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Translator/Editor: Dionysus

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◈ Xianxia Cultivation with a Dragon Heart ◈

Chapter 26: Unexpected Karma

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He had been lost in thought the entire way back to his studio apartment.

All kinds of possibilities swirled through his mind, leaving Han Yujin tense as he made his way through streets that should have felt peaceful at night.

'This is reality.'

Knowing he could not start over and would not wake up in bed if he died naturally made him more cautious. That remained true even after he entered his apartment.

He drew the curtains, turned off the lights, and powered on his computer. His inbox was still empty, deepening his unease.

'It probably isn't just negligence or them taking my money and running.'

They had a respectable office in a busy area of central Seoul.

They had not been operating for only a year or two, their reviews were good enough to rule out simple negligence, and the quantity and quality of the reports they had sent him so far had been excellent. It was not as if he had entrusted them with enough money to make him worry about being scammed, either.

Something had clearly happened.

Of course, it might not be that the cult had harmed them, as he feared. Perhaps someone’s family member had been in a sudden accident, leaving them too preoccupied at the hospital to contact anyone.

'No.'

Even then, they would have contacted their clients somehow. Three days had already passed.

'What if they themselves got into an accident?'

That did not seem right, either. Unless every employee at the detective agency had suffered the same accident at once, someone else would have handled matters when the team leader was absent.

'Were they really kidnapped by those cult bastards? Everyone at the agency?'

The more he tried to think about it rationally, the stranger it became. Yet even assuming the cult had done something made no sense.

If they targeted several people rather than just one, no one could know how large the fallout would become. This was not some underdeveloped South American country where gangs ran rampant, and no matter how ignorant those cult bastards were, they could not be incapable of making even that calculation.

'If they did it anyway, they must have had a reason...'

Inevitably, the image of the ghost Wonhui came to mind again.

Wonhui would not even be ten years old yet. There might be no connection at all between Wonhui and Yeongwon High School or the cult. Even if there was some connection, Wonhui's age made it unlikely to be related to this incident.

'Am I being too wary of that cult?'

Objectively, it was only an obscure cult. On Earth After the Apocalypse, there had merely been a powerful ghost at that school.

But subjectively, he could not simply dismiss it.

Wonhui was not someone he could easily brush off as merely a powerful ghost there.

'That's why I commissioned an investigation. Because I thought I might gain Karma by spending money.'

He would earn plenty of money in the future. A place where such a powerful ghost would appear in the future was likely to hold something significant. And the cult behind that particular school had been perfectly suspicious.

That was why he had hired them.

The thought that it might somehow be connected to the emergence and progression of the ghost apocalypse that ended the entire world had only been a remote possibility.

But now, this problem had arisen.

There were too many uncertainties, and he had no way to obtain other information. The more he thought, the more tangled his mind became.

'Let's keep it as simple as possible. What's most important right now?'

No matter what anyone said, his own safety came first.

'Is there a chance I'm in danger?'

If those cult bastards were irrational and reckless enough to target every employee at the detective agency, he could not say he was safe after commissioning that agency to investigate.

The contract would still be at the office, after all. A contract bearing Han Yujin's name, contact number, and even address.

'Are these worries of mine bordering on delusion?'

All that had happened was that the detective agency's daily reports had stopped. And the people they had been investigating were merely members of a cult, not some gang.

But he knew something others did not. He knew how powerful a ghost would come to occupy a place associated with that religion on the Earth After the Apocalypse. That alone gave him at least one reason to be wary.

Perhaps the people from the detective agency were suffering terribly even as he spent this time worrying. It might go beyond mere suffering, with their lives hanging in the balance.

Han Yujin picked up his smartphone.

It was already close to midnight, but after hesitating briefly, he brought up the number of the Special Ability Management Bureau officer assigned to him, his thumb poised over the call button.

“Whew...”

That was roughly how he felt.

It was like suddenly feeling severe chest pain, not knowing whether it was a warning sign of a dangerous heart attack, wondering whether calling emergency services would only create needless trouble and embarrassment, rationally believing that a heart attack was unlikely, yet still feeling too uneasy to let it pass.

'I would rather turn out to be foolish and strange.'

He decisively pressed the call button.

'Even if this turns out to be stupid, it'll be fine. I'll just cringe under the covers a few times later.'

Despite the late hour, the call connected, contrary to his slight concern.

“Hello, this is case officer Kang Mina.”

“This is Han Yujin. I'm sorry for calling so late. It's just that...”

After choosing his words for a moment, Han Yujin began explaining the situation.

* * *

He vaguely explained how he had learned about the cult and why he had commissioned an investigation, saying it was for personal reasons related to an acquaintance. He had no choice but to be equally vague about why he considered the cult dangerous.

Fortunately, the officer assigned to him did not press him. Nor did she react as though he were being absurd, as he had worried she might.

“First, I recommend that you refrain from going out. Please be mindful of your safety.”

“Yes, that's what I intend to do.”

“Please send the materials you mentioned through messenger or email. I'll review them immediately.”

“I'm truly sorry for contacting you so late.”

“Not at all. There must be a reason you are this concerned, Mr. Han Yujin. Even if it turns out to be nothing, there is no harm in being careful.”

Hearing that, the heavy, complicated feelings he had been wrestling with alone seemed to loosen at once.

After thanking her several more times, Han Yujin ended the call and sent all the material he had received from the detective agency online.

Then he waited quietly in his studio apartment, waiting to hear from the officer who had said she would contact him soon.

Just under an hour later, a message finally arrived from her.

- According to the police, two emergency reports were received from the religious building in the materials you sent. They seem to have been dismissed as smartphone malfunctions at the time, but after hearing your story, perhaps they should not have been ignored.

A chill ran down his spine.

Relieved that his judgment had been correct, yet worried about what had happened to the people at the detective agency, Han Yujin asked:

- Is there any other news? Whose phone made those emergency reports, and what condition is that person in now?

- The smartphone belonged to Kang Taehyeok of Owl Private Investigation, but we have no other information yet. Police Special Forces are on their way.

- What? Police Special Forces?

- There are clear signs that people disappeared there. Considering the scale, we cannot rule out the possibility of an ability-related crime.

It was a little surreal.

No matter what, such a swift and decisive response would have been impossible if an official from the Special Ability Management Bureau had not intervened.

Even taking that into account, it was hard to believe. Had the South Korean police always been this fast?

- I'll contact you again when more information comes in.

- Yes, please do.

In any case, knowing that even Police Special Forces had been dispatched put him more at ease. Now, he only needed to be careful in case some crazed cultists were already approaching him.

Although he possessed the power of an A-rank Hunter, he had accumulated far too much experience through his awakened ability to let his guard down.

'An A-rank Hunter is nothing in the cultivation world. Better safe than sorry.'

Feeling somewhat tense yet also like the protagonist of a spy movie, he watched for movement outside. With Spirit Vision Art, he could observe the scenery beyond without opening the curtains, and he could even see through walls to a certain extent.

Fortunately, there were no signs of anything unusual nearby. About thirty more minutes passed.

- They found a large-scale drug manufacturing facility in the building's basement that had not yet been cleared out!

Han Yujin could only stare wide-eyed at the news that arrived through messenger.

'Drugs...?'

He suddenly recalled a story he had seen on an online community about a Healer Hunter being arrested for using drugs, as well as the passing thought he had had while taking a blood test during his awakening examination.

It had been someone else's problem, after all.

At that very moment.

“Uh...?”

Han Yujin reflexively let out a sound as he felt something immensely mysterious and deeply overwhelming.

It was Karma.

And an enormous amount of it, well over three or four times the amount he had originally possessed, was flowing into him from somewhere unknown.

* * *

Unexpectedly accumulating such a massive amount of Karma was certainly a good thing. Arresting the bastards who had operated a drug manufacturing facility large enough to be called “large-scale” in South Korea was certainly a good thing as well.

Perhaps the drug incidents that had been rampant recently would die down sharply because of this.

However.

The people from the detective agency were never found. It was said there was not the slightest trace of them, as if they had evaporated.

Not only them, but the core members of the cult's upper ranks had apparently vanished like ghosts as well.

'Could it be that the detective agency found out about the drugs, so they took care of them all to keep them quiet... but then fled when they realized the trouble would escalate? And the manufacturing facility was discovered while they were trying to move it.'

There was no other way to interpret it.

As several days passed, further facts came to light.

The officer assigned to him also shared important information with Han Yujin. She seemed to regard him as a key person connected to the case, and the information was far more detailed and accurate than what he could learn through the news.

The cult's official name was the Church of the Goddess of Eternity. It also appeared that it had not originated in Korea, but had spread in from China.

The Korean National Police Agency, narcotics investigators, and other government agencies planned to provide information to China's Ministry of Public Security and customs authorities, requesting cooperation.

If they had been manufacturing drugs here, they were surely doing the same in China. Those were the natural measures to take against an international drug crime organization.

Meanwhile, there was still no real danger around Han Yujin.

It seemed that those cult bastards, or rather, those bastards now revealed to be an international drug crime organization, had no intention of taking pointless revenge. With every core member of their upper ranks having fled, they probably did not have the leisure for it, either.

Though he continued his daily life, including his Hunter preliminary training, Han Yujin could not feel entirely at ease.

He wondered whether he would remain safe in the future, could not understand how Wonhui could be so powerful if the cult was merely a drug crime organization, and felt heavy-hearted because the circumstances suggested that everyone from the detective agency was dead.

The officer's words that he would receive a considerable reward as an informant did little to comfort him.

'Yeongwon High might end up changing its name.'

On his way home late that evening, such an idle thought suddenly crossed Han Yujin's mind. Then he realized anew what he needed to do.

If he was anxious about whether he would remain safe in the future, he only needed to grow stronger. If he wanted to properly learn Wonhui's true identity, he only needed to grow stronger. If he wanted to avenge the people from the detective agency, he only needed to grow stronger.

For all of it, he simply needed to grow stronger.

And for the time being, he would not lack Karma.

It was time to resume the cultivation he had halted in the primeval forest.

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