Murim Login - Chapter 178

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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 178
“This Inn is rather dilapidated. The roof leaks.”
I gazed up at the innocent ceiling alone.
“It has fallen into disrepair, I’m afraid.”
Of course, no rain fell, and the dark sky remained still.
It was not the Inn that had deteriorated, but Jeok Cheon-gang’s heart. As he recalled painful memories from long ago, tears had begun to fall from his eyes.
‘I thought he was an old man devoid of blood and tears.’
Fire King Jeok Cheon-gang.
I never imagined such a past existed within this eccentric supreme master. I found myself forced to reassess my judgment of Jo Pil, whom I had simply regarded as a madman.
‘He was far more insane than I could have imagined.’
He had thoroughly exploited and abandoned the master who had saved him from death. From what I had heard, it was clear he carried not even a shred of guilt until the very end.
I was astonished that such a being could exist—a man so utterly consumed by pure malice—and I felt relief knowing Jo Pil no longer existed in this world.
“Yet somehow he managed to escape alive. The Namgung Clan must have been watching closely.”
The Namgung Clan—a staple of martial arts novels.
They belonged to the Five Great Families of the Land, a power that rivaled even the Nine Major Sects and One Alliance. There was no doubt that capturing and executing a single fugitive would have been trivial for them.
Unless someone had intervened.
“Could it be?”
At my question, Jeok Cheon-gang nodded calmly.
“I sought out Chang Cheon Geom-wang and made my request. It was my final duty as his master.”
The disciple had abandoned his master and fled, yet the master had protected that disciple to the very end.
Truly, the more I heard, the more astonishing this master-disciple relationship became.
“That is… remarkable.”
“Remarkable? Me, who not only raised such a vicious creature as a disciple but was ensnared by personal sentiment and released him upon the world? That was a foolish choice.”
Jeok Cheon-gang continued, his words tinged with bitter laughter.
“Chang Cheon Geom-wang told me the same thing. That I would come to regret it. He was right. Every single moment of the past ten years has been regret.”
“If you could return to that day, what would you do?”
His answer came without hesitation.
“I would save him. And I would regret it again. Even given a hundred chances, the man I was then would have done the same.”
‘The man I was then’ would have done so?
Those words carried profound meaning. It suggested that the Jeok Cheon-gang of now was different.
‘Could it be?’
A thought occurred to me—perhaps those ten years had been a time of preparation in their own way.
Preparation of heart to personally kill the disciple who, somewhere in this world, continued to commit atrocities.
‘If that were truly the case…’
A thought suddenly brushed across my mind, and I asked with utmost caution, the greatest care.
“There is something…”
“Speak.”
Jeok Cheon-gang’s voice was subdued, his gaze piercing as though he could see through all things. My heart trembled.
I swallowed dryly before opening my mouth.
“There is something you wish to ask me, is there not?”
I was not facing him to reminisce about the past.
He had questions for me, and I had questions for him.
We each had things to ask and answer—yet it was not I who held the sword’s hilt.
“I will answer you. Anything at all.”
….
Jeok Cheon-gang, he who gripped the sword’s hilt, silently caressed the empty cup before him.
It was a silence without end. A moment? An hour? Half a day? I could not tell how much time had passed.
Outside, cold wind howled relentlessly, and my entire body was drenched in sweat—whether from the chill or the tension, I could not say.
And at last, the prolonged silence shattered.
“…Is he dead?”
A voice hoarse with age. The question was posed with feigned composure, yet it trembled with mingled emotions.
When I nodded, the old man’s grey eyes quivered.
“So it is. In the end, it came to pass.”
Jeok Cheon-gang reached for his cup without thinking, only to realize it was empty, and laughed with a hollow sound.
“I suspected as much. I sensed traces of the Main Sect within you.”
It was because of the martial force I had gained through the Flame Divine Elixir. Just as I had deduced he was the Fire King through his power, so too had he sensed something in mine.
“Did he go peacefully?”
“That…”
The image of Jo Pil thrashing about, bleeding from the Seven Orifices, rose unbidden in my mind.
The one who had drawn upon Innate Qi had lost half his upper body in our duel and perished.
As I hesitated to answer, Jeok Cheon-gang waved his weathered hand.
“Enough. It was my mistake to ask. Where among warriors’ battles can one find a peaceful death?”
“The suffering was brief, at least.”
“A man who spent his entire life inflicting suffering upon countless others—such a death is more than his due.”
Yet his expression was bitter, belying his words.
Had Jeok Cheon-gang met Jo Pil himself, he would have unleashed the finest technique within his power.
The swiftest, most painless death imaginable.
‘Perhaps that was why he returned to this world.’
But Jeok Cheon-gang’s purpose had gone unfulfilled. Jo Pil had met me first, before his former master, and lost his life.
How would Jeok Cheon-gang truly react…?
“I am in your debt.”
“Pardon?”
“Did you not hear? I said I am in your debt.”
“No, I heard you, but…”
I was simply bewildered.
I never imagined such words would come so easily, so simply.
As I blinked in confusion, Jeok Cheon-gang spoke.
“Someone had to stop that child. You did what I should have done ten years ago. And…”
Suddenly, Jeok Cheon-gang’s lips trembled. Like a man speaking such words for the first time in his life.
After a brief pause, he finally continued.
“I apologize. I sincerely regret my hasty actions from before. I ask forgiveness from all of you.”
The words tumbled from my lips before I could stop them.
“Huh.”
“Huh?”
“Ah, no—I’m just so shocked I couldn’t help myself.”
“Is it so surprising that the Old Master would apologize?”
It absolutely should be surprising. And he was clearly uncomfortable with it too, so what was he—
“…Well, that is…”
As I trailed off awkwardly, I caught sight of Jeok Cheon-gang’s contorted expression and quickly changed course.
“For the legendary Fire King Jeok Cheon-gang, a master of such renown throughout the land, to personally apologize to a mere junior like myself! Your magnanimous spirit and humility are truly awe-inspiring!”
“….”
“….”
Just look at his face. It’s like watching Jekyll and Hyde wage war within a single soul.
Jeok Cheon-gang’s facial muscles contorted as he wrestled with the internal conflict of whether to strike me or not, before finally releasing a heavy sigh.
“You’re utterly impossible to read. Now get out of here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And take all those children with you.”
Chung Poong was slumped against the table, snoring peacefully, while Hyuk Moo-jin still lay sprawled in the courtyard.
Before Jeok Cheon-gang could change his mind, I hastily gathered up my burdensome companions and headed toward the stairs to the second floor, when a forgotten detail suddenly surfaced in my mind.
‘Right, I still need to return the Flame Divine Palm manual and that black stone.’
The Crimson Flame Divine Pellet was already consumed, so there was no helping that, but I needed to return the remaining items.
I desperately wanted to end this matter with Jeok Cheon-gang today and be done with it.
“Um, Fire King Jeok Cheon-gang. I apologize, but there’s one more thing I need to tell you…”
I turned back with a voice barely louder than an ant’s whisper, but stopped short in the next instant.
Splash.
Jeok Cheon-gang, now alone, was pouring himself a drink.
One cup, then another. He set a glass down on the empty seat across from him and began drinking in silence.
I watched his solitary figure for a moment, and a thought crossed my mind.
‘He looks small.’
The silhouette of the giant known as the Fire King appeared diminished and forlorn, and I quietly turned away, ascending the stairs.
* * *
Once the sound of footsteps faded, Jeok Cheon-gang murmured to himself.
“You deserve to die.”
In Anhui City alone, he had killed dozens. Over the past decade, he could scarcely fathom how many had fallen by his disciple’s hand.
“You called yourself the supreme master of strength. You are no different. In the end, you too fell to one stronger than yourself.”
There is no eternal master, nor eternal weakling.
Even Jeok Cheon-gang, a supreme master of the highest caliber, was but a weakling to someone.
Yet there were those who often forgot this truth. Intoxicated by their own power or drunk on blood, they wandered down a corrupted path.
“What a pathetic fool.”
Jeok Cheon-gang drained his cup. The words his disciple had spoken that distant day echoed in his ears like a haunting refrain.
‘I have never changed. Not once, from the day I first met Master until now.’
Words I had chewed over countless times in the past decade. That single phrase had lodged itself like a dagger near my heart, tormenting me relentlessly.
“You truly never changed? Not even once?”
We had spent so many years together. Sometimes he was a stern master, sometimes he cared for his disciple like a compassionate father.
Or so I believed.
But it was all an illusion. Had it been genuine, the path Jang Cheon chose would have been vastly different from what it became.
“There is no blank canvas from the beginning.”
Coming into this world is like receiving a single sheet of rice paper.
The countless moments a person experiences from birth until death.
When death finally arrives, a complete painting emerges, filled with all those moments. The picture Jang Cheon had drawn was… entirely black ink.
Jeok Cheon-gang had watched it from the closest vantage point, yet never truly understood.
“My Cheon.”
The old man gazed at the empty seat across from him. Phantom-like images appeared one after another in that vacant space.
A child hunched over, stuffing dumplings into his mouth; a boy with flushed cheeks, clutching the wooden sword his master had made for him.
Limbs grew longer, eyes grew sharper. Before long, a tall young man was glaring down at the old master.
‘Kill me.’
That day, Jeok Cheon-gang had no answer to his disciple’s cutting words.
Yet if he were to meet his disciple again, there was something he desperately wished to say.
“Forgive me. I’m sorry.”
Whiiiish.
A cold wind flowing through the gaps in the old inn’s door swept across the wine cup.
* * *
“Benefactor!”
I opened my eyes at the loud commotion. Chung Poong was bouncing around with unbridled excitement.
“This is my Pavilion, so why… oh.”
Right. This wasn’t the Taewon Jin Family Estate—it was an inn.
Simultaneously, yesterday’s events flashed through my mind like a panorama. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I had crossed the boundary between life and death.
But setting that aside.
“Please stop jumping around. There’s already so much dust.”
“Today I get to jump!”
How could anyone sleep with all this commotion?
Hyuk Moo-jin, who had been curled up in the corner of the floor, groggily opened his eyes.
“Is this… paradise?”
This fool talks nonsense the moment he wakes up.
For a moment I was exasperated, but thinking back, that bastard had tried to flee alone yesterday and got knocked unconscious by a duck bone Jeok Cheon-gang threw at him.
“You’re awake?”
“Leader Jo?”
Hyuk Moo-jin’s eyes widened as he looked at me, then he let out a sigh.
“So it’s not paradise.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean, you bastard.”
“Just joking. Joking. It’s so good to see you alive again.”
“Good to see a man who was trying to run away alone?”
“Hehe. Why must you always speak that way?”
Hyuk Moo-jin, who had been playing the fool, glanced around the room. More precisely, at Chung Poong, who was darting about inside the guest room like a man possessed.
“But what’s all this commotion since morning? What good news has him running about like that?”
“No idea. Apparently he’s allowed to run around today.”
“Seems like he must have eaten something delicious.”
“….”
It was clearly nonsense, but if Chung Poong was the subject, the credibility skyrocketed absurdly.
I asked him with a dubious expression.
“What day is today?”
Chung Poong, who had been pacing the room in a frenzy, stopped abruptly.
“My benefactor doesn’t even know that?”
“…Let’s refrain from such remarks. When I hear that from you, it hits ten times harder.”
“It’s the First Day of the Year. The First Day of the Year!”
Hyuk Moo-jin and I nodded simultaneously.
“Ah, so it was the First Day of the Year.”
“That’s right. It’s already the First Day of the Year.”
“I wonder what I was thinking…”
“Right. A whole year has already passed…”
After a moment of silence, a profound realization struck me.
‘Ah, the Taewon Jin Family.’
It was the moment Wi Paeng’s warning, which I had heard before leaving the family, echoed vividly in my ears.

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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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