Murim Login - Chapter 107

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 107
The four-horse carriage moved smoothly toward its destination. Despite using the same horses and carriage as yesterday, the ride quality was worlds apart. The Coachman had been replaced.
Hyuk Moo-jin, who had barely vacated the driver’s seat to sit beside me, spoke with a relaxed expression.
“It seems people really do have their natural talents. I’m absolutely hopeless at handling carriages.”
What nonsense he was spouting.
He was someone brought by Wol-hwa, the Shanxi branch leader of the Haowen Sect. He couldn’t possibly be an ordinary Coachman.
The man, who held the reins in steady silence, was a first-rate martial artist of level fifty. A Coachman and bodyguard combined—the picture was perfect.
“Moo-jin.”
“Yes?”
“Please, just stay quiet for a while. Then we might actually make it halfway.”
“…You’re always picking on me.”
“That’s because you’re always spouting nonsense, you fool.”
Wol-hwa, sitting across from us and observing our exchange, let out a soft laugh.
“You two have such a comfortable rapport. It’s pleasant to watch.”
“This fellow simply has no manners.”
“No manners? I didn’t want to bring this up, but I’m actually two years older than the captain. My friends back home even have children.”
“You don’t have any.”
“Well, that’s true, but…”
“And even if you were twenty-two, you’d still be younger than me. In any case, you’re younger.”
“What kind of logic is that? Everyone in Shanxi Province knows the captain is barely past coming of age.”
“If you don’t believe me, we can settle it with a match.”
“…Since there are others present, I’ll stop here.”
Wol-hwa laughed brightly at Hyuk Moo-jin’s pathetic excuse.
“Oh, I don’t mind. But I’m curious what our Jin Moo-kyung thinks.”
Naturally, all eyes turned toward one person.
Jin Moo-kyung, who had been keeping his mouth firmly shut until now, flinched and opened it.
“I… I don’t mind.”
“…?”
What? Did he just stammer?
At this unexpected response, I opened my eyes wide in surprise, and Jin Moo-kyung quickly averted his gaze.
‘Hmm, interesting.’
That wasn’t his usual character. Normally, he’d glare and ask what I was looking at.
I asked him sincerely.
“Are you unwell?”
“…Not at all.”
“You should look people in the eye when you speak to them.”
“…Stop talking. Leave me alone.”
He was acting strange today, truly strange.
A master of his caliber couldn’t possibly be suffering from carriage sickness.
He was fine just this morning, yet something seemed decidedly off now.
‘Come to think of it, this seems to have started after we got in the carriage.’
I was squinting at Jin Moo-kyung when I felt it.
Poke, poke.
Hyuk Moo-jin nudged my ribs and whispered in a voice only I could hear.
“Young Master, look at that.”
“What… oh.”
Only after hearing Hyuk Moo-jin’s words did the strange sight catch my eye.
I couldn’t believe I’d missed it until now.
‘What is this?’
The four-horse carriage we brought from the Taewon Jin Family was quite luxurious. It was spacious enough to serve as a modest room, with plenty of seating. It could easily accommodate twice our current number.
And yet…
‘Why is he doing that?’
Jin Moo-kyung was currently wedging himself into the corner of the carriage, ignoring all the ample space. It was practically contortion at this point.
‘Platform 9 and three-quarters, what is this.’
Was he attending a magical academy instead of the Cheon-mu Academy?
Meanwhile, I wasn’t the only one observing this bizarre behavior.
“Young Master Jin, you look quite uncomfortable. Why don’t you come over here? There’s plenty of room.”
Wol-hwa’s seductive voice made Jin Moo-kyung’s body stiffen abruptly.
A halting response emerged moments later.
“I’m… quite fine.”
“…”
He didn’t look fine at all. I whispered quietly to Hyuk Moo-jin, who wore an expression matching mine.
“Doesn’t this seem strange to you too?”
“It’s beyond strange, sir.”
“Right, I thought the same thing.”
We exchanged meaningful glances.
“Who would have ever imagined.”
“Exactly. That the legendary Heavenly Sword Jin would be this shy.”
“That’s what I’m saying… wait?”
“Why that reaction? Don’t judge someone’s personality. Just as there are thick-skinned fellows like me, there are also timid people.”
“No, wait. Just a moment.”
Hyuk Moo-jin stammered as he continued.
“What are you saying right now?”
“Well, obviously about Jin Moo-kyung…”
A chilling voice suddenly cut in.
“Shut your mouth.”
No matter how spacious a carriage is, everything can be heard inside. At Jin Moo-kyung’s murderous glare, both Hyuk Moo-jin and I clamped our mouths shut simultaneously.
It was Wol-hwa who cleared the tense atmosphere.
“Forgive me for my rudeness. I realize I haven’t properly introduced myself. I am Wol-hwa, Director of the Haowen Sect’s Shanxi branch.”
“…Jin Moo-kyung of the Taewon Jin Family.”
“Your reaction is rather dull. When the young master Jin first heard of my identity, he was absolutely astounded.”
“I’ve heard bits and pieces from that fellow. Something about you doing great deeds for the Main Residence.”
Jin Moo-kyung bowed respectfully with his fists clasped.
“Late though it may be, I offer my gratitude.”
“Please, think nothing of it. It was a fair transaction.”
Wol-hwa added smoothly.
“Though I confess I haven’t yet received proper compensation.”
“The Main Residence will not forget the Haowen Sect’s kindness.”
His movements and speech were still awkward, but decidedly improved from our first meeting.
At the picturesque sight of the handsome man and beautiful woman together, Hyuk Moo-jin let out an exclamation.
“A promising young master and a peerless beauty… ah, my heart races just to behold them. Don’t you agree?”
I turned away, pretending not to hear.
The murderous intent in his gaze was so sharp my skin prickled—clearly, Hyuk Moo-jin’s heart wouldn’t race for much longer.
* * *
Winter’s temperament is hasty and impatient.
We had traveled along the mountain road for some time when the sun quickly set and darkness descended. The carriage came to a halt two hours later, around midnight.
“We’ve arrived.”
As I stepped down from the carriage, a wooden structure of modest size came into view.
The moment I crossed the threshold, I felt the chill in the air. A statue carved in human form gazed down upon us with solemn dignity. What did they call such a place?
‘Ah, yes. An ancestral shrine.’
I had heard it was a place where memorial tablets of the deceased were enshrined and offerings were made.
The image of a temple to the God of War—the sort that appeared regularly in martial arts novels—came to mind, but I couldn’t identify whose statue this was.
“It’s been abandoned since a famine years ago, though locals from the surrounding villages still visit occasionally,” Wol-hwa explained.
True to her words, the shrine’s interior was sparse, yet traces of human presence remained—footprints, for instance, pressed into the dust-covered floor.
“I’ll prepare our lodgings.”
At the words of the coachman and bodyguard, whom I took to be a Haowen Sect member, we stepped outside the shrine. Or rather, one of us was dragged outside by someone.
“Come along.”
“Ugh, Captain, Captain!”
I ignored Hyuk Moo-jin as he was hauled away by the collar by Jin Moo-kyung, and gazed up at the sky instead. The moon was particularly bright tonight.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?”
Wol-hwa smiled knowingly.
“You seem to enjoy admiring the scenery.”
“I’ve grown fond of it recently.”
In the modern world, scenery amounted to nothing more than a nighttime cityscape viewed from above—and even that was merely the melancholy glow of overworked office workers.
‘This is what real scenery looks like.’
No dense forests of buildings, no apartment complexes or factory grounds.
Instead of asphalt roads, there was moist earth beneath my feet and crisp, clean air filling the world.
‘Living in a place like this would be true healing.’
The problem was that it was equally easy to be killed here. Somehow, people were far more terrifying than monsters in this land.
There was no need to go all the way to the Grand Elder or Jo Pil—yesterday’s incident at the Fenghuang Inn alone proved it.
“Ah, that’s right. What happened to those bastards?”
“If you’re talking about the horse bandits from the Red Wind Gang, we’ve got them detained. Of course, we had to call in a Physician before that.”
Given how thoroughly I’d beaten them, medical attention was certainly necessary.
But there was a word that caught my interest more than that.
“The Red Wind Gang?”
“They’re a rising power in the Highland. They have considerable numbers, and more importantly, their leader—the Red Wind Master—is known to possess formidable martial prowess.”
The Northern Highland. A place name I’d first learned about through maps during the war with the Hengshan Sword Sect.
What puzzled me was the considerable distance between Hongjoo, where the Fenghuang Inn stood, and the Highland. Even riding hard day and night, it would take over a week to cover that distance.
“How did such people end up flowing here?”
“Lee Cheon-baek hired numerous bandits and horse bandits toward the end of the war. Many of them were buried at Pal Cheon Hyeop, but some survived and fled.”
“The Red Wind Gang was among them?”
Wol-hwa shook her head.
“The Red Wind Master… he was quicker-witted than expected.”
“What do you mean?”
“He observed the situation until the very end. From a distance of merely two hours’ ride, he watched Pal Cheon Hyeop closely, and upon hearing the battle’s outcome, he turned his horse around. Along with two hundred followers under his command.”
A full two hundred men.
What would have happened if the Red Wind Gang had joined the fray that day at Pal Cheon Hyeop? Casualties would have been catastrophic, and the battle’s outcome might well have been altered.
“It was fortunate for us.”
“Indeed. For the Hengshan Sword Sect, it was a disaster.”
Wol-hwa continued speaking as she tamped tobacco into her long pipe.
“The Red Wind Gang headed north immediately. They targeted the Hengshan Sword Sect’s main headquarters, now depleted of most of its forces.”
“…Hah.”
A born predator, through and through.
The moment the tide of war shifted, they moved north and tore at the throat of the Hengshan Sword Sect, now stripped of its main strength.
Since they hadn’t participated in the battle, they’d preserved their forces and enjoyed sufficient rest—their condition would have been optimal.
“You’ve heard the outcome, haven’t you, Young Master Jin?”
“Yes.”
Two days of fierce combat ended in victory for the Hengshan Sword Sect. But it came at the cost of the death of the heir apparent who should have succeeded my father.
“But from what I’ve heard, there were bandits and horse bandits mixed among them.”
“A tiger with broken teeth is still not called a dog. The Red Wind Master gathered quite a few bandits as well. They were perfect to use as cannon fodder.”
Click, click.
She drew out a fire starter and lit it, then took a drag from her long pipe.
“The horse bandits that Young Master Jin defeated were probably those who fled back then. Even though the Red Wind Gang maintains fairly strict discipline for a bandit organization, they’re not without deserters. As for what they were doing in Hongjoo, I couldn’t say.”
“Deserters, you say…”
“That’s why this region has been unsettled lately. Bandits, brigands, horse bandits, even the Black Path have been raising their heads—and the Hengshan Sword Sect’s power has dwindled considerably.”
“Then they have no choice but to accept our proposal.”
Wol-hwa smiled with a hint of cunning.
“To be precise, it’s not ‘our’ proposal, but the Taewon Jin Family’s, wouldn’t you say? Though I’ll admit, from my perspective, it’s a perfect time to pressure the new sect leader.”
“By the way, there’s something…”
“Huh?”
“Are there really common folk who visit the Ancestral Shrine even in weather like this?”
“That can’t be. Unless they’re hunters. But why are you asking all of a sudden?”
I pointed toward the Mountain Road. Through the thin snow flurries that had begun to swirl, I could see torches ascending toward us.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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