Murim Login - Chapter 697

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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 697
“What can I do? It’s already too late.”
A languid voice pierced my ears. No—not just mine. Everyone in this place could hear that voice.
The herald of an arrival so fatally captivating, and far more dangerous than that.
“The Nantian Demon Empress!”
I turned my head with a thunderous cry. Above everyone frozen like statues by the unexpected situation, billowing robes danced upon a Pavilion that rose majestically toward the heavens.
Eyes like a cat’s, gazing down upon the Ground Level, curved into crescents.
“My, who could this be?”
The face of a stranger. Yet that voice—unforgettable. And that peculiar presence.
Without doubt. I spat out my words with certainty.
“It’s me, you wretched woman.”
My belly roiled hot as if I’d swallowed molten lava. My fingers trembled as I gripped the spear shaft, and my heart hammered wildly in my chest.
An emotional tempest far more violent than anything I’d felt facing Baek Sang.
Yet what seized me now was not mere hostility and rage alone.
‘She’s strong.’
Was she always this formidable?
Merely meeting her gaze made my chest sink as if the ground had given way beneath me.
Months had passed since the incident in Hubei Province.
I had gained insights that allowed me to glimpse the true nature of my opponent, and the Nantian Demon Empress before me now was a monster beyond my imagination.
A realm no one else in this place could fathom.
Yet my eyes, honed to their sharpest, traced the hidden power she concealed.
The ferocity masked behind those gently curved eyes, and the vast darkness coiled within that slender frame.
“Bitch.”
“Ahahaha! Just as I thought. Just as I thought!”
Whatever amused her so, the Nantian Demon Empress laughed heartily at my insult, her lips curling into a smile directed at me.
“You’re so refreshingly blunt. That’s why I adore my benefactor.”
“What?”
“Have you forgotten already? That day, in the cold Dongting Lake where corpses drifted—who saved me?”
“…!”
How could I forget?
I had regretted that moment countless times since.
Because I had saved the Nantian Demon Empress with these very hands?
Wrong. What I saved that day was not the Nantian Demon Empress, but Hong Ran.
In Hubei, the Nantian Demon Empress was nothing but a beautiful courtesan favored by some foolish royal.
She had approached me with deliberate intent from beginning to end, and would have survived even if I had never come.
There was only one thing I truly regretted—my stupidity in failing to recognize Hyung Soo standing right before my eyes.
My rage at myself for not seeing through a jest that was mere amusement to someone else. And the self-reproach for failing to prevent even greater tragedy.
*Swish.*
“Now I can finally offer proper greetings.”
Lifting her voluminous robes, Hong Ran—no, the Nantian Demon Empress—bowed gracefully.
“A lowborn woman, Hong Ran, pays respects to her benefactor.”
In that instant, I extended my palm like lightning.
Whoooosh!
Moisture evaporating in an instant.
The palm force of the Flame Divine Palm, brimming with terrible heat, reached the Nantian Demon Empress in what could only be described as a blink of an eye.
But.
Crack!
The time it took for that overwhelming palm force—so powerful that even Baek Sang could not easily block it—to be split in two like tofu was even shorter.
Boom!
Beneath a sky now shrouded in dark clouds, the palm force, having lost its direction, split into two trajectories and exploded in mid-air.
Gasps of astonishment erupted from all around at this unbelievable sight unfolding before their eyes.
“What… what is this?”
“Did… did I just see that? Did that woman just…?”
“The Nantian Demon Empress. She said it was the Nantian Demon Empress.”
Some in this place knew that epithet, while others did not.
But such details hardly mattered. Soon enough, everyone would know.
Who the Nantian Demon Empress was. How vicious and terrifying the power concealed within this monster truly was.
I gazed coldly at the far edge of the towering Pavilion.
There, a woman far too beautiful to be called a monster was arranging her disheveled palace robes.
“Hmm. I thought I was being quite courteous, yet your response to my greeting leaves much to be desired. However, I shall overlook it with a generous heart. After all, having received the grace of salvation, I cannot very well gouge out my benefactor’s eyes immediately.”
I felt the killing intent woven into her innocent-sounding voice. Yet my mind grew calm as I responded.
“Shut your mouth.”
“How crude your words are. That is language meant only for beasts, I assure you. To give an example…”
As her words trailed off, the Nantian Demon Empress’s gaze shifted subtly downward.
And at the end of that direction, a massive white tiger with bared fangs had appeared.
“Yes, precisely. A word befitting only that hideous creature.”
Grrrrr.
Su-ho-ryung, releasing a low growl, glared at the Nantian Demon Empress. I could feel the tension coiling through the beast’s muscles.
– A hideous creature, you say…
Then what should one call a human like you?
Until now, my thoughts had carried the quality of a transmitted voice, but this time they emerged as words all could hear.
As countless warriors surrounding the Inner Palace and its perimeter drew sharp, startled breaths, the Nantian Demon Empress’s eyes widened before she smiled and gazed at me.
“I must correct myself. Not merely hideous, but fascinating as well—what a creature.”
“Indeed.”
I tightened my grip on the spear shaft and spoke.
Even now, dozens of movements and techniques flickered through my mind.
The fastest, most lethal strikes to sever my opponent’s life thread.
“Soon you’ll find it even more fascinating. This beast will tear out your throat.”
“A beast is merely a beast. Just as that foolish Imoogi who once awaited heaven’s call was nothing more.”
– He was not foolish, but merely virtuous. So much so that he sacrificed centuries of cultivation and his own life itself.
Su-ho-ryung gazed at the Nantian Demon Empress with eyes of pale blue, as if piercing through all existence itself.
– I know you.
A faint smile bloomed at the corners of the Nantian Demon Empress’s lips.
“Hardly welcome news. I have no interest in foul-smelling beasts.”
– I saw you within the Imoogi’s memories. A human form shrouded in endless darkness, brimming with malice.
“Memories?”
– All things that compose this world bear their essence and traces. And in that sense, you within those memories….
“Must have been beautiful. Dazzlingly so.”
– Old and grotesque. Impossibly so for anything claiming to be human.
“…!”
– That is your true nature. An Evil Demon no different from one who has denied and despised their own form, clinging to existence through endless ages.
The moment Su-ho-ryung’s intent reached its conclusion, silence descended.
The people who had been murmuring in successive shock, the countless beasts that had been uttering low cries—all held their breath and lowered their bodies.
And at the center of all this stood a single figure.
Whoooosh!
The voluminous sleeves of the palace robe swelled as if about to tear.
A terrifyingly immense wave of energy pressed down upon all directions with the weight of a mountain, freezing everything alive.
Crack. Crackle.
The wind ceased. The roof of the Pavilion, unable to withstand the tremendous pressure, began to collapse slowly.
“…Is that so?”
The smile that had graced her lips vanished as if washed away. Her eyes, deeply sunken, gazed down upon the world spread beneath her feet.
“Old and grotesque. Yes. That is what I am.”
The Nantian Demon Empress, speaking with utter composure, suddenly turned her gaze toward me.
“I commend you for coming this far. Had you arrived merely a day earlier—no, even half a day—I could not have guaranteed the outcome myself.”
It was different. Her tone. Her presence.
Yet my heart had grown calm.
What truly frightens us is when someone refuses to reveal their true colors. Only when they lose that final smile and composure they’ve held do cracks finally appear.
‘Moreover.’
I still possessed a hidden card. A move I could unleash even if the worst scenario unfolded before my eyes.
And so I could speak.
“Well. I’m genuinely curious about this.”
Just like now.
“Just how ugly is your actual face for you to hear such words?”
“…!”
“Were you perhaps a mortar in your past life?”
The next moment.
“You’ll regret those words.”
A chilling voice shattered the brief silence, and countless dark clouds shrouded the sky.
And….
Whoooooosh!
From the massive cliff that enveloped the rear of the Inner Palace, jets of pitch-black light began to surge forth.
‘That is…’
A bizarre spectacle that stole one’s breath merely by witnessing it.
Yes, it was a ‘rift’.
* * *
Groooooooowwwwl!
The earth trembles. The world shakes. The colossal cliff that must have stood sentinel for hundreds of years—no, thousands—begins to tear asunder with a deafening roar.
“Ah. Ahhhhh…”
At that bizarre and terrifying spectacle, someone released a gasp of horror.
‘So it has come to this. At last.’
Another exhaled a whisper of despair into the depths of their heart.
“It is finished. Everything.”
Someone seized by rage watched the sight of their own creation with eyes ablaze with rapture.
‘Finally. Finally!’
The Nantian Demon Empress trembled, having already forgotten the rage that had visited her moments before.
How could it be otherwise?
This was the fruit harvested at the end of an eternity of endurance.
That ‘rift’—incomparably vaster and more potent than the one in Hubei Province—was her own masterwork, and this was the very moment when the will of the Heavenly Master, omnipotent and eternal, descended upon this land.
Kaaaaaaaaa!
A wind sharp as a blade’s edge scours all directions. Through the slowly widening fissure of the cliff, an utterly dark and viscous aura begins to ooze forth, gnawing at the world itself.
Demonic energy that would corrupt all life and seize dominion over this land!
– Grrk, grrrrk!
– Kyaaaauuu!
“Gack. Cough!”
“W-wait! Why suddenly…… grrk.”
Even though the rift had not yet fully opened, its power was already spreading in all directions.
Behold.
That undulating darkness. The countless beasts and humans writhing with eyes rolled back, their whites exposed, awaiting the coming transformation.
And soon, the transformation wrought by the rift shall commence.
‘No, that is not it.’
This is not transformation, but evolution.
A process of being reborn into a more powerful and magnificent existence, and simultaneously a blessing bestowed by the omnipotent Heavenly Master upon these insignificant creatures.
The Nantian Demon Empress, whose lips had curved into a thick smile, suddenly found her gaze settling upon a single figure.
‘Jin Tae-kyung.’
A young man standing tall, gazing upon the incomprehensible, vast spectacle unfolding before his eyes.
To the Nantian Demon Empress, his appearance was both ridiculous and pitiful.
She longed to seize his throat and tear it asunder in a single motion.
‘You… should never have come to this place.’
The Nantian Demon Empress, muttering inwardly, unleashed her divine form toward Jin Tae-kyung.
Or rather, it was the very moment she was about to.
ROOOAAARRR!
A tremendous radiance erupted from somewhere, devouring the darkness itself.

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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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