All Chapters of My Cultivation System Runs on Karma: Chapter 91
- Chapter 100
130 chapters
CHAPTER 91: The Blood Hound Bites
The dark stone tunnel leading into the arena was freezing, coated in a thin layer of damp moss that smelled faintly of ammonia and old copper. I dragged my boots across the uneven cobblestones, letting the absolute darkness soothe my eyes for just a few more seconds.At the end of the tunnel, the heavy iron gates ground open.The heat hit me first. It was a suffocating, dry wall of baked air pushing off the crushed white quartz sand of the arena floor. Then came the noise. Tens of thousands of people screaming, stamping their feet, and demanding blood. It was a chaotic, overlapping roar that made the bones in my skull vibrate.I stepped out of the shadows and into the blinding midday sun.The crowd’s roar noticeably dipped when they saw me. A few scattered boos echoed from the higher tiers. They didn't throw silk handkerchiefs or chant my name. I was just the "Merciful Blade"—the boring vagrant who won his matches by tripping people or pushing them out of bounds. To a crowd that paid
CHAPTER 92: Tearing Open Old Scars
The physical toll of stopping my own attacks was brutal. My shoulders burned. The muscles in my back cramped painfully, protesting the unnatural, forced restraint."Why aren't you attacking?" Do-Hyun shrieked, his frustration boiling over.He spat a glob of thick, acidic Qi directly at my face.I snapped my head to the side. The glob of foul Qi sailed past my ear, hitting the white sand and immediately hissing, melting the quartz into a dark, smoking puddle of glass.Using the distraction, Do-Hyun spun, throwing his entire body weight into a massive, crossed-sword strike aimed directly at my chest.I couldn't dodge. The acidic spit had forced my weight onto my back foot.I raised my blunt sword horizontally, gripping the dull blade with my left hand to brace the steel, forming a rigid block.The twin hook-swords crashed into my weapon.The impact was devastating. My boots dug deep trenches in the sand as I was pushed backward. The sheer weight of his blow bent my cheap iron sword inwa
CHAPTER 93: One Inch From Death
The white quartz sand beneath my knee was rapidly turning a dark, wet crimson.The heat of the midday sun baked the arena floor, causing the metallic, heavy scent of my own blood to rise and suffocate the air in my lungs. My right hand remained clamped tightly over my left flank. The jagged laceration throbbed with a sickening, wet rhythm, completely perfectly aligned with the frantic beating of my heart. The serrated teeth of Cheon Do-Hyun’s hook-sword hadn't just cut the skin; they had torn the underlying muscle, violently reopening the half-healed wound left by the Shadow Hall assassins.Every time I drew a breath, the torn muscle fibers ground against each other. It was a blinding, paralyzing agony that radiated straight up into my jaw.Ten paces away, Do-Hyun was laughing.It was a wet, grating sound that scraped against my eardrums like rusted iron. He casually dragged the tip of his right hook-sword through the sand, tracing a lazy, zigzagging line as he circled me. The dark bl
CHAPTER 94: Bleed To Stay Clean
My left hand was wrapped around his wrist. My fingers were digging so deeply into his flesh that his skin was turning a bruised, sickening purple.I wasn't looking at the wound. I wasn't looking at the crowd.I slowly raised my head and looked directly into his eyes.The blinding white light of the pain was gone. The deafening roar of the ten thousand spectators completely vanished, as if thick cotton had been violently shoved into my ears. The suffocating heat of the midday sun faded into a cold, absolute, freezing chill that swept over the white sand.The golden, pure Foundation Establishment Qi in my meridians completely stopped flowing. It didn't drain away; it was violently violently choked out.From the deepest, darkest corner of my soul, a heavy, thick, necrotic black Qi began to flood my veins.It was the shadow. It was the absolute, unyielding malice of the man I used to be.Through my eyes, the world lost its color. The bright blue sky, the vibrant silk banners of the Orthod
CHAPTER 95: Choking Out The Dog
The red light of the system window wasn't just a color. It was a physical weight, a burning brand pressed directly against my retinas.[KARMA LOSS IMMINENT. EXISTENCE ERASURE PROTOCOL INITIATING.]My fingertips were a fraction of an inch from Cheon Do-Hyun’s throat. I could feel the frantic, terrified flutter of his pulse radiating from his skin. The necrotic, freezing shadow Qi of Assassin Number Seven pushed my arm forward, demanding the kill. It was muscle memory carved into my soul over decades of slaughter.But the system was faster.I felt it in my extremities first. The tips of my toes and the edges of my fingers didn't just go numb—they ceased to exist. A horrifying, hollow sensation crept up my wrists as my flesh began to literally fray into transparent dust. The erasure wasn't a threat anymore. It was happening.No.I pictured the suffocating girl in the slums. I pictured the Heavenly Cleansing Herb locked in the vault. If I turned to dust here in the center of this blood-so
CHAPTER 96: Making The Crowd Go Quiet
Cartilage crunched. Warm blood instantly gushed down my face, filling my mouth and blinding my right eye. The pain was a sharp, brilliant flash, but I didn't loosen my grip a single millimeter. I tightened the choke, burying my face against his sweaty shoulder to protect against another strike.We fell to the sand in a tangled, bloody heap.The white quartz ground against my open wounds like coarse salt. Do-Hyun rolled wildly, trying to buck me off. He drove his elbow backward, burying it directly into the gaping laceration on my left side.I let out a muffled groan as the impact sent a shockwave of absolute agony through my nervous system. Black spots danced on the edges of my vision. My muscles trembled, begging to let go, begging to retreat.But I held on.I poured every ounce of my remaining Foundation Establishment Qi into my arms, turning them into unyielding iron bands.The frantic, overlapping roar of the tens of thousands of spectators had morphed into a strange, chaotic dron
CHAPTER 97: Healing In The Dark Tunnel
The dark stone corridor beneath the arena was a world away from the blinding sun and the roaring crowds. The air down here was stagnant, thick with the smell of damp moss, stale sweat, and the sharp, burning scent of medicinal iodine.I leaned my shoulder against the rough, cold granite wall, dragging my heavy boots across the uneven floorboards. With every step, the torn muscles in my left flank ground together. The serrated wounds left by Cheon Do-Hyun’s hook-swords were still bleeding sluggishly, soaking the shredded remnants of my grey robes in dark, sticky patches.I found an empty alcove near the competitor's staging area. It was nothing more than a shallow divot in the stone with a single, flickering oil lantern and a wooden bench.I collapsed onto the bench. The heavy, unsharpened iron sword in my scabbard clattered loudly against the floor.I tipped my head back against the cold wall and closed my eyes. The adrenaline that had kept me moving in the ring was rapidly bleeding o
CHAPTER 98: They Know What You Are
Yoo Jin-Hak. He was one of the senior judges for the Alliance Tournament, and a known loyalist to Nam Gyu-Jin’s faction.Jin-Hak didn't look at Jin-Woo. His sharp, dark eyes were locked entirely on me. He held a small, rolled parchment in his hand. He stopped three paces away, the heavy scent of expensive sandalwood incense rolling off his clothes, completely at odds with the stench of the underground tunnels."A remarkable display in the ring, vagrant," Jin-Hak said. His tone was perfectly polite, but it dripped with thinly veiled contempt. "The crowds are easily swayed by theatrical restraint. But the elders in the high boxes are not so easily fooled."I remained seated on the wooden bench. I didn't bow. I didn't show him the respect an Alliance judge expected."I fought within the rules," I said flatly. "My opponent yielded by unconsciousness. Is there a problem with my victory, Judge Yoo?"Jin-Hak narrowed his eyes. He stepped a single pace closer."The problem, Jin Mu-Kang, is th
CHAPTER 99: He Finally Sees The Truth
The name on the parchment felt heavier than the blunt iron sword strapped to my hip.Han Seol-Woon.I sat on the hard wooden bench in the dim alcove, the flickering light of the oil lantern casting long, jagged shadows against the damp stone walls. The sharp, menthol scent of the green medicinal paste Jin-Woo had slathered over my torn ribs was beginning to fade, replaced by the dull, throbbing ache of half-healed meat."They aren't giving you an inch to breathe," Jin-Woo said. He was pacing the narrow width of the alcove, his boots scuffing the uneven floorboards. He ran a hand through his hair, his brow deeply furrowed. "Han Seol-Woon is not a rogue cultivator. He is a senior instructor for the Southern Mountain Pavilion. He is a man carved entirely out of discipline.""I know the name," I said quietly.I shifted my weight on the bench, gritting my teeth as the tight linen bandages pulled against my raw skin. In my past life as Assassin Number Seven, Han Seol-Woon was a man I had ex
CHAPTER 100: Facing A True Honest Blade
When we first met in the mountain pass, he had challenged me to a duel. I had refused to draw my sword, fighting him with a wooden branch and taking brutal cuts to purposefully lose the fight. He had walked away completely disgusted, convinced I was a weak, pathetic coward who lacked the spine for true martial arts.But he had just watched me choke out a notorious killer. He had seen me absorb agonizing torture without ever retaliating with lethal force.Now, Kang-Hyun was looking at my stance. He was analyzing the way my feet rested against the shifting sand. He was watching the relaxed, dead-silent way my shoulders sloped, and the complete lack of wasted kinetic energy in my breathing.I saw his hands gripping the stone railing in front of him. His knuckles were white.He was mentally mapping a path through my guard. He was playing out a hundred different strikes in his head, trying to find the opening he thought he had exploited back in the mountains.I held his gaze across the vas