The Urban Medical Martial Immortal - Chapter 19: The State of Martial Arts

A tree of 10,000 flowers, the world is the door.
The spells change a lot, but the hearts of the people are unchanged.

- Description from Uukanshu translation

“Who would have thought that one ordinary review could instantly fuck your life? Definitely not me”******Luke was your average teenage boy—with an unhealthy obsession for light novels.After finishing a new read titled “The Hero’s Obsessed Harem,” he jumped online to post a review. His biggest issue? The so-called “hero” kept stealing other men’s love interests, and somehow, the story praised him for it.Right after posting the review, he got an odd reply from the author:“You think my book is flawed? I’ll make you regret that.”Luke brushed it off as a salty writer who couldn’t handle criticism—until everything went dark.The next time he opened his eyes, he was in the body of Riven Von Grave, the fourth son of the low-ranking Grave baron family—an irrelevant extra in The Hero’s Obsessed Harem. Riven was a forgotten character, engaged to three duke’s daughters since childhood, only for all three to abandon him for the so-called hero. And to make matters worse, he was fated to die in a war against demons—utterly forgotten.But Luke isn’t having any of it.Screw fate.Screw the plot.And most of all, screw the author who threw him into this mess.Armed with a mysterious system and pure spite, Riven is going to rewrite his destiny, and win back his fiancées as well.But with every change Riven makes, he changes the story, and pulls a calamity bigger than the demons toward them. What will he do when he realizes the impending doom, will he be able to fix his own mistakes?

Welcome! If you want to jump in without any spoilers, feel free. Otherwise, here's a story primer, with a list of more specifics on what to expect from my work further below.Our story follows a fallen knight haunted by his past, in a world afflicted by war and supernatural wounds. Alken is the Headsman of Seydis, an executioner tasked by the divine powers of his homeland to hunt dark sorcerers, warlords, and traitors of all varieties, lest they drag the world into calamity.Once a paladin, this role ill suits him. Forced to cross lines that shake his beliefs, tempted by dark forces, and seen as an ill omen wherever he wanders, his path is often a bloody one. The longer he spends in the shadows of his world, the more he comes to realize just how many have been disenfranchised by the existent order. During his lonely battles through a land haunted by the restless dead and ancient magics, his journey becomes increasingly strange and personal.Enter a realm where the dead stir in every shadow and brooding demigods wage a millennia long war for a ruined heaven, where blessed knights wield gilded flames and sorcerers battle with weapons forged of their own souls. Enter a world of faustian alchemists, of saintly demons, and of time-weary elves.From Oathbreaker you can expect— A setting heavily inspired by Forgotten Realms, Planescape, Fromsoft games, and authors such as Michael Moorcock and Kentauro Miura. — A first person POV from an older protagonist who already knows a lot about his world’s history and cultures, who shares this information with the reader as it becomes relevant.— A mix of action adventure and quieter moments where the focus is on character development. Lore is shared piecemeal, usually only as it relates to a particular arc or character beat.— A heavy focus on mystery, both with the setting and the protagonist. The main character’s backstory isn’t shared up front, and a lot of the narrative involves learning about him a bit at a time, either from his own narration or other characters interacting with him.— A semi-soft magic system where many mages manifest unique powers tied to their own soul, or gain unique powers through eldritch pacts.— Romantic elements. These don’t crop up much until later in the story.— A variety of supernatural beings, such as elves, vampires, gargoyles, chimera, and trolls. Many are familiar, some are not, and most of the familiar ones have my own twists put on them.—Nobledark fantasy. This means that the world is often themed around tragedy and horror, but it’s not dedicated to being gritty. There are elements of high fantasy intermixed with the scarier stuff.—Episodic arcs. Each story arc usually has a specific locale and antagonist or set of antagonists, but certain overarching plots tie them together.— A long running narrative. I don’t have a specific projection of how long or how many arcs or books, but you should expect this to be equivalent to a long running serialized work.This is my first web serial! I hope everyone enjoys it. For trigger warnings, readers should beware that there are some heavy topics in here. When I think something might upset certain readers, I’ll put a warning in the author notes above a chapter. If I miss or overlook anything, feel free to let me know in the comments! I am currently publishing the same story on my wordpress, which is linked below and in my profile. I release three chapters a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Thanks for reading!(I originally had a link to a wordpress, but I'm in the process of overhauling that space. It's not a priority since my readership is all here, but just in case anyone noticed and was wondering)

Glenn Hughes had spent most of his life confined to a hospital bed. Brilliant yet shackled by a cruel fate, he endured ten long years under the relentless weight of an unforgiving disease. Between medications, surgeries, and agonizing treatments, death had begun to seem less like an end and more like a mercy.But when he finally closed his eyes for the last time… rest did not come.The stench of sweat, dust, and blood was the first thing to greet him. Shackled, filthy, and drained of strength, his body was no longer his own. He was no longer in a hospital but in a cell. No longer a patient, but a prisoner.“What the… what the hell is this?”Glenn had been thrust into a world of steel and prana, reborn in the body of a condemned slave. Once a noble, now nothing more than a number among the damned.Yet, something was different. There was a reason he was still alive.Witness Glenn’s transformation as he is dragged through agony and ecstasy, suffering and desire, boundless pleasure and unrelenting torment—all while shouldering a burden so crushing that any other man would break.------------------------------------------------------------------------No netorare (NTR), no system, no incest, no consanguineous relationships.