Murim Login - Chapter 484

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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 484
Finding our destination proved far less difficult than anticipated. The boatmen, having already made the journey once before and grown familiar with the waterway, skillfully navigated the vessel forward.
Whoooosh.
It was almost impossible to believe that a tempest had raged merely two days prior—the river lay serene, and the breeze blew refreshingly cool.
Seated at the bow, basking in the sunlight that poured down upon my head, I found myself recognizing the familiar landscape that drifted past.
‘Yes, it was around here.’
[Fragments of Memory] were the recollections that lingered in the Water Dragon’s mind, and through his perspective, I perceived and felt everything.
Naturally, I could not have forgotten the path leading to ‘that place.’
“Wait. So-hyup, we’re heading the right way, aren’t we?”
At my sudden question, Chung Poong tilted his head quizzically.
“Yes, we are. Why do you ask?”
“No, it’s just… the landscape I remember seems slightly different. Especially that cliff over there…”
“Ah, that? There was a reason for it.”
“What reason?”
“Well, we did find the path you described, but the gap was so narrow that only a hand could fit through.”
“I see.”
There was a reason why human footsteps had not touched this place for so long. As countless years passed and sediment accumulated, the cliff had eventually blocked the passage.
For the Water Dragon, it posed no problem—he could simply swim beneath the cliff without needing to pass through it. But humans were different.
“So?”
“We cut through it.”
“…Cut through it?”
“Yes. The Wudang grandfather and I carved it away with our swords—snip, snip.”
What the hell, speaking of the cliff as if cutting paper.
But if it was the Wudang Sect’s celebrated supreme master Xuangong Zhenren and Chung Poong, there was nothing they couldn’t accomplish.
I myself could manage such a feat without much difficulty.
“In any case, we carved straight through like that. It wasn’t particularly difficult. I heard the others who came in the second wave refined the rest.”
“…Ah, yes.”
I sometimes forget. That monsters swarm all around us. And that I am one of them as well.
Jeok Cheon-gang, who had been listening to the conversation between Chung Poong and me, jabbed Moon-kyung in the ribs.
“Has the world gone mad? It didn’t seem this way when we were young. These guys are just monsters, aren’t they?”
“Don’t lump me in with them. It bothers me.”
“So what was your age when you reached supreme mastery?”
“…These guys are just monsters.”
“Right. That must be it. Sigh, perhaps the heavens have grown clouded. The Murim has changed, truly changed.”
As Jeok Cheon-gang lamented, the vessel pressed forward through the cliff that had been carved with such pristine precision, as if it had been sliced by a blade.
And gradually, new landscapes and new figures came into view.
Splash! Whoosh!
Brilliant lightness technique. Supreme masters descended upon the water using the Water-Treading Method, blocking the vessel with an imposing presence.
“Halt! Those aboard must declare your names and aliases, and after identity verification is complete…”
Jeok Cheon-gang, who had grown sensitive from his recent water-bound existence, thrust his head forward with a demonic expression.
“Old Master, Fire King.”
“Understood!”
“Block them. You die.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Ki, open the path! Let no one obstruct us!”
Whoosh!
Gung Ki-bang watched the divine forms vanish at twice the speed of their initial appearance, muttering to himself.
“Is the Wudang Sect’s divine technique truly of this caliber? Even our Beggar Clan must remain vigilant.”
No. They simply sensed danger and fled with all their might.
Regardless, everything proceeded smoothly after that. Jeok Cheon-gang, that ferocious fire demon, required no explanation, and my own face had become so well-known that Dark Heaven itself would cry out at the sight of it—not to mention Chung Poong and Gung Ki-bang at my side.
“Oh, I think someone just recognized me.”
“Of course. You’re the only one who walks around with me.”
“….”
“Wow, I think they recognized me too!”
“Naturally. You’re the only human who travels with a horned water serpent.”
“Yes.”
I ignored the dejected Gung Ki-bang and Chung Poong, focusing instead on the scene before me.
Atop the towering cliff stood archers, somehow positioned there, fully prepared to loose their arrows, while the presence of masters lurking throughout the area was palpable.
‘The Wudang Sect, the Je-gal Family Estate, and it seems the Beggar Clan has arrived as well.’
An extraordinarily rigid defensive posture.
Yet given the weight and significance of this matter, it was only natural.
“Has the Hubei Provincial Governor decided to bury this matter entirely?”
Jin Wi-kyung nodded heavily at my question.
“For now, yes. There are no common folk who would welcome news of a five-hundred-year-old water demon running amok.”
“That’s certainly true.”
The support of the masses is a double-edged sword.
In ordinary times, the simple people revere the Emperor with fervent devotion, yet when floods or earthquakes strike, they declare the nation cursed and undergo a transformation as dramatic as Hyuk Moo-jin’s tactical shift.
And when plague arrives as a bonus to the chaos, the very farmers wielding their hoes would rush forth vowing to overturn the realm itself—such was the spirit of this age.
How much more so when a water demon once revered as a deity suddenly went mad and claimed thousands of lives? The Hubei Provincial Governor would surely wish to conceal such a truth.
“Instead, he did acknowledge, at least in part, that Dark Heaven is an extremely dangerous organization.”
“…In part? After all this?”
Disregard what I just said.
Concealing the existence of the Water Dragon was one thing, but with so many dead from this incident, “in part” was absurd.
He clearly had not yet regained his senses.
“It is the delusion born of arrogance. He believes the Martial World is merely the Martial World, and that his governance of the nation faces no problems whatsoever. I attempted to persuade him as much as possible, but to little avail.”
Jeok Cheon-gang interjected with a blunt voice.
“Those foolish bureaucrats never change. It was the same during the Righteous Alliance War. When the Demon Cult pressed down from Sichuan, they sat idle with folded hands, only hastily gathering troops once civilian casualties mounted.”
“And what came of it?”
“What came of it? By then the Demon Cult had retreated, and some general arrived to strut about. Spouting nonsense about the Emperor’s grace and benevolence. In the end, the true master of the realm is the Son of Heaven, so it matters little who prevails—but still, that fool came to congratulate us on our victory. Such drivel.”
“You showed remarkable restraint. For Old Master Noya’s temperament, that’s practically enlightenment.”
Jeok Cheon-gang looked at me as if I’d spouted complete nonsense.
“Why would the old man tolerate that? He wanted to beat him to death. If Hongdao hadn’t stopped him, we wouldn’t have had a mere martial contest—we’d have had a full-blown massacre.”
“…Ah, yes.”
“In any case, don’t expect too much from those government officials. You should be satisfied that they’ve managed to pin the blame on the Black Path instead of Dark Heaven, who were just sitting idle.”
Jin Wi-kyung answered with a bitter smile.
“Yes. Fortunately, the people’s anger and vigilance toward Dark Heaven have reached fever pitch ever since.”
“They’re not involved in this matter at all, but what can we do? They’re hardly innocent either—they’re Black Path scum, so it’s not a bad thing to uproot them while we have the chance.”
Through consultation with the Murim, the government had used the Black Path of Hubei Province as a scapegoat to appease the people’s fury, and both sides had gotten what they wanted—a fair exchange of sorts.
Of course, it goes without saying that my reputation and that of my companions had skyrocketed once again in the process.
‘Whether the government will intervene if Dark Heaven becomes more reckless than this remains uncertain.’
As these thoughts crossed my mind, the vessel that had been moving without hesitation finally came to a stop.
People’s gazes poured down upon us as we docked at a makeshift ferry constructed along the cliff face.
“It’s the Great Hero Jeok Cheon-gang.”
“And Hu Gae is with him? I was wondering where the Fire King Dragon went.”
“Wait. Isn’t that young man the Flame Dragon?”
“Did you hear? There’s been talk among the higher-ups that it was the Flame Dragon who caught the water demon….”
They’re trying to speak quietly, but I can hear every word. Fools.
Irritated by their murmuring, I deliberately furrowed my brow sharply, and the surroundings fell silent in an instant.
And in the next moment, a shout pierced through the silence.
“Oh, you’ve arrived!”
A body drenched in mud and river water. Tangled hair with nameless aquatic weeds clinging between the strands.
Watching the middle-aged man splash through the river water as he rushed toward us, I muttered inwardly.
‘And this man is the patriarch of the Je-gal Family Estate.’
A realization that struck me anew, but it was certain that the Reclining Dragon Guest, Je-gal Poong, was indeed known throughout the Murim as an eccentric.
“Patriarch, under normal circumstances I wouldn’t say a word. But there are outsiders present—please consider your dignity….”
“Ah, please step aside, Uncle.”
“Patriarch!”
He’d clearly left his dignity in a mailbox somewhere.
Je-gal Poong, having coldly brushed aside the family elder’s attempts to stop him, came rushing over with a flushed face and opened his mouth.
“I found it. I found it, I tell you!”
“Ah, yes. I’ve heard. So-hyup mentioned it….”
“At first I thought it was nonsense, but it was right there in that exact place you described!”
“….”
Wait, isn’t this too honest?
After I’d explained it so earnestly, he’d dismissed it as rubbish.
Seeing my expression, Je-gal Poong continued with an affected serious tone.
“My ancestor Je-gal Moo-hu once said that you should tap even a stone bridge before crossing it. Don’t be too offended.”
Does the Je-gal Family sell out their ancestors every time they open their mouths—is it a family motto or hereditary trait? I regarded Je-gal Poong with suspicious eyes.
“…Did Je-gal Moo-hu really say that? As far as I know, that’s a proverb from a different country.”
“He must have said it at least once in his lifetime. Is that important right now?”
This is ridiculous, truly.
Whether it’s those Chinese from over there or those from over here, their skill at copying others’ work is absolutely astounding.
But before I could say anything, Je-gal Poong spun around and began walking ahead.
“Follow me.”
Jeok Cheon-gang, trembling with joy at finally being able to set foot on the temporary ferry dock, opened his eyes wide.
“Follow you? Are you speaking to this old man right now?”
“…That was not directed at you, Senior.”
“Then watch your tongue from now on, and straighten out that folded tongue of yours. Before I fold you in half.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And why are your steps so sluggish? My grandmother would move faster than you.”
“Hyah!”
Why the sudden shout?
Je-gal Poong, now moving with the sharpness of a first-rate trainee, deployed his movement technique and rushed forward. Not long after, I found myself witnessing a strange sight I had never seen even in the Fragments of Memory.
“That is….”
“A device I conceived when I was nine years old. It took considerable effort to bring it here over two days. What do you think?”
I nodded, gazing at the massive stone wall erected like a barrier within the river waters.
“Wow, that’s impressive.”
“Since prolonged investigation is impossible underwater, I blocked all four sides with stone materials cut from the cliff and drained all the water inside. If they had been ordinary laborers, it would have taken several months.”
The mechanical device Je-gal Poong had developed played a significant role, but without martial artists trained in the martial arts, we could never have attempted such a feat in just two days.
“Would everyone please step away for a moment?”
The moment Je-gal Poong spoke those words as we descended below the stone wall, those who appeared to be formation masters of the Je-gal Family Estate retreated like the tide.
And then I could finally see it. A towering cliff that had stood in the same place for countless years, and running precisely through its center was an enormous crevice.
Whoosh.
The instant my instinctively extended hand touched the crevice.
Beep beep.
An ominous system notification pierced my ears.

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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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