The Regressed Martial God Monopolizes Everything - Chapter 76
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Episode 76. Bait (3)
Jeong Hyun-ah was living through the most grueling ordeal of her life.
“Uugh…….”
Groans escaped unbidden. Even breathing alone left her gasping against waves of pain that felt like her entire body was tearing apart.
Damn him!
“Looks like you’re improving. Let’s add weight to your ankles this time.”
Despite her body bearing not a single unmarked inch from head to toe, Jeong Hyun-soo pressed forward without mercy.
And yet Jeong Hyun-ah clenched her teeth and fastened a hundred-kilogram Protection Gear around each ankle.
She couldn’t tell if this was protective equipment or a slave’s shackle.
‘He wears the same thing.’
Knowing that Jeong Hyun-soo bore identical weights constantly, she resolved never to utter a word of complaint.
Splash.
In the meantime, Jeong Hyun-soo was mixing the medicines he’d procured and pouring them into a bathtub.
A tub pulled into the center of the Training Ground, now filled with accelerants for recovery.
Each substance was staggeringly expensive.
The Etherion Bath—high-purity magical power crystal distillate combined with Leviathan bone marrow extract and neural resonance catalysts.
Jeong Hyun-soo lifted Jeong Hyun-ah and submerged her in the tub.
“Huh?”
The numbing sensation that had been wracking her entire body dulled. Simultaneously, the searing pain from blood vessels damaged by overexertion faded rapidly.
“…What is this?”
“Something that exists.”
Each session of the Etherion Bath alone cost upward of two billion won.
But Jeong Hyun-soo invested without hesitation.
It wasn’t mere debt of conscience. Jeong Hyun-ah possessed value. That was why he invested.
He’d billed the costs to Jeong Cheol, securing full support in exchange for awakening the Heavenly Tyrant Return King Martial Art.
Gulp.
And then there was the Redline Serum—a concentrated oral tonic entering Jeong Hyun-ah’s mouth.
An elixir that accelerated muscle recovery.
Crafted from fire-attribute herb Ignis Root, powdered Drake adrenal gland crystals, and enzymes derived from phoenix feathers.
“This actually tastes good?”
“Drink more and your liver and stomach will suffer damage. You’ll develop dependency.”
“What kind of insane—?”
“To achieve rapid effects, you accept the risks. Just stick to the dosage and you’ll be fine.”
“So I use the Heavenly Tyrant Return King Martial Art before the side effects kick in, right?”
“That’s right.”
Jeong Hyun-ah felt her body recovering at accelerating speed. Fatigue didn’t touch her.
“Get out.”
Jeong Hyun-soo channeled Hwan Cheon Ki through Jeong Hyun-ah’s body to diagnose her condition, confirmed the recovery, and had her emerge.
Muscles that had been damaged rapidly now strengthened through rapid regeneration.
“Huh? Did my stats go up?”
“Yes. So we continue.”
Under Jeong Hyun-soo’s instruction, Jeong Hyun-ah persisted in attempting to master the incantations of the Heavenly Tyrant Return King Martial Art.
Difficult. Of course. He offered no profound enlightenment through words alone.
Instead, he provided constant feedback—catching wavering breath and posture, correcting her clumsy application of the incantations moment by moment.
She collapsed and rose again, then plunged her body into another elixir. Upon waking, she threw another punch.
The high sun set, night descended, moonlight yielded to dawn, and time ticked onward.
Then came a certain day.
Boom!
Jeong Hyun-ah’s eyes widened at the warm rush of pleasure emanating from her fist.
“See? Did you see it?”
Faint and momentary, it erupted and vanished—but unmistakably, a scarlet aura.
“Focus. Feel that sensation and make it your own.”
Jeong Hyun-ah extended her fist. At precisely the right moment, Jeong Hyun-soo removed the Protection Gear from her wrists.
Boom!
Her strike grew sharper. The scarlet aura strengthened.
Intensified power tore through the air.
Boom!
The Protection Gear came off her ankles. With her lower body freed, her muscle control and weight distribution became unrestricted in ways they hadn’t been before.
Crash!
Rapture flashed across Jeong Hyun-ah’s eyes.
[You have acquired the Heavenly Tyrant Return King Martial Art.]
“Kiyah!”
Jeong Hyun-ah cried out at the status message that materialized before her eyes, and her body crumpled.
Having poured everything into it and reached her limit, she collapsed naturally the moment she achieved her goal.
“You did well.”
Jeong Cheol, who arrived before Jeong Hyun-soo, caught his daughter in his arms, his voice warm beyond measure.
Though Jeong Hyun-soo had pretended not to notice, he was well aware that Jeong Cheol had been watching over them whenever time allowed.
“It was nothing.”
“No, not you.”
Jeong Hyun-soo’s expression turned sheepish.
“I put in considerable effort with the teaching, sir.”
Hyun-ah did suffer more, that’s true.
“Well…”
Jeong Hyun-soo gave a modest shrug of his shoulders. As Jeong Cheol walked away carrying Jeong Hyun-ah, he spoke casually.
“Tell me—is being an older brother wearing you down?”
“Well, I mean…”
“There may be those who never acknowledge what you do. And yet.”
Jeong Cheol paused for a moment, then spoke again.
“It looks good to me.”
Then Jeong Cheol moved on.
Jeong Hyun-soo watched his receding figure quietly.
A thought struck him suddenly.
‘I’m glad I regressed.’
He didn’t know what price he might have to pay for this regression to the past, but for now, he liked the way things were changing.
“Ah, I’m broke again.”
Jeong Hyun-ah’s awakening of the Heavenly Tyrant Return King Martial Art wasn’t funded by Jeong Cheol’s money alone.
He had poured his own savings, earned through the rewards he’d accumulated, into it as well.
But he could always earn more. The value of the information he monopolized was endless, after all.
* * *
Jeong Su-jin’s endless waiting had finally come to an end.
“…And here I thought you’d keep pestering me about it.”
“I thought I’d given you enough time, but who could have guessed you’d suddenly get inspired in the meantime? It’s all thanks to your genius.”
“Is that praise or an apology?”
At Jeong Su-jin’s words, Jeong Hyun-soo produced the food he’d prepared.
Kimchi stew, stir-fried kimchi, spiced beef bulgogi, red chili paste stew, and separately grilled pork belly over rice.
“This is the apology, and you being a genius is the praise. Or wait—if I’m just stating the obvious, is it just reporting facts?”
“If that’s all you can manage, fine.”
Though it had been a while since they’d met, Jeong Su-jin picked up her chopsticks, impressed that Jeong Hyun-soo hadn’t forgotten their agreement.
“Ahh, now this is the taste.”
Seongso had its merits, but food rationing was a problem.
Seuil was an advanced intelligent being who didn’t need to eat at all, and Oil was an orc who found everything delicious regardless.
“Next time I have extra trophies, I’ll allocate cooking equipment and such.”
“The budget’s tight.”
“But we have to eat to survive!”
“Just come out here and eat. It’s more efficient.”
It was undeniably true.
“Carry in a lot of supplies when you go back in.”
“…Damn it.”
“Just hold on until Seon Woo-hyun falls apart.”
Jeong Su-jin sighed inwardly.
She would of course endure until that day came. But whether that day would actually arrive was another matter entirely.
“Anyway, creating something better than the existing AMP—that’s monumental. We can deal another serious blow to the Association.”
When it came to weapons against enemies, the more and the more varied, the better.
“So what’s the plan now?”
“We’ve had time to consolidate internally, so we go after Song Gwang first.”
“Song Gwang? Can we do it?”
“We’ll make it possible.”
“How?”
“I’m quite fortunate, you see. So I know Song Gwang’s fatal weakness and what they’re currently doing.”
Jeong Hyun-soo knew about the Geumgang Bulkwae experiments that Chae Mu-hyun at Song Gwang was obsessed with.
A secret laboratory operated by Chae Mu-hyun. It was an unethical space where not only captured Beasts were brought in, but human subjects as well.
If there was any risk of exposure, the place would be immediately dismantled.
“…He runs something like that?”
“Human greed knows no bounds.”
If Jeong Hyun-soo was right, the matter was gravely serious.
Jeong Su-jin, who had been forcibly seized by Seon Woo-hyun and exploited all this time, felt rage boiling up inside her.
“A man who already has everything he could want, and still…”
The real question was where it was located. As she thought of those who might even now be ground through human experimentation, her heart grew troubled.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know either.”
“…?”
“That’s why I’m watching for bait.”
Chae Mu-hyun’s laboratory had evolved into something closer to alchemy using human subjects.
And Chae Mu-hyun had been searching far and wide for Hunters with diverse constitutions and Traits.
He recruited them with unusually favorable terms—no poison clauses, no real restrictions, and freedom to leave the guild whenever they wished.
Naive Hunters, tempted by the contract, would leave for what they were told was new recruit training, and then vanish.
Shortly after, they’d be announced as casualties. In a massive guild like Song Gwang, which was always at the front lines of Gate expeditions, no one thought to question it.
‘It was only a matter of time before a new Hunter with a Trait interesting enough to catch Chae Mu-hyun’s attention would surface.’
Regeneration.
Chae Mu-hyun, who had always sought an indestructible body, was seized by greed at the thought of what might happen if such a body were also given the gift of super-regeneration.
So Jeong Hyun-soo moved first.
He had a rather capable intelligence officer attached to him for precisely this reason.
* * *
“Ugh, it’s freezing.”
Kim Chun-sik gazed out at the snow-covered wasteland where a bitter wind howled.
Vladivostok, a port city in Russia’s Far East.
Located at the eastern edge of Siberia—one of the Five Great Demon Realms, which had transformed into a land of perpetual, extreme cold—Kim Chun-sik was here because of Jeong Hyun-soo.
He’d been asked to find a certain Hunter.
When he asked why, he was told the man was the key to dismantling Song Gwang.
Jeong Hyun-soo had ordered Kim Chun-sik to conduct real-time surveillance himself.
And he’d witnessed something rather extraordinary.
“Hah, this guy’s insane.”
A young man named Ivan Mikhailovich Dracov.
Unremarkable in build. Not particularly sharp in intellect. In fact, testing had been conducted, and the youth was suspected of borderline intelligence—simple and innocent.
Ivan Mikhailovich Dracov—Kim Chun-sik called him Imdra—was supporting no fewer than five younger siblings.
And the secret to doing so lay in his practice of setting out before dawn each day.
His hands would freeze solid. He wore no gloves.
Just as he sensed the numbing cold beginning to paralyze his function, he’d finally thrust his hands into his trouser pockets.
And then they’d recover completely.
After repeating this enough times that even Kim Chun-sik’s spine grew numb, they’d arrive at the hunting grounds.
Snarl!
Starting with wolves, he’d charge at Beasts—leopards, bears, tigers—without hesitation.
He fought while being mauled, teeth sinking into his flesh.
Blood would spray, and when it seemed he faced certain death from sheer exhaustion, this mad Mikhailovich would simply rise and fight again.
The torn wounds had healed. He was like a zombie with broken limbs restored.
So he’d keep attacking until the powerful Beast exhausted itself to death.
Eventually the depleted Beast would fall, and he’d collect the Mana Stones and hides he needed.
And remarkably, the recipient of these goods was—
“It’s actually Song Gwang, isn’t it?”
Today, specifically, it was Chae Mu-hyun of Song Gwang.
The heir of a top-ten guild, feigning ignorance, offered generous prices to a simple Russian youth in exchange for a bear’s gall bladder. Then he made a subtle proposal.
“I’ve long heard tales of your abilities, but seeing you today, I’m truly impressed. Russia is a cold place. Do you intend to raise your siblings here?
If you come with me, your siblings can live in Korea under very comfortable circumstances. I’ll support their education and help with their settlement.”
“Eh… Me?”
Chae Mu-hyun smiled gently, looking like a decent man to anyone observing.
For Ivan, it was a far too sweet offer to refuse.
To be continued ▶
The Regressed Martial God Monopolizes All
Author
Cheon Ya
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Contact: [email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260515012
※ This e-book is protected by copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and copying are prohibited.
Violation of these terms may result in criminal and civil liability.
※ Pentagram welcomes precious manuscripts from authors.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————