I Possessed a Cultivator Destined to Die at the Hands of the Protagonist - Chapter 71

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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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71.
Kang Jin-heon’s wind threaded through the gaps of the Seven Killing Wind Formation, subtly twisting the trajectory of the fierce blade wind.
A direct block was impossible, so instead I guided the flow to make the attack miss.
Pung-hu’s blade wind lost its trajectory and struck the cave chamber wall meaninglessly.
It was a technique only Kang Jin-heon could perform, wielding the same elemental affinity.
‘Now is the moment!’
Pung-hu could surely no longer muster any grand techniques.
His body refused to obey after casting Hundred Flowers twice in succession.
Yet still he charged forward.
The blade wind rushed toward me.
Before I could even sever it, the wind dissipated as if cut off right before me.
Yang Ja-han, passing by my side, had severed it.
There was neither time nor space for words of gratitude.
I formed the seal and raised my hand once more.
I drew forth every last shred of my remaining spiritual power, compressing it into a single point.
The incantation of Mucheon Eunmyeong flowed unbidden from my lips.
A blue lotus bloomed at my fingertips.
The edges of its petals slowly turned white.
‘Just one strike is all I need!’
The thought consumed my mind—that only one blow needed to reach Pung-hu.
The lotus at my fingertips compressed, becoming a single white point.
“Struggling to the bitter end, are you!”
Pung-hu’s winds scarred the cave chamber in countless places, driving the monastery disciples into a corner.
Jin Seok-jun, kneeling on one knee drenched in blood, his eyes suddenly blazed with light.
As Jin Seok-jun chanted his mantra, the earthen wall of the Perfect Circle Seal crumbled.
“O breath of ancient blue history, become eternal records upon the brush that never dries. I gather you with my steadfast Way, weaving you down with a spirit that shall not break.”
From beneath Pung-hu’s feet, golden lines spread across the entire cave chamber floor like a spider’s web.
Wherever the lines passed, the earth rose up. It was as if thousands of years of slumbering history were all lifting their heads at once.
The will of every fallen monastery disciple. All the dead of this place, crushed beneath the earth, unable even to ascend, wandering in limbo.
All of it became a single Mountain beneath Jin Seok-jun’s celestial mandate.
“O eternal mandate of undying history, raise beneath my feet a mountain that shall not crumble.”
A colossal mountain and continent erupted above Pung-hu’s body.
The golden peak pierced through the cave chamber’s ceiling.
The spears of earth energy burrowed into Pung-hu’s body, and soon began absorbing even Pung-hu himself into the earth.
“Grraaaaaahhhhh!”
Pung-hu’s final cry echoed from deep within the mountain peak.
“This… this place is not… Pung-hu’s place…!”
Pung-hu’s voice sank lower and lower, descending into the mountain’s depths.
The colossal mountain was dragging his very soul down to the depths of the earth.
“Pung-hu’s… master… still….”
Before his final words could even finish.
Pung-hu’s body dissolved into a single line of dust, like the millennia of records embedded in the earth itself.
As Pung-hu vanished, the Myeolmaek Great Formation lost its radiance and crumbled to nothing.
The wind, the shadow of the Wind God, everything—nothing remained.
The entire Cave Chamber fell silent as if it had all been a lie.
Dust drifted slowly down from above.
Where Pung-hu had stood, only a small mountain peak bathed in golden light remained, its glow gradually fading.
Whoosh.
The mountain that had consumed Pung-hu sank back into the earth, and the floor of the Cave Chamber began to return to its original state.
“Jin Seok-jun! Ugh!”
I rushed toward him.
But my knees buckled after just a few steps.
If Eun Hui-gyeom hadn’t quickly caught me, I would have collapsed entirely.
Jin Seok-jun remained on one knee, both hands pressed against the ground, motionless.
Golden markings were slowly fading from his forearms.
“I’m fine—”
“Sister, take this first! Hurry!”
Eun Hui-gyeom pulled a Taeul Restoration Pill from the Jeomul Platform and shoved it into my mouth.
When had he been carrying something like this?
As the elixir dissolved, my internal injuries faded slightly.
But it was far from enough to restore the severed meridians.
“I’m fine, so let’s focus on Jin Seok-jun first—”
“Junior, I’ll take care of him.”
Im So-ha approached and spoke briefly.
As she reached Jin Seok-jun and extended her hands, flowers of the Chwirajeum bloomed around them.
Only then did Jin Seok-jun’s body, which had been frozen on one knee, collapse to the side.
“Jin, don’t move. Your injuries are severe.”
As Ha Gyeong-un applied healing arts, faint color gradually returned to Jin Seok-jun’s ashen face.
“Cough, hack—!”
“Senior! Your condition—!”
As Jin Seok-jun regained consciousness and coughed up blood, his condition deteriorated rapidly.
Watching this, I pushed Eun Hui-gyeom’s back.
“Hui-gyeom, go help too.”
“But—”
“I already took the Taeul Restoration Pill.”
It was still painful, but not life-threatening.
Starting with Eun Hui-gyeom, several monks who knew healing arts rushed to Jin Seok-jun’s side.
We barely managed to stop his breathing from ceasing by pouring every last ounce of our remaining spiritual power into him.
“We’ve provided emergency treatment, but the internal injuries and spiritual exhaustion are too severe.”
Now that the Myeolmaek Great Formation had vanished, the calamity of earth unfolding on Jaya Mountain should have disappeared as well.
Soon, the great monks from Jaya Mountain will be heading this way.
‘This is different from the original.’
In the original story, Jin Seok-jun perished alongside Pung-hu.
Even as death crept closer, the mere existence of hope—that survival was possible—made it worthwhile.
I glanced around, searching for anything I might do to help.
That’s when I felt someone’s gaze fixed upon Jin Seok-jun.
I turned my head and saw Yang Ja-han.
‘….’
Yang Ja-han hadn’t even noticed that I was watching him.
His eyes never wavered from Jin Seok-jun, who was fading away.
Yang Ja-han raised his sword and began moving toward Jin Seok-jun.
I hastily stepped into his path.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Move.”
“I asked what you’re doing.”
I desperately hoped my ominous feeling was wrong.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
Yang Ja-han raised his blade higher.
“If you don’t move, I’ll cut you down too.”
“I can’t move.”
“Then I’ll kill you first. After all, you’re equally responsible for this.”
Pung-hu had said that because of me, Jin Seok-jun awakened to his Mandate far sooner than in the original story.
I didn’t understand why, but if that’s what he meant, then Yang Ja-han’s words weren’t entirely wrong.
But that didn’t justify letting him kill Jin Seok-jun.
‘I always thought something was off.’
Yang Ja-han had clearly known something in Saryeong Jigok, yet he let Yeon-seo die.
But the reason for that was never revealed, even in the original story.
‘Yang Ja-han knows something that wasn’t written in the original.’
Otherwise, his actions made no sense at all.
“I don’t know what you know, but Jin has saved every monk in this place over the course of today. You’re no exception. So now, here, you’re going to kill him without any reason? You think I’d forgive that?”
Whatever Yang Ja-han knew, it couldn’t justify his attempt to kill Jin Seok-jun.
As I continued to block his path, Yang Ja-han lowered his blade slightly.
The tip of his sword trembled faintly.
“You understand nothing.”
“Stop saying you don’t know and just tell me! Why are you doing this!”
I wanted to know too!
Why had the so-called protagonist of the original story tried to kill me, and now sought to kill Jin Seok-jun as well?
At my outcry, Yang Ja-han reluctantly opened his mouth.
“That man has awakened to a Mandate that should never have been awakened. Every Mandate has an order, a price, and a place.”
“….”
“Those who defy the natural order must pay a price. And that price will be far greater than what you face now.”
“…I see.”
Pung-hu had said something similar.
But hearing Yang Ja-han’s reasoning, I found myself utterly exasperated.
“So you’re going to kill Jin Seok-jun now to avoid paying an even steeper price?”
“Something like that.”
Yang Ja-han raised his sword again.
His gaze was that of someone truly intent on cutting me down and ending Jin Seok-jun’s life.
“If you’re going to kill Jin Seok-jun, then I….”
“Who said anything like that?”
Eun Hui-gyeom rose from his seat and approached my side, gripping the Hyeonsu Nakwol Sword at an angle.
His question was measured, but the playful expression he usually wore was nowhere to be found.
“Pung-hu never said anything about the order of Jin Seok-jun’s heavenly mandate, nor did he mention anyone paying that price. How do you know such things?”

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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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