The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 28

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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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Surviving in the Martial Realm as a Mage: Episode 28
Arch-Mage Trevallion had no formal master.
During the time when he first learned magic,
the magic wielded by mages was extraordinarily secretive and insular.
They monopolized knowledge within their own exclusive circles, meticulously guarding against any leakage of secrets.
They believed that magical knowledge was sacred, and only a select few chosen people should ever possess it.
Because of this, most mages harbored a deeply ingrained sense of superiority and elitism as their default state.
And it was Trevallion who shattered that foundation from the ground up.
He never needed to learn magic from anyone in the first place.
Elemental magic, rune magic, holy magic, spirit magic, dark magic—and countless others.
By merely taking the time to ‘observe’ magic from entirely different disciplines,
he could instantly pierce through to their underlying principles.
He was an anomaly in this world.
To the existing mages, he was a lawless outlaw and thief who robbed them of their uniqueness.
So Trevallion faced severe opposition from the established mage community.
Yet the true reason the existing mages burned with fury at the sight of Trevallion was not actually his exceptional talent.
The greatest source of conflict between Trevallion and the established mages was his willingness to share his abilities generously with others.
Trevallion taught magic freely to anyone with talent, regardless of their social standing or personal connections.
And after he defeated the Demon King,
he even constructed humanity’s first Magic Tower in the fiefdom granted to him, transforming magic into written knowledge and openly disseminating it throughout the world.
Unlike the existing mages,
his reason for not monopolizing magical knowledge was simple.
“Knowledge only generates new knowledge when shared among many people.”
He believed that allowing magic to become universally known would bring far greater advancement to the field itself.
And his conviction bore fruit almost immediately.
As countless minds converged, he gained numerous insights through them. Thanks to this, Trevallion, who had been stagnant at the 7th Circle for ages, achieved tremendous enlightenment and swiftly broke through to the next level.
Thus, Trevallion became the first in continental history to reach the 8th Circle Master realm.
And even after retiring from the Magic Tower,
Trevallion delved into magic with obsessive fervor, finally achieving the 9th Circle.
Because Trevallion devoted his entire life to the pursuit of magical knowledge, he never married.
When it came to magic alone,
he was nothing short of a madman.
To him, countless fortunes held no value.
Noble status that elevated him above others held no value.
Even passionate love that set his heart ablaze held no value.
None of these possessed any worth in his eyes.
To him, a single previously unknown incantation, an unusual magical formula, or even a single line of mana arrangement in a peculiar magic circle was more precious than any jewel.
When he actually acquired, understood, and publicly revealed the newly recreated magic he had developed,
the elder figures of the existing magical world could no longer cling together in isolation.
They finally rose from their entrenched positions, swallowed their pride, and submitted themselves beneath Trevallion.
For mages, new knowledge was no different from overwhelming power.
Thus, Trevallion completely transformed the world’s understanding of magic.
He was revered as a superhuman who had transcended the limitations that existing mages possessed.
What this great Trevallion excelled at most, even before becoming a proper mage, was this:
observing and comprehending the magic of others.
Every single character, each stroke of a formula, every arrangement of mana—
he could dismantle them perfectly.
This eventually became the new genre of magic that Trevallion created first.
Colloquially known as magic negation.
The original genre formally called Dispel.
In this realm known as Anti-magic,
Trevallion had already reached an incomprehensible level of superhuman mastery.
* * *
Gong Jeol-gang, the Grand Sorcerer of Cheonsa-ok.
He was a Celestial Watcher of the seventh rank, Cheonsa-ok’s pride,
and one of the next-generation successors destined to lead Cheonsa-ok into the future.
A seventh-rank Celestial Watcher represented,
in terms of martial prowess, an absolute realm that transcended peak mastery and rivaled supreme transcendence.
Gong Jeol-gang’s reputation was so well-known among the various martial organizations of the Murim (the Blood Cult, Mansizong, the Demonic Sect, and others)
that he was counted among the finest masters in sorcery and mystical formations.
Cheonsa-ok, to which Gong Jeol-gang belonged, was a lineage of sorcerers traditionally specialized in elixir refinement and mystical formation techniques.
The Samrajihyeok Daegangijin—Cheonsa-ok’s pride to the world.
This mystical formation ranked among the top five most powerful ones currently existing in the Lower Realm.
It was a formation that manifested an actual portion of ‘hell’ into reality.
Those trapped within it could never escape, even in death.
They would endure endless suffering in the infinite hell unfolded within the formation, until their souls were dragged into hell itself.
‘But this formation has one fatal weakness.’
It required enormous resources to activate.
In fact, Gong Jeol-gang had just paid roughly half of the cultivation he’d accumulated over his entire lifetime as the activation fee for this formation.
A permanent loss.
This alone meant the resources invested in this matter already exceeded what he would gain,
‘Damn it, there was no choice.’
That unpredictable monster of a kid was about to steal Cheonsa-ok’s treasures.
The massive black ape puppet that Gong Jeol-gang had deployed on the deck.
It was the only secret puppet that Cheonsa-ok possessed,
and Gong Jeol-gang had to expend all the merit points he’d accumulated in the sect over his lifetime to obtain it.
Moreover, it was merely ‘borrowed’ for now.
‘I cannot lose Dae Heuk Seong.’
Had things proceeded according to the original plan,
had they gone that way, Gong Jeol-gang would have already seized Sam-mi-ho’s inner core and—
He had likely deployed that Dae Heuk Seong to swiftly eliminate all these Murim practitioners who dared to challenge him so disrespectfully.
‘It was undoubtedly my greatest secret weapon….’
Yet absurdly enough.
That unexpected Kid was toying with the Dae Heuk Seong as if it were nothing more than a puppet.
Lifting each limb one by one, his eyes gleaming as he attempted to comprehend its operating principles.
From Gong Jeol-gang’s perspective, it was naturally an infuriating sight.
The Dae Heuk Seong was a special puppet that Cheonsa-ok had poured vast resources into for fifty years to create.
This Dae Heuk Seong possessed a faint but genuine sense of self.
A puppet capable of independent thought.
Yet even the leadership of Cheonsa-ok, who had created it, still couldn’t comprehend exactly what principle had granted the puppet its consciousness.
Unable to understand the mechanism of its creation, they could never replicate it.
Naturally, it had become one of the three most priceless treasures of Cheonsa-ok—a treasure beyond all comparison.
‘I absolutely cannot surrender it!’
This was precisely why Gong Jeol-gang had willingly sacrificed half of his lifetime cultivation to construct the Samrajihyeok Daegangijin.
If he were to lose the Dae Heuk Seong?
He would be captured by Cheonsa-ok and have his very soul extracted to become material for elixirs.
“Damn that Kid!”
Come to think of it, I still don’t even know his name.
Though at this point, it hardly matters.
Ever since the Kid in the black robe had been trapped within the Samrajihyeok Daegangijin alongside the Dae Heuk Seong.
Gong Jeol-gang had continuously wiped away cold sweat, smoothing out the wrinkles that had rapidly multiplied across his face in such a short time.
“Huh? It seems like it wasn’t just half my cultivation that was drained away. It feels as though half my lifespan was torn away as well….”
Reflecting on it, this entire affair was deeply regrettable.
I wondered if I had been foolishly greedy, trying to claim this precious treasure for myself alone.
If I had simply shared information with Cheonsa-ok’s leadership from the beginning and come together?
‘I wouldn’t have suffered such catastrophic losses….’
Damn it, damn it.
Gong Jeol-gang, sighing heavily with regret over what had passed, barely managed to tear his gaze from the deck and turn his head to the side.
‘How is Sam-mi-ho faring?’
When Gong Jeol-gang turned his head with an expression of clear exhaustion to observe the Jinseong Escort Agency’s command ship.
It appeared as though the sailing ship could be seized at any moment.
Blood and screams were everywhere.
“That will be finished soon enough.”
By Gong Jeol-gang’s assessment.
The only thing remotely gratifying at this moment was that the skilled masters of the Jinseong Escort Agency were being overwhelmingly pushed back.
“At least I managed to salvage Sam-mi-ho, so I suppose that’s fortunate….”
Gong Jeol-gang had devised a plan: if the Kid died within the formation.
Then afterward, he would safely recover the puppet and sweep away all those crude Murim practitioners causing chaos on that ship.
‘Yes, it hasn’t deviated much from the original plan. Hmm? Those few brutes over there would make excellent elixir material if I captured them.’
Those peak-stage masters rampaging over there would be truly superb elixir material.
The martial artists’ bodies, honed to their absolute limits, could be transformed into Regeneration Pills—essential elixirs for nurturing the Celestial Watchers’ physical forms.
And the souls of peak masters, tempered through breaking through the faint walls of enlightenment,
could be carefully extracted without dissipation to become Longevity Pills that elevated one’s cultivation.
“Ha… peak masters alone. They’re truly living treasures with not a single part to waste.”
Gong Jeol-gang smacked his lips, his expression one of regret.
Those fools had learned the crude technique called martial arts, making their resistance rough and unrefined—subduing them intact was simply impossible.
But.
“I’ve exhausted all my merit points borrowing Dae Heuk Seong. I wanted to recoup at least something here.”
Wasn’t there some way?
He needed to salvage at least labor costs.
As Gong Jeol-gang examined the Jinseong Transport Company’s command ship with increasingly sinister eyes,
fine cracks suddenly began spreading across the opaque barrier of the Samrajihyeok Daegangijin that shimmered like heat waves above the deck.
The fractures spread like a spider’s web in real time before his eyes.
Barely thirty minutes had passed.
“Huh? Wha…?”
What in the world was this harmony?
A phenomenon utterly beyond comprehension.
Gong Jeol-gang’s mind refused to function properly.
Incoherent sounds spilled from his lips unbidden.
And then.
Craaaaaash—
One corner of the barrier where the cracks had spread.
A massive fissure tore open there, and
like a mirror shattering in all directions,
the shimmering barrier exploded into fragments.
Ding-ding-ding—!
From within the barrier, as though baptized,
the Kid appeared with his hands raised reverently toward the heavens, his face serene.

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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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