Murim Login - Chapter 713

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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 713
The wait was not long.
The moment I gathered the survivors in one place, and with Jeok Cheon-gang’s aid, Beast King Miao Wang struggled to lift his eyelids.
Crack. Crackle.
The transformation began.
It was a tremor that I, Jeok Cheon-gang, and even the Baekcheon Brigade members whose bodies remained battered and Beast King Miao Wang, who had only just regained consciousness, could all feel.
Screeeech.
Space warped. The darkness that had writhed like something alive ceased its movement, and wind began to flow in a single direction.
Beyond the dense darkness that had swallowed Su-ho-ryung, through the crevasse between the cliffs that gaped open like the primordial maw of some colossal beast.
At the same time, I could see and hear it clearly.
–
Roooaaaar!
With a roar that echoed like a reverberating cry, a single beam of light grew distinct, illuminating the darkness.
‘This is….’
I stared at that light with astonished eyes. No—everyone in this place felt the same.
The survivors bearing wounds both great and small even forgot to let out their groans.
Beast King Miao Wang, who had only just recovered consciousness, reached out with a vacant expression toward that distant light, the sole illumination piercing through the darkness.
A light warmer than sunlight, carrying an essence as pure as water.
When silence fell as if the world itself had stopped, Jeok Cheon-gang’s low voice burrowed into my ears.
“It comes.”
“…!”
And with those words, the frozen time began to flow once more.
Booooom. Craaash!
A colossal explosion.
Everything condensed, erupted at once, and swept across all directions. An ear-deafening roar accompanied an invisible shockwave that crashed down like a tidal wave.
Beyond the raging tempest, Jeok Cheon-gang’s cry reached me.
“Watch out…!”
Booooom!
Wind—no, a maelstrom swallowed all sound.
A distant flash where darkness and light mingled obscured my vision, and a tremendous shockwave lashed and hurled everything within its range.
But.
‘Now.’
Realizing the moment had come, I drew Baek Hui diagonally downward.
Crimson flames surged along the transparent blade, burning through the wind. Flames that burrowed into the invisible yet undeniable grain collided with the shockwave.
No—they canceled it out.
Booooom! Crackle!
The earth trembled with the thunderous sound. The impact was strong enough to push back my firmly planted legs.
Jeok Cheon-gang, who had stepped forward just as I had to shield the survivors, shook out both sleeves.
Whoosh. Eruption!
The Blazing Fire Divine Palm technique perfected to its apex.
Unlike mine, the two fully-formed Fire Dragons thrashed ferociously, tearing through the tempest with savage hunger.
Flames erupted across dozens of zhang, consuming the wind itself, while the shockwave reduced countless shards of debris—scattered like hidden projectiles—to ash.
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
Acrid smoke and steam flooded the air, painting the world in hazy white. I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and extended my hand.
Boom!
Compressed air erupted outward, forcing the smoke and steam aside.
And beyond my gradually clearing vision lay the dispersing darkness and the collapse that had only just begun—awaiting us all.
Rumble. Rumble, rumble, rumble!
It was collapsing. The massive cliff, stretching two hundred zhang high.
The sight of countless jagged boulders and strange rock formations raining down from the sky was overwhelmingly terrifying, and the sunlight beginning to pierce through above meant one thing.
‘The Rift… has closed.’
It was over.
The long, fierce battle had finally reached its end. I had prevented a catastrophe that may have claimed hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions.
Yet why did emptiness weigh heavier than joy?
Perhaps because I knew better than anyone that unfinished business still remained.
Ding.
–
[Rift]
has closed.
–
[Demonic Energy]
is dissipating.
–
[Divine Stone]
power purifies the aura
[Demonic Energy]
has tainted.
– Sudden Quest,
[Sacrifice and Rest]
has been generated. You cannot refuse this Quest.
At the system notification reaching my ears, I suddenly extended my hand.
The darkness that writhed painfully like a living creature scattered through my fingers.
Sunlight pierced through the slowly dispersing dark clouds, warm and gentle, and on the translucent holographic window floating above was written only a few brief lines.
Quest
[Sacrifice and Rest]
Now grant him peace.
Rank
: None
Restriction
: None
Quest
: [Corrupted Su-ho-ryung] Elimination (Incomplete)
Reward
: ???
Failure
: ???
This was unprecedented.
Never had a Quest description been so brief. And the Quest restrictions, which typically bore my name in three characters, were not confined to anyone in particular.
Perhaps the system itself knew of his sacrifice.
From a being worthy of the title Divine Beast, the choice of one who offered himself—a guardian spirit’s descent into corruption.
Crunch.
I pressed forward, cutting through the darkness that scattered and vanished with the ashes on the wind.
Between the quiet footsteps of Jeok Cheon-gang following behind and the countless jagged rocks that continued to crumble in this very moment, I sensed—no, I saw—the presence of someone.
No, I saw it.
[Lv.155 Corrupted Su-ho-ryung]
The silver fur that once gleamed even in darkness, the pale blue eyes as clear as the Sacred Pond—all had turned black.
Fangs grown twice their length glinted toward us.
–
Grrrrr.
A low growl laden with ferocity. And the flash-like movement that followed.
Shrieeeeek!
With its blurred form, a distance of ten paces was erased, and blood-soaked front paws struck the ground as it lunged.
Whoosh.
In that instant, toward the massive body casting shadow overhead, Jeok Cheon-gang and I unleashed our full strength in a single strike.
Recalling the plea he had entrusted to us before departing.
‘Kill me. Without a moment’s hesitation.’
And we kept that promise.
Slice, crackle!
* * *
That place was somewhere very deep and cold. Not a single ray of light could penetrate it, and even the faintest warmth could not be felt.
‘He’ lay crouched there, sensing the aura of death that would soon arrive—or had already arrived.
And then, at some moment, he suddenly felt a warm heat and opened his eyes.
No. It was not warmth but scorching heat, and within his blurred vision, waiting for him was someone with a familiar face.
“Jin Tae…kyung.”
A hoarse voice escaped between his lips.
The young man, Jin Tae-kyung, who had been gazing intently at Baek Sang now opening his eyes, answered calmly.
“Yes.”
And with that single word, Baek Sang knew that everything had ended.
Perhaps it was because of the sunlight shining through Jin Tae-kyung’s shoulders.
‘So. In the end, it came to this.’
A thunderous sound echoes through my mind. Baek Sang gazes up at the blue sky where the dark clouds have dissipated.
It was truly a strange thing. Despite losing everything I had sought to gain, I felt only emptiness rather than despair.
“What became of the Nantian Demon Empress?”
The answer that came back was brief.
“She’s dead.”
“The Rift has vanished as well, then.”
“…Yes.”
With a voice tinged with hesitation, Jin Tae-kyung’s head moves. Where his gaze lingers, a massive tiger lies collapsed.
No—in this moment, what fills Baek Sang’s eyes is an innumerable multitude of beast and human corpses.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
Jin Tae-kyung’s voice, heavy and sunken, continues.
“Did you know from the beginning that things would come to this?”
Baek Sang gazes at the corpses that fill every direction with hollow eyes. And he answers.
“Yes. I knew.”
“…!”
Gritting his teeth, Jin Tae-kyung glares at Baek Sang. The gaze blazes with torrents of flame, yet Baek Sang does not evade it.
“To be precise, I learned of it a few months ago, when I received a letter from the Central Plains.”
That letter had come from Hanan, and it contained a proposal to join the soon-to-be-established Martial Alliance, along with a detailed account of the series of events that had unfolded in Hubei.
“It was then that I understood. Why Dark Heaven reached not toward the Central Plains, but toward the Southern Wilderness beyond the Frontier. What the grand scheme the Nantian Demon Empress spoke of truly was.”
“Then even knowing that fact….”
“I followed orders. I had already ceased to be human and become a monster.”
They say that in ten years, even mountains and rivers transform. Sometimes earthquakes topple mountains, and fierce floods twist the course of rivers.
Baek Sang had spent some forty years amid earthquakes and floods, becoming a monster who had lost his heart.
The sorrow of losing an only child. And the thirst for vengeance against those from the Central Plains who had caused that loss.
But that was not all.
“After the Great Demon War, I hated the Demonic Path more than anyone. If the Central Plains was an unforgivable traitor, then they were enemies who must be slain without fail.”
Upon hearing Baek Sang’s words, Jin Tae-kyung lets out a hollow laugh.
Dark Heaven and the Demon Cult are but different branches of the same tree. If he hated the Demonic Path, he could never have joined hands with Dark Heaven, which killed his own child.
Yet Baek Sang grasped hands with the Nantian Demon Empress and brought forth calamity.
He allowed Dark Heaven to open the Rift, and knowing that countless deaths would follow, he nonetheless issued a total mobilization order, drawing ten thousand warriors and beasts into the Inner Palace.
Essentially, to offer them as living sacrifices.
“You pathetic bastard. And you call that an explanation….”
The seething voice does not continue to its end.
For some reason, as Jin Tae-kyung’s words trail off, Baek Sang’s blood-stained lips tremble slightly.
“Yes. There was something more important to me than hatred, more important than anything else.”
It was in that very moment. A figure flashes through Jin Tae-kyung’s mind.
The reason those eyes revealed above the mask felt so familiar, as if glimpsed somewhere before.
“…Baek Hui.”
These are not words spoken by Jin Tae-kyung.
Baek Sang lifts his dimming eyes toward the figure approaching from the distance. Geo Han draws near with faltering steps.
Despite Jeok Cheon-gang’s attempts to restrain him, the Beast King Miao Wang drew close enough to breathe upon his face, his voice trembling like a groan.
“That child… was he alive?”
Baek Sang nodded weakly, and for the Beast King Miao Wang, that was answer enough.
He understood what that child meant to Baek Sang, what his sworn brother would do for his only son.
And so he could not help but grieve, could not help but rage.
“Why did you not tell me? Why did you conceal this from me?”
“I did not wish to see the Palace Master… my brother… die.”
“…!”
“And besides, I would have lost Hwi again as well.”
Memories of the past flickered faintly across Baek Sang’s eyes.
On that day when I first faced the Darkness, I had flatly rejected the Nantian Demon Empress’s offer to join hands.
Not until I heard that my child, whom I had believed dead by the Great Snow Ghost’s hand, was still alive.
“I accepted the Nantian Demon Empress’s proposal and believed her promise that she would spare Hwi once all the great schemes were concluded.”
I believed. Or rather, I could not suppress my disbelief.
For there was no other way to be reunited with my only child.
After that, whenever my heart wavered, I would seek out the Nantian Demon Empress, to see the face of my child who lay in deep slumber, kept alive only by the sorcerers of Dark Heaven.
“Yet on the other hand, I knew. I knew what I was doing, how many would die because of this choice.”
So I created the Baekcheon Brigade.
Not for myself, but for someone else. In the hope that he might prevent this calamity.
“That was… something I could not do.”
A child may slay a parent, but no parent slays their child.
I was a father to one child. Even if I could return to that moment a hundred times over, my choice would remain the same.
Cough.
Baek Sang spat blood and lifted his dimming eyes to gaze upon the Beast King Miao Wang.
In this moment, his pupils held the memory of a day that had been both the saddest and most joyful of his life.
‘Yes. That was the day.’
On the day I lost my beloved wife and gained a child I would come to love more than anyone, I wept.
Sitting across from my only sworn brother, I drank fruit wine as though this were our last day together.
Decades later, just as on the day the Nantian Demon Empress came to find me.
“One final request.”
Baek Sang continued, a faint smile upon his lips.
“Kill me, my brother.”

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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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