Murim Login - Chapter 451

“Benefactor, where are you going?”

“W-what?”

I froze in my tracks as Cheongpung, who had been packing his belongings, tilted his head curiously at me.

“What’s with the look? Why?” I asked.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“I, uh… I have something urgent to take care of.”

“But you were just saying we needed to leave quickly.”

“Well, young swordsman, I didn’t want to say this, but…”

Feigning seriousness, I hardened my expression and replied, “I’m going to relieve myself. Satisfied?”

“But the restroom isn’t in that direction.”

Damn his sharpness.

With his focus on food and survival, Cheongpung likely knew the exact location of every toilet on the island. After a moment of hesitation, I gave a weak excuse.

“…It’s an outdoor emergency.”

Even I could tell how pathetic that sounded.

Noticing the commotion, Gong Gi-bang and Hyeok Mu-jin paused their packing to glance over.

“Gong, doesn’t the captain seem unusually talkative today?” Hyeok Mu-jin asked.

“Indeed. Why does he seem so restless?”

“That’s because I’m debating which one of you to hit first,” I snapped.

Normally, this threat would have been enough to make them back off, but apparently, they’d grown bolder after enduring my discipline.

“Hm. If this were the usual captain, he’d already be throwing punches instead of talking. Something’s definitely up.”

“Exactly,” Gong Gi-bang agreed. “I’ve been punched enough to know when it’s out of character. This feels deliberate.”

Hyeok Mu-jin squinted at me suspiciously before suddenly widening his eyes. “Wait a second—where’s Moon Kyung?”

“Huh? Now that you mention it, he was here earlier. Where did he go?”

Where did he go? He’s already outside, waiting for me.

I sighed, recalling Moon Kyung’s earlier cryptic message. At this rate, denying the situation would only make them more suspicious.

“He’s outside. We had something to discuss.”

“Outside? Just the two of you? In private?” Hyeok Mu-jin’s tone was suggestive.

“…What are you even talking about, you lunatic? Don’t make it sound so weird!”

Hyeok Mu-jin gave me a knowing look. “Captain, I’m used to your curses and violence, so it’s fine. But don’t go corrupting Moon Kyung with your weirdness.”

I was speechless at the absurdity of his claim. Gong Gi-bang decided to chime in, too.

“Hyeok’s right. The kid’s thoughtful and kind. Don’t drag him into anything strange.”

I stared at them, dumbfounded. “You idiots… Forget it. You wouldn’t understand.”

At least Cheongpung, who had finally grasped the situation, stayed silent. No, wait—he was stuffing his face with sweets again.

*‘Where does he keep pulling those sweets from?’*

I couldn’t take any more of their nonsense. Shaking my head, I ignored their voices and stepped out of the building.

—

Outside, Moon Kyung stood in the courtyard, dressed in immaculate white robes, waiting patiently.

“You’re late.”

“I didn’t take that long—”

“You’re late.”

“Sorry, I—”

“You’re late.”

The relentless repetition was suffocating. I swallowed nervously and forced a reply.

“I-I’m sorry for being late. What’s this about?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you the one who called me out here, saying you had something to discuss?”

His innocent blinking almost fooled me. *‘What an actor.’*

Still smiling brightly, he continued, “Ah, you want to move to a different spot? Understood.”

“No, we can just—”

“You want to move? Understood.”

“…Fine. Let’s move.”

I felt like crying as I followed Moon Kyung to a more secluded area.

—

Once we were far from the others, Moon Kyung finally spoke.

“*Dark Heaven*. Is this their doing?”

“Uh, it seems that way—”

“No one’s here.”

I quickly corrected myself. “It seems likely.”

“So it’s not confirmed yet.”

“There’s always room for doubt. But even though we haven’t found a formation, all signs point to Dark Heaven.”

“Dark Heaven… Dark Heaven…” Moon Kyung muttered softly, before suddenly lifting his head.

He stared silently at the moonless night sky, his expression unreadable. After a moment, he broke the silence again.

“Didn’t you find anything strange about the bodies?”

“Strange? How do you mean?”

“The scars on them.”

All deaths leave marks, especially in battles between martial artists. For someone experienced in different martial arts techniques, the wounds on a body could reveal the weapon, style, and even the moves that caused the death.

And Moon Kyung—this so-called healer—had both the skill and insight to be one of the martial world’s best forensic examiners.

“The wounds were unlike anything I’ve seen before. They resembled the basic strokes of the *Three Talents Swordplay* but with an undulating, wave-like quality. It’s peculiar and unsettling.”

Moon Kyung slowly raised his hand, cutting through the air. Threads of internal energy shimmered faintly in the darkness.

“From what I can infer, the weapon used by the culprit isn’t something common. It’s a specialized weapon, likely a *snake sword* with a serpentine blade.”

“I thought it might have been an attack using qi,” I offered.

“You’re correct. It was either qi itself or something as sharp as qi.”

The only material that sharp could be *Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron*. However, it was implausible for Dark Heaven to have equipped an entire force with weapons made of such a rare resource.

*‘No matter how much gold you have, Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron is near impossible to obtain.’*

This wasn’t a matter of wealth but one of resource scarcity. As I mulled over this, Moon Kyung asked another question.

“Did you examine all the corpses?”

“Not all of them—just the ones that stood out. But my experience is limited. Even when I saw them, I couldn’t identify the martial art or techniques used.”

“You saw the body of Huang Zhong, the Blade of the Yangtze. What did you notice?”

“He was cleaved in half at the waist by an extremely sharp qi. But the decomposition was so severe that’s about all I could determine.”

“And the others, Huang Cheol and Do Rip-gun?”

“That…”

I frowned, a sudden realization striking me. There was a peculiar commonality among the three bodies.

*‘Their lower bodies were missing.’*

All three corpses had only their upper halves intact. At the time, I hadn’t found it odd because I’d seen many other mutilated bodies, but now it stood out as strange.

“Couldn’t fish have eaten the rest?” I suggested.

“That’s not entirely wrong. The massacre at Dongzheng Stronghold occurred ten days ago. With the cold weather gone, decomposition would naturally be severe, especially for bodies submerged in water.”

The warm sun and damp conditions had erased much of the evidence of what happened. However, not all traces had disappeared.

“Yet the villagers’ bodies were relatively intact. Did you notice that?”

“Yes,” I nodded. “The bodies of those who didn’t practice martial arts weren’t cut apart—they were crushed.”

The bodies of women, children, and the elderly weren’t severed but rather mangled and pulverized. And there was something else.

“The homes and surrounding grounds were completely destroyed,” Moon Kyung continued. “Such devastation would require an enormous amount of force, far beyond the capabilities of even a highly skilled martial artist.”

“So, we’re looking at an *external arts master*?”

“There’s no one else here,” Moon Kyung muttered pointedly.

“…I was just thinking out loud,” I mumbled.

Moon Kyung’s observation was correct. Martial arts in the murim were broadly divided into two categories: *internal arts*, which focused on the efficiency and application of internal energy, and *external arts*, which involved rigorous physical training to hone the body to its limits.

Most practitioners chose internal arts due to the immense pain and prolonged effort required to master external arts. This meant that external arts masters capable of such destruction were exceedingly rare.

*‘A peak external arts master with this level of power would be one of the few.’*

Even among the scarce number of transcendent masters in the world, external arts specialists were an even smaller minority.

I glanced at Moon Kyung, hoping for answers, but his smooth forehead furrowed slightly.

“Don’t bother. I don’t know their identity either,” he admitted. “Or rather, I should say *they*. There’s more than one.”

“There are two of them?”

“At least two. Possibly three.”

“Three transcendent masters…”

Moon Kyung’s words left me speechless. Three transcendent masters working together was a nightmarish scenario. If it weren’t for having both Moon Kyung and Jeok Cheon-Gang on our side, we wouldn’t have been able to move a step without fear.

“With this much information,” I began hesitantly, “it’s possible that the *Three Demonic Fiends* we captured in Sichuan might know something. They must have heard of their own allies.”

The Three Demonic Fiends, captured during the Sichuan conflict, were one of the reasons I was headed to the Zhuge Clan. Rumor had it that after losing their “privates” in our last encounter, they’d become erratic, making it easier to extract information from them.

*‘Maybe they could even help uncover the formation we’re searching for.’*

Just as I began to feel hopeful, Moon Kyung’s voice broke through my thoughts.

“Or perhaps it’s someone we all already know.”

“What?”

“The one using that weapon,” he clarified.

It took me a moment to process his words, and when I did, it hit me like a hammer to the back of the head.

I stared at Moon Kyung, stunned. “Are you serious?”

“A seasoned transcendent master, with techniques and scars so unique they defy recognition. Someone of that level wielding such a weapon is exceptionally rare.”

“Then you mean…”

Moon Kyung’s voice turned dry as he spoke the name.

“*Dongting Fisherman.* At this point, he’s the most likely suspect.”

—

The *Dongting Fisherman*. An eccentric known to have never strayed far from Dongting Lake. His weapon of choice was an unusual fishing rod made of blackwood, which he wielded like a martial tool.

In a fit of rage over the Maritime Guild leader’s death, he had crossed Cheonryeong Falls, disappearing without a trace.

All the evidence seemed to point to him. His broken blackwood fishing rod was the only sign left behind, and his body was never found.

*‘It all fits too perfectly.’*

I had momentarily forgotten about him. This wasn’t baseless suspicion—it was a solid lead.

‘Even though it’s just a guess, what if he is really with Dark Heaven?’

“Still,” I hesitated, “Zhuge Pung described him as someone without reason to…”

“Everyone has reasons for their actions,” Moon Kyung interrupted coldly. “Even Dongting Fisherman is human. Shadows lurk in everyone’s past. Zhuge Pung is likely already considering this possibility.”

With those chilling words, Moon Kyung turned away.

“Always stay vigilant. Good fortune to you.”
Chapter 451