Murim Login - Chapter 176

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

Chapter 176
It feels like I’ve been transported back to my high school days.
This is what it’s like to be caught by the student affairs teacher while trying to escape evening self-study sessions. Of course, the despair I feel now is incomparable to what I felt back then.
The person grabbing my ear right now isn’t the student affairs teacher—it’s the Fire King.
Crunch.
“Ow, ah! It hurts! I just heard a strange sound from my ear!”
Jeok Cheon-gang glared at me with fierce eyes.
“Shall I make it so you never hear anything again?”
“….”
Based on his conduct so far, he’s more than capable of following through on that threat.
I clamped my mouth shut and let my feet follow wherever his hand dragged me.
“Sit.”
“Yes, sir.”
I sat down on a crude wooden chair and surveyed my surroundings.
The interior of the dilapidated, dimly lit inn was empty of its proprietor, and Jeom So-i, who must have been around twenty by now, sat dozing at a table near the entrance with her head bobbing.
‘Damn it, there aren’t even any other guests.’
It seemed I’d been unconscious far longer than I’d thought. There were only four people on the first floor.
Jeom So-i dozing, myself and Jeok Cheon-gang, and Chung Poong, already dead drunk and sprawled out sleeping with drool dripping from his mouth.
This was the perfect environment to die without anyone knowing.
‘No, wait. They say even if you enter a tiger’s den, you can survive if you keep your wits about you.’
Still, I should take out some life insurance just in case.
However, the only brake capable of stopping Jeok Cheon-gang was currently snoring away.
‘Chung Poong, you bastard—you need to stay awake or I’m done for.’
It was just as I was quietly stretching my leg under the table to step on Chung Poong’s foot.
“Leave him be.”
“Pardon?”
“I said leave him. Don’t bother the boy while he’s sleeping.”
This man is practically a ghost.
There was no sound, no obvious movement, yet he saw right through what was happening beneath the table.
“Well?”
“…I’ll stay still, sir.”
“You’re not completely without sense after all. You might just live a bit longer.”
Jeok Cheon-gang muttered something that could have been either praise or insult, then tilted a wine bottle.
Glug, glug—as the empty cup slowly filled, the cheap liquor’s acrid smell pricked my nostrils.
“I have something to ask you.”
“About the Grand Elder—or rather, my great-grandfather—I can explain in great detail.”
“I’ve already heard. He committed enough sins to deserve death. He was quite sharp once, but… time has abandoned many people.”
Jeok Cheon-gang drained his cup in one gulp, his face turning bitter.
“That child was the same.”
“….”
“Where did you meet him?”
It was an abrupt question, but I understood immediately.
The “child” that had slipped from Jeok Cheon-gang’s lips was none other than Jo Pil.
He already knew that Jo Pil and I were connected. The worst-case scenario had become reality.
“If you’re thinking of lying, you’d do well to stop now. You’ll end up telling the truth anyway.”
At Jeok Cheon-gang’s voice, deep as an abyss, a chill ran down my spine.
There was no point in further lies or evasions. He was now prosecutor, defense attorney, and judge—capable of delivering any sentence.
‘Damn it.’
My parched mouth tasted bitter. I was so parched I could barely speak, though I wasn’t even expelling internal energy.
“I’ll have a drink as well, if you please.”
“Insolent bastard.”
Yet despite his words, Jeok Cheon-gang readily refilled my cup.
I drained the liquor hastily, and only then could I breathe freely.
Yes, it wasn’t over yet. In moments like this, I had to keep my wits about me to escape this crisis.
I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.
“It was about two months ago. When I met Jo Pil.”
“Jo Pil?”
“Yes. Jo Pil, One Strike One Kill. He was quite a famous rogue.”
“Judging by that epithet, he wasn’t famous for anything good.”
“…That’s fair to say.”
More than fair—the man was practically insane.
In my eyes back then, Jo Pil was nothing more than a madman obsessed with murder. He genuinely enjoyed killing.
“Is this the right face?”
From Jeok Cheon-gang’s possession came a single sheet of paper.
It was so old and crumpled that it had yellowed with age, but the young man’s face drawn upon it was unmistakable.
“Is this Jo Pil from his youth?”
“So it is the bastard. That’s what became of him, then.”
His response was less an answer to my question than a soliloquy.
After a long silence, Jeok Cheon-gang suddenly spoke.
“Some twenty years ago, a terrible plague swept through Anhui City. Countless commoners perished, and even more orphans were left behind. He was one of them.”
This was the moment Jo Pil’s true identity—unknown to anyone—was revealed. My future would be determined by what came next.
I held my breath, listening intently to Jeok Cheon-gang’s words.
* * *
Jeok Cheon-gang continued slowly, his memories becoming vivid above the transparent liquor swirling in his cup.
“He was a child struggling to survive. Surrounded and trampled by a dozen others, he still stuffed dirt-covered dumplings into his mouth.”
“…”
“I took a liking to that fierce gaze, and at the same time, I pitied him. I gave him the name Chang Cheon.”
Thus Chang Cheon came to live in a humble shelter deep within Jiuhua Mountain.
It was the first time in fifty years since Jeok Cheon-gang had parted with his master that an outsider had set foot there.
“At first, he knew nothing. Only after a year did he realize I was a martial artist, and soon he began begging me to teach him martial arts.”
To a destitute orphan who had lived amid contempt and starvation, a martial artist was nothing less than a being from heaven itself.
He yearned to become a warrior and transform his life, and so he clung desperately to the old man who had saved him.
‘Please, accept me as your disciple.’
‘No.’
‘Master!’
‘Master? Who said you could call me master? You lack both the bone structure and the talent to learn the First Gate’s martial arts.’
‘I will succeed. I will prove it no matter what. Even if it costs me my life, I will not disappoint you, Master!’
‘…That’s absurd.’
Jeok Cheon-gang believed the boy would not last long.
Yet the youth’s determination proved far more tenacious than he had anticipated. For an entire year, without missing a single day, he pleaded his case, and later even resorted to self-harm and fasting.
Each time, it was Jeok Cheon-gang who found himself breaking into a cold sweat.
‘Foolish boy. What are you doing to yourself?’
‘I wish to learn martial arts. Please accept me as your disciple.’
‘…That is impossible.’
‘Is it because I am lacking?’
‘To preserve the lineage of the sect, it is an unavoidable choice. It will be a difficult time for you as well.’
‘No matter how difficult, I can endure it!’
‘No. If you continue to be so stubborn, I have no choice but to send you down the mountain. Is that what you wish?’
In truth, it was Jeok Cheon-gang himself who did not wish for this parting.
Now that old age had come upon him, he had grown to miss human companionship. The past year had been more than enough time to grow fond of this boy—wounded and taciturn beyond his years.
But….
‘Then do so. After all, my life is forfeit anyway.’
‘What did you say?’
‘If you will not accept me as your disciple, I will take my own life. Or better yet, kill me now—with the very hands that saved me.’
‘You, you insolent wretch!’
What was martial arts worth? Faced with the boy’s willingness to throw away his own life, Jeok Cheon-gang felt both wounded and enraged.
Yet at the same time, another thought suddenly occurred to him.
“Though his talent and bone structure may be lacking, with such resolve as this, he will surely achieve greatness one day. That is what the old man thought.”
Jin Tae-kyung, who had been listening quietly, asked with a troubled expression.
“Resolve, you say… So that is why you accepted him as your disciple?”
“Yes.”
Jeok Cheon-gang added with a sigh.
“It was a mistake.”
It was the most painful mistake of his entire hundred years, from birth to the present.
“For several years, things went smoothly. He grew so rapidly that my initial concerns proved utterly unfounded.”
Jang Cheon followed his master’s teachings faithfully. No—it bordered on absolute obedience.
He wielded his blade frantically all day long and devoted himself to physical training. Even when learning the most basic techniques, he poured his entire being into it as though mastering the greatest divine art.
With a disciple who demonstrated such dedication, Jeok Cheon-gang could not help but be deeply moved. He too gave his all to aid his disciple’s growth.
Though Jang Cheon possessed only mediocre talent and physique, through Jeok Cheon-gang’s bone-washing technique, his constitution gradually improved.
A master and disciple who trusted and relied upon each other, achieving remarkable success.
Everything seemed to unravel effortlessly.
“The problem came after.”
The Old Master remained as he was, but the boy had grown into a young man.
Yet the young man’s martial prowess had not grown to match his body. After years of stagnation, Chang Cheon Geom-wang—no, Jeok Cheon-gang—burned with rage at his own lack of progress, and finally, everything came to a head.
“I remember it clearly even now. That night, sleep wouldn’t come, so I was sitting on a rock when that wretch appeared from below—the one who’d been nowhere to be seen for days, supposedly in closed-door training.”
Jin Tae-kyung tilted his head in confusion.
“What do you mean by ‘appeared from below’?”
“He’d been to the village. The scent of musk that courtesans wear was clinging to him on the wind.”
“Ah. Giru?”
“I understood well enough. Here was a boy who’d spent over a decade cultivating martial arts with barely a glimpse of the outside world. What could I say when his master—myself—was too absorbed in his own training to offer proper guidance?”
At that time, Jeok Cheon-gang had been consumed by training to open the Upper Dantian.
Opening the Upper Dantian meant reaching the realm of Martial Extremity—elevating his martial prowess to the next level while simultaneously treating the ailments of age that gnawed at him with each passing moment.
“But it was far from easy. It required long preparation, time, and enlightenment.”
Thus, master and disciple gradually saw each other less and less.
Jeok Cheon-gang believed his diligent disciple would attain enlightenment on his own, so he focused entirely on his Upper Dantian training.
Only on days when various scents drifted on the wind could he discern his disciple’s descents from the mountain.
“Then one day, a visitor arrived.”
“A visitor?”
“Chang Cheon Geom-wang. I’d never seen his face before, but I recognized him immediately. He was exactly as I’d heard.”
Jin Tae-kyung’s mouth fell open.
“You mean… Chang Cheon Geom-wang, one of the Ten Kings?”
“Yes, and the Grand Patriarch of the Namgung Clan as well.”
“Why did he come looking for you?”
Jeok Cheon-gang tilted his bottle wordlessly.
He’d already emptied several bottles alone, yet his mind grew sharper with each drink. The words Chang Cheon Geom-wang had spoken upon his sudden arrival were equally vivid.
‘These young fools are causing trouble. Some vicious wretch has been running rampant in Anhui City, and we can’t seem to catch him. They’ve been pleading with me, so I’ve come to pay my respects.’
Jeok Cheon-gang had been bewildered.
The Namgung Clan’s influence over Anhui City was formidable beyond measure.
If even their power proved insufficient and Chang Cheon Geom-wang himself had to step in, just how strong could this wretch be?
‘But why did you seek me out? Surely you don’t mean to say he’s become a Martial Deity?’
‘If he were a Martial Deity, he wouldn’t target only innocent women and inept Bandits. I observed him from a distance once, then let him be.’
‘What do you mean by that…?’
‘Isn’t it a master’s duty to correct his disciple’s wrongs?’
After Chang Cheon Geom-wang departed, Jeok Cheon-gang stood dazed upon the rock when he caught a scent carried on the wind.
It was the smell of blood.

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