Murim Login - Chapter 687

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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 687
Screech, boom!
For an instant, the world seemed to freeze.
—
A guttural growl.
The colossal Baek Ho collapsed like rotting timber, gasping for breath, while Jin Tae-kyung lay completely unconscious.
And in Yo-hee’s eyes was reflected the figure of a single person cradling him, speaking with unshakeable composure.
“Did I not say so? I should have hidden myself first.”
“…!”
A flash of revelation and shock struck through her mind like lightning.
Yo-hee’s eyes, which had always held a serene light, widened in disbelief.
“Hyuk-ung, you!”
“So you no longer call me Elder Brother. It was rather pleasant to hear, though.”
It had been true. Just mere hours ago.
But now the title of Elder Brother could never be spoken again.
The stout, middle-aged man before Yo-hee was not the Hyuk-ung she had known.
“Why?”
Her voice trembled with questions. Hyuk-ung shrugged and answered.
“It is simple. Just as you used me, I used you in turn.”
“…So you were in league with Baek Sang all along.”
“Your words are imprecise. Were we not all in league together?”
“…!”
At Yo-hee’s stiffened expression, Hyuk-ung let out a low chuckle.
“Do not deny it. I have watched you and Baek Sang more closely than anyone else.”
“Then your sudden arrival at the Yao Seo Tribe was also…?”
“All part of the plan. You, Jin Tae-kyung, Beast King Miao Wang, even Baek Sang—though none of you knew my true identity. In truth, calling us all conspirators is rather laughable.”
From Hyuk-ung’s words, Yo-hee grasped something and swallowed hard.
She could understand what she did not know. Though she had tacitly consented to Baek Sang’s designs, she had been nothing more than an indirect accomplice, veiled in silent approval.
But to have hidden his identity even from Baek Sang…
“You were watching us all along. Me and Baek Sang.”
“Congratulations. You have taken one step toward the answer. Two steps remain.”
“Was it the Nantian Demon Empress’s command?”
“Excellent. The final step.”
“A hidden blade concealed in the Nantian Demon Empress’s sleeve for contingencies—that was you.”
Clap. Clap.
Hyuk-ung brought his hands together slowly and smiled broadly.
“Indeed, you are perceptive. That is correct. Though I confess, I never dreamed events would unfold to this extent.”
Hyuk-ung turned slowly to survey his surroundings.
A space reduced entirely to ruins. His gaze swept past the two ancient masters lying lifeless, finally settling upon a single figure.
“Yeolhwa Shinryong Jin Tae-kyung. The third son of the Taewon Jin Family, and the heir to the Fire King who shall carry the orthodox line of the Yeolhwa Sect.”
A voice trailing off into silence.
A glimmer of light flickered across Hyuk-ung’s eyes as he gazed at the figure sleeping like the dead in his arms.
“I realized things went wrong the moment we found him here. If everything had proceeded according to plan, he would be rotting in the Underground Prison, or Ma-hu would have already claimed him. But…”
Jin Tae-kyung had pursued Hyang to the Poison Blood Land and, following Ma-hu’s arrangements, killed the two supreme masters waiting for the Beast King Miao Wang and survived.
“Foolish bastards. Ma-hu warned them to be so careful.”
Hyuk-ung muttered softly and spat. Then, as if nothing had happened, he smiled warmly and looked at Yo-hee.
“I’m not sure if capturing him alive is the right choice at this point, but… at least I can salvage this mess. Ah, of course, I should tell you first that our destination has changed.”
“…The Inner Palace. You’re planning to head to the Inner Palace.”
At Yo-hee’s whispered words, Hyuk-ung nodded.
“If I return, something quite interesting will unfold. The testimony of the Great Tribal Chief who survived the Han Clan’s vicious conspiracy will shake the Southern Wilderness, and every warrior and beast of this land will gather at the Inner Palace. To wage war against the Central Plains.”
“But people aren’t fools. Everyone will doubt how someone at merely the supreme level like you could escape a death trap alone.”
“What if I were a supreme master of the highest order?”
“What do you mean…”
“A supreme master of the highest caliber, skilled enough to subdue Jin Tae-kyung by common perception. Moreover, one possessed of virtue and renown, capable of embracing even those who won’t align with Baek Sang. Wouldn’t everyone believe in such a person?”
In that moment, Yo-hee’s body went rigid.
“You… surely not…!”
“Yes.”
Hyuk-ung smiled faintly and unleashed his inner power.
From the Yao Seo Tribe until now. His inner power, never once suppressed, moved bone and flesh, twisted muscle.
Crack. Crunch.
A gruesome sound of tearing flesh that burrowed into Yo-hee’s ears.
Beneath the faint moonlight breaking through the dark clouds, Hyuk-ung’s shadow wavered. Grander, more formidable.
“Ugh.”
And when all the transformation ended with Hyuk-ung’s anguished groan, two short syllables escaped from between Yo-hee’s frozen lips.
“…Palace Master?”
In Yo-hee’s wide, disbelieving eyes, one figure was reflected.
Hyuk-ung and yet the Beast King Miao Wang. The Beast King Miao Wang and yet Hyuk-ung—he gazed at his enlarged shadow with a satisfied smile.
“People think the mystery of the Bone Shrinking Technique lies merely in reducing one’s physique. But when one reaches the pinnacle and achieves great mastery, one can be reborn as an entirely different person.”
“…!”
“Here’s what we’ll do. I—or rather, the Beast King Miao Wang—came here and subdued Jin Tae-kyung, and you, who escaped death from his vicious conspiracy, will return to the Inner Palace and tell the people this.”
Hyuk-ung continued slowly, speaking to Yo-hee, whose face had gone blank.
“That all recent events were a conspiracy by Jin Tae-kyung and the Martial Alliance to devour the Southern Wilderness. That without distinction of age or gender, every human and beast of this land must be mobilized to march against the Central Plains. What say you?”
Yo-hee did not answer. Rather, could not answer. Suffocating fear and rage constricted her entire body, and her vision swam.
“H-how did you…”
“Ah. I forgot to mention one thing. If you refuse this proposal, Bo-san will be drenched in blood. And the Four Major Tribes that ruled the Southern Wilderness will become three.”
Crack.
A trickle of blood flowed from between Yo-hee’s red lips as she struggled to contain her rage.
Yo-hee, glaring at Hyuk-ung with blazing eyes, spoke through gritted teeth.
“You bastard.”
“How it pains me. To hear such words from the woman who will soon be my wife.”
“Shut that mouth of yours. Who said anything about marrying you?”
“Perhaps it will come to pass. When you witness over five thousand Yao tribesmen losing their heads one after another before your very eyes.”
“…!”
“You are a woman of stubborn will, and I am a man of boundless patience. So I shall wait. Until all five thousand heads have fallen to the earth.”
Hyuk-ung answered in an unhurried voice, his face breaking into a radiant smile directed at Yo-hee—as though nothing had transpired, as though he had always been this luminous.
“I love you, Yo-hee.”
A chill ran through her entire body, and Yo-hee squeezed her eyes shut.
She could not fathom it—this scheme whose inception she could not pinpoint, nor the true nature of that wastrel everyone had dismissed.
And the dense shadow of Dark Heaven descending over her head.
A breath escaped her.
Countless thoughts flickered through her mind with each scattered exhalation.
In the next moment, Yo-hee’s eyes opened slowly as she drew the soft blade from her waist and spoke.
“Filthy traitor.”
“A filthy traitor, you say? I pray you do not condemn yourself so harshly.”
“I won’t deny it. In the end, I was a traitor too. But will Dark Heaven spare you? Will the Nantian Demon Empress? What of the Yi Tribe you lead?”
At her voice, sharp as a blade’s cry, Hyuk-ung’s eyes flickered for a moment before he burst into hearty laughter.
“That is a matter unrelated to me.”
“What?”
“Forty years ago, when the previous Tribal Chief of the Yi Tribe fell in the Great Decisive Battle, his only legitimate son remaining in the Southern Wilderness was but six years old. The strong men and women departed for the battlefield, his mother died before ever laying eyes upon his face, and at his side stood only one elderly nursemaid, her eyes and ears dimmed by age.”
“…!”
“Yo-hee.”
Hyuk-ung—or rather, the man who had become Hyuk-ung—continued with a faint smile.
“I was never a traitor. Not for a single moment.”
Clang.
The soft blade slipped from Yo-hee’s grasp and clattered to the ground with a resounding crash.
She gasped for breath and reached to retrieve the blade, yet her body refused to obey.
‘This is…’
Yo-hee’s eyelids trembled.
Was it the emotional turmoil wrought by so many shocking revelations?
No. Her inability to move stemmed from the damp, viscous energy that had already permeated every fiber of her being.
“You…”
Her voice grew faint and powerless, her vision blurring.
Beyond it, Hyuk-ung’s figure drew slowly closer, shimmering like heat haze, while his voice reaching her ears seemed distant and far away.
“This is why I cannot help but love you. So dazzlingly beautiful, and yet so innocent.”
“That wasn’t…the antidote…”
“Regrettably, I am not the Beast King Miao Wang, and even crossing blades with you would burden me. I beg your understanding, my dear wife. When you awaken, I hope you will make the choice that benefits all.”
Yo-hee wanted to scream—for someone to come and slay this terrible man, to pull them from this dark abyss, to stop the vast conspiracy that would devour the Southern Wilderness.
Yet contrary to her desperate wishes, the cry that rose in her throat could not escape her lips, and Jin Tae-kyung, ensnared by the demon of slumber, could not open his eyes until the very end.
And in the next moment.
Whoosh. Thud.
Hyuk-ung gently caught the collapsing form of Yo-hee, whose body had gone limp as a puppet with severed strings.
A smile played at the corners of his lips—lips that now bore the face of the Beast King Miao Wang.
“Even in slumber, she is breathtaking.”
Hyuk-ung loved Yo-hee with genuine devotion. It mattered not that she did not desire him.
She would eventually make the right choice, and in time, she would come to love him.
Dark Heaven—the Nantian Demon Empress—would keep her promise.
The price paid for concealing his identity through the long ages would return tenfold, twentyfold over.
But first, there was one matter to attend to.
‘This must be finished.’
After pressing a kiss to Yo-hee’s forehead, Hyuk-ung turned slowly to depart.
His footsteps carried him toward the architect of this catastrophe—the one who had dared to sabotage the Grand Design.
‘Jin Tae-kyung.’
He was an unforeseen variable that no one had anticipated, and his emergence had dealt a grievous blow to the Grand Design on the cusp of success. Two supreme masters of unparalleled skill had already been sacrificed by his mere existence alone, their presence capable of altering the entire tide of battle.
Yet nothing would change.
‘The Grand Design will succeed, and there are still hands and feet to replace them.’
Jin Tae-kyung would remain unconscious for at least several days.
Once Hyuk-ung returned to the Inner Palace with Yo-hee and Jin Tae-kyung in hand, everything would be finished.
‘Yes. It will all be over.’
Satisfied with his thoughts, he passed the gasping Baek Ho and reached down to seize Jin Tae-kyung by the nape of the neck, lifting him.
Or rather, he was about to.
Whoooosh.
A desolate wind swept from nowhere, and Hyuk-ung’s head snapped upward.
Beneath the pale moonlight, a silhouette materialized before his eyes.
“What is that…?”
In the instant he began to voice his confusion.
Shrieeeeek!
A desolate wind transformed into a blade, engulfing his entire body.

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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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