Murim Login - Chapter 692

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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 692
Sometimes instinct overpowers reason.
For instance, the moment I saw the Water Dragon’s primordial essence nestled so perfectly within Black Tiger’s jaws.
“You bastard. When the hell did you steal that?”
– ….
The words tumbled out before I could stop them.
Black Tiger regarded me with eyes cold as frozen salt, then released a wave of intent.
– Steal? That’s quite the exaggeration.
In truth, it was a bit of an overstatement on my part.
Even if that beast had genuinely stolen the Water Dragon’s primordial essence, in a situation where I could swallow it whole at any moment if I wished, the fault was entirely mine.
“Fine, I apologize. I’m sorry.”
I offered a sincere apology, extending both hands respectfully.
“So now spit it out. See my palm? Right here—go on, spit it out. Yes?”
– I was astonished.
“Yeah, I’m pretty shocked myself right now. Look, I understand everything, so first just….”
– I felt the power contained within it, and then I witnessed a distant expanse of time.
I paused, asking for clarification.
“Time, you say?”
– Yes. It was hundreds of years of time and memory that only those of the same kind could glimpse. Everything of an Imoogi who never became a dragon.
“…!”
– At the far edge of that vast memory, there appeared a human. Young, rough, and recklessly foolish.
Eyes of pale cyan—reminiscent of Mu Ya-ho—fixed upon me with an unwavering gaze. Then a wave of intent, carrying the calm voice of a man, resonated through my mind.
– Be grateful to that Imoogi. Had I not witnessed his memories… you would have met the same wretched end as that disagreeable human.
This world was full of disagreeable humans. If I overturned the heavens and shook them out, they’d fill the Yangtze River and overflow, but I had a sense of who Black Tiger was referring to.
“Could it be Hyuk-ung?”
– I know nothing of names. But unlike you, that one possessed only a single foreleg.
Well, technically it was a hand, not a foreleg. But that’s not the point right now.
I regarded Black Tiger with newfound appreciation.
“Hmm. I suppose I should thank you for saving me?”
– It matters not. It was my choice.
“Then I’ll thank you anyway. I mean it sincerely.”
Black Tiger glanced back at me, then turned and began walking slowly. I naturally fell into step behind him and opened my mouth.
“There are a few things I’m curious about.”
– How troublesome.
“What? You’ll answer earnestly despite finding it troublesome?”
– No.
“Oh. Thank you for so graciously agreeing.”
– …The methods of human communication are truly peculiar. Has so much time truly passed?
I brushed aside Black Tiger’s intent lightly and asked the most pressing question.
“How much time has elapsed?”
Even just watching her tail droop stiffly revealed her discomfort, but before long, an answer came back.
– You have remained here for one day in human time.
“One day?”
By ordinary standards, an absurdly brief span.
But in circumstances like these, the calculation changes entirely.
Great Snow Ghost and Black Hand Fist Demon had warned of a blood wind about to sweep through the Southern Wilderness, and with Beast King Miao Wang’s whereabouts now shrouded in mystery, there was no one left to stop the Nantian Demon Empress.
‘Damn it.’
Though unavoidable, it would not be strange if thousands—or tens of thousands—had perished during the day I lay unconscious.
Gritting my teeth and swallowing the curses, I managed to continue.
“The exit. Tell me how to escape this place.”
– You intend to leave?
“Yes. I’m grateful you saved me, but I don’t have time to linger.”
– So you mean to rescue your kinfolk in peril. Recklessly, as before.
“Wait, you—”
– Rest assured. I cannot read human memories. I merely inferred from the image of you that remained in Imoogi’s recollection. Your reasons for fighting so fiercely were likely similar.
“…You were watching?”
– Yes. From beginning to end. As always, I observed everything that transpired here.
Black Tiger turned his head naturally to regard me, his thoughts continuing with calm certainty.
– But I found no reason to meddle in human affairs. At least, not until you drew out ‘that’.
“…!”
My eyes widened. Not because I understood that the ‘that’ Black Tiger spoke of referred to Water Dragon’s primordial essence.
The memory surfaced—how I had hesitated when a desolate wind blew from nowhere just as I was about to invoke the essence in a final, desperate struggle for survival.
Sensing something amiss in that same moment, I had relinquished the essence, and thanks to Mu Ya-ho’s arrival shortly after, I survived.
“Then that wind was….”
My words trailed off. Immediately after, Black Tiger’s thoughts resonated through my mind.
– A foolish act. To defy the ordained principle is to oppose heaven itself. Had I left you be, you would have perished, unable to overcome the power Imoogi left behind.
Standing atop the endless cliff, I watched Black Tiger’s receding form in silence, then murmured softly.
“It was not once, but twice.”
– What do you mean?
“You saved my life.”
Black Tiger let out a small, derisive snort.
– I merely pitied someone who entrusted everything to a foolish human. Were it not for that reason alone, you would deserve to be dead.
“That’s rather harsh. I don’t know why you harbor such enmity toward humans, but I’ve never committed a sin of such magnitude in all my years.”
– You sought to steal innocent lives and burned the peaceful dwelling places of beasts—and you claim innocence?
“What?”
Black Tiger answered not with words but with a gesture of his head, pointing below the cliff.
Countless beasts, their bodies charred black in places, were drinking from an unnamed stream below. Their numbers easily reached thousands.
If one added the other beasts dwelling in this space that seemed to have no end, their total became impossible to fathom.
‘What on earth….’
Standing atop the cliff, I gazed blankly at that sight.
– The Fire Demon you summoned is still devouring the entire mountain even now. Had the flames spread unchecked, everything would have burned to ash long ago.
“….”
– Yes, I guided them here. Just as I did seven days ago.
Seven days ago—that was the very day I and Beast King Miao Wang received the urgent report and headed toward Ai-nao Mountain.
As I rapidly retraced my memories, a flash of understanding swept through my mind.
‘The beasts.’
I remembered it clearly.
Of the three hundred warriors stationed at Ai-nao Mountain, two hundred returned alive, but the beasts did not.
I had seen no trace of them anywhere—not at Ai-nao Mountain, nor at Poison Blood Land.
“So it was you. You saved the beasts.”
– Demons that should never have been released were set free. For hundreds of years I have not interfered in human affairs, but I could not stand idle then.
Under normal circumstances, I might have overlooked it. But as I was intently listening to Black Tiger’s thoughts, I immediately sensed something amiss.
“Released?”
– You did not know?
A pale blue gaze, tinged with subtle contempt, fixed upon me.
– It was all the work of humans. You have always been this way, and I have remained here, watching it all unfold.
Damn it.
What happened at Ai-nao Mountain had remained mere speculation until now. But Black Tiger’s words confirmed it.
In the end, it too was the doing of Dark Heaven.
‘If only this truth had been revealed even slightly sooner.’
With regret that came too late, I stared at Black Tiger. Now I finally understood, however dimly, why he had acted as he did that day.
The image of Black Tiger’s retreating form came to mind—appearing and disappearing repeatedly, though he could have easily escaped.
“That day, you weren’t attacking us.”
– That is correct. It was not my mission to do so.
“You were simply… trying to show us. Where the Thousand Year Spider was.”
– I could not merely watch as a corrupted demon disturbed this mountain. Since it was a seed planted by humans, it is only natural that humans should reap what they sowed.
Black Tiger continued forward, speaking quietly.
The path along the cliff grew narrower and steeper, and birds nesting upon the jagged peaks rising through the clouds regarded us with curious eyes.
How far had we walked while conversing? From that place shrouded entirely in mist, the ground below seemed impossibly distant.
‘Surely the area wasn’t this vast before.’
When I first opened my eyes, I had thought it a small forest encircling a sacred pond.
But now, looking around, I saw only vast mountain ranges and valleys, lush with verdant grasslands.
‘What in the world.’
I could no longer make sense of anything. Surrounded by the inexplicable, I barely managed to part my lips.
“Where… is this place?”
– A land where life dwells. A place where all things exist in harmony.
What nonsensical riddle was this?
In that moment, I suddenly recalled my childhood, when a church deacon would hand me tteokbokki while singing of Jesus’s heaven and the hell of the faithless.
“Even so, this can’t be heaven.”
– The kingdom of heaven? A rather fitting expression. But this is a place deep within the earth that none may enter without my consent. And it lies very close to where you were.
“Then… could this possibly be the Poison Blood Land?”
At my murmur, the massive head of Black Tiger, who had been walking several steps ahead, gave a small nod.
– Indeed.
“But this place…”
Suddenly, words failed me. The Poison Blood Land?
Even if this were Ai-nao Mountain, I wouldn’t have believed it.
There were no ferocious flames blazing here, nor the distinctive desolate aura that had pervaded Ai-nao Mountain.
– Cease your questioning. This is a place that you humans can neither invade nor comprehend.
It was the literal truth. The Murim contained all manner of bizarre phenomena, and the Qimen Formation was one of them, but the spectacle unfolding before my eyes far transcended those boundaries.
“Ha. The Poison Blood Land. So this is the Poison Blood Land.”
I followed Black Tiger up the peak, letting out a hollow laugh beneath my breath.
As my footsteps drew closer to the summit, Black Tiger’s consciousness reached me.
– The Poison Blood Land is its current name. Like myself, humans have changed many things as time has flowed.
“Then what was it called before?”
– Sacred Ground.
“What?”
– A tale from a past so distant it rivals the Imoogi’s own memories. In those days, the masters of this land were not humans but beasts, and the sparse humans who lived in tribes within their respective domains worshipped us.
“Huh.”
Words escaped me without my intention.
A forbidden realm that no one could approach had once been called Sacred Ground. Moreover, if this was when the Southern Barbarians were few in number… I couldn’t even fathom how long ago that was.
Five hundred years? Or perhaps a thousand?
‘This is maddening.’
Even if I had dumped all my stat points into intelligence from the start, I would have become a fool at this very moment.
Shaking my head, I opened my mouth toward Black Tiger, who had stopped walking.
“Then you. What exactly are you?”
– Did you not speak it yourself before? A phantom.
“What I’m curious about is your name from when this place was Sacred Ground.”
Black Tiger, who had been silent for a moment, moved his colossal form. Something distant flickered across his pale blue eyes.
– Guardian Spirit.
“What?”
– In that distant age, people called me thus. The Mountain Lord who guards Ai-nao Mountain. A Guardian Spirit born together with the Divine Stone.

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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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