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The First Breath of Freedom
For the first time in what felt like forever, Ryu Hanjun looked at the world not with detachment—but with curiosity.
The birds sang more clearly. The air felt real.
No longer like a looped performance repeating itself endlessly—this world finally responded to his presence.
He strolled through the morning bustle of a town he knew too well. Familiar faces passed him by.
The bakery girl he once saved from choking in loop 76,119.
The arrogant disciple he once fought atop a snowy peak in loop 9,003,428.
The ragged beggar who, in another life, revealed himself as a retired grandmaster.
They didn't recognize him.
They couldn't.
But he remembered everything. Every word. Every breath.
And yet, he didn't stop to intervene. Didn't speak. Didn't act.
He simply walked on.
The world didn't need a guardian anymore.
It needed a ruler.
---
The New Path: Becoming More Than Mortal
After one hundred million lifetimes, Ryu Hanjun was no longer just a man.
His body remained that of a 26-year-old martial artist, but his soul?
It belonged to something far beyond human.
He had mastered:
• All 108 Sect Arts
• The Seven Forbidden Techniques
• Every known Internal Energy Flow
• All weapon forms
• Secret alchemical sciences
• Illusions and memory manipulation
• Beast-taming, ghost-controlling, demon-hunting, spirit-walking
There was nothing in the martial world he did not understand.
So, he moved past it.
> "What lies beyond the peak of all martial paths?"
That was the question he began asking himself around loop 81 million.
Now… he would find the answer.
---
Enter: The Legacy Bearers
Unknown to Hanjun, echoes of his existence had seeped into time itself.
A blind musician in the East who dreamed of a sword technique he never learned—but his hands moved like flowing water, mirroring the Endless Mirror Sword.
A war orphan trained by a hermit who unknowingly passed down the Silent Pulse Palm, a technique Hanjun had shared 4,000 loops ago.
A fiery young woman born mysteriously immune to poison—her ancestor once the subject of a rare elixir experiment during loop 56,209.
They didn't know him. Had never met him.
But his legacy lived inside them.
And soon, their paths would cross.
---
The First Challenge in a New Era
Far west, deep in the Borderlands, the Black Phoenix Sect rose once more.
They had been wiped out in a previous life by the Murim Alliance. But now they returned—stronger, louder, claiming to possess a divine flame, some ancient weapon of destruction.
Hanjun had ended them 18 different ways in past loops.
But this time… they were stronger.
Curious.
He entered their fortress alone. No sword in hand. No name spoken. Just a calm, unreadable smile.
By nightfall, their mountain was engulfed in flames.
The "Divine Flame" they boasted about?
A poor imitation of a technique he had created in loop 6,800,000.
He laughed on his way out.
---
The Message to the World
On the scorched gates of the Black Phoenix Sect, he left a message:
> "There is no technique you hold that I haven't perfected.
There is no war you start that I haven't already ended.
From this day forth… kneel, or be forgotten."
– Ryu Hanjun
The world heard him.
---
The Heavenly Pavilion Reacts
High above, in the floating city of the Heavenly Pavilion, the Nine Grand Elders convened.
Scrying mirrors flickered. Spirit owls carried reports of a nameless man who razed an entire sect overnight.
Some called him a heretic. Others whispered of a god wearing mortal flesh.
One Elder leaned back in his chair, eyes wide with memory.
> "No… it can't be. I saw him once. During the Third Blood Cult War… 400 years ago…"
The others chuckled.
> "You're senile. He'd be long dead by now."
But the old man didn't laugh.
> "He's back."
---