Murim Login - Chapter 663

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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 663
“That day, you showed me the path I must walk.”
With words spat out like bitter poison, the brief yet weighty tale came to an end. I gazed silently into Baek Sang’s coldly gleaming eyes.
What did I want to say to him?
I wasn’t sure.
This man standing before me, clad in brilliantly white robes, was someone who had lived within darkness I could scarcely fathom.
He had fought for a noble cause, only to be betrayed in the end, and was forced to lose a son he cherished more than life itself.
There could be only one reason he had continued living all this time.
‘Vengeance.’
Baek Sang’s words were not wrong. When he wandered in pitch-black darkness after losing his only child, the people of the Central Plains illuminated his path with their cruel betrayal, and thus Baek Sang discovered the sole road laid before him.
The path of revenge.
He had walked this thorny road of pain and rage to reach this place, and seeing him, I suddenly recalled someone from my memories.
“…The Grand Elder.”
Baek Sang’s eyes flickered with confusion upon hearing my reflexive murmur. I continued, my lips twisting bitterly.
“It’s nothing. Just looking at you reminded me of someone I once knew.”
“For what reason?”
“That person was just as pathetic as you. A puppet manipulated by Dark Heaven.”
“What?”
“But on the other hand, I could understand him well enough. He had his reasons.”
“…He was betrayed.”
“Yes. By blood relatives who shared his own blood.”
Baek Sang, who had been looking down at me silently, finally spoke.
“What became of him?”
“I killed him. With my own hands.”
“…!”
“He was a great elder of the family, but there was no choice. Everything had already gone too far.”
“Do you wish to condemn me?”
I laughed softly.
Condemnation. What difference would it make now?
“Mere words of condemnation have no effect. They wouldn’t stop someone like that. And that was the greatest reason I severed the Grand Elder’s life.”
Such is the end of a vengeance demon.
They stumble onto a path they never chose, and ultimately lose their way entirely. Like moths drawn to a single flame of revenge, they rush headlong toward their doom.
“After killing the Grand Elder, I suddenly wondered—if we had lost that battle, if I and the Taewon Jin Family had been defeated… would he finally have found happiness through his revenge?”
“That would be…”
“Probably not. He lived solely for revenge, but at some point his rage dulled, and witnessing the sacrifice of innocent people, he was consumed by guilt.”
I continued without waiting for his response.
“Just like you are now.”
“…!”
I gazed calmly at Baek Sang’s contorted face.
“I clearly cannot understand you. I have not endured what you have, nor have I burned with vengeance for decades. Yet I acknowledge this—at least to me, your rage toward the people of the Central Plains and the Han Clan is justified.”
“…Is that justified?”
Baek Sang’s face hardened as he asked for clarification. Perhaps this was an answer he hadn’t anticipated, but everything I’d said moments before came from the depths of my heart.
Of course, the words flowing from my lips now were equally sincere.
“Yes. I would have done the same in your position. No—if I were you, the entire Central Plains might have already become my enemy.”
Suddenly, that day when I headed toward the Ares Guild came flooding back.
I was alone then, yet my steps carried not a shred of hesitation.
But I made that choice not because I possessed sufficient strength. It was because I felt genuine fury at Kim Hwa-jong’s death.
And so I brought down the Ares Guild.
Had I been Baek Sang instead of Jin Tae-kyung, I would have fought to destroy the Central Plains.
But…
“Is that rage of yours truly justified to the Southern Wilderness people who live on this land?”
“…!”
“Of course, some would understand. But what sin did those who became victims in your alliance with Dark Heaven commit? What of their families? Their lovers and friends?”
Baek Sang’s entire body trembled. I continued speaking in a measured tone.
“When I first set foot in the Southern Wilderness, what news did I hear? That a Miao Clan village had been completely annihilated by Han Clan forces. The Han Clan slaughtered hundreds without distinction of age or gender, yet they too ultimately perished together through poison.”
Being trapped alone in the Underground Prison meant having abundant time to think.
I could trace through everything from the beginning to now and arrive at a certainty.
“No matter how I consider it, it’s a strange affair. Despite all the battles that occurred, not a single survivor emerged from among so many people.”
It was a malicious scheme planned from the start.
By erasing one Miao Clan village, they ignited bitter resentment toward the Han Clan across the entire Southern Wilderness.
“That’s not all. There’s also the sudden emergence of the Thousand Year Spiders from Poison Blood Land and the incident with the Western Yao Tribe. Including the Miao Clan village, the death toll alone reaches roughly three hundred.”
This was what unfolded in merely seven days and nights since I arrived at the Southern Beast Palace.
Compared to the decades Baek Sang spent living as a vengeful specter, it was but a handful of time. And what was even more terrifying was what lay ahead.
For him to complete his revenge fully, war with the Central Plains was not happenstance but inevitability.
“How much…”
I looked at Baek Sang with both sorrow and anger in my gaze.
“How much more blood do you intend to spill, Baek Sang?”
* * *
Splash. Splash.
With each step forward, the stagnant filth that had accumulated on the Underground Prison floor for so long scattered in all directions.
Yet the one who walked paid no mind to the snow-white garments becoming soiled.
Rather, it would be more accurate to say that thoughts consuming his mind prevented him from noticing.
Splash…
The leather shoes, already thoroughly drenched, suddenly ceased their movement.
The middle-aged man traversing the Underground Prison alone—Baek Sang—suddenly turned to look over his shoulder.
Dark, cold, and silent.
Just like the path he had walked. And like the path the one imprisoned beyond must walk ahead.
But he—Jin Tae-kyung—would not walk the same path as himself.
Only two days remained until the public execution.
Unlike Baek Sang, who had walked for decades, the road remaining for Jin Tae-kyung was far too short and far too certain.
‘It’s as good as over. He won’t escape.’
I already knew the extent of Jin Tae-kyung’s martial prowess.
Among the Central Plains, scattered with countless prestigious sects, he stood out as an unparalleled master of the highest caliber.
Though Baek Sang hadn’t committed his full strength either, during that brief exchange of moves days ago, his instincts had grasped the truth.
Half a step behind me. Or perhaps, even one step ahead.
Jin Tae-kyung was a monster beyond imagination. Yet with his martial power sealed and bound by an iron sphere of tremendous weight, even if his master the Fire King himself arrived, he could not survive.
Moreover, he bore a shackle far greater than any iron sphere.
‘The Han Clan under his command.’
Jin Tae-kyung cherished his people. Thus, rather than flee, he chose to surrender himself and be imprisoned in the Underground Prison.
Truly foolish.
The greatest weakness of that monstrous youth before me was, in fact, human sentiment.
That which makes a martial artist cease to be a martial artist more than anything else.
Yet… that which makes a person truly human above all else.
And on that day when the Great Snow Mountain was drenched in blood and snow, it was precisely what I desperately yearned for my comrades to possess.
‘Come to think of it. Hwi was about that age back then.’
I gazed into the void with hollow eyes. In that darkness where nothing existed, a single face flickered past.
From an infant to a boy, from a boy to a young man.
My one and only child, who was more upright than anyone, who shone as brightly as the name Hwi itself.
And that child’s smiling face, which I would never see again.
Crunch.
My fist clenched without my knowing. As my neatly trimmed nails dug into my flesh, blood began to seep out.
Drip, drip.
My gaze turned downward. Above the stagnant filth, I saw crimson droplets spreading.
Each time they fell, the small ripples they created traced the outline of a face.
‘How much more blood will you shed, Baek Sang?’
Jin Tae-kyung’s final words continued to echo in my ears. Yet my answer then and now remained the same.
‘I have already crossed the river. A river from which there is no turning back.’
It was long ago that I crossed that river.
Half-mad with despair and rage, I met a beautiful woman of unknown identity one day, and received a proposal far more captivating than her appearance.
No—an offer I could not refuse.
‘Choose. If you do, it will surely come to pass.’
I did not hesitate.
With a purpose for living now kindled, I gladly grasped the hand she extended, and have never once regretted that decision since.
No, I could not afford to regret it.
‘But why…’
Now, with the fruits of decades of labor within reach, why do I find myself wavering?
I swallowed the voice threatening to escape and clenched my teeth. Then, gazing at my already soiled leather shoes and the hem of my garment that could no longer be called white, I repeated to myself.
‘Two days hence. Everything ends. Everything.’
Beneath my feet, blood droplets spread across the stagnant filth.
Long since defiled, it slowly deepened in color, drinking in the blood.
Like the path I’ve walked until now. Like the path I’ll walk from here on.
Splash.
Baek Sang, who had trampled through the puddle roughly, began to move his feet again.
In the silent space where no one dared speak, I listened to Jin Tae-kyung’s voice still echoing in my ears.
* * *
Baek Sang had left, and I was alone once more.
My entire body, bound by taut iron chains and a heavy iron sphere, was growing stiff and rigid.
‘Damn it.’
Now that Baek Sang had gone, I felt a twinge of regret.
I wondered if I should have begged for my life instead, but even so, I harbored no true regret. I’d said everything I needed to say.
There was nothing to gain from groveling pathetically for survival.
Baek Sang was a man who lived for revenge alone. Even if I had pleaded and wept, he wouldn’t shed tears like some elderly woman watching a human interest documentary.
Of course, that didn’t mean I intended to be dragged out in two days and meet death meekly.
‘I must be insane. I have to survive somehow.’
It was true that I had acknowledged Baek Sang’s rage.
But that didn’t make me deserving of death at his hands. In my eyes, both the Grand Elder and Baek Sang were merely wretches with their own tragic histories.
And I had come all this way to a foreign land to meet this new wretch, and I intended to stop him by any means necessary.
‘But how do I escape?’
After speaking and thinking so much, my throat had grown parched.
Just as I was swallowing dry saliva, something cold touched the crown of my head from above.
Drip.
“Huh?”
Water. Though it was stale and tasteless, the fact that it was water mattered. The ceiling must have cracked further when Baek Sang destroyed everything around him.
‘This helps.’
Muttering to myself, I tilted my head toward the ceiling.
And in the next moment, through the gap in the cracked ceiling, I met the gaze of someone I had never expected—their eyes staring down at me.
Eyes as large and transparent as a calf’s.
“…Why are you there?”
The owner of those eyes answered.
“Tae-san. Hungry. Got locked in Underground Prison because I eat too much.”
“Ah.”
Then that settles it.

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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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