I am Dao-Lin. I used to think I was living a normal life.
My father was a very good warrior. He built a family and founded a village far from the Murim conflicts. I was happy because I believed I lived a life made of a warm family, a quiet village, and dreams as pure as winter snow. And on top of that, I was the heir to this beautiful village.
I used to believe that my father, that undefeatable warrior, and my mother, who would heal my wounds with the touch of her heart, would be my world forever.
But…
That world burned.
That night, everything was torn apart and turned completely into ashes—before my eyes.
The "Heavenly Demon" appeared out of nowhere, as if hell itself had peeked its head into the village of "Hangshi."
He was accompanied by his arrogant heir, Ryuk-Yan, and beside him were two demons: one walked with a sword that left behind only silence, and the other carried a spear as if it was designed to rip souls apart. They came only to entertain themselves with us.
And they were not alone.
Other clans came with them...
The Namhoong Clan, the strongest clan in swordsmanship in the Murim Alliance, the leader of this alliance that represents good and humanity—but only because my father had beautiful land, the leader of the Murim Alliance, Namjoong-Bae, cooperated with the demonic sects, along with his son Namjoong-Kwak, and the Shaolin Clan, which claims to be merciful, but in reality, it was the one that built this demonic alliance to kill my clan—especially the Shaolin leader, Shin-Yi, and the Broken Moon Clan, made up of women only, who have faces more beautiful than the moon due to stealing the life energy of people and feeding on it—but they also excel in poison, especially when the leader of the Broken Moon Clan, Moon-Lan, killed my mother just by touching her face and lifting her up high—she was absorbing her life energy and poisoning her face with a flesh-eating poison.
All of them stood there watching, laughing, and slaughtering.
Powerful, arrogant, amusing themselves by shedding the blood of innocents.
They didn't come for revenge.
Nor to reclaim a right.
They came only for pleasure and to steal my father's land.
They laughed, and we burned.
I saw my mother's life being taken from her body in the most violent way, but my voice faded beneath their laughter.
I saw my father face them alone... his body was being torn apart, but he didn't kneel.
He died standing and spit in their faces before falling.
And me?
I was a child… my little fists couldn't protect, and my tears couldn't extinguish the fire.
Ryuk-Yan said with contempt as he looked at me:
> "Keep him alive… so he can be our favorite toy. Let's watch him grow… without touching anything in this world."
And from that moment…
Hell began.
The first thing they did to me… wasn't just imprisoning me.
They crushed my dantian, without which I cannot train.
That core where every warrior generates his energy, where the journey to power begins...
Was destroyed by their hands.
> "We won't kill him, but we'll strip him even of the ability to dream of revenge," they said as they laughed with demonic faces.
One of them stabbed a demonic needle into my spine, and black energy flowed, tearing apart everything inside me.
It felt like a world inside me was burning to ashes.
After that...
I was taken to the depths of the Heavenly Demon's palace and imprisoned inside a library no one enters without the Heavenly Demon's permission, a library made of three floors—the higher the floor, the greater the power.
I served in silence.
Arranged books I couldn't read, cleaned endless dust, and lived in the shadow of fear.
Five years passed…
And I was the servant.
No name, no voice, no dignity.
But I never forgot the day they killed my family. I was burying revenge inside me.
Until the day everything changed.
In the dead corner of the first floor, a floor neglected due to weak techniques, I found a strange book.
No title, no author, no stamp from the library.
Its cover was torn, dusty, and as if it didn't belong to this world.
My curiosity pushed me to open it...
But what I found inside was just blank pages.
Completely empty.
I flipped through it cautiously until I reached the last page...
And there, written in faint handwriting barely visible:
> "If you want power, knowledge, the past... and revenge...
Then you must sacrifice."
I didn't understand.
I returned it to its place... but the words stuck in my mind like a thorn that cannot be removed—especially revenge.
And the next day, he came to me again...
Ryuk-Yan.
A beautiful face and a rotten heart.
He kicked me.
Laughed.
And crushed my nose with his boot in front of the guards.
> "How I love to see you bleed, son of the Dao.
Your screams reminded me of your mother's… they were music to my heart."
He left me on the ground, writhing among the scattered books.
I crawled, putting the books back in their places after Ryuk-Yan knocked them over.
But my hand was bleeding.
And a drop of my blood fell... onto that strange book.
Suddenly, the blank pages started to move.
Words appeared one by one out of nowhere, as if the paper was breathing my blood:
> "Sacrifice confirmed."
"You will be granted: Power. Knowledge. The past and revenge."
"Mental Library System activated."
I felt something expanding inside me...
Like cold creeping into my spine.
Then... pain.
Pain that cannot be described.
> "Aaaaaaah!! My head!! It's going to explode!!"
I fell to the ground and began to shake as if my soul was being skinned.
It wasn't just heat…
It was like thousands of nails penetrating my mind, my spine, every nerve, every vein.
My heartbeat was exploding, one after another.
> "Aaaah! Stop, please!!"
"Please… make this hell stop!!!"
But no one could hear.
I bled from my nose, ears, and eyes.
I could no longer see or hear.
All that remained… were the screams inside me rising into madness.
> Mental System stabilization: 35%...
45%...
60%...
> "No... I can't..."
My voice disappeared.
> 98%...
99%...
And exactly at 100%...
Everything stopped.
The pain vanished as it came.
My vision was blurry, and my breathing was broken.
Then I heard the voice:
> "Mental Library System installed.
Welcome, heir of the Dao."
And I lost consciousness.