SSS-Class Sui**de Hunter - Chapter 75

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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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Chapter 75. Song of Light and Shadow (1)
1.
“The Macheonshin Technique originally contains nine branches of the blade.”
After witnessing my Biwu, the Heavenly Demon offered her critique.
“The Asayugeom you demonstrated is the first form. You knew as much, I’m sure.”
“Yes.”
“After the form of Asayugeom comes the Galsaui Sik.”
Galsaui—thirst.
“Thirst, then.”
“Indeed. Young thing from beyond the seas. You performed the Asayugeom passably well. So if you devote yourself to training, you might become a fine demon cultivator…….”
“Hold on a moment.”
Snap.
I raised my hand.
“Please wait.”
I couldn’t help myself—I had to stop her. The woman sitting cross-legged before me was trying to glide over this explanation like a snake slipping over a stone wall, but that wall, from where I was standing, looked a touch too high.
“…What is it.”
“What did you just say? ‘Passably well’?”
The Heavenly Demon pressed her lips together.
“Hmm, that’s strange. I thought I did quite well, actually. So to the Heavenly Demon, I was only passable…ah, my apologies. My pride just evaporated and my confidence drained away. You know that feeling when your spirit just dies.”
“You insolent child…….”
The Heavenly Demon’s mouth twitched.
“…Very well, I concede. You performed the Asayugeom with considerable skill. But don’t go about boasting elsewhere that you’ve mastered the Macheonshin Technique.”
“Pardon? What? ‘Considerable skill’?”
“Are you mocking me with wordplay!”
the Heavenly Demon said.
“Would I need to bow my head and offer you formal apologies before you’d be satisfied? You truly know no measure, child! Fine—you shall be the master, and I shall be the disciple.”
Okay. I had the fish on the line.
I played it cool, like a fisherman waiting for the catch.
“Ah, so you’re saying I’ve been recognized as your disciple? Is that right? Not an outer disciple—I’m the disciple. Your true, genuine, direct successor.”
“…….”
This time too, the Heavenly Demon didn’t answer immediately.
One second. Two seconds.
After a slight pause, her lips finally opened slowly.
“Cease such nonsense, child. I shall impart my teachings from this moment on, so pay close attention.”
Hmm.
‘Just as I thought.’
The Heavenly Demon had just forced herself to ignore what I’d said. Force comes from stubbornness, and stubbornness springs from the heart. I could sense exactly where her true feelings hesitated.
‘She won’t say the words to take me as her disciple, not even if it kills her.’
The bond between master and disciple.
The Heavenly Demon had already marked me as her disciple in her heart. Yet even so, she absolutely refused to speak those words aloud: “I accept you as my disciple.”
Though I often didn’t notice it while trading barbs with the Backhoe Spirit.
For the Heavenly Demon—for the people of the Gangho—the bond between master and disciple carried such weight.
‘A heavy bond can sometimes become a terrifying one.’
And so the woman of the Demon Cult did not declare a master-disciple relationship.
She hesitated.
About me—a person she’d met for the first time, a child not even from the Central Plains Murim. Could she truly allow such a child to enter her heart?
Could she dare to hope for something more in life?
So Baek-hyang, the Heavenly Demon and leader of the Demon Cult, remained caught between doubt and uncertainty.
“Listen well. If you’ve already deployed the Asayugeom to that degree, then you’ve at least earned the right to eavesdrop on our teachings and steal our secrets. However…….”
Though her outward demeanor was utterly impassive.
‘Character Profile.’
What my eyes perceived of her true heart was entirely different.
+
Name: So Baek-hyang (蕭白香)
Favorability: 51
Preferred Genre: [Martial Arts]
Disliked Genre: [Classical], [Mythology], [History], [Fairy Tale]
Preferred Character Type: [Commoner], [Rival]
Disliked Character Type: [Oppressor], [Deceiver], [Vagrant]
Preferred Plot: [All-Out Confrontation]
Negative Plot: [Escape], [Oblivion], [Meaningless Death]
Psychological State: ‘A disciple? Perhaps I too must make a decision…. No, wait. Such thoughts are shameful! I should be content with my showdown against Namgung Un. To speak of taking a disciple now, when life has already reached its twilight—that is greed. Ugly, senile greed.’
+
Yes.
I smiled inwardly.
‘Please, keep worrying.’
The Heavenly Demon’s turmoil.
It was a green light for me.
‘Shake yourself deeper still.’
After all, I was the one who had presented her with this crossroads.
Continue hopelessly onward with the Alliance leader in the Righteous-Demonic Great Confrontation? Or take a disciple, ensuring the Demon Cult’s teachings pass to the next generation.
Which path truly offered escape from [Meaningless Death]?
‘Please, do not let your life slip away like this.’
Words are light.
Empty.
Light words can only bind light people—which is to say, they bind no one at all.
That is not responsibility; that is the absence of it.
‘Live.’
How hollow it sounds.
‘Even if the world crumbled and you alone remained in the Murim, I would still wish for your survival. I would still hope you would go on.’
No amount of stacked words could give such a sentence weight.
‘I hope that I might become a reason—however small—for you to live a little longer.’
Hollow words. All of it hollow.
I did not speak these words aloud.
The Heavenly Demon’s silence on declaring the Saje bond mirrored my own.
The lightness of words can only be pressed down by the heaviness of deeds. Only then do they not blow away.
Neither the Heavenly Demon nor I had yet made the effort to put our true thoughts into words.
“The time for resolve has not yet come.”
This was what the Heavenly Demon thought inwardly.
‘I have not yet drawn out her determination.’
This was what I thought in the privacy of my mind.
“…….”
“…….”
The Heavenly Demon and I faced each other.
“Little one of the outer territories, your eyes lack focus. Are you truly listening to what I say?”
“Yes.”
I was watching carefully.
“Of course I’m concentrating. What do you mean?”
“This is no jest—I speak in earnest.”
“Then naturally I swear it. To the Jade Emperor or King Yama, to whoever you wish.”
We exchanged glances. Unlike hands that meet cleanly, glances overlap even as they pass by each other. In that way, a glance resembles the human heart.
After crossing paths several times, the Heavenly Demon finally spoke.
“Good. Such confidence—you are ready for the next trial.”
The Heavenly Demon rose to her feet, eyes clearing.
She departed in a sudden leap.
“Do not follow. I move with haste.”
With only those words, she went. The Heavenly Demon crossed the Snowy Plains, yet her footprints left no mark upon the snow. Only her slender shadow skimmed across the ice. Dapseolmuhun—the very technique spoken of on my first day in this world, she was now demonstrating.
It was then.
-I want to fight.
Backhoe Spirit spoke abruptly.
-Even just one bout. I want to settle it. I’m serious.
I turned to the side without thinking.
‘What?’
-Did salt get stuck in your ear? I’m saying I want to have a Biwu, a martial match.
And then, for the first time, I witnessed Backhoe Spirit making such an expression.
-Damn it. Damn it all, damn it!
The Sword Emperor was genuinely seething with frustration.
-Do you know, Zombie? In the Murim world where I was born, the Demon Cult was pathetically weak! The only joy I had was crushing those Demon Cult lackeys! Oh, there was someone playing at being the Heavenly Demon, but the moment I drove that bastard’s ass into the ground, I changed his nameplate to Earth Demon! Damn! Among the countless trash calling themselves grand heroes of the Gangho, I’ve made hundreds change their surnames! God, really!
It was different.
Not the face he’d worn when he lost our wager.
Back then, he’d thrashed about in frustration too… but the expression Backhoe Spirit wore now
was entirely different. “If it were me, you know what I’d do? Fight a death-match right here and now! Figure out whose death it really is—mine or yours—and settle it clean! Then climb some random Snow Peak, crack open a bowl of wine, chew on a salted radish, and—ah! That’s the real taste of looking down at Gangho from above!”
was far more fierce.
Sheer competitive hunger. The drive to prove himself. Raw, unforgiving will.
His face had come alive like raw meat freshly cut.
“If only I weren’t a ghost! If only!”
I held my silence.
…
Without quite realizing it, I’d fallen into thought. I bowed my head, propping my chin on my hand. My skull was already crowded with thinking; the hand was just there to support the weight.
“What, Zombie? Why do you look so worried nobody’s calling you Zombie anymore? The boss started calling you something else and now you’re pouting about it. Should I just go with Zombie-sparrow?”
“…That’s it.”
“Huh?”
“That’s exactly it.”
I lifted my head abruptly.
“The boss makes an antidote to the plague. I get recognized as a formal disciple of the Heavenly Demon. It’s all good. All of it is good, but… I felt like something was still missing. A finale, you might say? And just now, you delivered the final piece.”
“Uh…”
“Nice play. Well done, Backhoe Spirit.”
I laughed—a sharp, clean sound.
For no reason I could name, Backhoe Spirit took a step backward.
“Why are you like that?”
“It’s nothing… just… every time you make that face, calamity comes crashing down on me. My luck sours. Something happens that tarnishes my honor and standing.”
“But I respect you so deeply. You know my heart.”
“I’m grateful. So now I’m at the point where I should just spit on that face of yours?”
“Mm.”
I clasped my hands behind my back and gazed at the distant sky.
“There’s a debt between us that we never settled.”
“…”
Backhoe Spirit froze.
“A debt? What debt? I’ve never lived a day in my life owing anything to anyone. Pfah—this fool’s trying to work some sorcery with his mouth again. Don’t do that. Oy! You’ll hurt yourself!”
“[Let’s bet on how many times I die pushing to level 19.]”
“…”
“You bet I’d die less than 100 times. I bet I’d die 99 times or fewer.”
“No…”
“Isn’t that right?”
My smile grew a touch warmer.
“No, but when was that…?”
“Unless my memory’s completely gone, the bet ended at 97 deaths, didn’t it?”
“…”
“And unless my math’s completely failed me, 97 is less than 99. Right?”
“…”
“Backhoe Spirit.”
“Why do you keep putting me on the spot like this…?”
“I need a favor from you.”
Backhoe Spirit’s face crumpled.
“Fine, you damned creature. Do what you will—break me, kill me, decide for yourself…”
It was total surrender.
2
The Heavenly Demon returned.
She’d crossed the Snowy Plains alone; she crossed back with company. She carried a zombie on her shoulders—dressed in a Black Martial Robe, just like the palm-strike zombie before.
“Our Cult maintains a unit called the Blood Ghosts—an elite division composed solely of assassins. They are the pinnacle of combat specialists, existing only to execute the Lord’s will.”
In other words: my second sparring partner.
I picked up the Holy Sword and took my stance.
“Last time it was a promising prospect. This time an elite killer? The difficulty’s ramping up fast.”
“Don’t worry. The Lord herself found an opponent suited exactly to your level.”
Surely the Heavenly Demon had truly searched the Snowy Plains for an adversary precisely calibrated to me—sifting through hundreds of zombies, examining each one carefully.
It was thoughtfulness with heart behind it.
It was care that had cost her effort.
I accepted it gratefully as a form of praise.
“What you must demonstrate today is no different from this morning. You will face a Gangshi Byeong, but…”

“My heart must hold only one thing: thirst. The pain of thirst alone.”
“Hmm.”
The Heavenly Demon smiled.
“Well spoken. I will not permit any emotion or thought but thirst to take root in your being!”
“Gladly!”
I charged forward with eager abandon.
“This time, I’ll show you something special…….”
[You have died.]
[Reverting to 24 hours ago.]
“…Damn it, she’s strong! Hell!”
I had shown her something, all right.
The fastest death scene in the universe.
Blast it.
“Pharmacist, Medicine King—keep proceeding with your zombie virus treatment research like this…….”
“Goodness! It’s as though this were my own research! No—it’s like you’ve taken my work, dressed it up beautifully, given it a Count’s title, and organized it so perfectly that it looks almost formal, as if I’d received the Count’s title myself!”
“What is this? That upstart Four Kings kid—are you from Silicon Valley too? The organization here looks exactly like how I would’ve laid it out…….”
First, I updated the treatment research results, as I had done each time before.
“Baekgweihwansaeng!”
This time as well, I decided to lock myself away on the Snow Mountain for closed-door training.
It was the same as before—summoning the Hungry Ghosts and skeletons, ordering them to collect corpses in death. The only difference was asking them to bring back thirsty corpses rather than starving ones; the orders were otherwise much the same.
“Scatter. Scatter and gather the thirsty corpses.”
“Yes, my lord. We shall obey your command.”
But.
“There is one more task I have for you.”
This was where things diverged from last time.
The Hungry Ghost tilted its head in confusion.
“A task, my lord?”
“There should be martial corpses scattered about the region—countless numbers of them.”
I wasn’t speaking of the “forest of corpses” I’d witnessed the moment I fell into this world. Over the past three years, the Heavenly Demon and the leader of the Righteous Martial Arts Alliance had waged a lonely war with each other, and in the chaos of it, they’d gradually lost corpses one by one.
When the blizzard howled for days without ceasing. When the nights grew so long that daylight never came. In those times, both the Demon Cult and the righteous sects had slowly leaked forces—people who vanished.
The martial corpses I now spoke of were these “missing persons.”
“Find them.”
I said it plainly.
“Search for the demons in Black Martial Robes. Search for the righteous warriors in White Martial Robes. Whether it takes a hundred leagues or three hundred—unleash the skeletons and find them without fail……. Better yet, create a map. Mark every location where the martial corpses are positioned.”
The Hungry Ghost wore a puzzled expression.
“And what use have you for these lives, my lord……?”
“Two people are still waging war in a world that has met annihilation. They want a proper conclusion, a proper ending. But sadly, from what I see, it’s merely a pathetic child’s game of soldiers.”
I looked up at the night sky.
The moon hung there.
“If they’re going to see it through to the end, then I’ll give them a real war to show for it.”
“A real war, you say?”
“That’s right.”
A smile spread across my face unbidden.
It felt like becoming Santa Claus, preparing a Christmas gift.
“I’ll prepare a proper Righteous-Demonic Great War.”
SSS-Rank: The Hunter Who Must Die to Live (Serial Publication)
Author │ Shin No-ah
Publisher │ Kim Ju-hyung
Published by │ J Plus Media Co., Ltd.
Marketing │ Han Jae-hyuk
Address │ 204 Daelung Post Tower 1st, 288 Digital-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul
Email │ [email protected]
Website │ www.jayplemedia.com
©Shin No-ah 2019
※This work has been published by J Plus Media Co., Ltd. in accordance with a contract with the copyright holder. No part of this content may be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the 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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