Shield, pierced. Spear, snapped. Bow, severed. Fist, broken. Sword, shattered.

These threats to humanity were finally vanquished, never to haunt the world again.

An infinite black space. In this sea of darkness, countless small stars shone. Individually small, they gathered together, their radiance piercing through the void. The stars were connected, forming a giant web, keeping them from drifting away. On this island of light, he was washed ashore.

The island was divided into five distinct sections, each a different color. He instinctively felt an attraction to one of those sections. He started moving towards it, step by step. As he brushed past the stars, he heard screaming, laughing and crying. These sounds resounded through him, making his thoughts muddled. With every step he took, he felt a part of himself crumble away. Just before his goal, he collapsed. With his final remaining strength, he reached out and grasped a blue star, before blacking out.

A young, thin boy with black hair laid on the ground, as if he just had fallen. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and started coughing. As soon as he tried to think, an intense headache assaulted his mind. He looked confused for a moment, before he gritted his teeth: "Dammit, this method had its flaws after all, I can barely remember anything! Luckily, I still know who I am."

He slowly got up and observed his surroundings. Shabby houses were lined up in rows, surrounded by a thick wall of stone. A light spring breeze tickled his skin. Judging from the mountains in the background he was likely in Sword Continent. "Good, at least this part didn't go wrong." In his past life he cultivated sword path, so this continent fit him. "If I succeeded, the others should be fine too." He looked at himself and frowned. "This body has no foundation, I'll have to restart from scratch. When I'm strong enough, I'll meet up with the others."

He first needed a suitable weapon. In his previous life, he had scattered many inheritances across the continent. Hopefully he was close to one. He unfortunately didn't inherit any memories from this body's life, so he had no idea where he was. He began walking in a random direction. Finding out his location was a simple task, asking any person would do.

The blacksmith started laughing: "Lad, are you drunk? We're in Sword Continent, in Blessed Spring clan's outer area." His eyes shone, as memories started to trickle in. Blessed Spring, this was close to Blessed Lake mountain. He had buried a flowing river sword there!

This world's weapons had five ranks. First was ordinary, which were, as the name implies, ordinary. This didn't count as a rank. Rank one and two had mystical powers. For example, fire sword could erupt into flames. These could be mass-produced, although not many had the funds to do so. Rank 3 and 4 were heavenly swords, each one was unique in the world.

Flowing river sword was rank two, alongside it he had hidden several rank one gentle stream swords and many ordinary swords. These were very suitable for him, but unfortunately, he had burried them somewhere on the mountain. He tried to concentrate, but could not remember the exact location.

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"It's fine, hopefully I remember more when I get there. But the road to the mountain is dangerous, l need a rank one sword to protect myself." Luckily, there was a very easy way to get one.

With a sword in hand, he slowly walked away from a figure on the ground. "Damn you, give my sword back! Don't you know who I am? My father is a clan elder, a sword apprentice!" Weapons had ranks, naturally humans had them too. Rank one was apprentice, rank two was master. Unfortunately for the young master, he did not care about a measly rank one. Because in his past life, he had reached rank four!

But now he was back to ordinary. If he wanted to climb the mountain, he had to reach rank one. Only then could he have enough strength to wield the rank one sword. Breaking through to rank one wasn't very hard if one knew how to do it. It was just that the method was controlled by the higher ups. In big cities, this would be leaked and sold on the black market, but in small village clans only those loyal to the clan could get their hands on the method.

This problem, of course, didn't apply to him. All he needed was a quiet environment and a sword. After finding an abandoned house, he sat down and looked at the sword. This was a rank one water edge sword. When swung, it would produce a water blade. The reason the young master could have one is because his father bought one for him, even though the young master couldn't use it. This was why he defeated him easily with his past life expierence. His memories might have faded, but his battle instinct did not. Getting a rank one sword was easy with enough money, because they could be forged by someone else. Advancing your own rank was harder, you had to rely on yourself.

He started focusing. The sword shone brightly and became a sword shaped lump of blue light. Then, it flew into his chest. It has begun. The first step was to choose a rank one sword. Ordinary swords would not do. Next, the sword started cutting away the impurities in his body. This was a very painful process, which would make most scream out in pain. But he had already gone through much worse, so he stayed quiet, his face perfectly still.

Hours passed. After all the impurities were cut away, the sword flew out of his body and became solid again, becoming his vital sword. This meant that the sword had a strong connection with him, it would perform worse when others used it, and better if he did.

Choosing one's vital sword was very important, a wrong choice could cripple future development. Water edge sword was average, not a bad choice but not nearly good enough for him. He could only change it in the future, which was a very troublesome matter. But this was a problem for future him to solve. Right now, he had to focus on the present.

He looked at himself. The skinny body was gone, replaced with solid muscles. Strength and vitality surged through his veins. He was ready. After 'borrowing' some supplies from the locals, he set off to Blessed Lake mountain!