Murim Login - Chapter 30

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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 30
A piercing scream tore from my throat.
The moment Jo Pil’s crimson palm struck my chest, a torrent of molten energy ravaged my insides. My breath shattered, and my internal force reversed its flow.
‘What in the hell is this?’
Even as the question formed, I was hurled backward, tumbling across a dozen lengths of ground before I finally skidded to a halt.
A violent cough wracked my body.
Blood streamed down my chin, and among it—fragments of something unidentifiable. Damn it. Pieces of my organs.
‘I’ve been thoroughly beaten.’
Through my blurred vision, I saw Jo Pil approaching with an unhurried gait, his every step radiating the composure of a victor.
‘I have to get up.’
My hand fumbled across the ground and found the cool shaft of my spear. Using it as a crutch, I forced myself upright just as Jo Pil’s eyes narrowed with contempt.
“You actually stand after taking the Flame God’s Palm. You’re quite the troublesome junior.”
A sharp crack split the air.
His palm strike erupted again, and the power lived up to its fearsome name. My upper garment ignited, my flesh melting and charring. The heat that penetrated deep within severed my meridians strand by strand.
A strangled gasp escaped me.
Rather than writhe in agony, I drove my spear toward his vital point.
Metal rang against metal.
“A stubborn dog, aren’t you?”
Jo Pil seized the spear shaft, his tongue clicking in mockery.
“Someone of your caliber cannot touch me.”
“Go to hell!”
In the next instant, I released the spear and threw myself into his embrace. This was my final chance. I concentrated every ounce of my force into a single point. If I could strike his vital center, I could turn the tide.
But…
A hollow gasp escaped my lips.
The result was catastrophic.
I had recklessly drawn upon my force without accounting for my internal injuries. My body collapsed, convulsing as though struck by lightning.
I felt saliva dribbling from the corner of my mouth.
“Hahahaha! What a pathetic fool!”
Jo Pil erupted into maniacal laughter and snapped my spear blade in half.
“So, what now? Hmm? The youngest master of the Taewon Jin Family?”
Now I had no weapon. Despair engulfed my vision in darkness.
‘Is this how I die?’
In seven years, I had never felt death so close. I, who had fought and survived more than a thousand times. To perish here, of all places?
So meaninglessly?
‘No. I cannot die like this…’
I reached out, but that was all I could manage.
– Squad Leader!
A voice crackled through static, and then all light vanished.
* * *
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in neither heaven nor hell. I lay gasping, drenched in sweat, my entire body heavy as waterlogged cotton.
‘A dream? Or a lantern of the dying?’
Regardless, one thing was certain: this situation was a memory from the past—specifically, from seven years ago. The familiar face of the Training Facility Instructor was proof of that.
“You… you did that…”
The Instructor trailed off. His gaze fell upon a steel training dummy—a construct modeled after a monster’s form, now reduced to little more than scrap metal. It was bent and cracked throughout, utterly ruined.
“Was that just now a skill?”
My past self answered in an exhausted voice.
“Thrusting with all my strength, sir.”
“Thrusting with all your strength?”
“Yes. I just thrust with all the power I have.”
“I’m not sure how to use it properly, but after I awakened, it just came naturally?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
“That’s a skill, you fool.”
The Instructor’s bewildered expression shifted as he turned his attention to the documents in his hand.
“Jin Tae-kyung. Twenty years old. Lives in Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province. F-rank Awakened. That’s you, correct?”
“Yes. But… my strength, or rather, my skill. That’s good, right?”
“Good?”
The Instructor let out a hollow laugh.
“I’ve been at this Training Facility for fifteen years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. The destructive power here should require at least a D-rank to produce.”
“Damn it, I knew this would happen. Instructor, sir. I’d like to withdraw.”
“What?”
“I want to retake the evaluation. Honestly, at this level, I should be getting an E-rank, shouldn’t I?”
“No, I think they made the right call over there.”
“Pardon?”
“The skill is certainly impressive. It’s absolutely impossible to produce at F-rank. But…”
The Instructor scratched the back of his head.
“You can’t use it.”
“Why… why not?”
“Your body can’t keep up. It’s not a skill that F-rank mana and physical ability can handle. That’s why you collapse after using it once.”
“I feel fine, though?”
“Do you?”
Before I could even nod, the Instructor’s hand shot out like lightning, tapping my chest lightly. Just a tap. But with all my strength already spent, I crumpled to the ground.
My entire body throbbed with pain—I couldn’t even move a finger.
“You’re already pushing beyond your limits. Later on, it won’t end with just soreness.”
“…Is there another way?”
“Solid fundamentals, excellent technique, and your own combat instincts. If you want to live long, don’t use that skill. Ah, except in special circumstances.”
“Special circumstances?”
The Instructor smiled wryly and added,
“When your life is in danger. That skill might just save your life once or twice.”
The next moment, I opened my eyes atop the cold snowy field.
* * *
“Unit Leader!”
That final cry echoed with crystalline clarity. I felt it all—my body mangled beyond recognition, sharp agony radiating through every nerve.
‘I’m still alive.’
The fleeting moment of clarity lasted only an instant. Jo Pil stood within arm’s reach, glancing back at me.
“Impressive loyalty, though your skill leaves much to be desired.”
Beyond his gaze, the Scout Unit members rushed forward as a single mass.
“I’m considering tearing them to shreds. What do you think?”
“…fought… stupidly.”
“What?”
“Fought… stupidly.”
I mumbled again. Jo Pil’s expression twisted with irritation as he bent down.
“Can’t even speak properly?”
“I said I fought stupidly all this time.”
Splurt!
The moment I’d been waiting for. I sprayed the blood I’d gathered toward his face. My hand, moving a half-beat faster, came down hard toward his foot.
‘Inventory open.’
Jo Pil didn’t know. I was a Hunter, a Murim martial artist, and a User capable of wielding the System.
‘Equip dagger.’
A solid weight materialized in my empty palm. Jo Pil, his face drenched in blood, tried to retreat in panic, but the dagger’s point had already pierced through the top of his foot.
Squelch!
“Ugh.”
Even a supreme master is human.
When the sudden pain froze his body, I released the dagger and reached for his ankle.
‘Equip dagger.’
My inventory overflowed with weapons from enemies defeated since the tutorial—swords, spears, axes, daggers. Over twenty blades.
Jo Pil’s subordinates had been walking armories.
Rip.
“Ahhhhh!”
The Achilles tendon. Severing the ankle tendons drew a scream. I rolled to the side as his stance collapsed, slashing and stabbing with the dagger. His remaining left leg became a crimson mess.
Rip. Squelch. Squelch. Squelch squelch squelch!
Rage and agony twisted his mouth wide open.
“Ahhhhhhh! You bastard!”
Though both legs were crippled, Jo Pil remained a supreme master. He spun like lightning, evading the dagger, and seized my wrist, twisting it.
Crack.
“Ahhh!”
The assault didn’t end there. His palm glowed crimson-hot. Flame Divine Palm.
Boom.
My chest caved inward. My vision turned blinding white. Scorching internal energy ravaged through my body.
Boom.
Strength drained from me.
The sound of bone cracking echoed from Jo Pil’s grip around my neck, and a chilling voice scraped against my ears.
“Now you understand. Who you’ve touched.”
“…Cough.”
“If the Flame King asks, tell him I sent you.”
To me, hanging limp as a corpse without a word, Jo Pil declared with a face full of exultation.
“Die.”
Thus the final Flame Divine Palm shot toward my chest. The crimson-blazing palm harbored molten lava that would devour my life entirely.
And finally….
Click.
The world froze. There was no lava, no heat whatsoever. Only a palm scarred and studded with nails pressed against my chest.
Ripples spread across Jo Pil’s pupils.
“You….”
The grip around my neck went slack. As Jo Pil stumbled backward, I could see a dagger embedded in his dantian below his navel.
“What, what is this?”
In the next moment, blood streamed down Jo Pil’s jaw. That was only the beginning. Blood began flowing from both eyes, nose, and ears—a cascade of blood flowing through the Seven Apertures.
At that horrific sight, even the Scout Unit members stopped in their tracks. Someone muttered like a groan.
“Qi deviation….”
Qi is a double-edged sword. I had waited for the moment when Jo Pil drew his qi to its peak, then summoned a dagger from my inventory and drove it into his dantian.
The result was a reversal of qi flow. Qi deviation.
“You were clearly empty-handed.”
I replied in a weary voice.
“Life surprises you with all sorts of things.”
“I can’t die like this. This doesn’t make sense.”
Jo Pil muttered like a man possessed, taking one step at a time.
Pools of blood gathered in his wake.
“I am Jo Pil. One Strike, One Kill Jo Pil. The nineteenth successor of the Yeolhwa Sect. I’m not the kind of person who should die to a wretch like you!”
From Jo Pil’s form, drenched in blood and screaming, emanated a sinister ghostly aura. Even the Scout Unit members, who had charged forward with resolve, trembled in fear.
“So why, to a mere wretch like you!”
Then. The ember I thought extinguished flared back to life.
The transformation began in Jo Pil’s body. The flowing blood stopped, and the veins across his entire frame stood out in blue. He seemed like someone who felt neither the pain of severed tendons in both legs nor the qi deviation.
A terrible heat radiated from his breath.
‘What is this?’
A literal resurrection? No. This was Jo Pil’s final death throes.
Everyone screamed in terror, but it was crystal clear to me. Hair turning white before my eyes, skin shriveling.
Right now, he was… burning his life away.
‘He’s determined to take me with him.’
Power obtained by sacrificing what matters most. That power was directed entirely at me. I instinctively realized I could not evade it.
‘Can I do it?’
I picked up the fallen spear. It was the [Sharp Spear] I’d used since the tutorial until now. With its blade broken, it was now nothing but a jagged iron rod.
‘I’ll end up like this soon enough too.’
Only one method remained.
Even if successful, I couldn’t guarantee survival. But there was no time for hesitation.
“Jin Tae-kyung!”
“Yeah. Let’s end this.”
Me and Jo Pil. Jo Pil and me.
We lunged toward each other. The heat radiating from him melted the accumulated snow, and my lips grew parched. I drew a long breath.
Inhale. Exhale.
The noise around me faded into distance. My heartbeat and breathing thundered in my ears. Thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump-thump.
My heart reached its crescendo. My breathing synchronized like clockwork.
I was certain.
‘Now.’
Simultaneously, I awakened the inner force from my dantian. My qi and blood were twisted and broken, but one thing remained—a third force as hard as stone.
The only choice, the final piece to complete my Skill.
‘Run wild as you please.’
The awakened force surged out of control. It tore through my damaged meridians and spread throughout my entire body. Unbearable pain flooded through me.
But soon the new power from the force consumed it all.
‘Go!’
Every muscle in my body tensed violently. From my calves and thighs, through my waist, all the strength and force in my body surged into my outstretched arm. Compressed air burst from the tip of my broken spear.
Jo Pil extended his Flame Divine Form to meet it.
“Die!”
A deafening roar.
Snow erupted with the wind. Through the gently falling flakes, Jo Pil’s form became visible.
From his right arm that had unleashed the Flame Divine Form, across his shoulder, to his flank—half his upper body had simply evaporated.
“What kind of… martial technique is this…?”
I dropped my spear and answered.
“A hard thrust.”
In the next instant, heaven and earth inverted.
Beyond my blurring vision, Jo Pil’s severed head rose high into the sky, his life already gone. So-cheon, gripping a sword as tall as himself, wailed aloud.

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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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