Murim Login - Chapter 653

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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 653
“Could they be your friends?”
Sa Ma-pyo, who had laughed aloud, answered in a weary voice.
“That’s unlikely.”
“True. They don’t seem to get along very well for friends.”
I scratched my chin and slowly surveyed my surroundings.
The already dilapidated Pavilion had crumbled to ruins, and the weeds that had grown wild across the Clearing were stained crimson with blood.
Well. Situation assessed.
‘This is a complete mess.’
In the brief time I’d been away from my Quarters, some twenty corpses had accumulated. Even if a cleaning spirit came to help, it wouldn’t be enough—and now a night raid on top of it all.
As I appeared, the assassins hesitated, and I glanced at them before turning to Sa Ma-pyo with a shrug.
“Well, they’re better than I expected.”
Sa Ma-pyo, his upper body drenched in blood, gasped heavily as he replied.
“Yeah, they’re decent. For Sa-pa rabble.”
Truth be told, it was almost unfair to call them Sa-pa rabble anymore.
Outnumbered and outmatched. The fact that they’d fought this hard against enemies of considerable skill meant they were truly risking their lives.
I nodded inwardly with genuine admiration.
“After performing this well, it feels wrong to keep calling you Sa-pa rabble. From now on, I’ll call you Sa-pa’s finest.”
“Sa-pa’s finest, you say. Well, I appreciate that.”
“Oh, grateful? Unexpected. I thought you’d start complaining the moment you heard it.”
“Complaining takes energy. And I feel like I’m about to collapse, so stop talking to me.”
I let out a soft laugh at his honest answer and opened my mouth.
“Then collapse.”
“What?”
“Go ahead and collapse. Don’t worry about what comes next.”
“Damn it. Why didn’t you say so sooner…”
His eyes grew heavy, his words trailing off. As Sa Ma-pyo’s body began to tilt slowly, I moved.
Whoosh. Thud.
Three paces erased in an instant.
The moment I caught him before he hit the ground, a sharp whistling cut through the air as wind surged around me.
Shwip!
It happened behind me, but I could see it. No—through my keen senses, I could feel and read everything.
Now that I had stepped into this space, it was my domain.
Crack!
Without even turning around, I threw a punch that shattered something. A Masked Figure, his head crushed like tofu, was driven into a pool of blood.
Splat.
Sticky blood sprayed into the air, soaking my back. Unbothered, I laid Sa Ma-pyo down on relatively clean ground and suddenly lifted my head. The Masked Figures stood frozen like statues.
“So why are you all just standing there? That was your last real chance.”
“…!”
“…!”
“Why are you so shocked? Were you planning to just skip out without paying, you bastards?”
In the suffocating silence, a dozen pairs of eyes above the masks trembled violently, and in that instant—
Crack!
Whoooosh!
A gale incomparably fiercer than before swept across all directions.
The remaining Masked Figures were all peak masters who had ascended to the realm of Sword Qi Wounding Form.
Swords, blades, spears, scythes—destructive qi flowed from each of their weapons, clashing through the void and targeting every vital point across my body.
Yet I watched and read through it all without a shred of fear.
The flow of qi. The direction of their weapons.
And the faint terror glimmering in their wide-open eyes.
That was the end of it. They had already lost this fight.
In the moment they realized they were nothing but wolves. In the moment they charged at a tiger despite acknowledging that truth.
‘Then I should show them. How they should have fled by any means necessary.’
Dozens of techniques flashed through my mind in an instant. I chose the cruelest and most destructive among them and moved.
Whoosh! Crack!
As I twisted my body smoothly, four weapons that had barely grazed past me tangled toward one another. I brought down my straightened hand blade at their center.
Screech!
Weapons severed by overwhelming force. I seized the neutralized weapon and struck the abdomen of one of the frozen Masked Figures.
Flame Divine Palm.
Boom!
Terrible heat incinerated the life force dwelling in the body. I watched the figure collapse while acrid smoke poured from the Seven Orifices, then lowered my head.
Whoooosh! Swish!
A strike that came from behind without warning.
But the long scythe meant to reap my neck only grazed empty air, and simultaneously, the elbow I thrust backward struck the enemy’s chest directly.
Crack!
The sound of a dozen ribs shattering, followed by a final gasp.
Yet it was not my blow that took his life, but a spear thrust by his comrade.
Thud!
These bastards really lack camaraderie.
I clicked my tongue and grasped the spear point that had pierced through his chest, then applied force.
Crack!
If they were peak masters at the realm of Sword Qi Wounding Form, I had entered the domain of Sword Qi Becoming Armor—a supreme master.
I snapped the spear shaft like a wooden chopstick and returned it to its owner.
Splurt, crunch!
The result was instant death. The Masked Figure with the spear point embedded in his brow collapsed without even a scream, and the remaining Masked Figures, who had lost three comrades in a span too brief to even call an instant, gasped in despair.
‘Seven left now.’
I counted the enemies calmly and took a step forward.
Swoosh!
Space vanished with the wind, and a new enemy appeared before my eyes. Or rather, it was I who had appeared before theirs.
“…!”
His wide-open eyes seemed to be struggling to form words, but it was already too late. I tightened my grip around the man’s throat.
Crack!
‘Six.’
I felt the life drain from his body as it went limp in an instant.
I naturally wrenched the sword from his grasp and hurled it toward the nearest enemy.
“Hah!”
With a panicked gasp, the enemy raised his curved crescent blade at an angle. The sword I’d sent streaking forward collided with the blade channeling his energy.
Boom!
The earth shook with the thunderous impact, and I walked through the billowing dust cloud, my form steady and unwavering.
Unable to withstand the force embedded in the sword, the crescent blade shattered into dozens of fragments that embedded themselves across the man’s entire body.
“Gack… gack…”
Thud.
Perhaps because the largest fragment had pierced his throat, he collapsed without even leaving final words, the sound of blood bubbling in his mouth.
I pushed aside the corpse of the enemy whose neck I’d broken and spoke in a low voice.
“That makes five.”
“…!”
“…!”
I felt it—the suffocating terror that filled the silence.
In mere moments, five masters at their peak had fallen, and I stood without a single wound, already eyeing my next prey.
“Who’s next?”
No one answered my question.
And the choice made by the Masked Figures, who stared at me with wide eyes frozen in place as if they’d seen a ghost, was to target someone other than me.
Whoosh!
Of the five remaining, three came at me, while the other two targeted Nam Ho and Tae-san.
I’ll admit it—that was probably their best choice. But regardless of my acknowledgment, the outcome of that choice couldn’t possibly be favorable.
“I saw it clearly! Those bastards ate both chicken legs!”
“Both legs? Not even the wings? Both of them?”
At Nam Ho’s outcry, Tae-san, who had been blinking in disbelief, drew a large wooden staff from his side.
“Both chicken legs! You’ve crossed the line! You’re not even human!”
Who wasn’t human would require a vote to determine, but Tae-san rendered the vote itself meaningless with his massive, imposing staff.
Crack! Thud!
His innate divine power was more than sufficient to nullify any defense.
One of the Masked Figures who had carelessly raised his sword to block had both wrists shattered instantly, and before he could even scream, he and another man had their skulls crushed together.
Crack!
Two corpses lay sprawled without even a final cry.
Nam Ho, who had been hiding behind Tae-san’s back, clenched his fists and shouted.
“That’s it! You infuriating bastard, but I’m impressed!”
“Woohoo! Tae-san is impressive!”
“Well done! You damnable fool! You’ve done nothing but eat and eat, but you finally proved your worth!”
Watching Nam Ho spout words that were neither curse nor praise, I chuckled softly and opened my mouth toward the remaining enemies.
“Now, three.”
“…!”
“…!”
“…!”
The eyes of the Masked Figures trembled as they grasped my meaning.
Even as their comrades fell around them, they had not dared to charge at me, instead backing away step by step.
“Just so you know, if you run, you’ll die. Of course, it will be far more painful than your friends who took a tour of Beimang Mountain, and you’ll suffer for a long time before your breath finally stops.”
Gulp.
At my quiet warning, someone’s Adam’s apple bobbed heavily.
They had all watched with their own eyes how their comrades died before them. But if they fled, they would come to wish for such a death instead.
“However, if you surrender here and tell me the information I seek, I will spare your lives by any means necessary. If you don’t believe me, I’ll stake my own life on it.”
I had no desire to keep alive these men who had come here with such intent, but I absolutely had to learn who was behind this.
I slowly recited the names that came to mind.
“Baek Sang. Hyuk-ung. Yo-hee. If your master is among these three, confess immediately. And if someone else sent you, reveal everything you know about that as well.”
Who could it possibly be? I had only suspicions, no certainty.
But those bold enough to orchestrate such an act within the Inner Palace, commanding warriors of this caliber for an ambush, and possessing the intelligence to know of my absence—such individuals were few and far between.
‘It must be one of the three great tribal chiefs.’
They moved so secretly, yet I discovered them.
I don’t know who or how they found out.
And the ambush came at such a perfectly opportune moment.
Given the circumstances, I could not help but harbor suspicion toward Hyuk-ung, whom I had parted with just moments ago after promising cooperation.
‘Did he ask to meet so he could stab me in the back like this? First deceive me, then seize the members of Fire Dragon Pavilion to use as leverage?’
Or it could have been the work of Baek Sang or Yo-hee, who were watching Hyuk-ung.
And one thing was certain: the name that would spill from the lips of these masked assailants would be Dark Heaven’s puppet.
“Who is it? Speak.”
Shhhhh.
As I pressed them with an overwhelming wave of energy, the foreheads exposed above their masks contorted in agony.
And in the next moment, I could see the corners of their mouths twitch beneath the masks.
Ugh.
“…!”
A sudden chill seized me. I hastily sent out finger strikes to sever their vital points, but dark red blood was already gushing from the corners of the mouths of those who had severed their own heart meridians.
“Gurgle. Hack.”
Damn it all.

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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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