Murim Login - Chapter 468

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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 468
Boom-boom-boom, crash!
It was a tempest unlike anything anyone had ever experienced.
With each thunderclap that accompanied the lightning and thunder, the rain intensified, and the river writhed with violent fury.
And against all of it, a single vessel pressed forward.
“Hard to port!”
At the roar of Moo-song, the captain of Water Dragon Sect, erupting from the stern of the ship that swayed like a willow leaf before the raging waves, the sailors of Water Dragon Sect gritted their teeth.
“Heave!”
“Keep rowing! Put all your strength into it!”
“Anyone who slacks from now on will face my wrath! That’s right! I’ll make an example of you!”
“Ahhhhh!”
These men were all seasoned and exceptional sailors.
Yet despite Moo-song’s experienced command and the sailors’ efforts to summon every ounce of strength, the worst weather they had ever encountered refused to grant the ship passage any further.
Crash! Boom!
The sail, stretched to the point of tearing, yielded to the wind’s force and was driven back, while boulders both large and small from all directions struck the deck with tremendous force.
At this unbelievable sight, shock flashed across Moo-song’s eyes.
‘What is this!’
What he had learned from his master, the Sea King, was not merely martial arts.
Rather, he had first learned the techniques of piloting various vessels and the skills of predicting weather and reading the currents before martial prowess itself.
Moo-song was a sailor before he was a martial artist, for no crew would follow a captain without ability.
The little girl who once yearned for the Yangtze River had become a captain so skilled that even aged sailors acknowledged his prowess. Even his master, a stern figure with scarcely a shred of affection between them, had spoken thus.
‘Pity. Had your cunning and martial talent been half as refined as your skill with ships, you could have succeeded your senior brother.’
The Yangtze River Water Bandit Alliance could not have two masters.
The Sea King, having designated his eldest disciple as his successor, sent Moo-song to Sichuan, and the young captain who founded Water Dragon Sect soon distinguished himself, commanding the Yangtze in Sichuan while still in his youth.
Yet even for Moo-song, such a sight was entirely unprecedented.
Likely his master, the Sea King, and the elderly sailors who had spent their entire lives at sea before retiring, would have found it equally unfamiliar.
‘The weather was nothing like this when we left the tributaries of the Yangtze. How could this be…!’
The reason was simple.
A meteorological change so abrupt it bordered on the catastrophic.
Their current location was none other than Dongting Lake.
Summoned urgently by Je-gal Poong, Moo-song had selected his most skilled subordinates, crossed the Tianling Waterfall, and immediately set out for Dongting Lake to search for Jin Tae-kyung’s whereabouts.
And not long after, they had encountered a tempest that seemed fit for the open sea itself.
‘Is such a thing even possible? And on Dongting Lake, no less?’
The climate of Hubei Province was generally warm. Annual rainfall was relatively consistent, and though the Yangtze occasionally flooded, such occurrences were not severe and instead served as the driving force behind the fertile granary fields.
Dongting Lake? Certainly it ranked among the three largest bodies of water under heaven, but it was still merely a lake.
No matter how severe the weather, it could not match the currents of the Yangtze, and compared to the unpredictable whirlpools of the open sea, it was laughable.
That was certainly what he had believed. At least until two hours ago.
‘When we first set sail, conditions were nothing like this.’
There had been little cause for concern. Since a fast ship could not be transported to Dongting Lake, which was not connected to the Yangtze and the maritime routes, they had borrowed a small merchant vessel and set out toward where Jin Tae-kyung’s party was said to be heading.
Or rather, they had attempted to.
Yet unlike before, as we drew closer to our destination, the weather deteriorated toward the worst imaginable conditions.
As if we had crossed some invisible threshold, bizarre phenomena unseen on the lake manifested everywhere around us.
Whoooooosh.
A spine-chilling wind howled as a waterspout spiraled upward.
As that towering vortex, blocking the narrow passage with its immense height, bore down upon our merchant vessel, a groan escaped between Moo-song’s clenched teeth.
“This damnable situation….”
To be caught in that would mean certain death. Even if we somehow survived the waterspout, our fragile merchant ship could never withstand the ordeal for long.
Torn between concern for his subordinates’ safety and his burning desire for vengeance against Dark Heaven—the force that had slain Jeok Cheon-gang—he finally made his decision.
“Forgive us, but it appears we can only take you this far.”
An aged voice answered him.
“That will suffice.”
And in the next instant.
Whoosh!
Behind Moo-song, a small figure who had maintained perfect balance without the slightest sway launched upward, treading upon the mast.
Tearing through the torrential rain and wind, he charged toward the waterspout, his fist clenching with terrible intent.
Gooooong.
A current of wind enveloped the weathered fist. The air itself ceased to move, and not a single raindrop dared approach.
And at the end of that fist, a terrifying inferno capable of consuming all things gathered.
“Begone.”
With a voice like molten lava, Fire King Jeok Cheon-gang unleashed a single punch.
Extinguishing Flame Divine Fist.
Booooom!
In that moment, Moo-song and the sailors witnessed it clearly.
Flames erupting from the fist transformed into a fire dragon that tore through the waterspout’s core.
The churning waters caught in the whirlwind collapsed in an instant, all moisture evaporating. The waterspout that had borne down upon our vessel with the force of ten thousand pounds became nothing but billowing steam, spreading like mist across the surrounding area.
At that very moment.
Crack!
With a heavy sound of displaced air, the steam scattered.
Standing firm in the empty sky, Jeok Cheon-gang gazed down upon our merchant ship. A voice deeper than usual, heavy with something unspoken, emerged from his lips.
“Why do you linger? Come now.”
Those words were not directed at Moo-song and his subordinates. Their role had been determined from the beginning, and they had fulfilled it sufficiently.
The true battlefield that was about to unfold… was a place permitted only to the strongest.
And as all eyes turned toward him, one figure stepped forward.
“Crossing the River on a Reed—even the great Bodhidharma of Shaolin used a reed leaf to cross the waters. From this point forward, it would be wise not to waste your inner force needlessly and simply come down.”
A voice utterly devoid of emotion, colorless and flat.
The image of the young physician who had so recently tended to the sick with warmth and brightness was nowhere to be found.
As Moo-song and the sailors flinched and stepped aside, Moon-kyung inwardly clicked his tongue.
‘Dong Bong. You stubborn disciple. In the end, it has become exactly as you wished.’
For nearly forty years, I had lived as a physician.
With hands that had once taken over a thousand lives, I healed and cared for the suffering sick.
Instead of capturing the Demon Master, I caught a wretch named Epidemic and earned the false reputation of Divine Physician, yet I never once sought wealth or harbored ambition.
It was merely atonement, a vow made to myself.
But now, after living as a physician for decades and building a stone pagoda deep within my heart, it crumbled to dust.
Or perhaps that stone pagoda began its collapse on the day I boarded the Fast Ship departing Sichuan.
‘This too is a path I chose. How could I blame another?’
As he stepped forward with a bitter smile, a middle-aged guard in disheveled scholar’s robes emerged from behind him.
“This junior will also depart with you seniors.”
At Je-gal Poong’s words—the current patriarch of the Je-gal Family Estate and the Reclining Dragon Guest—Moon-kyung replied in a dry voice.
“Of course you will. Otherwise, why would I have brought along dead weight like you?”
“You certainly have a talent for embarrassing people.”
Moon-kyung deliberately frowned. He had no intention of indulging the prattling of Je-gal Poong, who was little more than a bloodstain compared to himself.
“Stop your nonsense and let yourself be carried.”
“You underestimate this junior. Though my enlightenment may not match the other patriarchs of the Five Great Families, my inner force alone——”
“I brought you this far for good reason. Had martial prowess been the priority, I would have taken Xuangong Zhenren from the Wudang Sect instead—that child. But someone had to remain there, did they not?”
“…!”
Xuangong Zhenren was a master of such caliber as to stand shoulder to shoulder with the sect leaders of the Nine Great Sects and One Alliance.
At Moon-kyung’s casual reference to the venerable elder respected throughout the Martial World as merely “that child,” Moo-song and the Water Thieves under his command—unable to discern his true identity beyond being a master of age-reversal—were utterly startled.
“Gasp!”
“J-just who in the world is that person…?”
But Moon-kyung had neither the inclination nor the time to answer.
As he extended his hand, Je-gal Poong’s form was dragged through the air.
Moon-kyung, who grasped none other than the current patriarch of the Je-gal Family Estate with his void-seizing technique, lightly stepped onto the deck and soared upward like a bird.
Whoosh!
A technique both subtle and utterly flawless.
Not a single soul remaining on the vessel could recognize the Phantom Illusory Killing Step pushed to its absolute pinnacle.
Moon-kyung’s form folded space itself as it shot forward, leaving them gaping behind.
“Is this the correct direction?”
Splash!
Two figures—no, three—advanced swiftly across the river’s surface.
Je-gal Poong, dangling limply from Moon-kyung’s grasp, answered Jeok Cheon-gang’s question.
“According to what Seon-hwa told me, we should proceed straight ahead as we are now.”
“Are you certain?”
“Of course. However…”
“However?”
Je-gal Poong, who had hesitated briefly, continued.
“Whether Jin So-hyup will be there remains uncertain.”
“He will be. Undoubtedly.”
Jeok Cheon-gang immediately shook his head. His tone carried near certainty.
“This weather… is no coincidence. Something unknown has come to this place, and it is clear that Tae-kyung is targeting that child.”
“It is premature to conclude. First, we must ascertain its true nature.”
At Moon-kyung’s continued words, Jeok Cheon-gang found himself reaching into his bosom without thinking.
Something sharp as a blade’s edge and hard as armor came into his grasp.
When Moon-kyung had first brought this and shown it before those two men, neither Jeok Cheon-gang nor Je-gal Poong could believe what it was.
‘What is this? What in heaven’s name is happening?’
Just as the anxiety swelling rapidly within the old man’s chest matched the quickening pace of his crossing the river using the Treading on Duckweed technique, it happened.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-boom!
Beyond the howling rain and thick mist, an enormous roar reached their ears, and all three of them opened their eyes wide.
“This is….”
It was not thunder and lightning echoing from the heavens.
The black sky spread above their heads was calm, and that tremendous sound from moments before had clearly come from hundreds of paces ahead in the distance.
“These bastards-!”
Jeok Cheon-gang’s body shot forward with a resounding cry, and as Moon-kyung followed closely behind, firmly grasping Je-gal Poong, the waters parted on both sides.
But in mere moments, all three of them were forced to stop simultaneously.
“…!”
A shock so immense that no one could open their mouth.
There was no need to draw closer to confirm its identity.
As ‘that thing’ finally revealed itself in the distance, all three stood frozen, utterly speechless.
* * *
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
With the thunderous sound, the Cliff crumbles and collapses.
Massive stones that had surely been part of it for centuries pour down like a downpour, and an enormous spray of water erupts.
But none of that mattered.
With trembling eyes, I watched ‘that thing’ rising up through it all.
More precisely, I watched the system window that appeared above its head.
[Lv.??? Mutated Water Divine Dragon]

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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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