Murim Login - Chapter 354
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 354
Clang! Crash, crash, crash!
“These villainous scum deserve to be chewed to pieces! Show them no mercy!”
“The Heavenly Master wills it! Annihilate the Tang Sect!”
Blade clashed against blade. Ragged breathing and fractured cries. Hundreds of bodies tangled together, their murderous intent and the stench of blood flooding the air in all directions.
Between the dawn mist darkened by poison smoke, those thirsting for death raised their weapons and charged toward one another.
Thud! Thud!
“Gahhh!”
A scream tore from the lips of a young man.
Born into a branch family of the Great Sichuan Tang Sect, he had ascended to the first rank without difficulty. His considerable martial prowess and composure beyond his years had earned him the expectations of all around him.
Yet now, that bright future dimmed alongside the black sword energy.
Whoosh! Crack!
A diagonal slash of sword energy split his upper body in two, and it was finished.
The Black Robed Organization member watched the young man collapse, spilling blood and organs, with a look of disgust.
‘The brat was vicious.’
The duel decided in merely three exchanges.
Yet the nameless Tang Sect martial artist had attempted mutual destruction, wagering his own death.
The hair-thin needle embedded beneath the Black Robed member’s collarbone was proof of this.
‘So this is the way of the Sichuan Tang Sect.’
The Black Robed member clicked his tongue and extracted the needle.
The tip of the impossibly thin needle had turned black—a clear sign that poison coated it.
“Tch!”
His vision blurred in an instant. The poison spreading from his collarbone raced swiftly through his entire body.
Even with peak inner strength, he could only buy time.
In a chaotic battlefield like this, struck by the Sichuan Tang Sect’s absolute toxin, he was as good as dead.
Yet the Black Robed member did not panic. Rather, he smiled.
“The Heavenly Master is truly magnificent.”
Suppressed words escaped between his teeth.
For the first time, the Black Robed member’s mouth opened to reveal a single small pearl within.
Simultaneously, an eerie light flowed from the pearl down his neck like a river.
Ssssshhhhh.
The transformation was instantaneous. His blurred vision sharpened, and his weakened body regained strength and vitality.
All poison purged from his body, the Black Robed member trembled.
The Heavenly Master—more dignified and magnificent than any other.
The life force granted by his god filled his entire being.
“The Heavenly Master descends upon me!”
The Black Robed member, having uttered a cry brimming with ecstasy, turned his head to seek another victim when—
“You are mistaken. What descends upon you is not the Heavenly Master, but Yama himself.”
Splurt!
A hidden blade came flying from somewhere and pierced his brow.
The qi channeled through the blade pierced flesh and bone, reducing the Black Robed Organization member’s brain to pulp. Death was certain.
Thud. Crash!
A pearl tumbled from the collapsing Black Robed Organization member’s mouth, only to be sucked into someone’s waiting palm.
The Old Master gazed at the pearl with cunning gray eyes and muttered.
“These bastards… they possess treasures.”
An ordinary Murim martial artist would have mistaken the pearl for a Poison Avoidance Pearl.
But the Old Master, Dang Jin-hu—a direct descendant of the Sichuan Poison Sect who had endured the Demonic Great War alongside No Gang-ho—instinctively recognized that this pearl was something different.
‘What is this?’
Genuine Poison Avoidance Pearls possessed a clear luster. Their detoxification potency varied with their transparency, and so did their value.
But the pearl the Black Robed Organization member carried gleamed with an ominous black light, as if it contained storm clouds. Yet it possessed potency enough to neutralize the Tang Sect’s deadliest toxins.
The greater problem was…
‘Every single one of them carries such treasures. This renders the Main Residence’s poison techniques and the poison arrays I set in advance utterly useless.’
And on top of that, they wore leather armor that even ordinary blades could scarcely pierce.
Now Dang Jin-hu understood why the Tang Sect Drum had sounded. If this continued, a bloodbath far more terrible than that day in the Year of Gyeongwol would unfold.
“These wretches…”
Crack.
Dang Jin-hu crushed the pearl with force, his face twisted with killing intent as he extended both arms.
The silver thread wound around his wrists surged with qi, becoming taut and rigid. In the next instant, a brilliant white flash consumed everything.
Screeeech! Splatter!
“Gasp!”
“Argh!”
Only a handful managed to leave even a final cry. Death came equally to first-rate masters and peak-realm masters alike.
Raising weapons to block proved futile. The thread Dang Jin-hu unleashed lived up to its name—Soul-Severing Silk—cutting and slicing through all things.
Blades, bone and flesh, and the very lives of his enemies.
Having felled a dozen Black Robed Organization members in mere moments, Dang Jin-hu bellowed forth his command.
“Do not retreat! Target their vital points with projectiles and coordinate your assault!”
“Grand Elder! I have arrived as well!”
“Do you see these damnable wretches? They dare assault the Main Residence? Do you not see me, the Heavenly Poison Guest?”
Dang Jin-hu was a supreme master who had retired a decade ago and now served as the head of the Elder Council.
As the former masters joined the battlefield in succession, color returned to the faces of the Tang Sect warriors who had been faltering.
“G-Grandfather!”
“The Grand Elder has come! The Elder Council moves!”
But joy lasted only a moment.
Crash, scrape!
“Gaaaah!”
“Tang Hui!”
“Boy, do you have time to be distracted?”
Splurt!
“Help… gasp!”
“Heavenly Master, save us!”
“The great Heavenly Master walks with us. Slaughter them all!”
The Black Robed Organization’s martial prowess surpassed that of the Sichuan Tang Sect’s warriors, and their armor along with the bizarre blood toxins they wielded rendered the Tang Sect’s vaunted poisons and hidden weapons utterly useless.
Over a dozen elders including Dang Jin-hu, and dozens of peak-realm masters painstakingly cultivated by the Tang Sect fought desperately, yet their limits were painfully evident.
Shriek! Splurt!
Dang Jin-hu severed the necks of two charging Black Robed Organization members with a single sword stroke, his teeth grinding audibly.
“Where in blazes did these monsters come from…!”
The sight unfolding before his eyes was nothing short of catastrophic.
Black Robed Organization members, possessed as though by some malevolent force, shrieked the name of the Heavenly Master while wielding their weapons.
As they blocked blades and hidden weapons with their armor, dispersed the poison mist, and advanced relentlessly, blood sprayed and corpses accumulated.
In the vacant eyes of a Tang Sect warrior whose breath had ceased, crimson flames suddenly erupted and danced. The scorching fire and acrid smoke swept away the poison mist and incinerated the fallen bodies.
Dang Jin-hu wailed in a voice choked with blood.
“This cannot be! You wretches, how dare you, how dare you strike down my kinfolk!”
Even the mighty Demon Cult’s forces had suffered nearly a thousand casualties to breach the Tang Sect’s defenses—how could a mere three hundred enemies wreak such devastation?
“Kugh! Grand… Grand Elder…!”
“Elder Brother!”
Splurt splurt splurt!
Even the elders who once dominated the Martial World could not escape death’s embrace.
Though they had not reached the supreme pinnacle that Dang Jin-hu had attained, each of these masters stood at the very threshold of peak-realm cultivation—formidable warriors of a bygone era.
Yet for every one they felled, five more surged forward; and when they cut down those five, ten came rushing in.
Among those ten Black Robed Organization members who charged forward with reckless abandon, a single peak-realm master lay hidden.
Slash! Thud!
A Black Robed Organization member, having sacrificed dozens of subordinates as sacrificial pawns to sever another elder’s neck, laughed with smug satisfaction.
“The Tang Sect’s elders are nothing special after all.”
“You wretch!”
Shriek! Splurt!
Despite Dang Jin-hu’s furious onslaught, the situation did not improve.
Over a hundred of his subordinates had already fallen, and half of the Outer Hall had slipped into the enemy’s grasp.
“Huff… huff…”
And now, his internal energy and stamina were rapidly depleting.
The battle’s tide could no longer be turned by the strength of a single aging peak-realm master.
Realizing this bitter truth, lamentation escaped Dang Jin-hu’s lips.
“Where is the Patriarch? What are the Ten Oddities of the Tang Sect doing!”
Had they been present, everything would have been different. Dang Sa-dok, the family head and supreme master, and the Ten Oddities of the Tang Sect—their arrival could have reversed the tide of battle.
But…
“Kekeke. They’re probably quite busy about now.”
In the next instant, a voice pierced Dang Jin-hu’s ears, and his heart sank like a stone.
“Who goes there!”
“As for who I am… damn it. You can’t even see me. Disappear.”
Boom!
Along with a fierce palm strike, several Black Robed Organization members were sent flying like broken dolls.
An old man drenched in blood walked out into the open space ahead, his lips curling into a grin as he faced Dang Jin-hu.
“Now I can see properly.”
The old man was short and grotesquely ugly. Dang Jin-hu’s pupils trembled as he stared at him.
“You are….”
“Hmm? Do you know me?”
“…I never thought the Evil Demon of Qinghai Fortress would still be alive.”
The old man who had been watching Dang Jin-hu intently—Il-gwe—suddenly widened his eyes.
“Ah, so it’s that young pup from the Tang Family. Tell me, have you improved at wielding the Single Soul Saber?”
“Enough to sever your neck.”
“I always thought the Sichuan Tang Sect was remarkably pragmatic for an Orthodox Sect, but looking at you, it seems I was mistaken. Such hollow delusions you cling to.”
“…!”
“Young fool. Since you still haven’t grasped the situation, this old man shall enlighten you personally.”
Il-gwe continued with a cackling laugh.
“You will die, the Family Head will die, and all those so-called Ten Oddities of Tang Sect will die. Whether they bear the surname Jang or not, we will slaughter and burn them all.”
“You bastard—!”
“Do not despair. The Heavenly Master, who is impartial to all beings, has meted out the same punishment to both nuns and Taoist priests. Kekekeke.”
Dang Jin-hu froze, his rage forgotten.
Only now did he realize that Il-gwe’s two younger brothers, who always shadowed him like phantoms, were nowhere to be seen.
‘…Emei and Qingcheng.’
The horrors of the Shi Shan Blood Sea were not confined to the Tang Sect alone.
The Sichuan Tang Sect, Emei, and Qingcheng.
He could feel the screams and deaths. Today, the three great sects that ruled Sichuan would wage a battle for their very survival.
Within the hellscape these demons had painted.
“After all these long years… you are truly the Evil Demon,” Dang Jin-hu spat out.
Il-gwe answered with a radiant smile.
“Such gratitude. Could there be higher praise for this old man?”
“I will kill you.”
“The body may be old, but the dreams are ambitious.”
Il-gwe burst into laughter like a madman and raised the pair of axes he held high.
“Now then, shall we taste blood again?”
At those words, hundreds of Black Robed Organization members who had already seized the Outer Hall surged forth like a tidal wave.
The surviving Tang Sect martial artists stood against them with the resolve of those making a final stand.
“Go! Kill anything you see!”
“Hold the line! Do not let them reach the Inner Hall!”
Those who would advance and those who would resist.
At the forefront, two figures charged toward each other.
Shrieeeeek!
Dang Jin-hu’s eyes burned with unwavering resolve as he unleashed the Single Soul Saber with all his might.
‘Family Head, please remain safe.’
Boom!
* * *
“Cough.”
Dang Sa-dok stared at his trembling palm. Between the dark crimson blood, fragments of internal organs were scattered.
“How… how could this be…”
With a weary voice, his head slowly lifted. At that very moment, another life was slipping away.
Splurch! Thud!
The headless corpse of someone collapsed like rotting timber.
Considering the prestige he once commanded in life, his death was utterly hollow.
“The Ten Oddities of Tang Sect, was it? They’re more useful than I expected.”
A few paces from the corpse, the middle-aged man wiped blood from his face as he continued speaking.
“Of course, I’ll need to call them something different now. Let me see… yes, the Three Techniques of Tang Sect would be more fitting.”
“…!”
Dang Sa-dok gazed at the middle-aged man with dimming eyes.
The one who introduced himself as the Western Heavenly Demon Lord, the man who killed his father, was overwhelmingly powerful. Neither the poison techniques Dang Sa-dok had unleashed nor the combined assault of the Ten Oddities of Tang Sect had availed.
‘Is this the end?’
Dang Sa-dok still possessed strength to fight. The three other survivors among the Ten Oddities of Tang Sect were no different.
But… how could they possibly stand against that monster?
What lifted him from the depths of despair was the bearing befitting a family patriarch, and the blood of the Tang Family flowing through his veins.
“Not yet… not yet.”
“Why not simply sit? You have no strength left anyway.”
“For whatever reason, I know you have no intention of killing me.”
“…Hmm. I’ll say it again—Dok Wang truly raised his son well.”
“Then kill me instead.”
“That won’t do. But I suppose I should drain some of your power.”
It was at that moment the Western Heavenly Demon Lord furrowed his brow and reached out his hand toward Dang Sa-dok.
“Wait, wait just a moment!”
“…?”
A young man burst through with a shout, exhaling a breath of relief.
“Phew, I made it in time. Thank you for waiting!”
Seeing the young man—Chung Poong—the Western Heavenly Demon Lord thought to himself:
‘What kind of madman is this?’
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————