Chapter 1: I Am the Master

  Dizziness, dazedness, and a blackness before his eyes - this was what Ye Wen felt at the moment. He couldn't even feel his own body or limbs, as if he had become a severely paralyzed patient.

  He didn't know what had happened and couldn't remember why he had become like this.

  But what followed was a severe pain in his chest that made him shudder, immediately followed by a feeling of weightlessness and dizziness, and then the impact on his back and the loud noise in his ears made him regain some consciousness.

  Bang!

  Compared to the feeling of being suffocated in a jar earlier, Ye Wen now feels pain all over his body, but it's exhilarating that he can finally feel the existence of his own body.

  His physical condition seemed to be not so good, the pain in his body was secondary, and his consciousness had just become slightly clear after suffering from a wave of pain earlier, but then fell into a daze again. He felt that he might soon return to darkness once more.

  In a daze, a young woman wearing an ancient long dress looked at him with a complex expression. In that instant, Ye Wen thought: Am I dead? This fairy-like beauty wouldn't be a ghostly messenger come to collect his soul, would she? Such a somewhat inexplicable thought.

  Just as he was about to mock his own inexplicable idea, everything went black in front of him again, and he fell into darkness once more...

  Just as Ye Wen passed out, a man suddenly stepped forward, his large knife straight and aimed at Ye Wen. If it wasn't for the woman who Ye Wen thought was a soul-snatching immortal stretching out her long sword to deflect the blade, it would have struck Ye Wen's shoulder and chopped into the ground. Fearing that Ye Wen wouldn't even understand what happened before his soul really returned to the underworld.

  "My senior brother is already unconscious, are you going to kill him off completely?" The ancient-dressed woman held her long sword horizontally, her eyebrows furrowed and full of momentum.

  Even the man who had just used a palm to send Ye Wen flying, and then wanted to rush up and add another knife, was shocked by the woman's aura and didn't dare to approach casually.

  The two men stood facing each other for a moment, then the man swung his large knife and slung it over his shoulder, laughing: "Ning Xia said with a smile, we came this time only to compete in martial arts, not specifically to take people's lives! It's just that now the outcome is divided, this prize..."

  "I and my senior fellow will definitely keep our promise!"

  After finishing speaking, he put the long sword back into its scabbard and walked to Ye Wen's side, who had fainted. He looked at him with a puzzled expression for a moment before letting out a deep sigh and helping him up, half-supporting and half-carrying him as they left the place.

  "Is this the leader of the Book Mountain Sect? What a total waste!" "Brother Zhang only used three moves to knock him out, and this guy is the leader of a sect?" "Not to mention anything else, but with just three moves, he lost his own sect's territory. A sect like that doesn't even need to exist..." "It's a pity about that woman though, didn't expect such a small sect to have such a stunning beauty..."

  Her mind was complicated by the words, and she asked in a low voice: "Master... why did you pass on the position of master to Master Brother?" But didn't know who she was asking.

  ……

  Ye Wen, who was in a coma, only felt uncomfortable all over and kept having dreams. These dreams seemed to be about the same person, but they were fragmented and disjointed, making it impossible for him to connect them together.

  The only thing he can remember relatively clearly is some of his training sessions, perhaps this has something to do with his past experiences.

  As a person born in the late 20th century and growing up at the turn of the century, Ye Wen's growth experience is not much different from that of most young people.

  Kindergarten, preschool, elementary school, middle school to university - if nothing unexpected happens, he will actually start a new life in society after the summer.

  The only difference between him and most people was that Ye Wen had been fond of martial arts since he was a child, which made his father, who had originally expected him to study hard and had deliberately given him the name "Wen" (meaning literature or culture), feel helpless.

  From a young age, he learned everything from karate to tai chi, although many places taught useless things that couldn't be used in actual combat. However, this kid would often sneak out and get into fights to gain experience.

  This situation became even more severe after Ye's father died in a car accident, and at one point almost caused a big disaster.

  Fortunately, this kid eventually went on the right path and was admitted to university, and in college, he was also low-key and didn't make any more trouble.

  But what he didn't expect was that, just as he was about to graduate, after drinking with friends and scattering the farewell wine, Ye Wen opened his eyes in a daze and looked around for a long time, still unable to connect his surroundings with the events of the past few days.

  He sat up from the bed, but the hard feeling under him didn't make him feel awkward. He was used to sleeping on a soft bed and had never experienced what it would be like to lie on this kind of hard bed.

  This time in this inexplicable situation he unexpectedly experienced it: feeling that it wasn't so bad after all.

  He looked at himself and felt that he was somehow different, but the hands in front of him seemed very familiar to him. This situation continued until he noticed a copper mirror not far from his bed, which gave him an accurate conclusion.

  "Who is this?" The face reflected in the copper mirror was not his familiar one, although this face was handsome enough to make his former self feel jealous, but he didn't have a bit of happiness.

  The reflection from the mirror was enough to make him understand that he was no longer the familiar 'himself' he knew, and had inexplicably transformed into another person.

  "Damn it, did I really encounter the legendary possession?"

  After sitting for a while, it was enough to make this young man of the new era, who had been bombarded by internet literature, understand his current situation. At the same time, he also recalled his brief moment of clarity not long ago.

  "It's obvious this guy was beaten to death, and in that instant I took over this body!"

  Looking at his own hands, the slender and delicate palms seem to have a layer of calluses, especially the calluses on the tiger's mouth position are particularly obvious.

  Apart from this, there was nothing special about these hands. If one were to talk about the strength of these hands, Ye Wen even felt that they couldn't compare to his fists from his previous life that had been through countless street fights.

  With a pinch of his two hands, Ye Wen's attention was drawn to the ring on his left index finger.

  He originally thought it was just an ordinary iron ring, because there were no patterns on it, and it didn't seem to be made of gold or silver, which also made him not pay much attention to this thing at first.

  Just now, with a burst of strength clenching his fist, he suddenly felt that something in his body was being sucked into it.

  "What is this?"

  Just as he didn't understand what was going on, a piece of thin cloth suddenly appeared in front of his eyes and floated gently down to the ground.

  Ye Wen was stunned for a good while, because he could absolutely confirm that his hands were absolutely empty, and his sleeves hadn't been shortened by even an inch. So where on earth did this piece of cloth come from?

  Finally, his gaze stopped on the ring because he felt that something inside him was drawn out by it in an instant before the cloth appeared, even making his originally not very good body feel a wave of dizziness.

  "This thing is sucking... it can't be my blood, right?"

  Obviously having lost his life once (otherwise, how could he have possessed a spirit? If it was possession, it would be physical), Ye Wen cherished this second life that had come to him for free. As a result, his fear of the unknown made him anxious about his own life.

  It wasn't until he was certain that his life was no longer in danger that he would remember the thin piece of cloth that had fallen to the ground.

  After taking off the ring, Ye Wen carefully checked the place where he had worn the ring before, but still didn't find anything unusual, nor did he see any wounds that could bleed. In addition, he also didn't find any blood-sucking needles or similar things inside the ring.

  On the surface, there was nothing unusual, so Ye Wen slightly put down his guard and put the ring back on. It wasn't until now that he had the mind to take a look at what the piece of cloth that suddenly appeared earlier was...

  However, perhaps fate had it that Ye Wen did not see what the piece of cloth was today. Just as he put on the ring, the door to this small room was pushed open.

  A woman in ancient costume, who had caught a glimpse of him in his brief moment of lucidity, walked in with a bowl of medicinal soup. As soon as the door opened, the pungent smell of Chinese medicine made Ye Wen wrinkle his brow.

  The woman holding the medicine also furrowed her brow, perhaps because she hadn't expected her senior brother to recover so quickly that he could get out of bed and walk around. She was both worried about his lack of concern for his own body and a little surprised.

  "Big brother, your injury isn't fully healed yet, how can you casually come down and move around? If it gets aggravated and the wound worsens, what are we going to do?"

  "It's okay, I feel like my body is fine..." Unfortunately, Ye Wen's body was too weak, and just as he wanted to stretch his arms and legs to show that he was unscathed, a severe pain shot through his chest, causing cold sweat to trickle down his forehead.

  Seeing this scene, the ancient woman could only helplessly sigh and then put Ye Wen back on the bed.

  "Big brother, that day you were hit by Zhang De's palm on your chest and it has injured your internal organs. Although there is no risk to your life, you still need to take good care of yourself to recover, lest you leave behind some hidden illness."

  While saying that, she handed the medicine to Ye Wen's hand and asked him to drink it down, while continuously talking about the injury Ye Wen suffered that day: "Moreover, when I let Lang Zhong help you check, he found a wound on the back of your head. Maybe when Zhang De hit you with his palm, you bumped into something. Lang Zhong asked me to ask if you have any discomfort in your head after waking up?"

  One hand pinched his nose while pouring medicine into his stomach, and the other thought about the current situation in his head.

  It's clear that Ye Wen has crossed over into an environment similar to or simply ancient China, and the woman in front of him should be from the same sect as himself, or even his junior sister.

  Just from the conversation, he could sense that this cheap junior sister seemed not to be friendly to him. This could be seen from the fact that his body was severely injured after being beaten up, but when this junior sister mentioned it, she didn't consider his feelings at all.

  "It seems this body didn't have a good reputation in the sect... I wonder if that cheap master will come out to help me?"

  Thinking of this, Ye Wen felt that he should investigate some more information about this body, at least he had to know something about his own sect.

  "It's nothing, I just can't remember many things... Junior Sister, where are we now? Have we returned to the sect?"

  As soon as the words came out, the woman in front of him looked very strange, and her eyes on Ye Wen made him quite uncomfortable, even making him wonder if he had said something wrong: "Did I say something wrong?"

  "Big brother, have you forgotten? Because you lost that duel, our sect has been destroyed!" As she said this, her face was full of resentment. Although her delicate hands were still placed in front of her, they had clenched into fists and the faint cracking sound emanating from them revealed a lot.

  "Why did I lose and our sect disappeared?" Ye Wen's head was still spinning, he didn't understand what his loss had to do with his own sect.

  Unless...

  Upon hearing Ye Wen's question, the woman in front of him was shocked, and even the raging anger from earlier disappeared. "Senior brother, have you forgotten that you are the seventh leader of our sect?"

  "Door... door god?"

  Ye Wen's face turned ugly, he had indeed thought of this possibility earlier, only he didn't think it would actually become a reality.

  Seeing her senior brother's reaction didn't seem fake, the woman finally confirmed that her senior brother was too seriously injured and might have contracted a soul departure syndrome. "Senior brother, do you still remember who you are?"

  "I......" Ye Wen looked at the woman in front of him, he only knew that he had become the leader of a sect and this beauty was his junior sister, but he really didn't know anything else. He couldn't even remember what this body was originally called.

  "Damn it, why couldn't I have absorbed the memories of this body when I crossed over?"

  In his heart, he was secretly complaining and bitterly smiling as he asked: "Who... am I?"

  When she heard her senior brother ask this, the woman's face became even more bitter and her heart was in even greater pain. But thinking of their respected master's last will, she couldn't help but force a smile on her face to answer: "Senior brother, you and I are our sect's last two disciples now, Master passed away last month and before that, he had already handed over the position of leader to you, do you still remember all this?"

  Ye Wen made a painful expression and then firmly shook his head.

  The girl took a deep breath: "Then do you still remember me? I am your junior sister Ning!"

  Really?

  Ye Wen's mind was suddenly struck by a bolt of lightning, buzzing and ringing, almost fainting again. All because he heard this information from the mouth of his Shifu sister in front of him, which made him think of a terrible possibility.

  The entire sect is left with only two people, I am the leader, she is my junior sister, her surname is Ning...

  "Am I going to be a Yue?"

  Ye Wen's face was gloomy, and he thought of a certain Grandmaster who had given up everything for the sake of reviving their sect.

  It's worth celebrating that Ning Shimei immediately responded with a strange expression: "Yue? Eldest Brother, you clearly have the surname Ye, and like me, we are both orphans picked up by Master from the mountain. Because I liked reading books since childhood, my name was given as 'Wen'."

  "What's wrong?"

  Ye Wen didn't expect that the person he possessed would have the same name and surname as himself, but their personalities and experiences were vastly different. Now that he had taken his place, he wasn't sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate.

  "What is your full name, junior sister?"

  Since he had already lost his memory, Ye Wen didn't mind taking the loss of memory to the end. Anyway, he didn't know anything now, and there was nothing to ask about anymore.

  "My surname is Ning and my name is Ruxue!" Ning Ruxue seemed to recall something when mentioning her own name, and her response was no longer as crisp and decisive as before, but rather slightly shy like an ordinary girl.

  Ye Wen only said that in ancient times, women were not good at talking about their own names, so they were shy and didn't know that Ning Ruxue had been like a man since childhood, doing things decisively and efficiently, completely different from the women of this era. She would find it hard to say out loud, whether she thought of her own name or the one her senior brother had given her back then (that elder brother who ascended to heaven was not idle when he read books).

  All of these have become the past, and Ye Wen doesn't know the details inside, so he didn't feel strange. Ning Ruxue also quickly forgot about other things and focused on discussing the current situation with her senior brother.

  After just a couple of sentences, Ye Wen finally figured out his current situation.

  There was a cheap master who died last month.

  The sect is called Shushan Sect, and I am the leader of Shushan Sect - but two days ago, after losing that fight, I lost my own signboard and land.

  There were only two people in the sect - myself and this Ning Shizhi in front of me.

  To put it simply, he has nothing except for a junior sister who doesn't seem very friendly to him.

  After understanding the situation, the two of them fell silent. Ning Xue saw her senior brother sitting there with his head down, not saying a word, and vaguely seemed to see again her useless and unprogressive senior brother.

  This senior brother has been inferior to himself since childhood, his martial arts skills are not as good as his own, he is slow in doing things and does everything poorly, yet he likes to hold a tattered book and read it endlessly.

  Oddly, the master also didn't know why he had to pass on the position of leader to her senior fellow disciple. Originally, she thought she would be the new leader and she also believed that she could make the Shu Shan Sect prosper.

  What a pity...

  "Was it just because she was a daughter?" Ning Ruxue thought of the fact that the masters of their sect had always been men, and couldn't help but think that this was the reason.

  However, she was not convinced. Can't a woman be the leader of a sect? Moreover, in today's Jianghu, although there are not many sects where women are respected, they do exist, and some even accept both male and female disciples. How can this small and humble sect be so outdated?

  It's just that the master's orders cannot be disobeyed, and before the master passed away, he specifically named the successor to take over the position of the gatekeeper, which was her senior brother. She also couldn't go against the master's last will. Now she could only choose to follow the master's orders: "Senior brother, the master said that the heavy responsibility of revitalizing our sect is now in your hands..."

  Ye Wen heard the words and was at a loss whether to laugh or cry, because he felt that this sentence seemed to have been heard somewhere before. But before he could react, his beautiful and heavenly junior sister said something that left him stunned.

  "If you can't do it, then hand over the position of master to me as soon as possible!" After finishing speaking, he didn't care about Ye Wen's reaction, picked up the empty bowl and turned around to leave the room.