Climbing the Tower with Multidimensional Avatars - Chapter 159

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 159. Galaxy Martial God Hall – School Trip (13)

The Infiltration Team Leader could sense with certainty that something had gone terribly wrong from the steady stream of radio chatter.
The first warning came right after the golden jade barrier and lock formation vanished — crackling transmissions from the harvest team asking what to do now, those fools who’d so conveniently gathered the children in the Central Hall for the abduction.
They’d been crying out in alarm and confusion about why the formation had suddenly disappeared, but their voices cut off abruptly.
When he tried to raise them again, there was only dead air.
Not long after, the leader of the Guard Removal Team reported devastating losses — the ones who’d been toying with the Cheon Family Clan’s secret protective detail.
Of the six operatives sent to eliminate the guards, three were dead and one lay in critical condition, needing immediate medical attention or he’d follow them.
And they’d let one of the guards slip through their fingers.
With comms down and ignoring the dying operative, the Infiltration Team’s survivor count now stood at four.
Himself as commander, the Formation Technique specialist in the Central Control Room, and two operatives from the guard elimination squad.
More than half his force was dead or dying, and now that the formation was compromised, he couldn’t be certain communications remained secure.
Of course, the Jamming Device was positioned far from the resort unlike the formation inside it, and he’d doubted it could be destroyed quickly — but doubt was a luxury he no longer possessed.
“First, confirm communications status.”
Still, he had to check.
—Roger, AAAAGH! What is this?! Smoke?!
The panicked shriek from the Formation Technique specialist in the Central Control Room told him everything: they were under attack.
“How in blazes did they crack such a complex formation so fast? The resort AI must have sided with Cheonmu School. I heard they have an android called Riven — she must be here.”
Before infiltrating, he’d reviewed the Cheonmu School staff roster, and Riven was the only operative with expertise in Electronic Warfare and Formation Technique.
Over the past two days, he’d confirmed her absence and moved up the timeline — but she’d been lying low all along.
Now, as commander, he faced three choices.
First: declare the mission failed and retreat.
Second: reinforce the Central Control Room.
Third: capture only the primary target, Cheon So-yeon, and flee.
If the Central Control Room fell now, they’d immediately begin restoring communications.
He calculated there was still time before they succeeded — not much, but enough.
As he deliberated, he sensed Cheon So-yeon’s Qi presence flare in his Qi Sensing, then vanish.
Had the mission succeeded, he’d have harvested numerous talents including the Heavenly Martial Body, but operations were already spiraling beyond recovery — half his force dead or missing.
The optimal choice was to retreat and pursue only the primary target.
The commander decided to abandon the Central Control Room and capture — or execute — Cheon So-yeon as swiftly as possible.
The best outcome was beyond reach.
Between second-best and worst-case, he’d choose capturing Cheon So-yeon, but if circumstances forced his hand, he’d accept her death as the lesser evil.
What mattered most was preventing the Cheon Family Clan from growing stronger.
The current Cheon Family Clan was a colossal power that the entire Galaxy watched warily.
If the Heavenly Martial Body developed normally from here, the Galaxy Martial Arts World had no future but subjugation beneath the Cheons.
“B-6, have the spacecraft stand by. B-8, prepare to initiate final protocol.”
Silence hung over the radio before the response came through.
—Understood. Worst case scenario.

* * *

Cheon So-yeon found herself laughing, though she hadn’t meant to, seized by the strange exhilaration of being hunted.
It had been so long since she’d felt anything like this that the memory blurred.
Was it when the Tang Clan’s betrayal had trapped her in Tyrant King City’s Heaven’s Net and Earth’s Snare in her past life?
Or when she’d stood alone against the One Hundred Eight Arhats during the clash with Shaolin?
Or perhaps when she’d charged through five elite units of the Demonic Cult — along with a coalition of ten masters assembled to confront Tianma, worshipped as a god by the Demonic Cult — caring not for right or wrong?
“All memories now.”
Especially that coalition of ten, assembled to face Tianma the Demon Sovereign.
Gal Yu-yeon, the Tyrant Heaven Divine Sovereign.
Jang Gun-bo, the Triple Offering True Immortal.
Yeon-un, the Divine Monk.
Jegal Cheong, the Thousand Artifice Master.
Yalul Cheok, the Wolf King.
Chu Bo-hyeon, the Demon-Slaying Blood Sword.
Paeng Ho-seo, the Azure Tyranny Blade.
Sama Ja-seon, the Lower Defilement Sage.
Jeong Gyeon-so, the Dragon-Fighting Old Vagrant.
…and Cheon So-yeon, the Martial God.
The life-or-death game of tag stirred old memories and longed-for faces, and Cheon So-yeon smiled bitterly.
Back then, she could never have imagined that such a vicious, nightmarish battle would become a cherished memory.
According to the history she’d learned in the distant present, only Jang Gun-bo had survived that terrible battlefield.
It was rather amusing that among all those brilliant martial masters who never failed to appear when discussing the greatest under heaven, only that one fellow—a maniac for dog meat more than any beggar—had left his name in the modern era.
Tianma, the Demonic Cult Master, had been so revered as the cult’s founder that even his name was lost to history, while the Heterodox Alliance Leader, whom she’d called the Tyrant Heaven Divine General, had faded into obscurity entirely.
In the Galaxy Martial Arts World, when people spoke of the “Martial God,” they knew only Cheon Yu, who founded the Cheon Family Clan of that era—not her past life.
Why had she, Tianma, and the Tyrant Heaven Divine General fought so fiercely until the very end, only to be forgotten by time?
It all seemed like pointless struggle.
“I suppose this crisis has brought back all those old memories.”
Still, reflecting on those days, the present danger seemed almost trivial by comparison.
Of course, considering her current realm and the enemy’s realm, the danger she faced now was every bit as grave as the crises she’d endured in her past life.
Especially given that there were still children in the resort who needed protection—perhaps this was even worse.
She was nearly at the top floor now, and the momentum of her pursuers pressing from below grew fiercer by the moment.
This game of tag, however brief, would soon come to an end.
Still, considering Teacher Kim Do-hwa and the Vice Principal’s abilities, they should have managed to save at least some of the children by now that the formation was dispelled.
With that thought, Cheon So-yeon prepared for a final battle that would stake her life.
This borrowed life was forfeit anyway. If necessary, she would sacrifice everything she possessed—even her very essence—to save those children.
Just then, wishing she could hear her friend Cheon Ji-woo’s voice one last time, a bell chimed—audible only to her.
Startled, Cheon So-yeon checked her phone. The device that had shown no service now displayed a weak signal—two bars at most.
The caller ID read Cheon Ji-woo.
She accepted the call cautiously.
“Hello?”

—Ah, finally you picked up. I managed to disable the jamming, but the Jamming Device happened to be right next to the transmission tower, so the call quality is pretty terrible.

At his casual tone, Cheon So-yeon smiled.

—Don’t bother answering—just listen. There’s someone who looks like a Fire Mirror user right below you, so if you make noise, you might give yourself away.

At Ji-woo’s words, Cheon So-yeon glanced around in alarm and spotted a CCTV camera.

—That’s right. I’m watching through it. Good, you don’t look injured. All right, from here on out, I’ll be hunting the enemy, so follow my instructions carefully. Let’s call this operation “Cat Hunt.”

Cheon Ji-woo’s laughter carried a mischievous edge.
Hearing it, Cheon So-yeon felt an unexpected sense of relief wash over her.

* * *

I was the originator, the commander, the operator, and the executor of the operation.
“Teacher Kim Do-hwa, come to the location I’ve marked. So-yeon, get here within one minute.”
Teacher Kim Do-hwa moved immediately at my order.
As I issued commands, I prepared dozens of spells in the blink of an eye.
The enemy had apparently abandoned pursuing the children—extracting and evacuating them to the Spacecraft Landing Zone proceeded smoothly.
Locating students hidden throughout the resort was effortless with the AI Blue Eyes, now that her authority had been restored.
I would have liked to use those incompetent bodyguards the family had sent, but without communication channels, it was impossible.
I’d considered hacking into the walkie-talkies and breaking into their frequency, but the so-called elite Military Force Unit was equipped with cutting-edge technology that made hacking infeasible in such short time.
Well, even without being able to contact them, there were plenty of other methods to employ.
“Now then, let us commence Operation Cat Hunt.”
The Fire Mirror user was more tiger than cat, but if the prey were as fearsome as a tiger, the hunt would seem far too dangerous, wouldn’t it?

* * *

The Infiltration Team Leader pursuing Cheon So-yeon sensed something wrong.
“…Is something jamming my Qi Sensing?”
His Qi Sensing was being obstructed as if he’d stepped into a Formation Technique.
Qi Sensing was a technique of releasing one’s Qi to perceive one’s surroundings.
To describe it simply, it was similar to echolocation—how dolphins and bats emit ultrasonic waves and interpret the returning vibrations to understand their environment.
If the emitted sound waves or Qi did not return, such perception became impossible.
“I thought he’d just fled, but he cast a Formation Technique too. Impressive indeed.”
The formation was hastily erected and neither particularly sturdy nor immediately threatening, but blocking Qi Sensing in this situation was sound strategy.
But if he relied on such tricks, there was only one course of action left for him.
“Cheon So-yeon! Come before me at once! If you refuse, I will slaughter your friends one by one!”
If he could not find her, he would simply force her to crawl out into the open herself.
The problem was that in his haste to pursue Cheon So-yeon’s faint traces, he had failed to capture anyone worth taking hostage.
If he left his post now to hunt for hostages while cornered as he was, she could slip away in that very moment and hide elsewhere.
Even though Qi Sensing had been blocked, the Fire Mirror’s acute perception was sharp enough to pinpoint Cheon So-yeon’s location the instant she descended below.
Even if he could not determine her exact position, this was also why he could continue driving her upward, trapping her in a corner.
If he could not leave his post himself, then someone else would have to go and return.
The moment he picked up the walkie-talkie, a young girl appeared at the far end of the corridor. It was Cheon So-yeon—the girl he had memorized from photographs and glimpsed in passing at the Resort.
“Heh heh heh. So a child is just a child after all. She’ll need proper discipline, but that’s not my concern.”
Cheon So-yeon’s estimated cultivation level was around First Grade Peak.
Given her age, Super Peak was impossible.
With such a gap in cultivation, even at a considerable distance, the moment she revealed herself before his eyes, capturing Cheon So-yeon was as good as done.
“Come here. If you do, I will take only you, and I won’t lay a finger on your friends.”
It was a lie.
His goal was to strike a blow against the Cheon Family Clan’s future.
Though it was only one year group, exterminating all the direct descendants of the Cheon Family Clan would deal them a substantial wound.
According to his investigation, the Cheon Family Clan usually produced at most one or two children of the highest caliber per year, but this year’s sixth-year class—which included Cheon So-yeon—numbered six.
Therefore, if he could not abduct and carry them away, annihilation was the next best option.
At the man’s words, Cheon So-yeon hesitated before slowly approaching him.
When they had drawn near enough, the man closed the distance in a single breath and reached out to pin her down.
At that moment, a girlish laugh rang out, and Cheon So-yeon scattered like smoke.
“Caught you?”
The voice that echoed was not Cheon So-yeon’s.
And his nightmare had begun.

(To be continued in the next part)

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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