The Reincarnated Hunter Sweeps Up All Fortunes - Chapter 47
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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 47
Episode 47
When dozens of demons rushed at him all at once, Im Gang’s mind snapped into focus.
Taken one at a time, none of them looked particularly threatening.
In a straightforward one-on-one duel, he could slit their throats in a single or double exchange.
The problem was numbers.
At the cry of “Intruder!” the demons deeper in the tunnel began crawling out in a steady stream.
‘Damn it. Is this actually happening?’
Im Gang, soaked in cold sweat, rapidly assessed the situation.
Enemies surrounded him on all sides. There was nowhere to escape. But he didn’t give up. To give up was to die, and there was no way he could accept that.
He identified the tunnel with the fewest demons.
‘That way!’
One passage had fewer demons crowding it than the others.
About five of them.
He decided to break out in that direction.
[Hyopyo Spirit Step skill activated.]
Im Gang’s form shot toward that tunnel, leaving afterimages in its wake.
“Hehehehe! Just one leg! If you leave us just one leg, we’ll let you go easy!”
“I’m fine with just toes!”
The demons charged with eyes rolled back in frenzy.
…What?
A leg?
Toes?
What the hell was wrong with these bastards’ minds?
‘God, is there even one sane person in the Demonic Cult?’
Im Gang swallowed his curses and slashed down with the Demon Suppressing Blood Drain Sword at the closest demon.
Slice—!
“Shrieeeek!”
The anti-demon effect of the Demon Suppressing Blood Drain Sword inflicted double the agony on demons. The heavily wounded demon writhed under the anti-demon energy. Im Gang used the demon’s head as a springboard and leapt upward.
He’d once mocked a heterodox martial artist for attacking mid-jump, calling them an idiot. But Im Gang wasn’t jumping to attack.
‘Water Dragon Gauntlet!’
Channeling internal energy into the gauntlet, the Water Dragon Hook shot out.
Whoosh—!
The Water Dragon Hook caught on the cavern wall. He had no idea by what principle it stuck to the stone, but right now that wasn’t important.
If he could overcome this crisis, he’d use anything—even demons. He then activated the mechanism to reel the hook back in. His body flew forward in a snap—whoosh.
“He’s flying! The intruder is flying!”
“Please, just leave us one leg!”
The demons reached out pleadingly. They barely missed. Some leapt frantically in pursuit, but Im Gang raised his legs just as they arrived, as if he’d anticipated it all along.
The sight resembled a fleeing person with a horde of zombies snapping at their heels.
‘Damn, that was close!’
Relief flooded through Im Gang, but only for a moment.
He’d merely escaped one immediate danger.
Demons still occupied the passage he’d chosen as his exit route.
He withdrew his internal energy from the Water Dragon Hook and retrieved it. Simultaneously, his body fell naturally. Im Gang swung the Demon Suppressing Blood Drain Sword toward the demons.
“Waaaagh!”
The demons struck by Im Gang’s attack convulsed and performed what looked like frantic tap dancing.
Though hardly the moment for it, their footwork was spectacular.
Before landing, Im Gang spun his body and struck a demon’s face with his heel.
Crunch—the demon’s face caved in and it died instantly.
He grabbed the falling demon’s body and hurled it forward.
The other demons scattered to either side to dodge. Seizing the opening, Im Gang unfurled the Hyopyo Spirit Step and charged ahead, crying out.
“Wicked demons! Experience the Buddha’s compassion!”
“A monk! Monks are attacking!”
“Long-haired monk!”
“Righteous Path Alliance heretic!”
The demons seemed to regain some semblance of reason, but that was all.
They still charged forward, drooling uncontrollably.
He kindly presented the Demon Suppressing Blood Drain Sword to them.
Since the Explosive Demon Warlord incident, the anti-demon energy had grown far stronger—well beyond what low-grade demons could endure. Even a shallow cut sent them writhing to the ground twitching. He leapt over them, pushing into the passage.
Any demons crawling out too late were slashed down as he broke through.
“Gasp! Gasp!”
His breath came in ragged bursts, climbing up to choke him. He hadn’t moved much, yet already fatigue was setting in. His Internal Energy reserves had depleted by half without him noticing.
‘Is this really the difference between a true Martial Artist and a Vagrant?’
A trained Martial Artist would manage Internal Energy far more efficiently. But he was just a self-taught Vagrant with no real control over his consumption.
There was only one way for a self-taught fighter to grow stronger.
Consume elixirs by the handful and build up Internal Energy just as recklessly. He’d heard that first-rate masters could accumulate over two Ten Year Cycles’ worth of Internal Energy regardless of their stage—so at minimum, he ought to be capable of the same.
‘…Worry about that later. Right now, I need to escape.’
The passage twisted and coiled. Demons appeared at intervals, lazy and unprepared. Without his Qi Sense and mental map, he’d have stumbled straight into them.
Each time his Qi Sense caught a Demon, Im Gang pushed off the wall with his feet and moved.
“Aaaah!”
The Demon that had meant to ambush him shrieked in terror instead. The noise was unbearable, so he did him a courtesy—silencing him with the Demon Suppressing Blood Drain Sword by covering his mouth. Applying force, he twisted sideways, and the neck severed halfway through with a wet crunch.
“Grrgh!”
He kicked the body over and ran on.
As he rushed through the winding passage, a small cavern opened before him.
Im Gang halted abruptly.
The path forked again here.
‘Which way?’
Three passages branched from the small cavern. The Secret Cave was larger than his mental map accounted for. Immediately, he sensed movement from every direction.
He was surrounded—no exit, death closing in. He bit his lip, deliberating, even as the Demons drew near. Their footsteps grew louder by the second.
Only seconds remained before they’d be upon him.
Then, in that instant, a single stratagem came to mind.
* * *
The Demons had been hiding in the Secret Cave of Hoe Gyesan for a considerable time.
In the endless tedium of those days, the only pleasure was hunting for delicacies. But as time dragged on, delicacies appeared less and less frequently, and by now months had passed since the last one.
So when a delicacy finally arrived, they were in a state of feverish excitement.
Yet what greeted them as they slobbered and rushed into the cavern was not a terrified, despairing delicacy.
It was other Demons emerging from a different passage.
“…Huh?”
“……?”
Those who had belatedly heard the commotion and come running did not understand the full situation, and so they stared with bewilderment at the slobbering Demons.
“The delicacy—I mean, the intruder. You didn’t see it?”
“An intruder?”
“Yes. The delicacy—or rather, the intruder.”
“Didn’t see it! If we’d crossed paths, we’d have already torn its limbs clean off!”
The Demons’ eyes darted about as they searched the surroundings.
There was nowhere to hide.
It was a small, cramped cavern with only a few open sections.
The rock and walls were too solid to burrow through—impossible by structure. If it had escaped down another passage, the Demons coming from that direction would have seen it.
But they said they hadn’t.
“…Where could it have gone?”
“Did it use some kind of dark art?”
“Dark art, perhaps!”
The Demons began bickering amongst themselves. Having nearly caught their delicacy only to lose it, their minds were in complete disarray.
Then one Demon began sniffing the air.
“…There’s a scent.”
“A scent?”
“The delicacy’s—I mean, the intruder’s scent. I smell it. It’s definitely still here.”
The other Demons turned to stare at him with confused expressions.
The delicacy… or rather, the intruder—it wasn’t visible, yet there was a scent?
They thumped the floor and walls. Certainly, hiding seemed impossible.
Even if something were concealed, the hollow space would have made a different sound.
And if it were somehow among them, mixed in with their own bodies, they would have noticed.
‘…Then it must be…’
The Demon with the keen nose suddenly cried out.
“…Overhead! It has to be overhead!”
The other Demons jerked in unison and looked up.
But.
“……?”
“……?”
There was nothing there.
Icicles hung from the ceiling, frost crystals clinging to the damp cold air, but there was no sign of the delicacy anywhere.
“…What?”
“Wasn’t it supposed to be up there?”
“There’s no one here.”
The demons stared at the pug-nosed demon with bewildered eyes.
He wore a mortified expression.
“I-I’m sure it was there! I know because of my nose!”
“…….”
“Really! It was definitely up there!”
“…Yeah?”
The atmosphere among the demons grew subtly cold.
They’d already lost the delicacy, and now this creature had made fools of them.
“Why, why are you all looking at me like that?!”
“…….”
“…Ghck! Screeeeeee!”
Soon a horrific sound echoed through the cave.
* * *
Im Gang clenched his teeth.
‘Insane bastards.’
The terrible sounds drifting from afar made his spine crawl. The sight of the Explosive Demon Warlord making a demon’s body explode had been shocking, but this was different in scale.
They were eating human flesh, of all things.
Goosebumps erupted across his entire body.
He couldn’t see them as human. They had to be something closer to ravenous ghosts.
The thought that he’d nearly become something similar at the Explosive Demon Warlord’s hands was horrifying.
‘I really did the right thing killing him. The martial realm ought to give me a medal.’
No matter how many times he replayed it, he was certain: killing the Explosive Demon Warlord had been right.
He understood now why orthodox and heterodox sects, no matter how fiercely they fought, would join hands the moment demons appeared.
They’d contracted a hatred of demons.
He’d come to dislike demons after the Explosive Demon Warlord incident, but now he’d reached the point of revulsion.
How could anyone witness such a scene and not feel disgust?
‘If I’d been caught there…….’
Just the thought made his whole body tense.
If he hadn’t recalled a scene from a movie he’d seen in his past life, if he hadn’t had the Water Dragon Hook, if the Concealment skill hadn’t been effective in the darkness where light couldn’t reach…….
If every condition hadn’t aligned perfectly, imagination would have become reality (though he’d gotten a scare when one of them nearly picked up his scent).
[Map Lv. 5 → Map Lv. 10]
……
[Concealment Lv. 6 → Concealment Lv. 10]
He dismissed the notifications floating before his eyes. He still had points remaining. In a life-or-death situation, he hadn’t hesitated to spend them.
[Enlightenment is required to raise Perfect Great Force Domination to seven-tenths rank.]
That’s why he’d held back. Instead, he’d raised Yang Warmth Resonance, Wind Thunder Hundred Strikes, and Wall Breaking Achievement to six-tenths rank. And he still had points left.
‘Where should I spend the remaining points…….’
Im Gang’s thought never reached completion.
The ground beneath his feet suddenly gave way.
“……!”
He barely stifled a cry and landed hard.
And then.
“…Good grief.”
Countless skeletons greeted Im Gang warmly.
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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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