"What the... So, have I really traveled through time and possessed the body of someone with the same name and look?"
For more than two hours, Ding Hao just sat by the Sword-cleansing Fountain, looking down upon the weary and rusty black sword in his hand and his handsome reflection in the water. After all, he is still unbelievable.
He remembered clearly that last night, he was having farewell dinner with his buddies, picturing their lives on campus and wishing each other good luck. They had been excited and drunk. However, when he opened his eyes and regained his conciseness, he found himself in this completely strange world.
Being dazed for a long while, Ding Hao had to face the truth and persuaded himself to accept the fact that he had traveled through time.
For some unknown reason, apart from the nostalgia for his previous life, he bore a feeling of thrill beyond description, as if he had had a second chance at life. Keeping his poise that even he found unbelievable, Ding Hao frankly accepted this new world and his new life.
Maybe it was because of the unyielding adventurous spirit in his bone.
For more than two hours, he had been retrieving memories from his new body and had learned a lot of things.
This was a world called Land of Infinity packed full of sects, where only strong ones survived; human beings and monsters ran this world together.
The Swordsmanship-seeking Sect he belonged to was an eighth-grade swordsmanship sect based in one of the Sixteen Provinces, Snow Province, in the desolated northern part of Land of Infinity. The Swordsmanship-seeking Sect was one of the human-governed sects from the One Academy, Two Villages, Three Sects, and Three Clans in Snow Province. It had occupied a large area on the Swordsmanship-seeking Mountain and had many disciples, including kung fu masters and gifted geniuses, for more than 1,500 years since its establishment.
As a prominent sect, it was important to set up a good image among the kung fu communities.
However, even dexterous experts were still humans and needed to eat and drink, which leads to the necessity of sanitation. When the proud kung fu practitioners did not bother sweeping their rooms, an organized "supporting department" came into existence naturally.
Ding Hao was not a disciple of Swordsmanship-seeking Sect.
He worked for the supporting department.
More specifically, he was a boy servant who swept roads in mountains every day.
When he retrieved his memories of this life, it was strange that the memories before he was ten were absent.
He did not know who his parents were, or how he showed up on Swordsmanship-seeking Mountain.
The only family he could remember was his younger sister under five years old at that time. They were all by themselves then. In the winter when he was 11 years old, Ding Hao was out on his duty; someone spotted a mysterious and strong woman in white took her away. Since then, his younger sister had been missing.
Thus, since he was 11 years old, Ding Hao had been living on his own.
In the world full of respected experts, every teenager dreamed to be strong; Ding Hao was no exception.
Moreover, he wanted to leave Swordsmanship-seeking Sect to find his missing sister in the monsters-packed wilderness; he had to be powerful.
However, he did not have a great aptitude for kung fu and have thin meridians; he was neither quick nor gifted. Since he was 10, he had been attending the sect entrance test to Swordsmanship-seeking Sect every year; he had attended four tests when he reached 14 years old. However, he had failed the primary test that could put his name on the waiting list of Swordsmanship-seeking Sect four times.
According to memories he retrieved, Swordsmanship-seeking Sect would be enrolling this year's new disciples in half a month.
Ding Hao also learned from the memories that this was his last chance.
By the practice of it, Swordsmanship-seeking Sect did not admit new disciples above 14 years old.
In this world, there went a solid opinion: if one failed the primary test before he turned 15, he could only be proved ungifted and not cut out for martial arts, and he might as well be a normal guy.
"Damn it, so I only get half a month to prepare for the test?"
Bearing this in mind, Ding Hao could not help feeling pressed for time.
This born nerd adapted himself to the new world quickly.
Having traveled through time to a fantasy world full of monsters and martial arts experts, he had to be a ruling kung fu master, if not, he could only be pushed into the background, trampled and neglected. What a ridiculous and futile ant he would be if he could not control his destiny!
Ding Hao would rather commit suicide to reboot his life than end up in such a plight.
As he thought of it, Ding Hao felt more pressed for time.
He knew he must do something now.
Then, he rose up. Standing by Sword-cleansing Pond, he contemplated for a while and closed his eyes. He dug through his memories of swordsmanship in attempts to find a clue as to how to strengthen himself.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes and something seemed to dawn on him.
He made the rusty long sword in his hand vibrate and stabbed forward; he performed a style of swordsmanship skillfully.
Over the past 14 years, even though he was just a sweeping boy servant, he had learned some basic swordsmanship styles as an associate member of the great Swordsmanship-seeking Sect in the course of his sweeping duty.
That was why he performed the style from memory skillfully as if he had been practicing it for countless times.
The basic set of self-defense swordsmanship had 16 styles; any kid in Swordsmanship-seeking Sect could perform them.
While the former 12 styles were ordinary, the latter four ones were ingenious, which were Light-splitting, Ice-cutting, Cloud-stirring, and Wind-chasing. If one performed them in a row, he would release uninterrupted bright sword light that could block more than 10 bulky guys.
Absorbed in his memory about the moves, Ding Hao stabbed continuously.
To his surprise, he entered a miraculous state soon.
Anyone who found him now would cry in disbelief because the well-known top- one idiot in Swordsmanship-seeking Sect seemed to have transformed; Ding Hao performed the styles with quick footwork and performed them ethereally. Especially when releasing the ingenious last four strokes, he became faster and faster with increasing fluency and consistency.
In the end, the reddish rusty sword blurred into a hazy ball of light and billowed around his body aggressively.
"Whoosh!"
Letting out a swoosh, Ding Hao retracted the rusty sword.
A slight surprise escaped his handsome face.
"That's strange. From my memories, the last four styles are pretty hard and the former owner of the body failed to master them after numerous practice during more than two years. But why did I find it easy and seem to be able to perform any style that came into my mind?"
But soon, Ding Hao made his sword vibrate again and practiced the basic self-defense swordsmanship set. The sword released dazzling light again aggressively. It was proven that he was not imaging things just now. This time, Ding Hao performed the style of Light-splitting, Ice-cutting, Cloud-stirring, and Wind-chasing more fluently. The styles were as fluid as quicksilver in motion. Moreover, he even doubled the force of the swordsmanship. The blade swooshed through the air, accompanied by uninterrupted red lights. Now he was 100 percent sure that he had not only mastered the four styles but also comprehended the four styles completely. "That's strange. Have I turned a genius through time travel?" That seemed to be the only plausible explanation. Maybe the combination of two souls from different lives really made a peerless gifted genius. The idea gave Ding Hao more confidence to face the sect entrance test of Swordsma
Ding Hao clenched his fists and felt emotional. He swore to himself that one day he would obtain unprecedented magic skills and peerless kung fu; he would beat other swordsmen with his own sword and top them all. Of course, he was just a humble sweeping boy servant for now. No one noticed him. Leaving the announcement area, Ding Hao soon reached the hill behind the sect via a meandering trail. Compared to the magnificent front hill like a fairyland, the hill behind the sect was a dirty and disordered slum. Rough trails were lined with thorny underbrush and covered in jagged rocks like those of places where monsters lived. Masses of household waste from Swordsmanship-seeking Sect were dumped daily to the land covered in rocks on the other side or off the cliff. Waste accumulated over numerous years rotted and fermented in sunshine and rain, breeding bugs, flies, and foul air. The air stank of dead fish. It was like walking in he
Because of the combined memories, Ding Hao smoothly adapted to this body and everything about it. "Rest assured, I will help you... No, I will help us get our younger sister back." Ding Hao clenched his fist and made an oath in his heart. After saying so, the sadness and memories of his sister dispersed lowly, along with the last stroke of the sense of this body's previous owner. From now on, there was only one Ding Hao who time-traveled to this world. Ding Hao made a quick dinner and filled his stomach before making his plans. He had to be stronger to find his sister, Ding Ke'er. In this world, it was hopeless to be a rogue cultivator. One had to join the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect to practice magic skills and martial arts systematically with the assist of the sect's valuable resource and experience. He had to pass the test first to join the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect, and the top priority now was to make the physical stren
Ding Hao sounded as if he just escaped from the deepest place in hell because his voice sent chills down Zhao Xingcheng's spine, leaving him to tremble in silence. Zhao Xingcheng's young entourage stopped cheering. The seemingly tough guys all froze on the spot like panicking ducks being wrung in the neck.Then, Ding Hao sneered and retracted his sword. Subsequently, he turned around and strode toward the cliff where Swordsmanship-seeking Sect dumped their waste every day. Zhao Xingcheng and his entourage were so surprised that they froze on the spot, only when Ding Hao ran into the pale moonlight in the distance did they come around. In a state of shock, they slowly regained conciseness and then saw fear in each other's eyes. All of them remembered the conflict like a nightmare. "Hell, that little bastard..." Zhao Xingcheng gasped and glared. What had happened? When did the stupid and obedient Ding Hao turn vicious an
"Ah, that hurts, I'm dying of pain... Eh? Could it be... I, I'm still alive? This... where is this place?" Ding Hao did not know how much time had passed. An indescribable pain that felt as if he was being burned by hot flames and bitten by tens and thousands of ants brought Ding Hao slightly back into consciousness. He wanted to move instinctively, but his body felt as stiff as cast iron and he could not move at all. He subconsciously opened his eyes slowly. All he could see was a patch of milky white light. He could not see anything else. He seemed to be enveloped in a soft liquid. This feeling was like when he was enveloped by amniotic fluid in his mother's womb as a baby. However, he felt waves of immense pain radiating from all parts of his body. Ding Hao floated in and out of consciousness and felt slightly disorientated. His eyelids felt as if they had been sewn together. He had to put in an immense effort to even crack open
Remembering the martial arts novels he had read in his previous life, he found that as long as the hero fell under a cliff, he would meet something or someone extraordinary. Ding Hao always thought himself lucky, and today's scenario really resembled what he read. Therefore, he probably might find some weapons or secret swordsmanship books here. However, there was nothing but a set of stone table and chairs. He almost wanted to turn the entire place inside out to find the treasures he expected. "I guess one has to be practical all the time. Too much greed is bad for you. I should feel lucky that I didn't get killed. And, the faint black liquid in the dent saved my life! It might be something. Only it's a shame that I can't take them." Ding Hao heaved a sigh and stopped searching. There was no water or food in the cave. It was time to go home. He walked through the tunnel and reached the entrance of the cave. It was a bottoml
Ding Hao pushed open the door and slowly walked in. At that time— Swoosh! Swoosh! Two shadows in the dark emerged without any warning behind the wooden door from both sides with forceful winds. They came fiercely and directly at the back of Ding Hao's head. They were two long black sticks. On the other ends of the long sticks were two sneering youths. They were Zhao Xingcheng's entourage last night. The black long sticks were hard like iron rods. They were wielding them against the back of Ding Hao's head with the force that could kill him. At that crucial moment, Ding Hao saw that by the door of the opposite thatch hut, the confident Zhao Xingcheng was sneering at him maliciously. Then, Ding Hao smiled too. At the next moment, Zhao Xingcheng's sneering turned into doubt, surprise, disbelief... and finally into shock. He saw it with his own eyes that the ambush he carefully set up did not work at all
Ding Hao's eyebrows twitched furiously. At that moment, he could not suppress the sense of extreme danger that crept up on him. Was this faint red light the so-called 'Dark Force'? "According to the memories I've absorbed, the human martial artists in in this world are able to control a supernatural force known as the Dark Force, and use this Dark Force to refine their 12 meridians and 108 acupoints… "The faint red light that appeared from his body earlier was probably the manifestation of the dark force. However, Song Jiannan's strength is just average. He probably would not even be able to last a second against a first aperture martial disciple so I've got nothing to be afraid of." Ding Hao thought quickly and soon figured out their individual strengths. "Little scum, today, I shall take your life," Song Jiannan said as his eyes sparked with killing desire. He had arrived like an esteemed emperor, not expect