Murim Login - Chapter 229

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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 229
“…You’re leaving? For a whole year?”
“Yes.”
“So you’ve made your decision then?”
As I nodded, an indescribably complex light flickered across Jin Wi-kyung’s face. Joy, disappointment, pride…
After a long silence, he performed a grand bow toward Red Sky River.
“Please take good care of our youngest, or rather, Tae-kyung. Master Red Sky River.”
“Rise now. The boy is lacking as you say, but I’ll guide him well, so set your worries aside. Ahem!”
“…”
When did I ever say that? I asked him to take care of me, not to point out my shortcomings.
But there’s no reasoning with this man.
Red Sky River suppressed his twitching lips and opened his mouth.
“The day has broken. I intend to depart at once.”
“Huh? You mean today, right now?”
“Of course. Once a man resolves to do something, he must act without hesitation.”
Jin Wi-kyung’s expression grew even more gloomy. With a clouded face, he looked back and forth between me and Red Sky River before heaving a deep sigh.
“Understood. I’ll prepare your travel pack at once.”
“A pack? Unnecessary. This is training, not a leisurely journey through the martial world.”
“Where will you be headed?”
“Anhui City. It’s a quick walk from here.”
A sudden sense of foreboding made me ask.
“How far is that?”
Jin Wi-kyung answered.
“At minimum, a month.”
“What?”
“That’s if you’re on horseback.”
Has this old man lost his mind?
Red Sky River, catching my expression, bellowed.
“That’s what slow-pokes take! With my pace, it won’t even take half a month!”
“…”
Damn it, by that logic a jet would be faster, so why walk at all?
I quickly grabbed Jin Wi-kyung’s hand.
“Please pack my travel bag full.”
“You little brat!”
“Otherwise, I’m not going.”
“What, what did you say?”
“I’m a wealthy man’s son. I have no intention of wandering about needlessly. Since we’re going anyway, let’s go comfortably.”
Why suffer when I have money? If I can travel comfortably, that’s all that matters.
I’m not about to abandon a soft bed and logged-in comfort for that.
And…
“There are also places I need to visit before I leave.”
“Hmm.”
Jin Wi-kyung added a word toward Red Sky River, who was dripping saliva.
“I also have something urgent to discuss with you.”
“You have something to say to me?”
“Yes. It shouldn’t take long.”
“If you’re planning to say something trivial, forget it.”
Jin Wi-kyung shook his head firmly.
“It’s important enough that the Great Hero should know.”
What could it be?
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a serious expression from him.
Red Sky River, who had been silently staring at Jin Wi-kyung, clicked his tongue.
“Half a quarter of an hour. No more than that.”
“That’s sufficient.”
This time his head turned toward me.
“The same goes for you.”
“Yes.”
That much time is enough for me as well.
Fearing he might change his mind, I answered quickly and slipped out of the Office to let the two of them converse comfortably.
Clear sunlight and wind that could hardly be called winter greeted me.
“Ah, what beautiful weather.”
Finding my next destination was easy.
I gazed up at the blue sky and made my way toward the distant Cliff visible in the distance.
* * *
Whoosh.
With a heavy sound of the blade cutting through air, the iron sword slices through the void. Not a single deviation in form—once, then again.
How long had it been since he began each day with ten thousand strikes?
The young man wielding the sword hilt did not know.
The Cave where he now stood admitted no light, and he had long forgotten the passage of time.
Shwik!
The sword tip wavered. It was a minute difference, but for the young man it was an unforgivable mistake.
According to the rules he had set, one mistake meant an additional hundred strikes.
‘Again.’
The young man swung his sword in silence.
Grueling physical training using only pure strength and stamina, without drawing upon any inner power.
Most martial artists would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago, but this young man, Jin Moo-kyung, was different.
‘I will do it perfectly. No matter how many times, no matter how many years it takes.’
He had grasped the sword at five years old. He loved the whisper of wind that tickled his ears with each swing, and he delighted in being drenched in sweat.
Twenty years had passed in this way.
At some point, people began to call him by a different name instead of Jin Moo-kyung.
‘Reaching the peak at such a young age. There’s no denying true genius.’
‘Are you Jin Cheon Sword?’
I had simply trained because martial arts brought me joy, because growing stronger was a pleasure—yet I was being called the pride of my family and a prodigy of the martial way.
There were moments when the reputation I had earned filled me with pride.
But I had come to realize that all of it was nothing more than hollow fame, empty at its core.
‘Chung Poong.’
Shwik!
The moment that name crossed my mind, the tip of my blade trembled. One hundred more strokes.
I squeezed my eyes shut and steadied my breathing, but my wavering heart could not be contained.
Memories of my first encounter with Chung Poong surfaced unbidden in my mind.
‘He is strong.’
That was my first impression upon seeing him.
A boyish, clear-eyed face. An ordinary build. An iron sword carelessly slung at his waist. His posture and bearing were sloppy to the extreme, yet I recognized it immediately.
And my suspicions proved correct.
It was the most bitter defeat I had ever tasted.
The moment I fell to my knees in mere three hundred seconds—my teeth clenched involuntarily and my fists tightened.
Shwik! Shwik-shwik!
My inner turmoil manifested plainly in my blade.
My once-stable stance crumbled, and my movements, precise as if measured by ruler, became erratic.
One hundred strokes, two hundred, three hundred… it was then that my mistakes began to snowball.
“Why does it sound so vicious?”
“…!”
A familiar voice drifted from beyond the iron door blocking the Training Pavilion.
My body, which had been swinging the blade as if possessed, froze abruptly.
“Is that you, you brat?”
“You know it’s me and still ask? How disappointing.”
There was no doubt. Within the Taewon Jin Clan, there was only one person who could speak to me with such impudence.
I called out to my younger brother beyond the iron door.
“How long have you been there?”
“About an hour or so?”
“…I see.”
My face darkened, contrary to the casual tone of his response.
I had been so consumed by emotion that I had failed to sense his presence.
“Leave. I’m training.”
“Training? More like venting your frustrations.”
“What?”
“Just from the sound alone, you seem furious. There’s no way anything you do in that state could be called training.”
My pupils trembled.
It was astonishment at how he had seen through my condition so accurately, separated as we were by the iron door and a distance of more than ten paces.
‘This brat… could it be he’s grown even further in that time?’
Truly, the growth rate was nothing short of terrifying.
Yet before the astonishment could fully fade, Jin Tae-kyung’s words continued.
“I’m leaving.”
“Leaving?”
“Yeah. I promised to learn martial arts from the Fire King—or rather, from Old Master.”
“…!”
Fire King Red Sky River. I had heard that he had visited the clan.
In the past, I would have bolted from the Training Pavilion immediately, kowtowed, and begged for his instruction.
But I held back. I understood better than anyone that this was a path one had to walk alone.
‘Still, why would he take that monster under his wing? Well, there are reasons aplenty.’
That creature beyond the iron gate—he was the true monster, the one worthy of being called a genius. The Fire King would recognize his true worth.
Jin Moo-kyung, having come to terms with it, opened his mouth.
“So you’ve become his disciple?”
“Not exactly. It’s more like… a disciple who isn’t quite a disciple, but sort of is. Something like that.”
“…What nonsense is that?”
“Don’t try too hard to understand. Isn’t this how things always go?”
“Fair point.”
“Yeah, just let it go.”
After a brief silence, the two of them burst into quiet laughter simultaneously, as if by agreement.
Even they found the flow of this conversation absurd.
“Did you come just to tell me that? Looking for a proper send-off?”
“A send-off? There’s something you should expect instead.”
“Expect what?”
“One year remains.”
Jin Tae-kyung’s calm voice continued.
“The Seongnae Daeyeon.”
“The Seongnae Daeyeon.”
Jin Moo-kyung murmured as if in pain. A banquet hall adorned with countless stars spanning the Nine Provinces Eight Wastelands and the Four Seas Five Lakes. That was the Seongnae Daeyeon.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I’ll be attending the Seongnae Daeyeon. So will Chung Poong.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“That’s something you’ll have to figure out for yourself. Well then.”
Along with the sound of someone rising from their seat came the final words.
“I’m going. See you later.”
Thud, thud.
The footsteps that had been gradually fading away came to a complete stop.
Silence descended. Jin Moo-kyung stared intently beyond the iron gate where the presence had vanished.
‘The Seongnae Daeyeon.’
He was no fool.
He understood perfectly well why Jin Tae-kyung had come to the Training Pavilion and brought up the Seongnae Daeyeon.
“A year, then…”
Jin Moo-kyung, who had muttered in a low voice, gripped the hilt of his sword.
His turbulent heart and trembling blade tip had long since settled into calm.
“Go well. We’ll see each other again.”
Jin Moo-kyung murmured a farewell he hadn’t managed to deliver to his younger brother departing on a distant journey, then swung his blade like lightning.
Whoosh.
It was a flawless strike, executed with absolute precision.
* * *
What awaited me as I exited the Training Pavilion and headed straight for the Office was an empty chair without an owner and a message relayed through the escort guards.
“He said to go to the Main Gate?”
“Yes. He clearly said so.”
What could have happened?
Pushing aside my sudden curiosity, I made my way to the Main Gate. And it wasn’t long before I encountered familiar faces.
“Captain!”
“Benefactor!”
“Young Master Jin, you’ve arrived?”
Hyuk Moo-jin, Chung Poong, Wol-hwa.
But that wasn’t all. Beyond the shoulders of the three who approached first, I could see others as well.
Eun So-wol, who waved awkwardly, and the Plum Blossom Three Absolutes, standing with expressions as if they had no idea where they were or who they were.
“How did you all find out and come here?”
Wol-hwa smiled brightly.
“It’s the Haowen Sect, after all.”
“…You planted spies?”
“My, spies? Would we need such a thing? We have such an excellent source of information.”
Following Wol-hwa’s finger, I saw Hyuk Moo-jin proudly presenting a heavy travel pack.
“By order of the Young Master, I’ve packed your belongings!”
“…Ah, so you’re the culprit.”
“Sir?”
“No, never mind. You did well.”
I had hoped to leave as quietly as possible, but as always, nothing goes according to plan.
As I sighed and took the pack, Chung Poong grabbed my collar and hung from it.
“Benefactor! I want to go with you too! I want to be Grandfather’s disciple!”
“Then go get permission first.”
“From whom?”
“Who else? From Sword Saint Mae Jong-hak.”
“I already got it! He said yes!”
Baek Moo-sung muttered with an expression of someone who had seen it all.
“He’s been missing for over a month now, so how on earth did you get permission…?”
That man is really living his own extreme life story.
After finally managing to peel Chung Poong away, I asked Baek Moo-sung.
“So, what are your plans now?”
“Either I escort Chung Poong back to the Main Sect Headquarters, or I search the Central Plains for traces of the Sect Master. One or the other, I suppose.”
“Heh.”
At my response, Baek Moo-sung burst into hearty laughter.
“Ha ha, where in this world can one find easy matters? I plan to depart as soon as the dispatch arrives from the Main Sect.”
Truly, a man of unshakeable resolve. I found myself respecting him from the bottom of my heart.
After concluding my conversation with Baek Moo-sung, I turned my head. Beside the petite Eun-hyang, a towering figure of nearly two meters trembled slightly.
“Listen.”
“…W-what?”
“Let’s just forget the past and get along well from now on.”
I flashed a bright smile and extended my hand for a handshake, and Chul-woo, the massive man from the Plum Blossom Fist, hesitantly grasped it.
“S-so this settles our reconciliation…?”
Crack, crack!
“Gasp!”
“Don’t be such a crybaby. Smile and hide it.”
With the sound of bones grinding, Chul-woo’s hand—twice the size of mine—crumpled like it had been pressed in a compression machine.
I tightened my grip and whispered near his ear.
“Don’t get fresh with me. You understand what I mean, don’t you?”
“Y-yes, I understand!”
“Good. Keep that attitude going. For life.”
As I released his hand, Chul-woo gasped for breath and scrambled backward. At that sight, Eun-hyang, the youngest of the Three Plum Blossoms, clicked her tongue.
“…So there’s someone stronger than Elder Brother Chul. The world truly is vast.”
Yet in another sense, it’s quite narrow. No matter how vast this continent is, those destined to meet will meet.
These people would surely cross paths with me again someday.
“If fate permits, let’s meet again.”
“It was a pleasure meeting you as well.”
I nodded to Eun-hyang and turned around, leaving one final person.
“…”
“…”
An awkward silence hung between Eun So-wol and me.
It hadn’t been quite like this at first, but for some reason, Eun So-wol had become increasingly difficult to face. I couldn’t quite understand why.
‘Is it because I received a proposal?’
Even if it was a political marriage, a proposal was still a proposal. Struggling with the awkwardness, I finally managed to open my mouth.
“Um, Lady Sect Leader.”
“Please call me So-wol.”
“Ah, yes. Then, So-wol.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
I gazed at Eun So-wol’s slightly lowered eyelids before uttering the words I had prepared.
“May your household enjoy peace and prosperity.”
“…”
“May your business flourish, and… well, I simply wish that everything you undertake will succeed.”
Good, well done. For Lee So-gun, the Sect Master of the First Gate, there could be no finer blessing than this.
I was contentedly smiling and about to gauge Lee So-gun’s reaction when it happened.
“Why are you grinning like that?”
With a sharp, ringing voice, the Old Master of Dangu appeared from the distance.
Flanked by Jin Wi-kyung and Wi Paeng on either side, he seized the back of my neck without giving me a moment to protest.
“We have far to go. Come along now.”
“Wait, please—”
Whoooosh!
But it was already too late. The faces of the people receded rapidly into the distance.
Jin Wi-kyung waved a handkerchief with reddened eyes, crying out.
“Little brother! Please come back safe and sound!”
…The way you say it only makes me more anxious!

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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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