“However, this dull world has finally gotten some new tricks. What are those flames and mists? Superpowers? Magic? Or immortal arts? Living in this world, I have relied on my parents to support me and raise me. That is a debt, so repaying this part of the responsibility is what I should do, and what I must do. Neither reason nor emotion allows me to retreat.” Facing the unknown world, Grace Miller felt a bit anxious, but also a faint excitement. It was a kind of restlessness etched deep into his bones.

Suddenly, this excitement was like opening Pandora’s box, and countless torrents of memories instantly flooded into Grace Miller’s mind. In that moment, he understood why he had been reborn.

The true reason for his rebirth.

It was that swordsmanship manual he once obtained, but then inexplicably lost. That strange book that, no matter how many times he took it out, he always mysteriously didn’t want to open. It was just an old book he stumbled upon in an online Taobao shop. He had thought it was a leftover from the qigong craze era, but the flood of information that rushed into his mind at that moment made Grace Miller realize the book’s true extraordinariness.

“The ultimate of the sword is to cut! Cut through everything!! Only by facing death can one be reborn!! Whoever stands in my way, no thought! No mind! No imagination! Cut!! Cut!! Cut!!!” Three consecutive “cut” characters, overwhelming in momentum, looking down on everything. Just recalling it made Grace Miller’s blood surge throughout his body. He quickly set aside this part and started directly from the gentler section at the end.

“Swordsmanship True Explanation, the supreme sword art of the royal court. Those with fate, practice with caution! This sword art is extremely radical and extreme, so I have specially attached a qigong section to help balance it.”

Only then did Grace Miller catch his breath. The opening of the Swordsmanship True Explanation, with its aura of slaying all things and overlooking everything, made him feel as if he had fallen into a deep abyss, almost suffocating to death, with all his bodily functions coming to a complete halt for a moment. Fortunately, this last part, apparently left by someone else, greatly balanced Grace Miller’s breath.

Words, when combined, naturally evoke associations. Even just this kind of association could mentally affect Grace Miller, causing his entire body to freeze for a moment. It must be said that this Swordsmanship True Explanation was undoubtedly bizarre and terrifying to the extreme. If just reading it was like this, who knew what would happen if he actually practiced it?

“Perhaps, this is the true meaning of my rebirth?” Grace Miller calmed his blood and tried hard to restrain himself from thinking about the manual that had caused his rebirth. With it, he would no longer be an ordinary mortal with no power to resist. No matter what the final outcome would be, this world after rebirth had already stirred up countless storms in Grace Miller’s once lifeless heart.

He recalled the moment before his death, the image of that man in a black trench coat with long, fiery red hair, deeply imprinted in his mind.

Chapter 2: The Cause

The supplementary qigong section was left by an unknown master—there’s no doubt about that. Just from the aura that nearly matched the Swordsmanship True Explanation, it was clear that the person who left this section was definitely on the same level as the author of the Swordsmanship True Explanation.

This section and the entire Swordsmanship True Explanation were filled with mystical, exaggerated descriptions. If it weren’t for its miraculous existence in Grace Miller’s mind, perhaps if it were placed outside, in front of him, he would never have believed it was a top-tier manual that could actually be cultivated. Maybe the person who sold him this manual back then thought the same. After all, the qigong craze left behind too many incomprehensible and wildly exaggerated martial arts books.

The golden noon sunlight slanted into the living room. At this time of year, the temperature was already quite warm. The aroma of other families’ cooking could still be smelled in the air. Grace Miller’s family lived in the school housing assigned to his mother, Sarah Carter, located within the school itself. Pingshi No. 1 School was a standard public school, with elementary and middle school combined, so at this time the sound of the school bell signaling the end of classes could still be faintly heard.

Although his mother Sarah Carter worked at No. 1 School, neither Grace Miller nor his younger sister Henry Miller attended school there. Grace Miller was a high school student, which was understandable, but Henry Miller was still in middle school and didn’t attend No. 1 either. The reason was that the school’s atmosphere was simply too poor. Although it was called “No. 1” in name, its actual ranking was dead last. Fights, brawls, and hooliganism among students were rampant. In the whole of Pingshi, it was notorious as a trash school. Except for families who really couldn’t afford high tuition fees, no one else would send their children to study in such an environment.

May 13th happened to be a Sunday, so Grace Miller had the chance to sleep in at home, and his sister Henry Miller had free time to go out shopping with friends. However, their father didn’t have time off. Although the family’s bookstore was small, business was actually quite good, and weekends were the busiest time. Their mother Sarah Carter also hurried out after eating, just to help out at the store.