The Regressed Martial God Monopolizes Everything - Chapter 7

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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 7. The Debut Stage (1)
Scrape. Scrape.
Beneath the dim glow of a bare bulb, a middle-aged man carved bone with meticulous devotion.
Despite the thickness of his fingers, every stroke of the blade fell with exquisite precision, each incision placed with mathematical care.
The smooth surface gradually transformed into textured scales that seemed to shimmer with living breath.
The carver’s jaw was sharp and angular, his eyes bright with an unwavering lucidity.
After long moments of work, he paused to study his creation.
Crack.
Then, without warning, he crushed it in his fist.
As bone dust scattered, his voice emerged from the haze.
“What is the situation?”
A young man in his mid-twenties, who had been kneeling respectfully before him, spoke with careful deliberation.
“Public sentiment is escalating due to Chae Seung-jin’s blunder. Most reactions are demanding accountability from the Songgwang Guild.”
His name was Chae Mu-hyun.
He was known as the youngest brother of Chae Mu-sik, the patriarch.
Chae Mu-sik turned to his younger brother with a question.
“What of Chae Seung-jin?”
“The fractures can be healed, I’m told, but he suffers nightmares each night. Apparently he cries out the name Jung Hyun-su constantly.”
“Use an Elixir on him. See to it.”
An Elixir was the most potent healing item in existence.
It commanded an astronomical price, and even the top-tier Guilds kept only a handful in reserve—it was worth whatever one asked.
For such a treasure to be deployed without hesitation—perhaps he was a father after all.
“Yes.”
Chae Mu-sik questioned his youngest as he answered.
“What should our next move be?”
“Unless clear evidence of wrongdoing emerges, we shouldn’t put him before the cameras and tarnish Songgwang’s name. Better to send him to our Central and South American or African divisions—shift focus to a leader bearing responsibility on the front lines.”
“Not a bad suggestion. Send him to the Amazon.”
Africa and Central and South America had been impoverished even before the Gates, and now they were hell incarnate.
With Gates that couldn’t be cleared and towers that couldn’t be climbed, these regions had become literal hells on earth.
It was effectively a death sentence, far beyond a mere demotion of the eldest son—yet Chae Mu-hyun’s expression betrayed no flicker of emotion.
“Born as the eldest, granted every advantage until now, and still he failed. Let him face the consequences. Mu-hyun.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“We are alone. Call me Father.”
“Yes, Father.”
Remarkably, Chae Mu-hyun had been Chae Mu-sik’s first legitimate heir.
Yet the man who aspired to the position of guild master had kept this fact utterly concealed, and with the help of the previous chairman, Chae Mu-sik had achieved a strategic marriage to another top-tier Guild, thereby founding what Songgwang was today.
“What should we do regarding Garam?”
The owner of Songgwang posed endless questions to his successors, and for Chae Mu-hyun—treated as an unacknowledged bastard—each question was an opportunity.
Legitimacy.
That legitimacy required three things: vision to read the times, sound judgment, and martial power.
And Chae Seung-jin had lost all credibility in this moment.
The elder son, now burdened with psychological wounds, meant nothing to the owner of Songgwang.
The same was equally true for Chae Mu-hyun.
The fall of the designated successor was his opportunity.
“Garam’s latent strength cannot be ignored. Someday they must be consumed, but now that we’ve given them grounds, aggressive action would backfire.”
“The timing for absorbing Garam requires careful coordination. But not now.”
“Precisely. If it becomes a public matter, we invite complication, and the other top-tier Guilds will circle like vultures.”
Chae Mu-sik studied his son, who was reaching for this unexpected chance.
“I hear five of the top-tier Guilds are about to send their rising stars up the Tower for the first time.”
“You mean to participate?”
“If you grant permission, I will attempt it.”
“Mu-hyun.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Do you know why I carve every day?”
Chae Mu-hyun held his silence.
Then his father’s chest suddenly swelled, and he tore open his shirt.
An unhealed scar crossed his torso, jagged and raw.
“So that I never forget. That Black Dragon. The monster that brought our grandfather and Songgwang to the brink of annihilation. Remember this always.”
Songgwang does not forget its vendetta.
At his father’s invocation of that relentless drive, Chae Mu-hyun lowered his head in silent assent.
* * *
After Chae Kwang-seop left, Jung Hyun-su was dragged into the guild master’s office and couldn’t even sit down.
“Explain yourself.”
“…I saw you were trying to use me to make a fool of Garam, so I simply played along to match your rhythm and respond accordingly.”
Jung Chul watched his son answer with such composure, and his thoughts grew complicated in many ways.
‘He’s changed.’
His son was undoubtedly different now.
“…The words that come from one’s mouth are a mirror that reflects the person, nothing more.”
“My apologies.”
It had become a habit.
From the depths of the hunter world itself, all the way up to Black-listed Hunter status—from that ruined world, his words had grown harsh from fighting tooth and nail just to survive.
Even when he tried to filter his speech consciously, crude remarks would slip out unbidden, and honestly, there was nothing he could do about it.
His father had pointed out his manner of speech, but it revealed a boldness that the son he used to be would never have shown.
“We’ve just received a report that all four limbs are crushed and the spine is damaged. Why did you use such a harsh hand when you should have stopped at an appropriate level?”
“Isn’t it obvious? They brought up Hyun-ah, threatened her, and insulted Garam. Were you expecting me to sit back and accept that?”
“This is outrageous. Since when did you start thinking like this?”
Jung Hyun-ah, who had been summoned as a related party, felt a chill run down her spine at her brother’s words.
Of course, she kept her mouth firmly shut under her father’s disapproving gaze.
After offering his daughter a brief warning, Jung Chul turned his attention back to Jung Hyun-su.
“I know you’ve grown strong through sudden achievement in a short span of time. But even so, to escalate something that could have stopped at an appropriate level—that’s clearly problematic.”
“What problem are you talking about? When you’re facing someone with a blade, you have to crush them completely so there’s no aftermath, don’t you?”
“If you’d already secured everything from the video in the first place, there would have been no need to go that far. I’m not asking you to be a sage. But there was no reason to do that—not to Songgwang’s eldest son, and certainly not to the other mid-tier guild children who followed him.”
Jung Hyun-su had lived as a Black-listed Hunter.
Brutal, kill-or-be-killed. Accustomed to that life, Jung Hyun-su couldn’t agree with his father’s values.
But he didn’t argue back.
Apart from showing respect to his father, it ultimately came down to a matter of personal values.
It was true that Jung Hyun-su had caused problems for the guild.
Whether he had handled it well or poorly, Jung Chul, as Garam’s guild master, had his own principles for how he wanted the guild to be run.
“This time, things ended dramatically, but if something like this happens again, you’ll consult with your father. At least when it comes to guild matters, it’s only right that I, as guild master, know about them. Isn’t that so?”
“Yes, I understand.”
Jung Hyun-su answered surprisingly concisely.
He understood that when issues arose, consultation was necessary.
Seeing his son accept this so readily, Jung Chul asked gently.
“What do you think will happen now?”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s your mess. Surely you should make some prediction about what comes of it, shouldn’t you?”
Jung Hyun-su wet his lips slightly.
“Honestly, will there be a real problem from the guild’s perspective? They’ll treat it as an individual’s deviation, we’ll receive an apology and come out ahead. If we get Gate-conquest priority rights from Songgwang and a few profitable Gates transferred to us, that’s the end of it, isn’t it?”
“Do you think it ends there?”
“…The gap between the public and private sentiment is different from human will and greed.”
Officially, this incident would be smoothed over, but Songgwang would never forget it, and it had now been proven that they were definitely targeting Garam.
It was surprisingly accurate insight.
That son of his, who used to shut himself in a room lamenting his innate talents, jealous of his younger brother, clutching photographs of women while wasting away his days—could this really be the same person? Such a realistic conclusion.
It was impressive.
“Understood. You’re dismissed for now. You too, Hyun-ah.”
“Yes.”
As the siblings turned to leave, Jung Chul added one more thing to their retreating backs.
“Look after your younger brother going forward.”
“Huh?”
Jung Hyun-ah was startled, and Jung Hyun-su’s face went blank.
“That said, you have to look after yourself too. Train hard. Don’t let someone like Chae Seung-jin intimidate you.”
“What? You want to go a round?”
The night deepened.
* * *
In the corridor leading from the guild master’s office back to the residence, Jung Hyun-ah watched her brother trudging forward without any pretense of dignity.
“I’m grateful anyway.”
Jung Hyun-su stopped and turned his head.
“For what?”
“Well, you did help me out either way.”
“I merely cleaned up the mess I made.”
“But how did you pull it off?”
Though she’d given her father a rough outline, the method of obtaining that footage was something Jung Hyun-ah found genuinely puzzling.
“Nothing special. I just took the original from that bastard’s villa and handed it over to the press.”
“Wait—you can actually do that?”
Jung Hyun-su, recognized by his father as having reached the seventh star of the Hwan Cheon Jin Gi.
Yet acquiring an object was one thing; crushing Songgwang Guild’s influence and winning a media battle by countering their moves was something else entirely, wasn’t it?
“Journalists live on money and scoops. Songgwang isn’t the only Top-tier Guild—Garam is too. Since we threw the first punch, they’ll come knocking at the PR office asking for material soon enough. Once I wire the payment, that’s the end of it.”
“Wow… sounds like you belong in strategic planning.”
“You should start learning that side of things too.”
“What?”
“A Successor needs to think about management as well.”
Jung Hyun-ah’s face went blank.
When had Jung Hyun-su begun so openly showing his inferiority complex toward Jung Hyun-ah, who always pushed forward?
Wasn’t the root of that resentment ultimately his desire to become Garam’s Successor?
“…Me?”
“Yeah, you. So once you finish the practical exam for Garam, buckle down on management coursework too. Obviously you’ll still grind through your training. Mastering O Wang Mu is it—we’re not falling behind the other Top-tier Guilds after this.”
Then, with a cynical air, he turned on his heel and strode away, a blood relative suddenly distant.
“What did I… do wrong?”
As Jung Hyun-su vanished, the scene of him effortlessly dismantling Chae Seung-jin and his gang flashed through Jung Hyun-ah’s mind.
It was nothing she’d ever expected to see.
She’d thought he was simply acting recklessly with raw force—but that wasn’t it at all.
Jung Hyun-su had handled everything perfectly, saved Garam, and even extracted gains from Songgwang in the process.
Rather than return to her room, Jung Hyun-ah headed straight for the private training hall.
And there, she spotted another training room with its lights on.
Jung Hyun-su’s private training room—which had never been lit after sunset until now.
‘I won’t lose either.’
A mysterious competitive fire kindled in Jung Hyun-ah as she began loading weight onto the empty bar at the squat rack.
To be continued ▶
Monopoly of the Returning Martial God
Author
Cheon Ya
Publishers
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Inquiries [email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260515012
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction and duplication are prohibited.
Violations may result in criminal and civil legal liability.
※ Pentagram is waiting for your precious manuscript.

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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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