Chapter Two: The Sword Within
The great hall fell into a heavy silence.
Snow drifted lazily outside as Yue Shuang turned and walked away, her footsteps fading into the winter wind.
Tian Jian remained standing, still and quiet, like a blade left forgotten on a rack. No fury. No sorrow. Just silence.
Yet deep within his chest, something shifted. A slow, burning pulse began to stir—not from anger, but from somewhere older, buried far beneath memory.
That night, Tian Jian sat cross-legged in his cultivation chamber. Cold moonlight spilled through the frost-covered windows. He closed his eyes to meditate, but his thoughts refused to settle.
And then it happened.
A sharp ringing filled his ears—like steel drawn from a scabbard.
In an instant, the world around him shattered like glass, and he found himself standing in a vast void of silver light.
Mountains floated in the air, made of swordstone. Rivers flowed with blade-shaped leaves. In the distance, he saw stars shaped like sword hilts hanging in the void.
A world within—a realm he had never entered, yet that felt undeniably his.
"The Sword World…" a voice echoed, ancient and solemn. "You have returned."
Tian Jian turned.
A towering statue stood before him—his own face carved in divine steel, cracked, yet still exuding unmatched power. And at its feet lay a broken throne... with a single sword embedded in it, humming faintly.
As he reached for the hilt, the voice returned.
"You are more than flesh, more than pain. You are the blade reborn. You are Tian Jian... True Immortal of kunlun world.