Reincarnated Swordmaster

Chapter Title: Dark Heaven Village

"By any chance, is there something wrong with my body?"

Hwa Se-myeong shook his head vigorously.

"No way! Your body maintains a naturally robust state thanks to an inner energy that surpasses imagination, reaching a level where it could be called divine. In the history of the Central Plains, there's probably no one with better stamina or health than you. To achieve such an extraordinary physique and vitality without even undergoing bone purification and marrow replacement—it's simply unbelievable. How on earth can a human possess such inner energy? Unless you've consumed dozens of top-grade elixirs..."

Hwa Se-myeong's face suddenly hardened as he exclaimed in admiration.

"However, as you said, there is a slight issue with your brain. Didn't I ask you dozens or hundreds of pointless questions yesterday?"

I nodded. It had been more annoying than being pricked with acupuncture needles.

"Yes."

"You seemed to answer all those questions clearly, but you hesitated on duplicate questions that didn't even require confusion. I believe that hesitation wasn't due to intelligence or quick thinking, but partial mixing of memories. So today, while you were asleep after taking the marrow cleansing decoction, I temporarily trepanned your skull and examined the inside of your brain."

I'd slept comfortably after drinking the decoction and woken up, but he'd cracked open my skull?! As I stammered in shock, Hwa Se-myeong replied nonchalantly.

"Why are you so surprised? If there's a problem with the brain, you examine the brain. Our Hwa family has specialized in surgery since the time of Hua Tuo."

"......"

"Here, look at this anatomical diagram. See this part coiled up roundly inside the brain? Our Hwa family discovered through thousands of years of medicine and tens of thousands of surgeries that this area handles human memory. And astonishingly, your brain's this region was significantly enlarged and quite worn down."

"Worn down?"

Hwa Se-myeong nodded.

"Your apparent age looks like nothing more than a teenage boy, but your actual age must be much older... How old are you?"

I hesitated before answering honestly.

"A little over a hundred, I suppose."

Considering the time adventuring and cultivating since my first life, it should be about that. But since I never precisely measured my age with each reincarnation, I'm not exact. At my response, Hwa Se-myeong said,

"As expected. Your memory region... hmm, it resembles a seahorse, so I'll arbitrarily call it the hippocampus. Yours is extraordinarily developed compared to ordinary humans. Far more than even the brains of scholars known for their intellect. How to put it? It's not just hypertrophied; it feels like it's evolved over several generations for efficiency... Anyway, it's already an organ incomparable to that of ordinary humans."

"...What is that?"

"But being so developed, it shows signs of wear. Of course, it's not full-blown damage; the brain's other parts are compensating with plasticity without issue."

"Worn down..."

Hwa Se-myeong poked my furrowed brow and said,

"Your brain is extraordinarily developed. Unbelievable as it is... this can only be explained by one hypothesis. You said about a hundred years, but the information entered and processed by your brain during that time surpasses that several times over. At least ten times the lifetime information accumulation of an ordinary scholar."

"Hmm..."

"Ordinary humans don't expand their hippocampus no matter how much they study... This is... What volume of memories do you even have? It's not like you've stared at books for a thousand years."

He spoke in disbelief, looking somewhat dazed.

"Anyway, it's impressive... Your body is clearly human, not a yokai, yet it has so many anomalies. Is it because as a martial artist, your brain ages extremely slowly? For your stated age, your brain is remarkably young and firm. Except that the hippocampus alone shows tremendous signs of depletion."

"......"

The hippocampus is developed yet worn down?

I desperately pondered what that meant.

'It's because of the memory transmission technique!'

Until now, I'd frequently copied or transmitted memories using the obsidian. While using that spell, I'd felt my memory capacity improving and volume expanding gradually, apparently due to its effect of aiding the hippocampus's development and enlargement.

The problem is that the memories from my adventures weren't ordinary in quantity, and memories are inherently massive and inefficient, so my head was likely filled with excessive useless information. Since the brain has physical limits and deletes inefficient data first, my memory had been declining, causing me to forget trivial things.

Enhancing memory capacity can only go so far with a human body!

It's time to seek other memory techniques besides Brain Scripture.

Cold sweat broke out.

As I felt a sense of crisis, Hwa Se-myeong stroked his beard and said,

"My diagnosis is that there's a risk of dementia in the future. However, it's hard to confirm dementia definitely because your body is so unique..."

"Dementia? So soon my memory will decline to the point I can't live daily life?"

"Don't jump ahead. It's not definitive. It's true your hippocampus is slightly damaged, but amusingly, it's equally developed. Imagine a hole in the wheel of a grand royal four-wheeled carriage—not quite; it's just worn material making the ride bumpy. In that case, you don't necessarily need to replace the whole wheel, right?"

"Hmm."

Hwa Se-myeong, thinking the diagnosis complete, began packing his surgical tools and acupuncture kit.

"I don't see it as dangerous yet. Reduce brain fatigue, rest comfortably, eat three meals well, live enjoyably, and it might improve."

"......"

It was textbook and sound advice, but I wasn't in a position for that now.

Moreover, as I grow stronger ahead, I'll need even greater memory capacity—how am I supposed to manage?

I returned to Zhuge Scholar and told him Hwa Se-myeong's examination results. He fiddled with the Silver Phoenix Ring and said,

"I knew it."

"What do you mean?"

He muttered cynically.

"Humans were originally just tasty meat created by the [Ancient Race] for food, nearly discarded until the Three Emperors and Five Kings recycled the trash race. Physically and mentally frail compared to other races. Your [human] racial limits made infinite reincarnation impossible—it was foreseeable."

Did his earlier talk of 'ending it quickly' include this situation? I gritted my teeth and retorted.

"That doesn't mean I can give up now."

"Hmm."

He thought briefly, then said,

"It's almost done."

What was almost done?

Soon after, Zhuge Scholar released the Silver Phoenix Ring and said,

"I think I know how to handle it now. I'll teach you the knack from here, so let's do a temporary fix."

"What? What are you talking about?"

He stroked the Silver Phoenix Ring's head and explained.

"When you gave me the obsidian, I learned the usage method of the Silver Phoenix Ring you obtained in a past life. I've researched nonstop for three days how to wield this artifact effectively."

"Ah!"

"From Hwa Se-myeong's diagnosis, your memory capacity isn't at limit yet, but it's approaching. Probably accelerated because you split your mind with the Dual Soul Great Law to double training effects. To delay this limit, you need to organize memories."

"Organize memories?"

Zhuge Scholar said,

"The obsidian's memory transmission inevitably passes information through your brain, accumulating useless residual data as a side effect. Memories include four-dimensional elements, storing much larger than humans perceive. So, your brain likely has memories scattered inefficiently."

"......!!"

"The solution is to fully transmit those useless memories to this Silver Phoenix Ring and forget them. Then, if you organize and manage efficiently later, you can at least delay dementia by a century. By sorting and compressing useless info."

"Is that possible?!"

Zhuge Scholar looked at me pitifully.

"It's a built-in function of the Silver Phoenix Ring. Would meticulous great races omit an instruction manual? Without this, how could Bohai Hot King use it for memory inheritance? You only cared about transmission and reading, ignoring advanced explanations and applications."

"......"

"I've mastered it in three days, so now I'll teach you."

I began learning the Silver Phoenix Ring's advanced usage from Zhuge Scholar. Contrary to his claims it'd be easy, memory-handling spells grew increasingly difficult, eventually feeling several times harder than the alchemy I'd learned. My head felt like rats were gnawing as I studied nonstop for seven days and nights without sleep, even applying the Dual Soul Great Law for double training, and barely mastered it.

Wooong

I poured most of my knowledge and experiences into the Silver Phoenix Ring. Unlike copying with obsidian, it felt like uprooting and moving the contents wholesale from my mind. Of course, the ring's magic filled temporary memory gaps.

Soon after transmission completed, I began retrieving memories from the Silver Phoenix Ring. Chanting spells, I efficiently stacked info in my mind calmly. This was the ring's auto-function; I wasn't manually selecting. Once done, my mind cleared vastly.

"Ooh!"

Previously cluttered and confusing, now even first-life memories and starlight from camping eating sweet potatoes as an escort shone vividly! Like having packed luggage—excited, Zhuge Scholar said,

"This buys you about a century. Urgent fire's out, but ask the Prophet in this life or next for a fundamental solution."

"Got it."

I felt fortunate having Zhuge Scholar as a comrade. Even without him, stacking rounds would strengthen me, but crises beyond solo power like this would be unhandledble.

Can't do everything alone.

I etched that in my mind, then went to Sword Demon.

Flash

Sword Demon began sharing his investigation results on Simun-hye's maternal family.

"As expected, no issues found in my maternal Seo family. Scoured all city documents and info, but their bloodline was ordinary bureaucrats. No martial world ties even."

"Hmm..."

"But something odd."

"What is it?"

Sword Demon replied gravely.

"Need more time sealed investigation, but found one document: her very distant ancestor was famous."

"What? So not entirely clean."

"'Very distant' means far above the Seo clan founder, just a few lines of rumor."

"Hmm."

"At least five centuries old, maybe more—hard to tell. To confirm, scour other cities' records and clan genealogies."

"I want to see that record too."

"Understood."

Sword Demon soon brought the 'suspicious' document. So ancient, it seemed it'd crumble if mishandled; I turned pages carefully with tongs. Examining calmly, I found the mentioned passage.

[My great-grandfather Seo Pil, traveling to Liaodong and returning, said, 'My distant ancestor shook the world—why am I like this?' Family asked in shock what happened; ancestor said he'd found a famous divine tomb in Liaodong and suggested all move there. Absurd, so villagers laughed at Seo Pil.]

What reference is this?

I tilted my head puzzled at the text; Sword Demon said,

"Seo Pil's the Seo clan founder; no prior records remain. He never spoke of his parents or grandparents, so naturally. Anyway, this document's the only suspicious point in the Seo clan."

"What does 'divine tomb in Liaodong' mean?"

Sword Demon crossed arms.

"Found the document yesterday, so I don't know yet. From now, I'll mobilize Shadowless Sect to investigate that [divine tomb]."

The divine tomb was famous in Liaodong.

Seo Pil said his ancestor discovered it.

How does this connect to Simun-hye now?

Her mysterious superhuman strength, the [divine tomb], and Seo clan founder—what links them?

Clues too scant; still puzzling. After pondering, I said to Sword Demon,

"Then, I leave it to you."

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