Shadows in the Theme Park
As I endured training that made me seriously question whether it was appropriate for my age, my previously wobbly, clown-like punches gradually began to carry real power. While I stared at my reflection in the full-body mirror, wondering if the stance of my Blue Wood Cultivation was actually starting to look decent, Siwoo smiled and spoke.
It wasn’t just my bones and muscles. I had also succeeded in awakening the internal energy sleeping within my dantian. When I asked if that meant I had finally left the entry level and reached the 3rd-rate realm, Siwoo shook her head.
“But when I pull out my internal energy, I feel stronger?”
Siwoo brought up a research paper on oxygen transport on the display and kindly explained the correlation between the activation of Qi, blood oxygen saturation levels, lactic acid secretion, and improved liver detoxification speed. To summarize, the effect was similar to how people from high-altitude regions experience enhanced physical performance when they descend to lower elevations.
By now, Siwoo was treating me not as a three-year-old baby, but as a proper disciple. Hmm. Studying through academic papers at this age… was this some kind of punishment for not acting enough like a baby?
Having understood the explanation, I practiced under Siwoo’s guidance, using the Qi drawn from my dantian to strengthen my bones and muscles along my meridians.
The lessons utilized not only papers but video materials as well. The scene Siwoo played showed an overly muscular bodybuilder arm-wrestling, only for his bones to snap and his arm to bend in an impossible direction.
“Ugh, isn’t this a bit too gory for someone my age?”
At my protest, Siwoo immediately stopped the video and replaced any scenes involving injury with illustrations. With how advanced AIs had become, they could instantly convert and play footage tailored to the viewer without any delay. Normally I couldn’t tell whether this place belonged to the 21st or the 50th century, but moments like this made the difference feel very real.
After the lesson ended, Siwoo picked up a lunchbox and said,
Living with Siwoo didn’t mean we trained all the time. When it was time to rest, we rested. When it was time to play, we played. Since Siwoo was my nanny android rather than just a training android, she made every effort to create various memories that would support my healthy and bright growth.
“Wow! An amusement park!”
I also enjoyed the playtime that came between the exhausting training sessions. Siwoo’s training truly pushed me to my limits, and while there was joy in growing stronger, playing was still far more fun. An amusement park from the 50th century! My heart raced at the thought of how many wondrous attractions it might hold.
When I showed my delight, Siwoo smiled and began preparing for our departure.
The amusement park we reached while holding Siwoo’s hand resembled the one run by that copyright monster company D. While there were quite a few differences, the main mascot was still a mouse, and various other characters—ducks, dogs, pigs, rabbits—paraded around. After the animal characters came princess characters, followed by part-time workers performing dazzling acrobatics, stepping on transparent wire platforms suspended in the air with brilliant footwork while waving colorful fabrics.
“Whoa, even martial artists take part-time jobs?”
“Ah, I think I saw something about that on the internet.”
The basic cultivation methods were taught as mandatory subjects alongside language, mathematics, social studies, history, and science upon entering elementary school. In a world where all 3.2 trillion people across the galaxy practiced cultivation for health, it was only natural.
Among elementary students who learned these methods, those who showed talent before the age of ten gained the opportunity to enter the sect of a major clan. Children who did not receive such an offer but still wished to pursue martial arts usually advanced to martial arts-specialized high schools. While some joined smaller or medium-sized sects, those sects lacked the resources to raise large numbers of children like the major clans, so they rarely accepted young children unless they were exceptionally talented or related to existing sect members by blood. Naturally, truly talented children would choose major clans over smaller ones.
Graduates of martial arts-specialized high schools or universities could enter sects according to their realm. Even those whose talent bloomed late could still join major clans, but—
“Hahaha, I know. I don’t visit communities that show obvious political bias, so don’t worry.”
Besides, even if I did visit them, I couldn’t relate or understand anything since I was from another world.
“You’re not secretly restoring and looking at my search history or logs, are you?”
At my question, Siwoo simply smiled.
“…You’re not, right?”
“Siwoo?”
I took Siwoo’s hand and walked past the part-timers displaying brilliant light footwork, entering a mystical fairy-tale kingdom. She really wasn’t looking at my logs… right?
About three years ago.
A baby was born under the blessings of her parents. The girl who came into the world was special. She was a direct descendant of the Cheon Clan—known as the greatest martial clan in the galaxy. Both her parents had reached the Transformed Realm. She had been born with the legendary Heaven’s Martial Body that left everyone in awe. Yet all of those things might pale in comparison to her true uniqueness.
Within the Cheon Clan, anyone bearing the Cheon surname who was related to the family head by blood—regardless of how many generations removed—was considered a direct descendant. The current family head, the Sword King Cheon Jasu, was over 680 years old. Over that time, he had taken thirteen wives, each bearing two or three children. Roughly six hundred years ago, his eldest son—who had died of illness at the young age of sixty—had four children, and their descendants continued the line. Given the clan’s immense influence across the entire galaxy, many Cheon women chose to bring in sons-in-law rather than marry out, allowing their children to carry the Cheon name. As a result, the number of living people who could claim the title of “direct descendant” easily reached five digits. Being merely the seventeenth-generation descendant of Cheon Jasu was nothing compared to the true secret this baby carried.
Both parents were martial artists who had reached the Transformed Realm, but in the current era, that level was barely enough to serve as a mid-tier executive in a major clan. With a population of 3.2 trillion people all receiving mandatory cultivation education, even the Transformed Realm—the near-peak of the pyramid—had to be relatively common. There had once been an age when reaching the Transformed Realm made one a living legend treated as a divine being among men, but that era was far too distant now.
The Heaven’s Martial Body was an enviable, miraculous talent, yet with humanity exceeding 3.2 trillion, thousands of people were born with it or similarly exceptional constitutions. The secret that overshadowed all those special traits was Reincarnation.
Cheon So-yeon, the baby who had been “reborn” into the Cheon Clan, instinctively realized the moment she became aware of her reincarnation: She was not the only one.
In her previous life during the 14th century—during the turbulent transition between the Yuan and Ming dynasties—Cheon So-yeon had been the revered ancestor who elevated the then-declining Cheon Clan back into the ranks of the great powers. After a three-way battle against the leader of the Demonic Cult and the Alliance Leader of the Evil Alliance, all three had perished together. At the time, the only lingering regret she carried into death was the bitterness of having been forced to live as a man in order to become the family head. She had accepted her death, but the loyal followers of the Demonic Cult leader had not.
The demonic cultivators who could not accept their leader’s death performed a bizarre ritual. As she died, Cheon So-yeon had thought the heretics were doing something utterly insane, but it turned out not to be madness. Their reincarnation technique had succeeded. The only problem was that she—who had died at the exact same time and place as their leader—had been caught up in the ritual as well.
If she had succeeded in reincarnating, then their leader must have as well. Perhaps even the Alliance Leader of the Evil Alliance, who had fought them in that three-way battle, had reincarnated alongside them.
With those thoughts in mind, the girl now reborn as Cheon So-yeon lived her life once again as a newborn. She had no idea how much time had passed, but the world she saw through an infant’s eyes was not the Central Plains Murim, but an entirely different realm. She only realized that this was not another world but the distant future when her parents taught her the Blue Wood Cultivation method through repeated Chugunggwahyeol and Guiding Qi.
At her parents’ words, tears flowed from Cheon So-yeon’s eyes. The world was filled with wondrous things, and she was receiving the unconditional parental love she had never experienced in her previous life. Her parents were neither ill nor frail, and they did not force her to live as a man. All they wanted was for her to grow up healthy. Whenever she suddenly cried, her parents would panic and worry that something was wrong. To Cheon So-yeon, that concern itself was simply joyful and something to be grateful for.
With her Heaven’s Martial Body and outstanding intellect, Cheon So-yeon began to understand the world little by little after she started speaking around six months of age. She marveled at the more advanced martial arts of this era and trained diligently. Sometimes she became so absorbed—following habits from her previous life—that her worried parents had to stop her.
She had formed her dantian and entered the path of martial arts at around three months old. By six months, she had already reached the 3rd-rate realm. However, she hid her true level. Concealing her realm was not particularly difficult. She simply had to avoid drawing out the internal energy from her dantian in front of her parents. At the 3rd-rate level, there was no noticeable external aura. The reason she hid her progress was fear—fear that her talent might blind her parents with greed just as it had her parents in her previous life, and that her happy new life might be shattered as a result.
While enjoying such a happy new life, one day when she was about three years old, her parents excitedly began preparing to go out.
“What is an amusement park?”
Cheon So-yeon had no idea what an amusement park was. Only then did her parents realize their mistake and explain it to her. After listening to their explanation, she thought to herself,
‘Ah, so it’s like a bigger version of a playground? A parade? I guess when the market opens, troupes of performers still come and put on shows like the old wandering entertainers. Even after all this time, it seems those kinds of groups still exist.’
Having lived 3,600 years ago, she had no concept of what an amusement park even was. To Cheon So-yeon, the entirety of the world consisted of her house, the occasional park she visited while holding her mother’s hand, and the hospital.
Her parents, being at the Transformed Realm, were quite busy on weekdays and rarely had time to go out for fun. On the weekends when they did have time, they usually spent it teaching her martial arts since they couldn’t do so during the week. It was an unavoidable choice made out of love for their daughter and concern for her future. Cheon So-yeon didn’t mind at all because she simply enjoyed being with her parents, but her mother and father carried a sense of guilt. Making time to visit the amusement park this time was their way of giving her some joy.
At the amusement park they finally visited, Cheon So-yeon witnessed an entirely new world. There were adorable animal parades, princess parades, and even parades that utilized martial arts. At first she felt angry that people were using martial arts for clownish performances, but it served as a good shock that helped her accept how much the world had changed.
While she was completely absorbed in playing, Cheon So-yeon belatedly realized she had become separated from her parents and was now alone. Overcome by a sudden fear of being abandoned in the world, she looked around frantically. Then she noticed a young boy emitting an aura similar to her own and unconsciously walked toward him.
(To be continued in the next chapter)