Murim Login - Chapter 631

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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 631
There are moments when I feel it.
A sensation that the other person dislikes me despite merely locking eyes. A feeling that we could never grow close no matter how hard we tried.
My second meeting with Baek Sang, the Great Chieftain of the White Tribe, was precisely like that.
“You….”
Even with my face concealed behind a mask, Baek Sang recognized me instantly. Then again, considering his martial prowess, it was hardly surprising.
‘At minimum, early Transcendent Realm.’
That was my assessment of Baek Sang’s martial cultivation.
A Transcendent master was a level of expertise rarely found even in the Central Plains. It would be stranger if he failed to see through a crude tiger mask. Warriors who had reached a certain level of mastery could always discern their opponents through their bearing and presence.
That was simply how the martial world worked at such heights.
But what truly mattered was not that Baek Sang recognized me at a glance—it was that he showed no warmth whatsoever.
“An uninvited guest, then.”
Not even a guest, but an uninvited one. Had this been our first meeting, my tender heart would have been scratched, but having gathered considerable information beforehand, I remained relatively composed.
I scratched the back of my head and replied.
“They say even a crooked mouth should speak straight words. To be frank, I’m not an uninvited guest. I was explicitly invited.”
“Invited?”
His gaze shifted naturally, and Yo-hee, whose eyes now met Baek Sang’s, smiled sweetly and spoke.
“It’s true. I called for him.”
A beautiful woman’s smile typically wielded considerable power, but Baek Sang was clearly not of that sort.
“Are you conspiring with the Han people?”
At his increasingly frigid tone, Yo-hee shrugged with exaggerated gestures.
“Conspiring? I merely grew curious. Besides, it wasn’t as though we met alone from the start.”
“Yet what you discussed after sending Hyuk-ung away—only you two and heaven know that.”
“Set aside your needless concerns. I have not forgotten the promise we made that day.”
I had no idea what promise she referred to, but even hearing it sparked a suspicious scent. Baek Sang’s eyes grew darker still.
“You speak carelessly before a Han dog, Yo-hee.”
Whoooosh!
An invisible wave of energy surged forth from Baek Sang’s entire being, enveloping the interior of the Military Camp.
In the suddenly oppressive air, as the pressure of a Transcendent master bore down from all sides and Yo-hee’s smile faded for the first time, I abruptly opened my mouth.
“Now, there’s a Han dog standing right here listening plainly—let’s stop with all this ‘dog’ business, shall we?”
Shhhhh.
The increasingly heavy air suddenly lost its force. As I dispersed the surrounding energy waves with my words, Baek Sang’s eyebrows twitched.
“You.”
“Jin So-hyup. Jin Pavilion Master. Yeolhwa Shinryong. Take your pick from these four—whichever title suits you best. At this point, I’m getting confused whether I’m from the Taewon Jin Family or the Taewon something-else family.”
“…!”
“I talk well? I know. Of course, you must understand that I didn’t become a Pavilion Master of the Martial Alliance through mere words alone. If I had, my epithet wouldn’t be Yeolhwa Shinryong—it would be something like Wind-Tongue Dragon or some such nonsense.”
With my current words and bearing, Baek Sang would have grasped two things with certainty. First, that my martial prowess was in no way beneath his own.
Second, that I was not merely a green young Han warrior, but held the high position of Pavilion Master within the Martial Alliance itself, born from the gathering of the Central Plains martial world.
Either one of these facts alone would ensure I was not someone to be dismissed lightly.
After regarding me in silence for a long moment, Baek Sang suddenly spoke.
“Looking at you again, you are certainly the successor of the Yeolhwa Sect. That reckless manner of speech and action—truly worthy of being the Fire King’s disciple.”
“Old Master Noya, have you… met my master before?”
“The Palace Lord and I were always together. It was the same on that day when I first met the Fire King, whom I had only heard about.”
I asked with a sense of foreboding.
“Yes. Then could it be…?”
“Before I could even react, the Palace Lord fell in an instant, and then it was my turn. That’s why I was called a mad old man.”
As Baek Sang lifted the white robe he was wearing slightly, burn scars on his side became visible.
“….”
No, it wasn’t as if someone had graded beef cuts and marked them.
‘This is practically a certification mark at this point.’
Baek Sang, who had shown me the traces of the Fire King’s scorching palm strike from decades ago, continued in a cold voice.
“It was a long time ago. But whenever I see this scar, those days come back to me.”
Jeok Cheon-gang had once told me something like that. In the Martial World, one must be careful of karmic debts and grudges.
But now, the karmic debts that Jeok Cheon-gang had accumulated in the past were returning to me like a boomerang.
‘Is this what they call Martial World-style karmic payback?’
For a moment, I was at a loss for words, and Baek Sang stared at me with a deeply sunken gaze.
“Whether you are the Fire King’s disciple or the Palace Lord of the Martial Alliance matters not. The Southern Wilderness has already shed much blood for the Central Plains, and the Palace Lord’s judgment was wrong.”
“….”
“That is all I have to say to you. So disappear from my sight at once. Before I lay hands on you myself.”
Baek Sang’s atmosphere was ominous beyond measure, and instead of rebutting, I rose from my seat.
Not because I feared him, but because I had more to lose than to gain. This was a time to think clearly.
Thud.
Just as I was about to leave the Military Camp, I suddenly stopped. There was something I wanted to say to Baek Sang, whom I might not meet again.
“The blood you shed was not for the Central Plains.”
“What?”
“The blood you shed was not for the Central Plains, but for all under Heaven.”
I added calmly.
“Just as someone’s son would have done.”
Whoooosh!
A fierce and overwhelming wave of energy swept through like a tempest.
Yo-hee’s face, which had been watching our conversation in silence, turned pale in an instant, and the entire vast Military Camp swayed like autumn leaves caught in a typhoon.
And at the center of it all stood one person, trembling with rage.
“You…!”
Eyes burning with flames and a voice seething with fury. I did not avert my gaze from Baek Sang’s eyes.
Before that intense emotion pouring toward me, I simply recalled someone who had been hidden in the depths of my memory.
‘This is…’
I do not know. Whether this suspicion will prove true or merely remain a suspicion.
But before that, I must show proper respect for the reverse scale I have touched.
I bowed slightly to Baek Sang and then left the Military Camp. And all the way to my quarters, I kept thinking of someone who was clearly different, yet resembled Baek Sang.
‘…The Grand Elder.’
Hwa-yang Geom, the Fire King.
One of the heroes of the Great Martial Tournament born from Shanxi Province, and a man who nearly became the patriarch of the Taewon Jin Family despite being the second son.
And a traitor who had lived for decades in the shadow of Dark Heaven.
I couldn’t fathom why I thought of him now, at this particular moment.
But perhaps… perhaps…
‘Damn it. I have no idea.’
As I exhaled a deep sigh, I spotted Hyuk Moo-jin in front of my temporarily assigned quarters in the Inner Palace, roasting a whole wild boar that he’d procured from who knows where.
‘That bastard. He’s quite resourceful.’
Though I harassed him whenever boredom struck, he was someone I’d weathered countless trials with since my days at the Taewon Jin Family.
Above all, as a former Gate Guard of the family, he was the one among the Fire Dragon Pavilion members currently with me who knew the most about the Grand Elder.
‘Perhaps he might offer some decent counsel.’
Just as I was about to wave at him cheerfully, Hyuk Moo-jin spotted me approaching and suddenly raised his hand high.
Holding a metal skewer that glowed red-hot.
“Who goes there?”
“….”
So much for advice.
I removed my tiger mask and answered.
“Stick your head in the ground.”
“Oh. Heh heh. I was only joking.”
“Yeah. I’m not joking, so stick your head in the ground.”
“….”
Clatter.
The metal skewer slipped from Hyuk Moo-jin’s limp grasp.
* * *
In the blink of an eye, two days had passed.
The Beast King Miao Wang, who had said at our first meeting that he would summon us soon, made no effort to find us, and surprisingly, Ya-ryul Mok’s visits increased.
Thud.
Baek Ho dropped the wild boar he’d been carrying in his mouth to the ground and proudly thrust his chest forward. I asked Ya-ryul Mok, who was stroking Baek Ho’s neck.
“Where did you catch this one?”
“In the western grasslands.”
Ya-ryul Mok answered without thinking, then his face suddenly panicked as he hurriedly continued.
“…No, rather, I found it on the way here.”
“Why would you bring something you found here?”
“Well, it seemed wasteful to just leave it.”
“But for something you found, there are awfully distinctive tiger bite marks on the neck.”
“Our beast is well-trained and doesn’t bite just anything. Whether it’s an animal or a person.”
“….”
What kind of nonsense is this?
There are no bad tigers in this world. Is that what he’s saying?
I muttered while carefully examining Baek Ho’s teeth, which were caked with blood and flesh.
“Whether beast or human, it looks like it’d chew anything down in one bite. So it doesn’t have a picky palate?”
“Anyway, no. It must be a different tiger.”
“For that to be the case, there’s only one bite mark?”
“That, I wouldn’t know. I simply found it dead on the roadside and brought it back.”
“Ah. A wild boar living so vibrantly and healthily just happened to die naturally on the roadside? And Baek Ho picked it up in his mouth and brought it here?”
“Exactly that.”
“….”
When shamelessness exceeds a certain threshold, one loses the energy to even respond.
I gazed at Ya-ryul Mok with an exasperated expression, then sighed as I looked at the wild boar, massive as a mountain of flesh.
“Another wild boar, really?”
“It’s a wild boar. Is there some problem with that?”
“Another one?”
“…Do you Han people possess no conscience? At least out of consideration for the effort of catching and bringing it, just eat the damn thing.”
“You said you found it?”
“Ah. I misspoke. I found it.”
This bastard was something else.
Though I would only learn this later, the meat Hyuk Moo-jin had been roasting two days prior was precisely what Ya-ryul Mok had brought.
Of course, at that time no one had witnessed it, and Ya-ryul Mok himself had stubbornly insisted it wasn’t him.
“Wild boar is fine for a day or two. But eating only this for days on end—it’s tiresome. Tiresome.”
“Then take it back with you.”
“Moo-jin. Pack the meat.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ya-ryul Mok and Baek Ho regarded me with cold, piercing gazes, but I had worn the mask of shamelessness for so long that even this failed to make my face flush.
Watching Hyuk Moo-jin bustle about with preparations, Ya-ryul Mok clicked his tongue softly before turning his gaze toward me.
“Is the work you’re doing progressing well?”
Instead of answering, I shook my head.
“So there’s been no progress whatsoever.”
“At least not yet.”
These past two days hadn’t been spent idling. The Fire Dragon Pavilion members and I had been surveying the interior and surroundings of the Southern Beast Palace.
I had tasked Ju Hwa-ran and Hyuk Moo-jin with investigating matters within the Inner Palace, while I led the remaining personnel in reconnaissance of the surrounding region.
‘Perhaps we might discover traces of Dark Heaven.’
But as I had just stated, despite our efforts, there had been no significant results.
The absence of Dark Heaven’s traces near the Southern Beast Palace was fortunate, but if we simply hadn’t found them rather than they truly not existing, that was an entirely different matter.
“For now, I intend to continue. At least until before the tribal gathering.”
The tribal gathering, where all the tribes of the Southern Wilderness convene in one place, was tomorrow. At my words, Ya-ryul Mok nodded and spoke in a deliberately lowered voice.
“It would be best to postpone for today.”
“Postpone? Why?”
“The Inner Palace has summoned you.”

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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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