Translator: Nox
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: The Youngest of a Third-Rate Sect
“Divine One? I haven’t done anything wrong.”
It was a drizzly, wet day.
A boy lay sprawled across the ground, staring up at the leaking ceiling. His eyes brimmed with injustice, and in the damp room, he didn’t move a muscle.
‘But I didn’t do anything wrong. Not a single thing.’
The boy, Hyeon-do, slowly retraced his memories.
Plink, plink. The rhythmic sound of water droplets falling into a large basket filled the silence with a sense of melancholy.
Up until just recently, he’d thought this was some kind of joke.
No — he thought it was a dream.
‘But it’s real.’
This wasn’t the world he used to live in.
This was the world inside the game he loved — *Martial World: Supreme Heaven*.
“Now that I think about it, this is ridiculous. I was just enjoying the game. I had just started a new run...”
It’s not like he’d written bad comments or done anything criminal.
Okay, maybe he did some questionable stuff in various routes.
But who didn’t?
He just loved the original storyline so much that he’d played it for over 20,000 hours.
He’d started as a third-rate warrior, climbed to become the strongest under heaven, played as a demonic cultist, even unified the Murim world.
The more he thought about it, the more incomprehensible it became.
The only silver lining was the body he’d been reincarnated into — one painstakingly crafted to be the ultimate martial artist.
The worst part?
He had woken up in the body of a member of a third-rate sect destined to be destroyed right at the start of the story.
This was Hubei Province.
Once called the Peng Sect of Hebei, a member of the Five Great Sects — but now fallen, reduced to nothing more than a third-rate sect.
Karma, maybe.
Hyeon-do had explored every route, enjoyed every hidden story.
Except one.
Saving the Peng Sect.
<“Just abandon Peng Sect.”>
That was the unchanging premise in every playthrough.
The Peng Sect was always destroyed.
Its members either died or became villains who stood in the protagonist’s way.
So it was considered impossible to save them.
It was how the developers had built it.
Even for a veteran player like Hyeon-do, the one thing he had never managed was to preserve the Peng Sect that had been exiled to Hubei.
Normally, he wouldn’t have cared.
They were just good XP fodder — perfect punching bags to test out the protagonist’s power.
But now?
“If this sect gets wiped out... I’ll die too, won’t I?”
If he wanted to live, he had to act.
If the sect perished, he wouldn’t survive either.
---
**Name: Peng Hyeon-do.**
Estimated age: early teens.
But this body was stronger and more talented than any martial body he had ever crafted before.
‘I maxed out all the stats first.’
Ordinary stats wouldn’t be enough to survive the chaos of the early chapters.
So he cranked every base stat to the highest level: [Strength], [Internal Energy], [Agility], [Stamina], [Potential].
Stats ranged from One-Star to Five-Star.
‘One-Star is average. Five-Star is heaven-sent genius. Every single one of my stats is Five-Star.’
In other words — the kind of prodigy born once in ten thousand years.
And there was one more thing.
Every martial artist was granted five traits.
Hyeon-do quietly recalled them.
**1. Heavenly Martial Body (天武之體):** A body optimized for martial arts. All martial arts grow in harmony. Can learn both orthodox and demonic arts. Can reach the Transformative Realm without enlightenment.
**2. Divine Strength (神力):** Possesses overwhelming strength. Unlocks an additional tier in Strength stat. (Ten-Star)
**3. Core of the Divine Beast:** As if absorbing the core of a divine beast, internal energy grows immensely. Unlocks additional tier in Internal Energy stat. (Ten-Star)
**4. Master of the Saber:** Can wield sabers as extensions of one’s own limbs. Gains bonuses to all abilities when wielding a saber.
**5. Unusual Vitality:** Inhuman resilience. Can survive having the heart pierced or brain ruptured. Unlocks additional tier in Stamina stat. (Ten-Star)
With this setup, unless he ran straight into the Heavenly Demon from the start, he shouldn’t be able to die.
These were traits he had agonized over and unlocked with extreme care.
If he had chosen something weak or bizarre...
That would’ve been a disaster.
In order to survive, he had one last mission to complete:
**Save the Peng Sect.**
Transform this dying third-rate sect into the strongest under heaven.
‘But... look at the state of this place.’
As he watched the rain fall, he realized how far the sect had fallen.
Water was dripping not just outside the eaves, but into the house.
Without bowls to catch the leaks, the floor would be soaked.
There were hardly any servants — just a few people moving around busily.
Hyeon-do got up and stared blankly out the window, thinking of how to assess the current situation... and how to overcome it.
Looking at his still-immature hands, he sighed.
“Haaah... What else can I do? I have to survive.”
If he stayed idle, everyone would be massacred.
He got up.
The damp air, the smell of earth — caught between sweet and metallic — grounded him in this new reality.
A dream wouldn’t feel this vivid.
‘What was around Hubei again?’
In the original lore, the Peng Sect had been located near Beijing, in Hebei.
But not in this timeline.
Now, it was a third-rate sect driven south to Hubei Province, far in south-central China.
That was supposedly because the imperial court wouldn’t tolerate powerful martial sects too close to the capital.
The royal family and the martial world had signed a non-aggression pact — made sense in this setting.
Being out of the emperor’s sight was probably a good thing.
Anyway, what should he do first...?
[“Tsk tsk. What happened to the Peng Sect...”]
A strange voice broke his thoughts.
What the...?
“Who’s there?”
Wait. No way—?
[“There’s no hope left, no matter where I look. If only someone could inherit my legacy... the Peng Sect could rise again...”]
It reminded him of a mod he’d installed.
**[Legacy of Lost Arts from 100 Years Ago].**
The game’s setting took place after the Great War between Orthodox and Demonic Sects.
The mod let you learn lost arts from legendary martial artists of the past century.
Could that mod have activated too?
Hyeon-do quietly stood, roughly put on his raincloak and bamboo hat, and stepped outside.
A vast, empty courtyard.
The buildings were in ruins, overgrown with weeds and vines.
It perfectly reflected the Peng Sect’s current miserable state — a far cry from their days as one of the Five Great Sects.
Let’s check it out.
He followed the voice.
---
**The Ancestral Shrine.**
A place where the former sect leaders and great ancestors were honored.
Each soul enshrined there had left a mark in martial history.
**The Thunderblade Emperor, Peng Mu-hyeok.**
The 16th Patriarch. A man who once dominated the world with a single massive saber.
He was known as the wielder of divine strength, and with just one saber technique that summoned lightning, he could obliterate all.
The hero who once fought the Heavenly Demon alone and saved countless lives...
“But what’s the point? Look at the state we’re in now.”
[“Hooh... such impudence. Even if I am invisible, how dare you speak so insolently?”]
“I’m not wrong, am I? The once-glorious Peng Sect is no more. Now we’re just a fallen house clutching at dirty money.”
Hyeon-do turned to look straight at the spirit of Peng Mu-hyeok.
The soul of the once-great martial master opened his eyes wide.
[“You... you can see me?”]
“Yes. Very clearly.”
[“Hoho... HOHOHOHO! This old man is visible again!?”]
His booming laughter was deafening. Hyeon-do covered his ears.
Loud, geez.
But this was an opportunity.
[“Yes. The Peng Sect has indeed fallen. It’s plunged so far into darkness that it seems beyond saving. They even grab at dirty money now.”]
“You’re not wrong.”
The Blood Disaster 100 years ago.
The Demonic Sect, the Blood Sect, and the Unorthodox Factions ravaged the righteous martial world.
Most orthodox sects lost their techniques and secret arts.
The Peng Sect was no different.
On top of that, a series of misfortunes buried them for good:
Laziness. A life chasing strength, not wisdom.
Stubbornness. Arrogance from relying solely on raw talent.
No successors...
All of it accumulated and collapsed the sect.
Peng Mu-hyeok seemed to understand this deeply. He spoke with sorrow.
[“I want to rebuild it. I’ve lingered here for over a century. I want to see the Peng Sect rise again — as the overlord of Hebei Province.”]
Even in the original game, the Peng Sect was destroyed hundreds, thousands of times.
They were slaughtered in every way imaginable.
Even Hyeon-do, who never got emotionally attached, felt pity for the sect.
But now it was different.
**Peng Hyeon-do** had confidence.
He could feel his power clearly.
Even now, he was growing stronger with every breath.
He smiled and opened his mouth.
“Shall I do it for you?”
[“Are you saying... you’ll become my disciple?”]
“I’m not interested in messing up my family registry. Just teach me martial arts. *Mixed-Origin Thunderforce Divine Art.*”
The long-lost art of the Peng Sect. A cultivation method that allowed the user to command lightning.
Originally, it had been a fan-created martial art that fused modern science — but in this world, it was real.
A lost martial art containing one of the universal principles — **Unity (一元)**.
Harnessing the convergence of opposites — Yin and Yang — to generate electric force. A martial world theory of electricity.
A divine art capable of striking with the power of lightning itself.
Peng Mu-hyeok didn’t hesitate.
He had waited a century for this moment.
A flawless body.
A dantian with terrifying absorbing power.
Everything about this boy exceeded anything he’d seen in his lifetime.
[“Can you handle it?”]
“Of course.”
Hyeon-do answered confidently.
This journey wasn’t just about getting stronger.
It was about fulfilling a forgotten legacy.
And above all — it was the only way to survive.
Starting today, the Peng Sect would be reborn.
From a third-rate sect... into the strongest sect under heaven.
A hundred years of lost history — he would bring it back.
