All Chapters of My Cultivation System Runs on Karma: Chapter 21
- Chapter 30
130 chapters
CHAPTER 21: The Father's Debt
The scream did not sound like a memory. It was high, thin, and vibrated with a terror so raw it felt like a physical blade serrating the lining of my chest. “Papa!”The word struck me with more force than any internal blow I had ever taken. I felt the golden Qi in my dantian—the very foundation of my new life—shudder and crack. [Warning! Emotional Integrity Compromised.][Existence Stability: 78%... 74%...][Host is entering a state of 'Karmic Dissonance'.]“Listen to that,” Han Seol-Woon whispered. He didn't move. He stood in the shallow, freezing water of the cave, his thin, wire-like sword trailing in the stream. The water rippled around his boots, stained a murky grey by the silt he had stirred up. “The sound of a soul being pulled through the eye of a needle. It’s the most beautiful thing the Shadow Hall ever produced, Seven. And it’s your blood doing the singing.”I looked at the shards of the black jade heart at my feet. They were no longer solid. They had melted into a visco
CHAPTER 22: Bloodline’s Final Cry
The golden light flared between us, turning the freezing water of the cave into white steam. Seol-Woon let out a choked sound, his eyes bulging as the pure, Orthodox-aligned energy washed over his dark, twisted meridians. It was like pouring holy water into a pit of vipers. His muscles seized. The wire-sword fell from his numb fingers, still lodged in my shoulder. I didn't stop. I drove my forehead into his face. His nose shattered. He fell backward into the water, gasping for breath, his dark Qi completely suppressed by the golden resonance of my breakthrough. He wasn't dead, but he wouldn't be standing for a long time. I reached back and grabbed the hilt of the wire-sword protruding from my shoulder. With a grunt, I ripped it out. [Warning! Severe Blood Loss.][Option: Convert 100 Karma to heal?]“Later,” I muttered. I didn't look back at Seol-Woon. I ran. I ignored the pain in my shoulder. I ignored the blood soaking my clothes. I followed the pulsing red light, my boots spl
CHAPTER 23: Golden Soul Reborn
The sensation of boiling was not just heat; it was the sound of a thousand screaming souls trying to crawl into my pores. The crimson lake of the Demonic Cult swallowed me whole. The liquid was thick, like warm oil, reeking of iron and ancient rot. It filled my mouth, my nose, and my lungs, heavy with the weight of the ritual’s malice. My skin didn't just burn—it felt as if it were being peeled back by invisible, microscopic hooks. I was sinking. The dark obsidian pillar where Seol-Ah lay vanished above the churning surface of the blood. [Existence Stability: 8%... 5%...][Warning: Fatal Damage Sustained.][Karma: -338. Existence Erasure Imminent.]The numbers in my vision were flickering, dying out like embers in a rainstorm. I had spent everything. I had thrown my golden Qi, my only weapon, into the wire-sword to snap the soul-thread. In the eyes of the Heavens, I had balanced the ledger with a suicidal gamble, but the math was still failing. I had traded my life for a fragment o
CHAPTER 24: Abyssal Princess Rises
They turned and sprinted toward the side passage, Ye-Rin shielding Seol-Ah with her own body. I turned back to the Sentinels. The giants were fast, but they were machines. I was an assassin with the power of a saint. I didn't use the wire-sword to cut them. I used it as a needle. I blurred past the first Sentinel, my movement so fast it left a golden afterimage. I tapped the center of its chest plate with the tip of the wire-sword. [Skill Activated: Judgment Eye.][Weakness Identified: Soul-Core.]I didn't strike with strength. I sent a pulse of pure, golden Qi into the core. The giant froze. The green light in its eyes turned gold, then shattered. The heavy hell-iron armor collapsed into a pile of junk, the trapped soul inside finally finding peace as it dissolved into the air. Two more. I dismantled them in seconds. It was a dance I had performed a thousand times in my past life, but back then, I did it to create corpses. Now, I was doing it to destroy anchors. But Hwa Ryeon
CHAPTER 25: Shadow Hall's Grip
I was sitting in a chair. My wrists and ankles were bound not by rope, but by cold, skin-tight bands of Spirit-Suppressing Iron. Every time I tried to flex my muscles, the iron pulsed, sending a jarring vibration through my bones that scattered my Qi before it could even form. My golden dantian felt like a sun trapped behind a thick, leaden curtain.The room was silent, save for the sound of water hitting a stone basin somewhere in the shadows. The air was dry and smelled of old parchment, burnt wax, and the faint, unmistakable scent of Silent Needle poison—a floral, cloying sweetness that made my lungs feel half their size."Don't bother, Seven. The more you struggle, the deeper the needles sink into your nervous system."The voice was soft, melodic, and utterly devoid of warmth. I forced my heavy eyelids open. Han Soo-Yeon was sitting on a low table across from me, idly swinging her legs. She had removed her mask, revealing a face that was hauntingly delicate, with high cheekbones
CHAPTER 26: Divine Overload
"What are you doing?!" Soo-Yeon screamed, her cat-like eyes wide with horror. She lunged forward, a handful of needles ready to strike.I didn't wait. The iron shattered. Fragments of the cursed metal flew across the room like shrapnel. One caught Soo-Yeon in the shoulder, throwing her backward into the drawers. Another sliced through the Hall Master’s desk, buried deep in the wood. I stood up. My wrists and ankles were charred, the skin blackened and smoking. My vision was a blur of red and gold. Every nerve in my body was screaming, a cacophony of agony that made the nightshade poison feel like a tickle. [Existence Stability: 14%.][Meridians: Fractured.][Status: Divine Overload.]I looked at the void behind the desk. The darkness was receding, forced back by the sheer, blinding light emanating from my skin. For the first time, I saw a hand—a pale, withered hand gripping the edge of the desk.The Hall Master was old. He was just a man. "You... fool," the Master hissed, his voi
CHAPTER 27: River of Mercy
As Baek Jin-Woo’s hand released mine, I didn't feel betrayal. I felt the weight of a final, desperate chance. The wind whipped past my ears, cold and sharp, as I plummeted toward the churning, grey rapids of the Han River. Above me, the bridge was a silhouette of clashing steel and screaming men. The pristine white of the Mount Hua robes blurred into the oily black leather of the Shadow Hall."Mi-Ra!" I roared, but the sound was swallowed by the wind.The wooden post she was tied to had snapped under the weight of the crossfire. She was falling ahead of me, her grey traveler’s robes flapping like the broken wings of a bird. Her eyes were fixed on mine, wide and glassy with a terror so deep it transcended sound. She wasn't even screaming anymore. She was just waiting for the impact.I hit the water first. It wasn't like falling into a liquid; it was like slamming into a wall of frozen iron. The impact shoved the last bit of air from my lungs. My charred, smoking wrists hit the surface
CHAPTER 28: Chipped Steel Truth
He saw my face and tried to slam the door. I jammed my foot into the frame. "Jae-Hyun. It's Seven.""Seven is dead!" he hissed, his voice trembling. "The Hall Master announced it! You died at the northern pass!""I got better," I rasped. "Let us in. She’s hurt."Jae-Hyun looked at Mi-Ra, then at my charred wrists. He sighed, a long, weary sound, and stepped back, allowing us to enter. The hut was cramped, filled with the sharp, bitter scent of drying herbs and the earthy smell of boiling tonics. A single tallow candle flickered on a wooden table. "Sit," Jae-Hyun commanded, pointing to a low bench. He didn't waste time with questions. He began to work on Mi-Ra first, cleaning the cuts on her arms and legs with a stinging, clear liquid. I sat on the floor, my back against the wall, watching the door. "The Spirit-Suppressing Iron," Jae-Hyun muttered, looking at my wrists. He didn't touch them. "How are you even walking? That stuff is designed to turn your meridians to ash if you res
CHAPTER 29: The Final Audit
The sky above the Merchant District was no longer blue. It was a bruised, oily purple, choked by the pillars of black fire rising from the city’s heart. The air tasted of sulfur and incinerated silk, a thick, suffocating heat that made every breath feel like inhaling molten lead.I ran. My boots hammered against the scorched earth of the Beggar District, kicking up plumes of grey ash. Each step sent a jolt of pure, unadulterated agony through my fractured meridians. The Berserker of Virtue skill was a parasite, feeding on the ten years of life I had just surrendered to the system. My Qi wasn't golden anymore; it was a dark, violent crimson that licked at my skin like a dying man’s fever.[Existence Stability: 9%.][Warning: Life-force depleting at 1.5% per minute.][Time until Sunset: 52 Minutes.]“Mu-Kang! Wait!” The shout came from behind, but I didn't stop. I couldn't. I clutched the leather-bound ledger to my chest, the cold iron key Seol-Woon had given me digging into my palm.
CHAPTER 30: Vengeance Reborn
“I’m here, So-Mi,” I said. I stopped five paces away. I looked at Hwa Ryeon. Underneath the monstrous transformation, I could still see the girl who had played with my daughter’s soul. The arrogance was gone, replaced by a hollow, terrifying void. She wasn't a princess anymore; she was a puppet.“You don’t want this book, Hwa Ryeon,” I said, my voice low. “It’s a list of cowards and thieves. It won't give you power. It’ll only show you how much of your own world is already rotten.”“The Abyss doesn't care about rot!” she hissed, the shadows of her wings lashing out like whips. “It only cares for the key! Give it to me!”I held out the book. As she reached for it, her talons trembling with greed, I didn't let go. I grabbed her wrist. The red Berserker Qi and her violet Abyssal fire collided with a violent crack of thunder. The stone battlements beneath us shattered, a web of cracks spreading through the wall.“You… you dare?” Hwa Ryeon roared, her wings beating the air, trying to li