Murim Login - Chapter 369

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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 369
“Search every inch of this place. If you do this half-heartedly like you practice martial arts, you’ll be in serious trouble.”
“Oh my, Senior Brother. Anyone listening would think that’s actually true. There are disciples here—you really don’t hold back your words.”
“This wretch who spends all his time chasing wine and women… Do you think he’ll come to his senses unless I beat some sense into him right here?”
“Yes, yes, I understand.”
Despite his Senior Brother’s scolding, the young man Hwang So’s furrowed brow showed no sign of relaxing.
He was a first-generation disciple of the Gongdo Sect, a martial faction located in Sichuan, and had been conscripted for this mission along with thirty or so second and third-generation disciples.
‘Damn it. What kind of suffering is this on the fifth day?’
Hwang So grumbled inwardly.
Born into the bloodline of a fairly wealthy merchant family, he had grown up wanting for nothing.
The very fact that he’d been forced onto the path of a martial artist by his father’s insistence on building connections in the Murim was already irritating, and five days of sleeping rough in the elements had been more than enough to drain what little patience he had left.
‘Sigh, I heard there’s a new courtesan at the Deng Wang Tower Tea House who’s absolutely stunning…’
It was precisely when Hwang So’s mind was racing toward his favorite pleasure house.
“You fool! Even after I said that, you’re still distracted!”
“Ah, yes, I understand. I got it.”
Startled by his Senior Brother’s sudden tiger-like roar, Hwang So shuffled his feet forward.
At the sight of him, his Senior Brother clicked his tongue in disgust.
“If you don’t want to die a meaningless death, get your head on straight. Surely you understand what kind of situation we’re in right now.”
“Of course I do. We’re suffering like this to catch some Demon Master who probably doesn’t even exist.”
“Doesn’t even exist?”
“Exactly. The Third Demon or whatever. We’re searching in all the wrong places for someone who fled long ago. It’s ridiculous.”
At Hwang So’s loose-tongued response, his Senior Brother’s face hardened like stone.
“Watch your words. Since the Great Martial Tournament, this is the first time the Sichuan Martial World has united to cast such a vast net across heaven and earth. Everything has its reasons.”
“Who said there were no reasons? I’m not deaf. I already know all about it.”
Hwang So had heard enough about the reasons for casting this vast net to make his ears ache.
Some group called Dark Heaven had invaded and reduced the Tang Sect, Qingcheng Sect, and Emei Sect to ruins.
At the forefront was a great Demon Master from the Opening Year who had single-handedly defeated Dok Wang and Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni, and the ancient demons of the Three Demons of Giresan along with hundreds of Evil Demons had split into three groups and drenched Sichuan’s three greatest sects in blood.
And the outcome of that day, which had come to be called the Bloodstained History of Three Sects, was known to everyone in Sichuan, including Hwang So.
“In the end, you defeated them spectacularly, didn’t you? All the so-called Demon Masters died except for one, and the rest of the rabble scattered and fled. So isn’t it over?”
“…Sigh.”
Hwang So’s Senior Brother, whose lips had been moving as if to say something, answered instead with a heavy sigh.
No matter what he said, it would be like playing music to a deaf ear. His disciple had no interest in understanding how much fortune and sacrifice lay behind this victory.
‘The mysterious master who suddenly appeared and saved the Qingcheng Sect. The countless Beggar Clan disciples and nearby Martial World factions who rushed to rescue the Emei Sect in crisis. And…’
Without ‘them’ who had saved the Sichuan Tang Sect from the brink of annihilation, the three great renowned sects with their long histories would have vanished from the Murim five days ago.
The Bloodstained History of Three Sects had been a thorough and sudden large-scale assault, delivering a tremendous shock to the entire Orthodox Martial Arts World.
‘But for a martial artist to have such shallow thinking. No matter how reluctantly he entered the path…’
As his Senior Brother shook his head in disapproval, Hwang So bristled.
“What?”
“Never mind. Stop talking and pick about ten men to search beyond that hillside.”
“Again? We’ve already searched that place several times over the past five days…”
“The Main Sect’s designated area must be searched a hundred times, a thousand times over. I’ll also comb through the nearby grasslands myself, so follow without question.”
At Senior Brother’s resolute words, Hwang So clamped his mouth shut.
‘I need to report this to Father and return to the Main Residence as soon as possible. But why in the world did the Demon Master who fled the Emei Sect appear here of all places?’
The Heaven and Earth Net, with thousands of personnel deployed, lived up to its name as an effective dragnet.
Most of the remnants of Dark Heaven who had fled after the Three Demons of Giresan’s defeat had already been hunted down or captured.
All that remained was the Third Demon, Sam-gwe, who had attacked the Emei Sect, and the area currently assigned to the Gongdo Sect was near Chengdu, which could be called the heart of Sichuan.
‘I hear that Demon Master isn’t even in good condition, so why would he walk into the tiger’s mouth when he had perfectly good options like Tibet or Yunnan?’
Hwang So’s complaint held some merit.
No matter how dark it is beneath the lamp, there was no reason for a Demon Master branded as a public enemy of the Martial World to pierce through such a dense dragnet and head toward Chengdu.
‘If there was even the slightest possibility of that, why would I be here? The Qingcheng Sect Daoists were guarding it.’
This was all because of Senior Brother’s rigidity that bordered on exasperating.
Hwang So, muttering quiet curses under his breath, snapped his fingers at the third-generation disciples standing about vacantly.
“You there, big nose. Yeah, you—from you to that big-eared one over there. Ten of you. Follow me.”
What could he do? When ordered, one had to obey.
Yet as Hwang So set off on the search, leaving behind Senior Brother’s gaze full of disappointment, his mind was cluttered with idle thoughts.
‘Just wait and see. The moment this is over, I’m heading straight to the Deng Wang Tower Tea House to have a proper good time.’
With his heart elsewhere, the search could hardly be conducted properly.
The third-generation disciples half-heartedly scanned the surroundings, watching Hwang So’s mood, and no one noticed the faint traces of blood on the leaves during this sloppy search.
* * *
‘Thank goodness they’re all idiots. At this rate, I don’t need to worry at all.’
Sam-gwe exhaled a sigh of relief and extended his leg.
Whoosh.
His form shot forward rapidly, treading on leaves.
If a master of considerable skill were nearby, he might be discovered, but given the level of these fools he’d observed so far, that possibility was nonexistent.
‘They never would have imagined I’d head upstream toward Chengdu.’
The thrill of completely deceiving the Orthodox Sects was short-lived as rage and killing intent surged from deep within Sam-gwe’s chest.
‘If only it weren’t for those damned bastards…!’
Five days ago, it had gone well enough when he led his subordinates in the assault.
With the deaths of Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni, the Sect Master, and the elders, the Emei Sect suffered a massive gap in combat strength, and the Dark Heaven warriors under Sam-gwe’s command drove into that void like a massive harpoon.
And then, amid the brutal battle where blood and death flowed without end, they appeared.
‘Damn these worthless dogs!’
Some beggar bastard.
‘The Deputy Commander of the Jinryong Squad of the Great Tae Won Jin Family, the right arm and pinky toe of Shanxi Sleeping Dragon Jin Tae-kyung—Hyuk Moo-jin has arrived!’
A young fool whose name was confusing—was he the right arm or the pinky toe?
‘Master! I have arrived!’
And a middle-aged nun who appeared to be an Emei Sect disciple. At her fearless entrance, even Sam-gwe was momentarily dumbfounded.
‘What? Worthless dogs? This beggar bastard must be insane wanting to die. Wait. Let me tear your limbs apart and…?’
Sam-gwe, approaching with a sneer, had to swallow his words.
Behind the fearless young beggar bastard, countless beggar bastards were rushing forward—too many to count individually.
A veritable wave of beggar bastards!
‘The Beggar Clan? The Beggar Clan?’
It was far too swift a response for Sam-gwe. In less than half a day, over a thousand Beggar Clan disciples had converged to rescue the Emei Sect.
‘Hu Gae commands it. Slaughter these dogs like the worthless curs they are!’
‘Armor! They’re wearing armor!’
‘Strike the exposed areas! Crush their balls!’
Before them, the Emei Sect’s female monks charged forward without fear of death; behind them, countless Beggar Clan disciples surged in endless waves.
Sam-gwe and his Black Robed Organization subordinates fought with frenzied desperation, cutting down enemies, yet the tide of battle had already turned against them.
‘Brothers of the Beggar Clan! Never retreat!’
‘Waaaaah!’
‘Avenge Gaeddugi’s death!’
A human wave tactic so overwhelming it made the mind reel.
Kill one beggar and not two but five, ten would rush forward.
Summon every last ounce of strength and cut them down as well?
What came after required no worry. A club would come flying from somewhere to burst their balls, an iron staff would crack their skulls.
The dead have no future.
‘Cough…!’
Like a body soaked by drizzle, the Black Robed Organization members fell one by one, becoming cold corpses scattered across the ground. Sam-gwe himself had no time to tend to his subordinates, much less reverse the tide.
‘Deploy the Demon-Subduing Dragon Formation!’
The Seven Immortal Maidens, composed of the Emei Sect’s finest masters, bound Sam-gwe’s feet with their combined formation.
Even bearing grave wounds, they never retreated, launching attacks that disregarded their own lives, and Sam-gwe grew increasingly exhausted from mounting desperation and fatigue.
Sam-gwe’s face twisted as he recalled the situation from five days prior.
‘And then Myeol-jeol Shinni appeared. That damned old demon put an end to it all.’
Myeol-jeol Shinni’s appearance shocked not only Sam-gwe but the Emei Sect disciples as well.
Thirty years ago, she had left the secular world at the age of one hundred, and she was the only senior sister of Gyeong Cheon Shin-ni, a figure already believed to be dead.
Faced with the sudden emergence of another supreme master, Sam-gwe chose flight without a moment’s hesitation, and the Black Robed Organization members under his command scattered and fled in his wake.
A clear defeat. Yet Sam-gwe had survived nonetheless.
He had disguised himself with human skin masks and reverse cultivation techniques, found the weakest point in the Heaven and Earth Net, and made his way here.
To this place where no one’s footsteps had ever reached, to this nameless cliff.
“At last… Ugh!”
As the cliff’s landscape drew rapidly closer, Sam-gwe suppressed the surge of emotion welling up within him.
Only now did the sorrow and rage of losing his only blood relatives come crashing down upon him simultaneously.
“Do not grieve too deeply, Elder Brothers. Though we retreat now, I, the youngest, shall surely avenge your deaths.”
It was the very moment Sam-gwe, having steeled his resolve for vengeance, reached his hand toward the cliff.
Slice!
Sam-gwe’s eyes flew wide open. His wrist fell away with a sensation as searing as a burn.
A pain he had not felt in ages. A scream burst through his split lips, arriving a beat too late.
“Krraaaagh!”
Simultaneously, a chilling aura flowed down his spine.
He swiftly sealed his blood vessels with a lightning-fast strike to his meridians and snapped his head up.
Where solid cliff had stood mere moments before, there now appeared a face far too familiar.
“Cr-Crescent Elder Brother?”
Sam-gwe’s cry mingled shock with joy. Yet Il-gwe’s response remained unmoved.
“Seems so. Your disguise technique was so pathetic I had to wonder.”
“…!”
Crack, crunch-crunch.
In that moment, Il-gwe’s grotesque face rippled like water. The hunched spine straightened, and the limbs elongated.
Where the hideous old man had stood, a boy with refined features now appeared.
“Who—who are you!”
At Sam-gwe’s cry, a faint smile crossed Sal-sung’s impassive face.
“Moon-kyung.”
A faint smile crossed Sal-sung’s impassive face.
“Your nemesis.”

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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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