.
No shame.
Only quiet indifference.
The laughter gradually faded.
One disciple shifted awkwardly.
Another looked away first.
Joshua tilted his head ever so slightly.
"...You're loud."
Nothing more.
He walked past them without slowing down.
Behind him, the courtyard remained strangely quiet.
One disciple scratched his head.
"...Was that really Mo Xuanyu?"
Another frowned.
"...No."
"...Something's different."
Joshua continued toward the morning bell.
The mountain path stretched ahead, disappearing into drifting clouds.
Somewhere beyond them...
A new life was waiting.
━━━━Status Window━━━━
System 001
Host: Joshua
World: Ancient Cultivation World
Vessel: Mo Xuanyu
Mission: Fulfil the vessel's final wish.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━