I Possessed a Cultivator Destined to Die at the Hands of the Protagonist - Chapter 68

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

68.
The blade of the Secret Sword ignited with azure flames.
It was far less than half my usual strength, but that hardly mattered now.
Using the Silvermoon Essence Rope as a springboard, I kicked off into the void, and the Secret Sword traced an arc through the air, severing Pung-hu’s arm as it passed.
Pung-hu’s arm, which had been gripping Yang Ja-han’s throat, dropped limply to the ground.
“Hack! Cough!”
Yang Ja-han’s body tumbled to the earth, finally freed from Pung-hu’s grasp.
I swiftly wrapped him in the Silvermoon Essence Rope and pulled him toward me.
Pung-hu’s eyes twisted grotesquely as he stared down at his severed limb.
“This worthless wench!”
Pung-hu’s roar shook the entire chamber.
The severed arm writhed on the ground, and demonic energy surged from its blackened edges.
His other arm regenerated in an instant.
The wind blades he summoned lashed out toward both Yang Ja-han and me.
“Senior!”
Im So-ha wove a hand seal, and dozens of petals from the Crimson Silk Flower erupted before us in perfect synchronization.
The petals layered upon one another, forming a colossal barrier that withstood Pung-hu’s blade wind.
Boom.
Half the petals were shredded, but fresh blooms immediately filled the gaps.
Yet Im So-ha’s complexion had grown visibly pale.
Even for a disciple of the Chukgi Sect, there were limits to how long one could directly withstand Pung-hu’s assault.
“S-Senior.”
“I’m fine—fall back!”
I dragged Yang Ja-han, still wrapped in the Silvermoon Essence Rope, toward the rear.
“Cough! Gasp!”
Black handprints still marked his neck, and his skin was discolored a dark crimson.
He coughed dryly several times, struggling to steady his breath through the blood.
Yang Ja-han rose unsteadily, his gaze cold as he fixed it upon me.
“…Why did you save me?”
“…”
“I have no affection for you. Surely you feel the same.”
Yang Ja-han, his throat now recovering, regarded me with an unwavering, composed stare.
I let out a hollow laugh, utterly bewildered.
“You’re saying that now, in this situation?”
“I’m asking sincerely.”
Yang Ja-han’s gaze remained fixed on me without wavering.
I exhaled deeply.
There was no time, no room for explanation.
Yet I had no desire to brush past this either.
“Whether you live or die—honestly, it’s not my concern.”
“….”
“But if you’re going to die anyway, do it where I can’t see it. That’s all.”
The original story’s distortion was undeniably my fault.
So if Yang Ja-han dies before my eyes, even if it were an accident, it would still be because of me.
If he dies somewhere I don’t know about, then it’s not my fault, and I bear no responsibility, right?
Yang Ja-han stared at me for a moment, then slowly turned his head away.
“…This is absurd.”
With those words, he asked no further questions.
Just as I thought I’d saved Yang Ja-han and could finally catch my breath.
“Every last one of you! Not a single soul shall escape!”
Pung-hu spread his regenerated arms wide and rose into the air.
The energy enveloping his body transformed into a blood-red light, and the entire air of the cave chamber surged toward Pung-hu.
“I’ll tear you to shreds without leaving even a speck of dust!”
Behind Pung-hu, a colossal form of wind materialized.
It resembled the Wind God himself.
The ferocious shadow of wind spread across the entire cave chamber as if gazing down upon it.
[Seven Extinction Wind Formation]
As he formed the hand seal, wind blades scattered in all directions.
Each gust of wind approached with lethal intent.
“Scatter! Run now!!”
Baek Ri-myeong cried out to the remaining monastery disciples, blood spraying from his lips.
“Aaaahhh!”
“P-please, save us!”
Even the monastery disciples who had managed to hold on began to lose their strength, being sucked into the wind.
The wind tightened its grip around us relentlessly.
Most of Im So-ha’s Chukgi Zither flowers had withered, and Woo Tae-san’s earthen wall proved powerless against this onslaught.
There was nowhere to escape before the approaching wind.
‘Is this truly the end?’
Was my entire life worth nothing more than this?
I gripped my sword tightly and clenched my teeth.
The blood of the monastery disciples seeped into the Myeolmaek Great Formation, and the calamity of earth was beginning to erupt once more.
Was this pathetic scene truly my final moment?
‘This can’t be happening.’
I had endured for decades.
I did not die in Saryeong Jigok, nor in my battles against Gwak Jun and Muk-hyeon.
I had declared that I would become my own sky, that I would overcome something as trivial as fate.
‘So you’re going to give up here?’
That was the moment.
Deep within my soul, something scorching stirred to life.
A familiar sensation, distinct from my heartbeat, awakened within me.
Something that felt as though I had known it since long ago was raging within me.
The blade of wind drew close enough to brush my face.
At that same moment, a tremendous sound erupted from beneath my feet.
Kuuuung.
“What, what is this?!”
“The ground, it’s moving!”
The entire floor of the Cave Chamber convulsed and surged upward with violent force.
A section of earth rose like a wave, piercing through the gaps of Pung-hu’s Seven Extinction Wind Formation and blocking the wind’s passage.
Kwaaaang.
The wind blade, deflected by the earthen wall, ricocheted and tore a deep gash across the ceiling of the Cave Chamber.
….
I turned to look behind me, scarcely believing what I was witnessing.
The earthen wall that Woo Tae-san had erected to protect Jin Seok-jun crumbled away.
From his body, as he walked through the dust, a golden-ochre aura shimmered like heat haze.
It was a power fundamentally different in essence from Jin Seok-jun’s usual energy.
His arm was exposed through the torn sleeve.
Inscribed upon his arm was a pattern I had never seen before, radiating with golden light.
“Jin Seok-jun…!”
Jin Seok-jun had always been an exceptionally unusual disciple even within the Hyeonganmun.
Born as an orphan of the Hyeon Empire, he could read the earth’s energy despite not being a monastery disciple.
At the age of thirteen.
Jin Seok-jun walked a great distance and arrived at Hyeonganmun of his own accord.
He was a disciple who, not knowing what the Way of Heaven even was, could only speak of how the earth itself had called him to this place.
Because of this peculiarity, he was able to become the disciple of Jung Hak-chul, an elder of great renown.
Even now, Jin Seok-jun’s ability to perceive the earth’s energy far surpassed that of his peers.
The aptitude of a monastery disciple—maturity.
Yet before maturity, there was one thing that every monastery disciple possessed.
‘Heavenly Mandate.’
The name inscribed upon a seeker’s soul by the heavens themselves, or so the legends told.
All monastery disciples were said to receive it from birth, yet only an infinitesimal few ever awakened to it in their lifetime.
Even those who reached the realm of Original Essence often remained ignorant of their own Mandate, and far more had ascended to immortality without ever attaining it despite a lifetime of cultivation.
What was certain was that a monastery disciple who had awakened to their Heavenly Mandate and one who had not, even if of the same rank, differed as vastly as heaven and earth.
And now such a Heavenly Mandate had manifested in Jin Seok-jun, who had only recently reached the thirteenth stage of the Chukgi Sect.
The massive earthen wall collapsed, and beyond it, Pung-hu emerged into view.
Jin Seok-jun now stood directly before Pung-hu.
‘I think I finally understand what my Heavenly Mandate is.’
All living things walk upon the earth to survive.
From the earth, new life is born, and when death comes, all return to soil.
Within the earth lay the deaths and births of countless beings, their histories preserved as living memory.
Yet the Mato that Hyeonganmun sought to create contained only death.
How can dead land be called the earth?
What is land?
The earth is living history itself.
‘The Eternal Name of Blue Records.’
The lives and deaths of all living things remain upon the earth, never to fade away.
Jin Seok-jun formed a seal.
In that instant, the earth veins throughout the entire Cave Chamber responded in unison.
Golden radiance spread outward from him as its center.
Wherever the golden light touched, the blackened earth returned to its original state.
“This is….”
It wasn’t only the earth that was returning.
“Our spiritual power is recovering!”
“That’s impossible…!”
The spiritual power of the monastery disciples, which should have been depleted, rapidly filled once more.
The earth veins spanning the entire continent, the terrestrial qi that lay deep within Heugam Jae, and the wills left behind by those who had perished in this place—all converged upon Jin Seok-jun.
And through his power, these forces were restoring the spiritual power of the remaining monastery disciples.
“Tch.”
Pung-hu, suspended in midair, furrowed his brow.
“So a mere Chukgi Sect disciple has comprehended the Way of Heaven.”
He swiftly changed his hand seals.
[Seven Extinction Wind Formation—Frenzy]
The wind grew even more violent, pouring down toward Jin Seok-jun.
Yet before the wind could reach him, a massive expanse of earth rose up to block its path.
A colossal barrier of soil wreathed in ochre light met the Seven Extinction Wind Formation head-on, shattering and reforming repeatedly.
It was as though the continent itself was being created at the tips of Jin Seok-jun’s fingers.
The earth crumbled, and Jin Seok-jun raised his head with serene eyes.
“So long as the earth lives, I shall never perish.”

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