Murim Login - Chapter 311
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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 311
“Quest accepted.”
Ding.
– Sudden Quest,
[Yongbong Pyo-guk in Crisis]
has been accepted!
You’ve grown up, Jin Tae-kyung. Now you can even create Quests on your own.
I smiled with satisfaction and extended my right hand. My palm, glowing crimson with the heat of the Flame Divine Palm, struck the side of the axe with terrifying speed.
Boom!
With a deafening crash, the massive frame of Cheonryeok Bandits was driven backward. The man staggered back three zhang, his face twisted with shock and fury.
“What, what is this….”
“What else? You picked the wrong fight.”
I smirked and sized up Cheonryeok Bandits from head to toe.
Not the level 10 fake Cheonryeok Bandits I’d encountered so long ago, but the genuine article at a whopping level 90.
‘Ah, the real deal truly is different.’
His frame was far more imposing, his face so brutally scarred that if he weren’t a bandit, it would be a tragedy, and his martial prowess was incomparable.
Gazing upon this genuine Cheonryeok Bandits, old memories stirred within me.
‘That false rumor about capturing him back then really did boost my reputation considerably.’
It was the period when my name was being reevaluated within the Taewon Jin Family.
Through that process, people who had mistaken the fake Cheonryeok Bandits for the real one spread rumors, allowing me to gradually shed the family’s shame.
‘Goodness, it feels like just yesterday.’
As I was lost in nostalgia, Cheonryeok Bandits glared at me with wary eyes.
“Who… exactly are you?”
“Me? The man who will kill you twice.”
“What, what did you say?”
“That’s how it is.”
“Kill me twice? What kind of nonsense… Wait. Could it be?”
Cheonryeok Bandits’ voice cut off abruptly.
With a face hardened like stone, he stared at me, and a thunderous cry burst from his lips.
“The Shanxi Sleeping Dragon!”
“Hm? You know?”
“I heard such rumors about a year ago… No, that’s not it.”
Cheonryeok Bandits opened his mouth with a faltering voice. His form of address had already shifted naturally.
“Are you really Jin Tae-kyung of the Taewon Jin Family?”
“Not the formal address, but Jin Tae-kyung is correct.”
As I nodded readily, gasps of astonishment leaked out from all around.
Whether bandits or escorts, all regarded me with eyes wide with shock. The gaze from beside me in particular was piercing.
[Lv.88 Ju Hwa-ran]
Soon her smooth lips parted slightly, and a clear voice flowed forth.
“You… are the Shanxi Sleeping Dragon?”
“Yes, well, that’s what people call me.”
The woman, who had been gazing up at me with her large, dark eyes, suddenly assumed the formal fist-palm salute.
“I am Ju Hwa-ran, Deputy Lord of the Yongbong Pyo-guk, and I pay my respects to So-hyup of the Jin Family.”
“Ah, yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I’m apparently more famous than I thought.
I never imagined I would encounter hundreds of people who knew me on a mountain road in the dead of night, thousands of li away from Shanxi Province.
And even less that the most beautiful woman I had seen in all my twenty-eight years of life would be the first to acknowledge me.
‘It’s remarkable that a person can be crafted so exquisitely.’
The words “pretty” or “beautiful” could never adequately capture Ju Hwa-ran’s beauty.
I found myself gazing at her, lamenting my own meager vocabulary.
“Ahem. Now that I think about it, don’t we have maintenance work to do at the fortress?”
“Yes, Fortress Lord, you’re right. We completely forgot about that.”
An awkward cough, followed by the cautious sound of hundreds of people retreating.
When I turned my head, I could see the Cheonryeok Bandits and the Green Forest Alliance members from Heukseok Clan slowly backing away.
I waved my hand toward Cheon Ryeok-bu.
“Ryeok-bu.”
Cheon Ryeok-bu’s body went rigid.
“…Ryeok-bu?”
“Yes. Our Ryeok-bu. Where are you going?”
His expression was quite a sight—contorting, then relaxing, then contorting again.
Cheon Ryeok-bu, his face twisted into something almost comical as surging rage and restraint warred within him, barely managed to squeeze out his words.
“I have some business at the fortress that needs attending to.”
“Then why are you leaving without asking permission?”
“…!”
A chilling silence fell over the clearing. Cheon Ryeok-bu’s knuckles, gripping his axe, turned white as bone, but that was all.
Just one clash.
Yet Cheon Ryeok-bu—indeed, everyone here—must have understood. I was a master of a higher rank than him.
Of course, the source of the fear that gave Cheon Ryeok-bu pause was not limited to that alone.
“Where… where is the Fire King?”
Where is he? He’s sleeping soundly in the cart at the very back.
I had piled furs upon him as a precaution, and no one could have imagined that the terrifying Fire King was lying unconscious in that cart.
‘Moreover, the fact that the old man has collapsed cannot be allowed to spread.’
Dark Heaven and all manner of vermin would surely swarm.
I smiled faintly, concealing my true thoughts.
“Why do you ask about my master?”
“I… I merely wished to pay my respects.”
“Why? Are you close with my master?”
“Well, he is someone I have always admired…”
“If by some chance you do meet him, don’t say things like that. If a bandit like you try to act familiar, he’ll be displeased. And then you’ll take a few blows from his staff before anything else.”
“…Your jest is rather harsh.”
“Is this some kind of joke?”
Cheon Ryeok-bu’s lips pressed into a thin line as his eyes darted across the field. He swept his gaze over the members of Yongbong Pyo-guk, including myself and Ju Hwa-ran, before finally settling on the faces of the Bermuda Triangle slowly descending the hillside. Then his stare returned to me.
“So he’s not here, then?”
“What if he’s not?”
“If that’s the case…”
Scrape. Click.
Cheon Ryeok-bu hoisted his axe onto his shoulder.
“Everything changes.”
“Like the tone you’re using now?”
“Catering to a brat’s sensibilities was exhausting.”
“Strange. I don’t see how anything would actually change whether your master is here or not.”
“That’s because you’re an inexperienced fool who knows nothing of the world.”
“In what way?”
“I’ll grant that your martial prowess exceeds expectations. But don’t delude yourself into thinking you stand equal to your master.”
Cheon Ryeok-bu raised his hand with a contemptuous smirk. In that instant, five hundred Green Forest Alliance bandits stepped forward, weapons raised high.
The mere fact that Fire King was absent had restored his confidence entirely.
“Fire King Red Sky River is undoubtedly a master beyond the human realm. But can you alone truly overturn this battlefield?”
“Hmm.”
I surveyed the situation carefully. Yongbong Pyo-guk’s forces numbered barely seventy.
Half of them didn’t even know the basics of martial arts, and even the escort guards showed signs of exhaustion.
In contrast, the Green Forest Alliance bandits under Cheon Ryeok-bu’s command numbered nearly five hundred.
With more than tenfold the manpower, it was certainly a situation where Cheon Ryeok-bu could afford confidence.
But…
“Let’s see if I can flip this around.”
“Kahahaha! Go ahead and try.”
“I intend to.”
In the next instant, the laughter vanished from Cheon Ryeok-bu’s lips.
It happened the moment I closed a distance of five zhang in a single step and drove my fist forward.
‘Annihilation Flame Divine Fist.’
Whoooosh.
Compressed air exploded outward. The wind split, and searing heat radiated forth.
The same strike that had toppled a nameless cliff on Songshan rocketed toward the five hundred bandits swarming like ants.
Cheon Ryeok-bu stood at their vanguard.
CRACK!
With a thunderous boom that split the heavens, dust and steam billowed upward.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
System notifications assailed my ears without pause. These bandits were of such low level that even defeating them yielded no experience. I saw no need to draw my spear, no reason to.
I simply unleashed my martial techniques indiscriminately at the enemies shrouded in the chaotic haze.
BOOM!
I tore, struck, and shattered everything in my path.
The earth buckled as though struck by an explosion, and blood and screams poured forth from the fractured ground.
“Gahhhhh!”
“Kill him!”
“There! He’s there!”
Whiiiing! Thunk!
Dozens of blades arrived moments too late, embedding themselves uselessly in the earth.
Each movement sluggish and predictable. I could see with crystalline clarity the trajectories their weapons would trace through the air.
‘Effortless. Remarkably so.’
Crack!
My movements, by contrast, were precise and devastatingly destructive. With each fluid motion, three or four screams erupted in succession.
The bandits, seized by panic, could no longer distinguish friend from foe—they simply flailed their weapons about like madmen.
Slash! Scrape!
“Argh! You insane bastard!”
“Wait, Wang Pal?”
“Yes, it’s me! Me, you wretched fool!”
“I’m sorry. I thought you were him….”
I whispered into the stammering bandit’s ear.
“This time, it’s really me.”
“…!”
Crunch!
I twisted his neck with precisely the force and speed required. His body crumpled without even a cry escaping his lips.
Before his corpse touched the ground, I was already moving again.
‘Flame Path Unbroken.’
The Yeolhwa Sect’s secret technique.
As I kicked off the earth and surged forward, a tail of flame pierced through the mist. In that instant, the surroundings blazed with light, and I glimpsed a towering giant standing eight feet tall.
Two gazes collided in mid-air.
“Found you.”
“Jin Tae-kyung, you son of a bitch….”
I stepped forward toward Cheon Ryeok-bu, who gnashed his teeth in fury.
I unleashed a blazing palm strike, channeling all my inner force into it.
From the massive axe that Cheon Ryeok-bu brought down with the force of a thousand cuts, crimson energy streamed forth in torrents.
A roar like a lion’s cry erupted from his mouth.
“Die!!”
Whiiiing! Boom!
The collision unleashed a tremendous shockwave that tore through the air.
So close I could feel his breath against my cheek. My cold, hardened face reflected in the wide-open eyes of Cheon Ryeok-bu.
My hand, having pierced through his shattered axe and his chest, emerged from his back.
Gaahhhhh!
“Ugh…hak.”
Blood did not cascade like a waterfall. The searing heat of the flame palm strike had already vaporized the liquid.
Cheon Ryeok-bu’s lips, cracked like a drought-stricken field, trembled weakly.
“You… what exactly are you…?”
“Why? You told me to turn it around.”
Whoosh.
With those words, I withdrew my hand from his chest. His entire body, ravaged by burns from the initial strike of the Extinguishing Flame Divine Fist that I couldn’t fully block, was a charred ruin.
Cheon Ryeok-bu, staring down at his own chest now blackened like charcoal, muttered in a voice that came in stuttering fragments.
“This is… unbelievable…”
Those unfinished words became Cheon Ryeok-bu’s final testament.
Thud. As his massive eight-chi frame collapsed, the system notification chimed.
Ding.
–
[Lv.93 Bang Yeol]
has been defeated!
–
[Cheon Ryeok-bu Subjugation]
has been completed!
– You have obtained a substantial amount of experience!
Whoooosh.
At that very moment, a wind swept down from somewhere, enveloping Heukseok Mountain and settling over the clearing.
As the pale mist dispersed, the sight that emerged made everyone’s eyes widen.
“This cannot be!”
Twentieth in rank among the Green Forest Alliance. The final moments of Cheon Ryeok-bu Bang Yeol—a supreme master counted among the very elite of the countless bandits scattered across the continent.
And scattered throughout the clearing lay the corpses of roughly a hundred bandits who had fallen during the chaos of battle.
The four hundred surviving bandits stared at me with eyes drenched in terror.
No—everyone who had witnessed this spectacle was crying out.
“The Fire King…!”
Fire King Red Sky River.
Fifty years ago, the warrior of unparalleled might who annihilated a thousand Demon Cultists in some nameless wasteland—one man against a thousand.
The legend of the Yeolhwa Sect was proven through the Fire King’s myth, and that flame now burned within me.
“Choose. Either die here, or…”
My entire body burned with intense heat. The scorching yang energy flowed through every pore, exhaling white steam.
I gazed upon my enemies with eyes wreathed in flames.
“All of you—kneel.”
Clang.
Beginning with a single sword dropped helplessly by someone, roughly four hundred weapons clattered across the ground.
Ding.
–
[Heukseok Fortress Subjugation]
has been completed!
– Quest,
[Yongbong Pyo-guk’s Crisis]
has been completed successfully!
– You have acquired a substantial amount of experience!
– Level Up!
A cheerful bell chime rang out, announcing the end of the battle.
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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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