Murim Login - Chapter 703

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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 703
Craaaaaash…!
I couldn’t breathe.
The deafening roar that hadn’t yet faded, continuing with an endless resonance, reached my ears as though from a great distance.
Yet despite this, the system notifications rang out with crystalline clarity in my ears.
Beep! Beep beep beep!
– Status Abnormality,
[Severe Internal Trauma]
has been applied!
– Status Abnormality,
[Severe Exhaustion]
has been applied!
– Status Abnormality,
[Severe Muscle Rupture]
has been applied!
– Status Abnormality…
.
.
The relentless stream of system notifications—or rather, warnings—methodically catalogued just how dire my physical condition had become.
Had the system been a physician, it would have gazed upon me with the gravest expression imaginable and spoken thus.
‘Patient, I hate to be the bearer of such news… but this time you’re genuinely finished. So why do you keep using Ilgak and causing trouble? Is a short life span on your bucket list?’
How considerate of it.
Though merely imagining such words should have plunged my mood into despair, strangely, I felt no particular emotional shift.
And the reason was simpler than one might think: a reality far more wretched than any imagination awaited me.
“Cough.”
Splatter. Drip drip drip.
Blood sprayed across the ground with each cough.
I could see chunks mixed in—definitely organ fragments—and seeing this, I had to admit Ilgak was… damn it. This isn’t some convenience store bento box.
‘Cursed thing.’
My vision blurred. The senses that, mere moments ago, had been as sharp as any divine being’s had dulled like an axe left to rust in an abandoned shelter, and the Baek Ho, which I’d always wielded as effortlessly as a feather, had become the heaviest object in existence.
Yet amid all this, one thing remained relatively intact: the pain I felt radiating from my forearm.
Chomp. Chomp.
I gazed at ‘it’ through dimming eyes.
With teeth protruding like a beast’s, it ceaselessly tore at my flesh, and in its eyes—as it swallowed my blood—burned only greed and madness.
Impossible to believe it was once human like me.
“Does it taste good?”
Chomp.
“I see. It must taste good.”
I don’t know myself.
Why do I speak to it, knowing full well it can no longer comprehend? Why do I let this wretched creature continue its live-streaming feast on my wrist?
Perhaps that was nothing more than selfish desire to borrow another’s strength, mingled with a final shred of pity for a being that had once been human.
Screech! Crunch!
A faint whimper.
As a piercing sound cut through the air from somewhere, the teeth that had been savagely tearing at flesh went slack.
As I stood frozen, my crimson eyes wide open, staring at the Young Man, a silver mane caked in blood and dust swept past my vision.
– Human. You don’t look well.
Su-ho-ryung. The moment I became aware of his presence, strength drained from my legs. I grasped at his mane and replied weakly.
“Usually people ask if you’re okay first, don’t they?”
– I am not human. Since you clearly are not well, I saw no need to ask.
“I like that. What about that dark bastard?”
– I killed it. That was the fourth time.
“What?”
– It kept rising. As time passed, its recovery grew faster, and it grew stronger as well. This time may be no different.
The Rift. More precisely, the demonic energy flowing from the Rift itself.
And as the Masked Figure grew stronger from that demonic energy, Su-ho-ryung would have grown steadily weaker.
Like the divine stone within his mouth, which could no longer emit the brilliant light it once had.
‘Su-ho-ryung shares his power with the divine stone.’
Only now could I see the deep wounds scattered across Su-ho-ryung’s body. His shoulders heaved with exhaustion, and his breathing came in ragged gasps.
Perhaps sensing my gaze, he turned his massive frame to conceal the wounds.
“I’m sorry.”
A single word delivered in a faint voice. Su-ho-ryung, whose pale blue eyes had been fixed upon me, shook his head.
– You did all you could.
“At the end there…”
– I know. Had they not interfered, you would have succeeded.
I cast a helpless gaze around me. Mutilated corpses filled my vision.
In that final moment when I was about to unleash Ilgak, the transformed creatures that had finished their metamorphosis first and rushed at me at Su-ho-ryung’s warning—these were their remains.
‘I hadn’t anticipated it.’
Or rather, I had been too pressed for time to even consider it.
And caught in a situation far too urgent to survey my surroundings, the transformed creatures had rushed at me with savage fury.
‘And they died.’
Awaiting roughly a hundred of them was the tremendous vortex summoned by Ilgak.
Yet in that fractured instant, those transformed creatures instinctively blocked me and fulfilled their duty.
Biting at my forearms to change my trajectory, obscuring my vision, throwing their bodies before an unstoppable force of power.
And so… one person was able to survive.
“Nantian Demon Empress.”
At my voice, low as a whisper, the silhouette standing alone through the haze of dust took a step forward.
Thud.
Ilgak—the place where everything had been obliterated in the aftermath of Ilgak’s power. From the very center of that devastation, the sole surviving monster emerged, its crimson eyes gleaming.
* * *
Red. Everything was red.
The sky. The earth. Everything between them. And simultaneously, things that should never be seen became visible.
‘Ah.’
The Nantian Demon Empress stared blankly down at her own hands.
The pale, smooth hands she had cultivated through decades of cultivation and the absorption of countless vital essences were nowhere to be found.
In their place lay withered hands like the branches of a dying ancient tree, covered in deep wrinkles and age spots.
“Ah. Ah ah….”
Moisture gathered in her eyes, their whites now stained crimson by burst capillaries.
This could not be. She had been the most beautiful in all the world. She was meant to be beautiful.
But the grand cultivation she had refined over nearly a century lay shattered, and the Nantian Demon Empress had reclaimed her original form—aged and hideous—like a curse.
And as her body trembled with distant shock and fury, she realized that the curse that had befallen her suppressed not merely the aging process.
‘It hurts.’
Only after examining her body in response to the sudden, excruciating pain could she truly comprehend.
The flesh torn from her flank as though savaged by an invisible beast, and one entire arm that had been severed clean away.
And half her face, melted away by tremendous heat.
“…!”
The Nantian Demon Empress’s eyes flew wide. This was something that could not be, and should not be.
The wound on her flank could be healed. A skilled sorcerer could even reattach her arm without scarring.
But her face was another matter. Unless she walked the same path as the Blood Lord whom she so despised, the terrible burn scars would remain upon her visage.
“No. This cannot, this makes no sense….”
The Nantian Demon Empress, who had been muttering like one possessed, went rigid. It was because of a single figure reflected in her tear-stained, blood-red eyes.
Jin Tae-kyung.
She could see him. And she could feel him.
Beyond the blinding flash that had erased everything, the form of that wretched creature now drained of power, reduced to nothing but an empty husk. The insignificant being who had stolen her youth and beauty.
And in that same moment, a singular obsession seized her entire being.
‘I will kill him.’
In that instant, her mind—chaotic with countless emotions—turned ice cold.
The ancient monster, who had lived through eons, advanced without hesitation, wreathed in darkness.
Thud. Thud.
Crack.
With each step the Nantian Demon Empress took, the aura flowing from her entire body pressed down upon the surroundings.
Though she had lost her youth, enough strength remained to kill that creature.
The blood that had flowed from her flank and arm had already ceased, and her ravaged interior was slowly, gradually stabilizing.
If the sudden return of aging was a curse, then the demonic energy of the rift that deepened even now was a blessing to the Nantian Demon Empress.
A blessing that would allow her to tear to shreds the Jin Tae-kyung who could barely maintain his own body, and the foul-smelling beast that blocked his path.
– Stop.
Whoooosh.
With the resonating will came a radiance of light spreading outward from Su-ho-ryung’s center.
The thousand transformed beings that had crowded around her shrank back in fear, but the Nantian Demon Empress’s footsteps did not cease.
Boom!
Without a moment’s hesitation, a lance of force was unleashed, darkness mingled with blood-red energy overwhelming the stone spirit’s light as it engulfed Jin Tae-kyung.
Crash!
The ground erupts with a deafening boom. In that fleeting instant, Su-ho-ryung, who had seized Jin Tae-kyung by the nape of the neck and launched himself like lightning, let out a low whimper.
– The Divine Stone….
The words died unspoken, yet the reality Su-ho-ryung had grasped was brutally, unmistakably clear.
Uuuuuung.
A trembling vibration resonates within my jaws. Like an old man facing a vigorous youth in their prime, the Divine Stone’s power was diminishing even now, in this very moment.
And with it, the strength of the white tiger who had guarded the Divine Stone through all these long ages.
‘Even the spiritual energy left behind by the Imoogi proved insufficient.’
I had never expected it would fully restore my original power to its complete state.
Especially since the Water Dragon, having undergone transformation once before, had left behind far less vital essence.
‘The demonic energy is far too potent. Strong enough to suppress even the Divine Stone’s power.’
The demonic energy flowing from the rift had already breached the Inner Palace and was now encroaching upon the Outer Palace.
Though Su-ho-ryung had brought fierce beasts from the Holy Ground, with the Divine Stone weakened, if those beasts too fell under the demonic energy’s influence, the situation would spiral beyond all control.
No—it was already the worst.
Nearly a thousand transformed creatures, completely consumed by the demonic energy, encircled us without gap or mercy, and the Nantian Demon Empress herself, that formidable adversary, had somehow survived and now hunted us.
‘At this rate….’
As that inescapable thought darkened Su-ho-ryung’s countenance, Jin Tae-kyung opened his mouth with a voice drained of strength.
“Go.”
– What?
“You’ve done enough. I’ve caused you nothing but trouble all this time.”
– …!
Gazing at the wide-open cyan eyes fixed upon him, Jin Tae-kyung painfully forced himself to his feet, using White Flame as a staff.
“This is where it ends. You escape and save the people. Get as far away from this godforsaken land as you possibly can, and as quickly as you can.”
– You’re saying that now….
“I’m telling you straight—no matter how fast you are, if you try to carry me, we won’t last long. Probably not even half a double hour before I’m whining for you to put me down. Without cultivation breathing, I’ll die anyway.”
At those words—callous yet tinged with jest—Su-ho-ryung fell silent, and Jin Tae-kyung continued with a bitter smile.
“So go. Before it’s too late.”
Having finished speaking, Jin Tae-kyung turned his gaze toward the Nantian Demon Empress.
The dimming light in the young man’s eyes met the blood-red radiance burning with fury in the void.
“Look, I’ll come along willingly, so let’s stop this now. Whether it’s the Heavenly Master or some petty demon lord, let’s go see them.”
The Nantian Demon Empress raised her hand in response.
Whoosh, splurt!
A finger wind, sharp as a blade of light, tore across his neck. Jin Tae-kyung merely shrugged as if unbothered.
“If you’re angry, say it with words. I’ve already lost enough blood as it is. What if I die on the way?”
The Nantian Demon Empress answered in an icy voice.
“That would be inconvenient.”
“Now we’re finally getting somewhere….”
“You can’t die like this. I’ll tear you apart slowly with my own hands.”
“…getting through to each other. And what of the aftermath?”
“It doesn’t matter. Once I bring the Divine Stone to the Heavenly Master, he will be pleased. The white tiger’s hide is merely a bonus.”
And the moment the Nantian Demon Empress smiled brightly and opened her palm.
Boom—!
A tremendous resonance swept across the Southern Beast Palace.

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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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