Murim Login - Chapter 465

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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 465
Crash!
With a violent impact, the direction of the spear blade twisted sharply.
A beam of light that traced an utterly bizarre combat trajectory came hurtling down, writhing like a living creature and pouring over my head.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
A downpour of inner force. Before that destructive power which illuminated the dark cavern in an instant, I twisted my body with fluid grace.
Slash, crash-crash-crash!
Shoulder, neck, waist and chest….
The beam of light that grazed perilously past the vital points across my entire body pierced through and shattered the solid cavern floor.
Any delayed reaction would have meant instant death.
But the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder’s attack didn’t touch a single hair on me, and that momentary crisis transformed into opportunity.
Just like now.
Whoosh-!
The Baekryeom spear blade, shaken by the earlier impact, snapped cleanly in mid-air and aimed for the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder’s throat.
The instant his body shifted and his grayish-white eyes widened, a pure white beam of light hastily blocked the spear blade.
But….
‘That won’t be enough.’
If the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder was an old monster who had accumulated tremendous inner force over countless ages, then I was a monster who had transcended those ages through system rewards and battles that brushed against death itself.
Even if our inner force were equal, my body possessed the strength of a giant that surpassed human limitations.
Boom-!
The moment the cyan-white flame and beam of light collided, a sound like the heavens splitting erupted, and the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder’s body was sent flying backward.
The small old man’s frame shattered the solid stone and crashed into the cavern wall. At the same moment, the cavern trembled and massive stalactites came cascading down.
I stared at the grayish-white eyes visible beyond the debris and spoke with deliberate clarity.
“Get up. Stop with the pathetic act.”
Thump-thump-thump.
Limbs that had been hanging limp as if dead just moments before now moved with vigor.
Rising from the wall that had been dented by the impact, the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder twisted his neck left and right.
With a crack of bones shifting, a long fishing rod suddenly appeared in his weathered hands as he moved.
‘The Blackwood Fishing Rod.’
While not comparable to the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron, its hardness rivaled meteorite iron and was extraordinarily flexible—the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder’s unique secret weapon.
Despite partial damage, it stretched a full zhang in length, with a softly gleaming fishing line and hook attached at its end.
‘That is….’
I had never seen it, but I had heard of it—the Heavenly Silkworm Thread, a precious treasure that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Sichuan Tang Sect’s prized Single Soul Silk.
It was strange enough that a mere cocoon earned such a grandiose name as “Heavenly Silkworm” and was treated as a spiritual treasure, but what was even more remarkable was that the thread was so tough and sharp that even steel could not sever it.
The fishing line connected to the Blackwood Fishing Rod was precisely that Heavenly Silkworm Thread.
‘I must be careful.’
There was no harm in being cautious. Even if the Flame Dragon Armor was a divine artifact, it was not an invincible suit of armor that could block anything.
I stared at the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder, who had stopped three zhang away, and opened my mouth.
“You have two choices. First, you die by my hand right here. Second, you confess every single fact you know without omission and atone to the victims. Which will it be?”
“….”
Instead of answering, those hazy grayish eyes fixed upon me with an unsettling stare.
In that gaze—devoid of any emotion, so inhuman it was almost impossible to believe—a chill suddenly raced down my spine.
‘What… is this feeling?’
Every human possesses emotion.
But the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder was different. Though he breathed and possessed vitality, he seemed like an empty vessel—a hollow thing.
‘What in the world is this…’
I had no time to ponder further. In the next instant, I flinched and gripped my spear staff tightly.
An unnamed fish had suddenly moved just a few paces away.
With its bones exposed and flesh torn from its belly, the fish had thrashed several times before finally going still.
Clear bite marks—the teeth of something that had gnawed upon it—remained etched across its body.
‘Surely not…?’
As I regarded the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder, my brow furrowed. Red blood stained the wrinkles around his mouth, and scales glimmered upon his skin.
Only then did I understand the sound I’d heard on the way here, and what he had been doing moments before.
‘He was tearing it apart raw. A living fish, at that.’
What kind of mad old fool was this?
Suddenly, a classic fantasy film flashed through my mind—the kind they aired on cable channels whenever there was a gap in programming.
Looking at him now, he did bear some resemblance to the monsters in that film. His diminutive frame, his hunched posture, his sparse hair.
I clicked my tongue softly and opened my mouth toward the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder.
“This is changing genres… Don’t tell me the treasure you’re all searching for is a ring?”
“…”
“Fine, don’t answer. I was planning to pluck out your remaining hair strands one by one and ask you anyway in a moment.”
“Krrgh.”
“Oh, damn. What?”
I widened my eyes at the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder’s sudden reaction.
I’d just spouted whatever came to mind, but had I really struck a nerve with this bald man?
But whether the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder had truly reacted to the threat to his hair roots, or for some other reason, I could not tell.
Before I could even respond, those grayish eyes snapped wide open and a tremendous roar erupted forth.
“Kraaaaaaaa-!”
Kuguguguung!
This was no cry from the old man who screamed every dawn on the hillside behind the neighborhood.
A roar infused with formidable martial power tore through the air and struck the cavern. The floor, the walls, everything around us trembled and shattered indiscriminately.
And before the shockwave could even fully manifest, the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder’s form shot toward me, leaving a pale afterimage in its wake.
Whoooosh!
Eyes now darkened to pitch black.
As the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder surged forward with the light, I opened my mouth with a voice that had grown deep and grave.
“Turn down the volume, you bastard.”
Hwaryeok, Kwaaaaa!
As cyan flames layered themselves atop the transparent spear blade, I took a step forward.
Pat!
Three zhang is hardly a short distance.
However, both the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder and I were transcendent beings who had stepped into the realm of the absolute pinnacle. The moment we unleashed our attacks toward each other, everything else became meaningless. The distance vanished, and the wind erupted.
The white flame spear blade, searing with ultra-high heat, and the Heavenly Silkworm Thread, writhing like a living creature and brimming with decades of martial power, tore through space itself.
Shiiiiing!
A speed worthy of being called ultimate swiftness. The Heavenly Silkworm Thread, originating from the tip of the black wood fishing rod, undulated like waves.
A bizarre and unfathomable movement unlike anything I had felt from countless weapons before. The scars left upon the countless corpses that blanketed Dongjeong Pavilion suddenly flashed before my eyes.
‘With this very martial technique… they slaughtered the weak and innocent commoners.’
I am neither a person of refined sensibilities nor a sage of virtue. I have no reason to defend the Water Thieves of the Yangtze River Waterway. They were a band of thieves gathered for plunder, and they surely robbed someone of their lives and possessions.
Though they may have taken lives, if there is a difference between us, it is that their murders were not committed for survival, but out of necessity and greed.
But…
‘People should not die in such a manner.’
Hundreds trampled like ants, slaughtered like livestock. Hundreds more drowned in the depths of Dongting Lake.
And most of them were not martial artists. They were ordinary commoners who knew not even the most basic martial technique, and among them were children who could not even write their own names.
Such people should not die in such a way.
One human being should not kill another human being like this.
“Do you understand, you bastard?”
In the slowed world, my voice was buried beneath the howling wind.
Gripping the spear shaft with all my strength, I felt tremendous heat surge through my entire body, and I drove the spear blade downward at an angle.
Crack, screech!
A single spark bloomed in the void. Simultaneously, rays of light scattered.
Fragments of the Heavenly Silkworm Thread, severed along the trajectory traced by the spear blade, fluttered and dispersed.
The Dongjeong Fisherman Elder, his technique shattered with such ease, shrieked and swung the black wood fishing rod again.
Shiiing, shiiiiing!
Rays of light tore through all directions. The Heavenly Silkworm Thread, infused with martial force, pierced and severed everything that stood in its path.
Yet I evaded every attack, silently wielding my spear.
Screech! Screech! Screech!
It was crystal clear. Where that strange weapon in the form of a fishing rod would strike, how the Heavenly Silkworm Thread connected to it would move to target me.
My half-open eyes absorbed every detail of the situation, and my heightened senses read the attacks that would follow.
‘Had I still been the me from when my middle dantian was sealed, this would surely have been difficult.’
When one’s standing changes, so too does the landscape one perceives.
The opening of my middle dantian had granted me an expansion of perception and a new vision I had never known before, and its results were manifesting before my eyes.
‘It comes.’
An unusual weapon like the black wood fishing rod is difficult to master at first, but once one maximizes its advantages and learns the appropriate martial techniques, it becomes extremely troublesome to counter.
Yet I predicted the trajectory of the incoming strike with precision and swung my spear.
Screech!
“Kyaaaagh!”
The Heavenly Silkworm Thread was severed once more by the swift and keen strike.
As the thread, which had once stretched five lengths, was now reduced to nearly half, the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder’s entire body radiated an even more ferocious aura.
“Yes, now that’s more like it. Now you seem human.”
But martial techniques display their greatest power when heart and body are in harmony.
When the mind wavers, the body falters, and movements become larger and more crude.
Finding gaps in the loosened net was hardly a difficult task for me.
Screeeech!
Flame Fire Path.
A single streak of flame cuts across the damp cavern floor.
Though the technique consumed enormous amounts of inner force and its application was straightforward, like most martial arts of the Yeolhwa Sect, Flame Fire Path possessed two supreme advantages.
‘Speed and destructive power.’
Boom!
With the superheated air, all moisture in the surroundings evaporates instantly.
I shot forward like an arrow, my feet treading upon ground now parched as desert sand.
Whoosh!
As I twisted my head, the Heavenly Silkworm Thread that had been targeting my neck whizzed past.
Failing in his attack, the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder hastily redirected the Heavenly Silkworm Thread to ensnare my entire body, but I moved half a beat faster, rolling my feet away.
Thud! Crunch!
Something ice-cold transmitted through my bare feet, then immediately burned with searing heat.
A clean slice of flesh from the tip of my big toe had been severed.
The pain that surged through was intense enough to make an ordinary person scream, yet I accepted it with equanimity.
‘This is nothing.’
I had endured countless injuries and suffering while traversing between the Modern World and the Martial World.
There had been times when I writhed in agony as though every nerve fiber was being severed, when I genuinely wished for death.
Compared to such torment, this wound was utterly trivial—no, rather, it was a bargain price for passage.
By sacrificing merely a portion of my toe, I had seized the opportunity to determine the outcome of this life-or-death confrontation.
‘Now!’
Following the command from my mind, my hands and feet flowed forward like water.
Movement faster and more economical than ever before. I hurled the spear shaft I had drawn back with all my might.
Screeeech, crack!
A strike like lightning itself. My White Flame, released from my hand, shattered the Dongjeong Fisherman Elder’s shoulder as he sensed the danger and attempted to increase distance, embedding itself deep within the cavern wall.
“Gahhhhh!”
Hearing his anguished scream, I raised my fist toward him.
“I told you to keep it down.”
“…!”
Crunch!

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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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