My 100th Rebirth a day before the Apocalypse-Chapter 969 - 967 Merchant #841273

Seeing this, Kisha couldn’t help but recall her own past lives, the moments when she had been surrounded by endless waves of zombies. Back then, hope had felt distant, her body and mentality worn down from fighting, dying, and starting over again, as though she were trapped in an unending cycle of torment.

Those nightmarish memories tightened her chest, and her heart ached for the sender of the message and the image, for she understood all too well how desperate their situation truly was.

「On the Other Side」

"Senior Brother... we can’t hold on much longer. The Demon Army is closing in, and we’ve already lost so many of our allies..."

A girl of about sixteen broke down as she spoke, her voice trembling with sobs. "Elder Martial Brother died buying us time to escape. We couldn’t even bring his body back. And so many of the elders... they perished in this war. What are we supposed to do?"

She looked to the man beside her, but he only stared blankly into the distance, as if seeing something no one else could. To the others, he looked utterly hollow; he looked just like a man who had lost all hope.

After all, this Demon invasion had come without warning, and in its wake, countless members of their sect, and their allied sects, had fallen.

Or rather, the disaster hadn’t been sudden at all.

Behind the scenes, a handful of members from various sects had secretly banded together to form a cult, one devoted to resurrecting the Demon Lord. They had betrayed their allegiances and loyalty to their sect, convinced that demons were inherently superior to humans. No matter how far humans cultivated, they believed they would always remain weaker than demons, who were born with stronger physiques and superior spiritual roots.

Driven by that belief, they sought demonic cultivation. Yet trapped in human bodies, they couldn’t simply cross over; the transformation of one’s physique and spiritual roots was no easy feat. Still, they believed the demons possessed methods to grant them what they lacked.

They had already reached the limits of human cultivation. Immortality felt impossibly distant for them, and their bottlenecks unbreakable. But, if they became demonic cultivators, they believed their ceiling would be the heavens themselves, their former limits nothing more than relics of a weaker past.

So they made a pact.

In exchange for resurrecting the Demon Lord, the demons promised them greater power and the chance to surpass their former selves. In return, they became the demons’ spies, agents of chaos scattered throughout the Murim world, sowing destruction while carefully evading the scrutiny of their own sects.

Because of this, it became increasingly difficult for the righteous sects to detect any demonic activity within their territories. Meanwhile, the demonic forces grew stronger in the shadows, and the gate to the Demon Realm slowly weakened, unnoticed by all. The spies embedded within the sects concealed every sign, covering up disturbances before they could draw suspicion.

So when the gate to the Demon Realm finally burst open, the righteous sects across the world were caught completely off guard. Countless smaller sects were slaughtered and were reduced to nothing more than nourishment for the Demon Lord’s growing power. Many never even had the chance to understand what was happening before they were killed.

The mid-tier and major sects had no choice but to form alliances, desperately holding back the demonic tide while they regrouped and searched for a way to fight back. Even then, betrayal struck from within. Cult members who had long since fallen to the demonic path turned their blades on their former comrades, stabbing them in the back at the most critical moments.

"The Rogue Blender" was an inner disciple of one of the largest sects, but he hadn’t started that way. Once, he had been nothing more than an outer sect disciple with no resources, forced to survive under the ruthless, dog-eat-dog rules of his world. Back then, he lived cautiously, never daring to provoke anyone. With his mediocre strength, a single misstep would have meant instant death.

Everything changed when he obtained a system. Only then did he glimpse the light of opportunity and gain the chance to claw his way upward.

Though he appeared unremarkable on the surface, he actually possessed a divine spiritual root, one capable of propelling his cultivation forward in great leaps and bounds. Unfortunately, he had never been given the chance to realize that potential.

Born in the mortal world with no powerful backer, he was looked down upon at every turn. Even when he was brought into the path of cultivation, the senior who recruited him simply dumped him into the outer sect and promptly forgot about him.

After countless twists and turns, and after growing stronger through the system, he believed he might finally reach immortality—the ultimate goal every cultivator chased. But before that dream could take shape, the Demon invasion erupted without warning, catching everyone off guard.

The system immediately issued him a mission: fight on the front lines and kill as many demonic creatures and demonic cultivators as possible. To him, it felt no different from marching straight toward death.

Demonic cultivators were far stronger than righteous ones. Their advantage lay not only in their superior physiques, but in the very nature of their power. Their chaotic spiritual energy originated from chaos itself—born of savagery and slaughter. As a result, their techniques focused on berserk states, raw strength, and physical enhancement.

Human cultivators, on the other hand, relied largely on mystic arts—formations, spells, elemental techniques, and intricate skills. While these arts were complex and visually dazzling, filled with elaborate movements and refined techniques, their lethality often paled in comparison to the brutal efficiency of demonic arts.

Only sword cultivators could truly face demonic creatures and demonic cultivators head-on—and even then, victory was never guaranteed. That was one of the main reasons so many cultivators eventually turned to demonic arts and switched allegiances.

Yet within the system mall and the Sales Channel existed Mystic Arts just as lethal as demonic techniques. The problem was that most of these powerful cultivation manuals had vanished long ago. During the great war between the Immortals and the Demons thousands of years earlier, those manuals were either lost to time—or deliberately destroyed.

Many believed the demonic forces had erased them out of fear. If those techniques resurfaced, the disciples of once-illustrious sects and ancient families might rise again and wipe the demons out for good. And so, what remained in the cultivation world were only the weaker, diluted arts—mediocre remnants compared to the devastating techniques that had been lost to history.

As a system holder, "The Rogue Blender" had the potential to obtain those lost cultivation manuals. The problem was that he didn’t have enough system points—and those ancient manuals, long lost to time, could now only be purchased through the Achievement Shop. Worse still, he hadn’t even unlocked access to that shop yet.

Even so, the cultivation manuals and arts he acquired from the system mall were far from weak. They allowed him to grow rapidly, becoming much stronger in a short period of time. Because of that, he was hailed as a rising star and eventually sent to the front lines to fight the demons.

But facing a demonic general was far more than he could handle.

That was how he ended up in his current predicament—surrounded by the bodies of hundreds who had fallen, with only a handful left alive. And even those survivors were barely holding on. To make matters worse, he had exhausted most of his remaining system points, spending them on supplies in a desperate attempt to keep his people alive.

"Don’t cry... it’s not like we’ve lost yet," The Rogue Blender said to his junior sister, his voice hoarse.

Yet as he spoke, his eyes dimmed. Kisha still hadn’t responded to his message. It felt as though his heart had sunk into an abyss, a cold certainty creeping in that this might truly be the end for them.

Ding!

[You have a new message.]

____

Hello everyone! I’m really sorry for the sparse updates lately. Quite a lot has happened, and I’ve been extremely busy.

I just wanted to give you a heads-up that from December 15 to 20, I may not be able to update at all. I’ve been invited to attend the WSA award ceremony, and I’ve heard that the website may be blocked there. I’ll try to find a workaround so I can still write and update if possible, but I wasn’t able to prepare a stockpile in advance due to everything that’s been going on.

That said, after December 20, I’ll be doing mass releases. It may not be a huge amount, but I hope it can make up for the missed updates.

Thank you so much for all the love and support, especially to my most loyal and supportive readers! 💛

And thank you for the gifts and the Golden Ticket as well. I truly appreciate them, and they made me very happy!