Murim Login - Chapter 173

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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 173
“Then…?”
Jeok Cheon-gang, the Fire King, offered a faint smile at the surprise flickering in Chung Poong’s eyes.
“Have you heard anything about me?”
“Grandfather mentioned you from time to time.”
“Ah, so that old friend hasn’t forgotten me after all. What did he say?”
“He said your martial prowess is formidable, but your temperament is… quite disagreeable.”
“…”
In truth, Jeok Cheon-gang’s social graces were far from exemplary—or rather, they were nothing short of abysmal.
Having endured countless hardships in his youth, distrust of others ran deep in his very bones. Later, he was raised under a master of equally cantankerous disposition. Perhaps it was inevitable.
“I’ve heard that during the Great Martial Tournament, you picked fights almost daily. They say you must have struck every promising disciple of the Nine Major Sects and One Alliance at least once.”
“Hmph, not every single one! Besides, I was young then. When one’s blood runs hot…”
“I believe you were sixty at the time.”
“Ahem, ahem!”
As Jeok Cheon-gang sat there, unable to recover from that blow, merely clearing his throat, Chung Poong added one more thing.
“Still, Grandfather said that beneath it all, you’re a good man. If I ever meet you, he told me to treat you as I would treat him.”
The corners of Jeok Cheon-gang’s mouth twitched.
“Ah, so Mae Jong-hak truly understands me well.”
Jeok Cheon-gang’s active service during the Great Martial Tournament lasted just over a year.
It was rare for two supreme masters to participate in the same campaign, and though he had encountered Mae Jong-hak only about ten times, they were undoubtedly kindred spirits.
‘He’s raised his grandson remarkably well.’
But wait—had he married?
Jeok Cheon-gang studied Chung Poong’s face carefully.
There wasn’t a single resemblance to Mae Jong-hak as he remembered him.
‘He doesn’t appear to be his biological grandson.’
Well, it mattered little.
Whether their blood was shared or not, it was clear the boy was his successor.
Especially judging by his bearing and manner of speech—one might say their souls were mingled rather than their blood.
Jeok Cheon-gang smiled warmly and spoke to Chung Poong.
“Today I’ve gained myself a most reassuring grandson. Come now, offer your old grandfather a proper bow.”
“Pardon?”
Chung Poong tilted his head in confusion.
“Why would I do that?”
“…Why would you do that?”
Jeok Cheon-gang stumbled over his words, momentarily flustered.
“Didn’t Mae Jong-hak say to treat me as you would treat him?”
“Yes.”
“In-seok, then when a grandson sees his grandfather, he should offer a proper bow.”
“Our grandfather doesn’t concern himself with such things. He says only stubborn old fools obsess over formalities and empty rituals.”
“…!”
Jeok Cheon-gang, suddenly finding himself trapped between a rock and a hard place, trembled visibly.
“What do you call that again? I learned it not long ago.”
Chung Poong, lost in thought, smacked his forehead.
“Ah, that’s it. A fossil!”
“A fos—what?”
“A fossil, sir. There’s a similar term called a dinosaur, I believe.”
What? A fossil? A dinosaur? The words themselves sounded unpleasant, and the connotation was worse.
I didn’t know exactly what he meant, but the context was clear enough.
‘Have I really been cooped up on that mountain all this time?’
The undercurrent of the times was far stronger than I’d imagined. Still, I couldn’t very well beat my friend’s only grandson senseless…
Jeok Cheon-gang felt a dull throb in his head as he opened his mouth.
“Is that some trendy term the young folk use these days?”
“I’m not sure. I only heard it recently myself.”
“From whom?”
“My benefactor.”
Jeok Cheon-gang turned his head in the direction Chung Poong indicated.
And his eyes met directly with the young man who was lying there with his eyes barely open.
“Come here for a moment.”
* * *
Did he see? For a moment, our eyes seemed to meet…
No, he didn’t see. Absolutely didn’t see. I closed my eyes immediately—how could he have seen? I trembled with my eyes shut.
As if I were desperately trying to suppress internal injuries.
Just to be safe, I added a groan.
“Nngh!”
“Come here, I said.”
Stay calm.
It’s just a bluff. If I give in too easily now, I’m a third-rate actor.
In moments like this, I need to clench hard and deliver a stellar performance to be a true master.
“Hnngh!”
“Don’t force it. I’ve seen plenty of men who ended up soiling themselves that way.”
Fair point. Taking Jeok Cheon-gang’s advice, I relaxed slightly.
“Huh—nngh!”
“Tsk, that boy. Last chance. Will you come, or shall I?”
Last chance. I mustn’t fall for such a simple word.
I had to endure until the very last moment.
“You’re going nowhere. You’re dead to me today.”
“…I’ll come, sir.”
I opened my eyes, tears brimming. Two eyes blazing with raging fire bore down upon me.
Truly befitting the epithet Fire King.
‘Damn it, the Fire King himself.’
Why is Elder Brother here….
No matter how many times I thought about it—ten, twenty times—the situation simply refused to make sense.
Yet reality remained unchanged. That squat old man was none other than the Fire King, one of the top twenty supreme masters in all the Martial World.
‘I had a feeling about this from the start.’
Without a doubt, I was the first among everyone present to discern his true identity.
The moment Jeok Cheon-gang’s inner force flooded into me, the system had uttered something pregnant with meaning.
Ding.
– Your
[Flame Yang Vessel]
responds with fervent resonance.
– You harmonize with the inner force that has infiltrated your body.
– Your inner force rises slightly.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. At first, I thought I’d be roasted alive from the inside out, but soon my belly grew warm as if I’d just finished a bowl of soup, and my inner force even increased.
‘What is this?’
Initially, I was bewildered yet thought, well, good is good. But upon reflection, this was no time for such complacency.
‘Wait. My Flame Yang Vessel was created by consuming the Flame Divine Pill.’
How could it be that just because it’s the same Flame Yang Vessel, I suffered no damage? And I even absorbed it.
There was a moment of intense deliberation, but not long after, I reached the conclusion that it was because they stemmed from the same root—they were of the same lineage.
That meant the old man belonged to the Yeolhwa Sect, and from what I knew, the Yeolhwa Sect practiced single-lineage succession, and the current sect master was probably….
‘The Fire King… No, that can’t be right. Why would someone who’s been lying low for nearly forty years come here?’
That’s what I thought at the time.
They say the first stage of the five psychological stages a cancer patient goes through is ‘denial’. I was no different.
The only difference was that in less than five minutes, I had already reached the final stage: ‘acceptance’.
‘Close friends with the Sword Saint, lived on Jiuhua Mountain during the Demon Cult War, the Demon Cult members set fires and killed everyone….’
Damn it, it’s the Fire King.
The more I listened to the conversation between Jeok Cheon-gang and Chung Poong, the more certain the identity became.
Though the man himself hadn’t directly stated that he was the Fire King, not knowing this would be utterly foolish.
And so, having finally reached the stage of acceptance, a chill ran down my spine.
‘I’m screwed.’
The image of Jo Pil, dead with half his body severed by my sword strike, flashed before my eyes. The secret manuals of the [Nameless Sword] and [Flame Divine Form] stored in my inventory were equally problematic.
And I had already swallowed the Flame Divine Pill and kept it safely stored in my dantian.
‘Ah, this is giving me indigestion.’
Whether Jo Pil was that old man’s disciple or not, both scenarios were problematic.
As my mind churned in confusion and I moved forward like an ox being dragged to the slaughterhouse, Jeok Cheon-gang extended his fingers.
“I’ll count to three. One.”
Screeeech!
I charged forward with all my might. The Fire King opened his mouth with an expression that said he’d seen every kind of madman.
“Two.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Goodness, your ears aren’t broken, so speak more quietly!”
Smack! A crisp blow landed, and the back of my head throbbed with a dull ache. In all my years in the Martial World, I’d never been struck in such a manner.
Of course, I harbored no thought of protest. My opponent was a supremely skilled master with a notoriously vile temperament.
Jeok Cheon-gang’s eyes narrowed as he observed me keeping my mouth firmly shut.
“Look at this one. Far more docile than before, aren’t you?”
“No, sir.”
“No? Rather deceive a ghost than try to fool me. Your very gaze has changed.”
Chung Poong approached from beside me, his expression etched with concern.
“Benefactor, are you unharmed?”
My body was fine. It was my spirit that was withering away.
I answered in a voice barely clinging to life.
“Yes. More or less…”
“More or less?”
Jeok Cheon-gang thrust his head forward without even blinking, scrutinizing me from head to toe.
“Hmm. Now that I think about it, a man who should be immobilized for at least two hours, circulating his energy to recover, looks far too intact.”
Intact? Of course—I’d absorbed the Yeolhwa Divine Core.
Yet I couldn’t say that aloud. Under his suspicious gaze, my mouth grew parched.
“The more I look at you, the stranger you seem. Which sect do you belong to?”
“The Taewon Jin Family.”
“Taewon Jin Family… I’ve definitely heard that name somewhere.”
Jeok Cheon-gang, who had been furrowing his brow, suddenly let out an exclamation.
“The Flame Sword Master—was it? That’s right, Jin Baek-yang was from the Taewon Jin Family, wasn’t he?”
The Flame Sword Master, Jin Baek-yang. That was the Grand Elder.
I never expected that name to surface here.
I licked my lips under the weight of his questioning gaze.
“Yes, sir.”
“I crossed paths with him a few times over the years. He was a decent fellow. Had a somewhat gloomy air about him, though everyone did back then. His manners were impeccable, though.”
All that remains with people are memories. Especially for an old man like Jeok Cheon-gang, with so few days left to live.
‘But why must that memory be of the Grand Elder?’
And it seemed to be a rather favorable one at that.
Though in truth, no one could have anticipated the Grand Elder would commit such acts until recently.
Even during the Martial Gathering, he had been considered a strong candidate for family head, possessing formidable martial prowess and commanding deep respect.
“Judging by your accomplishments, you seem to carry the blood of the Taewon Jin Family. What relation do you bear to the Flame Sword Master?”
“He is my great-grandfather.”
In truth, we were locked in a relationship of death and killing, yet I spoke no falsehood.
At the mention of shared blood, Jeok Cheon-gang’s gaze softened considerably.
“Ah, is that so?”
“Yes.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty this year, in my prime.”
“It appears you’ve mastered the Flame Yang Technique. Did the Flame Sword Master personally instruct you?”
“Yes.”
I had received instruction. About two months ago, from the Eight Thousand Swordsmen.
He taught with such fervor that I nearly had my skull split open by his sword energy.
“For your age, your achievements are quite remarkable. Far superior to Seok-nyeon’s Flame Yang Sword Technique.”
Now Jeok Cheon-gang was even offering compliments.
The atmosphere had grown quite warm. That is, until he opened his mouth again in the next moment.
“So, how is he doing?”
“Well…”
He’s doing well enough in his grave, I suppose.
“His martial prowess must have improved considerably. Shall I stop by to see his face while I’m here?”
“That…”
I can visit, but you won’t be able to see his face.
The Grand Elder’s grave lies in a corner of the Taewon Jin Family’s ancestral cemetery, so to speak.
The family’s prominent figures had fiercely opposed it, but Jin Wi-kyung had pushed it through. He felt pangs of conscience over his grandfather’s—the previous family head’s—mistake.
“I should have a drink then. It’s been so long since I’ve seen this face; I wouldn’t want to be rude.”
I imagined Jeok Cheon-gang pouring liquor over the Grand Elder’s grave.
Damn it, I can’t hold back any longer. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
“What is it? Speak freely.”
“He has passed away.”
“…What?”
“About two months ago.”
Jeok Cheon-gang, who had been silent for a moment, murmured.
“Already, at such a vigorous age?”
“…”
Vigorous, indeed. He was well over eighty.
Of course, given that he possessed formidable martial power, had he remained idle, he might have lived another twenty years.
“What happened?”
“He fell in battle.”
“Fell in battle?”
A flash of anger appeared in Jeok Cheon-gang’s eyes.
“Was it those Demon Cult bastards?”
“No, it wasn’t. The matter is quite complicated and sensitive, so it’s difficult to explain.”
“Do you know who killed him?”
“…”
“Have you avenged him? From the Taewon Jin Family’s perspective, grinding that bastard to dust wouldn’t be enough.”
Hearing this, my bones felt like they were turning to mush.
As I lowered my head in silence with a sorrowful expression, Jeok Cheon-gang, sensing the darkened mood, stopped speaking.
Good, perfect. The fact that Hyuk Moo-jin had been unconscious was a stroke of divine providence.
Had that bastard been awake, he would have been glancing at me this whole time, practically screaming that I’m the culprit, that I’m the one who killed him.
‘That’s enough. Once I slip away from this place, I need to make my escape quickly. I should just log out entirely.’
And in the next moment, I realized something.
“Wait? Isn’t Jin Baek-yang, the Flame Yang Sword Master, the person our benefactor killed? Isn’t that right?”
I had forgotten about that bastard.

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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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