Chapter 1 – Ye Chen

In a dim room, a teenage boy lay on a bed softly mumbling, “…so this poor fool is also named Ye Chen, we even look somewhat similar…what a coincidence… is this fate?”

Ye Chen was a graduate student studying physics in the 21st century. He was considered the top student in his class. However, during his attempt to create a particle accelerator for the university, an accident occured and an explosion happened, ripping Ye Chen’s soul from his body and sent it into the vast reaches of the Universe. His soul wandered the empty void until finally reaching this world.

If it was anyone else facing this kind of a sudden change, especially their soul entering into another, entirely different, body, they would most definitely have a rough time[1]. However Ye Chen did not even feel a thing, only surprise.

Ye Chen wondered if he was actually some kind of a freak, he felt absolutely nothing after this kind of huge change. What if he could not feel anything?

After half a night, Ye Chen had digested more than a decade of memories. Through those memories, he learnt that he was a member of a famous family and that he had joined the Sky Cloud Martial School [2] at the age of twelve, and officially becoming an outer apprentice when he was fourteen, was one of the few happy events in Ye Chen’s bitter life.

The most frustrating part is that, over the years, the previous owner of this body had only trained his Qi[2] to Qi Realm Level 4; other than that, none of his skills seemed to have had any improvement. He was only capable of performing the first three forms of the most basic “Sword Arts of Yun”.

“If I want to survive in this world…I will have to wash away this title of useless!” Ye Chen hated being considered a loser, even if the title was attached to the former owner of this vessel. Now that this body belonged to him, he was determined to get rid of that humiliating title.

After making up his mind, he can’t help but remembering the things that happened before he turned twelve.

The Sky Cloud Martial School, located on the north side of the Heavenly Wind Country, was one of the five powerhouses in the country. They are three Martial Schools, one Academy, and one Martial Palace. Other than these five powerhouses, there were also eight families in control of thousands of martial artists in Heavenly Wind Country. Even the royal family fears them and does not dare to offend them.

And the family Ye Chen belongs to is the Ye family, one of the eight famous families.

The Ye family had over two hundred years of history. Originally they were merchants who had accumulated a massive fortune by selling tea leaves and silk. Unfortunately, their wealth eventually brought the worst kinds of people out, all interested in making an easy profit.

After being robbed and blackmailed countless times, the master of the family at that time decided enough was enough, and began to develop their martial art prowess using their immense financial strength. After struggling for hundreds of years, the Ye family finally achieved the position they hold today.

Being a part of the Ye family meant that people would bend over backwards to please you, no matter where you go. However Ye Chen had never experienced this kind of treatment, because of his lack of martial talent and in fact was bullied often.

The only factor that protected him from complete humiliation, was that his father was the current head of the Ye family, and his mother was also an elder of the School of Southern Hills– one of the three Martial School.

His most vivid memories were when his cousins would come over for family meetings. They would take him to a place where nobody would see and humiliate him. Even his maid, Daisy, would be despised by all other maids, and every time it happened she would run to him and start crying on his shoulders, complaining about the unfairness of the treatment they received.

“Fuck, I won’t let them get away with this!” His eyes sparked with hatred as he firmly clenched his fists.

Feeling an unquenchable rage, Ye Chen vowed for revenge, especially now that he is the combination of the two Ye Chens. He has the memories and emotions from both of their lives, in other words, he is a combination of both Ye Chens.

And no matter which Ye Chen is humiliated, he shall take offense.

After taking a deep breath in order to control his emotions, Ye Chen carried on retrieving his memories…

The youths of the Ye family started training their Qi when they were ten. In order to be selected by one of the five Martial Arts Schools in Tian Feng and become an apprentice-in-process, you would have to reach Qi Realm Level 2 by the age of twelve. To become a senior apprentice, they would, at the minimum, have to reach Qi Realm Level 4.

Perhaps he was motivated by the pressure, or maybe he simply didn’t want to disappoint his parents, but Ye Chen somehow managed to reach Qi Realm Level 2 in two years, and Qi Realm Level 4 soon after that. He surprisingly did this before age twelve and became a senior apprentice in the Sky Cloud Martial School.

However his accomplishments were quite lacking compared to everyone else from the Ye family: Ye Feng, the eldest cousin of Ye Chen and his third uncle’s son Ye Ming both reached Qi Realm Level 4 when they were twelve but the most impressive ones have to be the second eldest cousin, Ye Tang and fourth uncle’s daughter, Ye Xuan, both of whom reached Level 5 at the same age, they are considered to be rare martial arts geniuses.

Your talent and potential determined what rank of school you were able to join. The lower the rank the better quality of school.

Being the worst of all, Ye Chen joined the rank nine Sky Cloud Martial School. And Ye Feng and Ye Ming joined the rank eight School of Zi Yang; most impressively, Ye Tang joined the rank seven Northern Snow Villa; and Ye Xuan joined Emerald Valley, also ranked seventh.

“In one year, there will be the Triennial Family Meeting. I must do well. I can’t bear to bring shame to my mother again.” Ye Chen rolled out of the bed and after quickly cleaning himself, he walked out to the yard with his sword in hand.

The Cloudfall Sword Art has nine stages, the first six don’t have names, but the last three are named “The Search for Opportunity”, “Walking on a River of Clouds”, “Shine in Darkness”.

Ye Chen shut his eyes, picturing the sword art in his mind, Ye Chen slowly extended his right arm into the air, and began to practice Cloud Fall Sword Art from the first stage.

Ye Chen’s eyes glimmered as he recalled his previous body’s pitiful clumsy attempts. It was incomparably different! Compared to before, the sword moved like a fish darting in the water and yet his body was completely relaxed, almost like everything has already fallen into place and there is nothing more to worry about.

Swssh!

A falling leaf was cut in half in mid air, yet Ye Chen didn’t feel a thing, he just carried on waving his sword.

The first stage, the second, the third, … the seventh.

Gradually, Ye Chen’s sword skills pushed past his former limits. Even though he was comprehending new techniques, he fluidly moved at an extremely fast pace, but it also seemed like there was nothing restraining him in any way, the sword in his hand seemed to go wherever he wanted it to. Without stopping for a breath, he finally reached the seventh stage, “The Search for Opportunity”. All of a sudden a light glanced out from his sword, bouncing around erratically, easily cutting through a couple of falling leaves, even though they are spread out from each other.

Ye Chen opened his eyes and ceased moving as he observed the results in surprise. You must know that for a beginner of martial arts, even the most basic moves were very hard to master. It was not just about the extent of your potential but about your ability to adapt to new things. For example, when trying to learn how to swim, it seems to be very hard in the beginning because of the fear of drowning, but as you begin to acclimate yourself, your restrictions are removed and every move suddenly becomes simple.

As you can see, to become better is not hard, but to start from scratch? Incomparably difficult.

Ye Chen took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Effortlessly, he began the movements of the Cloudfall Sword Arts, over and over again.

The first stage, the second, …, the seventh.

The first stage, the second, …, the seventh.

…

After repeating this ten times, Ye Chen was finally able to comprehend the eighth routine “Walking on a River of Clouds”.

The great steel sword in his hand gave off a blurry white sheen, just like the clouds in the sky suddenly running like water in a river, condensing then splitting, condensing then splitting, condensing then splitting…

As Ye Chen continued, the Qi inside him started to slowly increase its speed, just like the running river, continuously completing one loop after another, flowing up through his meridians before coming back to his lower abdomen then running right back out again.

Hm?

Suddenly, Ye Chen felt something change in his lower abdomen.

“I achieved Mid Level Fourth Qi Realm so easily?” Ye Chen knew that in order to reach Mid Fourth Qi Realm from Early Fourth Qi Realm, it would take at least a week, yet it only took him an hour.

It could never be that simple, but there must be something else prompting this kind of growth.

[1] Normally when a soul enters into a completely different vessel, the vessel would have signs of rejection to the newly arrived soul which would make the soul feel tortured.

[2]Qi: is life-force — that which animates the forms of the world. It is the vibratory nature of phenomena — the flow and tremoring that is happening continuously at molecular, atomic and sub-atomic levels. In this book, it is mostly referred to the Qi inside of people’ bodies which is largely related to the practise of martial arts.