Murim Login - Chapter 116

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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 116
The moment Jin Moo-kyung’s blade energy split across Pung Yang’s back, I thought to myself.
‘This fight is won.’
It’s difficult to predict how a life-or-death duel between peak masters would unfold.
Yet even I, who had not yet reached the peak, could see the gap between Jin Moo-kyung and Pung Yang was unmistakable.
‘Was Jin Moo-kyung simply that strong, or had Pung Yang proven weaker than expected?’
Had he exhausted all his strength in the earlier battle against Chul Moo-baek at Hangshan Lake?
What mattered was that Jin Moo-kyung held an overwhelming advantage.
Screech, whoosh!
“Argh!”
Using his subordinates as shields, Pung Yang retreated, while Jin Moo-kyung pursued relentlessly, his blade sweeping without mercy. As the Red Wind Bandits’ horse bandits scattered in all directions to evade the azure blade energy, Pung Yang stood alone.
‘It’s over.’
It was then, as I clenched my fist inwardly, that I noticed something in his hand—a crimson ring blade.
‘Wait, a crimson ring blade?’
The very thing Chul Moo-baek had spoken of. As warning bells rang in my mind, Pung Yang swallowed the ring blade whole.
Without missing the opening, Jin Moo-kyung’s azure blade energy plunged downward toward his crown.
Whoosh! Screech!
Blood scattered through the air, a deep wound carved into a shoulder.
The one staggering backward was none other than… Jin Moo-kyung.
I blinked.
‘What in the world just…’
What had happened?
The system answered my confusion.
Ding.
– An emergency quest has been generated.
Quest
[Temporary Strength Elixir]
Red Wind Master Pung Yang has consumed a Temporary Strength Elixir and gained abnormal power. Defeat him and save the Hangsan Inspection Bureau.
* The quest fails if Eun So-wol dies!
Rank
: Peak Supreme
Restriction
: Jin Tae-kyung
Objective
: Stop or defeat [Lv.??? Pung Yang] (Incomplete)
Reward
: ???
Failure
: ???
A Peak Supreme ranked quest, no less. Scanning the details quickly, I understood why he had grown so formidable.
“Latent Force Pill? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I stared at Pung Yang with my mouth hanging open.
He looked drastically different from before. His eyes were completely bloodshot. Veins bulged prominently across the exposed skin of his forearms, and his muscles seemed ready to burst. On top of that, there was an overwhelming aura of qi that made it terrifying to even approach.
‘Dead certain.’
No, damn it…
This peak master bastard is resorting to doping?
* * *
“Khehehehe.”
Pung Yang let out a low laugh.
Power and vitality surged through his entire body! His mind burned hotter than ever before, and everything that entered his vision felt weak and insignificant.
On top of that, there was the internal energy churning from his dantian.
‘This is the power of the Latent Force Pill.’
A mysterious elixir that temporarily doubled—no, more than doubled—the power one currently possessed. Even Pung Yang himself didn’t know who created it or how. It was truly a stroke of fortune from heaven.
‘The Crimson Blood Twelve Swords. The Crimson Blood Heart Method. And a wooden box containing five Latent Force Pills.’
Among countless tombs hidden across the vast highland, in one of them, Pung Yang discovered supreme secret techniques and Latent Force Pills left by someone unknown. The moment he found them, he realized he had encountered a stroke of fortune.
He also understood that such treasures could not be shared with anyone.
‘Even if I could go back to those days ten times over, I would make the same choice.’
After slaughtering his subordinates and monopolizing the fortune, Pung Yang began his training in a secret place where no one would find him. In just two years, he reached the peak realm.
He realized that his abnormal growth rate and the killing intent that kept erupting within him meant he had learned the martial arts of the demonic path, but it meant nothing to him.
‘This is the Murim!’
In a world where power was law, debating righteousness and evil seemed absurd. Once Pung Yang returned to the highland, he quickly began to stand out.
Extraordinary intellect and superior martial prowess, clearly different from other bandits.
Using violence and rewards appropriately, he swiftly brought his subordinates under his control through superior leadership. Of course, he had not been without crises.
But Pung Yang possessed a secret weapon he showed to no one.
‘That’s when I first learned the true power of the Latent Force Pill.’
One against a hundred? That was merely the beginning.
With the Latent Force Pill coursing through him, he became an invincible master whom no one on the highland could match.
Two major bandit gangs that had tried to eliminate the new competitor were annihilated overnight. It was only natural that the Red Wind Bandits under Pung Yang’s leadership took their place.
‘But that was the limit.’
The demonic martial arts could be learned quickly through sheer aptitude, but they lacked depth. Just as he was trying to compensate for this weakness with orthodox techniques, his attention turned to the Taewon Jin Family and the Hangsan Inspection Bureau.
A clash between dragon and tiger. It mattered not to Pung Yang which one fell.
Initially, he had been hired by Lee Cheon-baek with a promise of the Taewon Jin Family’s martial techniques, but… things had gone awry, leading to the present situation.
‘I should have used the Latent Force Pill when I first attacked the Hangsan Inspection Bureau.’
The Hangsan Inspection Bureau could be struck again and subdued anytime, but the Latent Force Pills could not be obtained again.
Had he consumed the pill then, he might already be the master of the Hangsan Inspection Bureau.
“Well, this isn’t so bad either. I’ll be obtaining the martial techniques of both the Taewon Jin Family and the Hangsan Inspection Bureau.”
Jin Moo-kyung, who had pressed an acupoint on his shoulder to stop the bleeding from his wound, spoke.
“Was that your goal from the start? I thought some bandit fool just wanted to imitate a righteous sect’s grand confrontation.”
“Grand confrontation? If I capture and kill Jintian Sword and Shanxi Sleeping Dragon today, I’ll be a bandit lord. Ahahaha!”
“You? A bandit lord? And that won’t happen, so don’t worry.”
“Chul Moo-baek had his limbs broken. Your manner of speech is so offensive that I’ll need to cut off at least two of your limbs.”
“Ah, is that so? That’s something my Elder Brother says quite often….”
Jin Moo-kyung spat out a glob of phlegm with a sharp sound.
“Go ahead and grab your own cock.”
Shwik!
The Blue Strength Sword, its teeth worn and sparse, appeared unremarkable at first, but as azure sword energy enveloped it, it transformed into the finest blade under heaven.
Screeeeeech! Whisssssh!
Torrential sword energy tore through the air in all directions, slashing and cutting. Horrific screams erupted from every corner, yet Jin Moo-kyung did not pause his blade.
They were merely the cries of Horse Bandits caught off guard and swept up in the onslaught—the voice he sought belonged to one who evaded his strikes with ease.
“As expected of the True Heaven Sword, your blade’s edge is quite sharp.”
Jin Moo-kyung moved with lightning speed, slashing toward Pung Yang’s waist.
Clang! When Jin Moo-kyung’s sword, wrapped in sword energy, collided with Pung Yang’s curved saber, a thunderous boom erupted.
“I find it distasteful to hear praise from one who grew strong through sorcery.”
“What matters is that I did grow stronger. How many seconds do you think that vaunted Hangshan Lake would have lasted against me?”
“I don’t know.”
Whisssh!
This time it was his face. Sword strikes that had been pouring toward his arms, chest, belly, ribs, and legs suddenly surged upward in a single arc.
In that instant, Pung Yang jerked his head back desperately, and the blade passed perilously close to his cheek.
Shhhhk.
Yet he could not escape even the sharp wind pressure. Blood dripped steadily from the cheek where the gale had raked across it.
Pung Yang withdrew silently, examined the wound, and ground his teeth.
“…This whelp.”
Jin Moo-kyung opened his mouth calmly even as killing intent laced the other’s voice.
“And?”
“What?”
“So how many seconds did the Steel Grandmaster last against you?”
Pung Yang, who had been glaring at Jin Moo-kyung with piercing intensity, answered.
“One hundred seconds.”
“What about me?”
“Two hundred seconds. I’ll finish you within that time.”
“Do you have the ability to do so?”
“I’ll have to pull out your tongue first before cutting off your limbs. Listening to you has been grating on my nerves since the start.”
“Be grateful you haven’t fought my Elder Brother. If he were your opponent, you’d already be deaf and dead by your own hand. He’s a master at ridiculing people.”
“The Shanxi Sleeping Dragon? Then I’ll have to extract his tongue as well.”
“…Hmm. Actually, that might not be such a bad idea.”
“Stop spouting nonsense and draw your blade. That way you’ll at least struggle for a few more moments before you die.”
The instant Pung Yang’s crimson eyes gleamed with an eerie light, tremendous inner force surged from his extended curved saber.
Whoooooosh!
The ability to infuse inner force into a physical medium and manifest it as a tangible form is called sword energy. Yet Pung Yang, having consumed the Sleeping Dragon Elixir, had transcended that realm in this very moment.
“Sword Rampart….”
The pinnacle of martial mastery. A symbol of those called martial gods.
Though her enlightenment could not support a true Sword Force, it was clear she had reached the absolute peak of her potential.
“Damn.”
Jin Moo-kyung let out a hollow laugh. How many years would it have taken Pung Yang to reach such heights through training alone? Ten years? Twenty?
But a single small crimson ring had allowed Pung Yang to leap across all that time. The struggle with martial principles, endless training and blood and sweat—it all transcended those.
“What kind of bastard created something like that….”
Tssssss.
Sword Force rose from Jin Moo-kyung’s blade as well. Pung Yang spoke as though I were contemptible.
“Survive two hundred breaths, and I’ll let you live.”
“Yeah, go to hell.”
Whoooosh!
Watching the Sword Force descend as though splitting heaven and earth, Jin Moo-kyung suddenly thought that he was beginning to resemble his arrogant youngest brother.
‘But what’s that bastard doing that he hasn’t arrived yet?’
Crash!
* * *
Boom boom boom.
The ground trembled as though an earthquake had struck. I couldn’t tell what kind of fight was happening thirty paces away, but one thing was certain.
‘I can’t go there.’
No joke—if I got caught up in that fight, I’d die.
I had no desire to experience firsthand what it looked like when a first-rate master burst apart in a clash between peak experts. And more than anything….
Slash, scrape!
“Kugh!”
This side was difficult enough. At this rate, I was handling maybe one against seventy, if not one against a hundred. I swung my weapon wildly, drenched in cascading blood.
Shwack!
I caught the cavalry spear thrusting toward my ribs and pulled it straight toward me, driving it into the belly of the bandit who’d been bringing his saber down at my back, then struck the shaft with a hand-knife strike.
Crack!
“Ugh!”
“Next time, use an iron spear. Something heavy and durable. You can even do squats with it—how convenient.”
Along with the kind advice, I slashed across the bandit’s jaw. As his jawbone shattered, strength drained from his body.
Screech!
‘Neck, ribs, legs.’
The short daggers coming from three directions could be read even without looking.
How could they all be so slow and predictable? And I was amazed anew at myself—how I could perceive and execute responses in this brief instant.
Tap. Crack!
I stored my weapon in my inventory, and with my freed hand, I grabbed the wrists of those thrusting at my neck and ribs, snapped them simultaneously, and extended my back leg in a long stretch.
The brief screams and dull impact were proof that my strikes had found their marks precisely.
‘More, more, more.’
My hands grew faster and the sounds grew distant. Each time I brushed past the bodies of enemies surrounding me, weapons summoned from my inventory appeared and vanished. Stabbing, slashing, swinging. Crushing.
How many had I brought down? In a single moment, the distant noise that had been pushed away came rushing back all at once.
Thud.
“Ugh…”
“Cough…”
The dead lay motionless, their faces pressed into the cold earth, while the survivors writhed and groaned. The twenty or so Horse Bandits who remained unwounded retreated before me, their feet shuffling backward.
“The… the Shanxi Sleeping Dragon…”
One step. Two steps.
Paralyzed by fear, they withdrew with each advance I made—heedless of the enraged enemies still closing in from behind.
Screeeech! Crash!
“Kill them! Slaughter every last one of these bandits!”
“You bastards!”
The warriors of the Hangsan Inspection Bureau—those who had endured to the bitter end—surged forward with their counterattack.
Their surprise assault, eyes blazing crimson with fury, sent the bandits toppling like dominoes.
“Arghhhh!”
“P-please… spare me…!”
The entire battlefield overflowed with corpses, blood, and anguished cries.
How many Horse Bandits would fall here today? Two hundred? Three hundred? I couldn’t say.
What I knew was that this battle would not end until one person lay dead.
‘Pung Yang.’
It was time to deal with that treacherous poison dealer.
“…”
I could do it, couldn’t I? I had to be able to. Perhaps…

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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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