Murim Login - Chapter 702

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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 702
Shwack!
A perfectly straight hand blade descended, cleaving through the air.
Slender and pristine white—a hand that seemed as though not a single drop of water had ever clung to it in all her years.
Yet Jin Tae-kyung knew the truth. He knew how much blood had flowed through those hands.
Behind the dazzlingly radiant smile of the Nantian Demon Empress’s beautiful face lurked a darkness he could not ignore.
‘A monster.’
Those two words surfaced anew in his mind.
In the instant a crimson energy blade plummeted like a meteor toward Jin Tae-kyung’s crown, his legs—frozen rigid as nails—finally moved.
Screech!
The ground split like tofu. Evading the energy by the narrowest margin, Jin Tae-kyung extended his spear like lightning.
Shwip!
Devastating speed and power. And with terrifying precision, the spearpoint shot toward a single target.
It was a strike that even a master of the martial arts who had spent a lifetime perfecting their craft could never hope to parry—but the Nantian Demon Empress was different.
No.
At least for today’s Nantian Demon Empress, she possessed more than enough strength and qualification to do so.
Crack!
Bare-handed blade catch.
Between the Nantian Demon Empress’s two palms, pressed together as though in prayer, the spearpoint trembled, wavering with crimson flame.
Those pristine white hands, which should have long since turned to ash, concentrated a formidable force within them.
Her lips, taut without a single wrinkle, curved upward in a smirk.
“Is this truly all you can muster…?”
The moment her scornful voice escaped her lips.
Drip. Patter.
The Nantian Demon Empress’s mouth clamped shut as she noticed droplets of blood falling.
A half-beat delayed pain arrived, and a face wearing an embarrassed smile entered her field of vision.
“Oh, I forgot to mention—this is eternal cold iron.”
“…!”
“What’s wrong?”
Just as her delicate brow furrowed, Jin Tae-kyung released the spear shaft in his grip and extended both arms.
‘Palm force?’
But the Nantian Demon Empress’s assumption fell spectacularly short.
Whoosh!
Two hidden blades suddenly shot toward her neck and chest—far too close to evade.
Forced to release the spearpoint she’d been holding, the Nantian Demon Empress swept her sleeves with tremendous force.
Boom!
The moment wind erupted from her flowing robes, dispersing the hidden blades, Jin Tae-kyung’s foot caught the end of the White Flame spear shaft, which had begun to tilt slowly.
Or rather, he kicked it.
‘…What?’
He kicked it?
And could that divine weapon be the greatest help in a situation like this?
Along with the shock of that question, a flash of light streaked toward the Nantian Demon Empress’s face.
Screeeech! Crash!
It all happened in an instant, and the unconventional nature of the attack made it nearly impossible to dodge completely.
The Nantian Demon Empress twisted her head by instinct, feeling a sharp pain shoot through her earlobe as her eyes snapped wide open.
“How dare you!”
Had only the earring shattered, she would not have raged so fiercely. Though it was a piece she favored, she could easily acquire another.
But it was not merely her earlobe that tore—her hair was severed as well.
Her luxuriant, lustrous hair, which had always been her pride, was cut away by half.
“You’re dead!”
Roooaaarrr!
The unprecedented aura that had faltered for a moment surged through her slender frame.
A pressure that seemed capable of crushing even a massive boulder in a single blow. Yet the Nantian Demon Empress did not know.
The youthful enemy before her had once climbed a cliff while suspended by an iron sphere weighing over a thousand jin.
Crack. Crunch!
The ground caved beneath the pressure that bore down on a radius of ten zhang, and the limbs of struggling humans and beasts snapped like kindling.
– Gurgle, gurgle!
“Gaaaahhh!”
In the space where blood and final screams overflowed, Jin Tae-kyung, having endured the pressure, rolled his feet forward.
Boom!
A single flame rising in the wake of his footstep, his body advancing with it.
At the same moment, from his hand swung with fierce momentum came a spear—when he had grasped it, none could say—tearing through space like lightning.
Screeeech! Crash!
The energy wave that erupted with a deafening roar shook the world. From the Nantian Demon Empress’s hand, which had caught the flat of the spear blade with precision, a tremendous force rippled outward.
Crack!
The blazing qi that wrapped the spear blade, the steel tempered over a hundred times by a master blacksmith—all crumbled like tofu.
A cruel smile formed at the corner of the Nantian Demon Empress’s lips.
‘Foolish wretch.’
Jin Tae-kyung’s mistake was that he had abandoned the legendary divine weapon forged from ten-thousand-year cold iron of his own accord.
From this moment, the Nantian Demon Empress intended to make that young brat pay dearly—not only for daring to wound her beautiful body, but for cutting her precious hair.
‘I had intended to bring him back intact. But it seems that won’t be possible.’
At first, because the dignified Heavenly Master had shown interest in Jin Tae-kyung, she had sought to capture the boy and present him as a faithful servant’s offering.
But her thoughts had changed now.
In the Nantian Demon Empress’s eyes, Jin Tae-kyung was no longer a spiteful kitten, but a confident beast.
Despite his youth, he possessed fangs and claws as sharp as the Great Tiger’s.
Such weapons could easily inflict far greater wounds upon this beautiful form.
In the Nantian Demon Empress’s crimson gaze, Jin Tae-kyung’s figure flashed like lightning.
‘I’ll accept losing an arm or a leg or two. I can always reattach them later, after all.’
The Nantian Demon Empress, having made her decision inwardly, shook out both her sleeves.
Pap pap pat!
The shattered fragments of the spear blade multiplied into dozens, then hundreds, blanketing the space in a wave of dark energy.
Before that tide of murderous intent, each fragment infused with inner strength, Jin Tae-kyung threw his clenched fist forward without a moment’s hesitation.
Boom!
Extinguishing Flame Divine Fist. A fire dragon erupted from the end of his calloused knuckles, devouring hundreds of fragments.
The shards, glowing red-hot from the extreme temperature, melted into molten metal that pooled across the ground.
Sizzle.
Yet beneath the downpour of liquid metal, what awaited Jin Tae-kyung as he shot through the fractured space were the delicate jade hands of the Nantian Demon Empress.
Whoosh!
Five fingers approaching, erasing the wind itself.
The moment those curved talons, like rakes, lashed toward his right arm, Jin Tae-kyung twisted his body as though he had anticipated it from the start.
Not a dodge to protect his right arm from being torn away, but rather an act of suicide—offering his own neck to the enemy.
Yet simultaneously, it was a lethal move that pierced through her expectations.
‘This madman…!’
A silent scream echoed through the Nantian Demon Empress’s mind.
Since the venerable Heavenly Master had shown interest, Jin Tae-kyung was an existence who must not die by her hand under any circumstances.
Her desire to capture him alive stemmed solely from her devotion to the Heavenly Master.
If Jin Tae-kyung were to die at her hands before any clear orders were given, she might have to bear the Heavenly Master’s wrath alone.
‘No!’
With a silent cry that remained trapped within her mouth, the Nantian Demon Empress desperately pulled back the surging inner power.
At the same moment, the muscles and meridians of her entire body, which had moved for a single purpose, twisted violently, and a wave of backlash crashed over her.
Gag.
“Cough! Hack!”
A spray of blood erupted from deep within her body, bursting past the Nantian Demon Empress’s lips.
In the final instant, the inner strength at her fingertips, barely redirected, grazed past Jin Tae-kyung’s neck.
Slash! Spurt!
Flesh torn by wind sharp as a blade.
Yet Jin Tae-kyung showed no sign of disturbance. In truth, he had no reason to be disturbed from the beginning.
‘I have been waiting for this moment.’
His mind, now ice-cold, had already completed all calculations.
Jin Tae-kyung judged the Nantian Demon Empress’s martial prowess to be at least among the Ten Kings, perhaps even rivaling the Three Stars.
The level of martial arts she wielded might be equal to or even inferior to the Western Heavenly Demon Lord, but she possessed overwhelming inner power that more than compensated for any gap.
And when facing a master of this caliber, there was only one method available.
A single opening.
Jin Tae-kyung had wagered his own life as the stakes and obtained a chance that would be first and last.
And now…
‘Once more. I stake my life.’
Inventory open. Summon.
With the command echoing through his mind, he reaches out his hand like lightning.
Rip!
A thin wrist—impossibly fragile for something belonging to such a powerful monster—was severed cleanly, and a scream tore forth.
“Aaaaaargh!!”
A scream louder and more anguished than any creature of the Southern Beast Palace writhing in demonic energy—louder than anything Jin Tae-kyung had ever heard.
In a sense, it was inevitable.
Humans were born as creatures of forgetfulness, and the strong, accustomed to inflicting pain, inevitably forgot their own suffering.
Yet despite this, the opponent was the Nantian Demon Empress.
“Jin Tae-kyung!”
Whoosh!
A body technique launched forth with a tearing cry.
Facing the blood-red gaze of the Nantian Demon Empress, turbid darkness swirling within, Jin Tae-kyung instinctively understood.
This time, he could neither fully evade nor completely block.
Her posture was unsteady from the severe internal injuries, and the inner force she had forcibly drawn up while coughing blood was crude and violent—yet that made it all the more dangerous.
No, what was truly dangerous was the killing intent emanating from the Nantian Demon Empress now.
“How dare you! How dare a wretch like you!”
Fortune had only ever been granted once.
A monster consumed by rage and pain, having even forgotten its loyalty to its master, extended a palm wrapped in overwhelming power.
The world slowed. A spear force of turbid darkness and blood-red energy surged forward, erasing space itself.
Roooar!
An overwhelming force as if the sea itself and the mountains had risen to crush him.
Terror seized his entire body, every hair standing on end, yet Jin Tae-kyung knew.
If he retreated even a single step here, everything would be finished.
He had to advance, even if it cost him his life.
‘Come.’
With an inarticulate call from his depths, Jin Tae-kyung’s feet pressed against blood-soaked earth.
Thud.
With a single step weighted by inner force as heavy as life itself, the ground collapsed inward, then erupted with searing heat.
Boom!
A body technique, lowered to graze the earth, shot forth like a cannonball.
A pure white palm filled his vision, channeling an unprecedented force that seemed impossible for a human to wield.
And between the blood-red flashes, the contorted face of one person, twisted like an evil demon.
“Die!”
In that very moment.
‘Inventory open. Summon.’
Jin Tae-kyung’s hands, which had been spread wide as if about to unleash his spear force, suddenly clenched.
A cool spear shaft materialized in his empty grip, and the extended spear blade erased the space between them.
And then…
Screeeech! Whoosh!
The spear blade passed perilously close to her neck with a harsh tearing sound. In that same instant, a faint glimmer of joy flickered in the Nantian Demon Empress’s eyes.
‘I read it. Perfectly.’
The technique Jin Tae-kyung employed was certainly remarkable and threatening, yet the Nantian Demon Empress had predicted everything with absolute precision amid the chaotic flow of battle.
Or so she believed.
Just as he was about to sever Jin Tae-kyung’s neck in one swift motion, a chilling breeze swept across his back.
Whoosh.
“…!”
A subtle cutting sound pierced his ears.
The Nantian Demon Empress instinctively spun her body, and something ice-cold and razor-sharp raked across her flank.
Screech!
Blood erupted like a fountain as muscle and veins were severed, and she felt her vital energy tangling in chaos.
‘This… this is.’
Backlash.
A second backlash arriving before the previous internal injuries could settle, and more fatal than any wound she had sustained until now.
‘From the beginning… this was the aim.’
A single thread of realization cut through her whitening vision.
Swallowing the surging blood, the Nantian Demon Empress turned and finally could see it.
Gooooong.
Answering its master’s call, cyan-white flames whirled at the tip of the transparent spear blade.
Beneath eyes sunken deep, lips moved silently, completing two characters.
Annihilation.
The moment the Nantian Demon Empress’s eyes widened.
– Human!
With someone’s urgent mental cry suddenly ringing out, a colossal vortex that no one in the Southern Wilderness had ever witnessed erupted forth.
Boom!

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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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