Murim Login - Chapter 725

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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 725
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Let’s talk for a moment.
I nodded slightly at the voice transmission that burrowed into my ear, loosening my grip on the reins.
The beast sensed the meaning behind my action and gradually slowed its pace, and as we moved side by side, Jeok Cheon-gang’s lips parted.
“Is it true that the Heavenly Master shows particular interest in you?”
“Yes.”
“How strange. This is the first I’ve heard of it.”
“Well, it’s the first time I’m telling anyone about it.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You never asked.”
Honestly, even as I answered this way, I expected to take at least one blow.
But Jeok Cheon-gang simply stared at me as I braced myself defensively, then muttered in a flat voice as if talking to himself.
“You don’t speak if you’re not asked… Yes, that’s not entirely wrong.”
Why is he suddenly like this?
“Um, Old Master Noya?”
“What.”
“Are you perhaps… upset?”
“What? Upset? Me?”
“Yes.”
Jeok Cheon-gang laughed heartily as if he’d heard a tremendous joke.
“How could I be upset when I’m not some five-year-old child? Of course, over the past four days there was plenty of time to discuss it, and for your sake I chose not to ask, but that’s utterly insignificant so don’t worry about it. After all, isn’t the one who didn’t ask the real fool? Hehehehe.”
“…”
“Martial artists say there should be no secrets between master and disciple. But that doesn’t apply to us, so don’t concern yourself. Really, when you think about it, I needed a successor to carry on the Yeolhwa Sect’s legacy, and you needed martial skills, so we helped each other. Truth be told, it’s laughable to speak of master-disciple bonds in times like these.”
“…”
“I rushed all the way to the Southern Wilderness worried something might happen to you, and even plucked out all my hair to hide my identity, but I’m fine. In the end nothing went wrong anyway, and my hair will grow back soon. Absolutely, it will.”
“…”
“What reason would I have to be upset just because I didn’t hear some trivial story? After all, it’s the thirsty one who must dig the well. If you wait around thinking you’ll tell me when the time comes, you’ll end up dried up like me. Hahahaha.”
Watching Jeok Cheon-gang laugh like an immortal, I thought to myself.
‘He’s genuinely furious.’
Can a person actually be this upset?
At this level, he’d deserve to be named ‘Number One Most Upset Person in the World’ by Forbes itself.
“I remember the day I first met you. I was out of my mind with No-hwan back then. This is why they say you should die when you grow old…”
A suffocating pressure as if my breath were being cut off.
I barely managed to open my lips toward Jeok Cheon-gang, who was barreling forward like a runaway locomotive.
“What I said earlier was a joke, and I simply wasn’t in the right state of mind to tell you. I needed to organize my thoughts first, didn’t I?”
“Hmm.”
Jeok Cheon-gang’s eyes narrowed slightly. Having recovered somewhat of his usual demeanor, he asked curtly.
“So, was what you said about the Heavenly Master also a joke?”
“That’s the truth, unfortunately.”
“What’s your evidence?”
I recounted the general details to Jeok Cheon-gang.
He had already heard much of this when we stayed at the Southern Beast Palace, but this time I laid it out far more comprehensively than the abbreviated version I’d given back then.
After hearing my full account, Jeok Cheon-gang’s brow furrowed.
“Those bastards tried to capture you?”
“Yes. But it seems they decided it wouldn’t work, so they tried to kill me instead. The Great Snow Ghost and the Black Hand Fist Demon that I fought in Poison Blood Land, and the Nantian Demon Empress as well.”
“Could the attempt to capture you alive have been on the Heavenly Master’s orders?”
“That is….”
At Jeok Cheon-gang’s question, I paused to recall my memories, then shook my head.
“I don’t think that was the case.”
“Why do you think so?”
“If the Heavenly Master had truly issued such an order, the Nantian Demon Empress would not have tried to kill me, even if she faced her final moments alone.”
“Loyalty that surpasses life itself…. It’s almost unbelievable.”
“It wasn’t mere loyalty.”
I answered quietly, recalling everything about the Nantian Demon Empress that remained in my memory.
The light in her eyes at that moment. The expression on her face. Her voice trembling with elation and every word and deed she displayed.
What I felt from the Nantian Demon Empress that day could not be expressed by the simple word loyalty.
It was….
“Fanaticism. For the Nantian Demon Empress. No—for Dark Heaven, the Heavenly Master is nothing less than a living god.”
“…!”
“Everyone in Dark Heaven fears and reveres the Heavenly Master. If he had commanded them to capture me by any means, that would be a divine decree no one could defy.”
Even the Blood Lord, mighty as he was, and the Western Heavenly Demon Lord.
The Nantian Demon Empress, who met her end this time, likewise prostrated herself as a servant before the Heavenly Master’s name.
Each of them was a monster capable of tearing apart even the most supreme masters with their bare hands.
The Heavenly Master was the king and god whom these monsters revered and served.
“I cannot be certain, but…it seems the Nantian Demon Empress tried to capture me alive for the sole reason that the Heavenly Master showed interest in me.”
“Merely to earn the Heavenly Master’s favor?”
As I nodded quietly, Jeok Cheon-gang let out a groan.
“Fanatics….”
The trailing words were buried by the wind.
Jeok Cheon-gang, who had been silently gazing at the passing landscape while mounted on the tiger’s back, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Have you ever seen a follower of the Demon Cult?”
“Do I look about sixty years old to you?”
“That’s right. For someone your age, it’s natural you wouldn’t have. You were born long after the Great Righteous War ended.”
“You know all this already, so why ask?”
“A sudden thought crossed my mind. Perhaps it would have been better to face the Demon Cult of that era once more.”
“…!”
“They too were fanatics, of course. But their leader, the Heavenly Demon, was ultimately just a human, and the hundred thousand demon followers under the Heavenly Demon knew this fact. To them, the Heavenly Demon was merely their Cult Master who led them—not a god.”
I understood what Jeok Cheon-gang was trying to say.
To the followers of the Demon Cult, the Heavenly Demon was a human made of flesh and blood, but to everyone in Dark Heaven, the Heavenly Master is a god.
And so they would fight for their god.
They would fight without fear of death, and even with countless spears and blades piercing their bodies, they would smile as they drew their final breath.
“It will be a war more terrible than any before.”
Jeok Cheon-gang fixed me with a heavy gaze and continued.
“Especially for you.”
“Because the Heavenly Master watches over me.”
“Whether you desired it or not, you have already drawn far more attention than necessary. Even now, somewhere in Tianxia, your name echoes through the heavens.”
“….”
“The Three Stars and the Ten Kings are names of the old era. But you are different. You possess a talent unparalleled throughout history, and no one in Tianxia can deny that you, barely past your twenties, are already a force to be reckoned with.”
In Jeok Cheon-gang’s eyes as he regarded me, I could see both undisguised pride and a deep anxiety.
“That is precisely why the Heavenly Master watches you. Moreover, he has already once confirmed you—the infinite possibilities and true nature hidden within you.”
“…The Underground Prison of the Sichuan Tang Sect.”
“Yes. Using that inexplicable and mysterious power, he gazed upon you through the eyes of the Western Heavenly Demon Lord.”
How could I ever forget?
The stone walls dusted with falling debris and splattered with blood raining down upon my head.
And the Western Heavenly Demon Lord standing tall before me—or rather, the Heavenly Master, who had borrowed the body of his servant for but a moment, and his final words.
‘How amusing. How truly amusing.’
At that moment, he was surely smiling.
Even as his entire body scattered like ash, he did not forget to offer me a final farewell.
‘Until we meet again.’
The memory of that day—merely recalling it made my heart sink.
Jeok Cheon-gang, who had been silently watching me take a shallow breath, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Perhaps… the Heavenly Master has already dimly discerned those secrets you have never revealed to anyone.”
“…!”
“And so now, I too cannot help but ask.”
As if someone had pressed a pause button on the world itself, Jeok Cheon-gang slowly parted his lips.
“Can you tell me—your old teacher—all that you have hidden?”
* * *
Jeok Cheon-gang lifted his gaze to the heavens.
The sky, which had poured down rain without cease for the past three days, was clear and blue—a stark contrast to the endless turmoil in his heart.
‘The Immortal Realm….’
Words that could not escape his lips scattered within his mind. What more could be said? How could any of this possibly be understood?
Despite having lived for such a long time, it all felt utterly meaningless.
‘If only you had been here beside me, I could have steadied this turbulent heart.’
Jeok Cheon-gang thought of a friend who had departed from this world mere months ago.
A man who loved wine and meat so dearly he was called a glutton, and who was revered as Beop-wang because he loved humanity more than anyone else.
But soon he shook his head.
Beop-wang was no longer of this world, and even if he had lived, he could not have read the heavenly signs by gazing up at that blue sky.
‘He said it clearly—the heavenly signs have already been disrupted. That blue sky no longer offers answers to anyone. He said so himself.’
At the same time, Beop-wang had foretold a great upheaval of war.
A turbulent energy that would shake even the heavens themselves, spreading across all of Tianxia.
A calamity that would sweep through all directions like wildfire.
But Beop-wang’s foresight did not end there.
‘The master of the New Star.’
A new star rising to illuminate the chaotic heavens.
Beop-wang had marked a young man as the master of that star, and afterward, Jeok Cheon-gang ensured that the bloodline of the Yeolhwa Sect would pass to this youth when he journeyed to Jiuhua Mountain.
“…Ha. I thought he was just some babbling monk spouting nonsense.”
A hollow murmur mixed with bitter laughter scattered into the void. Jeok Cheon-gang, who had been silently facing the refreshing wind that swept across his entire body, suddenly turned his gaze to the side.
A fierce beast galloping relentlessly even at this very moment.
And a single person sprawled across the saddle, their entire body secured with sturdy leather straps.
No—Jeok Cheon-gang’s one and only disciple.
‘Infuriating brat. He causes all this chaos and sleeps like the dead.’
On one hand, it was absurd, but after hearing the general account from Jin Tae-kyung, Jeok Cheon-gang had no capacity left to be surprised.
A completely different world, separate from the Murim. And a young man who traveled between that realm—similar to the Immortal Realm—and the Murim.
‘Infuriating brat. He causes all this chaos and sleeps like the dead.’
On one hand, it was absurd, but after hearing the general account from Jin Tae-kyung, Jeok Cheon-gang had no capacity left to be surprised.
A completely different world, separate from the Murim. And a young man who traveled between that realm—similar to the Immortal Realm—and the Murim.
Though he could not fully comprehend it all, Jeok Cheon-gang had come to accept that every unbelievable word he had heard was the truth.
‘Then could it be… that this fellow has become a Lesser Immortal?’
Just as he muttered this to himself, drool dripped from Jin Tae-kyung’s lips and stuck to Jeok Cheon-gang’s cheek with a wet splat.
Splat.
“….”
His fist clenched involuntarily.
But instead of driving his knuckles into his sleeping disciple’s forehead, Jeok Cheon-gang sighed and gently adjusted the youth’s disheveled posture.
‘Yes, he’s suffered enough. Sleep well.’
No, wait.
Jeok Cheon-gang murmured in a voice so soft only one person could hear.
“Safe travels.”

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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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