All Chapters of My Cultivation System Runs on Karma: Chapter 121
- Chapter 130
130 chapters
CHAPTER 121: Leaving A Warning Note Behind
The bitter wind bled through the shattered window frame, biting into the fresh, tight scar tissue across my back.I stood in the center of the ruined inn room, the heavy iron sword resting in my right hand. The sweet, lingering scent of Jang Mu-Rak’s black tobacco was already fading, replaced by the damp, muddy smell of the alleyway below. He was gone, but the promise he left behind hung in the air like a guillotine waiting to drop.I walked over to the small, splintered remains of the wooden table. A cheap clay inkwell had survived the fight, sitting precariously near the edge, alongside a frayed bamboo brush and a few scraps of coarse rice paper.I set my sword down. I picked up the brush, dipping the dry, stiff bristles into the dark ink. My hand was steady, backed by the heavy, stabilized hum of my Foundation Establishment Qi, but my mind was racing through a hundred different horrific scenarios.If Mu-Rak had found me, he could easily find Baek Jin-Woo. He could find the apotheca
CHAPTER 122: Walking Into The Dark Woods
The transition was immediate and jarring. The overwhelming noise, the smell of roasted pork, and the bright lantern light of the capital were instantly severed. The air out here was freezing, carrying the sharp, bitter scent of pine needles, wet earth, and untamed wildness.I stood up, brushing the dirt from my knees.Ahead of me lay the Black Ridge Mountains—a massive, desolate expanse of jagged peaks and dense, unforgiving forests. It was a place where merchants rarely traveled, and where the Alliance held zero jurisdiction. It was a graveyard of ancient trees and deep ravines.It was the perfect place to set a trap.I began to walk.For the first two miles, I maintained my absolute stealth. I slipped through the dense treeline like a ghost, ensuring I left no broken twigs, no scuffed dirt, and no lingering scent. I wanted to put enough distance between myself and the capital so that no stray woodcutter or traveling merchant would get caught in the crossfire.The terrain grew steepe
CHAPTER 123: Dropping Down From The Cliff
The five shadows didn't scream as they fell. They didn't shout a battle cry. They descended from the jagged cliffs of the ravine in absolute, terrifying silence, cutting through the freezing mountain air like falling stones.I didn't look up. I didn't need to. I felt the sharp, sudden displacement of the air pressure above me.I sat on the moss-covered boulder, my breathing perfectly regulated. At the exact fraction of a second before the first poisoned dagger pierced the top of my skull, I moved.I didn't stand up. I threw my entire upper body backward, letting gravity pull my shoulders toward the dirt. My spine arched violently.The first assassin landed exactly where my head had been, his blackened steel dagger sinking five inches deep into the solid stone of the boulder. The sheer kinetic force of his descent cracked the rock in half.Before his boots even settled on the gravel, the other four assassins hit the ravine floor in a perfect circle around me.They didn't pause to recov
CHAPTER 124: Poisoned Dagger In The Back
The other three capitalized instantly.They rushed me. A flurry of blackened steel filled my vision. I parried frantically, using my sword, my broken scabbard, and my bare forearms. Sparks rained down on the dirt.The physical toll was catastrophic. Holding back my strength was like trying to stop a runaway carriage with my bare hands. Every time I blocked, I had to absorb the entire kinetic shockwave into my own joints to prevent my counter-force from snapping their wrists. My shoulders burned. My lungs heaved, dragging in huge, desperate gulps of the freezing mountain air.Another shallow cut opened across my right thigh. Then another across my ribs.I was bleeding. The poison was constantly entering my system, forcing me to continually burn my golden Qi just to stay conscious. My vision began to blur at the edges.I couldn't keep fighting a defensive war. I had to put them down, and I had to do it now.I let out a raw, guttural roar, letting my golden Qi flare out of my body. The d
CHAPTER 125: Crushing Their Hidden Suicide Pills
The freezing mud of the ravine floor seeped into my clothes, but it was nothing compared to the absolute, terrifying cold blooming in my left shoulder.The third assassin’s dagger was buried three inches deep into my flesh, scraping against my newly fused collarbone. The highly concentrated nightshade extract didn't just burn; it felt like jagged glass grinding through my veins. My heart stuttered violently against my ribs. The muscles in my chest seized, paralyzed by the lethal dose meant to stop a man in seconds."Got him," the assassin whispered above me. The sound was muffled, as if I were underwater.My vision strobed between blinding white flashes and the pitch-black canopy of the pine trees above. My assassin instincts—the cold, pragmatic voice of Number Seven—screamed at me. This is what mercy buys you. You die in the mud while they walk away.[Warning: Severe toxin detected.][Vital signs failing. Cardiac arrest imminent.]The blue system text flickered frantically in my fadi
CHAPTER 126: Red Eyes On The Cliff
I gritted my teeth, forcing the shadow back down into the dark. I raised my bare right arm, turning my forearm outward to catch the descending strike.The curved hook-blade bit deeply into my forearm, scraping against the bone.The pain was blinding, white-hot, and absolute. But the blade stopped.The assassin's eyes widened in sheer disbelief as he hung in the air, his weapon lodged in my flesh. I didn't give him a chance to pull it out.I twisted my right arm, trapping the blade against my bone, and stepped forward. I drove my right knee brutally upward, burying it deep into his solar plexus.The air exploded from his lungs. His grip on the hook-blade vanished. He folded over my knee, completely paralyzed by the concussive force to his diaphragm.I grabbed the back of his neck, dragged him downward, and drove my right elbow into the back of his skull.He collapsed face-first into the dirt, entirely motionless.The ravine fell into absolute, deafening silence.The only sound was the
CHAPTER 127: Catching Iron With Two Fingers
The freezing mountain wind howled through the narrow, jagged walls of the ravine, carrying the sharp scent of crushed pine and the metallic stench of my own blood.I remained on one knee in the freezing mud, my right hand gripping the rough wooden hilt of my dented iron sword. The muscles in my arm screamed in protest, trembling violently from sheer exhaustion. My left shoulder was a numb, throbbing block of absolute agony where the nightshade poison still fought a losing battle against my depleted golden Qi.I stared up at the eastern cliff, fifty feet above.The silhouette stood perfectly still at the very edge of the precipice. Long, flowing crimson robes snapped wildly in the bitter wind, a violent splash of color against the pale, silver moonlight. But it was the eyes that froze the breath in my lungs. Two points of vivid, liquid crimson stared down into the dark ravine.It wasn't the cold, mechanical killing intent of the Shadow Hall. It wasn't the arrogant, suffocating pressure
CHAPTER 128: They Are Burning The Village
"You stepped to kill," Hwa Ryeon said, stopping just beyond the reach of my sword. She tilted her head, her red eyes burning into my soul. "But at the very last fraction of a second, you intentionally broke your own momentum. You violently forced your body to strike with the flat of the blade instead of the edge. You are actively fighting your own instincts. It’s fascinating. It’s like watching a starving tiger force itself to eat grass.""What do you want?" I demanded, my chest heaving. The nightshade poison was creeping back into my shoulder, a dull, fiery ache reminding me of the ticking clock on my life.Hwa Ryeon smiled. It was a terrifying, beautiful curve of pale lips."Boredom," she replied simply. "The Alliance tournament was a pathetic farce. I came to the capital hoping to see some genuine slaughter, but it was just children waving shiny swords and preaching about honor. But you... you are a massive, bleeding contradiction."She raised her right hand.I didn't think. The ne
CHAPTER 129: Choking On Violet Smoke
The steep, rocky descent from the ravine was an absolute nightmare.Every time my right boot hit the loose mountain gravel, a sharp, violent shockwave traveled straight up my spine, rattling my skull. My left arm hung completely useless at my side, dead weight dragging me down. The nightshade poison was trapped in my shoulder, contained by the last, flickering dregs of my golden Foundation Establishment Qi, but the sheer effort of holding it back made my vision swim with black spots.I didn't stop. I couldn't.Through the dense, black canopy of the pine trees, the sky was bleeding a harsh, angry orange. The smell of burning pine pitch and thatched roofs grew thicker with every step, choking the freezing mountain air.“Help! Please!”The distant, terrified scream of a woman cut through the howling wind.[System Warning: Mass casualties detected in proximity.][Indirect karmic link established. Intervention required to prevent catastrophic debt accumulation.]The blue text hovered stubb
CHAPTER 130: Knives At Their Throats
It came from the center of the group. The leader of the squad stepped out from behind a kneeling, terrified woman. He grabbed a handful of her hair, violently yanking her head back, and pressed the cold edge of his poisoned dagger directly against her exposed throat.The woman sobbed, her hands desperately gripping her young son, pulling him tight against her chest."Look at the state of you," the leader mocked, his voice muffled behind the silver mask. He stared at my hanging left arm, the blood dripping from my right hand, and the heavy, ragged heaving of my chest. "The great Merciful Blade. You look like a slaughtered pig."I stood twenty paces away, the heat of the burning cabins blistering the skin on my face. My grip on my iron sword was slipping, my palm completely slick with sweat and my own blood."Let them go," I rasped. My voice sounded hollow and broken, barely audible over the roaring fire.The six assassins laughed. It was a cold, mechanical sound."Let them go?" the lea