The Reincarnated Hunter Sweeps Up All Fortunes - Chapter 25

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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 25
Episode 25
Im Gang’s face brightened for a moment, but only a moment.
‘If I let go of the rope and fall from here, it’s going to hurt like hell.’
If he released the rope and dropped, he could probably land on that ledge up there. But the distance looked to be about five meters. One wrong move and he’d join the pulped corpses below as their newest companion.
‘Could I maybe drive my arm through the rock face?’
The thought surfaced suddenly.
Under normal circumstances, such a mad idea would never occur to him.
Truth be told, using Eun Ryeon Bi’s rope this way wasn’t exactly orthodox either.
But survival instinct had made it work.
‘Will it work? Or won’t it?’
There was no time for lengthy deliberation. The conclusion was already decided. Whether it worked or not, he had to try. He couldn’t grip the rope and hold on forever.
It was wiser to attempt something before his Internal Energy ran completely dry.
He had a feeling it might be possible—he still had the tremendous force of the Great Force Breaking Palm and the Internal Energy to channel it.
Gripping the rope with one hand while hanging, he concentrated his Internal Energy into his freed right hand.
He clenched his fist and drove it straight into the rock face.
Crack!
“……!”
His skin stung a little, but his fist punched clean through the stone.
He was astonished at how easily it succeeded.
The Internal Energy expended was far less than he’d anticipated.
Still, it wasn’t enough to scale the cliff face completely.
He released the rope, drove his fist into the wall several more times, and climbed up slightly to retrieve Eun Ryeon Bi’s rope—he couldn’t abandon the lifeline that had saved him. After that, he gripped the handholds his fists had created and climbed back down.
Crack!
He pulled his fist free from the wall and drove it lower.
Pull and punch.
Pull and punch.
Pull and punch.
“This is martial art—not anything else.”
As he continued downward, he suddenly found himself on a rocky outcrop. His Internal Energy had depleted perfectly to zero. As the tension released, the bubbling spring point in his foot tingled like it had been struck by lightning.
“……I’m alive.”
Im Gang leaned his back against the cliff face and slowly sank down.
After that electrical sensation, his legs gave out.
His hands trembled, and cold sweat streamed down his face.
For a while, he could only breathe heavily.
Dust fell occasionally from above, and the wind blew cold.
His eyelids felt heavy as if about to close, but he leaned forward and looked down below.
Again, the faintly visible pulped corpses came into view.
He offered another prayer for the vagrant he’d stepped on, then pressed his back against the wall.
“……Now what?”
Once his Internal Energy fully recovered, would he be able to climb back up? He had jerky and a water pouch, so he could hold out for a day or two…… but after that was the problem…… hm…… um…….
Im Gang’s thoughts trailed off as his consciousness suddenly cut out.
The exhaustion from combat and the fall crashed down on him all at once.
* * *
Im Gang’s eyes opened with a bitter, flesh-biting cold.
“Ugh. Freezing.”
He muttered absently before suddenly snapping alert, glancing around.
He was still on the rock ledge at the cliff face.
For a moment, he’d hoped it was a dream, but apparently it had been far too real.
Judging by the sun not yet having set, he didn’t seem to have slept for long.
But the temperature had dropped, so sunset wasn’t far away.
He worked the stiffness from his body and checked his Internal Energy. His cultivation habit of Internal Energy Circulation had continued even in sleep, and about half his reserves had recovered.
To clear his still-foggy mind, he pulled out the water pouch to wet his throat, then retrieved the jerky and chewed it methodically. Once his senses sharpened, he began considering how to escape from this place.
Hold out for a day or two?
No. That’s wrong.
In this cold, hypothermia could kill him. He’d be lucky if he just woke up with his mouth skewed.
He considered driving his hands down through the wall to descend, but even using all his Internal Energy wouldn’t seem enough.
Then should he climb upward? Calculating the height he could reach in one push, the remaining distance, and the Internal Energy cost—that was impossible too.
“Hm…… the jerky tastes pretty good.”
Perhaps it was because he’d just exerted himself hard. Or perhaps it was the desperation of the situation.
The jerky tasted unusually savory and sweet today.
Truth be told, if he staked his life on it, there was a way.
Just as he’d survived by clinging to Eun Ryeon Bi’s rope before, he could keep hammering his hands into the rock face and dropping, then repeating the cycle.
But.
‘If only my arms break, I’ll count myself lucky.’
From the initial impact when he struck the cliff face, his arms and body throbbed with pain.
If that repeated, his internal organs might actually rupture.
Deliberating, Im Gang pulled up the map to check his current position.
Out of habit, he activated his Treasure Detection Skill.
“……Huh?”
Im Gang’s eyes widened. Yellow dots appeared on the green map.
Looking more carefully, they were close by.
At roughly the same height too.
He checked his current position on the map and surveyed his surroundings carefully.
“There.”
To the naked eye, it appeared sealed off. But naked sight didn’t reveal everything.
Even if something looked blocked, there could be space visible from a different angle.
Especially for him, someone unaffected by the formation’s influence.
He channeled his Internal Energy through his eyes.
No one had taught him this.
From his past life, he knew that channeling magical power through the eyes sharpened vision, and he reasoned Internal Energy would work the same way, so he tried it.
And it actually worked. The rock face of the cliff enlarged in his sight, and at a subtle angle, he could see the rock behind it. He noticed they were different rocks because of the shadow difference.
But seeing the gap between the rocks remained impossible.
‘Even if skill points seem wasteful, they’re worth less than my life.’
Im Gang invested points into his map skill.
[Map Lv. 3 → Map Lv. 5]
As the map skill leveled up, its accuracy improved. Zooming in, he discovered a small passage between the rocks.
A cave.
As expected of a cliff in this medieval wuxia land—fortuitous encounters cluster here.
“The passage is……barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through.”
The academic consensus wasn’t there for nothing. Fall off a cliff and there’s a cave halfway down; if you’re lucky, you survive and gain fortuitous encounters.
There’s nowhere to plant your feet, though.
“This is child’s play.”
Not that climbing up or descending the cliff was harder.
In his past life, he’d wormed through tighter gaps than this.
And with wire, too.
Right now, that wasn’t necessary. He’d use Eun Ryeon Bi’s rope to swing across, retrieve it, plant his hands on the wall to move—that’s all.
Once he’d planned it out, he moved immediately. The sun would drop soon, and waking with a dislocated jaw from sleeping wrong was enough without the harsh cold-training conditions.
Im Gang poured sufficient Internal Energy into Eun Ryeon Bi’s rope and threw it.
Thunk!
As it lodged in the cliff, he yanked on the rope.
His body swung up and he brushed against the cliff face, swinging back and forth.
He’d prepared for this impact, so there was no shock. The height, distance, and speed were all such that a light touch with his hands would suffice.
‘First, retrieve the rope.’
He climbed the rope, retrieved Eun Ryeon Bi’s cable, and planted his hands into the cliff. Then he threw it again. Had there been no impact from the initial fall, he wouldn’t have bothered with this tedious process.
Thunk!
“……Nice.”
The rope lodged just above the gap between the rocks. From here, retrieval would be simple. Right after, he kicked off the cliff with his feet and ran.
‘Web Swing!’
In his past life, watching movies, he’d always wondered why Spider-Man used that particular posture for web-swinging. But trying it for real, he understood the reason.
It was the most stable. Easy to handle unexpected situations too.
Gripping the extended rope, he made a wide half-rotation. His body rose and his speed slowed. He planted his hands against the cliff to hold himself in place.
He retrieved the rope and descended slowly.
Thunk—thunk!
Thus he entered the cave where fortuitous encounters awaited.
[You have entered the Dungeon ‘Hidden Form Deception Formation’.]
Dungeon……no, formation—welcome.
* * *
These past few days, the Orthodox Sect Alliance in Hang Zhou had focused their attention on one matter.
“……The Demonic Cultivators are lurking around Hang Zhou more and more.”
“And what did he say about it?”
“He claimed ignorance—said the Demonic Cultivators denied involvement and he couldn’t fathom their motives. But that’s nonsense. They’re turning a blind eye while feigning innocence. There’s no way low-ranking Demonic Cultivators would rampage like that without the Demonic Cult’s tacit approval.”
Demonic Martial Arts were undeniably formidable.
Master a third-rate Demonic Art and you could contend with a second-rate martial artist from the Central Plains Martial World. Master a second-rate art, and a first-rate opponent became manageable.
But every strength had its shadow. The drawback was absolute: lower-ranked Demonic Cultivators could not disobey commands from those who wielded superior arts.
The Demonic Cult could solve this with just a handful of disciples.
That they played ignorant about something common knowledge made his true intentions all the more suspect.
“So what’s the damage?”
“Sigh.”
The official overseeing the western reaches beyond Hang Zhou exhaled heavily before delivering his report.
In the end, the Orthodox Sect Alliance reached its decision.
“Eliminate them all.”
War.
* * *
Im Gang threw open the door to the Vagrant’s Guild hideout where his senior martial brother made his quarters.
Bang!
“Baek Do Gwang! Get out here!”
The vagrants who’d been chattering fell silent at once, their gazes turning toward the door with murderous intensity.
But recognizing Im Gang, they exhaled quietly.
“I should’ve known.”
“Look, I’m telling you—Baek went too far this time.”
The vagrants murmured among themselves. Those notorious guild members had taken on this commission. There was no way it could’ve gone smoothly. One look at Im Gang’s condition confirmed it.
He’d clearly come back battered and bruised from sheer hard labor.
“Baek! Where are you? Get out here now!”
“……Ha. I wonder why my disciple is so furious.”
“Why? So? Furious? You? Don’t? Know?!”
Im Gang’s face twisted with barely contained rage as he spoke through gritted teeth.
Baek Do Gwang smiled awkwardly and replied, “Didn’t I tell you that some rather dangerous individuals would be involved in this commission?”
“Yeah. You did. But you never said they were Demonic Cultivators.”
“……?”
Silence fell over the tavern. Baek Do Gwang’s face went blank. The vagrants slowly turned their heads to stare at him.
“……Senior, did you hate your disciple that much?”
“Even so, hiring a knife to kill from the shadows is…… a bit much.”
“Could it be…… you’re a pawn of the Demonic Cult?!”
Baek Do Gwang blinked rapidly, then gasped and stammered a defense. “I have no reason to kill my disciple—that is, I couldn’t possibly be a pawn of the Demonic Cult!”
“So…… you’re saying that’s not the case. Which means you DO have a reason to kill your disciple.”
“Then you ARE a pawn of the Demonic Cult?”
After that, Baek Do Gwang was thoroughly denounced.

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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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