The Reincarnated Hunter Sweeps Up All Fortunes - Chapter 24

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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 24
24
The Demon-Possessed Being’s body, swollen like a balloon, exploded.
Boom!
Flesh and bone fragments sprayed in all directions, flying like shrapnel and embedding themselves in the bodies of Vagabond Association members and Demon-Possessed Beings fighting nearby.
“Gahhh!”
“Ugh!”
The Vagabond Association members staggered as flesh fragments struck them. Those closest to the exploded creature took bone shards to the eyes and throat, collapsing in fountains of blood.
Even at considerable distance, Im Gang caught fragments of bone.
Without the Bronze Body Technique and Heavenly Silkworm Armor, it would have been catastrophic.
No—
It already was catastrophic. The momentum had completely shifted. The Vagabond Association members had lost their nerve.
Naturally.
If there existed anyone who could watch a person explode before their eyes without breaking, that person wasn’t human—they were just another Demon-Possessed Being.
“This… this can’t be happening…!”
“Fighting Demon-Possessed Beings is suicide!”
The Vagabond Association members’ sword hands trembled. Their feet shuffled backward hesitantly. Their eyes widened with terror.
Frightened and losing their edge, they fought poorly. Meanwhile, the Demon-Possessed Beings, still immune to pain, pressed forward without mercy.
“Choke!”
The Vagabond Association members began falling one by one.
Even the notorious members of the Vagabond Association were no different. No matter how infamous, how savage and ruthless—before the “real thing,” they were nothing.
Even those with eyes rolled back in madness had apparently never witnessed a person explode; terror consumed them.
“Everyone, get ahold of yourselves!”
“Damn it! The Cliff is behind us! If you don’t want to die, fight!”
A few who still clung to reason shouted, but the tide did not turn. Too much had changed for any reversal now.
“Kyaahhh!”
The Demon-Possessed Beings continued driving the Vagabond Association members back.
Im Gang desperately threw Flying Blades, targeting the creatures’ joints.
He wanted to kill them outright, but if they exploded again, there would be no solution.
Immobilizing them was the best strategy.
Then, at some moment—
‘…Wait?’
The Demon-Possessed Beings stopped exploding when they died. He couldn’t say why. But the uncertainty of whether they might explode at any moment created inner conflict.
Meanwhile, the Flying Blades were exhausted except for the Silver Lotus Bi.
‘Damn. No choice.’
His flesh crawled at the thought of another explosion, but there was no retreating without fighting.
Any further retreat meant the Cliff.
His right hand grasped not a blade, but a sword.
Ring!
The Demon-Subduing Vampire Sword slid free from its scabbard. A cool blade-gleam flickered through the darkness.
The moment he drew the sword, Im Gang felt it intuitively.
‘…This is it.’
The Demon-Slaying Blood Scripture Sword.
The Ascendant Sword Technique he had registered as a Skill—despite practicing forms for days, it had shown zero progress.
Now, in this moment.
When he drew the sword and unleashed the art against the Demon-Possessed Being, his body understood.
Not his mind, but his body.
‘So this is when you’re meant to use it.’
He charged at the nearest Demon-Possessed Being, drawing Inner Force from his dantian and channeling it into the blade.
There was no form to it.
He hadn’t grasped the underlying principles of the Demon-Slaying Blood Scripture Sword.
He simply cut.
Slash!
The creature’s neck severed.
Ding!
[Your Ascendant Sword Technique: Demon-Slaying Blood Scripture Sword Skill has advanced to First Stage.]
‘Done!’
The Demon-Slaying Blood Scripture Sword, which had shown no progress before, rose to First Stage.
A faint warmth spread through his sword hand.
The blade of the Demon-Subduing Vampire Sword felt a subtle change as well. Before, it had merely been a well-honed iron sword, but now it clung to his hand as if alive.
He bolted toward the next Demon-Possessed Being.
Slice—!
[Proficiency with certain skills has increased.]
‘So “slay demons” really meant kill those bastards who’d learned Demonic Arts!’
It was true—the blade’s mastery rose when he slew demons, wrote scripture in their blood, and repented the karma of killing. The legend held weight.
Absurd as it was, it was undeniably good.
The proficiency that wouldn’t budge an inch no matter how hard he trained began responding like madness before these creatures.
The Demon-Slaying Blood Scripture Sword was finally living up to its name.
And there was something else.
Every time he cut down a Demon-Possessed Being with the Demon-Subduing Vampire Sword, power surged through his body in the strangest way.
‘Could this blade actually be drinking their blood?’
His Appraisal Skill was too low-level to reveal the item’s full information.
He couldn’t be certain it was truly vampiric, but the sensation of vitality flooding back into him was unmistakable.
Soon he noticed something stranger still: Demon-Possessed Beings cut by the Demon-Slaying Blood Scripture Sword couldn’t get up, even from wounds that shouldn’t have been fatal.
A shoulder slash and they collapsed.
A leg grazed and their entire body convulsed, paralyzed.
‘Subduing and slaying—the names really did mean…’
Bend them, then cut them down.
As Buddhist martial arts, these weapons disrupted the flow of Demonic Arts itself.
The Demon-Slaying Blood Scripture Sword and the Demon-Subduing Vampire Sword.
In the moment he confirmed these two were natural predators to the possessed, he understood.
Im Gang’s true power awakened.
The number of Demon-Possessed Beings plummeted. The Vagabonds who’d been cowering regained their nerve at the sight of falling enemies and charged in with blades drawn.
The kill-confirmation fell to the Vagabonds—severing the necks of the fallen and thrusting their blades through to finish them.
Just as momentum began turning in their favor.
Three healthy Demon-Possessed Beings suddenly began swelling their bodies in unison.
“…Damn it all—!”
They could detonate themselves at will.
Now he realized the one from before had burst from its own choice as well.
Before Im Gang could even move to stop them.
Boom—! Boom—! Boom—!
All three erupted at once.
The shockwave spread in all directions, and the Vagabonds scattered like leaves in wind.
Im Gang was driven backward.
Without the Heavenly Silkworm Armor and the Bronze Body Technique, his entire frame would have been riddled like a honeycomb with bone fragments.
Even so, the blast knocked him flying, and his skull cracked against the earth.
‘Ugh—!’
His vision spun and blurred. Through the haze, he counted the surviving Vagabonds—barely a handful, including himself.
The Demon-Possessed Beings had been thinned too.
But though their joints were severed, slowing them, they could still move.
“Damnable Demonic Arts… you lot are truly despicable…”
Im Gang steadied his breathing and pushed himself upright.
That’s when he heard it.
Crack.
“…?”
Im Gang forgot to breathe, his eyes fixed on the ground beneath his feet.
That sound just now—what was it?
Crackle-crackle-crack.
The sound grew sharper, louder. The earth beneath him trembled slightly.
‘It’s collapsing.’
Fissures were spreading across the ground. They’d been fighting near the edge of the Cliff.
Driven back by the momentum, he’d naturally been pushed toward the thinner section.
The simultaneous detonation of three bodies had dealt a catastrophic blow to the bedrock itself.
‘Ah.’
His spine went cold, curses swirling silently on his tongue. If this continued, the ground would give way and plunge them all over the Cliff’s edge. The surviving Vagabonds felt it too.
“The ground—it’s coming down!”
“Inward! Quickly—!”
Crackle-crackle-crack—!
The fissures spread with terrifying speed as the earth heaved. Safety lay more than a dozen zhang away. Only a master who could deploy Lightness Skill and leap a dozen zhang in the blink of an eye would have avoided becoming a Vagabond.
Rumble-rumble-rumble—!
The world tilted.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
……It collapsed.
* * *
Im Gang screamed. There was no dignity, no pride to preserve.
When you’re plummeting off a cliff, dignity is the last thing on your mind.
His vision spun in dizzying circles, the wind howling loud enough to tear at his ears. His body rotated through the air, up and down reversing in an instant. Dust and stone fragments tumbled alongside him like old companions.
‘At this rate, I’m dead.’
Even through the vertigo, his mind raced.
What can I do?
Is there a way?
Is there not?
Then I die.
‘I should’ve made a parachute or something!’
In his previous life, when he was active as a Hunter, he’d experienced falls before.
Back then, a teammate with a flight Skill would catch him, or an artifact enchanted with an aerial suspension Skill would save him. But now he had neither.
Right then.
A desperate idea struck him.
‘The Silver Lotus Bi!’
The Qi Thread of the Silver Lotus Bi.
Infuse it with Inner Force and throw it, and an invisible thread of Qi manifests from the handle’s end.
It’s meant for throwing and then pulling back to retrieve.
But reversed…
‘What if I drive the Silver Lotus Bi into the cliff wall and pull the thread to hang from it?!’
It might work. It might not. But there’s no other option. This isn’t a situation where you can shrug and accept death—you’ve got to try something.
Im Gang drew the Silver Lotus Bi from his robes. His hand wavered in the wind, but he’d learned from his master never to lose his grip on a weapon.
During sparring, every time he dropped a weapon, his master would strike him hard enough to crack his skull.
‘Breathe.’
He drew up the remaining Inner Force from his dantian and poured it into the Silver Lotus Bi.
And threw it.
Whiiiing!
The Silver Lotus Bi flew toward the cliff wall.
Thunk!
The impact of embedding into stone transmitted through the Qi Thread. But he couldn’t simply pull the thread and hang from it.
At this falling speed, slamming into the cliff would rupture his organs.
He had to slow down.
‘……Sorry.’
He saw a vagabond falling beside him. Conscious or not, he grabbed the man’s body and pulled him closer, then used him as a foothold.
“Yoooou daaaamned bastaaaaaard!”
The vagabond spewed curses.
So he was conscious.
Im Gang’s weight pushed the vagabond’s body downward, and the reaction slowed Im Gang’s descent by a fraction.
The vagabond plummeted faster and vanished from sight.
‘……May the departed find peace.’
Not knowing his name, Im Gang offered silent apologies and yanked hard on the Qi Thread. His body arced in a parabola, pulled toward the cliff. He couldn’t slow down completely, so he crashed hard into the wall.
Crack!
“Ugh!”
His back felt like it was shattering. Stars bloomed and vanished in his vision.
All the air expelled from his lungs, and for a moment he couldn’t breathe.
But.
Agony that felt like breaking—yet nothing broke. The chaining of Bronze Body Technique and Great Force Breaking Technique held fast. Skin and skeleton hardened like copper withstood the impact.
“Gaaaah!”
The shock transmitted through his insides forced a cry from his throat.
He clung to the Qi Thread, suspended from the cliff face.
With each gust of wind, his body swayed.
He shook his head hard to clear the spinning vision back to normal.
“……Shit.”
Looking up, the height was terrifying.
He couldn’t muster the will to climb.
It would be nice if there were some rock-climbing martial art, but he didn’t have anything like that.
‘Should’ve learned climbing or something.’
Thud-thud-thud.
The bodies of those who’d fallen below crashed against the ground in succession, the sound echoing upward.
A chill ran down my spine. I peered over the edge.
Far below, I could dimly make out corpses reduced to pulp.
I offered a quiet prayer for the dead, then looked upward again.
Right. Still can’t climb up.
I glanced down once more. The height was even more dizzying than looking up.
That’s when I spotted something.
‘…… A rock!’
A few meters below, a jagged outcropping jutted from the cliff face—large enough for a person to lie on.

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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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