Murim Login - Chapter 368

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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 368
The boy—no, the one who bore the name Moon-kyung—gazed down from where he stood.
Countless eyes fixed upon him in disbelief. Among them was a face he recognized.
Though they had crossed paths only once long ago, identifying him proved no difficult task.
“It has been a long time, Fire King.”
At his greeting, the pupils of Fire King Red Sky River trembled with turbulent emotion.
“…So it truly was you.”
The greatest Assassin under heaven. He who had inspired not merely criticism and contempt, but reverence among countless martial artists, had vanished one day without trace, never to appear again.
At least, not until mere moments ago.
“Why have you come to this place….”
“Much has transpired. Truly, much has come to pass. Has it not?”
The question was directed toward an old man. The one who had regarded him—not the Divine Physician, but Dong Bong—with an indescribable gleam in his eyes now parted his lips.
“Fortunate that it is not too late.”
The voice that flowed from between his lips resonated across all directions of heaven and earth.
The Six Harmonies Transmission of Sound.
As a shudder ran through those witnessing the profound martial realm unfold before their eyes, the aged Physician shook his head gently.
“You are too late, I’m afraid.”
A word laden with sorrow followed.
“Too late to reclaim the years that have passed.”
“What can be done? It is a difficult task to gather water that has already been spilled.”
“Do you not regret it?”
“Regret.”
At his disciple’s words, he lifted his gaze toward the heavens.
Where the endless sheets of rain had once poured and dark clouds had obscured the light, a brilliant azure sky now stretched forth.
‘Is this your will?’
A question cast toward that someone gazing down upon the lower realm from on high.
Yet no answer returns. As it has always been.
‘Truly… what a cursed affair this is.’
He closed his eyes firmly. In the encompassing darkness, memories steeped in blood and struggle flickered past.
A life spent as an Assassin, living as an Assassin. Born to the karma of slaying, he had taken lives; born human, he despised the act of killing.
At the end of the great continental war that had dyed the land crimson, the aged Assassin had buried his weapons and lived as a Physician for this very reason.
Yet….
Had it come to this in the end?
With a soft murmur, he opened the eyes he had closed.
The pale, delicate hands of a youth.
The Return to Youth that had come years ago had transformed his flesh, yet could not erase the scent of blood that had seeped into his hands.
“I lived as a Physician for forty-odd years. I wished to die as a Physician.”
A voice laden with tremendous martial force became thunder that pierced the ears. The Black Robed Organization members, struck by an impact that shook their very spirits, staggered in their stances.
“Yet, why have you come to this place?”
A killing intent so intense that every hair stood on end. Bu Dan-ju, frozen while gazing upon the transcendent being above, spoke in a trembling voice.
“Y-you may be Sal-sung, but this is not your concern.”
“Not my concern?”
The man who had spoken in a low voice threw down the bundle he held in his hand.
With a heavy thud, something bounced out from the bundle as it struck the ground, landing at Bu Dan-ju’s feet.
“Th-this is…”
They were the severed heads of two men. Their wide-open eyes and contorted expressions were strikingly similar, as if they belonged to different people yet were identical.
Like twins born on the same day and hour.
Bu Dan-ju’s gaze fixed upon one of them.
“Dan-ju!”
Seeing Bu Dan-ju’s shock at the sight of Il-gwe’s severed head, the man slowly opened his mouth.
“Answer me one question. The one at Qingcheng—was he the second of the Three Demons of Giresan, or the third?”
“…!”
Bu Dan-ju finally understood.
Why there had been no word from the Qingcheng Sect. Where his brothers were, the ones who had not returned even after seeing the emergency signal.
There was only one path left for him. With a flash of realization, a cry infused with martial power erupted from his lips.
“Attack! Kill that man….”
Skreee!
Bu Dan-ju’s cry could not continue.
With the wind brushing past his throat, a figure suddenly stood behind his staggering form.
‘Th-this… is this truly the movement of a human being?’
A final question flickering through his mind.
Waiting for him, who had failed to recognize the Phantom Illusion Killing Step—the technique of the greatest assassin under heaven, nay, of all ages—was only death.
Splurt!
A fountain of blood erupted from the severed neck. As the body crumbled, a figure stepped forward. Simultaneously, a wind carrying the scent of blood blew past.
Skreee, skreee, skreee!
The heads of the Black Robed Organization members, who watched their commander’s death with vacant eyes, flew into the air.
Before the blood could even touch the ground, something pale and ghostly passed through them like a phantom.
“A life so desperately desired.”
He murmured softly as he extended both hands. From his ten fingers flowed thin, long threads of energy.
Beautiful yet destructive threads of sword energy.
“Why do you persist….”
Whoooosh!
As his ten bent fingers slashed through the void, the sword energy tore through space itself.
Simultaneously, everything that stood in the way was cut and split. Fragments of armor and weapons, limbs and heads erupted in all directions.
In a world frozen by blood and death, only one person remained free.
“You have awakened me.”
Consumed by lamentation and rage, he was no longer the bright-eyed youth, nor the Physician who had passed the name Divine Physician to his disciples.
He had reverted to who he was before earning the name Divine Physician—before meeting the young carpenter grieving the loss of his wife and children to plague, and before burying his weapons and leaving the Martial World.
“Kill Star…!”
A scream-like cry from someone.
With eyes sunken deeper than the abyss itself, he shook both his arms. The wind, which had transformed into a tempest, swallowed up nearly a hundred members of the Black Robed Organization.
Kwaaaaa!
* * *
To the east of the Sichuan Poison Sect stood a high hillside.
There, overlooking the sect’s grounds in a single glance, stood a small watchtower and martial artists taking turns on watch. Or rather, they had stood there.
Drip, drip.
Drops of blood fell from the watchtower, wetting the grass blades. Some slid down the hillside, touching someone’s hand.
A wrinkled hand covered in age spots, and fingernails tinged green from years of cultivating poison techniques.
The owner of that hand was Dang Sa-dok, the current Family Head of the Sichuan Poison Sect, known as the Ten-Thousand Poison Asura.
“Cough.”
Blood sprayed between his parched lips. Eyes that had always been cool and commanding now flickered precariously, as if about to extinguish.
“So it ends like this.”
Dang Sa-dok murmured in a faint voice.
Everything was rushing toward its end. His own life. The glorious history of the Sichuan Poison Sect.
“Centuries of accumulated legacy… crumbling to dust in a single day.”
Dang Sa-dok’s lament was hollow. He no longer possessed even the strength to feel anger or sorrow.
For an old Family Head whose limbs were shattered and whose internal injuries were severe, all that remained was to lean against an unnamed tree and witness the destruction of his clan.
‘This is my final gift to you.’
The smiling face of a middle-aged man flashed before Dang Sa-dok’s eyes.
That middle-aged man, the Western Heavenly Demon Lord, had broken his promise. For him, the annihilation of the Sichuan Poison Sect had been predetermined from the beginning.
“Ugh. Kueeegh!”
Heart fire blazed forth, worsening his internal injuries. Dang Sa-dok, who had spewed out blood by the bucketful, gasped for breath.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”
An apology sent to the ancestors of the Sichuan Poison Sect and the innocent retainers who had lost their lives because of an incompetent Family Head, and to Jin Tae-kyung and his companions who had surely met a gruesome death at the hands of the Western Heavenly Demon Lord by now.
Of course, none of them would ever hear Dang Sa-dok’s voice.
‘If we meet in the nine springs below, I shall apologize in person.’
It was then that Dang Sa-dok was murmuring to himself.
Ssshhh.
The sound of rustling vegetation and approaching presence drew near.
No, it was not human. Only when it had come within arm’s reach did Dang Sa-dok recognize who the owner of this mysterious aura was.
Slither, hiss.
A snake with a flicking tongue and triangular head crowned with horns, its body pure white, burrowed into Dang Sa-dok’s embrace.
“Heh, heheheh.”
Dang Sa-dok laughed, both delighted and deflated.
“So it was you.”
Chirp.
Mi-mi, the Thousand-Year Poison Fang Snake, hissed as if answering her master’s words. Her cold tongue licked the whiskers matted with blood.
“Clever creature, how did you find your way here?”
Dang Sa-dok gazed at his beloved serpent with dimming eyes.
He had released her during the chaos of battle, worried she might be harmed. He had never imagined they would meet again like this.
And… I never thought our final parting would come like this.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A tremendous explosion echoed across the Hillside, shaking the earth. Soil erupted into the air, and trees swayed violently.
Dang Sa-dok lifted his head, trying to locate the source of the blast, but his dimming vision could no longer discern what was happening.
He could only deduce one thing.
‘The time has come.’
A detonation on an entirely different scale from the Heaven-Shaking Thunder. The destruction of the great Sichuan Poison Sect was now imminent.
Dang Sa-dok closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and spoke.
“Leave.”
Chirp?
The triangular snout tilted in confusion.
“The old master and the sect—neither has much time left. If you stay here, you too will be caught in the calamity.”
Dang Sa-dok was the Family Head of the Sichuan Poison Sect. Even without the Western Heavenly Demon Army, someone would inevitably come to confirm his fate.
He could easily imagine what the fierce beasts would do upon seeing the thousand-year-old poison serpent standing beside its master.
“So go now. Go!”
He wanted to shout, but the voice he managed to squeeze out was as fragile as a thread about to snap.
Yet the spirit creature who had walked beside Dang Sa-dok for countless years understood the final wish of its master and friend.
Pitter. Patter.
Drops of moisture fell upon Dang Sa-dok’s weathered hand.
Mi-mi, the thousand-year-old poison serpent, left behind a few tears. Her pristine white body glided away and vanished.
As her presence faded, a bittersweet smile flickered across Dang Sa-dok’s lips.
“Yes, go carefully.”
In his youth, he had traversed countless battlefields. After the wars ended, he devoted his entire life to helping his father, Dok Wang, rebuild the Sichuan Poison Sect.
For one who had always needed to be cold and meticulous, he had no companions to share his heart with, no lover, no blood-bound children.
Had it not been for the spirit creature who remained at his side for so long, he could never have endured the loneliness.
‘From this day forward, your name is Mi-mi. Dang Mi-mi.’
On the day he first encountered the small thousand-year-old poison serpent, Dang Sa-dok had bestowed upon her the Dang family name.
Though her blood was different and even her very species was alien, Dang Mi-mi was a member of the Sichuan Poison Sect recognized by the Family Head.
‘I have lost everything, and I send forth only you to live. Hehe…’
Dang Sa-dok let out a hollow laugh, his eyes blinking slowly.
Through his fading senses, the roar of explosions and the screams of people echoed faintly from below the Hillside.
It was the final struggle of those standing against the annihilation of their sect.
‘The old master is still here. I, Dang Sa-dok, Family Head of the great Sichuan Poison Sect, am still here! Come to me!’
The cry, as if coughing up blood, merely lingered on his tongue.
Dang Sa-dok felt strength draining from his entire body. His heavy eyelids gradually, ever so gradually, began to close.
‘I am tired.’
What if I simply closed my eyes and surrendered to deep sleep?
If I took a brief nap and awoke in the Family Head Hall, I might see the familiar faces of my household members.
How wonderful it would be if everything that has happened until now, including Father’s death, were nothing but a butterfly’s dream…
‘Yes, if only it were so.’
Slowly, Dang Sa-dok’s trembling eyelids finally shut tight.
Or rather, they were just about to.
“Mi-mi! Lightning Flash!”
Whoooosh!
“…?”
What in the world was happening?
Dang Sa-dok’s eyes snapped open without his realizing it.
In his clearing vision, I saw a young man rushing forward and Mi-mi’s pristine white body shooting through the air like an arrow.
“Y-you are?”
“Wow! Wild Dang Grandfather spotted!”
At the sight of Chung Poong smiling brightly with blood splattered across his face, Dang Sa-dok blinked.
“W-what is this? How are you….”
Chung Poong answered vigorously.
“Mi-mi! Whirlwind Strike!”
Whoooosh!
Had Dang Sa-dok possessed even a shred of strength remaining, he would have cursed.
Chung Poong and Mi-mi, belatedly realizing their mistake, bowed their heads apologetically.
“Ah, our apologies.”
Hiss.
“….”
Forgetting that he had been half-dead moments before, Dang Sa-dok stared blankly at the man and serpent before him, finally managing to open his mouth.
“The Main Residence… what became of the Main Residence?”
“They all died.”
“…!”
“Ah. Not the Tang Sect members—the Black Robed Organization from Dark Heaven.”
I should have said that first!
As Dang Sa-dok struggled to speak through shock and fury, Chung Poong’s hand pressed against his vital point. A warmth as gentle as spring enveloped his body.
“Chung Poong! Qi infusion!”
This bastard, right to the end….
Dang Sa-dok wanted to ask what had happened and how, but this time he could not resist the overwhelming drowsiness that washed over him.
Just before his eyes closed, a voice as soft as a spring breeze pierced his ears.
“It’s all over now. Rest easy and sleep.”
It was a voice announcing the end of a day that had been longer and darker than any before.

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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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