Episode 1: My Previous Life Was the Blade Emperor
I gritted my teeth.
At the shameful sight of our Namgung Clan being expelled from the Five Great Clans.
And at my own incompetence, powerless to do anything but watch despite that humiliation.
"The Namgung Clan is hereby expelled from the Five Great Clans. This matter has been voted upon in a conference of the Nine Sects and the Clans, and from this day forth, the Namgung Clan shall be stripped of all rights enjoyed as one of the Five Great Clans."
Elders from each clan arrived at the Namgung Clan to deliver that expulsion notice.
Father listened silently to that one-sided notification. Naturally, there was nothing he could do.
Because it was the rule of the current martial world, established by the Five Great Clans and, above them, the Nine Sects that reigned supreme.
A martial clan that had lost its martial arts and fallen into ruin had no choice but to endure in silence.
One of the elders of the Five Great Clans moved.
'The Divine Might Spirit Sword, Dokgo Hyeon.'
The Dokgo Clan, which had replaced our Namgung Clan to enter the Five Great Clans—their elder, Dokgo Hyeon, slowly moved his steps.
Where his footsteps stopped was beneath our clan's plaque.
Dokgo Hyeon grabbed the sword scabbard at his waist, and before anyone knew it, had slashed twice toward the empty air.
Then the plaque split cleanly in two and fell to the ground.
"...!"
Everyone in the Namgung Clan flinched. So did I, and my older brother, the Young Clan Head, standing beside me.
Dokgo Hyeon sheathed his sword and looked back at Father.
"The use of the Geumseo Wipan is also forbidden."
The Geumseo Wipan.
A plaque inscribed with majestic golden letters, said to be hung only by the Five Great Clans.
For a sect or clan's plaque to fall was a humiliation greater than death, an incomparable dishonor.
Bloodshot veins stretched across Father's eyes like lightning bolts. Clenching his teeth, he trembled.
But he could do nothing.
* * *
I thought the misfortune would end with the afternoon's events.
But the ill tidings continued into that night.
"The Clan Head has breathed his last."
Without even time to be surprised by the news, I ran.
Beside Father's corpse, discovered in the rear garden, a single sword lay.
Sudden death.
He was in no condition to train in martial arts. It was a time he should have rested, but in the end, swinging his sword like a madman, he was consumed by the Heart Demon and passed away.
A diary was found in Father's bedchamber.
— I do not wish to blame anyone. It is solely because I am lacking. My intelligence, my qualities, my ability, my temperament, my talent—everything is insufficient.
The faces of me, my brother, and the clan members reading the diary hardened.
— That is why I have no choice but to try harder. Because the martial arts that could be called the essence of the Namgung Clan were not properly transmitted; even if that divine might has faded now, I simply have to create them anew. The clan's martial arts that surpass those arts. The unique Heavy Sword and Strong Sword of the Namgung Clan, which once split Mount Tai and severed the heavens.
Father's diary concluded with the following:
— If only I had walked the path of the Grandmaster, it would have resolved everything.
One hundred fifty years ago, the Namgung Clan stood at the forefront of the battle against the Demonic Cult. Though victory was achieved, what remained in the clan was sacrifice.
The Clan Head at the time, as well as countless masters, lost their lives. The Blue Heaven that had brilliantly illuminated the Namgung Clan had lost its light.
Though we had suffered the greatest sacrifices, in the end, what returned was nothing but hollow respect in the name of the Five Great Clans.
A martial clan that lost its martial arts as the line of masters was severed.
The succeeding Clan Heads tried to reclaim the lost martial arts or forge new ones, but it was no easy task.
Father was no different, so the diary was filled with that deep sorrow and regret.
We laid Father's body to rest.
And the funeral began.
* * *
The estate of the Namgung Clan, which had endured and flourished over a long history, was as vast as its legitimacy.
But that vastness without people only added to the loneliness and silence.
The mourners at Father's funeral were few.
The same held true as time passed. Even when enough days had gone by for the news to reach distant places, the visitors remained few.
'Is even paying one's respects a luxury for a fallen clan?'
My brother tapped the shoulder of me, whose face had been stiff throughout the funeral.
"Rim, relax your face."
My brother's face was gentle. He resembled Father. Their personalities were similar too. After Mother passed away early, Father and Brother always treated me so well that I never felt her absence. So much so that I felt I wanted to repay that kindness someday.
"I can't make a face like yours."
"What can you do? It's an official occasion."
My brother, Namgung Han, is four years older than me, who am eighteen. Perhaps because he had taken on the position of Young Clan Head early on, he was far more adept than I at dealing with people.
"And the Myeong Clan?"
The Myeong Clan of Jiangsu Province.
The clan with whom marriage talks were underway with my brother.
"Of course they sent someone."
They had sent someone. Meaning it was not the Clan Head or the other party to the marriage talks.
Though my brother spoke with a composed face, this was a grave matter.
It was something that could ruin the marriage talks if things went wrong. For my brother to inherit the position of Clan Head, he absolutely had to be married. It was the clan's rule that one could not ascend to the position of Clan Head without a wife.
'The Myeong Clan is also watching the mood of the Nine Sects and the Five Great Clans.'
After annihilating the Demonic Cult one hundred fifty years ago, the martial world was at peace for a time.
And so the path chosen by the martial world, bereft of enemies, was its own hierarchy.
The powers within the hierarchy of the Nine Sects and the Five Great Clans constantly interacted and ceaselessly developed their martial arts.
And the forces that fell out of that hierarchy withered rapidly. Until a martial prodigy bestowed by the heavens appeared, that is.
So I could understand the Myeong Clan's actions. For them, it must have been an unavoidable choice.
'I cannot stand by and watch the clan fall apart like this.'
The precept of the Namgung Clan flashed through my mind.
— The pride of the clan is my pride, the glory of the clan is my glory, and the fate of the clan is my fate.
No matter how lacking in talent I was, I could not accept such a fate. I had to forge a path somehow.
Even if I had to struggle desperately.
And.
On the day Father's funeral ended.
I dreamed of a past life.
* * *
Tossing and turning without falling into a deep sleep, I had a dream and soon woke up.
'A dream?'
Outside was still dark. Meaning, not even half the night had passed.
It had not been a long time, but the dream was long.
'It's not a dream. It's the memory of a past life.'
My brain, my heart, my five senses, every consciousness and perception I could feel was telling me it was not a simple dream.
I could not remember all the details, but the sensations from the dream remained vividly in my fingertips as if they had been realized in reality.
I raised my hand and examined it in the moonlight streaming through the window.
'I feel like I can reach those sensations again.'
The sensation of my past life, when I had reached the apex of the blade.
Thus I realized.
That my previous life was the Blade Emperor.