Murim Login - Chapter 716

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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 716
Someone once said it.
When a person who is normally quiet becomes angry, it’s far more terrifying.
That was exactly what Ju Hwa-ran looked like now.
Tap tap tap.
Wooden splinters cascaded from the hands of the human air purifier—the precious gem of Yongbong Escort Agency who had not merely reeked but had become as pungent and sharp as a jalapeño pepper party—as she ventilated the space.
Her eyes and voice, always gentle before, had grown as sharp as thorns.
“Tae-san and So-hyup.”
Tae-san, the first target, flinched.
“Don’t you know how much the Palace Master and Young Master Jin have suffered for us? How could you say such things?”
“Tae, Tae-san was wrong.”
“No matter how voracious your appetite is, that’s no excuse. If I hear one more ominous word from you, I’ll really gag you just like Old Master Noya said.”
At Ju Hwa-ran’s stern warning, Sa Ma-pyo furrowed his brow and opened his mouth.
“Young Lady Ju, Tae-san is not a beast.”
“Then should I gag you instead of Tae-san?”
“…”
“Well?”
Sa Ma-pyo, who had been thinking for a moment, opened his mouth with a grave expression.
“Actually, now that I think about it, gagging him occasionally for dietary management purposes doesn’t seem like a bad idea.”
“Be careful going forward. I know you mean no harm, but this is too much.”
“…I understand. I’ll counsel him properly.”
As the muzzle bill he had proposed narrowly fell through, Nam Ho muttered in a regretful voice.
“I wish I could see that bastard gagged before I die…”
But Nam Ho himself could not escape becoming Ju Hwa-ran’s target.
“Old Master Noya.”
“Huh? What?”
“You should act your age. It’s not pleasant to hear you cursing so harshly in front of patients who haven’t even recovered yet.”
“What? A patient?”
Nam Ho looked at my face, which gleamed with vitality from the substantial level-up and the rest I’d had, and made a displeased expression.
“No, setting that aside, where is there a bigger potty-mouth than that bastard Jin Tae-kyung, and suddenly you’re coming after me…”
Poke.
At that moment, I saw it clearly.
Just as his aggrieved voice was about to continue, Hyuk Moo-jin beside him subtly jabbed Nam Ho’s ribs with his elbow.
And if I were to reinterpret the meaning contained in that small gesture in modern terms, it went like this.
‘Don’t ruin the mood, just laugh it off.’
Nam Ho, with decades of spy work under his belt.
Rolling his eyes back and forth, he dropped his head in resignation.
“Fine. I’ll be careful.”
“Good. Then next, Hyuk… what are you doing right now?”
“I’m massaging the team leader’s shoulders to relieve his fatigue.”
Right. Hyuk Moo-jin isn’t the type to miss such things.
Ju Hwa-ran smiled contentedly as she watched Hyuk Moo-jin massage my legs with keen awareness, then turned her gaze toward the remaining person.
“Song Il-seom.”
An earthquake erupted in the eyes of Song Il-seom, who had maintained absolute silence from beginning to end.
“I haven’t said anything.”
“I know. Just keep that posture.”
“…Understood.”
Ju Hwa-ran’s gaze shifted toward me after dealing with the final target.
The moment our eyes met, my lips parted reflexively.
“I’m sorry. I apologize. I was wrong.”
“Yes?”
“Pardon?”
“What do you mean?”
“Ah, no. Just….”
It felt like something I simply had to do. Call it survival instinct.
I sent a meaningful glance toward Hyuk Moo-jin, who was diligently massaging my legs.
‘What happened? Why is Miss Ju acting like this?’
Hyuk Moo-jin answered with his eyes as well.
‘Miss Ju has been so worried about you that she’s just like this. Just accept it.’
‘Even so, the atmosphere is completely different.’
‘If you lack awareness, at least keep your mouth shut….’
Then Ju Hwa-ran suddenly spoke up.
“You two. What are you doing right now?”
“…!”
“…!”
Hyuk Moo-jin, startled, doubled the speed of his massage.
“What do you mean? I’m just continuing to massage the captain’s legs. My, the muscles here are quite tense. Should I press harder?”
Sensing something odd, I carefully blocked his arm.
“That’s enough. Stop.”
“Yes? Why?”
“No, that’s not it. It’s fine now.”
“Our captain’s doing this again. You said it felt good and refreshing.”
“No. I said it’s fine. You must be tired too.”
“Come now. Don’t be modest. I, Hyuk Moo-jin, can do anything as the captain’s right hand. Miss Ju saw it too, right? How our captain takes care of his people like this.”
Toward Hyuk Moo-jin, who was laughing heartily while looking at Ju Hwa-ran, I sent a transmission with a sorrowful heart.
– That wasn’t my leg just now….
“…!”
– So get your hands off right now, you bastard. Before I break your wrists.
After a moment of silence, Hyuk Moo-jin quietly withdrew his hands.
Though I desperately wanted to strike the back of his head as he looked at me with a mixture of awe and fear, I barely restrained myself in front of the others.
Or perhaps….
‘No. That’s going too far.’
I murmured softly to myself, then studied each face before me in turn.
Just days ago, I had thought there was a chance I might never see these people again.
The situation we faced had been dire—everything shrouded in fog, unable to see even a step ahead.
Yet here we were, alive and gathered together, and the feeling was profoundly different.
The fact that none of them had perished filled me with joy.
“I’m truly grateful. Really.”
My words broke the brief silence, and everyone’s eyes widened. Then they smiled faintly.
That was enough.
We had grown closer without realizing it, and now we understood each other’s hearts.
* * *
It took considerable time to hear the full account.
Though we had lived through the same period, each of us had experienced different circumstances in different places, and their stories included those seven weeks I had lost to unconsciousness.
“We truly thought we were going to die. You weren’t there, and we were bound when that Blood Monk—the one we’d only heard rumors about—suddenly appeared on the Fast Ship. I mean….”
“If we hadn’t recognized Jeok Cheon-gang, there would have been a battle. The Southern Barbarian warriors with us were far too aggressive.”
“I thought everything was finished then. Even if we’d brought reinforcements to rescue you, it wouldn’t have been enough. But then this great demon master called the Blood Monk appeared.”
It was a more detailed account than what I had heard from Jeok Cheon-gang.
When the Blood Monk’s true identity was revealed, the Southern Barbarians were initially skeptical, but when even the Water Dragon Sect sailors—every last one of them bearing bruises—stepped forward to verify that he was the Fire King, the battle ended before it could begin.
After that, Jeok Cheon-gang rushed with all his strength toward the Southern Beast Palace, and by the time the Fire Dragon Pavilion members and the Southern Barbarian scouts arrived a step behind, everything was already over.
“When we saw you collapse, we truly thought you were gone. Your body was covered in blood, and all around were nothing but gore and corpses….”
I tried to interrupt Hyuk Moo-jin at this point.
If the conversation turned to my uninjured state, anyone would inevitably grow suspicious.
But before I could open my mouth, Ju Hwa-ran’s voice continued.
“However, Jeok Cheon-gang stepped forward and reassured everyone. He said you had merely collapsed from exhaustion.”
I asked with a sense of foreboding.
“…What exactly did Old Master Noya—I mean, my master—say?”
“Well, it’s hard to say. Everyone was in such chaos at the time. But I remember Jeok Cheon-gang saying that thanks to his timely arrival, you hadn’t suffered serious injuries. The Yalyu Palace Master confirmed it as well.”
Nam Ho nodded and continued.
“It was heaven’s fortune, pure fortune. No matter how skilled a master is, how could anyone survive that hellscape? With two of the Ten Kings involved, even the Nantian Demon Empress couldn’t have done anything.”
The story differed somewhat from the truth.
Yet I nodded silently in agreement.
This was clear protection. Jeok Cheon-gang and Beast King Miao Wang had acted to conceal my secret and shield me from suspicion.
‘The survivors of the Baekcheon Brigade will also keep silent. They are loyal to Beast King Miao Wang.’
Death is silence.
The battle that day had taken place primarily in the Inner Palace, and most of those present had perished.
If the survivors remained silent, the secret would be kept.
‘No matter how close I’ve become to them, I cannot reveal this truth.’
In the modern world, phenomena that cannot be explained by words are called magic or miracles.
But here, in the Murim, it would be called something else.
‘Demonic power.’
Incomprehensible and chaotic forces always stirred fear in the hearts of mortals.
I had no desire to reveal this ability—this system—to others if I could help it.
‘Though the milk has already been spilled.’
I couldn’t know what consequences would flow from that choice I’d made that day, a choice I couldn’t have avoided.
But I was grateful that Jeok Cheon-gang had been the one closest to witness it, and I could take comfort knowing what sort of man Beast King Miao Wang truly was.
“Leader?”
“Hmm?”
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
My thoughts had wandered longer than I realized.
I waved my hand dismissively at Hyuk Moo-jin, whose eyes held a suspicious gleam.
“It’s nothing. Just something crossed my mind. Continue.”
“Ah, yes. But where was I in the story?”
“…Did you hit your head?”
“No. I’ve just taken so many blows to the back of my skull.”
With a subtle glance in my direction that made the identity of ‘who’ abundantly clear, Hyuk Moo-jin resumed his account.
“I believe you already know that we gathered the dead and cremated them. And that all the clan chiefs who had attached themselves to Baek Sang and then fled were imprisoned in the Underground Prison?”
“To some extent.”
“Ah, that’s right. Now that I think of it, Yo-hee also confessed to her crimes of her own accord.”
“Yo-hee too?”
“Yes. The Yalyu Palace Master showed willingness to forgive her, but she chose to enter the Underground Prison voluntarily.”
That Yo-hee would go so far surprised me, yet at the same time felt inevitable.
Though she had repented late, Yo-hee had conspired with Baek Sang to seize wealth and power. She too must have learned much in the shadow of death.
‘She chose it herself. She must have believed it was right.’
I listened to the rest of the account, murmuring inwardly.
The fact that countless Southern Barbarians now dwelt in the Southern Beast Palace to restore the Inner Palace, which had become ruins, and repair the Outer Palace, which had suffered considerable damage.
And that Ya-ryul Mok, the young palace master, was so overwhelmed with work he could barely catch his breath.
“I sent word, but I’m not sure when he’ll arrive. These days, even his shadow is hard to find.”
“Probably. Beast King Miao Wang is likely the same.”
“The Yalyu Palace Master… he’s probably invisible to everyone else’s eyes too, not just ours?”
“What?”
“He’s been missing since two days ago. The leadership is already in chaos.”
“…!”

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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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