Wuxia 1

Liu Zhong learned his identity in this life when he turned one month old.

Song Qingshu!

If the name alone was just a coincidence, then surely it wasn't a coincidence that his father was Song Yuanqiao, he had six martial uncles, and his grandmaster was nearly ninety years old, right?

Liu Zhong sighed. Had he really been reincarnated as a minor villain in a wuxia novel?

Before the apocalypse, Liu Zhong had preferred reading online novels with varied plots and structures. He rarely read traditional novels.

But Jin Yong's and Gu Long's works were often adapted into television dramas, and there were plenty of fanfics about them online. Out of curiosity, Liu Zhong had read all the original novels.

He liked Jin Yong's novels a little more, and he sympathized with some of the villains in them.

Those villains had been driven to become villains by their circumstances. Murong Fu, Lin Pingzhi—and now Song Qingshu, the character he had been reincarnated as.

Out of jealousy toward Zhang Wuji, Song Qingshu had been manipulated by a villain who exploited his unrequited love, and he had committed a terrible deed. He had fallen from a noble young master into a villain everyone denounced. It was truly lamentable.

However, Song Qingshu himself was responsible for seventy percent of his downfall. The remaining thirty percent had to do with the way the people of the Wudang Sect treated him.

Song Yuanqiao simply wasn't good at raising a son. He was strict with his own child in every way, yet turned around and treated Zhang Wuji with gentle kindness. It was no wonder Song Qingshu grew jealous.

The others in the Wudang Sect also favored Zhang Wuji because of what he had suffered as a child.

How could that not leave a young, hot-blooded Song Qingshu feeling resentful?

And Zhou Zhiruo's attitude had been the last straw.

But of everyone involved, Zhou Zhiruo was the least at fault.

Aside from using Song Qingshu after she turned evil and pretending to be his wife, she had done nothing wrong before that.

If she didn't like him, she didn't like him.

Why should she accept him just because Song Qingshu liked her?

Her feelings had nothing to do with Song Qingshu!

Liu Zhong yawned, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

A child's body got tired so easily.

He would worry about the future when he grew up.

In any case, he wouldn't become the Song Qingshu from the original story.

Zhang Sanfeng picked up the tiny infant. This was, in a way, his grandson.

The baby was tiny and fragile, but adorable.

Smiling, he tapped the child on the nose and said to his disciples, "This child is the first of the Wudang Sect's third generation. You must teach him well."

The disciples nodded, and Song Yuanqiao resolved to raise Liu Zhong strictly.

Liu Zhong's infancy passed easily. He spent most of his time asleep.

His excessive sleepiness made everyone at Wudang think something might be wrong with him. They examined him carefully and even summoned a famous physician from the martial world to diagnose him.

After examining him, the physician said the child was healthy—healthier than most children. As for his sleepiness, he couldn't find a cause. Perhaps the child simply liked sleeping.

Everyone was speechless.

They let go of half their worries.

At least the child was healthy.

Since Liu Zhong slept most of the time and neither cried nor fussed, he was the easiest child to care for. He spared Song Yuanqiao and his wife a lot of trouble, leaving them time to have another child.

So, when Liu Zhong was two years old, he gained a younger brother.

His mother had suffered a difficult labor while giving birth to his younger brother, and her health had been damaged. She never had another child, and she passed away when his younger brother, Song Qinghua, was ten.

Song Qinghua cried bitterly. Song Yuanqiao didn't know how to comfort a child and only knew how to sternly reprimand his son. "A man doesn't shed tears easily. Why are you crying? Wipe your tears at once."

Song Qinghua reluctantly stopped crying. He was afraid of his stern father.

Liu Zhong stepped forward, took his younger brother's hand, and led him away from Song Yuanqiao.

With the heart of an adult, Liu Zhong understood Song Yuanqiao.

His grief was no less than Song Qinghua's.

But Song Yuanqiao truly wasn't a good father!

Liu Zhong took his younger brother back to their room and gently comforted him.

Song Qinghua clung to Liu Zhong's hand and wouldn't let go. As Liu Zhong spoke softly to him, he soon drifted off to sleep.

Liu Zhong closed his eyes too, but instead of sleeping, he practiced the Wudang Basic Internal Skill.

Because they were young, he and Song Qinghua were only learning the Wudang Basic Internal Skill. They hadn't started learning the Wudang Nine Yang Skill.

Of course, that was also part of Liu Zhong's own plan.

It wasn't that he looked down on the Wudang Nine Yang Skill.

The unique internal cultivation method created by the martial arts grandmaster Zhang Sanfeng was easily among the top ten in the martial world.

But that was only in comparison to the martial world of the present day.

Martial arts had gradually declined, and even fragments of the Nine Yin Manual were peerless secrets that many people fought over.

What about the complete Nine Yin Manual?

What about the martial arts of the Xiaoyao Sect?

The martial worlds in Jin Yong's novels were all part of the same lineage. Perhaps ruins of Lingjiu Palace still existed somewhere in this world.

Liu Zhong planned to seek out the Xiaoyao Sect's manuals on Tianshan Mountain once he had the strength to protect himself, then practice the Eternal Spring Skill.

They said Xiaoyaozi was an immensely mysterious figure who might already have ascended to immortality.

The Eternal Spring Skill he had left behind was actually a Daoist manual for attaining longevity. Once mastered, it could let its practitioner become an immortal.

Liu Zhong was very interested in becoming an immortal.

Deep down, he had a feeling that he was meant to be one.

Liu Zhong didn't notice that certain substances in the air—spiritual energy, in fact—entered his body as he breathed. A small portion transformed his body, while most of it flowed into his Purple Mansion.

His Purple Mansion was a vast ocean. At its very center grew a tiny willow tree, striving to absorb the spiritual energy entering Liu Zhong's body.

After Madam Song's funeral, life returned to normal.

Liu Zhong and Song Qinghua studied alongside the other third-generation disciples and occasionally attended extra lessons with their martial uncles.

Song Qinghua was very attached to his older brother, Liu Zhong.

In Song Qinghua's heart, Liu Zhong was the most important person to him, the one he was closest to.

He was respectful toward Song Yuanqiao and his martial uncles, but not close to them. It was as if there were a natural barrier between them. He respected his martial uncles, but didn't want to be too intimate with them.

No one else at Wudang noticed this attitude. Only Liu Zhong, who knew Song Qinghua best, did.

He said nothing, simply helping Song Qinghua conceal it.

Zhang Sanfeng's hundredth birthday was approaching. While the people of Wudang prepared for the celebration, they couldn't help sighing in private.

"Fifth Brother's absence from Master's hundredth birthday is truly a great regret," Zhang Songxi sighed.

Yu Lianzhou said, "I've decided to go to sea and try to find Fifth Brother."

Everyone thought the chances were slim, but they didn't try to dissuade Yu Lianzhou. What if—what if he really found him?

Fifth Brother's return would be the best birthday gift for their master.

The next day, Yu Lianzhou descended the mountain.

Liu Zhong heard the news from one of Yu Lianzhou's registered disciples.

Song Qinghua snorted. "What's the point of bringing him back? To upset Grandmaster? Turn a perfectly good birthday celebration into a funeral?"

"What did you say?"