All Chapters of My Cultivation System Runs on Karma: Chapter 81
- Chapter 90
130 chapters
CHAPTER 81: Bleeding On The Palace Steps
The green light pierced the pale morning sky like a spear. It pulsed with a heavy, steady rhythm, matching the frantic, failing beat of my own heart.[Time Limit: 14 Minutes, 45 Seconds.]The yellow text of the system window flashed in front of my eyes, blurring into a smear of color. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to clear the dark grey patches eating at the edges of my vision. Every single breath I pulled into my lungs felt like inhaling a handful of crushed glass. The deep, jagged cut on my left shoulder burned. Hot blood ran down my arm, dripping off my fingertips and pooling on the pristine white marble of the royal courtyard.I didn't have a sword. I didn't have the energy to spark even a flicker of my golden Yang Qi. My dantian was an empty, cracked well, drained completely dry by the fight with the blind monk. My muscles trembled violently, screaming for rest that I could not give them.If I stopped moving now, Kang So-Mi would die suffocating in the dark slums, waiting for a
CHAPTER 82: The Imperial Envoy's Trap
"Stop the array," I rasped, taking a heavy, limping step into the room.Standing just ten feet from the altar, her back completely straight, was a woman. She wore the immaculate, dark blue uniform of a Head Court Lady. Her hair was pulled back into a tight, flawless bun, held in place by a single silver hairpin.Yoo Mi-Ra.She turned slowly to face me. Her face was beautiful, sharp, and entirely devoid of emotion. She looked at the bloody mess of my clothes, the dagger sticking out of my leg, and the desperate, hollow look in my eyes."The Crown Prince is undergoing his cleansing, vagrant," Mi-Ra said. Her voice was quiet, but it carried a terrifying, heavy authority that filled the massive room. "To interrupt the ritual is high treason. To step foot in this room is death. Choose how you want to leave. On your feet, or in pieces.""I need that root," I choked out. I took another step forward. My boots slipped slightly on the polished floor.Mi-Ra didn't draw a sword. She raised her ha
CHAPTER 83: Trading Life For A Portal
The crushing weight of Im Tae-Rin’s aura did not feel like wind or fire. It felt like the bottom of the ocean.The heavy oak beams of the ceiling groaned. The glowing runic circles carved into the floorboards began to crack, the stone splintering under the sheer, unadulterated pressure of a Peak Transcendent master. The air in the ritual chamber grew so dense I couldn't draw it into my lungs.I stayed on one knee. My left hand was pressed flat against the cold black stone of the altar. My right hand, a mangled mess of wire-cuts and blisters, gripped the shriveled, glowing fragment of the Heavenly Cleansing Herb.It was warm. It pulsed against my bleeding palm like a second heartbeat."I must admit," Tae-Rin said smoothly, his golden robes untouched by the dust and blood painting the room. He took a slow, measured step toward me. "I expected the Commander to mount your head on the outer gates. You are far more resilient than your filthy clothes suggest."I didn't speak. I couldn't. I w
CHAPTER 84: The Hall Master Is Waiting
The clay tiles shattered under my weight. My body violently tumbled down the incline, every impact grinding my fractured ribs into my lungs. I rolled off the edge, falling another twenty feet before slamming hard onto the manicured grass of the courtyard.I bounced once, rolling to a dead stop against the base of a stone statue.For a long time, there was only the high-pitched ringing in my ears and the warm, wet feeling of blood soaking my torn grey robes.I didn't want to open my eyes. I wanted to sink into the dark. It was so incredibly heavy.Forty-five percent viability. Sufficient for target Kang So-Mi.The words burned in my mind.I forced my eyes open. My vision was completely blurry, swimming with dark grey spots. Above me, the top floor of the Central Pagoda was a roaring inferno of purple fire and black smoke. Shouts and the pounding of heavy boots echoed from the outer gates. The Emperor’s Royal Guard was swarming the courtyard.I lay in the wet grass. I couldn't stand. I
CHAPTER 85: Return To The Shack
The rain hammered relentlessly against the thin tin roof of the shack. It was a deafening, metallic drumming that completely drowned out the sounds of the surrounding Beggar District. Water poured through the gaping hole where the door used to be, washing over the splintered floorboards and soaking into my torn, blood-stained clothes.I lay flat on my stomach. The mud from the alleyway was smeared across my face, stinging the fresh cuts on my cheek.The small, dark room smelled strongly of damp rotting wood, cheap straw, and the sharp, undeniable metallic tang of fresh blood. It completely overpowered the faint scent of sulfur that usually hung in the slums.I stared at the empty bed. The thin, ragged blanket was crumpled in the corner, soaked in a dark, spreading stain.My heart, already struggling to beat in my ruined chest, seemed to completely stop."So-Mi," I choked out.The name scraped against my raw throat like sandpaper. Blood bubbled past my lips, spilling onto the wet wood
CHAPTER 86: The Hall Master's Threat
"You found a way to rewrite your own death," he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, fascinated whisper. "And instead of using that miracle to conquer the Murim, you used it to run to the Imperial Capital. My spies told me a vagrant burned the Alliance vault and hijacked the Envoy's carriage. I didn't believe it was you until I felt the spatial tear open in this alleyway."He reached down and grabbed a fistful of my wet hair.He violently yanked my head back, forcing me to look up at him. The muscles in my neck screamed."Open your hand," he commanded.I kept my right fist tightly clenched against my chest. The glowing fragment of the Heavenly Cleansing Herb pulsed warmly against my skin. It was the only thing keeping my mind anchored. I had sacrificed ten years of my life and every drop of my karma for this root."No," I choked out, blood coating my teeth.The Hall Master sighed. He let go of my hair.Before I could drop my head back to the floor, he stomped his heavy boot direct
CHAPTER 87: The Dark Core Awakens
The darkness wasn't empty. It was thick, viscous, and tasted of iron.My heart had stopped. I knew this because the silence in my chest was absolute. There was no rhythm, no thumping against my ribs, no familiar, frantic heat of life. There was only the cold.But I was still here. I was conscious, suspended in a void that felt like being submerged in freezing oil.Then, the red window flared, casting a jagged, pulsating light across the nothingness.[Initiating Unorthodox Protocol: Demonic Core Forging.]I didn't have a choice. I didn't have a conscience left to argue with. I looked at the red text and I reached out with a mind that had already shredded itself to save a child.Accept.The reaction was instantaneous and agonizing.A bolt of pure, freezing violet lightning slammed into the center of my chest. It didn't heal my flesh; it shattered it. The remaining bones in my ribcage didn't just mend—they fused into something sharp, dark, and unnatural. My blood, which had pooled into a
CHAPTER 88: A Changed Little Girl
The hall filled with the wet sound of tearing flesh and the metallic clang of dropped blades. Assassins fell, clutching their throats, their eyes wide with terror as they watched their own weapons betray them.I walked forward, stepping over their twitching bodies. The violet light in my eyes grew brighter, casting long, monstrous shadows against the stone walls.I reached the heavy, iron-bound door that led down to the Blood Pit.It was locked with a complex, internal mechanism. I didn't bother picking it. I placed my right hand against the iron and focused on the Demonic Core. I didn't just push the door open—I rotted it.The iron turned to red dust under my palm. The lock mechanism groaned, the metal melting like wax, and the massive door collapsed inward.I descended the stairs.The air grew hot, thick with the scent of charcoal and sulfur. The Blood Pit was a massive, circular cavern carved into the rock beneath the river. In the center of the room, held within a shimmering, tran
CHAPTER 89: Fake Smile And Broken Bones
The midday sun beat down on the Murim Alliance arena, baking the crushed white quartz sand until the air shimmered with dry, suffocating heat. The smell of the stadium was a sickening cocktail of spilled cheap wine, stale sweat from the tens of thousands of spectators, and the sharp, metallic tang of fresh blood baking into the dirt.I stood on the competitor’s balcony, leaning my forearms against the rough, sun-warmed granite railing. My cheap, unsharpened iron sword rested heavily against my hip. I wasn't watching the crowd. My eyes were locked entirely on the center of the ring.I needed to win this tournament. I needed the Heavenly Cleansing Herb waiting in the Alliance vault. In a dark, damp alleyway miles away from this cheering mob, a little girl was suffocating on a poison that was slowly turning her blood to sludge. Her time was running out, and by extension, so was mine.But right now, I had to watch the golden boy of the Righteous Faction go to work.Nam Gyu-Jin stepped ont
CHAPTER 90: Monster Dressed In White
Min-Seok let out a high-pitched, agonizing scream. He collapsed flat onto the sand, his left arm completely useless, hanging at a horrific, unnatural angle."To leave a rogue with the strength to harm others is a sin against the heavens," Gyu-Jin continued softly, quoting the ancient texts of the Mountain Sect as if he were delivering a sermon.He raised his pristine white boot and drove it directly down onto Min-Seok’s right kneecap.The joint exploded. The joint didn't just break; it was pulverized into bone dust beneath the reinforced sole of Gyu-Jin’s boot.Min-Seok couldn't even scream this time. His eyes rolled back into his head, his body convulsing violently in the dirt as his nervous system completely overloaded from the blinding pain. He vomited a mixture of bile and blood onto Gyu-Jin’s boots.I couldn't breathe.In my past life, I was Assassin Number Seven. I had killed hundreds of men, women, and targets of all backgrounds. I was a monster who lived in the dark.But I kil