The Return of the Sw Chapter 1 : Returned

Chapter 1: Returned.

“Uh…… huh?”

Ban Hojin blinked his eyes.

Just monts ago, he had been locked in a world-shaking battle against the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, a being who could be called the leader of the Four Tyrants of the World who dominated the Neo-Outer Murim.

No, to be precise, he had sacrificed his own life and perished together with him.

Even soone like him, who had been called the greatest genius in the history of Shaolin, had found the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace overwhelmingly powerful—a monster so formidable that only by offering up his life had he barely managed to bring him down.

“But what is this?”

He had honed his martial arts for the peace of the Central Plains and, in accordance with his master’s will, had beco Shaolin’s secret weapon.

That was why Ban Hojin had sacrificed himself without the slightest hesitation.

He believed that was the right path.

And yet, now he was alive.

Squeeze.

“I definitely died.”

Ban Hojin, who had been blinking repeatedly, clenched both hands.

Instead of the blood-soaked hands he had possessed just before dying, what filled his vision were two youthful hands that still retained traces of immaturity, causing Ban Hojin to wear a dazed expression.

They were hands with calluses embedded here and there, yet clearly different from the hands of a thirty-year-old, and as they filled his sight, Ban Hojin was left utterly dumbfounded.

No matter how much he thought about it, he could not understand the situation he was in.

“……Did I really co back again?”

After spacing out for a mont, Ban Hojin scratched his head roughly.

No matter how much he thought it over, nothing ca to mind except regression.

However, his puzzlent was brief, and Ban Hojin soon let out a faint chuckle.

“This isn’t bad.”

Though he was a disciple of Shaolin, he was an unregistered disciple.

His master, who had recognized his talent at a glance, had passed on Shaolin’s secret techniques to him, yet had not recorded him in the monastic registry.

The reason given was that he had no karmic ties with Buddhism.

Even so, Ban Hojin had lived while heavily suppressing his own nature as a disciple of Shaolin.

He believed that he must not bring disgrace upon the na of Shaolin.

But after dying once, his thoughts had changed.

“This ti, I should live a bit more casually. I lived diligently and even gave my life for the peace of the Central Plains, so in this life, it’s fine to live while enjoying myself a bit, right?”

Chapter 1. In This Life, I Should Live While Enjoying Myself. -01

At first, it was shocking and hard to believe, but that feeling did not last even a full day.

He thought there was no need to deliberately reject a stroke of fortune that had co by chance.

He did not know for what reason he had returned to the past, but for Ban Hojin, it was good rather than bad.

In any case, life had been given to him once more.

“My body really is different. Compared to when I was thirty, it’s a complete difference between heaven and earth. Youth really is sothing.”

Feeling anew the vitality of being twenty, Ban Hojin shrugged his shoulders.

When he had turned thirty, Ban Hojin had felt it clearly.

That the difference between one’s thirties and twenties was considerable.

But experiencing it firsthand, the gap was imnse.

“Which ans there are about ten years left until the invasion of the Four Tyrants of the World. If I calculate by date, about nine years?”

Ban Hojin was lying atop a tree branch in a posture that was hardly comfortable anymore.

Under normal circumstances, he would not have been able to lie around resting so leisurely like this.

He would have been training relentlessly in the martial art granted only to him, the Three Dharma Swords.

Shaolin—or more precisely, his master—had permitted him to train in the Three Dharma Swords solely because of his talent, but Ban Hojin did not feel a strong need to train it.

“Everyone must be growing vigorously right about now.”

There was a reason Ban Hojin could afford to be so relaxed.

For one, at present within Shaolin, there was no one who understood the Three Dharma Swords better than he did.

Moreover, though the abundant inner energy he once possessed had vanished along with his rejuvenated body, countless experiences and accomplishnts remained intact within his mind.

Though it might look like he was slacking off, he was making his own efforts to balance mind and body.

And Ban Hojin knew it.

That there were many hidden reclusive masters and secret weapons being raised by various sects and martial families.

“It’s really strange. How do you always find ?”

Tilting his head slightly, Ban Hojin asked.

Even though his range of movent must have changed from before, the other always found him as if by instinct.

“Co on, you can tell at a glance. How many places are there to go within the temple grounds anyway?”

“But I’m moving differently than usual.”

“Hehe! Because they’re all places I’ve been to before.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Jeong Hyeon, now fifteen years old, answered with an embarrassed smile.

At the remark that they were places his own feet had already touched, Ban Hojin let out a small chuckle.

“But the senior uncles know too, right? That you’ve changed a lot compared to before.”

“It’s my own business, of course I know.”

“Actually, because of that, not only us but also the other senior uncles and martial uncles are all quite puzzled.”

“Because I’ve changed too much?”

“Yes. So people say your puberty just ca late.”

Jeong Hyeon spoke cautiously.

As the youngest among the first-generation disciples, the actual age difference was not that great.

However, the difference in status was like heaven and earth, so no matter how affable Jeong Hyeon was, he could not help but be careful.

Though Ban Hojin was the abbot’s youngest disciple and an unregistered disciple, making him a lay disciple, he was still one of only two disciples of Shaolin’s abbot, so his status was by no ans low.

“Puberty, huh. That’s not entirely wrong either.”

“Really?”

“But it’s not exactly right either. My way of thinking just changed a bit. You know what my original personality is like, don’t you?”

“When you first ca to Shaolin, your personality was similar to how it is now.”

Though he was fifteen years old, Jeong Hyeon’s ti at Shaolin was far longer.

He had been abandoned at Shaolin’s One-Pillar Gate, raised there, and eventually taken refuge in Buddhism—such was Jeong Hyeon.

In other words, having grown up solely within Shaolin from infancy until now, he was not sothing Ban Hojin could dare compare himself to.

‘If I include my past life, I’ve lived longer, but I can’t say that.’

At first, he had not been able to believe the regression itself.

He had thought it was a dream.

But now it was different.

Since everything now was clearly reality, Ban Hojin could not speak carelessly.

Even if he did speak, no one would believe him.

At best, he would be treated as a madman.

“You rember well?”

“Even if I’m bad at other things, my mory is good, isn’t it? I’m the fastest at morizing forms. It’s just that I’m slow at understanding and executing them.”

Jeong Hyeon muttered with a sullen expression.

Perhaps because it really was puberty, his emotional ups and downs were extre, like a bucking wave.

“It can’t be helped. Everyone’s innate talent is different.”

“Hearing you say that makes it hurt even more.”

Jeong Hyeon’s lips jutted out.

After all, Ban Hojin, Shaolin’s greatest genius, was standing right in front of him.

There had been a reason he had not been allowed the ultimate secret among secrets, the Three Dharma Swords, for nothing.

“My words aren’t finished yet. Everyone’s talent is different, but bringing it to bloom and making it fully flourish is a different matter. The martial path has no end. The end only cos at the mont of death. If you don’t give up and keep going until just before you die, you might one day surpass the one you wanted to surpass.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It won’t be easy, though.”

“Tch!”

Jeong Hyeon jutted his lips out once more.

The last words sounded as if he was being told not to even think about surpassing him.

“Let

add sothing. That’s not what I ant in the way you’re thinking.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Possibility is open to everyone. It’s not like I’m the best under heaven right now, am I?”

“Your goal is still to beco the best under heaven, right?”

“Well. It used to be, but now my thinking has changed.”

Jeong Hyeon’s eyes widened into perfect circles.

As befitted a genius who shook Shaolin, Ban Hojin had always had only one goal.

To beco the best under heaven and protect Shaolin.

Yet now, his expression was completely different from when he spoke those words.

“You changed?”

“Yeah. Ah, that doesn’t an I won’t do it, though. You could say I gained a goal after that. Maybe it’s more accurate to call it a new dream?”

“And what is that?”

“A loafer.”

“Huh?”

Jeong Hyeon blurted out without thinking.

It felt like he had misheard.

But Ban Hojin repeated himself with an endlessly serious expression, as if he ant it.

“You don’t know what a loafer is? A loafer who lazes around doing nothing. Ah, of course, there are six characters attached in front of it. The best under heaven and a loafer. In short, I just want to loaf around and live off things.”

“Uh…….”

Jeong Hyeon’s eyeballs rolled around without settling.

He couldn’t bring himself to look at Ban Hojin because he didn’t know what to say.

But at that sight, Ban Hojin instead broke into a broad grin.

“If you’re the best under heaven, it’s okay to take it easy, right?”

“B-but if you don’t want to be caught up to, shouldn’t you keep striving?”

“You just have to beco so strong that no one can even think of catching up.”

“Huh?”

For a mont, Jeong Hyeon was rendered speechless.

It sounded like nonsense, yet at the sa ti, it also made sense.

If the gap were overwhelmingly large, it seed true that the second best under heaven wouldn’t even dare to think of catching up to the best.

anwhile, Ban Hojin, who had left Jeong Hyeon speechless, recalled matters of the distant future.

‘A realm beyond Transcendence.’

When he had fought a life-and-death battle with the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace in the past, Ban Hojin had been a master who had reached the Transcendent Realm, a level said to be attainable only by chosen martial artists.

Considering his age, it was truly an unbelievable realm.

He had reached that very realm.

But the problem was that the Transcendent Realm was not the end.

‘It wasn’t exactly a fair fight either. Well, considering the age of the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, maybe that’s not entirely true?’

Recalling the desperate battle that had taken place in the distant future and, in a sense, the past as well, Ban Hojin shrugged his shoulders.

Perhaps because it was not a mory from long ago, it was still vivid in his mind.

So vivid, in fact, that even the extre yin energy the Lord of the Northern Sea Ice Palace had spewed forth and the thick scent of blood during the battle ca clearly to mind.

“D-do you think that’s possible?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? Are you going to give up without even trying? Is that your current mindset?”

“No way!”

Jeong Hyeon shook his head firmly.

His talent wasn’t particularly outstanding, but that didn’t an he intended to give up without even starting.

It would be difficult and painful, but just as Ban Hojin had said, Jeong Hyeon intended to keep striving until just before death.

He didn’t know where that endpoint would be, but he hoped it would be the Transcendent Realm, the realm of dreams.

“That’s right, that’s how a disciple of Shaolin should be. And besides, unlike , a lay disciple, you’re a true mountain disciple, aren’t you? Naturally, you should dream of sothing even greater than I do.”

“……But the martial arts you learn are more advanced supre techniques, Senior Uncle.”

“That can’t be helped. My talent really is that outstanding. I also had a bit of luck. If I hadn’t t my master, I’d probably be studying literature or running a business right now. And let

be clear. The supre techniques granted to

are only two. The Three Dharma Swords and the inner cultivation thod, the Supre Great Ability. Other than those, what I learned were only the martial arts permitted to lay disciples.”

Still lying atop the tree branch, Ban Hojin waved his index finger back and forth.

Though he spoke as if he were learning incredible divine techniques, among them, the only one that belonged to Shaolin’s representative Seventy-Two Ultimate Arts was the Supre Great Ability.

As for the Three Dharma Swords, it was such an abstruse martial art that it had never been properly passed down.

There was a reason his master, the abbot, had not learned the Three Dharma Swords.

“When you put it like that, I guess that’s true?”

“Even just the Seventy-Two Ultimate Arts are each martial arts capable of shaking the world. So don’t envy

and just diligently train what you’ve learned. If you want the Three Dharma Swords, I can teach you anyti.”

“Just looking at the introductory formulas made my head feel like it was going to split open.”

Jeong Hyeon shook his head vigorously, as if shuddering.

He had understood after seeing the manual why there was no one who learned the Three Dharma Swords.

“Then why did you co looking for ?”

“Oh! I didn’t tell you that yet. The children of prestigious families have co. You know them too, Senior Uncle, right? The Four Dragons and Three Phoenixes!”

“Nine Dragons and Three Dragons?”

“What? No! The Four Dragons and Three Phoenixes!”

Ban Hojin absentmindedly answered while digging in his ear.

It was because he knew that though they were Four Dragons now, they would later beco Nine Dragons.

Of course, that didn’t an they were people who would interest him.

“Did they co around this ti?”

“I told you a little while ago.”

“Did you?”

Unlike the slightly excited Jeong Hyeon, Ban Hojin was indifferent.

Whether rising juniors ca or not, he had no particular interest.

At that sight, Jeong Hyeon wore an expression as if this was exactly what he had expected.

“Aren’t you curious? If they’re called the Four Dragons, they’re the most outstanding among the rising juniors of the orthodox martial world right now.”

“Only that much?”

“Pardon?”

At the way he spoke as if he knew the Four Dragons’ level inside and out, Jeong Hyeon questioned him.

It wasn’t just a feeling—his tone sounded as if he were looking down on the Four Dragons.

“Ah, they haven’t appeared yet, have they. Well, maybe they’re not fully ripe yet either. But why are you getting so excited just because they ca? Ah, is it because of the Three Phoenixes?”

“Hehehe.”