Murim Login - Chapter 546

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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 546
“The Alliance Leader has arrived.”
With a heavy voice, five doors opened in succession. As a single figure slowly approached from beyond them, everyone rose from their seats in unison, as if by prior arrangement.
“Munch, munch.”
“….”
Everyone except this bastard.
‘The more I see him, the more I realize he’s genuinely insane.’
I’m hardly one to lecture about manners myself, but at least I possess a modicum of social awareness. I whispered softly toward Chung Poong, who was methodically stuffing the remaining food into his mouth.
“What’s wrong with you? Do you have a grudge against society? Don’t you like the Martial Alliance?”
Chung Poong swallowed what was in his mouth and stood up, then answered.
“But there’s still food left, benefactor.”
“Then why don’t you just stop eating?”
“The dumplings will get cold.”
“….”
This bastard Chung Poong. Like Guan Yu himself. He notices when dumplings cool down but remains completely oblivious to how the temperature of people’s gazes around him plummets….
‘Well, he’s always been like this.’
If Chung Poong cared about others’ stares, he wouldn’t be Chung Poong. I exhaled softly and poked him in the ribs, muttering.
“Once you’ve finished eating, focus. Our Blue Dragon Pavilion Master.”
Blue Dragon Pavilion Master. At those four syllables, Chung Poong pouted his lips and nodded. Then a voice tinged with petulance emerged softly.
“Yes, benefactor.”
The Two Dragon Pavilion retained its name, but was now divided into the Fire Dragon Pavilion under my command and the Blue Dragon Pavilion under Chung Poong’s. According to our conversation on the way to the Grand Conference, he had wanted a different name, but Moon-kyung had fiercely opposed it.
‘I don’t like that name.’
‘Why? I think Blue Dragon Pavilion sounds impressive. Though I suppose it is a bit much. Shouldn’t a pavilion master at least be able to name his own pavilion as he wishes?’
‘I thought so too, but Grandfather Moon won’t have it. He threatened to disband it entirely if I insisted on such a name.’
‘He went that far? What was your original idea?’
‘Dumpling Pavilion.’
‘….’
‘Or Candy Pavilion.’
‘…ah, yes.’
‘Sigh. I hate Grandfather Moon. What’s so great about Blue Dragon Pavilion anyway?’
Even now, I can’t believe it. He should be grateful, you madman.
If that were the case, he might as well have named it Kimchi Pancake Pavilion. The words rose to my throat, but I swallowed them. Not because it was in the past. The reason was that the supreme dignitary of the Orthodox Martial Arts World had finally entered the Grand Conference Hall.
Step.
Footsteps crossing through the silence. The Martial Alliance Leader, Mae Jong-hak, finally reached the seat of honor and smiled gently at everyone.
“Everyone has gathered.”
Unlike the previous assembly, this gathering included the leaders of core organizations under the Alliance Leader’s Office. This signified that the internal reorganization of the Martial Alliance was now complete.
‘There are quite a lot when they gather like this.’
I quickly scanned my surroundings. Some unfamiliar faces, some familiar ones. The former were masters I’d only heard names and aliases of, but the latter included several welcome faces.
“You’re quite late. I nearly got a cramp in my backside waiting.”
There were precious few people in all the world who could speak to Mae Jong-hak in such a manner, even if you flipped heaven and earth and wrung out their very souls.
The most prominent example was Jeok Cheon-gang, seated directly beside the head seat. At his gruff tone, even as he leaned on a crutch, Jin Wi-kyung, positioned in the middle row across from him, carefully opened his mouth.
“Master Jeok.”
“What.”
“Well, you see…”
“Good grief. So now that you’ve donned a hat of authority, you side with the Alliance Leader?”
Jin Wi-kyung hesitated for a moment, his smile strained. In just over a year, he had sat atop the command center of the Taewon Jin Family under the title of Acting Patriarch, and had fearlessly revitalized a declining clan. Somewhere along the way, he had become one of them.
“That’s not what I meant—”
“I understand. I understand. Now the brothers are causing a stir together.”
Mae Jong-hak smiled toward the grumbling Jeok Cheon-gang.
“Please don’t be that way, Master Jeok. Or should I now address you as Master of the Five Kings Hall?”
“…Hmph. I understand well enough, so let’s leave it at that. There are many eyes watching.”
“Here I am, calling busy people together and spouting nonsense.”
One might wonder if anyone was busier than Mae Jong-hak, but his words weren’t wrong.
Each person gathered here was an important organ and cog that moved the massive machinery of the Martial Alliance.
‘The Second Hall, Three Halls, Five Pavilions, Five Gardens, Nine Divisions.’
Only the Five Kings Hall, which Jeok Cheon-gang now led, stood shoulder to shoulder with the Alliance Master Hall under Martial Alliance Leader Mae Jong-hak. Below that were the Three Halls and Five Pavilions belonging to the Inner Hall, then the Five Gardens and Nine Divisions, which were occupied by figures from the Five Great Families and the Nine Major Sects and One Alliance.
‘And there were many more besides.’
Remarkably, those gathered here were not all of them. If one added the Division Masters and Pavilion Masters belonging to the Outer Hall, even this spacious Grand Conference Hall would lack seating, and the Training Ground would have to be used.
This was evidence of just how vast the Martial Alliance’s scale had become, and it also meant that Chung Poong and I, who had come to attend this gathering, had been recognized as key figures in the Martial Alliance’s inner circle.
‘Well, even so, it’s an honorary position with little actual authority.’
One might call it the difference between title and rank. My nominal position was Division Master, but my actual standing was near the bottom of this hierarchy. Of course, there was no one my age in such a position.
‘Ah, there was one other person besides Chung Poong.’
Moyong Young-hwi, the Lone Heavenly Dragon. Just two years ago, he was called the greatest prodigy of the Martial World. As the young master of the Murong Family and recently appointed as an Outer Hall Division Master of the Martial Alliance, he had remained in Liaoning to manage the family’s defenses instead of accompanying his father, the patriarch, to Hanan.
‘I thought I might finally see his face.’
Indeed, leaving the main base unguarded while attending a gathering in Hanan would be foolish. Those gathered here had likely completed their defensive preparations in the same manner.
Whoosh.
At that moment, Mae Jong-hak slowly raised his hand and spoke.
“Now, please be seated, everyone. We don’t have enough time to maintain such formalities.”
But the people did not return to their seats. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say they could not. The moment Mae Jong-hak raised his hand, something of unknown nature began to float gently from beyond the still-open door.
“To manipulate objects in empty space so effortlessly…”
Someone murmured.
Covered in cloth, it was impossible to discern exactly what it was, but at a glance, it appeared to be a large object of considerable weight. The exclamation reflected admiration for Mae Jong-hak’s martial prowess in moving it so casually.
However, several faces had already grown rigid. Mine surely had as well.
‘It’s not a matter of martial power. That is…’
Among the five senses, the first to react was the nose—the sense of smell. It was a scent so faint that even martial artists with heightened senses could not immediately distinguish it, but the moment I caught that stench, I understood.
“Master. Could this smell be…?”
I gave a small nod to Chung Poong, who asked with wide eyes.
“Yes. The stench of corpses.”
“…!”
The stench of corpses literally meant the smell of rotting flesh.
Having traversed both the modern world and the Murim countless times, I could be more certain than anyone else about this particular stench. Simultaneously, a suspicion regarding the corpse’s identity flickered through my mind.
‘If my assumption is correct, then that is….’
And in the next moment, as the blood-soaked cloth was peeled away, everyone in the Grand Conference Hall drew in a sharp breath without exception.
“Ugh.”
“What, what on earth….”
“Alliance Leader. What is the identity of this thing?”
Voices tinged with horror erupted from all corners. Whether they had known this fact beforehand or not, everyone now felt the same shock. The appearance of what had been hidden beneath the cloth was simply horrifying.
‘A monster.’
There was no other way to describe it. At first glance, it possessed a human form, yet grotesquely elongated and thickened bone joints protruded hideously across its entire body, and its wide-open, lifeless eyes were as large as a child’s fist.
Moreover, the monster’s grotesqueness did not end there.
“There, there are horns.”
“That’s not all. The arms….”
A black horn rising from the center of its forehead and four arms protruding from its upper body. Whether they had been severed during combat, each varied in length and thickness, yet no one disputed that they were human arms.
“Hmm.”
“How could such a thing be.”
As sighs continued to flow among the crowd, someone suddenly spoke up.
“Amitabha Buddha. It is indeed unbelievable. I too was the same at first.”
The speaker was No Do-sa, the Wudang Sect’s Patriarch, distinguished by his snow-white beard that fell to his chest and his deep, penetrating eyes. In that moment, questions flickered across the faces of those whose attention turned toward him.
“At first, you say…?”
“Does that mean perhaps….”
The Wudang Sect’s Patriarch nodded.
“Indeed. Some of you may have already heard, but that creature. No, that thing was originally a fisherman named Jang Sam.”
Information previously heard from the Shadow Pavilion flowed from No Do-sa’s lips. A fisherman with a common name no different from anyone else had disappeared a month ago, only to reappear as a Sal-gwi and monster that had thrown Hubei Province into turmoil.
“When first discovered, his martial prowess was merely third-rate, yet the strength and movements that creature possessed were not those of a human. And each time it reappeared, its appearance became increasingly grotesque and its power grew stronger. As if….”
After a moment’s hesitation, the Wudang Sect’s Patriarch continued in a voice tinged with sighs.
“It were harming people and absorbing their vital essence to make it its own.”
“…!”
An invisible shock swept through the Grand Conference Hall.
A suffocating silence descended upon those assembled. Jeok Cheon-gang, his brow furrowed, suddenly spoke.
“Are you saying that damned monster has learned the Essence Devouring Demonic Art?”
The Wudang Sect’s Patriarch shook his head.
“Amitabha Buddha. I too cannot easily be certain. However, if that creature is indeed the intended result of Dark Heaven and can actually employ the Essence Devouring Demonic Art….”
The Patriarch’s face had grown rigid as he trailed off. In fact, most of those gathered in the Grand Conference Hall wore the same expression.
‘It would be understandable.’
The Essence Devouring Demonic Art was known to have already been put into practice even within the Demon Cult, and among the Orthodox Martial Arts World, it was treated as a technique created by the Evil Demon.
But if Dark Heaven had revived that Essence Devouring Demonic Art and taught it to the monsters they had created….
‘Catastrophe itself.’
However, whether fortunately or unfortunately, the Wudang Sect’s Patriarch’s assumption was wrong. At least, based on what I knew, it was.
‘Most monsters grow rapidly.’
An orc takes a month to reach adulthood, or so I had heard.
Most monsters strengthen themselves in one of two ways: they’re born as individuals with inherent power, or they absorb magical energy from other monsters.
‘If he consumed humans, he might gain some strength… but his victims were mostly commoners and second or third-rate rogues.’
Humans and monsters possess fundamentally different innate energies. If such an exchange were possible between them, monsters would already be sold in the modern world as tonics or vitality supplements.
‘Since it’s a mutant, I can’t be one hundred percent certain.’
Based on my experience so far, that seems likely. Or rather, I hope that’s the case. If monsters capable of directly absorbing human energy started pouring out, there’d be no way to handle them.
Just as I was lost in such thoughts, Mae Jong-hak’s quiet voice resonated through the Grand Conference Hall.
“Jin Gak-ju. What do you think?”
I turned my head to look at Jin Gak-ju, then hesitated as I felt everyone’s gaze upon me.
‘Wait. Jin Gak-ju means…’
Damn it, that’s me. I still wasn’t used to it and forgot.
“Are you asking me, sir?”
“Yes. I’m asking for your opinion.”
“Well, this is… quite…”
Mae Jong-hak spoke to me with a composed expression as I hesitated.
“It’s fine. Say whatever comes to mind.”
“I’m not sure how to put it into words.”
“Just speak your mind. Keep it simple and direct.”
Simple and direct. I pondered for a moment before carefully opening my mouth.
“In my opinion, it’s somewhat, or perhaps quite…”
“Quite?”
Facing the intense gazes of dozens of pairs of eyes, I answered.
“Completely fucked.”
“…!”
“…!”

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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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