The world dissolved into darkness.
Elder Joo Seo-Cheon of Mount Hua Sect felt his consciousness slipping away, his 77-year-old body finally surrendering to time's embrace.
Regret flooded through him like poison—sharper than any blade, more painful than any wound he'd endured in the Age of War.
I wasted it all.
He had survived when heroes fell.
He had lived when legends died.
But he had never truly lived—never stood beside those brilliant souls who had fought and bled to save the world.
He had been a coward, hiding behind excuses, watching from the shadows while others burned like stars.
If only... if only I could have been like them. Like Master. Like the heroes I admired.
The darkness deepened.
And then—
Light.
Joo Seo-Cheon's eyes snapped open.
He stared at a familiar wooden ceiling, one he hadn't seen in nearly seventy years.
His heart hammered in his chest—too strong, too vigorous for an old man's failing organ.
His hands shot up before his face.
Small.
Smooth.
A child's hands.
"Eight years old," he whispered, his voice high and unfamiliar in his own ears. "I'm... I've returned."
He sat up too quickly, and the room spun.
But even through the disorientation, his mind raced with possibilities.
The memories were all there—every technique he'd learned, every battle he'd witnessed, every mistake that had led to the catastrophe he'd lived through.
Master Yu Jeong-Mok will die in five years. The Dark Heaven Sect will—
A presence.
Seo-Cheon's trained instincts—decades of them, compressed into a child's body—screamed danger.
He rolled off his sleeping mat just as a figure materialized from the shadows near his window.
Not an assassin.
The stance was wrong.
The killing intent was... absent.
The stranger stood there in clothing unlike anything Seo-Cheon had ever seen—black and sleek, made of material that seemed to shimmer in the dim light.
His face was young, perhaps in his thirties, but his eyes held a depth that spoke of something more.
"Who are you?" Seo-Cheon demanded, his child's voice cracking slightly.
The stranger tilted his head, studying him with an expression of curious amusement.
"Hmm. You're more alert than I expected for a child of Mount Hua."
He reached into his strange clothing and pulled out a small metallic case.
"Well, this is unfortunate timing, but also... interesting."
"What do you want?" Seo-Cheon asked, trying to keep the tremor from his voice.
The stranger opened the case, revealing dozens of tiny metallic spheres that gleamed with an otherworldly light, shifting and moving as if alive.
"You know what?" the stranger said, a mischievous smile spreading across his face. "I shouldn't even be in this dimension. The Time Patrol is probably triangulating my position as we speak, and I need to leave immediately."
He looked at the spheres, then at Seo-Cheon, then back at the spheres.
"But I'm feeling whimsical tonight. My ancestor started his journey with this technology injected by someone he'd never see anytime soon. A gift from a stranger that changed everything."
The stranger's smile widened.
"Why not continue the tradition? Let's see what happens when fate gets a little push."
"Wait, what are you—"
But the stranger was already moving.
Impossibly fast.
Seo-Cheon tried to dodge, but his child's body—untrained, weak—couldn't match his mind's intent.
A cold pressure against his neck, then—
Pain.
Brief but intense, like liquid fire injecting into his veins.
"Sixth generation," the stranger said, stepping back as his form began to shimmer. "Not the latest model, but more than sufficient."
His body started to fade, becoming translucent.
"Good luck, child of Mount Hua. Try to make it interesting."
"What did you—"
The stranger vanished like smoke in wind, leaving Seo-Cheon alone in his room with a burning sensation spreading through his body.
The pain was excruciating.
Seo-Cheon collapsed back onto his mat, teeth gritted against the agony as something moved through his blood, his bones, his very essence.
It felt like his body was being taken apart and reassembled from the inside out.
Then, a voice—not spoken aloud, but directly in his mind:
[SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE. 6TH GENERATION NANO MACHINE SYSTEM ACTIVATED.]
[HOST STATUS: CRITICAL. MULTIPLE SYSTEMIC DEFICIENCIES DETECTED.]
[BEGINNING EMERGENCY OPTIMIZATION PROTOCOL.]
Seo-Cheon wanted to scream, but his jaw locked as the... the machine... the voice had called it, began its work.
He felt it in his meridians first—the pathways through which qi should flow were clogged, damaged by years of poor health and malnutrition in his original childhood.
But now, impossibly, he felt those blockages dissolving.
[TOXIN PURGE: 15% COMPLETE.]
Black sludge began to ooze from his pores—the accumulated impurities of eight years of life in a body that had never been properly cultivated.
The smell was horrific, but Seo-Cheon barely noticed as he felt his Extraordinary Eight Meridians—the Governing Vessel, the Conception Vessel, the Penetrating Vessel, all of them—begin to open.
[EXTRAORDINARY EIGHT MERIDIANS: CLEARING OBSTRUCTIONS.]
In his previous life, it had taken him until his twenties to fully open these pathways through sheer, grinding effort.
Now, in a single night, the Nano Machine was accomplishing what should have been impossible.
[TOXIN PURGE: 47% COMPLETE.]
[BLOOD VESSEL OPTIMIZATION: INITIATED.]
His blood vessels expanded, contracted, reformed.
The machine was rebuilding them, making them stronger, more efficient.
He could feel his heartbeat growing steadier, more powerful.
Blood that had once moved sluggishly through his child's body now flowed with vigorous strength.
[TENDON RESTRUCTURING: INITIATED.]
His muscles and tendons began to change next.
Not growing—he was still a child—but the quality was transforming.
Fibers that had been weak and underdeveloped were being optimized, prepared for the rigorous training to come.
Hours passed.
Seo-Cheon lost track of time as the Nano Machine worked, each phase of transformation building upon the last.
By the time dawn light began to creep through his window, the voice spoke again:
[INITIAL OPTIMIZATION: 89% COMPLETE.]
[REMAINING ADJUSTMENTS WILL CONTINUE OVER NEXT 14-18 MONTHS.]
[PHYSICAL FOUNDATION: OPTIMAL FOR MARTIAL ARTS CULTIVATION.]
[RECOMMENDATION: BEGIN BASIC TRAINING IMMEDIATELY TO MAXIMIZE DEVELOPMENTAL WINDOW.]
Seo-Cheon lay there, gasping, covered in the black sludge of expelled toxins.
But underneath the filth, he could feel the difference.
His body—this eight-year-old body that had been weak and sickly—now hummed with potential.
"What... what are you?" he whispered.
[6TH GENERATION NANO MACHINE. ADVANCED BIOMEDICAL AND COMBAT SUPPORT SYSTEM.]
[QUERY: WOULD HOST LIKE DETAILED EXPLANATION OF CAPABILITIES?]
Before Seo-Cheon could answer, footsteps approached his room.
He recognized the gait immediately—Master Yu Jeong-Mok, coming to wake him for morning lessons.
"Later," he hissed at the voice in his head. "How do I hide this?"
[TOXIN RESIDUE CAN BE REMOVED THROUGH BATHING. INTERNAL CHANGES ARE NOT EXTERNALLY VISIBLE AT THIS STAGE.]
The door opened.
Master Yu Jeong-Mok took one look at him, covered in black sludge, and his eyes widened.
"Seo-Cheon! What happened? Are you—"
"I'm fine, Master," Seo-Cheon said quickly, bowing despite his filthy state.
His mind raced for an explanation.
"I... I had a strange dream. About qi circulation. I tried to follow it and..."
He gestured helplessly at the mess.
His master's expression shifted from alarm to astonishment.
"You... expelled impurities? At eight years old? Without any cultivation technique?"
Seo-Cheon kept his head bowed, hiding his expression.
In his previous life, such a phenomenon had been attributed to exceptional talent or the consumption of rare medicines.
For a child to accomplish it through instinctive qi circulation...
"Remarkable," Master Yu breathed. "Your potential may be far greater than I realized. Come, let's get you cleaned up. We have much to discuss."
As his master helped him to his feet, Seo-Cheon allowed himself a small, hidden smile.
In his previous life, he had wasted decades trying to catch up to the geniuses, to the heroes he admired.
He had failed because he lacked their natural talent—that ineffable quality that separated the extraordinary from the merely skilled.
But now...
Now he had something that could bridge that gap.
Not replace a true genius—he understood that instinctively.
The Nano Machine was a tool, not a substitute for the kind of transcendent insight that defined legends.
But it could give him the foundation.
The physical capability.
The freedom to develop the way true geniuses did, unshackled by the limitations of an ordinary body.
As Master Yu led him toward the bathing area, already discussing plans for Seo-Cheon's cultivation training, the Nano Machine spoke once more:
[LONG-TERM DEVELOPMENT PROTOCOL AVAILABLE.]
[HISTORICAL DATABASE CONTAINS RECORDS OF OPTIMAL MARTIAL DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS.]
[ANALYZING LEGENDARY MARTIAL ARTIST: "CHEON MA" - FIRST HEAVENLY DEMON.]
Seo-Cheon's steps faltered.
"Cheon Ma?" he whispered, too quiet for his master to hear.
He had never heard that name before.
In all his seventy-seven years, through all the ancient texts and legends of Mount Hua, no such figure had ever been mentioned.
[AFFIRMATIVE. SUBJECT DESIGNATION: CHEON MA. CLASSIFICATION: APEX MARTIAL TALENT.]
[NOTABLE CHARACTERISTICS: ABILITY TO MASTER ANY TECHNIQUE THROUGH SINGLE OBSERVATION. BODY AND MIND OPERATED IN PERFECT UNITY WITHOUT MORTAL LIMITATIONS.]
[WARNING: RECORDS INDICATE SUBJECT'S TALENT EXCEEDED NORMAL HUMAN PARAMETERS. CLASSIFIED AS ANOMALOUS EVEN AMONG GENIUSES.]
[QUERY: WOULD HOST LIKE SYSTEM TO MODEL DEVELOPMENTAL PATHWAY BASED ON CHEON MA'S GROWTH PATTERNS?]
Seo-Cheon's heart raced.
The stranger had injected him with something from another world entirely.
Something that contained knowledge of martial artists who had never existed in his timeline.
What else was in this machine's database?
"Yes," he whispered. "Show me."
[ACKNOWLEDGED. INITIATING GENIUS DEVELOPMENT PROTOCOL.]
[PHASE ONE: FOUNDATION OF THE UNBOUND MIND.]
[ESTIMATED COMPLETION: 4-5 YEARS.]
[NOTE: THIS PROTOCOL CANNOT CREATE INNATE TALENT. IT CAN ONLY REMOVE BARRIERS TO ITS EXPRESSION. HOST MUST PROVIDE THE WILL, THE INSIGHT, THE SPARK OF UNDERSTANDING THAT DEFINES TRUE GENIUS.]
[BEGINNING ANALYSIS OF OPTIMAL DEVELOPMENT PATH...]
[FOUR PILLARS OF GENIUS FRAMEWORK IDENTIFIED:]
[1. TRANQUIL HEART (心如止水) - MENTAL COMPOSURE IN ANY SITUATION]
[2. ACUTE SENSES (五感覚醒) - HEIGHTENED PERCEPTION AND INFORMATION PROCESSING]
[3. SINGULAR FOCUS (一点集中) - ABILITY TO ISOLATE AND MASTER INDIVIDUAL ELEMENTS]
[4. PHYSICAL LIBERATION (肉体解放) - BODY THAT RESPONDS INSTANTLY TO WILL]
[PROTOCOL WILL GUIDE DEVELOPMENT OF THESE FOUNDATIONAL ATTRIBUTES. HOST MUST ACTIVELY CULTIVATE EACH PILLAR THROUGH TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE.]
Seo-Cheon smiled—a real smile this time, fierce and determined.
He had the memories of a lifetime.
He had knowledge of techniques and battles yet to come.
And now he had a tool that could transform his body into a vessel worthy of that knowledge, guided by the growth patterns of a genius from another world entirely.
But most importantly, he had something he'd lacked in his previous life:
Purpose.
He wouldn't just survive this time.
He wouldn't hide in the shadows while heroes burned.
This time, he would stand beside them.
Learn from them.
And perhaps—just perhaps—surpass even his own wildest dreams.
Master. The heroes I admired. The legends of Mount Hua.
Wait for me. This time, I'll walk that path with you.
And this Cheon Ma... whoever he was in that other world...
I'll learn from his example as well.