Chapter 2
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: An Unwelcome Bolt from the Blue (1)
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A vast hall.
The great hall was shrouded in a darkness so profound that the countless lanterns hanging at regular intervals along the walls could barely pierce it.
*Thud, thud.*
Someone walked across the center of the hall. The footsteps carried a mix of confidence and caution.
*Swish.*
The man who had stopped walking slowly knelt.
“The Divine Cult is invincible, all demons bow in submission. The Great Protector of the Divine Cult has come to see the Cult Leader.”
A low voice cut through the darkness.
A moment later.
*Whooosh.*
From the direction of the grand throne, the darkest part of the hall.
A pair of blue, phosphorescent lights flickered into existence. It was a gaze so bizarre it could induce a seizure in the faint of heart.
“What is it?”
*Drip.*
Cold sweat beaded on the man's neck.
Just hearing the voice made his body tense up. The presence emanating from the owner of those blue eyes was that overwhelming.
The man bowed his head even lower.
“I have something to report.”
*Hisss.*
A faint smoke began to rise from the floor around the throne. It was clear, without a word being spoken, that he was displeased.
The man understood him. No, he couldn't presume to understand a god, but he understood his situation.
The undisputed strongest martial god of the Divine Cult was about to ascend to another level. Being interrupted at such a crucial moment, he couldn't possibly be in a good mood.
“Speak.”
The man inwardly sighed in relief.
“The Third Young Master has awakened.”
“The third one?”
“Yes. However...”
“...”
“Due to reckless training, he has lost all of his martial arts.”
The silence that followed was brief.
“Great Protector.”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
“Until my seclusion ends in three months, do not bring me any more reports.”
“...Understood.”
“You may leave.”
“Yes. Before I go, what are your orders regarding the Third Young Master?”
The blue lights vanished. There was no reply.
The man bowed his head.
“I earnestly pray for your great success.”
Some time passed after the man left with those final words.
*Flash!*
The faded blue lights suddenly erupted like a bolt of lightning.
* * *
Alright, let's think about this.
Three stabs to the gut, four spear thrusts in the back, seven arrows in my thighs and ass.
Some all-purpose social misfit tore off my left arm with his claws, and the Righteous Heaven Alliance's grand elder, who showed up late to the party, sliced off my right leg.
The number of hidden weapons stuck all over my body was too high to count, and some unknown bastard's mace broke my spine.
These are fatal wounds that not even a primordial deity could survive. Even a great immortal would declare me dead on sight.
I'm just a mere human. So, I should be dead.
And I really did die. I even remember that crazy bitch, the Flying Demon King, ripping my head off like a chicken leg.
Yep. I died.
But here's the thing.
“Young Master, is the temperature alright?”
*Splash, splash.*
“Young Master, it's time for your medicine.”
*Gulp, gulp.*
“Young Master, it's time for your massage.”
Ahhh, that feels good.
“Young Master, it's time for your acupuncture.”
...
“Young Master... Young Master...”
“...Stop.”
“Pardon?”
“That's enough.”
“Pardon?”
“Leave me alone.”
“Pardon?”
“Ugh.”
“Young Master?”
“...Just leave me alone, please!”
The startled maid prostrated herself on the floor.
“I-I'm sorry! Please, kill this lowly servant!”
“Kill you? Why would I kill you?! First...”
“Please kill me!”
“Agh, I'm not going to kill you, so stop being so distracting and get out! Get out!”
“I'm sorry, Young Master! I will serve you with all my heart, so please...!”
“Aaaaargh!”
“*Sob, sob...*”
“...”
“...”
“Look... I have some things to think about alone. Could you give me some space?”
“Yes, yes!”
The maid scurried out of the room.
Even in her haste, she left without making a sound and even bowed, showing just how terrified she was of him.
But Cheon Hajin didn't feel the least bit sorry.
His mind was too confused and sensitive right now to worry about the feelings of a nameless maid.
“Dammit, what the hell is going on?”
After waking up in a new body, he'd been so confused that he'd just blankly accepted being cared for. Well, it wasn't like he could stand up anyway, with his muscles and joints all stiff.
Anyway, that's not what's important.
“Am I really alive again?”
Cheon Hajin looked at the large bronze mirror on one side of the room.
In it, an emaciated young man in his early twenties sat on the bed.
‘...He's handsome.’
He had a generally refined look, but his features were very distinct. An impression that blended strength and gentleness.
Cheon Hajin scrunched up his facial muscles. He tried smiling and then frowning.
‘Hmm.’
Even when I make a face, he looks better than me. That's one thing I like... wait, no!
“Shit, is this really the time to be happy about that?!”
Calm down and use your head.
‘First, where am I? Seems like a high-status family.’
Was the kid from some decent family suffering from a serious illness?
Cheon Hajin closed his eyes for a moment, then slowly opened them and let out a long sigh.
“A martial family.”
The eight extraordinary meridians were a tangled mess, the blood vessels were tattered, and the dantian was like a shriveled pig's bladder.
But all these signs proved that this body had practiced internal arts.
Ordinary commoners wouldn't have encountered martial arts, so it must be a family from the martial world.
‘Damn, it's a miracle he's even alive.’
This body's condition is comparable to an eighty-year-old woman. It wouldn't be strange if he dropped dead at any moment.
“It would've been more peaceful if I'd been reborn as the son of some slash-and-burn farmer.”
Cheon Hajin grumbled, then paused.
“No. Just being alive is a blessing. I should be grateful I wasn't reincarnated into a woman's body.”
A male soul in a female body would have been quite awkward. I might have had to seriously contemplate my gender identity.
Cheon Hajin clenched his fists.
Right, I should be grateful for reality and accept the situation. Isn't wasting time the worst waste of all?
“The important thing is that I get to live again.”
Even though this body is a wreck, and I still don't know where I am.
I can still live. I can paint my own future.
For the first time in his life, he was faced with a moment where he could make a 'choice'.
*Thump, thump.*
His heart pounded.
The air was cool, but his neck was damp. It felt like the blood was circulating twice as fast throughout his body.
‘Now...’
The long-cherished wish, the desperate desire that had kept him going through hell all those years.
‘Can I really live freely now?’
Forced to undergo unwanted training, commit unwanted murders, and endure unwanted control.
He had lived his entire life manipulated by the leader of the Righteous Heaven Alliance, that old bastard he'd love to chew up and spit out.
So what if he made me strong? Isn't it an honor in itself for a martial artist to be ranked among the Ten Great Masters?
What utter bullshit.
He never provided any support, even when my limbs were broken.
He'd send me on another assassination mission before I had even fully healed. I lost count of how many times I'd faced death after the ninety-ninth time.
I tried to meet a woman, but every one I laid eyes on was a crazy murderer, and the only alcohol I could find to soothe my loneliness was cheap grain liquor.
Did he at least pay me a regular salary?
That miserly leader of the Righteous Heaven Alliance said this:
- We provide you with everything, so why would I give you money? Do you even know how to spend it?
Son of a bitch. Vicious bastard.
It was a truly miserable life. The names were flashy—Ten Great Masters, King of Slaughter—but in the end, I was nothing more than a tool.
“...Good.”
Cheon Hajin's face gradually flushed red with excitement.
Now, I can say goodbye to that past. It doesn't matter where I am, what this body's status is, or whether I have a family or not. None of it matters.
I'll find freedom. I'll live like a human being.
From his clenched fist, a man's desire erupted without restraint.
* * *
Ten days had passed since he was reborn in a new body.
“Hmm.”
Cheon Hajin tapped the ground with his toes.
His center of balance held. The atrophied muscles were beginning to firm up, and his stiff joints had regained a minimal level of flexibility.
‘It's working.’
He cheered inwardly.
This body was never going to get better with just a few acupuncture needles and some massages. How could it be properly treated when it was rotten from the inside out?
Freedom or whatever, he could only enjoy it if his body was in working order. So, he made a life-saving decision.
To destroy his dantian.
It might have been crushed and twisted, but a dantian was still a dantian. However, if he left it as it was, it was clear he would have to live like a cripple forever.
Or rather, he would die soon from the turbid energy surging from the rotten dantian.
If it was useless and even a hindrance, it was better to get rid of it.
“Congratulations, Young Master!”
The maid, who had been cautiously watching him, prostrated herself.
“Your condition has improved, I must quickly inform the physician...”
“Leave me for a moment.”
“Yes, sir!”
The maid hurried out.
Left alone, Cheon Hajin lay down on the bed. His joints weren't flexible enough yet to sit in a lotus position.
But there was no need to worry. His reputation—or infamy—as the King of Slaughter might not be worth much, but he hadn't earned it by playing mahjong.
He closed his eyes and his lips moved slightly.
*Tsssss.*
Soon, a faint heat haze began to rise from his body.
The temperature in the room rose in an instant. There was no particular stench, but the air became very muggy.
It was turbid energy.
The vast amount of turbid energy that had infested Cheon Hajin's body was being expelled.
‘Good. It's running on its own now.’
The technique he was using was the Unhindered Arts.
It was a martial art created by referencing several techniques from the Nine Great Sects, and it was exceptionally effective at removing turbid energy from the body and promoting internal stability.
In his past life, Cheon Hajin had invested an immense amount of time in the Unhindered Arts.
It was only natural, as he had no support team whatsoever.
No one to detoxify him, no one to treat him, not even anyone to hand him a piece of jerky.
For him, who had to handle everything himself, the Unhindered Arts was his very lifeline. His understanding of it was bound to be extraordinary.
That was also why he could practice it while lying down.
‘You cheeky little thing. I'm alive thanks to you.’
His body tingled all over. The damaged blood vessels were slowly, very slowly, returning to normal.
*Psssss.*
At some point, his skin turned pale. It was because the turbid energy that hadn't been fully expelled began to circulate inside his body.
‘Is this the limit?’
Cheon Hajin licked his lips and opened his eyes.
“The level is still low. Can't be helped, though.”
Well, I've achieved my initial goal with this much.
Stretching fully, Cheon Hajin sat up.
“I can move around, more or less...”
As he lightly cracked his neck from side to side, Cheon Hajin suddenly frowned.
“By the way, where the hell am I?”
There's only one, but I have a maid, and she calls me 'Young Master'.
That means I have a relatively high status, but for the past ten days, no one except the physician has come to see me.
I could have asked the maid something, but I didn't. If I couldn't fix my body, it wouldn't matter even if this place was paradise.
But now, it was time to find out where this place was.
“Are you there?”
There was no answer from outside the door.
“No one? Where did she go?”
Still no answer.
“Tch, where did she go.”
Then again, with my body in this state, circulating the Unhindered Arts took quite a long time.
The maid is human too; she probably needed to relieve herself or get a drink of water.
...Dammit, I could have at least asked for some personal details. I'm really just living moment to moment.
Cursing inwardly, Cheon Hajin closed his eyes and looked within himself.
‘No good. I'm not in a state to use my senses yet.’
A master who had created his own unique martial path by blending the strengths of an assassin and a warrior.
What made him stand out from other masters was his extrasensory perception.
While masters at the level of the Ten Greats could read a distance of ten yards, he could read thirty.
While they could sense the presence of dozens of people, he could sense hundreds.
This was also the decisive reason he was able to break through the inescapable nets of the Righteous Heaven Alliance and the Iron Blood Fortress.
He would pick out the weakest points to break through, which must have driven them crazy.
He couldn't manifest that brilliant skill right now.
“But I can't just go out recklessly.”
There's a time to be bold and a time to be cautious. For now, I'll wait for that girl to come back.
Cheon Hajin glanced around.
‘It's incredibly luxurious.’
The room was adorned with all sorts of artworks, from paintings to pottery. The bedding was also expensive, made from the finest silk.
‘At this level, it must be a really powerful family... Huh?’
He rubbed the blanket between his thumb and forefinger.
‘This isn't ordinary silk.’
The texture was much softer, and the embroidered patterns were different from those in the central or northern parts of the continent. He'd been so out of it that he was only just noticing its appearance now.
‘The dye is an incredibly vivid red, too.’
I've seen more than my fair share of red silk, but I've never seen such a deep shade...
Huh?
‘Hmm. I think I've seen it somewhere before.’
Ah! That's right.
“I think it was one of the Seven Demonic Houses.”
Yeah, when I killed a high-ranking official from over there, the bedding in his room was just like this.
Cheon Hajin nodded.
“Was it the Red Snake House? That's right, the Red Snake House. I remember now. I rolled that bastard up in his blanket while he was sleeping naked and gave him a good beating.”
Heh, that was a tough one, too. Those snake-headed bastards were so persistent, climbing over mountains just to catch me...
“Huh?”
Cheon Hajin flinched.
No way.
“...It can't be, right?”
He forced himself to relax his stiff expression.
“Nah, it can't be that neighborhood. Of course not.”
The southern region of the Central Plains is the neighborhood where the continent's worst demonic practitioners live in droves.
Therefore, in the martial world, 'the southern Central Plains' is synonymous with 'the gates of hell'.
I don't want to believe that such an impurity has tainted the incredible luck of reincarnation.
No, it's not just an impurity; it's misfortune itself. Isn't this like being thrown into a living hell because dying wasn't enough?
“It can't be. It's not.”
A creeping sense of anxiety, of foreboding.
Pacing anxiously, Cheon Hajin finally couldn't take it anymore and threw the door open.
*Clang!*
“Hm?”
“Oh?”
As Cheon Hajin stepped outside, his eyes met three people who were just approaching.
The maid he had seen continuously for ten days, and the physician he had seen from time to time.
And a man in his thirties whom he had never seen before.
“...”
An awkward silence.
The man in his thirties broke the silence, kneeling with a gruff voice.
“The Divine Cult is invincible, all demons bow in submission. Congratulations on your recovery, Third Young Master.”
Cheon Hajin blinked.
The Divine what?