Murim Login - Chapter 340

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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 340
Myo Ryeong Sae-tae, a middle-aged nun, opened her mouth with difficulty, her complexion ashen.
“The Divine Physician… has passed into nirvana.”
The moment those words reached my ears, my fists clenched involuntarily and something heavy plummeted through my chest.
Two elders of the Qingcheng Sect, sensing the ominous atmosphere, rushed forward with wide eyes and cried out.
“Myo Ryeong Sae-tae, what are you saying? The Divine Physician has entered nirvana?”
“That cannot be! It simply cannot be!”
I already knew who the Divine Physician was.
She too was one of the masters of the previous generation whose memory was etched vividly into Jeok Cheon-gang’s consciousness.
‘Her temperament was remarkably forthright. Before enemies, she showed no mercy, and her martial prowess was exceptional. There were times when she surpassed even Hongdao, that lazy monk.’
During the Great Demon War, the Demon Cult had feared her and called her the Blood Rakshasa, while the martial world of the Central Plains had bestowed upon her the epithet of Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni.
As time passed and the heroes of old vanished one by one, she remained on Emei Mountain, steadfast in her position.
The sole supreme master of the Emei Sect and its revered sect leader.
And now Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni was dead.
‘First Dok Wang, and now Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni.’
A damnable turn of events.
I spoke the words that had been circling in my mouth all along.
“Who was the culprit?”
“…!”
“…!”
Myo Ryeong Sae-tae, Gung Ki-bang, and Hyuk Moo-jin. And the two elders of the Qingcheng Sect.
Five pairs of eyes fixed upon me simultaneously. The emotion reflected in all five gazes was surprise, yet its source differed for each.
“A culprit?”
“Could it be… that Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni was slain by someone?”
The two elders of the Qingcheng Sect fell silent, their words trailing away. They too had only now realized what they had failed to notice in their shock at the Divine Physician’s passing—Myo Ryeong Sae-tae’s present state.
Dried blood staining her robes a dark crimson, and her complexion pallid.
She, who had been staring at me with widened eyes, bowed her head deeply.
“So you already knew, So-hyup.”
Already knew?
At my questioning gaze, Gung Ki-bang nodded heavily.
“It was unavoidable. The culprit who assassinated Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni…”
“Is either the same person as the one from the Sichuan Tang Sect or connected to them. That’s my assessment as well.”
The elders, realizing there was something unknown to them, asked urgently.
“You knew of the culprit? Are you saying calamity has befallen the Sichuan Tang Sect as well?”
“Tell us everything, without omission. Now!”
There was no hiding it any longer.
Perhaps this had been inevitable since the moment Dok Wang was murdered.
I drew a deep breath and parted my lips.
“Several days ago, Dok Wang, the Great Hero Dang Sa-mun, passed away. Or more precisely, he was murdered by someone.”
“…!”
“The family head, Man Dok-su, has declared that Dang Sa-dok will pursue the killer with the family’s warriors as we speak.”
But the casualties did not end with Dok Wang alone.
I turned away from the elders frozen in shock and fixed my gaze directly on Myo Ryeong Sae-tae.
“What happened?”
“He was middle-aged. Missing one arm.”
“You mean he had only one arm?”
“Yes. He was, he was….”
A trembling voice spilled from between Myo Ryeong Sae-tae’s lips.
“An Evil Demon itself.”
* * *
Whoooosh!
With each stride through the fierce wind, the landscape blurred past in rapid succession.
The weight of the nun cradled in my arms was surprisingly light, yet the vital force I felt through our contact was precarious.
‘To have come this far in such a condition….’
Myo Ryeong Sae-tae lost consciousness mid-sentence, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Gung Ki-bang, who was pursuing closely behind, opened his mouth with a darkened expression.
“How severe is Sae-tae’s injury?”
“Critical. I’ve infused her with my inner energy to sustain her vitality for now, but… it won’t be enough.”
Gung Ki-bang let out a quiet groan.
“She was not in this condition when we first departed. Sae-tae herself insisted she could endure it.”
“You should have stopped her anyway, you fool.”
“…I couldn’t possibly stop her. I’m sorry.”
I pressed my lips together, then sealed them shut.
I know this truth well—even if I had gone instead of Gung Ki-bang and Hyuk Moo-jin, I could not have stopped Myo Ryeong Sae-tae.
Her voice, wrung out even as she coughed blood, still echoed vividly in my ears.
‘The sect leader and three elders. All fell to the Evil Demon’s hand. I, we could not pursue the creature as it smiled and vanished.’
The Evil Demon had descended upon Emei Mountain, revered as a sacred site of Buddhism, merely four days prior.
Ascending the mountain like any ordinary pilgrim, the Evil Demon found the dwelling of Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni, and there happened to be three elders present.
What followed was a battle that shook heaven and earth—peaks crumbled and Emei Mountain trembled, or so it was said.
Myo Ryeong Sae-tae, who had sensed the calamity nearest and rushed to the scene, witnessed four dead nuns and a single Evil Demon.
‘There is nothing remarkable about it. My killing art simply proved stronger than Emei’s Buddhist dharma.’
‘How, how dare you! Do you not fear heaven itself!’
‘Amusing. The Buddha and heaven you speak of are both illusions and falsehoods. I shall show you my own heaven exists.’
That was the end.
The beast struck Myo Ryeong Sae-tae with a single palm strike, then vanished, and two young men arrived at the Emei Sect, consumed by grief and rage.
Upon hearing from Gung Ki-bang and Hyuk Moo-jin that the Qingcheng Sect lay nearby, she cast aside the pleas of her people and descended Emei Mountain.
‘Please help us. I beg you, please help! No matter what, you must stop that Evil Demon… *cough*!’
Recalling Myo Ryeong Sae-tae’s desperate cries until the moment she lost consciousness, my teeth clenched of their own accord.
‘What manner of creature is this….’
A one-armed middle-aged man. A possessor of such devastating martial prowess that he could slay Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni, a supreme master of the previous generation, and three elders single-handedly.
What was his purpose? Why would he orchestrate such a thing? And was he the same fiend who murdered Dok Wang Dang Sa-mun?
‘What if he wasn’t the same person?’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, a chill ran down my spine and my heart began to race violently.
If the perpetrators of these two incidents were different individuals… then Sichuan would transform into a land of death in no time.
Just as my heavy footsteps began to slow, the two elders of the Qingcheng Sect spoke up.
“I believe we should part ways here.”
“I apologize to you, but our circumstances don’t permit us to continue.”
For them, worried about their sect leader, it was an inevitable choice.
First the Sichuan Tang Sect, then the Emei Sect. Unless one was a fool, anyone could deduce that the Qingcheng Sect would be next.
“There’s no need to apologize. I would have done the same in your position.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“Are you planning to head directly to Cheongseong Mountain?”
The elder, who was older in years, shook his head.
“I shall lead some of my disciples to aid the Emei Sect. The sect leader will return to the Main Sect Headquarters with the remaining disciples. And you?”
“Myo Ryeong Sae-tae’s injuries are more severe than I initially thought. I plan to find a physician first, then contact the Sichuan Tang Sect.”
With so many of the sect’s members depleted, both the Sichuan Tang Sect and the Qingcheng Sect were like masterless mountains. I needed to warn them in case of emergency.
The sect leader in the same predicament would surely understand this.
“Focus on treating Myo Ryeong Sae-tae for now. We’ll send someone to the Sichuan Tang Sect on our end.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I wish you good fortune in martial matters.”
“And I wish the same for you.”
We clasped our fists toward each other and parted ways in three directions.
As the two elders led their disciples away to the north and east respectively, only four of us remained.
‘Right, Jeok Cheon-gang and Myo Ryeong Sae-tae were with me.’
I had come all the way to Sichuan to treat a patient, yet instead of finding the Divine Physician, I’d gained another patient.
‘What is this, some kind of hidden camera?’
Damn it, that couldn’t possibly be it.
I was about to take another step forward, exhaling a deep sigh from within, when it happened.
Thud. Thud.
Light footsteps treading upon the earth, ascending the mountain path, accompanied by cheerful humming. A boy climbing along the Mountain Road finally spotted us and widened his eyes in surprise.
“Huh? Huh?”
A familiar face. The boy’s name was Moon-kyung.
I was delighted to see him again after just a few days, but before that, another thought flashed through my mind.
“Moon-kyung.”
“What brings you all to this place… yes?”
“You’re a physician, aren’t you?”
I still remembered him providing medical care on the deck of the Kwae Jo-seon.
Though I wasn’t certain of the exact treatments he’d administered, according to the sailors’ accounts, his skills were quite impressive.
“Yes, that’s right, but….”
Moon-kyung answered with a bewildered expression, his gaze shifting toward Myo Ryeong Sae-tae cradled in my arms. No further explanation was necessary.
He approached swiftly, withdrawing a wooden case containing acupuncture needles and moxibustion supplies from the bundle he carried.
“First, let me examine the patient’s condition.”
* * *
Swish.
From taking the pulse to inserting the needles took mere moments.
Yet despite executing every procedure with the fluidity of flowing water, Moon-kyung’s face remained shadowed with concern.
“…How is it?”
I didn’t need to ask to know the prognosis wasn’t favorable.
As expected, Moon-kyung shook his head slightly.
“It’s not good. Really not good.”
“At least you’ve provided minimal treatment, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
I exhaled a breath of relief.
Though I felt apologetic toward Moon-kyung, I harbored no grand expectations from the start. He was young, and his time studying medicine was equally brief.
What I needed was precisely that minimal treatment.
“You’ve done well. For now, that’s enough. If we can reach Chengdu quickly and find a solution…”
“Will we really?”
“What?”
“In a month, the flesh will putrefy. In four months, the bones will dissolve.”
“Wait. Boy, what are you saying…?”
But Moon-kyung’s soft voice continued without pause.
“After six months of excruciating agony, she’ll become nothing more than a living corpse. At most a year—once the organs begin to rot, that’s when death finally comes.”
“…What?”
“Even if we reach Chengdu, there’s no viable solution. The physicians available in the common world can only treat ailments afflicting noblewomen. And the Sichuan Tang Sect…”
I was shocked twice over.
First, that Myo Ryeong Sae-tae’s injuries were this severe.
And second, by Moon-kyung’s unfamiliar composure as he spoke these terrifying words.
“Word spreads through the Market Street that the Tang Sect’s martial artists headed westward. It will take days for them to return. By then, it will be too late. How long has it been since the wound was inflicted?”
Hyuk Moo-jin stammered his answer.
“A little over three days.”
“Three days…?”
Moon-kyung released a soft groan, his voice growing heavy.
“The Black Hand Mark is a vicious technique. Once seven days pass, it becomes irreversible.”
Thud!
That was my limit. My patience exhausted, I seized him by the collar.
“How…how do you know this?”
A teenage physician’s apprentice had just spoken of a forbidden technique no one here had ever heard of.
This was impossible for the Moon-kyung I knew.
“Speak. Now.”
Intimidated by my chilling presence, Moon-kyung swallowed hard and answered.
“My master taught me everything. He showed me all of it.”
“Your master?”
“Yes, yes. Cough!”
In that instant, a thread of understanding flashed through my mind.
The grip I had maintained on his collar suddenly went slack.
A moan escaped between my lips, barely a whisper.
“The Divine Physician…?”

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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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