Murim Login - Chapter 705

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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 705
“White Heaven Squad Commander Wang Ho, paying respects to the Palace Master.”
The moment those first words reached her ears, the Nantian Demon Empress felt as though the world had frozen.
Simultaneously, within that slowed time, everything surrounding her surged forward like waves, obscuring her vision.
Not the jet-black martial robes that symbolized Dark Heaven, but snow-white garments and armor instead.
Beyond that, three hundred warriors bearing the unmistakable complexion and features of the White Tribe, accompanied by beasts that released low growls.
And….
Flutter.
A single banner fluttering in wind from somewhere, and three characters inscribed in a calligraphic style as though a dragon and serpent were soaring through the heavens.
White Heaven Squad.
“…!”
The Nantian Demon Empress’s pupils trembled violently.
She could not comprehend it.
Why those characters visible beneath the endless dark sky, or that tattered silk fluttering about, yellowed and discolored over many years, unsettled her heart so profoundly.
And why memories she had carelessly dismissed long ago now resurfaced at this very moment.
‘Ma-hu, my lady. Baek Sang has been secretly cultivating warriors and beasts. They consist solely of the White Tribe, and upon careful investigation, most of them are….’
‘Orphans who lost their parents to plague or the great wars, yes? They vanished without a trace after the great fire that occurred years ago.’
‘Ho, did you perhaps already know of this?’
‘Yes, long ago. He established a hidden refuge in a place called Munsan, I believe?’
‘H-how dare this lowly servant presume to ask you one thing, my lady?’
‘You, curious are you? Why do you merely watch and protect, knowing everything?’
‘If I may be so bold, that is precisely my concern. Even now, a considerable portion of the vast resources flowing to Baek Sang are being used to cultivate these warriors. Should he ever harbor different intentions….’
‘What does it matter? It is rather amusing.’
‘My lady?’
‘Think about it. What difference could it possibly make to feed orphans with nowhere else to go some elixir and teach them a few martial techniques?’
‘That is….’
‘Base metal remains base metal no matter how much you strike it. Such efforts could never forge elite soldiers. Yet… I found it quite entertaining. Watching Baek Sang cling to base metal, striving desperately with hollow dreams swelling his heart. Imagining what expression he would wear when that hope transformed into despair.’
‘…!’
‘And Baek Sang could never harbor different intentions. Should such a thing occur against all odds, it would merely become another source of amusement for me.’
It had been over a decade ago.
That day, a certain spy who had ascended to the position of tribal chief at a young age struck his forehead until blood flowed, then departed, and the Nantian Demon Empress naturally forgot about him.
No—she had erased him from her mind entirely.
Along with that, the affairs occurring in the Deep Mountain Valley where no human footsteps tread gradually faded from the Nantian Demon Empress’s concern.
‘It was far too trivial to continue observing, too insignificant to warrant such attention.’
It was only natural. She held Baek Sang’s leash firmly in her grasp, and even if he were to break free and rush at her, she possessed the strength to crush and kill him in an instant.
The arrogance and leisure that only the strong could possess, born from overwhelming power.
Yet now the Nantian Demon Empress understood.
The hunting dog called Baek Sang, whom she believed would never betray her, had severed his own leash one day.
Her own arrogance had summoned them to this place, this very moment.
“…White Heaven. The White Heaven Squad.”
The Nantian Demon Empress let out a sound like a moan.
While she dreamed of the dark heaven soon to arrive, another gazed upon a sky scattered with pristine white clouds.
Or rather, held it within their heart.
Even as a hunting dog who never sought the leash followed in someone’s footsteps, knowing full well that path was wrong, they must have written those characters with self-reproach and rage—unable to do anything else.
Upon that yellowed silk that once gleamed brilliantly white, they must have painted the sky they wished to see.
And the unfulfilled longing that his hands could not achieve was passed on to one person.
“Depart. I have already cleared the East Gate. The guards of the Underground Prison will be lax as well, so the Han Clan should have no difficulty escaping this place.”
“…!”
At the low voice that resonated through space, Jin Tae-kyung, whose eyes had been wide as he alternated his gaze between the White Heaven Squad and Beast King Miao Wang, let out a sharp breath.
“Surely not.”
The scattered fragments seemed to slowly click into place.
Beast King Miao Wang stared at the Nantian Demon Empress with bloodshot eyes, continuing words he had heard from someone’s mouth days prior.
“Go directly to Munsan, located to the northeast. And show this to those who dwell upon its highest peak.”
Whoosh, thud.
Something slipped from Beast King Miao Wang’s hand and fell in a curve at the Nantian Demon Empress’s feet.
That object, crafted from jade, was a credential tablet split in half—the sole token capable of commanding the White Heaven Squad.
“I have already walked a path from which there is no return. I cannot stop by my own will, and even if I did, it would be insufficient to block the Great System.”
Beast King Miao Wang’s voice trembled.
Within the private chamber where dim firelight danced, the face of his sworn brother—who had severed his own wrist, as vital as a swordsman’s life—seemed to flash before his eyes.
Him, along with the final words Baek Sang had delivered.
“I shall never stop. So… the Palace Master must not stop either. Jin Tae-kyung, advance to the end with that child. By a different path than mine.”
That was all. The elder sworn brother departed, and the younger sworn brother remained.
And four days later, the White Heaven Squad knelt before the credential tablet held in Beast King Miao Wang’s hands.
Recalling the request of the one man who had become father and teacher to those who had lost home and family.
‘If ever, someday, someone other than I brings this credential tablet… that person is the true lord you must serve.’
Thus three hundred warriors who had slumbered in the Deep Mountain Valley for decades descended the mountain with Beast King Miao Wang, and rumors of certain warriors galloping unobstructed across the wilderness spread quietly, yet swiftly.
‘The Palace Master has returned!’
‘We of the Tai Clan join the Palace Master! Defend this land from the traitors who conspired with Dark Heaven to usurp the Palace Master’s seat and betrayed the Southern Wilderness!’
‘Mobilize all warriors at once. Send messengers immediately!’
With as many as ten thousand warriors marching toward the Southern Beast Palace, a corresponding void was created.
The tribal chiefs who had rebelled against Baek Sang and fled the Southern Beast Palace led their warriors to join their true Palace Master.
‘You all….’
‘We shall follow with our lives, Palace Master.’
One day. And then another.
Before long, they had transformed into a vast military force and rushed toward the Southern Beast Palace, where they encountered an unexpected enemy.
Or rather, they thought it was an enemy.
A force numbering roughly three thousand strong. Until the Baek Tribe man at their head stepped forward alone and knelt.
‘We surrender.’
Beast King Miao Wang asked the reason, and the Baek Tribe man answered with an expression as though his soul had departed.
‘The existence that guards the Divine Object awakened us all. They showed us what is the righteous path and what choice we must make.’
The Water King Stone is legend, a miracle.
And on that day, it was not only the Baek Tribe Man—no, only the Guard Captain—who witnessed that wondrous sight at Ai-nao Mountain.
‘That Han Clan bastard. No, Jin Tae-kyung the Great Hero has spoken. Find the Palace Master with haste. If we delay further, all is lost.’
When the three thousand warriors who had surrounded Ai-nao Mountain joined their ranks, nothing remained that could stand against them.
Not the treacherous mountains, nor the deep swamps and dense jungles choked with vegetation.
And the same held true for the group hastily making their way toward the Southern Beast Palace, having realized that matters had gone awry.
“We were too hurried in our journey to the Inner Palace to witness the outcome. How did the battle fare?”
The Beast King Miao Wang, whose gaze remained fixed upon the Nantian Demon Empress, posed the sudden question, and Wang Ho, commander of the White Heaven Squad, wiped the blood from his cheek as he answered.
His eyes still burned with the heat of battle not yet cooled.
“Our casualties number two hundred.”
“And theirs?”
“Total annihilation. Not a single one escaped—all were slain or captured.”
Jin Tae-kyung, observing all these circumstances unfold, let out a quiet chuckle. Though he knew not the intricate details, he could well surmise how matters were progressing.
“Well, old woman. Isn’t it all fucked now?”
“…!”
Crunch.
In that instant, the Nantian Demon Empress’s teeth clenched of their own accord, and the metallic taste of blood swirled within her mouth.
Dead. All of them.
Five hundred elite warriors—utterly annihilated.
The thousands of troops that had descended alongside the Beast King Miao Wang had trampled the final gambit that could have broken through this dire predicament in a single stroke.
‘This… this is absurd…!’
An unbearable fury surged within her. Simultaneously, an anxiety far greater and a chilling dread crept through her chest.
What now filled the Nantian Demon Empress’s mind completely was a single word: death.
‘…Death? I am to die? I?’
She could not believe it.
She who had lived for more than one hundred and thirty years.
Since her youth, she had pursued beauty and the preservation of her youth by any means necessary, and in the countless moments she abandoned her humanity, she had cultivated formidable martial prowess.
Even if she were to meet her end someday, she had never imagined it would come at another’s hand.
Yet that unthinkable fantasy, which she had never entertained, was now becoming reality, drawing ever closer before her eyes.
Along with a killing intent as sharp and piercing as an awl.
Boom.
Simultaneously, the footsteps of hundreds resonated as a tremendous roar spreading outward.
Growl.
The great beasts bearing warriors upon their backs exhaled low, rumbling cries.
Centered upon the mightiest among them—the Baek Ho—the light that flowed forth enveloped them all and shielded them from the darkness.
Whoooosh.
A faint yet unmistakable light. The transformed creatures, sensing the power of the Divine Stone that had shared this land’s fate through eons, instinctively retreated.
Or perhaps they too felt it.
That they could not achieve victory against these foes. That even with this body grown more savage and powerful, even should the Nantian Demon Empress herself take the field, the outcome would not change.
– Growl.
– Gack.
A grotesque cry echoed forth, almost like a moan. And there were nearly a thousand monsters bearing forms just as hideous as that sound.
Yet the White Heaven Squad showed not the slightest tremor, leveling their weapons—still slick with the blood of their previous enemies—toward the mutated creatures.
Shring.
Hundreds of spears and blades glinted, catching the dim light.
Decades ago, someone had dismissed them as mere scrap metal, treating them as nothing more than entertainment. That judgment was wrong.
Or perhaps, at least back then, it had held some truth.
But the scrap metal, hammered and cooled and reheated without end, had been reborn into something new.
Into something hard and steel-like, into a blade so sharp it could sever steel itself.
And there was only one person under heaven capable of wielding a legendary blade bearing the name White Heaven Squad.
“Grant us your command, Palace Master. Or rather….”
A middle-aged man whose hair had turned half-white through the passage of years—Wang Ho, Master of the White Heaven Squad—spoke in a heavy voice.
“My lord.”
In that same moment, his gaze, and the gaze of every member of the White Heaven Squad, flowed in a single direction.
And the towering giant who stood before them all like an iron pagoda—Beast King Miao Wang Ya-ryul Cheok—parted his lips.
“I shall advance. Follow me.”
“As you command.”
That was all.
In the next instant, they surged forward as one. Like waves born from the great sea. Like arrows loosed from a bowstring. Like a single bolt of lightning.
And at the vanguard, alongside the Beast King, shot forth the massive form of a white tiger.
– Krraaaaaaang!
Craaaaaash!
With a roar that shook heaven and earth, the raised foreleg tore and shattered everything in its path.
Gripping the snow-white mane of Su-ho-ryung with all my strength, I muttered softly to myself.
“Damn it. This is killing me, so why am I….”
But my displeasure at the sudden acceleration, and my suspicion that Su-ho-ryung might actually be a Korean tiger, both vanished in the next moment.
Or rather, they had no choice but to vanish.
Gooooong.
The air froze in an instant. At the sight of the Nantian Demon Empress rising from the center of a tornado that drew in the surrounding darkness, I yanked Su-ho-ryung’s mane backward with lightning speed.
Full reverse gear.
And Su-ho-ryung understood my intent perfectly, launching forward.
Forward.
Whoooosh!
– Hold on tight, human!
“….”
No, damn it.

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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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