Jin lost the guards in about fifteen minutes.
Not because he was faster—his sixteen-year-old body was a joke compared to his peak—but because he knew every alley, every shortcut, every forgotten corner of the Capital City.
Seventy years of wandering the martial world meant he'd memorized half the continent's geography, including the slums where he'd spent his miserable teenage years.
Left at the fish market. Jump the fence behind the dumpling shop. Through the abandoned temple courtyard. Down into the old canal system.
His body screamed at him—unused muscles protesting, lungs burning, legs threatening to give out.
But his mind was calm. Focused.
This is fine. I've run from worse. Like that time the Shaolin Abbott chased me for three days because I insulted his beard.
He dropped into the abandoned canal and finally stopped, gasping for breath.
[QUEST COMPLETE: SURVIVE YOUR FIRST DAY (AGAIN)]
[REWARD: BASIC BREATHING TECHNIQUE MANUAL]
[NOTE: YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS. BUT YOUR BODY DOESN'T. START TRAINING, OLD MAN.]
"Stop... calling me... old man," Jin wheezed. "I'm sixteen."
[YOUR SOUL IS 87]
[YOU'RE OLD]
"Shut up."
Jin sat down in the damp tunnel, trying to catch his breath. The sun was setting above ground, orange light filtering through drainage grates.
He'd survived day one.
Now came the hard part.
[NEW QUEST: RECLAIM YOUR SWORD]
[LOCATION: WESTERN DISTRICT - FORGOTTEN FORGE]
[DIFFICULTY: EASY]
[WARNING: THAT SWORD IS CURSED. YOU KNOW THIS. YOU'RE GOING TO TAKE IT ANYWAY, AREN'T YOU?]
Jin smiled. "Obviously."
The sword he'd found in his previous life—the broken blade he'd pulled from a forge that everyone said was haunted—wasn't cursed. Not really.
It was hungry.
A spirit sword that had been shattered in an ancient war, its wielder killed, its purpose forgotten. It fed on the martial energy of whoever held it, growing stronger with each battle, each technique mastered.
In his previous life, Jin had fed it for sixty years.
By the end, the sword could cut through steel like paper, could channel his internal energy into strikes that split mountains.
It had been his greatest treasure and his closest companion.
And I never even gave it a proper name, Jin thought. Just called it "the sword" for seven decades.
He stood up, legs still shaky. "Alright. Let's go get you back, old friend."
The Western District hadn't changed much.
Still poor. Still dangerous. Still filled with people who'd been forgotten by the wealthy inner city.
Jin walked through familiar streets, dodging the same gangs that had terrorized him in his youth. The Iron Rats, they called themselves—petty thugs who preyed on beggars and refugees.
In his previous life, Jin had joined them briefly. Learned how to fight dirty, how to steal, how to survive.
This time?
This time I'm walking right past these idiots.
"Hey! You!"
Jin sighed.
A young man—maybe nineteen, with a scar across his cheek and confidence that outweighed his actual skill—stepped into his path.
Behind him, five others materialized from the shadows.
"This is Iron Rat territory," Scar-face said. "You want to walk through here, you pay the toll."
Jin recognized him. Deng Wei. The lieutenant who would eventually become the gang's leader after the current boss died in a territorial dispute.
In Jin's previous timeline, Deng Wei had taught him his first proper martial technique—a dirty knife-fighting style that had saved Jin's life more times than he could count.
But that was before Deng became corrupted by power. Before he started trafficking in human lives instead of just stolen goods.
Do I owe him anything? Jin wondered. He helped me once. But he also became a monster.
"I don't have any money," Jin said honestly.
"Then you pay another way." Deng Wei cracked his knuckles. "We need someone to test our new recruits. You'll do."
[NEW QUEST: HANDLE THE IRON RATS]
[OPTION A: FIGHT THEM (RECOMMENDED)]
[OPTION B: JOIN THEM (YOUR PREVIOUS CHOICE)]
[OPTION C: DIPLOMACY (BORING)]
Jin looked at the six thugs surrounding him.
In his prime, he could have killed them all in three seconds.
Right now, in this weak body, with no internal energy cultivated yet?
He could still take them. But it would hurt.
"Listen," Jin said. "I really don't want to fight you."
"Too bad." Deng Wei gestured, and two thugs rushed forward.
Well. I tried.
Jin moved.
The first thug threw a punch—telegraphed, obvious, the kind of attack someone who'd never received proper training would use.
Jin stepped inside his guard, grabbed his wrist, twisted, and used the man's own momentum to send him crashing into the second thug.
Both went down in a tangle of limbs.
"What the—"
The third thug, smarter than his friends, pulled a knife.
Jin's eyes lit up. Now we're talking.
The thug lunged.
Jin sidestepped, caught the knife-hand, and applied pressure to three specific points on the wrist.
The knife clattered to the ground.
Jin caught it mid-fall, spun it in his hand with a flourish that was completely unnecessary but felt amazing, and pressed the blade against the thug's throat.
"Do you want to continue?" Jin asked calmly.
The thug's eyes were wide with terror. "N-no..."
"Good." Jin released him and tossed the knife aside. "Anyone else?"
The remaining thugs backed away.
Deng Wei stared at him with a mixture of shock and something else—recognition?
"You're not a normal beggar," Deng Wei said slowly. "That technique... where did you learn to fight like that?"
Careful. Don't reveal too much.
"I had a good teacher," Jin said. "A wandering swordsman. He taught me some things before he died."
"What was his name?"
"Jin Seo-ha."
I really need to stop using my own name as a cover story.
"Never heard of him." Deng Wei studied Jin more carefully. "But anyone who can fight like you... we could use someone like you. Join the Iron Rats. I'll make you my second-in-command."
[OPTION B: JOIN THEM]
[WARNING: THIS LEADS TO THE SAME TIMELINE. YOU'LL BECOME STRONG, BUT ALONE. BITTER. WITHOUT PURPOSE UNTIL YOU LEAVE IN YOUR TWENTIES.]
Jin shook his head. "No thanks."
"No?" Deng Wei's expression hardened. "You think you can just refuse—"
"I'm not interested in gangs," Jin interrupted. "I'm not interested in controlling streets or collecting protection money. I have my own path to walk."
"And what path is that?"
Jin smiled. "The sword."
He walked past Deng Wei, toward the abandoned forge at the edge of the district.
"Hey! I'm not done with you!"
Jin didn't look back. "Yes, you are. If you come after me again, I won't be as gentle."
He heard Deng Wei spit on the ground behind him. "You'll regret this, beggar."
Maybe, Jin thought. But at least I won't regret becoming you.
The forgotten forge stood exactly as Jin remembered—a collapsed building at the edge of the district, half-buried in rubble, avoided by everyone who knew the stories.
They said a master swordsmith had gone mad here. That he'd forged a cursed blade that killed him and everyone who'd tried to claim it since.
Most of it was superstition.
The "cursed" part was real, though.
Jin climbed through the rubble, his body protesting with every movement. His sixteen-year-old muscles were not prepared for this kind of abuse.
[QUEST UPDATE: RECLAIM YOUR SWORD]
[WARNING: SPIRIT SWORD DETECTED. COMPATIBILITY: 100%]
[SECONDARY WARNING: THIS SWORD WILL DRAIN YOUR ENERGY. ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THIS?]
"More sure than I've ever been," Jin muttered.
He found it in the same place—buried under fallen beams, covered in rust and dust, looking like nothing more than a broken piece of scrap metal.
But Jin could feel it.
The hunger. The anticipation. The recognition.
The sword remembered him.
He pulled it free, and the moment his hand touched the hilt, energy surged through his body—not his energy flowing into the sword, but the sword's energy flowing into him.
[SPIRIT SWORD: NAMELESS BLADE ACQUIRED]
[SYNCHRONIZATION BEGINNING...]
[WARNING: THIS WILL HURT]
Pain exploded through Jin's meridians—the sword forcing open energy pathways that had been closed since his regression. His sixteen-year-old body, which had never cultivated internal energy, suddenly had channels carved into it by a weapon that remembered what his soul had once been.
Jin gritted his teeth and endured.
Come on, you broken piece of metal. I've carried you for seventy years. You can handle a little regression.
The sword pulsed, and Jin felt its response—not words, but emotion.
Agreement. Recognition. Loyalty.
Welcome back, master.
The pain faded, leaving behind a warm current of energy flowing through his body.
Jin looked at the blade. Still broken. Still rusty. Still looked like garbage.
But he could feel its potential.
[SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE]
[INTERNAL ENERGY: RANK F → RANK E]
[NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: BASIC SWORD INTENT]
[NOTE: YOU'RE STILL WEAK. BUT NOW YOU'RE WEAK WITH A SWORD. THAT'S... SOMETHING.]
Jin laughed and held the blade up to the fading sunlight.
"Alright, old friend. Let's do this one more time. But better."
The sword hummed in response.
[NEW QUEST: FORGE YOUR LEGEND]
[OBJECTIVE: REACH RANK C WITHIN 3 MONTHS]
[REWARD: MEMORY FRAGMENT - "FIRST TECHNIQUE"]
[HINT: YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THIS. START TRAINING. STOP TALKING TO YOUR SWORD. PEOPLE ARE GOING TO THINK YOU'RE CRAZY.]
"People already think I'm crazy," Jin said, walking out of the forge with his reclaimed sword.
The sun had fully set. The Western District was dangerous at night.
Perfect.
Jin needed combat experience to rebuild his strength, and the streets were full of opportunities.
He walked into the darkness, broken sword in hand, feeling more alive than he had in decades.
The Wandering Sword Saint was back.
And he had a lot of catching up to do.
Three Hours Later
Jin sat on a rooftop, breathing hard, covered in bruises, his sword resting across his lap.
Below him, eight unconscious thugs lay scattered across the street.
[COMBAT EXPERIENCE GAINED]
[LEVEL UP! E-RANK → E+ RANK]
[NEW SKILL: FLOWING WATER FOOTWORK (BASIC)]
[COMMENT: NOT BAD FOR YOUR FIRST NIGHT. BUT YOU'RE STILL MOVING LIKE AN OLD MAN IN A TEENAGER'S BODY. PRACTICE MORE.]
"I am an old man in a teenager's body," Jin muttered.
He looked out across the city—the glowing lights of the inner districts, the dark sprawl of the slums, the distant mountains where the great sects made their homes.
Somewhere out there, Yeon Hwa was probably sleeping in whatever abandoned building she called home, clutching that stolen bread, dreaming of a better life.
In his original timeline, she'd join the Crimson Moon Sect in two years. Rise through the ranks. Become powerful, respected, untouchable.
And Jin had watched from a distance, too much of a coward to approach her.
Not this time.
He stood up, sheathed his sword, and started the long walk back to his own temporary shelter—a corner of an abandoned temple where the rain didn't reach.
Tomorrow, he'd start training properly. Rebuild his internal energy. Begin mastering the techniques that had made him legendary.