Murim Login - Chapter 153

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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 153
“So that’s….”
Jang Chil-deuk continued with difficulty.
“You were training?”
“Yes.”
“Could it be that you were learning the Gecko Technique?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself, but it seems to be something like that.”
The Gecko Technique. I’d seen it often in martial arts novels.
A martial art supposedly created from the way lizards scale walls?
It resembled climbing, a real-world sport that exists, but differed in exactly two ways.
First, unlike climbing, it employed martial power.
Second, there were no safety devices.
‘This is the Martial World alright—no second chances here.’
Fall, and you’re done for. Truly a martial art for the bold.
As I nodded, both men stared at me as if I were a ghost.
“From this height?”
“That’s possible?”
“It works.”
When I first heard Chung Poong say this, I thought he was insane. But when I tried it, it actually worked.
It only felt unrealistic because I hadn’t attempted it before—my body had already entered the realm of the superhuman, no exaggeration.
“Good heavens, Young Master! What if something terrible happens like this!”
The middle-aged man fussed anxiously, brushing the dust from my body.
Just three minutes ago he’d treated me like a corpse from Tae-cho Village, but now he was as cautious as if I were an only son.
“Now then, I think it would be best if you stopped training and returned to your quarters.”
“Why?”
“Why indeed! You were fortunate this time, but if you fell even once more, you truly might not return.”
I waved my hand dismissively.
“It’s fine. This isn’t my first or second time.”
“Pardon?”
“This is already my fifth fall. Why the fuss?”
“Five… times?”
“Yes. Five times.”
His eyes trembled as they darted between me and the steep cliff.
“H-how are you even still alive?”
“It’s alright. There’s someone who’s fallen over ten times.”
“…?”
“…?”
“It’s about time for another fall… Ah, here he comes.”
I pointed to a spot high on the cliff. A black speck grew larger, followed by a piercing scream.
“Kyaaaaaaah! Chooooong Pooooong!”
The two of them stood with their mouths agape.
“Good heavens. There really was one more.”
“Who is that?”
“My right arm—no, my pinky toe.”
“Pardon? What do you mean—”
“But shouldn’t we save him right now?”
“Save him? That?”
I shook my head.
Hyuk Moo-jin was a well-built adult male. Catching him from that height would result in far more than a simple fracture or two.
“Just leave him be. Don’t get involved and hurt yourselves for nothing.”
The two of them screamed.
“He’s falling! He’s falling!”
“He’ll die if we do nothing!”
“He won’t die.”
If he did, he would have died ten times over by now.
But Hyuk Moo-jin has his lifeline. That sturdy rope that always saves him by the narrowest of margins.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Hyuk Moo-jin’s screams grew closer with each passing moment, and just as his expression of shock became vivid enough to see clearly, a flash of light burst from above.
Descending as swiftly as a meteor, it gleamed with a soft violet radiance.
“That, that is—”
“What is it?”
I answered briefly.
“Ja Ha Divine Art.”
More precisely, someone who had unleashed the Ja Ha Divine Art.
Though invisible to the two of them, my eyes clearly perceived Chung Poong, enveloped in the violet aura unique to the Ja Ha Divine Art.
That fool was grinning from ear to ear.
“Woooooah!”
“…”
Look at him having the time of his life.
But setting aside his slightly unhinged personality, his ability was in a league of its own. I could only marvel at what unfolded before me.
‘How is that even possible?’
Chung Poong, shot forth like an arrow, caught Hyuk Moo-jin by the waist in the blink of an eye.
Then he thrust his palm downward toward the rapidly approaching ground.
Boom! Thud-thud!
Once, twice, three times—
With each burst of compressed air, the frozen ground cratered and caved in.
Would it look like this if an invisible giant struck down with its fist?
With each palm strike Chung Poong unleashed, the frozen earth flipped and overturned, and the recoil halted the falling figure suspended in mid-air. Soon, Chung Poong’s feet touched the ground gently.
“Phew, that was fun too. Wasn’t it?”
The already unconscious Hyuk Moo-jin let out a groan.
“Huff, huff, hufffffff.”
“As expected, I knew you would enjoy it.”
“….”
What part of this was enjoyable?
Chung Poong set Hyuk Moo-jin down with a cheerful laugh and greeted me casually.
“Oh, benefactor! You’re still here?”
“I fell. Thanks to someone.”
I glared at Chung Poong with narrowed eyes.
Truth be told, I’d had several opportunities to reach the summit until now. The problem was that Chung Poong was anything but mentally sound.
“Hehe, I feel happy when you credit me like that.”
“Shut up! If you hadn’t interfered from above, I would’ve made it long ago!”
“Huh! Please calm down, benefactor!”
“Calm down? You should’ve said that before rolling the stones!”
Think about it.
Climbing a cliff over two hundred feet high with bare hands was already grueling enough, but just when I thought I’d made progress, boulders the size of a child came tumbling down from above.
Chung Poong’s innocent cries were the cherry on top.
‘Benefactor, the stone is rolling!’
Only someone who’s experienced this knows the truth. Even Buddha himself would’ve strangled that bastard with his prayer beads.
‘Now that I think about it again, I’m furious.’
Maybe I should just ram him head-on.
Just as I clenched my fists, Hyuk Moo-jin, who had been lying on the ground with only his fingers twitching, suddenly sprang up with a scream.
“Kyaaaaaaaa!”
“Hey, hey. Breathe. You’re on solid ground.”
“Gasp, gasp, gasp. Am I… am I actually alive?”
“Yeah, man. You’re still alive.”
“W-water… please.”
Chung Poong offered the bamboo flask hanging from his waist.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you….”
As Hyuk Moo-jin reached for the flask without thinking, his body went rigid.
And immediately after came a roar of fury.
“You bastard!”
Chung Poong flinched at the sight of Hyuk Moo-jin’s eyes rolling back as he raged.
“W-why are you suddenly like this to me!”
“You don’t know why now? Leader, grab that bastard!”
“I’m just doing what my grandfather taught me.”
“Get over here right now!”
“Benefactor, I’ll see you at the top later!”
Chung Poong retreated hastily to escape Hyuk Moo-jin, pushing off the ground hard.
With a bang, he soared over thirty feet into the air, slammed against the cliff face, and began ascending using the Wall-Walking Technique.
Pap pap pap pap pak!
A true stagnant pool of talent.
Watching Chung Poong disappear with such speed—as if he’d been quadrupedal since birth—Hyuk Moo-jin collapsed to the ground.
“That… that bastard threw a stone at me. A stone…”
I answered solemnly.
“I know. I saw you get hit earlier. It caught you right in the eye.”
“That lunatic is completely insane. He threw something the size of a child’s head.”
“Mine was bigger. He even threw dirt at me.”
“Squad leader. I’ve made a decision.”
“What?”
“I won’t give up until I catch that bastard and beat him senseless. I swear it on the name of Hyuk Moo-jin, a man of honor.”
Hyuk Moo-jin’s eyes blazed with intensity.
I’d never seen him burn with such fervor before. On the surface, he’d always been carefree and nonchalant, though who knew what lay beneath.
‘Could he have planned this?’
Was all of this Chung Poong’s way of stoking Hyuk Moo-jin’s rage to push him toward his absolute best?
No. That natural-born savage from the Huashan Sect didn’t possess such cunning.
‘Well, whatever works.’
I tossed a small pouch to the seething Hyuk Moo-jin.
“Keep it close.”
“What is this?”
“Bigu pills. I prepared them before training began.”
Nothing surpassed them for replenishing hunger and vitality. Small in size and light in weight, they were convenient to carry.
“If you feel your strength waning on the way up, eat one.”
“How am I supposed to eat bigu pills when I’m surrounded by cliffs on all sides? I’m going up there right now to cut that bastard down in one stroke…”
“You’ll be the one cut down in one stroke.”
He seemed eager to scale Beimang Mountain using his newly learned wall-climbing technique. I smacked the back of his head.
“Ow!”
“And the cliff isn’t a straight line. There are carved-out sections in between, so find a suitable spot and eat there. Don’t rush and fall—take it slowly, with the mindset of succeeding on the first try.”
“Understood.”
“Let’s go.”
“Yes!”
It was when Hyuk Moo-jin and I stood before the cliff with resolute expressions.
“Um… there’s something…”
“S-Sam-gong-ja.”
Right. These people were here too.
Jang Chil-deuk and the Middle-aged Man hesitantly opened their mouths.
“Would it be acceptable to report this to the clan leader?”
“Given the nature of the situation… if the young master were to suffer an injury, we would be…”
I raised my hand to silence them.
I could guess the rest without hearing it. I understood the position of subordinates better than anyone.
“Report to me, Dahn.”
“Dahn?”
“After your shift ends. How much time is left?”
“Approximately three hours remain, sir.”
“That should be sufficient.”
Half a day had already passed since I began ascending the Cliff.
Within the remaining three hours, I intended to conquer this wretched Cliff once and for all.
* * *
This towering, precipitous nameless Cliff had weathered the passage of countless years—some sections rough and jagged, others smooth as polished stone.
Thick roots and protruding rocks offered handholds in certain stretches, yet in others, I had to wedge a single finger into a narrow crevice and hold on for dear life.
‘If only I could use my inner force or draw a weapon from my inventory, this would be far easier.’
With inner force, even solid stone crumbles like tofu.
If I retrieved a short sword from my inventory, I could ascend by driving it into the rock like a staircase.
The reason I deliberately avoided these convenient methods was partly for training, but more importantly, every time I attempted such shortcuts, Chung Poong somehow sensed it and hurled stones down at me.
Patter-patter-patter.
Suddenly, dust and gravel cascaded from above—an ominous sign.
Hyuk Moo-jin and I frantically shielded our heads with our arms and cried out.
“We didn’t! We really didn’t do anything! Don’t roll the stones!”
“Grrrgh!”
A pale face peeked out from above.
“Truly?”
We nodded frantically.
We hadn’t even reached the halfway point. If we took a stone shower here and fell, all the bold declarations we’d made before starting would become a dark stain on our history.
“Please believe us!”
“Chung Poong, you junior hero! No, you senior hero!”
“Grandfather always said: training must never employ shortcuts. Martial prowess is earned through blood and sweat.”
After delivering this lengthy sermon, Chung Poong added magnanimously.
“I’ll overlook it just this once.”
“….”
“….”
He was an absolute tyrant. Hyuk Moo-jin and I suppressed our frustration and resumed climbing the Cliff.
A single careless mistake would send us plummeting back down.
This sharpened my senses, forcing me to concentrate intensely on every finger and every toe.
‘If only it weren’t winter, I would have reached the top long ago….’
The higher I climbed, the steeper and more treacherous the slope became, and the surface grew increasingly smooth.
The Cliff was already slippery enough. But sporadic snowfall drifted down daily, and winds howling from the Northern Plateau had transformed the Cliff into a massive sheet of ice.
‘I’m stuck. I can’t find a path forward.’
As I gnawed at my lip in frustration, something suddenly caught my eye—a narrow rock crevice blocked by a snowball that hadn’t yet frozen solid.
It was barely wide enough for a single finger, but there was no other choice now.
“Hup!”
With a sharp cry, I hurled myself forward, driving my smallest finger with precision into the crevice.
Thud—my assumption was only half correct. I could pierce through the unfrozen snow, but the crevice was far shallower than I’d anticipated.
Barely a finger’s width. And with that single pinky finger, I had to support a body weighing nearly 0.1 tons.
“Ugh.”
Even for me, this was pushing it.
To make matters worse, moisture pooling in the crevice caused my finger to slip gradually.
‘Any delay means falling.’
Time was running out. I steadied my breathing and relaxed the tension throughout my body, using my pinky as a fulcrum to hoist myself upward.
Truly superhuman physical capability.
Ding.
–
[Strength]
has increased by 1.
–
[Agility]
has increased by 1.
–
[Stamina]
has increased by 1.
Stats rising at just the right moment. I wore a satisfied smile as I reached toward the next crevice—when it happened.
‘Whoosh!’
“Team Leader!”
Damn it, my breathing faltered at the critical moment. As I steadied it again, Hyuk Moo-jin’s shout continued.
“Hey! Hey!”
“What are you saying? I can’t hear you!”
The fierce snow wind scattered both my vision and sound.
Just as I opened my mouth to respond, a sharp cry lashed across my ears.
“Above! Above!”
“Above?”
The fact that I could hear Hyuk Moo-jin’s voice meant the violent wind had subsided. Only then did my blocked vision clear and my ears open.
Following Hyuk Moo-jin’s gesture, I looked up and finally saw it.
A massive boulder plummeting toward my face.
Whoooosh!
“Ah, damn it.”
Crash!
* * *
“Wow, I didn’t know you could shatter such a massive boulder with your bare fists.”
I let Chung Poong’s admiration go in one ear and out the other, collapsing onto my back.
Just moments ago, I’d wanted nothing more than to pummel that bastard, but now all my strength was gone.
‘I made it up. It’s over!’
Unable to move a single finger, I could only cheer silently in my mind when a hand, frozen blue with cold, pressed against the summit.
“Huff… wheeze…”
“You succeeded in just one day! Both of you are truly amazing!”
If it weren’t for you, we would have made it in less than two hours, you bastard.
I wanted to unleash a torrent of curses, but exhaustion left me speechless. As Chung Poong watched us heaving with accomplishment and fatigue, he bowed deeply at the waist.
“You’ve worked so hard! Now that you’ve succeeded once, the remaining nine ascents should be much faster.”
“…?”
“…?”
The words were so shocking that Hyuk Moo-jin and I forgot even to breathe, staring at Chung Poong in disbelief.
‘What did he just say?’
Surely he didn’t mean what I think he meant? No, that couldn’t be it.
I opened my mouth with the composure befitting an intellectual of the modern age.
“Nine more times? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Our grandfather said….”
This kid—is he a nature boy or a boy detective?
In this moment, I couldn’t help but lose my mind, Sword Saint or not.
“So you’re telling me to do this nine more times?”
“Yes!”
“And you’ll stay here throwing rocks the same way?”
“Yes!”
“I’m not doing it.”
“Pardon?”
Hyuk Moo-jin and I collapsed onto the ground simultaneously.
“I said no. I don’t even have the strength to climb down. Rip my belly open.”
“Rip mine open too, you vicious bastard!”
“Hehehehe.”
“…You’re laughing?”
Chung Poong smiled broadly as he spoke.
“I’m sorry. Watching you reminds me of myself when I first started training. I couldn’t help it.”
“See! You didn’t want to do it either!”
“No, I actually wanted to keep going because it was fun, but my body just wouldn’t cooperate.”
Hyuk Moo-jin muttered in a voice only I could hear.
“…Is he insane?”
So I told grandfather. I said since my legs wouldn’t obey, could I continue tomorrow instead?”
Chung Poong, lost in happy memories, suddenly drew his sword. Simultaneously, violet sword energy erupted forth.
Slash.
Ice, earth, rock—Chung Poong cut through everything indiscriminately and continued his story.
“And grandfather answered me. He said climbing up is hard, but coming down is easy. He said if I just endured a little, I’d descend quickly.”
Rumble rumble rumble.
The edge of the cliff where Hyuk Moo-jin and I lay—roughly three square meters—trembled.
‘Is this real?’
Chung Poong waved his hand at us, who stood dumbfounded.
“Nine attempts remain.”
Ding.
– Quest,
[Indirect Experience Record of Sword Saint’s Training]
has been created.

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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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