The Reincarnated Hunter Sweeps Up All Fortunes - Chapter 49

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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 49
Episode 49
Boom—!
The cavern shook with the blast. Dust like powder cascaded from the ceiling. And there, before his eyes, an Afterlife Train Notification materialized.
Demons caught in the dust explosion—dead. The casualties were fewer than expected. His Aura Sensing had detected over thirty signatures. But the notifications showed only seven.
‘Damn. Should’ve used more.’
He suppressed the vast, covetous hunger writhing in his chest and deployed only a measured amount. He could have let the cavern collapse and reunited with his skeletal companions, but if he got caught in the blast himself, there’d be no way out. So he held back.
That restraint had become his poison.
No.
It was better to say the result fell short of his hopes. The cave’s enclosed air and the winter’s moisture had prevented a proper detonation.
“……!”
“……?!”
A rough roar cut through the billowing haze. He couldn’t make out the words, but the ferocity alone was terrifying enough to shake the heavens.
Im Gang didn’t flinch.
“Move even an inch and you’re dead!”
He retreated at speed, as if fleeing, and hurled a Flying Blade. Long-Range Attack Enhancement, Long-Range Guided Projectile, Flying Blade Technique, and Ghost Valley Killing Strike activated in sequence.
Screeeech—!
He hadn’t chosen a specific target. The secondary effect of Long-Range Guided Projectile was enough. The Flying Blade sang through the dust, cleaving a path through the haze.
[You have gained Experience Points and grown.]
……
[Proficiency has increased slightly for certain skills.]
A demon that had survived the blast was sent to Blissful Ascension.
Of course, the dust still hung thick enough that he couldn’t see a thing.
“May you find the Buddha’s mercy in that place and repent!”
He emptied every Flying Blade he’d brought, then ran without looking back.
Underhanded? Cheap?
So was it any less cheap when dozens of them hunted a single man?
“If they come at me dirty, I’ll go dirty right back—that’s only natural!”
As he fled, Im Gang’s hands kept moving. Flying Blades weren’t his only option. In the martial world, if you’d mastered Hidden Blade Technique, you could use stones as throwing weapons.
And he had to contend with at least dozens of them.
The enemies couldn’t possibly all be clustered in one place after the blast.
There were pursuers coming up behind as well. So he scattered traps across the ground—nothing elaborate, just Iron Caltrops, relics from the White Bones Legacy.
Grandiose name, but really they were just twisted iron.
Shaped so that no matter which way they fell, a sharp point jutted upward.
Step on one and it pierced straight through your foot.
And once pricked, you had a one-hundred-percent guarantee of tetanus!
There!
Pay the price for every ruined treasure with tears!
“Argh!”
“The floor! There are throwing weapons scattered on the floor……!”
The demons stepped on the Iron Caltrops and danced an enthusiastic tap dance. Cackling laughter echoed along with it.
Im Gang’s face, which had been smiling with satisfaction while listening, changed in an instant. An incongruous sound had cut through the laughter.
Crack—crack—!
A shattering sound.
Not the cute, delicate sound of a twig snapping.
He’d heard this somewhere before.
“…Is that the sound of bones breaking?”
Yes.
That was the sound of bone fracturing. Gooseflesh erupted down Im Gang’s spine. It wouldn’t have triggered this reaction if it were just an ordinary arm or leg breaking.
He’d lived as a rogue long enough that trouble had found him more than once or twice.
How many times had he broken arms and legs?
But this was a truly rare kind of bone-breaking sound.
“Surely not…….”
He glanced back, and his suspicion was confirmed. One demon was approaching, shoving aside the heads of its own companions that blocked the way.
The method was straightforward.
Grip the head with one hand and crush it. Or snap the neck.
“Oh… shit.”
Their eyes met. Im Gang’s expression hardened. He extended his Aura Sensing, but even with a rough estimate, he couldn’t gauge its Martial Realm. This meant only one thing.
“I’m fucked.”
At minimum, it had to be First-Class Master or higher. He’d scraped together martial techniques through unorthodox means, but as he’d begun stepping into the realm of the truly formidable, he was only now beginning to understand.
A difference of one or two levels in skill — he could fight and win against that. But against a master who’d climbed to the next tier entirely? Direct confrontation was suicide.
“…Hell, someone’s having a lucky day.”
Im Gang swallowed a bitter laugh.
Until he’d found the White Bones Legacy, everything had been going smoothly.
And now this?
Suddenly a master at least at the First-Class level emerged from nowhere.
Was this how Kim the peddler felt when his oxtail soup spoiled? Well, what choice did he have? He wasn’t some regression user. If he gave up now, he was dead for sure.
“There has to be a way…”
Im Gang’s mind raced. Direct combat was absolutely impossible. Escape was only viable if they were in the same realm—which they weren’t. In short: he was screwed either way.
“…What if we just call it a draw?”
“Ha. Amusing talk.”
The ridiculously strong Demon had closed the distance without warning.
Im Gang yanked a small vial from his pocket and hurled it.
Crash!
The bottle shattered, powder billowing outward in a thick cloud.
Ten-Step Seven-Orifice Powder.
A vicious toxin that makes the seven orifices bleed before you can take ten steps.
Among the White Bones Legacy, it was among the deadliest poisons.
“Cough! Cough!”
The charging Demon was engulfed in the lethal powder. He coughed roughly, but didn’t blink once. Soon, blood began seeping from his seven orifices.
Yet he kept charging forward even as he bled. With each step, the flow seemed to diminish, impossibly.
By the seventh step, the bleeding stopped completely.
“That brute of a fool!”
With deep enough Internal Power, ordinary poisons could be forced out easily. But an extreme toxin like Ten-Step Seven-Orifice Powder was in a different class entirely. The normal way was to expel it through Inner Energy Circulation. That this was possible meant the Demon’s Internal Power ran deeper than imagination.
Lucky enough to be First-Class?
No.
Unlucky enough to be Peak.
“What if we make it a draw?!”
“I heard you killed an Apostate, yet your words and conduct are remarkably reckless!”
Im Gang didn’t bristle at all. It was normal for a Wanderer’s words and conduct to be reckless. A Wanderer who wasn’t reckless was just a “good-natured Wanderer.” But one had to answer insult with dignity.
A Wanderer might have no money, but he had his pride!
“Take this—Poison Pellet!”
Im Gang threw it without hesitation. The ridiculously strong Demon scoffed and ignored it, probably assuming the poison wouldn’t work and this was just a desperate thrash.
…But.
Crackle-!
A strange sound came from the pellet as it flew.
“…?!”
“My apologies.”
Im Gang apologized quickly and bolted. A metallic smile played at his lips.
“That’s no Poison Pellet!”
It was an Explosive Pellet.
Testing it against the White Bones Legacy, the blast force proved formidable.
On a level entirely different from dust explosions.
Used carelessly, there was real risk of bringing the cave down. That’s why he’d wanted to save it for last. But what choice did he have? Without it, he was simply going to die.
The Explosive Pellet detonated directly in front of the ridiculously strong Demon.
Boom-!
Or rather—a secondary explosion rippled through.
At the same moment.
Im Gang turned and ran.
* * *
Long, long ago, there was an orphan boy named Im Gang.
This boy asked his teacher, who was like the very sky itself.
“Teacher.”
“What is it?”
“What would you do if I had to fight someone really, really strong?”
“Really strong? Where did you pick up such crude speech? And even though we’re master and student, how can you speak with such lack of formality…?”
The boy snorted derisively at his stuffy teacher and got beaten for it.
Unfortunately, he’d asked the question right in the middle of sparring practice.
With one eye swollen shut, the boy bowed formally and asked again.
“Most esteemed teacher, who gazes upon the heavens with unstained pride—if I were to face a truly overwhelming master, what should I do?”
“I have to run.”
“What if there’s no way to escape?”
“Run anyway.”
“Even if they keep chasing me while I’m running?”
My master looked down at me with an expression that suggested he had plenty more to say.
Mercifully, he lowered his blade soon after. At least it meant he wasn’t planning to puff up my remaining eye as well.
“If you don’t stop muttering in that damnable tone of yours, I’ll show you exactly how much it hurts when a blade finds your flesh.”
“I wasn’t trying to say anything—my apologies.”
Im Gang fell silent. His master’s eyes had gone deadly serious.
“So, the answer to my question is?”
“Are you asking me in earnest?”
“Yes.”
His gaze alone made it clear.
I could sense what he was about to say.
There was no choice but to lose. A third-rate wanderer, no matter how hard he struggled and clawed his way forward, could never best a first-rate wanderer—that was simply the natural order of things.
But Im Gang had no wish to die twice.
“…There is one method.”
His master spoke after a long hesitation.
* * *
Im Gang cried out, tears streaming down his face.
“This is all because of you! It’s your fault! Why couldn’t you stay buried in Shin Gang? Why did you come all the way here to do me wrong?”
After that anguished scream, he threw himself forward.
Toward what?
Straight into the inferno—into the explosion where the strongest demon dwelt.
Though his Internal Power wrapped around him, the heat from the explosion’s fire seared his skin with vivid, immediate pain. His hair caught flame and burned away. The searingly hot wind knocked the breath from his lungs.
Yet Im Gang didn’t blink once. There was only one chance. If not now, he would never land a blow on the absolute master.
This moment, with sight and sound obliterated by the explosion, was his only opening.
Ssssshhhhh—!
His clothes burned away, revealing the tattered upper robe made of Heavenly Silk beneath.
‘Just a little longer…’
Wait.
It had no fire resistance.
In an instant, the Heavenly Silk robe burned through as well. What remained was ash and blackening skin, and a body now singed clean by flames instead of a razor’s edge.
…No.
There was one more thing left.
‘The Demon-Binding Blood-Draining Sword in my hand.’
Im Gang laid the Demon-Binding Blood-Draining Sword flat and unfurled the Demon-Suppressing Blood Meridian Sword. From his lower dantian, a golden-red aura rose of its own accord, crystallizing. He poured every scrap of Internal Power remaining in his body, burning even his very life into the blade’s tip, concentrating it into a single point.
He became a spear, lunging forward.
BOOM—!
The blade cleaved through the heart of the explosion. Flames split and parted to either side, a path tearing open.
And at the end of that path.
Thwack—!
[You have gained Experience Points and grown.]
[You have gained Experience Points and grown.]
……
[You have gained Experience Points and grown.]
[You have gained Experience Points and grown.]
…I made contact.

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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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