Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Survivor of Hell
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My goal is to become the strongest.
Not the strongest in the martial world, but the strongest in actual combat.
The kind of combat-strongest who never loses, no matter who the opponent is!
Even if that opponent is the Jade Emperor or King Yama himself!
So, you see, it’s on a whole different level from being the strongest in the martial world.
***
Look over there!
Look closely at that underground lake, frozen completely white.
The one lying at the bottom of that lake, eyes wide open, is me.
Am I dead?
I’m not sure, but I don’t want to believe I am.
No matter how hard I think, I can't figure out how the me who was going to become the strongest in combat ended up like this.
But listen to this.
I found out later that the lake is a legendary place called the Yin Essence Abyss.
The day before I was set to enter the martial world, after three years and five months of grueling training, I fell in there because of some inexplicable natural disaster.
Damn it! To put it bluntly, I was screwed.
But get this!
They say the Yin energy that wanders between heaven and earth gathers to become Extreme Yin Energy, and when that Extreme Yin Energy accumulates for tens of thousands of years, it forms the Yin Essence Abyss.
The apex of Yin is Extreme Yin Energy. When this energy gathers for millennia, the impurities vanish, leaving only the pure essence—the Yin Essence—which then forms the Abyss. Or so they say.
To sum it up, Extreme Yin is a thousand times more potent than Yin, Yin Essence is a thousand times more potent than Extreme Yin, and the Yin Essence Abyss is a lake formed from that essence.
And I fell in and froze.
That was ten years ago.
***
I became an orphan at a very young age and lived as a beggar until I was taken in by my master at the age of six. From then on, I spent twelve years learning martial arts, including fist techniques and swordsmanship.
In that time, twenty-two other disciples passed through our school, besides me.
But not a single one lasted more than a year.
They all grumbled that the martial arts our master taught were worthless before they left.
I'm no fool. I knew perfectly well that his martial arts were worthless.
An ordinary person could train diligently in such arts for years and, at best, reach the level of a third-rate warrior.
But I am skilled enough to be counted among the top five in this entire rural county, which has a total of eight sects, factions, and training halls.
Though, if I were to go out into the martial world, my skills would be too pathetic to even mention my name.
My master's skills wouldn't even rank in the top hundred within the county. Whenever he got into a pointless scuffle on the streets, he’d usually come home beaten up. That meant both his martial arts and his actual fighting ability were garbage.
On days like that, I would always go and get revenge for him.
He was my master, after all.
Over the past twelve years, I've come to realize one thing: I have an incredible talent for martial arts.
To be honest, when I first learned martial arts after being taken in by my master, I had mastered them all within a month.
My master saw this, praised me for my skill, and told me to train even harder.
But there was nothing left to train. I had perfectly mastered his baseless Five Elements Fist and Five Elements Swordplay, so there was nothing more to learn.
Despite this, I obeyed my master and wasted a full twelve years practicing them.
If I had met a good master and learned decent martial arts, I would have become a much stronger, first-rate expert by now.
I've never told anyone, but I actually have two special talents.
I never forget anything I see or hear once. Whatever it is, it's etched and stored in my mind.
And no matter how pitch-black the darkness, I can see things as clearly as if it were broad daylight.
In any case, despite learning such trash-tier martial arts, I never left my master for twelve years.
It was because of the grace he showed me, a young boy who could have frozen or starved to death on the streets.
I may not know much else, but I'm the type to clearly distinguish between kindness and resentment.
And one other thing: I know that one day, I will be a crouching dragon, destined to soar into the blue sky.
***
Two years ago, my master had me, then eighteen, join the Martial Alliance as a low-ranking warrior.
I understood his intentions. He had raised me for twelve years, so now it was time for me to earn money and repay his kindness.
I had lived like a servant under him for twelve years, but it seemed he didn't think that was enough.
One must be eighteen to join the Martial Alliance, and the pay is quite generous compared to other places.
My master didn't put me in the Martial Alliance out of any sense of duty or justice, but purely because the pay was good.
So, without a word of complaint, for the past two years, I sent my entire monthly salary of five silver taels to my master, without keeping a single coin. With that money, his family lived in comfort.
But now, there's no need for that anymore.
Last month, I received word that my master had died. He was killed in a foreign land after getting involved in a pointless fight.
It's a misfortune for my master and his family, but a stroke of luck for me.
I have no intention of supporting his family as well.
Therefore, the reason for me to earn five silver taels a month in the Martial Alliance has vanished.
The time has come for the crouching dragon to stretch its wings.
***
*Thrust!*
“Ugh!”
A sword sharp anly pierced my chest.
I could feel that the blade had just missed my heart. It was about three inches deep. This wasn't even considered a serious injury.
The dark-faced enemy in front of me smiled cruelly, gripping the sword with both hands and trying to push it deeper.
He looked like a demon. I’d seen similar faces a few times before.
In that moment, as my breath caught and my mind went blank, a thought flashed through my head.
***
Last night, around ten, I was in ambush with my team members in a secluded spot atop a cliff.
I was keeping watch in a forest about a hundred feet away.
It was an ambush for the attack on the Soul-Suppressing Seven Demon Palace, scheduled for four in the morning.
This was my last mission. If I made it back alive, I planned to leave the Martial Alliance without any regrets.
As I was surveying the area, I saw three people moving quickly in a low crouch toward the cliff's edge nearby.
One of them glanced at me, but since I was in ambush, I pretended not to see them.
Even in the pitch-black night, I saw the three of them clearly. I possessed divine eyes that could thread a needle in the dark.
The three were my comrades from the Martial Alliance. I can instinctively distinguish between friend and foe.
Curious about what they were doing, I went to the edge of the cliff, but they were gone.
Looking down, I saw them dangling from ropes far below, doing something.
At the time, I wasn't curious about what they were doing.
***
But now, of all times, just as the enemy's sword pierced my chest, I remembered what it was.
Moreover, the faint smell carried on the wind right now made that thought even more certain.
‘They were Thunderclap Bombs!’
The acrid smell tickling my nose was definitely gunpowder. I had smelled it before. It meant the fuses on the bombs had already been lit.
In that instant, I saw through the Martial Alliance's dirty scheme. They must have planted Thunderclap Bombs all over the cliffs on both sides of the valley.
To bury a valley of this size, you would need at least a hundred bombs.
The Martial Alliance must have already planted them all over both cliffs last night.
The three men I saw last night were the ones who had planted the bombs.
‘Those heaven-damned bastards!’
The higher-ups in the Martial Alliance intended to bury everyone in this valley, friend and foe alike.
Their goal, of course, was to annihilate the Soul-Suppressing Seven Demon Palace. To do so, they were willing to sacrifice their own subordinates.
What I've learned since joining the Martial Alliance is that the martial world is currently torn apart like the Warring States period, with the Orthodox Faction, the Unorthodox Faction, the Demonic Path, and even the Yokai and Green Forest factions all fighting each other to the death.
The Martial Alliance was supposedly formed by the Orthodox Faction to stand against the Unorthodox and Demonic paths, but the things they do are just as bad, if not worse.
That's why they wouldn't hesitate to pull a despicable stunt like ordering their low-ranking warriors to attack the Soul-Suppressing Seven Demon Palace, only to set off bombs and bury the entire valley, killing everyone.
The Soul-Suppressing Seven Demon Palace is one of the ten Soul-Suppressing Demon Palaces and belongs to the Demonic Emperor's Grand Union.
The Demonic Emperor's Grand Union is the culmination and headquarters of the entire Demonic Path.
I didn't realize it during the ambush last night, but after the order to attack was given, I understood that this was an impossible fight.
The Martial Alliance warriors wore yellow, and the masters of the Soul-Suppressing Seven Demon Palace wore black. At a glance, there were about five hundred on each side.
But the five hundred from the Martial Alliance were low-ranking warriors, while the enemy was composed of elite demonic masters. It wasn't even a fair fight.
A single elite demonic master from the Soul-Suppressing Seven Demon Palace could easily handle about ten low-ranking Martial Alliance warriors.
When I first realized this, I had assumed that elite Martial Alliance masters were hiding somewhere, waiting to strike at the decisive moment.
But now I see there were no elite masters to begin with. The hundred or so Thunderclap Bombs planted on both sides of the cliff were the "elite reinforcements."
If a hundred bombs exploded at once, this valley would be instantly buried, and every living creature inside, except maybe for rats and insects, would be annihilated.
***
I looked at the enemy who was smiling cruelly while trying to push the sword deeper into my chest, and I gave him an even more cruel smile back.
“Heh heh heh! You bastard! You're about to die!”
“What nonsense is this fool spouting...”
Right! Nonsense! There's no need to explain about the bombs to a guy like this.
I suddenly threw my upper body back and, with the tip of my foot, lightning-fast, I kicked him in the groin.
*Thud!*
“Heugh!”
Caught off guard, the man pulled the sword from my chest and fell backward.
I quickly scanned my surroundings, searching for the valley entrance.
The smell of gunpowder was stronger than before.
‘There it is!’
I started running toward the valley entrance, which seemed so far away.
I was covered in blood from several wounds, but none were fatal.
I could see the clueless Martial Alliance warriors and the enemies locked in a tangled melee.
But I had no time to warn them about the situation, nor did I have any desire to.
“Pant, pant, pant, pant!”
Weaving through the fighting men, I ran with all my might. They probably thought I was deserting.
‘That’s right, you bastards! If you don't want to die, you should run too!’
But the valley entrance was too far. I still had at least two hundred yards to go.
Blood was pouring from the sword wound in my chest and my other injuries, so I quickly stopped to staunch the bleeding.
Then I ran again.
“You bastard! Don't you run!”
Someone roared at that moment.
Without looking, I knew the voice belonged to the Ninth Altar Lord, Cheol Ryu-yeop, but I didn't stop.
I am known as Number Fourteen of the Fourth Team, under the Ninth Altar of the Martial Alliance's Sure-Victory Hall.
So, Cheol Ryu-yeop is my direct superior.
*Whoosh!*
A sharp sound cut through the air. The Ninth Altar Lord, Cheol Ryu-yeop, had thrown his signature Iron Willow Leaf at me.