The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 74

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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 74
One of the greatest problems plaguing the Upper Realm Immortal Cultivation Realm was its abysmally low population growth rate, making demographic expansion painfully sluggish.
The second critical issue was how starkly divided the immortals had become into competing factions.
Even if everyone united to face the demon cultivators, it would barely suffice—yet the immortals could never align their intentions as one.
Because of this fractured unity, despite often beginning large-scale conflicts against the demon clans from advantageous positions, they invariably suffered defeat.
Everyone recognized this fundamental flaw.
Yet it was a problem that simply could not be resolved.
Their ideologies were fundamentally incompatible.
The Celestial Watchers of the Immortal Cultivation Realm divided into two great camps: the Righteous Sect Alliance and the Demonic Sect Alliance.
They regarded each other with the mutual disdain of oil and water.
They cooperated only when absolutely necessary.
Otherwise, they constantly schemed to undermine one another.
The Purple Cloud Sect was no exception to this bitter reality.
The Jayun Mountain Range, where the Purple Cloud Sect currently resided, housed a Fourth Realm mid-grade spirit vein.
This had been unexpectedly inherited from another sect that previously controlled it.
The original sect was the Guiyin Sect, one of the demonic factions.
They were annihilated in a single night by the Immortal Sect that controlled Hyeontcheon Holy City—the Xuantian Sect, a Fifth Realm transformation-stage powerhouse.
After obliterating the Guiyin Sect, the Xuantian Sect gifted the Fourth Realm mid-grade spirit vein that the Guiyin Sect had once controlled to the Purple Cloud Sect as a subordinate faction.
The problem, however, was that the Guiyin Sect had not been completely eradicated.
One of the surviving Original Spirit Realm demon lords from the Guiyin Sect swore vengeance.
The troubling part was that he chose the vulnerable Purple Cloud Sect as his target for revenge, rather than the formidable Xuantian Sect.
The sole survivor among the Guiyin Sect’s Original Spirit Realm cultivators—
Ghost Shadow Demon Lord led his followers to defect to the Black Night Sect, a fellow demonic faction with whom he had prior connections, and pleaded for their aid in his revenge.
The Black Night Sect, unwilling to see the nearby Immortal Sect’s influence expand, readily agreed to assist.
Thus, for one hundred and twenty years.
The blade of vengeance that Ghost Shadow Demon Lord had meticulously prepared over those one hundred and twenty years—
Was slowly approaching the moment of fruition.
* * *
“How long until the elixir we sold to those Purple Cloud Sect fools takes effect?”
“It should manifest within two or three months now.”
“Hehehehe, idiots. Do they possess no capacity for thought? Such recklessness! Why didn’t they verify the ingredients?”
“From the sect leader down to the lowest disciples, they’ve grown dependent on their superiors’ patronage and lack any sense of crisis. They’re flowers cultivated in a greenhouse, nothing more.”
“Well, it works in our favor.”
“Kekeke, indeed it does.”
Ghost Shadow Demon Lord had been subtly undermining the Purple Cloud Sect all this time.
His greatest effort lay in tampering with the Nurturing Infant Elixir—the medicinal pill that Original Spirit Realm cultivators must consume to accumulate cultivation—with a cunning hand.
Specifically, he had engineered an excessive accumulation of elixir toxin within it.
Of course, this work required an extraordinarily long time.
And though the extended timeline demanded vast expenditures of resources,
The Black Night Sect’s unexpectedly enthusiastic support allowed him to persevere to the end.
Of course, the Black Night Sect wasn’t helping out of pure goodwill either.
What they desired was the 4th Realm mid-grade spirit vein currently held by the Purple Cloud Sect.
They coveted the Purple Cloud Sect’s spirit vein itself.
“Perhaps it’s time I sent a death warrant to that bastard Jeok Yang-jin.”
“Indeed. Given the entangled history between us, they won’t be able to refuse.”
In the world of the Celestial Watchers, just as in the Lower Realm,
it was customary to send a formal challenge letter before initiating a life-and-death duel.
Of course, this was merely a pretext for external appearances.
In other words, it was laying groundwork.
The Ghost Shadow Demon Lord was a mid-stage Primordial Essence cultivator.
He stood at the same realm as Jeok Yang-jin, the sect leader of the Purple Cloud Sect.
The reason he was invoking past grievances and sending a death warrant was
to establish an undeniable justification rooted in the old feud between them, thereby ensuring that the Xuantian Sect, being an upper sect, could not intervene. This would prevent them from having grounds to involve themselves.
If they did intervene, the Black Night Sect would immediately have cause to summon their own upper demonic alliance.
Then the conflict would escalate far beyond acceptable limits.
And that was a scenario neither the Righteous Sect Alliance nor the Demonic Sect Alliance desired.
Thus, Jeok Yang-jin found himself facing an unavoidable battle.
Moreover, during the life-and-death duel, his essence would boil over uncontrollably.
The Ghost Shadow Demon Lord was certain he would fight a battle he could not lose.
* * *
The Small Human who promised to arrive at dawn sent no word.
Had I been deceived?
Were humans truly untrustworthy after all?
The golden leopard breathed quietly within the iron-barred cage, acutely sensing every shift in the surroundings.
The breathing of the humans sleeping in the inner quarters showed no change whatsoever.
Golden Leopard could only wait anxiously as time slipped away.
The Small Human had demonstrated too many genuine actions for me to easily abandon hope in deception, so I clung to my faith.
‘I’ll trust once more, one final time.’
Though my hatred toward the human race had accumulated to touch the heavens themselves,
Golden Leopard suppressed it throughout the dawn, waiting for the Small Human.
But instead of the human I expected to arrive, something entirely unexpected came to find me.
Screeeech—
A black blade that cleaved through those accursed iron bars like tofu, bars that had never even scratched despite my claws tearing at them endlessly.
That sword floating in the void clearly bore the scent of the Small Human I’d met that evening.
But.
‘What is this…?’
With the sword floating in midair, I naturally assumed it was some form of flying sword technique humans used.
But it wasn’t.
Not the slightest trace of spiritual energy emanated from the blade.
It felt as though the sword itself moved with its own will and consciousness.
This was truly a peculiar method.
Just as Golden Leopard reached that point in his thoughts.
The voice of the Small Human echoed in my mind.
[Send me home, friend.]
Home?
Golden Leopard tilted my head in confusion.
My mother was a demon beast captured and bred by humans.
Separated from my mother as a cub, I was raised and pastured in the Second Realm Spirit Vein, only to be captured and trained the moment I reached the Second Realm.
Because of this, Golden Leopard had no clear understanding of what “home” meant.
In the meantime.
Whoooosh—!
The black sword vibrated faintly, carving a vertical line through empty space.
Then.
A door appeared where there had been nothing but void.
Golden Leopard’s eyes widened in astonishment.
‘Ah….’
The wind flowing from within the door was rough and unrefined.
The thick stench of blood and rotting flesh.
Simultaneously, a faint miasma spreading outward.
Though I had never smelled such scents before, Golden Leopard felt an inexplicable longing.
At the same time, my drooping tail suddenly stood rigid.
The claws and fangs that had been severed grew back anew.
‘So this is home….’
As wildness rippled through Golden Leopard’s eyes.
The voice came once more.
[Go back. Live freely.]
Why would the Small Human bestow such grace?
Though countless thoughts flashed through my mind, Golden Leopard’s body was not bound by them.
I immediately squeezed through the small door and stepped into that other world.
At the same time.
Through the door Golden Leopard had passed.
Something came rushing in.
* * *
The master of Hyuncheon Holy City.
Jeongmyeong Jonja, the sect leader of Xuantian Sect, snapped my eyes open, feeling a chilling coldness at dawn.
My heart pounded wildly.
My once-solid Mental World screamed and convulsed.
‘What in the world is this….’
The formidable body of a Transcendent Incarnation Master crumpled like tissue paper in an instant.
Simultaneously, the divine sense that had enveloped all of Hyuncheon Castle evaporated, leaving nothing to perceive.
I couldn’t even breathe, and time itself seemed to freeze as the world hardened into a silent still life.
‘What in the world is happening…!’
I tried to unfold my divine techniques in every way possible, but it was all futile.
Everything was simply hollow and void.
It was as if the entire world mocked my resistance, crushing and ridiculing me beneath its weight.
At the same time, a song reached my ears.
[Do you remember the quietness of moonlight~ I cannot forget that night we spent together~]
Sweet and languid. A lovely voice that somehow loosened the heart of anyone who heard it.
[You may have forgotten me~ but since that day, I have not forgotten you for even a moment~]
Huasin Jonja.
Jeongmyeong Jonja, the Hyuncheon Castle Lord, was shocked enough to stop his heart.
Frozen time.
A single fox moving freely within it.
And as the song resonated, tugging at the very heartstrings of a person, Jeongmyeong Jonja’s mind grew increasingly hazy.
‘Surely not… that cannot be. It absolutely cannot be….’
This place was not even at the boundary where the Demon Immortal Realm and the Immortal Celestial Realm touched.
The innermost reaches of the Continent.
One of the central hubs of the Immortal Celestial Realm itself—how could that monster possibly be here….
But Jeongmyeong Jonja saw something far too decisive to deny any longer.
The silver fox strolling through the night sky had a total of nine tails.
A nine-tailed fox.
One of the Twelve Demon Sovereigns, whom the Immortal Celestial Realm officially designated as an existence to be avoided at all costs.
One of the primordial great demons that had existed since ancient times.
‘The Ancestral Blood Sovereign!’
By the time he reached that thought.
A beautiful woman appeared before his eyes like a painting.
“So you were the master of this place?”
Jeongmyeong Jonja lost himself completely at the sight of such a breathtakingly beautiful demon.
Just one gentle smile and one bewitching glance of her eyes.
He felt as though he could tear out his own heart and offer it to her right now.
As the fox’s breath touched his face, Jeongmyeong Jonja’s soul began to tremble.
“Yes, this is how it should be. What a good child.”
Jeongmyeong Jonja thought just before his reason flew away.
‘I cannot fathom why the incarnate form of the Ancestral Blood Sovereign has descended here. How did the Dimensional Barrier even….’
His thoughts ended there.
Jeongmyeong Jonja’s entire soul was torn from his body and slipped into the Nine-tailed Fox’s embrace as a crystalline orb.
“Mmm~ so this was the Taecho Honyeon Continent.”
A place teeming with humans.
If Cheonho desired it right now, I could instantly transform the souls of hundreds of thousands of humans in the Hyeontcheon Holy City.
I could collect them all as crystalline orbs in a single moment.
But.
“No, it’s been nearly fifteen hundred years. Shall I consider this greeting sufficient for now?”
Truly.
I hadn’t expected much, but dimensional passages connecting the Immortal Celestial Realm and the Demon Immortal Realm had been established.
This was a harvest beyond my expectations.
Who would have thought that arrogant human child could accomplish something of such magnitude?
A keen interest flickered in Cheonho’s eyes.
“They’ve lost their escape route. What will they do now?”
Until now, whenever humans found themselves at a disadvantage during warfare, they would flee beyond the Dimensional Barrier without fail.
But now their sanctuary was no longer safe.
Gazing upward at the twilight sky where even the clouds had frozen still.
A sinister smile slowly spread across Cheonho’s lips.

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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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