Murim Login - Chapter 18

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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 18
The atmosphere began spiraling toward the worst possible outcome.
“The crucial fact is that the martial contest was legitimate!”
“Legitimate? Since when is using poison considered legitimate? Is this the Sichuan Poison Sect?”
“The Third Young Master denies it! And as the Medicine King Master said earlier, Lee So-gun was perfectly fine….”
“Of course the Third Young Master would deny it. And how can we trust that charlatan’s word?”
“Charlatan? You bastard!”
Then one voice, trembling with excitement, pierced through the air.
“If necessary, we must offer the Third Young Master’s head to prevent war!”
…What?
“What nonsense is this!”
“Am I wrong? Let’s face facts now. The Hengshan Sword Sect is stronger than our main family. If war breaks out, hundreds will die or be wounded, and in the worst case, our entire clan will be annihilated. Wouldn’t it all end if we simply hand over the Third Young Master, who is the root cause of everything?”
Was that even words or just hot air? I’d rarely heard such magnificent bullshit, and my temples throbbed while my chest tightened. But someone moved before I could.
“What did you just say?”
The voice was quiet, yet it carried unmistakable force. Perhaps because it was so quiet, it rang out all the more clearly.
It was Jin Wi-kyung. His expressionless face swept across the gathered people.
“Whose. Head. Did you propose to offer?”
Each syllable fell like ice, and the atmosphere grew so frigid that I felt a chill run through me. The White Tiger Master quickly opened his mouth.
“Well, naturally the Third Young Master, who is the primary culprit in this matter… ah.”
This fool had neither shame nor sense. The White Tiger Master’s words trailed off, but it was already too late.
“So you intend to hand over the Third Young Master’s head to the Hengshan Sword Sect based on unconfirmed allegations? Are those words befitting a clan master?”
“No, that’s not what I meant….”
The White Tiger Master shrank under Jin Wi-kyung’s momentum, his eyes avoiding his gaze. Jin Wi-kyung stared at him quietly. When a man who rarely showed anger became enraged, it was far more terrifying.
Seeing the White Tiger Master’s ashen face, it felt as though a decade-old knot in my chest finally loosened. Jin Wi-kyung rose from his seat and looked down at the assembly with a stern expression.
“Everyone here already knows the truth.”
Jin Wi-kyung spoke decisively, his gaze sweeping across all present.
“That the martial contest was fair and Lee So-gun’s poisoning was a conspiracy. Yet knowing this, you would surrender to them out of fear?”
The Elder Council representatives averted their eyes. Jin Wi-kyung’s sneer deepened.
“I don’t know who handed them the blade of justification, but the Hengshan Sword Sect now wields it. Whether it’s today, tomorrow, or already unsheathed—it’s too late for us to take it back. There is only one path forward: to stand and fight.”
“….”
“Do you wish to live? To protect the clan? If you truly do, then prepare the warriors and ready yourselves for war. Otherwise, behead me and my brother and present our heads to them. If all you desire is wealth and glory, that too is not an unreasonable option.”
A suffocating silence seized the Grand Conference Hall.
Had not someone spoken in the next moment, we might have been crushed beneath that silence for hours.
“Splendid.”
A man who had remained silent until now, merely observing the situation.
The Grand Elder.
* * *
The Grand Elder.
A person of concern. The highest elder of the clan and head of the Elder Council.
I recalled the voice transmission from Jin Wi-kyung that I had heard earlier.
‘I warned you to be careful.’
Jin Wi-kyung, this NPC, was my greatest ally and advisor in this wretched game.
I didn’t take his words lightly, and I kept a watchful eye on the Grand Elder throughout.
And I reached one conclusion.
‘Damn it, I can’t figure him out at all.’
If you asked me to count the number of NPCs I’d encountered since starting this godforsaken game, the number would easily exceed a hundred.
Each of them possessed their own expressions and personalities. The Servant I met in Giru wore a weary, professional smile; the Coachman who brought me here had a scatterbrained quality; and the senior members I encountered at the estate were surprisingly straightforward and volatile.
But the Grand Elder….
‘I can’t read his expression.’
He simply wore that enigmatic smile while observing everything unfold.
When the interrogation began, when the senior members shouted from their respective factions, and even now in this moment.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
The Grand Elder’s vigorous applause echoed through the hall.
“I thought you were merely a child, yet the Third Young Master has become such a confident warrior. Splendid. This is what the Third Young Master of the main branch should be.”
“I apologize for displaying such inadequacy.”
“Excessive humility appears as arrogance. The Third Young Master has nothing to apologize for.”
Despite the Grand Elder’s praise, Jin Wi-kyung’s expression remained stern.
“This old man has something to add as well. What are your thoughts, Third Young Master?”
“I shall listen carefully.”
As the Grand Elder slowly rose from his seat, dozens of gazes fixed upon him.
He was the family’s highest elder. In terms of authority and standing within the family, he might even surpass Jin Wi-kyung.
The greatest problem was that he led the Elder Council, the opposing faction.
‘Shit, this is bad.’
As I quietly shifted my body toward the door to prepare for the worst, the Grand Elder’s first words pierced my ears.
“It’s rotten.”
What?
I whipped my head around. The Grand Elder still wore that peculiar smile. Had I misheard?
But I hadn’t.
“Even beasts will unite their strength when enemies enter their den. Yet these so-called senior members of the family are offering up the direct line’s head and calling it a solution to prevent war. Heh heh. And these are the ones sitting in the Family Council of the main branch.”
“N-No. You misunderstand. That was merely….”
“White Tiger Master.”
At the Grand Elder’s chilling call, the White Tiger Master tensed visibly.
“Was my absence abroad too prolonged? Or did the Family Head’s vacancy cause this?”
“N-No.”
Judging by his expression alone, he looked like a muscular grandfather asking if you’d eaten, but his words were utterly ruthless.
‘What is this?’
How is this unfolding? Why is he taking our side?
I darted my eyes around, but the reactions of those present mirrored my own confusion. Both sides were visibly bewildered.
“What do you think, Third Young Master?”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“If war has become inevitable, then securing the internal ranks takes priority. In that case, wouldn’t it be best to remove those traitors first?”
In the frozen silence, Jin Wi-kyung stared at the Grand Elder for a long moment before exhaling his response like a sigh.
“That cannot be done.”
The White Tiger Master let out a breath of relief. Thinking back to how I’d nearly offered up my own neck, I felt a twinge of regret.
…Should I suggest we just kill this bastard?
“They not only slandered the direct bloodline of our family but advocated handing us over to our enemies. Don’t you think such leniency is too soft?”
“They are those who have served the main house loyally for many years. I believe their words were spoken in the heat of the moment.”
At Jin Wi-kyung’s response, the Grand Elder chuckled.
“Heat of the moment, heat of the moment indeed. Yes, the Young Master’s capacity is greater than I imagined. Truly worthy of the position. Then I shall not pursue the matter further. I express my gratitude to the Young Master for so magnanimously forgiving the rash words of us old men.”
As the Grand Elder bowed his head, the others hurriedly waved their hands and bent their waists in return.
“Oh no, Elder. We were the ones at fault. Our thinking was too narrow.”
“Please, do not do this.”
“This only deepens our shame. We beg you….”
“Elder…!”
Jin Wi-kyung was the one who spared them, yet chaos erupted. What a performance they were putting on.
It was in that moment, as I watched with an inward click of my tongue, that something struck me.
‘Wait. A performance?’
An inexplicable sense of discord wrapped around me. I hurriedly examined those gathered around the Grand Elder. And I found it.
The Elder Council members who had pressed me earlier. The laughter flickering at the corners of their mouths.
‘Surely not….’
Was this all planned? Every bit of it?
For what purpose? To what end? Countless questions arose and vanished. My mind was in complete chaos.
‘Does Jin Wi-kyung know something?’
I didn’t need to turn my head to look. The Grand Elder was already lifting Jin Wi-kyung’s hand high and proclaiming loudly.
“Now that the Family Head is absent, the Young Master is as good as the Family Head himself. I shall support the Young Master in this matter. If we unite behind him, no matter how formidable those others are, they will never dare to covet the Jin Family Estate!”
The atmosphere grew heated, filled with people’s cheers and shouts.
Where had I seen this before? The feeling was strangely familiar.
And then.
“Thank you.”
The moment I saw Jin Wi-kyung’s lips trembling slightly and the Grand Elder’s subtle smile, I grasped the identity of that familiar feeling.
‘A political campaign rally.’
The Grand Elder’s figure overlapped with a politician from a television screen.
* * *
Though I felt deeply unsettled, once the Grand Elder raised Jin Wi-kyung’s hand, the conference proceeded at lightning speed.
The Elder Council’s persistent questioning about the martial contest was dropped entirely, and the discussion centered on matters related to the impending war.
“What is our current available manpower?”
“If we call back the warriors currently deployed abroad… we have roughly two hundred.”
Two hundred? I was surprised at such a large number and nearly whistled, but the following conversation made me hold my tongue.
“If we select only elite cultivators of the first rank and above?”
“Less than twenty. Of course, that would change if we include those present in this room.”
Including the mid-tier masters, the number of first-rate experts comes to around thirty or forty.
I’m not familiar with the situation here, but this level seems adequate.
A truly deep-rooted prestigious clan indeed. The accumulated strength of two hundred years doesn’t simply disappear.
“What about the Hengshan Sword Sect?”
“At minimum, we’ve confirmed three hundred warriors.”
Three hundred. And that’s the conservative estimate, so the difference is over a hundred.
But it’s fine. Wars aren’t fought purely on numbers anyway….
“And they have over fifty first-rate experts.”
This war is going to be difficult. Still, if we have masters like Jin Wi-kyung and Wi Paeng, it’s a fight worth attempting. They’re high-level NPCs that can’t even be read through energy sensing. The Grand Elder probably falls into that category as well.
“The main family’s peak experts are the Family Head, Old Ya, and Wi the Great Swordmaster—three in total. The Hengshan Sword Sect has five peak experts.”
…This is absolutely pathetic. Seriously.
‘What? A deep-rooted prestigious clan? Two hundred years of history?’
What have these bastards been doing for two hundred years? I hear the Hengshan Sword Sect hasn’t even existed for thirty years, yet they’re not just losing in terms of military strength—they’re being completely overwhelmed. Completely.
‘Did the plague break out last year or something?’
Whether the plague broke out or not, I feel like I’m about to lose my mind right now. I found myself staring at the yellowed ceiling of the council chamber when I suddenly made a decision.
‘I need to escape.’
Around four in the morning should be perfect. I’ll slip over the wall and run far away while everyone’s asleep.
With my current strength, I could easily handle even six or seven of the Cheonryeok Bandits at once.
If I search every visible mountain thoroughly, I could gain experience and reputation….
“Hangsan! A messenger hawk from the Hengshan Sword Sect has arrived!”
A warrior burst in with an urgent cry. Someone received the rolled paper and unfurled it, revealing characters written in what appeared to be blood.
These were characters I could recognize even without the system’s translation.
不俱戴天
‘Irreconcilable enemies.’
Enemies who cannot live under the same sky.
Jin Wi-kyung opened his mouth with a grave expression.
“From this moment forward, the main family enters a state of war. Without my seal, no one—regardless of rank—may enter or leave the family grounds. Maintain strict vigilance at all times. Don’t let even a single ant slip through. Do you understand!”
“Yes, sir!”
….
As my mind went half-blank, the system notification chimed.
Ding.
–
[Hengshan Sword Sect]
has declared war on
[Taewon Jin Family]
.
–
[War]
status has been established between both factions.
–
[Hengshan Sword Sect]
We hereby designate you as a public enemy of our sect.
– Should you attempt to flee, you will face severe consequences.
–
[Main Quest – War]
has been created.
…Heh. Hehehehe.

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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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