I Possessed a Cultivator Destined to Die at the Hands of the Protagonist - Chapter 31

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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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31.
A sickening spray of blood erupted as a head tumbled across the floor.
Blood cascaded from the severed neck, pooling on the ground.
“Gasp… ugh…”
With trembling hands, I steadied my grip on the blade.
Blood streaming from my arm dripped steadily down the sword’s edge.
“Argh! How dare you! How DARE you sever my neck?!”
Monastery cultivators do not die easily—severed limbs, broken bones, crushed organs are mere inconveniences.
But that hardly meant they were immortal.
Lower-ranked cultivators often perished when their necks were severed or their hearts pierced, unable to recover.
‘Gwak Jun is still only a 7-star Breathing Technique cultivator. A severed neck is beyond his ability to mend.’
I hadn’t expected Jin Seok-jun to fell Gwak Jun in a single strike; severing his neck the moment an opening appeared was the wisest choice.
‘Not a particularly pleasant sensation, I’ll admit.’
Yet it was merely unpleasant—strangely, I felt no revulsion or nausea.
Perhaps I too had become something of a cultivator.
“I’ll kill you! Woman, I’ll slaughter you and make you a… a sacrifice… Argh!”
“Quiet.”
Using the secret blade, I pierced the heart of Gwak Jun’s prone body.
His severed head rolled across the floor, still crying out in agony.
“Sister! Are you alright?”
“Yes, well enough.”
My spiritual energy was depleted, so I couldn’t heal myself immediately, yet my body brimmed with inexplicable strength.
Eun Hui-gyeom stared down at Gwak Jun’s head, coughing blood as it rolled about.
“What do we do with that?”
“Leave it. He’ll be dead soon enough.”
As I withdrew the secret blade, blood erupted violently from his heart.
Gwak Jun’s torso went limp, and his body began to turn translucent.
Through cultivation, monastery cultivators ascend toward immortals—beings close to divinity.
Thus their deaths differed from those of ordinary mortals.
A cultivator’s death was called transcendence.
It meant dissolving and vanishing without achieving true immortality—a mere dissipation.
I stepped on Gwak Jun’s rolling head, pinning it in place.
“Cough, hack… Damn woman! Get off! This head is not something you should tread upon so carelessly!”
“For a disembodied head, you certainly talk a lot.”
“Unforgivable! You…”
“Enough. Your foundation has other locations besides here, doesn’t it? Where?”
“Heh, hahahaha! You think I’d actually tell you?”
Of course he wouldn’t.
Did I look like a fool?
I’d only asked about the other foundations’ locations to probe Gwak Jun’s resolve.
‘This should be manageable.’
In the original story, the calamity of the earth occurs later than now.
What if I prevented the calamity of the earth earlier than in the original?
‘Then far fewer people would need to die, and Jin Seok-jun wouldn’t have to sacrifice himself.’
Suddenly, Yang Ja-han’s words flashed through my mind.
‘You cannot be allowed to live.’
Had he said that because I was someone who should have died in the original story?
Then does someone who should have died in the original deserve to perish?
No.
Isn’t Eun Hui-gyeom living proof? He should have died during the Seonmun Tournament according to the original.
He was becoming an excellent disciple, carrying on Baek Un-jin’s legacy.
I gazed down at Gwak Jun’s severed head with cold eyes.
“Gwak Jun, your sect leader is really wasting his time. Nothing will change because of this.”
“What? How dare you insult the sect leader’s grand design!”
“Grand design? Consuming a single castle is a grand design?”
“Heh heh, how foolish. What we’re really after is——”
“It’s not just some castle, is it?”
I pressed down harder with my foot on Gwak Jun’s head.
“What Paecheonmun is really after is the Dragon Vein flowing beneath the castle. Severing it is your true objective, isn’t it?”
“…!”
Gwak Jun’s pupils dilated sharply.
He hadn’t expected a mere junior of the Jeongmun Paldae to know about Paecheonmun’s most guarded secret—the Dragon Vein.
Gwak Jun burst into crazed laughter.
“Hahaha! Impressive. But what you know is merely the tip of the iceberg!”
“Oh, I see. But you’ve already failed, haven’t you?”
“How foolish. The true grand design isn’t merely severing the vein—it’s transforming this land into a demonic realm! When the demonic energy of Paecheonmun flows through the earth, the monks of Hyeonganmun will ascend to heights that even immortals dare not reach! They will become incomparably stronger than the current Hyeonganmun, who fail to grasp such noble intent!”
“Ah, I see. I didn’t know.”
As I spoke in a flat, dismissive tone, Gwak Jun’s face turned ashen.
Sure enough, Jin Seok-jun was startled by those words.
“If such a thing were done, a tremendous calamity would befall this land.”
“Hmph, what does a calamity matter?”
Paecheonmun would do anything if it meant strengthening Hyeonganmun and achieving immortality.
In truth, the grand design of transforming the land into a demonic realm would drain the vital essence from both commoners and monks standing upon that earth, converting it into their own power.
“You cannot stop our grand design…”
Gwak Jun’s body completely vanished, and soon his head dissolved as well.
Nothing remained where Gwak Jun had been.
“If what that man said is true, this could become a rather serious problem.”
“Indeed. Before that——”
I glanced at those who had been performing the ritual at the Tosin Foundation.
With Mano gone and Gwak Jun dead, they hesitated before ceasing their incantation.
“What are we going to do with those people?”
“They’re connected to Paecheonmun, so if you don’t mind, could we take them into custody? We’ll need to investigate the seal here as well…. In return, I’ll share the findings with the investigation team later.”
It was a remark that seemed conscious of the incident involving Cheongun that Kang Jin-heon had experienced.
“Understood.”
Those who had attempted to sever the Dragon Vein’s seal using the Tosin Foundation were mostly individuals with only a tenuous connection to the monastery system through their cultivation.
Jin Seok-jun had completely destroyed the Tosin Foundation.
Then, at last, the turbid energy flowing through the earth vein began to cease.
After handing them over to Jin Seok-jun, I approached the criminals who had nearly been offered as sacrifices.
They huddled in a corner of the Dragon Vein, trembling.
“Are you alright?”
“What’s going to happen to us?”
“The seal won’t be broken, so you can return home.”
Gwak Jun paid little attention to the criminals.
Yet for some reason, the expressions of those who heard my words were not bright.
A woman stepped forward and glared at me slightly.
“Why did you do such a thing?”
“They were going to offer you as sacrifices.”
“I know.”
“….”
“Everyone here knows! But we made a promise. If we died as sacrifices, they would pay our families compensation! And you’ve ruined everything!”
The furious woman reached out toward me.
Before her hand could touch my body, Eun Hui-gyeom stepped forward and blocked her.
Unable to overcome his strength, the woman was pushed backward.
“Sister. That’s enough. Your life was saved, yet you can’t even say thank you.”
“….”
“If we don’t die, our families will starve!”
I too was bewildered by the resentment in her eyes.
I had naturally assumed they were people who had been captured, never imagining they had come of their own volition.
“You were willing to die for your family? Why would you do such a thing?”
“Well, it’s for my family.”
“I don’t understand.”
My head spun white, and the words tumbled out before I could stop them.
I realized too late that it was already beyond my control.
The woman who heard my muttering opened her mouth with a bitter laugh.
“You don’t have a family, do you?”
“….”
“That’s why you can say such things so casually….”
Thump.
As the woman’s body collapsed, the others fell as well.
I looked at Eun Hui-gyeom in alarm.
Eun Hui-gyeom quickly lowered his hand, which had been forming a seal.
“I was merely restraining it.”
“….”
“I couldn’t do more than that. Some people lose their families because they wish they didn’t have them.”
Eun Hui-gyeom had also lost his family to the Three Calamities and become a monk at the monastery.
“Don’t speak like that. They probably thought it was the best choice they could make.”
“I’m not sure about that. When I learned my parents sacrificed their lives to earn money for food, I think I would have resented them.”
Faced with Eun Hui-gyeom’s scornful laugh, I found myself unable to say anything.
Perhaps it was because I had never once known someone who would think of my death in such a way.

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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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