"Nah, I'd win!"
A loud voice sounded brightly throughout the entire base of the Sword Horizon Sect. The voice of that person seemed to bring hope to the tired expressions of the sect members.
That voice came from a young-looking man with long snow-white hair, which went his back down. With his fair skin, he looked rather pleasing to the eye.
His hair was flying in the wind as if it had a will on its own and made him look like the heroic protagonist of the novel's he has always read in his past life.
Now, he could finally act like one of them and Cie Lin found it incredible.
I will defeat the genius of the opposing sect and become renowned throughout the entire world.
Cie Lin had trained hard to become a Golden Core Cultivator. With friends and family, who had dearly supported him, he managed to quickly increase his strength and become part of the Core Disciples.
He learned many strong and overbearing techniques, which changed his fighting style as a Sword Cultivator. He became stronger, he felt it.
He just had to defeat that Fang Wuji, who dared to look at Mount Tai, but soon, he will feel the pressure of his view.
Even though, that guy was told to be strong enough to defeat a Nascent Soul Cultivator and he is called "Flaming Death", because his flames are supposed to be as hot as the sun, this just couldn't be true.
There are always these over-exaggerations in this world. As if any of these were actually the truth. I learned from reading many novels about you. You can't to anything but die at the protagonist's sword. That protagonist being me.
Cie Lin was very confident in his skills. He will definitely win, he thought to himself.
It only took him 200 tender years of diligent cultivating to reach the Golden Core Ream. That was a sign of him being a genius as a cultivator.
He even had a system, but all it did was show him how good he was. No extra effect, no overpowered skill. Absolutely nothing.
Cie Lin's System
Age: 210/300
Cultivation: 1st Stage Golden Core
Cultivation Technique: Advanced Sword Horizon Technique
I am a real genius. My progress may be just that, but I am sure it will soar when I defeat Fang Wuji. He'll become my stepping stone and my father, the sect master, will be proud of me.
With full confidence, he waited until the opposing sect attacked and he will become someone worthy.
Several hours later.
The air stank. Stank just like the taste of blood on Cie Lin's lips. He tried to ignore the stench, but it just didn't leave him alone.
He felt an emotion, he had never felt before in this life. It was sadness and it reminded him of his past life, so he didn't want to think about it.
Dead. Everyone. Everyone is dead.
He recognized the bodies of friends lying in the way. Friends, he had known for a long time. He couldn't save them. Even though he had fought desperately, he couldn't save everyone he loved and cared about.
With every step he walked into a new pool of blood, which left the corners of his robe with a crimson stain. The more his robe dirtied itself, the worse the mood of Cie Lin became.
He remember that this robe was a gift of his father, who had died some battles ago. While remembering about him, a small tear fell down his face.
Cie Lin held his hand before his face to not let others see his feeling, but...
There was no one. No one left. No one alive.
Why did I survive? I shouldn't have fought at just one front. Maybe they wouldn't have died.
Despite relentlessly questioning himself, Cie Lin knew the answer. He couldn't even save the people on his own side. How could he have saved the ones here? It would have only lead to more people dying on his side.
Can't I save everyone? For a happy outcome for everyone? If I died instead of them, it would have been alright. I would be able to accept that. My life for thousands seems like a fair deal to me.
Some of the dead people had burn marks all over them. Their faces were transfigured to the point where he was unable to recognize facial features anymore.
He looked around. A gentle fog lay itself over the battlefield, covering Cie Lin's sight and everything beyond it.
He sat himself at a place where no corpses were and still a bit of green grass left. Putting his head on his knees and drawing his feet nearer so that he was able to put his arms around them.
More than 200 years of life experience and I am still the same, inexperienced idiot, I was in my past life. I should have prepared better. I should have trained more. More than the entire day. Maybe if I was smart enough to recall how modern technology worked, I would have been able to help them. Cannons, guns. Anything. Didn't I do everything in my power to help them? Was there really no way to save them from their fate?
He sat there for a long time. He didn't even think about how long. For him, it seemed like the time has stopped just for his pain to be longer.
However, the battlefield wasn't silent for too long. Cie Lin heard footsteps and a quiet splashing, which sounded like that person was alone and not accompanied by someone.
He stood up and turned into the direction of the splashing, which became louder by the step. Cie Lin prepared himself for battle and went into the stance, used for the Sword Horizon Technique.
"It seems like the other front has failed. They apparently have all been killed by you, haven't they?"
The voice sounded young. Maybe the physical body was just in its twenties, Cie Lin speculated as he found a dark silhouette in the fog.
The silhouette had the same height as him, but Cie Lin had seen too many weird beings in this world, so he didn't judge that person's age just by their experience.
He tried to sense the other person's cultivation realm, but his sense got blocked like a ball against an iron wall as he did that.
Slight uneasiness shivered in Cie Lin's body when he remembered what his father once told him when he was younger.
If your sense ever gets blocked, just run away and look for me. Normally if someone has the ability to block your sensing technique, then they had the time to learn how to block it. Don't fight someone whom you can't estimate as it may as well be your last fight.
But you are no more, dad. I can't just run to you. I am sorry, but if this is my last fight then I hope I will at least meet you in the next life.
Cie Lin rubbed with his left hand the water from his face and then he put up a stern expression as he began to walk into the direction of the silhouette.
"They are dead. And I will make sure, you can meet them later."
Cie Lin said with an emotionless mask on his face. The other person had already unsheathed their sword and swirled it around playfully.
Cie Lin made a click with his tongue as he saw the attitude of his opponent, who didn't seem to take their battle seriously.
So, he decided to make the first move. He didn't scream out the name of the technique, he was about to use. Why would he? This wasn't for show.
His sword cut through the air with a fast speed. It was a very good strike. Just like he had always learned them. His sword almost reached the neck of the man.
But why did he suddenly see the world turned upside down?
Cie Lin's eyes didn't even realize what had happened as he saw his own body beside him, holding the sword at the man's neck.
"What a weak opponent. I expected more from the Sword Horizon Sect' genius." The man spoke in a condescending voice to the head, which lay now on the ground.
Why did a Golden Core Cultivator die so easily? He shouldn't die so easily.
"Are you perhaps wondering why you died so fast? Though, it has no purpose telling that to a dead person. But I can tell you."
The young, black-haired man scoffed at him and Cie Lin tried to get his last words together, because he absolutely wanted to know it.
That man continued talking as he noticed Cie Lin's gaze on him.
"Because I am Fang Wuji."
Cie Lin cursed in his mind at the man in front of him. Even though, he was unable to do anything, he still tried his best to get at least some words out of him.
Fang Wuji, who still looked at Cie Lin with pity, began to laugh shamefully and went on his knees beside Cie Lin's head.
Cie Lin's rasping voice managed to somehow make sounds, which could be interpreted as words and Fang Wuji was also able to fully understand them.
"F**k you, Fang Wuji."
Fang Wuji's expression darkened and within a moment a sword was stuck within Cie Lin's head. However, it didn't make much of a difference as Cie Lin already had his eyes closed and was on his way to his next life without any memories from the past.
True System awakened. The Eternal Reincarnation System is fully ready.
Host died.
Host gets a title for the life he lived.
Title: The Greatest Fraud.
Destiny Points or DP are being calculated...