Instant-Death Cultivation: Surviving in an Immortal World with Instant Kill - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1: Xianxia

 

 

“Only lived 5,000 years.”

 

The two characters ‘Death’ displayed on the monitor.

Seeing that, Cheon Woo-jin muttered quietly.

 

“This life also ends here after all.”

 

A life of 5,000 years.

In the real world, it’s an unimaginably long time.

 

But in this game ‘Eternal Path of Cultivation’, it was by no means a long time.

Because it’s a xianxia game with the goal of becoming an immortal who lives forever.

 

“I wanted to live a little longer.”

 

The biggest characteristic of xianxia stories is that your lifespan increases every time you raise your ‘realm’ through cultivation.

In Eternal Path of Cultivation, the 1st stage, Qi Refining Realm, has a lifespan set at 100 years.

But when you grow to the 2nd stage, Foundation Building Realm, your lifespan doubles to 200 years.

When you reach the 3rd stage, Core Formation Realm, you can live up to 400 years.

 

Growing endlessly while gradually extending lifespan like this was the characteristic of xianxia stories.

 

However, there’s one problem.

If you can’t secure the resources to advance to the next realm before your lifespan runs out, you die just like that.

 

Just a moment ago, the character in the game died from reaching the end of their lifespan.

They weren’t particularly in combat and their health was full, but they just died while walking down a road.

 

If you died fighting a boss, you could load save data and try again.

But if you die from reaching the end of your lifespan, there’s nothing you can do.

 

Even if you load data from hundreds of years ago, you’ll likely meet the same ending.

It’s more comfortable to just start over from the beginning.

 

“I really wanted to live long this time.”

 

Cheon Woo-jin’s voice as he muttered contained deep regret.

 

This was related to Cheon Woo-jin’s dream.

From long ago, Cheon Woo-jin had the dream of living as long as possible.

While everyone naturally wants to live long, Cheon Woo-jin’s desire was stronger than others because his parents died early from illness.

 

The reason Cheon Woo-jin was deeply absorbed in Eternal Path of Cultivation, which pursues immortality, was ultimately because of this.

He wanted to live as long as possible, even if just in a game.

 

“Sigh.”

 

Cheon Woo-jin let out a sigh.

 

Suddenly, he recalled the last words his mother left before passing away when he was in middle school.

The voice saying ‘You must live healthily for a long, long time’ was still vivid in his ears.

 

‘Living healthily for a long time isn’t easy in reality.’

 

Cheon Woo-jin’s workplace is a Humanities Publishing Company.

It was once a place that achieved great success translating Eastern classics.

 

But lately, due to the publishing recession, staff has been reduced and he works overtime every day.

As a result, his health was gradually deteriorating.

 

‘I should exercise too… but when I come home late at night in an exhausted state, I can only do things like gaming.’

 

Feeling bitter, Cheon Woo-jin operated his mouse.

From the main screen, he pressed ‘New Game’ and entered the new character creation screen.

 

‘Today I’ll just create a new character and go to sleep.’

 

Eternal Path of Cultivation allows you to create your own protagonist when starting the game.

 

But Cheon Woo-jin wasn’t particularly interested in appearance customization.

The only thing he considered important was the initial abilities as a cultivator.

 

‘This will have a big impact going forward.’

 

When he clicked the button, the protagonist’s initial abilities changed randomly.

Various elements were randomly determined, from basic stats like strength and stamina to the five elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, and martial arts attributes of sword, blade, spear, fist, and palm.

 

Among these, what Cheon Woo-jin paid most attention to was ‘innate talent’.

Innate talent is a special ability the protagonist has from the beginning, and if you get a good one, game progression becomes very smooth.

 

‘The problem is that top-tier talents almost never appear.’

 

Even after rolling for an hour, what you want often doesn’t come out.

Because of this, he often just combined a few usable talents and started the game.

 

‘Even if just a few decent mid-tier talents come out, it’s manageable enough.’

 

Click, click, click.

Cheon Woo-jin kept pressing the button.

As he blankly clicked the mouse, drowsiness gradually came over him.

 

When drowsiness comes, he could just lie down on the bed and close his eyes, but he kept enduring because ending the day like this felt too wasteful.

It was a common chronic problem of modern office workers.

 

“Huh?”

 

It seems he dozed off for a moment.

When Cheon Woo-jin flinched and opened his eyes, he saw something strange on the game screen.

 

There were no other innate talents displayed, only a single golden innate talent he had never seen before.

 

“What is this?”

 

Cheon Woo-jin blinked and operated his mouse.

 

[Instant Death Heaven Eye ]

─ Eyes that intervene in the principles of life and death, driving any opponent you face into absolute death.

─ Effect: Instantly kills 1 designated enemy.

─ Cooldown: 24 hours

─ Spirit Power Cost: 0

 

The moment he confirmed the detailed description of the golden innate talent.

Cheon Woo-jin unconsciously widened both his eyes.

 

“Does this even make sense?”

 

The performance was too good.

While it was a drawback that it could only be used once per day in game time, being able to instantly kill 1 enemy was an extraordinary ability.

 

“It seems like it can definitively instant-kill any target… Isn’t this too powerful?”

 

This wasn’t an instant death that randomly activated only on ordinary mobs.

It was an instant-kill ability that could kill ‘1 enemy’ without any conditions.

 

If he took the description at face value, instant death would work on bosses too, and having such an ability would make game progression incredibly easy.

 

“It’s a bit disappointing that no other innate talents appeared… but if something like this came up, I should just go with it.”

 

Cheon Woo-jin clicked on Instant Death Heaven Eye with his mouse to confirm it, then saved directly.

He didn’t even check the other stats.

 

“Let me play a little and then sleep.”

 

He had planned to just create a character and go to sleep, but his mind changed.

He wanted to personally test this cheat-like ability called Instant Death Heaven Eye.

 

“With an ability like this, I might really be able to survive until the end.”

 

Wrapped in such anticipation, Cheon Woo-jin fought off drowsiness while moving his mouse.

And the moment he clicked the mouse and pressed the ‘Start’ button.

 

[O you who dream of immortality.]

[The time has come to change your heavenly fate.]

 

Along with a voice that shook heaven and earth, a massive darkness surged forward and swallowed Cheon Woo-jin.

 

* * *

 

Rumble, crash!

 

He came to his senses at the loud thunder.

When he struggled to open his eyes and raised his body, everything around him was blue.

 

‘Where is this place?’

 

Cheon Woo-jin urgently looked around.

The place he was in now was deep in the rugged mountains.

An untouched natural forest stretched endlessly before him.

 

‘I was definitely in my studio apartment…’

 

He tried to recall his memories.

He remembered finishing overtime work, returning home, and playing a game.

After creating a new character… what happened then?

 

─ O you who dream of immortality, the time has come to change your heavenly fate.

 

Right, that’s correct.

He definitely heard that voice.

Right after that, pitch-black darkness rushed in and swallowed everything.

 

Then where exactly was this place?

While he was looking around.

 

“…!”

 

Rumble, crash!

The thunder sounded again.

But the sky was clear without a single cloud.

 

Where on earth could such sounds be coming from?

When he looked up in the direction the thunder came from, he saw something flashing.

 

At first he thought it was lightning.

But he soon realized it was a person.

 

‘What is that?’

 

Boom boom bang!

There was a man crossing the sky while creating explosive sounds like a jet plane.

He was wearing a purple robe, and held a large sword in his hand.

 

And…

 

“…!”

 

Rumble, crash!

A massive creature appeared with an even louder explosion.

It was a monster with jet-black scales, its body as large as a dozens-story high-rise building.

 

‘It’s a dragon?’

 

It wasn’t a Western-style dragon.

It was an Eastern dragon.

A jet-black dragon was flying through the sky.

 

But Cheon Woo-jin had seen this black dragon before.

Not in the real world, but in a game.

 

‘Why is the Black Mist Dragon from Eternal Path of Cultivation here?’

 

The Black Mist Dragon was a transcendent being that appeared in the game’s introduction.

 

When you start the game, you can see the Black Mist Dragon battling a cultivator who invaded its territory.

Just like right now.

 

‘Could this place actually be inside the game world?’

 

The cultivation world of Eternal Path of Cultivation.

Had he been sucked into that place?

 

But why?

 

“Kaaah!”

 

Then the roar of the Black Mist Dragon could be heard.

The Black Mist Dragon opened its mouth wide and breathed dark energy at the man in purple robes.

 

“…!”

 

Kwakwakwang!

The man swung his sword with great force.

A purple beam shot out, completely scattering the Black Mist Dragon’s breath.

The purple beam went on to engulf the Black Mist Dragon’s entire body.

 

‘Incredible….’

 

He trembled at the overwhelming display of power.

This was a battle of tremendous scale, completely different from watching game footage on a monitor.

 

‘That’s the power of a cultivator!’

 

To think a mere human body could stand against such a massive dragon.

He could truly feel how incredible the cultivators in the cultivation world were.

 

“Kaaah…!”

 

However.

The Black Mist Dragon’s power was one step above the man’s.

 

As if this was nothing, the massive dragon charged forward menacingly.

The man tried to resist by swinging his sword, but in the end, the Black Mist Dragon bit off one of the man’s arms.

 

“Keuak…!”

 

The man’s scream echoed through the air.

With one arm torn off, the man frantically moved his remaining arm.

But the Black Mist Dragon released dark energy once again.

 

Kukung! A tremendous explosion covered the sky.

The Black Mist Dragon leisurely emerged from the explosion and flew high into the sky, but the man in purple robes fell with his body completely torn to shreds.

 

“…!”

 

Cheon Woo-jin ran toward where the man had crashed.

If the Black Mist Dragon had been nearby, he wouldn’t have approached carelessly, but the dragon had already flown so far away it was out of sight.

 

“Ugh….”

 

Surprisingly, the man was still breathing.

Even though there was a large hole in his torso and one arm had been torn off.

 

‘It’s exactly like the game!’

 

In the game’s introduction, you also encounter a cultivator who has suffered fatal injuries from the Black Mist Dragon like this.

 

Since Eternal Path of Cultivation was a game with high freedom, you could choose to save the dying cultivator, or just pretend not to see and pass by.

There was even an option to finish him off completely.

 

But generally, saving the cultivator was the most beneficial choice.

If you formed a friendly relationship, you could receive help later while progressing through the game.

 

‘Since a new cultivator was randomly generated each time you started the game, there were cases where people would reset multiple times until a cultivator with good traits appeared.’

 

Of course, this wasn’t a game but reality now.

You couldn’t restart just because you didn’t like the results.

 

“Are you alright?”

“Pl, please help me….”

 

When Cheon Woo-jin approached, the man spoke with difficulty.

Though he had suffered serious injuries, being a high-level cultivator, he seemed to still maintain consciousness.

 

“I’ve hidden a Life-Saving Pill inside my sleeve. Please put it in my mouth….”

 

The Life-Saving Pill was a recovery medicine made from mystical medicinal ingredients.

Because it possessed very powerful effects, it could save even a cultivator in this dying state.

 

“The Black Mist Dragon might return, so hurry….”

 

The man pleaded with a desperate voice, blood flowing from his mouth.

 

“If you save my life, I will surely repay that kindness….”

“….”

 

In truth, Cheon Woo-jin was in a situation where he needed an ally.

After all, he had suddenly dropped into the game world with nothing but his bare body.

If he could make this man with tremendous power into an ally, it would be of great help.

 

But for some reason,

Cheon Woo-jin felt an inexplicable sense of unease.

 

‘Why do I feel so uneasy about this?’

 

Spirit Path Cultivation Chronicles was a game that taught how to survive as a cultivator in the world of righteous sects.

 

Throughout this time, Cheon Woo-jin had lived various lives, being reborn countless times within the game.

Each time he started a new life, numerous cultivators would appear to block his path.

The memories of fiercely competing with them and engaging in life-or-death battles were sending warning signals from his subconscious.

 

Cheon Woo-jin carefully examined the man before him.

He wanted to identify the source of this uneasiness.

 

It was right then that strange characters began to appear.

 

[Gal Sa-ryang ]

* Race: Human

* Age: 382 years

* Realm: Core Formation Stage (Late)

* Constitution: Metal-Water Spiritual Root, Ghostly Blood Jade Body

* Faction: Demonic Path

* Affiliation: Blood World Demon Sect

* Destiny: Extreme Evil

 

Cheon Woo-jin quickly pulled his hand back.

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