SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 68

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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 68. Cheonma (3)
3
“I’m sorry.”
The Pharmacist spoke.
“In his current state, there’s nothing I can do.”
She was examining Namgung Woon. Throughout the examination, the Pharmacist’s expression remained vacant—like a doctor who, already knowing the patient was beyond hope, went through the motions only to speak those words of futility.
…….
Cheonma gazed down at Namgung Woon in silence. Perhaps she had never harbored any hope for recovery. Her face remained expressionless as she parted her lips.
“Stand.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want to hear your apologies. Stand, Namgung Woon Bu-wol-seon.”
A dark cave.
Cheonma’s breathing deepened.
From her lips wafted the scent of poison.
“Did you not swear an oath to me? Did you not boast that you would challenge the Age of Demonic Dominance and raise the banner of the Righteous Martial Arts Alliance? Did you not gather the Nine Factions and One Valley and the Five Great Families, all to provoke this very confrontation? You, who did all this—you cannot die upon a sickbed. It is impossible.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Stand.”
The scent of poison grew stronger still.
“Rise and seize a weapon. You need not clutch that graceless axe of yours. Take up a wooden sword. A willow switch, a palm strike, a wooden staff—anything will serve. Grasp something. Grasp it and face me in combat.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I said stand.”
“Cheonma.”
Namgung Woon drew breath.
In a single night, he had aged further still.
“I’m sorry that I’m weaker than you.”
…….
“I tried to hold on for one more day, but now I cannot. You must feel it too. Already I have been drawing upon my Innate True Qi. My Internal Force is spent. My vital essence is exhausted. You might endure another year, but I… I have reached my end.”
Silence.
“I was simply the weaker one.”
The old man, still lying down, murmured the words.
“Kill me.”
…….
Cheonma’s face twisted.
“I don’t wish to become like the Abbot of Shaolin. Before my body rots and crumbles, put me to death. If I become a Hopping Corpse, even if my eyes are open, I see nothing—and even if I live, I am not alive. So…….”
“So you ask me to slay you as you lie there on your bed?”
The poison fragrance reached its crescendo.
“Is that what you say now?”
Cheonma’s frame was small. From that small body, black fire erupted. Her Internal Force took shape and blazed.
Killing Intent.
As her power burned, it exhaled the smell of ash—the reek of a life endured, of suffering borne and weathered. Cheonma’s scent was as toxic as trampled weeds ground underfoot.
“Is this the end of the promised duel? Is this?”
…….
“You should have chosen Mutual Destruction from the start. Why cling to glory so long? Why not have gathered all the disciples from both our sect and the Righteous Path, commanded them all to take their own lives together? What light did you hope to bask in when you refused to die then?”
Namgung Woon could not answer. The tears the old man shed hardened into traces upon his cheeks.
“I…….”
“Namgung Woon. You were born with the Heavenly Martial Body, claiming the praise and jealousy of all the martial world. You reached the Peak State before you came of age. Before your thirtieth year, you became patriarch of the Namgung Clan. When the Age of Demonic Dominance arose, you were chosen as Alliance Leader. All the essence of the Righteous Path gathers in you; all the resentment of the Righteous Way rests upon you. And yet, would you simply surrender your neck to my claws?”
…….
“Very well. I shall grant your wish.”
Cheonma rose to her feet.
“But you will not die a gentle death.”
She departed toward some unseen place. Even after the woman vanished, the charred reek lingered. It was suffocating. The Pharmacist and the Medicine King, untrained in Aura, bore expressions of particular anguish.
After a moment, Cheonma returned.
An axe rested in her grasp.
“Old dog of the Namgung line—this is your precious Jade Axe of Autumn Moon. Surely you have not forgotten it.”
“Baek Hyang…….”
“Speak.”
Cheonma raised the axe high.
“Skill forgot justice; justice lost skill.”
…….
“Speak thus. Speak thus and I will grant you the death you desire.”
Martial prowess abandoned righteousness.
Righteousness lost martial prowess.
It meant the end of the Righteous Martial Arts Alliance.
The master of the Demonic Sect had spoken thus: let the Alliance Leader himself acknowledge the Righteous Path’s annihilation. Only then would he spare his life. And he would sever that life with the man’s own beloved blade.
“Speak,” she commanded.
…….
“Why do you not speak?”
The old man’s lips trembled. His mouth opened, his teeth parted. But nothing came beyond. The words would not follow. It was as though his tongue had vanished. Again and again his mouth opened, and each time the tongue lost its way.
“I cannot.”
The old man exhaled.
“I cannot… I cannot speak…….”
Fresh tears fell upon the hardened tracks of those that had come before. The tears layered across his wrinkles like strata of sediment.
The tears, piled upon themselves, had grown indistinguishable from his weathered skin. It seemed as though his flesh had been fashioned from tears from the beginning, and the tears themselves flowed not from his eyes but rose up from the flesh itself.
“I cannot speak…….”
…….
“Forgive me. Forgive me, Cheonma…….”
Cheonma swung the axe.
The blade did not sever the Alliance Leader’s neck.
It merely struck the bare earth.
Directly beside his face—there the axe came down. The hard stone of the cave floor split as easily as tofu. How much Internal Force the Cheonma must have expended to cleave rock when she could barely lift a switch—I could scarcely fathom it.
“You said that a Hopping Corpse does not live even when it lives.”
Cheonma murmured.
“It matters not. Now you are not dead even in death. What difference lies between a life that is not living and a death that is not dying? I cannot perceive it. It is meaningless. Utterly meaningless…….”
She turned her back.
“All beneath heaven has become emptiness.”
The next day.
The Alliance Leader Namgung Woon died at dawn.
He died of illness.
4
Ten days since falling into the Apocalypse.
The day this world would be destroyed drew near.
“…We’ve obtained a valuable sample.”
The Pharmacist spoke.
“With only those infected who have already transformed into Hunters for two or three years, there are limits to analyzing the virus. Thanks to this sample, I observed the progression of infection in real time. Real progress.”
Before the Pharmacist lay the Alliance Leader.
A corpse, utterly motionless.
The old man’s body was bound tight with chains.
“Death doesn’t bring immediate transformation into a Hunter… it seems awakening occurs with some delay. I suspect it takes time for the infection agent to spread entirely through the brain.”
“I’ve compiled the research findings.”
The Medicine King handed over the file folder.
He clicked his tongue.
“This one may have the skill to make medicine, but lacks the talent to explain it to others. Truly lacks it entirely. Tch—this is why such conceited people are the way they are…….”
“I devoted myself fully to the research.”
Ignoring the Medicine King’s reproach, the Pharmacist continued.
“But developing a cure proved impossible.”
“Was there insufficient time?”
“Yes. At minimum, ninety days. Ideally, a comfortable hundred and twenty…….”
Clang!
—Groooah.
The chains rattled, emitting a harsh noise. We both turned our heads at once. The Alliance Leader’s corpse was trembling violently.
—Urrgh… hngh, wooahhh……!
We watched in silence for some time.
No—we watched what had been the Alliance Leader.
It thrashed about, its mouth agape.
…….
It was then that Cheonma arrived.
Footstep.
The woman approached with quiet steps. A figure in black—her black hair, black martial robe, and black eyes, holding a black blade that cast a shadow deeper than her own.
“…Pathetic.”
Cheonma looked down at what had been the Alliance Leader.
“Decades upon decades—all of it hollow, and hollow again.”
We instinctively fell back from Cheonma.
The Poison Aura radiating from her was incomparably more intense than yesterday.
Her Internal Force bloomed forth, wrapping around her entire body.
“In the end, when you peel back one layer, humans are just this—no different from beasts. We eat, and eat, until our flesh can no longer move, and then we vanish. The King forgot the Knight; the Knight lost the King.”
Cheonma extended her left hand.
“Eat.”
Kim Gongja opened his mouth and bit down on her hand. Crunch! Blood sprayed. Flesh tore; bone shattered. Cheonma gazed down at the sight of the Martial Alliance Master tearing into his own left hand like a dog, her eyes utterly unmoved.
“Uh… hey.”
Viper staggered forward, aghast.
“Listen. Wait—what are you doing? If you keep this up, you’ll turn into a Hopping Corpse yourself…!”
“Don’t go near him.”
I gripped Viper’s shoulder and held him back.
“What?”
“It’s already over.”
“Over? What do you mean—”
A sound like tearing flesh split the air. A sickening crunch. The whole party flinched at the sheer brutality of it.
When I turned my gaze, Cheonma stood there, her left hand tattered and hanging.
And beside her, the Martial Alliance Master’s headless corpse.
Cheonma had detonated her Internal Force inside his mouth, obliterating his skull from within.
“Huh.”
We all stood speechless.
“Heh… haha… ahahaha.”
Cheonma’s mouth opened in laughter.
“Ahahaha! Heh! Ha—ahahahaha!”
It was Mad Laughter itself.
The blizzard still shrieked down from the cave ceiling. But her laughter devoured it whole, reducing the wind’s roar to a mere whisper beneath her voice. That laugh filled the cavern, echoed off the sky, and gnawed at the very world.
-Zombie. Be careful.
Backhoe Spirit spoke quietly.
-She’s entered Deviation into Demonic Path.
In that moment.
Cheonma turned her head and fixed her gaze upon us. Slowly, a bewitching smile played across her lips. Strange words spilled from the gap between her teeth.
“Ho.”
Goosebumps prickled up my spine.
“Are you assassins of the Righteous Path, come to take this Sovereign?”
Her eyes no longer saw us.
“How delightful. Come then. Let us cross blades and see.”
“Everyone—run!”
At the same moment I shouted, Cheonma’s sword swept through the air. A geyser of blood erupted. It was the Medicine King’s blood. His neck was severed clean; he couldn’t even scream before his legs buckled beneath him.
Instant death.
Seeing our comrade fall before his eyes, Viper finally drew his blade.
“Damn it…!”
My eyes couldn’t trace the sword’s path. No—I couldn’t even see the motion. There was only [Cheonma swinging her sword] and at that identical instant [the Medicine King’s neck split open]. Not the tiniest gap between them.
-She’s lost her mind.
Backhoe Spirit groaned.
-She’s transcended Demonic Transcendence. She’s burned through all her Internal Force, all her True Qi—but now, temporarily, she’s entered the Life-Death Realm. Even if the best version of me came back alive, in ten matches I’d lose four.
This was Cheonma.
Before the Hopping Corpse’s bite had weakened her.
The Greatest Master Under Heaven who once dominated this world.
“How amusing.”
Cheonma hummed to herself.
“Abbot of Shaolin. Did you think such petty tricks could stop this Sovereign? And you, Daoist of Mudang Mountain. Do you truly believe you can bear the weight of the Demonic Sect’s karma?”
Cheonma advanced toward us, step by step.
“Sorrow floods the heavens and submerges Songshan. Resentment blazes across the earth and sets Mudang Mountain aflame. The Demonic Sect is the sky of the martial world, and this Sovereign is the sky of the Demonic Sect. Have you the right to speak of Heaven Beyond Heaven?”
“Damn it!”
Viper raised his blade and charged.
“Sa Wang! Get the Pharmacist out of here!”
They were already on it.
I swept the Pharmacist into my arms and ran. Flight was futile, of course—but we ran anyway. To struggle to the very end. To refuse to accept this finale, this death, as inevitable.
“You won’t do! Wretches of the Righteous Path!”
Cheonma’s laughter chased after us from behind.
“Namgung Woon!”
Once. Twice. Three times.
The clash of steel on steel rang out.
“Where is Namgung Woon!”
And then the sound of blades ceased.
After enduring three exchanges, Viper breathed her last.
“Summon the Elder of the Namgung Clan! Bring forth the Alliance Master! No matter how thick the forest of the martial world grows, no matter how vast the heavens stretch—in this Heaven Beyond Heaven, there is but one who can receive this seat’s blade! Sa Wang! Drag Namgung Woon before me at once!”
The laughter was relentless, clawing.
With every step I fled, her laughter pursued ten steps behind. There was no escaping. At last, when her mad cries clung to my very heels, the Pharmacist in my arms opened her mouth.
“Sa Wang.”
The Pharmacist looked up at me.
“I still believe in you.”
And then.
Something cleaved through us both.
It pierced clean through.
……
The sky tilted. The earth tilted. I lost my footing, lost everything below my waist, and fell into the snow with only my upper body remaining.
Yes.
A white snowy plain.
We had escaped the cave.
……
A short distance away, the Pharmacist lay still. Where she had fallen, the snowy plain was stained vivid red. Shaved ice drowning in strawberry syrup—that was the thought that drifted through my numbed mind.
“Ah-ha-ha. Hee, ha-ha-ha!”
Snow fell silently.
“Uh-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha, ah-ha-ha-ha……”
While the snow fell, sky and earth became one. A dark white. Nothing but a chill, pallid shadow remained visible.
Someone walked away across the snowy plain, their footfalls growing distant.
With each step, the boundary between sky and earth seemed briefly restored. But the blizzard raged without mercy, burying even the last footprints before they could settle.
Soundless.
Traceless.
With no scent at all.
A world that had burned the man. A man burned by the world. So that only the white snowy plain remained, soot erased and buried, leaving only the colorless, odorless, silent blizzard to fall eternally.
The world had reached its end.
[You have died.]
But that alone.
For me, annihilation did not mean the end.
[Regressing 24 hours.]
Now.
Let me save your world.
SSS-Rank: The Hunter Who Must Die to Live (Ongoing)
Author | Shin Noah
Publisher | Kim Joo-hyung
Published by | J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing | Han Jae-hyuk
Address | 204, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul (Guro-dong, Daelyung Post Tower 1)
Email | [email protected]
Website | www.jayplemedia.com
© Shin Noah 2019
※ This work is published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder, and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and author.
Violation of this may result in criminal and civil legal liability.

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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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