Murim Login - Chapter 694

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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 694
A deep night where even the moon was shrouded.
Faint flames began to bloom in the mountain valley that had been submerged in thick darkness.
One, two, three. And soon, with hundreds of torches blazing to life, the world trembled.
Thud-thud-thud!
Vibrations transmitted through the earth. Beneath the torches swaying in the wind, countless large and small shadows moved ceaselessly, their rough breathing never stopping.
Growl.
Huff. Huff.
An army.
It was a single military force composed of countless humans and beasts intermingled.
Southern Barbarian warriors armed with swords, spears, and bows sat upon their saddles, their eyes ceaselessly probing the darkness ahead, while fierce beasts with sharp fangs and claws continued their relentless charge.
Their numbers reached three thousand.
And following the command of a single person, their destination—set from the moment they departed the Outer Palace around noon—had been predetermined from the start.
‘Ai-nao Mountain.’
Three characters that surfaced in the Guard Captain’s mind as he led the charge. In that same instant, a cry erupted from behind him.
“There!”
Indeed, his words rang true.
The Guard Captain and all the others could see it—a massive, blazing inferno that far surpassed the torches of the three-thousand-strong army, wavering against the night sky.
Crack! Roooaaaar!
Ancient trees of immeasurable age toppled in succession, and the ravenous flames that consumed everything they touched swelled ever larger.
A great conflagration that had not existed a hundred years prior, and perhaps would not exist a hundred years hence—the warriors watching it whispered through trembling lips.
“This… this can’t be.”
“So it was… it was all true…”
Hearing something through another’s words and witnessing it with one’s own eyes are two different things.
As the warriors gazed upon Ai-nao Mountain engulfed in flames, shock and terror flickered across their pupils.
‘Jin Tae-kyung.’
‘All the rumors about him… they were true.’
‘To have shaken off so many pursuers and made it this far. What kind of monster is he, exactly?’
Naturally, the vast majority of warriors present had never directly faced Jin Tae-kyung.
Rather, it would be more accurate to say they had never witnessed his true nature.
Until now, Jin Tae-kyung had been merely a foreigner from the Central Plains to them—a young man with an unusual appearance, different from the Southern Barbarians.
But now, they would have to fight him.
Their mission was to encircle Ai-nao Mountain completely and strike down Jin Tae-kyung the moment he attempted to break free from that place.
And yet…
‘Can we stop him? That monster?’
A single question that surfaced in everyone’s minds.
They were the ones who had grown weary of hearing stories about Ai-nao Mountain—a forbidden land that shared the beginning and history of the Southern Beast Palace.
And there was always one thing that never failed to appear in those tales.
The Yeolhwa Sect.
A mysterious martial sect said to exist somewhere in the distant Central Plains.
In the distant past, the Sect Master of the Yeolhwa Sect who set foot on this land brought an end to the great war with the Five Poison Sect that had raged for over a hundred years even after the Southern Beast Palace was born.
The Five Poison Sect’s deadly toxins that claimed countless lives, the venomous creatures they commanded—all melted like candle wax before the flames he summoned.
Even the Five Poison Sect’s Sect Master of that era, who had supposedly reduced a hundred of the Southern Beast Palace’s elite warriors to a handful of dust with poison, could not withstand his power and fell to his knees.
‘Or rather, they say he was burned alive.’
Yet the ancient legend that everyone had heard with delight in their childhood was now transcending the past and approaching the present moment.
Right before their very eyes.
Gulp.
Someone’s dry swallow echoed unnaturally loud. The hands loosely gripping the reins suddenly tensed with force, and unease spread through the wavering eyes.
And it was in the very next moment that the Guard Captain’s tightly sealed lips parted.
“What is there to fear?”
“…!”
His voice, infused with martial power, pierced through the warriors’ ears. The Guard Captain pressed on with renewed force.
“He is alone. We are three thousand.”
The warriors’ shoulders, which had unconsciously hunched, gradually straightened. Their wavering gazes began to find their center one by one.
‘That’s right. No matter how strong he is, he’s ultimately just a man of flesh and blood.’
‘Even if all the rumors we’ve heard about Jin Tae-kyung are true, he cannot stand against this army.’
Three thousand.
A full three thousand. Not merely sufficient but absurdly excessive for the purpose of slaying a single man.
The Sect Master of the Yeolhwa Sect who supposedly destroyed the Five Poison Sect with tremendous martial prowess?
Though fear stirs when recalling the tales they had heard since childhood, ultimately a legend is merely a legend.
No, even if he were to survive, it would be impossible for him to face three thousand Southern Barbarian warriors and beasts alone. It had to be impossible.
“Have you forgotten? Jin Tae-kyung is a traitor who endangered the Southern Barbarians, a beast no better than a Han Clansman who forgot the grace of the Demon War.”
As the massive fire demon drew rapidly closer, the Guard Captain’s voice grew stronger.
Shing.
“Warriors of the Southern Barbarians! My proud brothers!”
The blade drawn from his waist gleamed with sharp killing intent.
The moonlight pouring from above and the flickering torchlight shattered against the pristine blade.
“Pursue and slay him!”
“Waaaaaa!”
Clang clang clang clang!
In that same instant, hundreds and thousands of weapons were drawn, torches blazed fiercely, and the three-thousand-strong army surged forward toward Ai-nao Mountain with a deafening roar.
Boom!
The Guard Captain, and every human and beast present, could see it.
A pillar of light piercing through the crimson fire demon and a black mountain looming in shadow before the scorching flames.
No, it was not a mountain.
Thud thud thud thud!
“What is that…!”
In the trembling world that accompanied the rapidly approaching black mountain, the Guard Captain, eyes wide open as he beheld the sight, did not realize.
That the wind no longer reached him.
That the three thousand beasts charging relentlessly toward Ai-nao Mountain had stopped in their tracks as if by agreement.
A low growl rumbled forth.
The tiger that had spent a lifetime at the Guard Captain’s side lowered its head with that mournful cry.
But it wasn’t only the tiger.
The leopard, the bear, the wolf—every beast, great and small, did the same.
A soft rustling sound.
They curled their tails and laid their massive bodies down upon the ground.
It was an instinct carved into them from birth itself, a reverence for the king who had returned across the ages, and a command that could not be refused.
– A deafening roar tore through the world!
With that world-devouring cry, pale blue eyes blazed with light in the darkness.
* * *
Soft footsteps. Soft footsteps.
The quiet sound of walking echoed through the silent Corridor.
As one elite guard after another reached the pinnacle of their power, Si-bi and the servants prostrated themselves, their trembling voices following in succession.
“W-we greet the Palace Master!”
Their fearful cries were directed at only one person.
Baek Sang’s gaze swept across them as he crossed the Inner Palace Corridor, surrounded by an iron-tight guard formation.
Those who worked in the Inner Palace came from different tribes and ages.
From children whose baby fat had not yet faded, to middle-aged men and women, and even an ancient crone whose hair had turned completely white with age.
Because she was so old that her movements were sluggish, the guards frowned when they saw the old woman hesitating alone in the center of the Corridor.
The Baek Sang they served with all their loyalty was the master of the Southern Beast Palace, the king of this land. Or rather, he should be.
An elder waiting only for death should not block the path forward.
Soft footsteps.
And as though by agreement, the moment a couple of guards took a step toward the old woman—
“Stop.”
With that quiet voice, the guards’ movements came to an abrupt halt. Baek Sang offered a silent greeting to the old woman whose form had caught his eye.
‘It has been a long time.’
Despite the passage of many years, her face was familiar.
Baek Sang recalled a certain young woman who would sigh deeply whenever he and Ya-ryul Cheok rummaged through the Inner Palace during his childhood.
‘She has aged greatly.’
It was only natural. Unlike him, who had slowed his aging through martial prowess reaching the pinnacle, she had accepted the passage of time in its entirety.
“I-I apologize, Palace Master. This old woman’s body is not what it once was….”
Watching the old woman bow without daring to raise her head, Baek Sang suddenly felt a question arise.
Why had he stopped his subordinates?
Because this old woman was one of the few who remembered his former self?
Or was it something else….
A desire to delay ‘that moment’ which was drawing ever closer with each passing instant?
‘I cannot know. I cannot know.’
It was bitter. That even after coming this far, regret lingered in a corner of his heart.
And that she, who once scolded him without hesitation, could no longer even meet his eyes for the fear in hers.
‘And this, perhaps, is the path I have walked all along.’
It was all nothing but vain sentiment.
Those days when I fought back-to-back with my sworn brother on the battlefield, sat upon the corpses of enemies sharing fruit wine, and secretly watched a man and woman meeting beneath the dim moonlight—those days had long since passed.
“…My lord?”
At the cautious call from the Guard Captain, Baek Sang’s eyes grew cold and distant as always.
“Clear the path.”
“As you command.”
The guards, as if they had been waiting, stepped forward and roughly shoved the Old Woman aside.
Baek Sang looked down upon the people who cowered even lower, their eyes wide with fear.
“Furthermore. As of this moment, I expel all palace attendants from the Inner Palace.”
“I, I beg your pardon, but do you mean all the palace attendants?”
“Yes. All of them.”
Palace attendants were, in the truest sense, those who dwelt within the palace and performed all manner of menial tasks. From the cooks who prepared each meal to those who cleaned and did laundry—all were palace attendants.
Setting aside the harshness of the expulsion order itself, if those who managed both great and small matters disappeared, the Inner Palace would cease to function immediately.
The question of why rose to the throats of the guards, yet none of them spoke it aloud.
Baek Sang’s word was law.
He was the sole Grand Tribal Chief in existence within the Southern Barbarians, and the only Palace Master to have secured absolute loyalty oaths from all tribal chiefs.
Now that five tribes had abandoned the Outer Palace in rejection of the new Palace Master, stripped of all authority, and even the leadership of the Miao Clan languished in the Underground Prison, Baek Sang’s authority was absolute and boundless.
“…As you command.”
Though the guards harbored doubts about the sudden expulsion order, they obeyed according to their duty.
And as Baek Sang watched the palace attendants, beginning with the Old Woman, being dragged away with faces drained of all color, he murmured inwardly.
‘Perhaps leaving this place will be a mercy for you all.’
Soon everything would begin, and it would end.
How much blood would flow in that process—even Baek Sang himself could not say.
‘No. I knew, but I refused to believe it.’
Perhaps that was why. Despite living as an iron man for the past forty years, devoted to but a single goal, I had wavered more in this past month than ever before.
‘Caprice. It was nothing but useless caprice in the end.’
Ya-ryul Cheok. And Jin Tae-kyung.
As the names of these two men brushed across my mind, I resumed my steps.
Step. Step.
One footfall. Then another.
With each step, countless thoughts swept through me.
What had become of the vanished Ya-ryul Cheok and Jin Tae-kyung? What were they doing now, and where?
Did the Nantian Demon Empress know of what I had done in secret, of this final caprice?
‘But it is too late. Now no one can undo it.’
Baek Sang stopped walking, hollow emptiness settling over me. Before me now stood only a single door.
Once I opened this door, the highest dais in the Inner Palace would await me.
And beneath it… ten thousand warriors would be assembled, having answered the general mobilization order.
‘Noon. Tomorrow at noon. Gather all the warriors in the palace.’
It was certain. The grand plan was already complete.
Recalling the message from the Nantian Demon Empress delivered last night, I suddenly opened my mouth.
“The sunlight is scorching.”
“…My Lord?”
Though the door had not yet opened, Baek Sang felt a heat so intense it seemed to incinerate him from within.
What he was about to do could never be forgiven, and should never be forgiven—a terrible sin beyond redemption.
And yet….
‘There is no other choice now, my dear Hwi.’
Thinking of his beloved son, the father threw open the door with all his strength. An expansive vista opened before him, and below stretched countless warriors gathered in formation.
But Baek Sang’s gaze, every sense within him, was fixed upon a single point.
Beyond the walls encircling the Inner Palace and the city fortifications defending the Outer Palace, above the heads of ten thousand warriors, lay a verdant hillside.
‘That is…’
Though the distance was vast and immeasurable, Baek Sang’s eyes perceived it clearly.
A colossal white tiger standing majestically upon the high hill, its silver mane gleaming in the noon sun, and upon its back, another figure.
“…You have come. At last.”
With those quiet words, thousands upon thousands of beasts emerged from behind the white tiger.

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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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