He went from being the genius of the Ancient Sword Sect to a laughingstock!

But William Harper always firmly believed that one day, he would break through the clouds and see the light.

He waited for this day—William Harper waited for three years. For these three years, William Harper practiced swordsmanship diligently every day. When others were dating, he was practicing; when others were having fun, he was still practicing.

Except for the time spent sleeping and eating, almost all of William Harper’s time was devoted to cultivation. However... after three years of persistence, his cultivation level had not improved at all, and today, he was facing certain death!

Is my life really going to end like this?

I don’t want to die!

I don’t want to die!

I haven’t even proven myself yet—if I die like this, in the eyes of the world, I will forever be a useless person!

A wave of sorrow surged in William Harper’s heart. He was deeply unwilling. He was only a fifteen-year-old boy, full of youthful vigor, and he didn’t want to die carrying the label of a failure.

Death... should have been far away from him, but now... it was rapidly approaching. This feeling... was indeed sorrowful and unbearable.

In his ears, the wind howled as William Harper plummeted rapidly toward the bottom of Sword-Falling Cliff. His heart had turned utterly cold!

Suddenly...

A surge of power erupted from within William Harper, and his falling speed abruptly slowed.

The howling wind in his ears vanished. William Harper opened his eyes in surprise and discovered that he was floating in midair, less than three meters from the ground.

At the bottom of Sword-Falling Cliff, swords were scattered everywhere—most were broken or damaged, but there were also some intact ones.

At this moment, all the broken, damaged, and good swords began to tremble slightly. In the darkness, faint streams of light flew out from the bodies of these swords and poured into William Harper.

Looking down from the top of Sword-Falling Cliff, everything below was pitch black, but at the bottom, there was still some visibility.

William Harper watched as those faint streams of light entered his body, and immediately... he sensed a sword shadow forming in his mind.

“Something inside me... has awakened?” William Harper was startled.

For the past three years, he had been cultivating, but whenever vital energy entered his body, it disappeared without a trace, as if something was devouring the energy he absorbed.

Now it seemed that was indeed the case. Today, facing mortal danger, that thing finally released its power. This power was nothing short of miraculous—it allowed him to fall from a cliff over a hundred meters high and survive, suspending him in midair.

William Harper had only a moment to be surprised before his body was overwhelmed by intense pain. The streams of light entering his body were like sword energy, slicing through him.

At the same time...

The sword shadow forming in his mind also unleashed a terrifying force that crashed into William Harper’s consciousness.

Within just a few breaths, William Harper lost consciousness.

Chapter 2: Immaculate Sword Body

William Harper woke up—it was already dawn.

The sun was rising in the east, the sky was just breaking, and all things in the world were bursting with vitality, welcoming a new day.

William Harper was lying at the bottom of Sword-Falling Cliff, with many broken swords beneath him, but he... didn’t feel any pain at all.

As images from the previous night flashed through William Harper’s mind, he immediately sat up. To his surprise... not only had those broken swords not hurt him, but... his movement had bent them, and one of them even snapped in half.

“My body?”

William Harper raised his hands, looking a bit dazed. It seemed... the skin on his hands looked even better, with a healthier glow and a more delicate texture.

At this moment, William Harper really wanted to look in a mirror. He was already extremely handsome and elegant—a rare beauty among men. Now, with even finer skin and a brighter complexion, he wondered how much more handsome he had become.

“What’s going on? Last night I fell from Sword-Falling Cliff, not only did I not die, but my body became even stronger. And... it’s so strong that I can easily bend and break these swords?”

William Harper looked astonished as he carefully recalled the events of the previous night.

Before falling from Sword-Falling Cliff, his memory was clear. After that... William Harper only remembered a power awakening inside him, a sword shadow forming in his mind, and his body, which should have hit the ground, instead floating in midair.

Then... he lost consciousness, and his memory went blank.

Whenever he thought of that sword shadow, William Harper instinctively wanted to see it... but he simply couldn’t see inside his own mind.

But he remembered last night’s experience very clearly. For some reason, he had indeed ‘seen’ a sword shadow forming in his mind.

With William Harper’s knowledge, he had no idea what that meant—what it meant to have a sword shadow in his mind!

“Never mind, I, William Harper, survived a great disaster—there must be blessings to come!”

Unable to figure it out, William Harper didn’t get stuck in a dead end. He set the question aside and focused on feeling his body.

He sensed that the strength of the vital energy in his body had increased many times over, and he had opened three meridians in total.

Immediately... William Harper’s expression became especially animated!

The human body has nine meridians that can connect to the world’s vital energy. The first realm of martial arts, the ‘Condensing Vital Energy Realm,’ is about absorbing the world’s vital energy, transforming it into one’s own, and opening all nine meridians to lay the foundation for higher martial realms.