Murim Login - Chapter 714

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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 714
Kill me, Elder Brother.
The moment those words reached Beast King Miao Wang’s ears, his eyes closed without his own volition.
His chest tightened and his breath caught. The request his only sworn brother had extended after decades was like a sharp blade, piercing and tearing through his lungs.
‘Elder Brother. He called me Elder Brother.’
Words he’d longed to hear for so many years, yet now he wished to cover his ears against them.
He would rather become a fool who had seen and heard nothing, become an incompetent Palace Master—anything to escape this moment.
If only that were possible.
“Old memories are surfacing.”
At the soft voice, Beast King Miao Wang’s eyes opened. Baek Sang’s reflection appeared in his pupils, a faint smile playing at his lips.
“In those days, we were young, and I, who dreamed of becoming Palace Master of the Southern Beast Palace, could never defeat you no matter how hard I tried.”
“…Yes, that’s how it was.”
Those were memories from boyhood, raw and vivid as fresh blood.
Baek Sang had regarded Beast King Miao Wang, who was a few years his senior, as a rival, while in Beast King Miao Wang’s eyes, such a Baek Sang seemed endearingly cute. As an only child, he had never known a brother.
“But I never once caught up to you. Just when I thought I was getting close, you’d already moved far away.”
“That was only because you were younger than me. If we had been the same age…”
“The result would not have changed. We were born with different vessels from the start.”
Yet Baek Sang never gave up. Every day he challenged Beast King Miao Wang to sparring matches, and though he always lost, the next day he would return as if nothing had happened.
“And then one day, I suddenly realized something. That big oaf with a head twice the size of mine had somehow become… not so disagreeable.”
Baek Sang remembered it clearly—the large boy lifting him to his feet, brushing the dust from his body with gentle pats.
On days when he was ill, the shadow of someone who would quietly leave medicinal herbs before his quarters.
“So I challenged him to one final match.”
That day’s result was no different from any other.
Baek Sang fought with all his strength and lost.
Had it ended there, it would have been an ordinary day like any other.
But Baek Sang did not refuse the hand extended to help him up as he always did, nor did he shuffle back to his quarters as usual.
Instead, he produced two bottles of fruit wine he’d somehow procured and muttered as if speaking to himself.
“I have wine, but no one to drink with. If you’re interested, come along.”
At Beast King Miao Wang’s low voice echoing in response, Baek Sang’s eyes widened for a moment before he coughed up blood and laughed.
“Cough. You still remember that?”
“How could I forget? In all my life, I’ve never met another child, barely twelve years old, who would say something so impudent.”
“Then you must also remember how I drained both bottles entirely by myself.”
“Both bottles entirely?”
Hearing Baek Sang’s words, Beast King Miao Wang could not help but let out a soft laugh. His eyes, curved like a crescent moon, were already glistening with inexplicable moisture.
“Well, I clearly remember the little fool who couldn’t even finish one cup before collapsing, staring at me with unfocused eyes and speaking.”
Baek Sang nodded weakly. His hazy eyes were tracing back to those distant days.
“I said I would be content as a tribal chief, and that you should become a great Palace Master. I couldn’t say such things to you without drinking first.”
“And the words you spoke after that—could those also not be spoken without drinking?”
“How could that be possible.”
Baek Sang continued softly.
“Elder Brother was… simply my Elder Brother. Perhaps from the very day we first met.”
Two boys who tasted alcohol for the first time in their lives collapsed into sleep that way, and from the moment they opened their eyes in that dilapidated Ancestral Shrine the next morning, they became sworn siblings closer than any blood relation.
On mountains. In fields. In rivers and swamps.
And on battlefields too, they were always together.
Until a terrible fate arrived one day and tore the two apart.
“Elder Brother.”
“….”
“On the day we swore our oath as sworn siblings, you made me a vow. That you would become a Palace Master more excellent than anyone else. That you would fight for the Southern Wilderness and its people more than anyone.”
“Stop. Enough of this.”
Beast King Miao Wang already understood. Why Baek Sang had brought up this story. What he was trying to say.
“Must I… kill you with my own hands?”
Baek Sang nodded slightly.
“Too much blood has already been spilled. All of it because of my misguided choices.”
Executing the traitor who had betrayed the Southern Wilderness and countless tribespeople.
That was the duty the Palace Master of the Southern Beast Palace had to perform with his own hands, and the only way to honor the oath made long ago in that dilapidated Ancestral Shrine.
“I didn’t swear to become a Palace Master more excellent than anyone else.”
A hand raised with great effort pointed to the back of Beast King Miao Wang, now rigid as stone.
Where those trembling fingers directed, beyond the collapsed ruins, countless tribespeople and warriors had returned to the Inner Palace.
“They are all watching. You and me. And us.”
Baek Sang’s words were absolute truth without a shred of deception.
The endless stream of people pouring into the Inner Palace had learned that all calamity had ended and cheered, then gasped at the sight before their eyes, and finally, seeing their returned Palace Master and the traitor fallen before him, fell silent.
No—they raged.
“I can feel it. Their fury directed at me.”
It was the moment Baek Sang had feared most, yet desired more desperately than anything.
If such a moment came, it meant someone had stopped him. It meant the grand scheme of Dark Heaven and the Nantian Demon Empress had crumbled to nothing.
And so he could laugh aloud. He could rise from his dying body and squeeze out his final strength to cry out.
“Remember this clearly!”
Eyes growing dim as if they might extinguish at any moment.
Yet the cry that burst from his lips was clear and mighty enough for all in the Inner Palace to hear.
“Though the grand scheme has failed, one day the sky of Dark Heaven shall surely devour the Southern Wilderness!”
“…!”
The resounding cry echoed across mountains of countless ruins and corpses, reverberating in the ears of all.
With each syllable uttered, blood burst between his teeth and strength drained from his entire body.
Yet Baek Sang did not stop. Could not stop.
He was a traitor who had betrayed all and brought calamity.
A criminal who had committed unforgivable sins must die as a criminal, without any sympathy or excuse.
That was… the last thing Baek Sang could do.
“On that day soon to arrive…!”
Baek Sang swallowed the surging blood, gritted his teeth, and continued his cry.
“Those contemptible Han Clan bastards of the Central Plains, and you barbarous Southern Wilderness people alike, shall all bow and submit beneath the feet of the great Heavenly Master!”
Baek Sang’s lips, wet with blood, curled upward into a radiant smile.
In this moment, he was the most loyal servant of the Heavenly Master and a hound of Dark Heaven.
And for such a sworn brother, there was only one choice an elder brother could make.
Crack!
A fist tore through space, pulverizing flesh and shattering bone.
Within that single punch driven deep into his chest lay a verdant force as vast and boundless as the sprawling fields where we once rolled together as children.
‘Thank you, Elder Brother.’
I’ve become a truly magnificent Palace Master, just as I promised.
With those inaudible murmurs, Baek Sang gazed at a single face visible beyond his fading vision.
‘But why….’
Why are you crying?
The great Palace Master who had vanquished the traitor and prevented calamity wept—so bitterly, like a child who had lost something precious.
And he cried out as if wailing.
“The traitor Baek Sang, who conspired with Dark Heaven, has been executed!”
The distant roar of the crowd’s cheers echoed in my ears. Baek Sang’s head, thrown back limply, tilted toward the sky.
It was clear and blue.
This world was no longer dark.
‘Isn’t that right, Hwi?’
Remembering the son who had driven his blade into his father’s chest while stripped of reason, and envisioning the child who must already be waiting for him with a bright smile in another world.
Baek Sang smiled peacefully.
Thud.
A body, drained of strength, crumbled to the ground.
The world remained bright, and the crowd’s cheers continued endlessly.
And in place of the sworn brother who was denied even the right to mourn, someone closed his eyes.
“…Damn it. What’s there to smile about?”
Jin Tae-kyung muttered to himself, then suddenly gazed at the worn object clutched in his hand.
I don’t know. He was certainly someone who deserved to die, a bastard who did things worthy of death. So why does this feel so foul? Why did I bring this?
Damn it all.
Along with curses that never escaped his lips, Jin Tae-kyung covered Baek Sang’s face with what he held.
Baek Cheon.
That worn silk, woven with someone’s years and yearning, scattered in the wind that blew from somewhere, drifting away.
Amid the endless roar of cheers, echoing cries that seemed to come from far away.
“Tae-san!”
“Palace Master—no, Young Master Jin!”
“Tae-san has come! Sorry for being late!”
“Hey, you bastard! You’re alive!”
Was it an auditory hallucination?
Turning around with a flicker of doubt, Jin Tae-kyung stared blankly at the familiar faces drawing near, and then finally let out a faint laugh.
And he collapsed.
* * *
I had a very long dream.
A terrible nightmare at that.
Even within the dream, I was struggling desperately. In the modern world, I fought monsters, and in Murim, I fought Dark Heaven.
And after an intense battle just as I’d experienced before, when I finally brought down the Nantian Demon Empress, a masked bastard appeared and spoke thus.
– To topple both the Western Heavenly Demon Lord and the Nantian Demon Empress… you have some skill.
I was thinking, where the hell did this masked fox come crawling out from, when the masked one continued.
– But the Western Heavenly Demon Lord and the Nantian Demon Empress are merely the weakest among our Eight Heavenly Kings.
– …?
– I am the Eastern Heavenly Demon Lord, who oversees the east. Directly below me in rank is the Eastern-Western Demon Empress, who oversees both east and west.
Damn it all, four cardinal directions should be enough—what the hell is an Eastern-Western Demon Empress?
Faced with such extreme absurdity, I was left speechless.
At this rate, when I returned to the modern world, wouldn’t an Eastern-Dongducheon Demon Lord or perhaps an Incheon Demon Empress be waiting for me? The thought suffocated me.
But what could I do? Fighting like my life depended on it, unaware it was all a dream.
And with each step I took toward him, those I had killed or failed to save appeared before me, blocking my path.
– Just a little more. Just a little longer….
– If you had moved faster, we could have lived.
– We could have returned to our families.
– Why do you live while we must die?
– Why. Why. Why?
Unable to answer, I froze in place, and they sank their teeth into my torso.
Slowly. But relentlessly.
Yet I could only stand there like a statue, watching.
Because among those transformed into abominations, I could see a familiar face.
– I loved you more than anyone, yet in the end, you could not save me.
A face that should not be there, could not be there, among them.
It was Jeok Cheon-gang.
With both arms severed and his chest hollowed out, he drew near and sank his teeth into my neck.
Jeok Cheon-gang, greedily devouring flesh and blood, whispered to my ear in a low voice.
– But tell me, when exactly will this wretched bastard wake up?
And in that moment, I suddenly opened my eyes.
“…!”
An unfamiliar ceiling came into view amid a strange, pungent odor lingering in the air.
As I blinked vacantly, beginning to recognize reality, a familiar voice pierced my ears.
“If you confess now, I’ll let you off with just a light burn. You’re a quack, aren’t you?”
“N-no, sir, I am not.”
“The boy hasn’t woken in seven days and you’re telling me this makes sense? Bring Beast King Miao Wang.”
“Gasp. T-that is….”
“I said bring him now!”
Following the sharp cry, I turned my head to see Jeok Cheon-gang gripping the Physician by the collar, shaking him violently back and forth.

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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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