Murim Login - Chapter 266

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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 266
“You’ve broken through your shell.”
A clear voice resonated through the air.
While Chung Poong’s mind drifted to the sunlight and azure sky of Lotus Peak, the Blood Lord felt his heart plummet as if struck by a thunderbolt.
He had failed to sense a presence merely twenty paces away. He himself—the Blood Lord.
He watched a solitary figure ascending the forest path, his eyes narrowing to slits.
‘That bastard…’
A lean frame, a weathered countenance. A young man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties at most.
The blade thrust carelessly into his waist without a scabbard was entirely covered in rust the color of blood.
A parched voice escaped the Blood Lord’s lips.
“The Ascending Sword?”
The young man, Jong Ri-chu, smiled faintly.
“I was always worried.”
“About what?”
“About what kind of tempestuous waves an innocent child who knows no fear would face upon entering the Martial World.”
“What nonsense is this…”
The Blood Lord, about to continue speaking, suddenly understood. From the beginning, every word and action of Jong Ri-chu had been directed toward only one person.
“But now it’s done. You endured it all so well.”
A warm gaze and voice.
Soon, a faint smile bloomed at the corners of Chung Poong’s lips as he gasped for breath with difficulty.
Witnessing this, the Blood Lord let out a hollow laugh.
“Look at these wretches…”
This was nothing short of treating him as a nonentity—him, who was feared and revered by countless souls even within Heaven itself.
At the blatant contempt of these pups, his grip tightened involuntarily.
A sickening crunch.
“Kugh!”
With the sound of bones dislocating, blood erupted from between Chung Poong’s lips.
As Chung Poong let out a cry of agony and lost consciousness, Jong Ri-chu’s quiet voice reached the Blood Lord’s ears.
“That’s enough.”
Seeing Jong Ri-chu’s expression devoid of its smile, the Blood Lord’s mood improved considerably.
The Blood Lord smirked and opened his mouth.
“Now you finally see me.”
“I’ve been watching all along. I only lost sight of your retreating figure as I chased after it.”
The Blood Lord, who had been listening quietly, furrowed his brow.
“So it was you? That fearless bastard who interfered with me.”
“I was one step too late. A regrettable matter.”
The Blood Lord slowly appraised Jong Ri-chu from head to toe as he answered calmly.
‘The Ascending Sword Jong Ri-chu. Is this the one?’
He had intervened at the very moment I was about to sever Dharma King Hung-do’s lifeline. At the rapidly approaching presence, I ultimately had to abandon my purpose and turn away.
‘From what I sensed then, it was an aura that surpassed at least the Ten Kings.’
Even the Blood Lord would find himself shackled within the Martial Alliance, unable to escape the consequences. Even after I withdrew from Hongdao’s dying form, he continued his relentless pursuit for quite some time.
‘I nearly got caught.’
Fortunately, the martial arts the Blood Lord had mastered transcended the bounds of common logic by a vast margin.
But that mysterious master turned out to be Jong Ri-chu. The Blood Lord’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.
“You’ve chased me all the way here already. Your feet are quick.”
“Not as quick as yours. You were using some kind of movement technique I’ve never heard of before.”
The Blood Lord’s eyes grew sharp.
The opponent was merely a young man, barely more than a boy. He seemed to share a deep connection with Chung Poong, and his martial prowess was almost unbelievably exceptional.
“You there—what is your relationship with Mu-shin?”
Jong Ri-chu stroked his smooth chin in a habitual gesture.
“Mu-shin… I’ve received some teachings from him.”
“Are you his disciple?”
“Even a nursing infant has something to teach. Everyone we pass in life becomes both teacher and student to one another.”
“Spare me the cryptic zen riddles. Before I snap this neck of yours.”
But instead of an answer, what returned was Jong Ri-chu’s composed gaze.
Looking into it felt like being drawn endlessly into an abyss, yet at the same time it was as still as a lake on a windless day.
‘What is this feeling?’
It was strange. Merely meeting his eyes, and yet strength refused to gather in my grip.
No, rather it felt as though power was draining away. As if something invisible had seized my wrist and would not let go.
‘This is almost like…’
The thought that followed made the Blood Lord grit his teeth.
No.
That was impossible. To recall ‘that person’ upon seeing this mere Orthodox Sect rabble.
‘It can’t be. A wretch like this—I could cut him down in a single breath.’
I forced my mind to settle. Yet from within, an inexplicable unease was rising.
Could I truly defeat this one? Could I escape this place?
The Blood Lord slowly licked his parched lips.
“You… what exactly is your identity?”
Dark Heaven’s intelligence network, spread across the realm, was vast and intricate. Yet there was one person whose identity remained shrouded—Jong Ri-chu.
A mysterious figure whose face and origins could not be discerned.
Jong Ri-chu tilted his head.
“Is that important?”
“What?”
“If a few words could stop you, I would have answered. But you won’t stop.”
His voice continued, calm and measured.
“There are those wandering at death’s threshold even now. If they won’t stop of their own accord, then they must be stopped.”
With a soft whisper.
Jong Ri-chu drew the sword he had carelessly thrust into his belt. As the rust-covered blade was revealed, a sneer spread across the Blood Lord’s lips.
“Stop me? With that pathetic excuse for a sword?”
“Well, it seems more useful than I expected, actually.”
“Have you ever actually cut anyone with that blade?”
“Countless times. Though I can’t say I’m proud of those memories.”
“Don’t compare me to such rabble. Who was the last person you cut down? Some bandit no better than a vagrant? Or perhaps….”
In that moment, a final whisper escaped Jong Ri-chu’s lips.
“The Heavenly Poison Demon Lord.”
The Blood Lord’s body went rigid.
The Heavenly Poison Demon Lord.
No one in the Martial World could fail to know that name.
During the Righteous-Demonic War, wasn’t he the supreme demon general among all demon generals, one who swept across the realm while revering the Heavenly Demon, the patriarch of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, as a god?
The second-in-command of the Demon Cult, who once devoured half the realm. That was the Heavenly Poison Demon Lord.
Yet even he could not escape the fate of a martial artist.
One day, as his ominous reputation grew ever darker, he encountered a single person. That day, the Heavenly Poison Demon Lord met his death, and the one who killed him earned a new name.
“The Sword Saint…!”
The Blood Lord’s body trembled as if pierced by lightning.
Sword Saint Mae Jong-hak.
A name that had flickered through my mind only briefly when I was guessing Jong Ri-chu’s identity. But I had immediately dismissed it.
It was impossible—it should not be possible.
A voice barely squeezed out spilled from my lips.
“You… how could you….”
Jong Ri-chu—no, Sword Saint Mae Jong-hak—stroked his blade as he answered.
“When the Righteous-Demonic War ended, a thought suddenly occurred to me. What should I do now? The deliberation was brief. I simply loved martial arts.”
Scrape. Scraaape.
Each time the violet hand energy flowing from his palm brushed the blade, the rust-red steel revealed its true, transparent form.
“I devoted myself ceaselessly to martial arts. A child I took in late in life, like a grandchild, became my disciple, and sometimes became my teacher in turn. Just when I thought I had achieved perfection, another wall appeared before me.”
Sword Saint Mae Jong-hak.
The great martial master, who had already ascended to a lofty realm decades ago, now stepped into yet another new domain.
For one already prepared in every way, a higher enlightenment had arrived.
“Even I didn’t anticipate the Return to Youth. In any case, when my body unexpectedly became young, curiosity about the outside world awakened. And I found myself thinking of that troublesome grandson who ran away a year ago.”
Thus Sword Saint Mae Jong-hak emerged into the world, wandering the realm under the name Jong Ri-chu.
He was already a figure from the distant past. No one suspected Mae Jong-hak, now returned as a young man in his prime.
Even Dark Heaven, which had spread its nets across the realm, was no exception.
“It was an enjoyable time. Until you all appeared.”
Scraaape!
The last rust covering the blade fell away.
The beloved sword, finally restored to its true form, cast a chilling light.
A blade that had drunk the blood of hundreds, perhaps thousands—countless demon generals—was now pointed at the Blood Lord.
“This sword—is it still serviceable, wouldn’t you say?”
In the next instant, violet radiance erupted.
Whoosh!
“…What?”
The Blood Lord blinked.
Within the slowed time, I watched Chung Poong collapse in agonizing slowness, his form entering my field of vision.
And the familiar wrist of someone gripping the throat of the already-unconscious man.
‘That is….’
My own hand.
The thought that should have followed was buried beneath surging blood and agony. Without warning, a scream tore from my gaping mouth.
“Krraaaagh!”
But it was far from over.
As I stumbled backward with the scream, a chilling voice pursued me.
“Having accumulated karma that cannot be washed away, should you not pay the price?”
Whiiish!
Every hair on the Blood Lord’s body stood on end.
It was like a phantom’s vision. All scenery dissolved away, and only a single blade aimed at my chest consumed my entire being.
Shhhhk.
A sword drifting through empty space. The violet energy of the Zahashin technique transformed into thirty-six plum blossoms, scattering in all directions.
At that beautiful sight, the Blood Lord murmured like a groan.
“Thirty-Six Plum Blossom Strikes.”
But it was different. Unmistakably different.
If the Thirty-Six Plum Blossom Strikes that Chung Poong had unleashed was a supreme technique, then what Mae Jong-hak now displayed transcended martial arts entirely—it was divine technique.
And that divine technique was now piercing through all of the Blood Lord’s vital points.
‘This… cannot be stopped.’
In the moment the horrified Blood Lord tried desperately to hurl himself away.
Snap!
Someone’s grip seized my ankle.
Jin Tae-kyung, whom I had thought already exhausted and unconscious, was grinning with blood-stained teeth.
“Where do you think you’re going, you bastard?”
“You—!”
Pap-pap-pap-pat!
The words never came. The Blood Lord’s eyes flooded with violet light. Blood sprayed. Flesh was severed. The excruciating pain turned my mind white in an instant.
“Kugh!”
It was a different dimension entirely. There was no way to block sword energy that closed a distance of over ten zhang in a single rush.
Scritch! Scritch!
Then, within my fading consciousness, the Blood Lord’s eyes suddenly flashed with light.
‘No. If it’s that… if it’s that, I can survive.’
The mission was already complete. The jade-green immortal pearl in my hand—now only one remained—was proof of that.
Though it was regrettable that I failed to kill the Fire King… if I could cling to life, if I could simply survive, I could look forward to another day.
I glared at Jin Tae-kyung with eyes full of resentment. Even as I spat blood, I was laughing.
“Wait. I will kill you with these very hands.”
“What?”
“Stay alive until then. Without fail.”
The Blood Lord’s lips curled upward. Mae Jong-hak, sensing something ominous, hardened his expression and unleashed a torrent of sword energy.
“Can you not stop it!”
Screeeech! Crunch!
In that instant, the Blood Lord’s remaining arm severed cleanly from the shoulder.
“Heavenly Master!”
Whoosh!
With a roar, he gathered his final strength and launched his body like lightning. His clenched teeth bit down ferociously on his own severed arm—no, the Jade Immortal Seal.
And then.
Boom!
An ominous black radiance, dreadful merely to behold, consumed his entire form before vanishing along with the Blood Lord as if washed away.
As though such a thing had never existed from the beginning.

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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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