Murim Login - Chapter 469

Everyone saw it. They couldn’t avoid seeing it.

The darkened sky and the fierce storm raging, with a torrential downpour of bizarre and jagged rocks.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’

When a massive boulder struck the water’s surface, sprays of water surged several meters high. From collapsing cliffs, birds that had lost their nests plunged to their deaths, their cries sharp and despairing, as unrelenting rain and lightning poured down.

And amidst the crumbling chaos, there was one figure that rose alone.

‘ROAR-!’

Water cascaded off its body like a waterfall.

Far below, reduced to tiny dots, humans gazed in astonishment at the being that had finally revealed itself.

It was colossal.

So much so that the word itself felt insufficient. Yet no other description came to mind.

A single question filled everyone’s thoughts.

“What is that?”

Its ominously beautiful black scales glistened with an unsettling sheen. Its thick body was so massive that it would take the outstretched arms of ten sturdy men to encircle it.

Even the part of its long, sinuous body that was visible above the water’s surface spanned over thirty meters. As one’s eyes followed its body upward, two horns emerged from its forehead, and beneath them, a glowing gaze.

Eyes with blood-red pupils, vertically slit.

Between the slowly parting scales, rows of saw-like teeth appeared, and a gaping maw reminiscent of a dark cave came into view.

‘Thrum!’

A dreadful sound echoed from the skies above, sending chills deep into the bones of Zhuge Pung, the Reclining Dragon.

“What on earth…?”

Zhuge Pung had been hailed as a prodigy of the Zhuge family since infancy.

With an extraordinary memory and an insatiable thirst for knowledge, he had devoured tens of thousands of books, accumulating a wealth of knowledge that seemed boundless.

Or so he had believed.

Until now.

The fear of confronting the unknown for the first time in his life.

In that moment, Zhuge Pung realized that the knowledge and information he had built up until now had crumbled to dust.

And so, too, did he understand that the countless tales and legends he had dismissed as nonsense were, in fact, standing right before his eyes.

“So… those absurd stories were true all along?”

Zhuge Pung had firmly believed in the power of knowledge.

As the head of the prestigious Zhuge family, he had used his vast knowledge and reliable information to protect his family and its many members.

To him, unverified superstitions were never worth considering.

Believing in illusions that no one had seen was foolishness.

But someone, standing a hundred or so meters away from Zhuge Pung, thought differently.

Unlike Zhuge Pung, he wasn’t a family head bearing the responsibility of countless dependents. He was simply an old fisherman who had survived on his experiences and a small boat.

The old fisherman’s trembling eyes gazed into the void.

Amidst the collapsing chaos, the towering, solitary figure. Just the sight of it made his legs give way, while an overwhelming sense of awe and fear crushed his frail shoulders.

The cry that he couldn’t utter aloud echoed only in his heart.

“A… a divine spirit. The divine spirit of Dongting Lake has appeared!”

The world is filled with countless superstitions, and Hubei Province is no exception.

Stories passed from elders to children, from one generation to the next, for hundreds of years. The old fisherman was no different.

Having spent his entire life as a boatman in Hubei Province, he knew what the being before him was.

The ‘Two-Horned Beast’ of Dongting Lake, or the ‘Water Divine Dragon’, the true ruler of Dongting Lake.

“Aah… aah…”

The old fisherman trembled. His entire body, overwhelmed by indescribable emotions, shuddered, and his chest swelled with inexplicable feelings.

It was a sensation that only he, among all those present, could understand.

Awe and terror, beyond words.

As a boatman to his very core, he couldn’t believe he was facing the ruler of Dongting Lake, and the aura emanating from the being suffocated him.

“The… the divine spirit is angry. Everything that has happened was because the divine spirit was enraged!”

The old fisherman realized that his guess was correct.

Over the past month, the numerous deaths that had occurred—it was clear now that the divine spirit was furious for some unknown reason.

And now, it would surely pass judgment on him as it had on the others.

That judgment was death.

He couldn’t die here. Somehow, he had to calm the divine spirit’s wrath.

The old fisherman, who had been standing in a daze, let out a cracked shout from his trembling lips.

“Y-Your Divine Spirit! I have committed no sin!”

The silence that had enveloped the area shattered as the old fisherman’s desperate cry was swallowed by the wind and rain.

The towering figure’s sudden appearance had paralyzed everyone in their tracks. Without anyone to stop him, the trembling old man ran toward the water’s edge, his legs quaking beneath him.

“Divine Spirit—!”

‘Splash, splatter!’

The moment his worn-out straw shoes stepped into the waters of Dongting Lake—

‘Sshhhh.’

Time seemed to slow down. A pair of enormous eyes turned toward the old fisherman.

In those vertically slit, blood-red pupils, the old man’s fragile and insignificant figure was reflected. As the creature acknowledged the small human before it, the glow in its eyes blazed crimson.

‘Whoosh!’

An ominous energy emanated from the creature’s massive thirty-meter-long form, spreading outward in all directions.

Birds that had been mid-flight plummeted as if their wings lost strength. Thousands of fish fled in terror from the depths of the lake, only to float lifelessly to the surface, bellies up.

The sheer size of the creature’s body was matched by the deathly aura it radiated.

Neither insignificant animals nor humans could withstand its presence.

Even before that invisible energy could touch him, the old fisherman’s entire body froze, like a statue.

His mouth hung open, and his eyes were wide with terror. Just as his pupils were about to roll back in overwhelming fear—

‘Swish! Crack!’

A sharp sound cut through the air as the old fisherman’s collapsing body was gently caught.

The one holding the old man’s frail form was a young man who now raised his head, staring at the enormous being.

“Hey, you damn oversized eel!”

The creature’s pupils dilated in recognition of the sharp voice that cut through the storm.

This one was different.

While all other humans were frozen in shock and fear, this young man was unaffected. He neither flinched in horror nor trembled in terror.

The fear of the unknown typically stemmed from confronting something beyond comprehension.

But this young man stood unbound by such fears. Far from frightened, he seemed oddly familiar with it.

“Are you going to open those damn eyes or what?”

Jin Taekyung’s blunt remark sliced through the tension as a streak of light split the air.

‘Swish!’ ‘Thud!’

* * *

When I first saw the thing, only one thought crossed my mind.

“Am I seeing things?”

It was impossible not to think that.

Not in modern times, but in the Murim world—standing before me was a monster straight out of something I’d only seen in books or elsewhere.

If it were just an illustration from a fantasy novel, I could shrug it off. Unfortunately, its origins lay in the meticulously compiled ‘Monster Encyclopedia,’ the culmination of decades of research by scholars and hunters who had survived the Great Cataclysm.

“Could it really be…?”

Though most of my hunter career involved battling low-grade monsters like goblins, the part of the ‘Monster Encyclopedia’ I’d studied most often detailed apex predators.

And among them, this creature held a prominent position.

“The Sea Serpent.”

As its name suggests, the Sea Serpent is a marine monster.

At the dawn of the Great Cataclysm, the Sea Serpent revealed its existence to the world by sinking a U.S. carrier fleet. Yet, for reasons unknown, it disappeared shortly after the cataclysm.

Correction—it had remained hidden, at least until just now.

“A Sea Serpent in the Murim world? What the hell…”

The shock held me frozen until I realized something peculiar.

“Wait a second, something’s off.”

In my modern world, the Sea Serpent wasn’t some mythical creature from folklore.

It was a top-tier monster that served under the Demon King Asmodeus, a calamity that had caused devastating harm to humanity.

Naturally, there were high-resolution photos and video recordings of the Sea Serpent.

However, the creature before me looked distinctly different from the Sea Serpent documented in the ‘Monster Encyclopedia.’

“The Sea Serpent is closer in form to a sea snake, but this thing resembles an Eastern dragon.”

Looking more closely, the differences became clear—the body size, length, and even the shape of its face.

Still, these two similar yet distinct monsters shared one critical feature…

‘Whoosh!’

That aura. It wasn’t the killing intent Murim warriors spoke of but the innate, savage energy unique to monsters.

“Fear.”

Fear—it was terror, plain and simple.

All monsters carried this essence, but for high-ranking ones, its potency was overwhelming.

It bound their foes with dread, shattering their minds.

“Yeah, like it did to the old man.”

The scattered puzzle pieces in my mind began to click together.

The old fisherman’s unstable condition suddenly made sense. His dazed eyes only cleared after his strength had been completely drained.

“He must have encountered it before us.”

Even an unparalleled Murim master with unyielding willpower would be overwhelmed by the terror of confronting such an unknown for the first time.

In fact, S-rank hunters were probably better equipped to handle this phenomenon than the strongest warriors of the Murim world.

And I…

I wasn’t an exception.

‘Ding!’

– You have resisted the Fear!

– Your strong mental fortitude overcomes the terror!

‘Creak!’ ‘Thud!’

Catching the old fisherman’s crumpled body as I checked his pressure points, I realized how close he’d come.

Had I been even a fraction of a second later, the poor old man might have succumbed to madness or simply died outright.

I turned my gaze to the towering figure in the distance.

“Damn it. It’s ridiculously huge.”

I’ve never faced a Sea Serpent before, but it’s obvious—this thing is no pushover.

It didn’t even collapse after taking a spear strike with all my strength.

‘Thud!’

A massive impact caused the creature’s colossal body to sway slightly, as if a small mountain had shifted.

“Broke through the scales, did I?”

Just from the sound, I knew.

The sharp sound of the strike echoed, but my instincts told me—my attack had failed to pierce through its scales.

Even after unleashing a spear charged with all my strength, I hadn’t caused any significant damage.

If I had used ‘Baekyeom’ (White Flame), a weapon forged from Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron, the impact would have been greater. But unless I could end the fight in one blow, relying on it would be foolish.

Instead, I needed to act before that enormous monster could recover from its confusion.

I turned my head, took a deep breath, and channeled my energy from the Dantian.

“Cheongpung! Hyeok Mu-jin! Gong Gi-bang!”

“Haah!”

“Hmph!”

My shout, louder than I thought possible, shook the air and startled the three figures frozen in place.

No, not three—only two reacted.

Hyeok Mu-jin and Gong Gi-bang flinched as if their half-dead souls were returning to their bodies. However, Cheongpung turned toward me, startled but still focused.

“Whoa! What is it, benefactor?”

I couldn’t help but feel baffled by his reaction.

“What kind of person is this?”

It’s natural for anyone to freeze when faced with a monster like that. I grew up in a modern world surrounded by monsters, so I’m somewhat desensitized, but Cheongpung? He’s a product of the Murim world, born and raised there. That he could so easily overcome ‘Fear’ was nothing short of astonishing.

“Cheongpung, are you sure you’re all right?”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I mean that thing over there—”

“Oh, right! That thing really scared me!”

Cheongpung gestured emphatically with his arms wide open.

“It’s huge! Like, really huge! I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life!”

I realized my mistake. Cheongpung had been out of his mind from the start.

“Focus, Cheongpung.”

I gritted my teeth and steeled myself for what lay ahead.