Murim Login - Chapter 62

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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 62
The world seemed to freeze. My heartbeat thundered like a drum, and I could see every speck of dust swirling through the air with crystalline clarity.
And then….
Whoosh.
A flash of light erupted. The radiance emanating from the blade was beautiful yet precise—a destructive force that could cleave not just the spear but my very flesh in two.
‘It’s over.’
I had given everything. To claim I harbored no regrets would be a lie, but the outcome would not change regardless.
I could only collide with all my remaining strength until the very end.
Screeeech!
The spear blade tore through the wind, and the sword’s radiance erased it. Death had drawn near in that instant.
Crack! Thud!
The Grand Elder’s eyes flew wide open. A mysterious figure moved with lightning speed, driving a dagger into his dantian.
“You….”
“You should have sealed the blood vessels.”
It was an ambush no one had anticipated.
Just moments before, he had been nothing more than one corpse among the many scattered about. But he was not.
The mysterious figure had merely waited with extreme patience for this moment—the instant to avenge his child.
The Grand Elder cried out as if in agony.
“Lee Cheon-baek!”
“Kahahaha!”
The moment Lee Cheon-baek burst into wild laughter, my spear blade pierced his back. It drove through flesh and bone, extending without hesitation.
Ding.
–
[Lv.75 Lee Cheon-baek]
has been defeated!
– Level Up!
– Level Up!
– Level Up!
.
.
– All status ailments recovered from stacked level-up effects!
A transformation occurred. The throbbing muscles, the heavy limbs, the empty dantian—all swelled with new power.
Simultaneously, I understood what I had to do.
‘One Slash.’
Once more. A white vortex erupted forth.
Craaack!
* * *
A narrow escape from death.
Never before had these four characters resonated so deeply in my chest.
I truly died and came back to life. I even witnessed a fantasy where I completed the paperwork for entry into hell and took a commemorative photograph while embracing the King of Hell himself.
If not for Lee Cheon-baek, the illusion would have become reality.
‘I made the right choice saving him.’
I wanted to close Lee Cheon-baek’s eyes so he could pass peacefully, but there was still work left to do.
“So try to live a good life. Will you?”
At my words, the Grand Elder let out a soft laugh. His appearance was pitiful.
The One Flash Sword had consumed his remaining arm and carved a fist-sized hole through his chest.
“What a wicked temperament you have. Do you show no respect to a dying elder?”
“The elders I know spend their twilight years enjoying their grandchildren’s antics. Not raging maniacs like you, trying to kill your own grandsons.”
“You brat! Don’t speak such words until you’ve actually played the role of a grandson.”
He laughed with a hollow sound, yet seemed relieved, as though he’d shed everything.
“Tae-kyung is a good child. Had you opened your heart first, you would have become a loving grandfather and grandson.”
The Grand Elder turned his head. Jin Wi-kyung stood there, sword in hand.
“Do you mean to pierce me with that blade?”
“I’m still deciding.”
“You’d best decide quickly. I don’t have much time left.”
His words were true. Blood cascaded like a waterfall from the severed stumps of both arms and his lower abdomen, even as he spoke so calmly.
Add to that the backlash from drawing upon his innate qi—the fact that he still lived seemed miraculous.
“You seem to be suffering.”
“No, I’m becoming at peace.”
It was a resolute answer.
“When the Righteous-Demonic War erupted, I was barely thirty. Not once since then have I known true rest. Or perhaps…”
The Grand Elder continued in a strained voice.
“I may have been exhausted far longer than that.”
I muttered in exasperation.
“You’ve done everything, and now you say this?”
“Tae-kyung!”
Jin Wi-kyung sent a reproachful glance, but the Grand Elder didn’t seem displeased—a deflating laugh escaped his closed lips.
“Heh heh. You’re right. Think of it as the ramblings of a senile old fool.”
“Looks like you’re really dying now.”
“Ah, you brat!”
“What? I’m not wrong, am I?”
The Grand Elder watched us bickering with a fading gaze.
“We had days like yours once. Yes, there was certainly a time like that.”
But the Grand Elder had no time left to dwell on memories.
“Cough, cough-hack!”
The Grand Elder staggered, vomiting blood by the bucketful. Death loomed before him. The capillaries in his eyes had all burst, and the blood flowing from his body had long since pooled around him. It was clear at a glance that there was no hope left.
‘Is he really dying? The Grand Elder?’
Everyone dies. On this battlefield alone, hundreds—perhaps over a thousand—lives had vanished.
Yet the Grand Elder’s death was something I could scarcely have imagined.
His martial prowess had been so overwhelming. Because of that, his current state seemed all the more tragic. And that made me all the more curious.
“Why hold on so desperately?”
The Grand Elder answered.
“I want to tell those I sent ahead first… that I did my best.”
“Any regrets?”
“None.”
He smiled broadly and thrust out his chest.
“End it. With your own hands.”
I raised my spear. Jin Wi-kyung’s face grew troubled, but he didn’t stop me.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind swept past, and the Grand Elder’s knees—which seemed unbreakable—touched the ground. A peaceful smile bloomed across his weathered face.
In his final moment, his lips moved, but no sound escaped.
That was all.
Ding!
–
[Lv.95 Jin Baek-yang]
has been defeated!
– Quest,
[Betrayer]
has been completed!
– Your level has risen significantly!
– Your fame has increased greatly!
For a brief moment, silence reigned.
Then an enormous roar erupted—one I had never heard before.
“Shanxi’s Sleeping Dragon, Jin Tae-kyung, has slain Hwayanggeom Jin Baek-yang!”
– Title,
[Shanxi’s Sleeping Dragon]
has been acquired!
Dozens, perhaps hundreds.
Every survivor was crying out my name.
‘Shanxi’s Sleeping Dragon, then.’
It was a name I rather liked.
* * *
– The Third Son of Taewon Jin Family, Jin Tae-kyung, has slain the Grand Elder!
– Shanxi’s Sleeping Dragon has broken Hwayanggeom!
“Shanxi’s Sleeping Dragon.”
Wi Paeng chuckled softly. The reckless third son who couldn’t even be called an Earth Dragon. But now there was no denying it.
He is a Sleeping Dragon. One who can soar across the heavens if he obtains the Pearl of Jade.
“What do you think?”
The First Elder answered.
“Do you believe those words?”
“Everyone is crying out about the Grand Elder’s death.”
“That’s because our lord desired it. That Third Young Master could kill him? It’s laughable.”
“You can see that from here? Your eyes are quite sharp.”
“Well, since I was distracted, look at the state I’m in now. Haha.”
He was leaning diagonally against a pile of corpses. From his shoulder down to his waist, a diagonal sword wound gushed blood profusely.
“Surrender. If we treat you now, you can live.”
“No. My end was decided long ago. A most agonizing death.”
Wi Paeng shook his head.
“I will not permit it.”
“My death requires no permission. Neither you nor even I can change it.”
“What do you mean—”
It was when Wi Paeng, unable to comprehend the First Elder’s words, furrowed his brow.
“Beware Dark Heaven… Kugh.”
It happened in an instant. Blood poured from the First Elder’s seven orifices. His eyes rolled back, and his entire body convulsed.
“First Elder!”
By the time Wi Paeng rushed over, the First Elder’s breath had already ceased. His face was grotesquely contorted, meeting the agonizing death he had spoken of.
‘This is…’
Poison? Or a restriction seal?
There was no way to know now. Wi Paeng etched the single word that had become the First Elder’s final testament deep into his mind.
‘Dark Heaven. He definitely said Dark Heaven.’
The only clue the First Elder left behind. Wi Paeng stared at the dead man’s face with complicated emotions, then turned away.
“I, Wi Paeng, have slain the First Elder!”
Despair filled the faces of the Black Robed Organization members. Between death and surrender, they chose the latter.
Thunk. Clatter-clatter-thunk.
Weapons falling limply to the ground.
The war had come to an end.
* * *
Where there are the dead, there are also the living.
Jin Chung, the sect master of the Gung-gwi Sect, was one such case—he had climbed atop the cliff before the battle began.
“How futile.”
A grand scheme to which I had devoted half my life. Yet the result was devastating.
The Grand Elder I had served as lord, the elders with whom I had shared brotherhood, the sect masters of the Sanseo Five Gates—all were dead. With the final struggles of the survivors at an end, only I remained.
‘So it comes to this in the end.’
Jin Chung turned his body. Fifty warriors of the Gung-gwi Sect awaited his command.
“Leave.”
An invisible unease spread among them. One warrior closest to him spoke carefully.
“Sect Master, what do you mean by that…?”
“The battle is already over. I will not demand sacrifice from you. Leave by this path. If you scatter as much as possible and escape Shanxi, you may yet preserve your lives.”
The warrior nodded with resolve.
“I will follow you unto death.”
“I… will remain here.”
“Pardon?”
The warrior’s voice trembled with emotion, his initial shock giving way to something deeper.
“Is it because of us?”
“Not at all.”
Jin Chung answered with conviction, though his true thoughts ran otherwise.
‘If I leave, the Taewon Jin Family will pursue relentlessly.’
The Sanseo Five Gates were many yet one. One yet many.
Though forged with the same purpose, each cultivated their warriors differently. I had not raised them as mere weapons. I had accepted them as disciples.
“Sect Leader!”
“Please lead us!”
These were all orphans with nowhere else to turn.
For at least a decade—sometimes more than two—I had fed them, sheltered them, and taught them martial arts. Had the Grand Plan succeeded, they would have become the pillars of Shanxi’s martial world. But now, with its failure, they were nothing but traitors.
“Do you not understand the situation unfolding?”
“Even unto death, we will stand with you, Sect Leader.”
“Damn fools!”
“Please, grant us this.”
The warrior who had stepped forward first struck his forehead against the stone floor. As one by one my disciples began to kneel, I gazed upward and sighed.
“Had the Grand Plan not been delayed. Had they only come forward!”
The matter of ‘them’ was a secret known only to the eight leaders.
To speak those words aloud was tantamount to declaring I would face my final hour alongside my disciples.
‘Perhaps this too is the will of Heaven.’
I turned my gaze from the dark night sky and helped the prostrate warrior to his feet. I felt only boundless remorse and profound gratitude for the loyalty he had shown.
“Enough. Rise now.”
At my warm voice, the warrior lifted his head. A trickle of blood ran from his forehead, which he licked away with a crooked smile.
“Yes.”
Squelch!
I stared at the warrior with a vacant expression. The impact was so sudden, so overwhelming, that pain seemed irrelevant.
‘What in the world…?’
Whoosh!
The warrior withdrew his hand from my chest. His palm blazed with a light brighter than moonlight. A crimson energy force that radiated ominous dread merely by being witnessed.
“You…”
“Why ask when you already know? And that thing you just said—answer me simply.”
The warrior’s smile deepened.
“Why would we step in? Your role ends right here.”
My eyes widened. Them. The mysterious beings who had never revealed themselves until the very end.
Dark Heaven!
“You bastards!”
“Now, now, don’t make that face of betrayal. Have you forgotten whose grace allowed you to escape that hell?”
I recalled the nightmare from forty years ago. The corpses of my comrades scattered all around, and the endless tide of the Demon Cult’s forces pressing forward.
Gathered around the Grand Elder, they had steeled themselves for death—until Dark Heaven appeared.
“I spared your lives and gave you a chance for revenge. What more could you want?”
His words held truth. Dark Heaven, having annihilated the Demon Cult’s forces, had proposed a bargain, and they had accepted. They had to plant solitude in their hearts, but for revenge, they would do anything.
But…
“Wasn’t your real intention to use us to dominate Shanxi?”
“Well, perhaps that was the plan initially.”
“Then what was it all for?”
A soft chuckle.
“A grander design.”
With those words, a blood-stained hand pressed against Jin Chung’s chest.
Boom.
A small explosion erupted within Jin Chung’s body. The force that ruptured his eardrums and severed his meridians strand by strand reached his heart.
‘Is this all…?’
The thought never completed. Jin Chung’s lifeless body soared like a bird, plummeting down the cliff.
Whoosh, crash!
The warrior glanced downward, his eyes narrowing.
“That must hurt.”
What awaited him as he turned was screams and blood. Ten Black Robed Organization members had suddenly materialized, slaughtering the Gung-gwi Sect disciples.
“Finish quickly and let’s go.”
“Understood.”
Slash! Thud!
The warrior’s gaze turned toward the cliff below. Screams erupted around him, but below the cliff, cheers and roars filled the air.
– Shanxi’s Hidden Dragon!
– Jin Tae-kyung! Jin Tae-kyung!
“Shanxi’s Hidden Dragon, they call him.”
The plan had succeeded. Yet Jin Tae-kyung’s appearance was a variable even he hadn’t anticipated. That fact displeased him.
‘Should I eliminate him or not?’
If he wished, he could uproot him entirely. His deepened eyes turned toward Jin Tae-kyung, surrounded by cheers.
– Our youngest! My brother!
– Let go! Let go, you bastard!
A faint smile escaped.
‘I’ll spare him. For today.’
The warrior turned away. With each step, some fifty corpses lay like a carpet beneath him.

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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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