Murim Login - Chapter 674

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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 674
In this world, phenomena often occur that defy rational understanding.
At this very moment, the woman reflected in Baek Sang’s bloodshot eyes was one such impossibility.
“…Nantian Demon Empress.”
A voice resonating softly through the space where only two existed.
The woman, Nantian Demon Empress, broke into a radiant smile.
“It’s been a while, Patriarch Baek Sang.”
Her smile was infinitely beautiful, and far more bewitching than that—Baek Sang felt his chest sink.
‘How is this possible.’
Infiltrating past strict vigilance was hardly surprising. Yet he, who had reached the pinnacle of martial mastery, had sensed nothing of her presence.
He had first learned of the Nantian Demon Empress some thirty years ago.
Much had changed compared to those days when he was half-mad with grief over losing his son, but realizing that the gap between himself and that enchantress had not narrowed at all weighed heavily on his heart.
“…What brings you to this place?”
At the sight of Baek Sang speaking with a hardened expression, the Nantian Demon Empress feigned a sullen look.
“Why? Do you perhaps dislike meeting me?”
The question carried a playful tone, yet with the Nantian Demon Empress before him, he could afford no moment of carelessness.
Baek Sang, having deliberately calmed his mind, replied.
“I simply did not expect you to come in person. Under normal circumstances, you would have sent word through a Messenger or a secret signal.”
The Nantian Demon Empress—or rather, Dark Heaven—had always been that way.
Meeting with the Black Robed Organization members whose names and faces remained hidden, or discovering secret signals they left in unexpected places, had long become routine for Baek Sang.
And at the same time… it was something he could never refuse.
“In four days, we would have met again as promised. Even without you making the journey here, I would have sought you out.”
It was something repeated over the past several decades.
Every month on the first day, between the hours of Yin and Mao, Baek Sang exchanged correspondence with Dark Heaven, and once every three months, he would venture out alone to meet them, telling no one.
“Four days? My, has time really passed so quickly?”
Yet at the sight of the Nantian Demon Empress opening her eyes wide as if she had completely forgotten, Baek Sang felt his fists involuntarily clench.
“You….”
“I was only joking, joking. How unbecoming of you to bristle so. Seeing you like this, our Patriarch actually has quite an endearing side.”
“…!”
“Truth be told, I came partly for another reason. There have been many developments of late, and now that you’ve finally become the ruler of the Southern Wilderness, I wanted to offer my congratulations in person. But….”
The Nantian Demon Empress laughed, covering her mouth.
“Who would have thought? The ever-composed Patriarch Baek Sang. Or rather, the newly appointed Palace Master, shedding tears.”
Contrary to the upturned corners of her mouth, the Nantian Demon Empress’s eyes held a profound coldness.
Baek Sang felt a chill settle in his heart as he parted his lips.
“It is nothing. Looking into the mirror, I was merely reminded of old memories.”
“Ah. Thinking of your son, who resembled your reflection so closely?”
“…I would prefer we end that conversation here. What matters is not the past, but what lies ahead.”
“Well, if that is what our Palace Master says, then so be it. A commendable resolve.”
The Nantian Demon Empress continued with a slight smile.
“On the other hand, I’m somewhat disappointed. I thought perhaps you had received a gift and shed tears of gratitude.”
Baek Sang replied in his characteristically rigid tone.
“I’m grateful for the mirror you gifted me. I’ll use it well.”
“Don’t mention it. Still, I went through considerable effort to obtain it as a commemoration gift for your inauguration as Palace Master. It feels odd not receiving proper acknowledgment.”
The Nantian Demon Empress, casting a sidelong glance at Baek Sang, slowly approached the window.
From the Palace Master Hall standing prominently atop the highest hillside within the Inner Palace, countless pavilions and residences sprawled below in full view.
“Wow, what a magnificent view. It truly is different when it’s where the Palace Master resides. From now on, you’ll see scenery like this every day?”
“I am merely a provisional Palace Master for now.”
“Provisional, you say… You don’t truly believe that, do you?”
“…”
“Our Palace Master. Why would someone who knows everything act this way?”
The Nantian Demon Empress, offering a smile to the silent Baek Sang, gazed out at the landscape beyond the window.
Sunlight pouring down from above, a cool breeze drifting from somewhere, and a sky of pristine blue unmarred by a single cloud.
Encountering such clear weather after a long while, the Nantian Demon Empress felt her spirits lifting unexpectedly.
How could it be otherwise?
Such a crystalline sky—soon to be dyed in absolute darkness where not a single ray of light would exist.
Whoooosh.
Hair fine as silk threads rippled in the wind rushing through the wide-open window.
The Nantian Demon Empress, who had been smiling with her eyes closed, parted her lips only moments later.
“You understand, don’t you? That the great undertaking has entered its final stages.”
“…!”
At her soft voice piercing his ears, Baek Sang’s eyelids trembled slightly.
Before his eyes now flashed decades of years and the face of a single person.
“Of course… I do.”
“Everything proceeds smoothly. Save for a few trivial complications.”
In that instant, Baek Sang surmised the truth, and upon hearing the two names that flowed from the Nantian Demon Empress’s lips, he confirmed his suspicion.
“Beast King Miao Wang. And Jin Tae-kyung.”
The Nantian Demon Empress, resting her chin at an angle, continued speaking while observing the Southern Barbarian warriors filing in from outside the window.
“To speak plainly, they are far more than trivial. One possesses martial prowess so exceptional as to warrant inclusion among the Ten Kings. And the other… yes, that very Jin Tae-kyung.”
Baek Sang, watching her back, reflected that the moment had finally arrived.
This was likely why the Nantian Demon Empress, who had remained hidden for so long, had come to this place in person.
“I apologize.”
“Apologize? For what?”
“It was inevitable. It was clearly my mistake.”
“Hmm.”
The Nantian Demon Empress, humming softly, continued.
“That’s true. But it’s also our mistake. I too did not anticipate that Beast King Miao Wang would play such a card. And…”
The Nantian Demon Empress glanced back, her gaze settling on none other than Baek Sang’s left arm.
That place, concealed beneath a robe made of pristine white fox fur, was now hollow—unlike the night before.
“I’m aware that our new Palace Master made considerable effort in his own way.”
Though the bleeding had already ceased, the pain rising from the wound severed by inner force was something that could not be remedied in the short term.
Baek Sang endured the sudden, throbbing pain and replied.
“I could not stand against him. Even mobilizing every soldier at my disposal, he slipped through the encirclement.”
“Though he ranks last among the Ten Kings, he is still one of the Ten Kings. Or perhaps… what kept him alive was merely a lingering warmth that remains under the name of sworn brotherhood.”
“That is….”
“Is it not? Can you say with certainty?”
Baek Sang, who had been silent for a moment, opened his mouth.
“Perhaps you are right. It may well have been so. At the very least, I might have bought enough time to pursue him.”
“Do you understand what you are saying right now?”
“Of course. But this much I can assert with certainty: such a thing will never happen again.”
The Nantian Demon Empress, who had been staring intently into Baek Sang’s deeply sunken eyes, exhaled softly.
“Phew. How fortunate.”
“Fortunate about what?”
“That you spoke honestly. If you had denied it, I would have torn your limbs to shreds and killed you soon enough.”
“…!”
“Truly fortunate. Though we do not see each other often, I have come to quite like the Palace Master.”
The Nantian Demon Empress, wearing a bashful smile like that of a young girl, continued.
“You know how it is. When you see a tiny ant drowning in water, struggling desperately to survive, you want to cheer it on. Ah, of course, I do not mean to say the Palace Master is an ant. That is simply my poor way of expressing myself.”
Baek Sang felt the blood throughout his entire body grow cold.
What now gripped his body and mind was a fear so immense it swallowed shame and contempt alike.
And in that moment, he understood once more.
This woman before him was truly a dangerous existence.
To Dark Heaven, he was nothing more than a puppet easily manipulated, livestock on a leash, or something even less.
Yet….
‘This is the path I chose.’
That was the harsh reality.
Long ago, he had grasped the hand extended by the Nantian Demon Empress and Dark Heaven, and in return, he had gained hope.
That very hope had lifted him from the depths of despair at losing his child and given him reason to continue living.
Therefore, he could not end this path of his own volition.
Riding the tiger—once mounted upon its back, one can only gallop forward with all one’s might.
A sight no one among the Southern Barbarians would believe. Yet everything unfolding in the Palace Master Hall was undeniably real.
The new Palace Master of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, the ruler of the vast Southern Wilderness, knelt on one knee in reverence.
Toward a woman more beautiful than anything else in the world.
“Please bestow your command upon me, Demon Empress.”
The Nantian Demon Empress, looking down upon Baek Sang, laughed languidly in the sunlight pouring through the window.
“This is precisely why I find you so appealing.”
The Nantian Demon Empress reached her hand toward the window.
As if to grasp the endless stream of Southern Barbarian warriors responding to the new Palace Master’s total mobilization order and the blue sky spreading above their heads.
“Within three days, find Beast King Miao Wang and eliminate this source of trouble. As for Jin Tae-kyung….”
Or as if to dye everything in darkness at once.
As if to plunge everything into darkness all at once.
“We will handle it.”
Now that everything had entered its final stages, the Nantian Demon Empress harbored not a shred of doubt.
That the path opened from the Southern Wilderness would become a bridgehead toward the Central Plains.
That at the end of it all awaited the second coming of the Heavenly Master, the almighty sovereign who rules all things in creation.
* * *
I would stake Hyuk Moo-jin’s manhood on it.
It was perhaps the most unprecedented beacon fire in all of Southern Wilderness history—no, in all of Murim history.
Whoosh. Roooaarrr!
Two days had passed since I entrusted the others to Tae-san and headed south. I was now setting my seventh mountain ablaze.
Ah, naturally the grasslands were included as well.
“Wait, was it seven or eight?”
Grrrr.
“Well. That’s not really the important part anyway.”
I ignored Baek Ho, whose expression had turned sullen.
The beast’s once-pristine white fur was now filthy with blood and soot.
Of course, none of that blood came from him. It was simply an unavoidable consequence of repelling pursuit parties roughly six times over.
But Mu Ya-ho’s complaints would soon fall silent.
Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that neither of us would have the luxury of worrying about such things anymore.
Squelch.
Baek Ho’s massive front paw pressed into the mud.
And the fact that the beast, who had been racing like the wind all this while, now let out a low whimper upon glimpsing the Black Forest could mean only one thing.
Yes.
“Here it is.”
Gazing upon the mountain shrouded in darkness, I murmured to myself.

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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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