Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 128

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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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“You’ve had quite the luck, fleeing all the way here from Anhui.”
“Ah, haha…….”
Namgung So-hye found herself without words to counter Dan Woo-hyun’s caustic remark. Though she claimed to have suffered severe injuries, the fact remained unchanged: with the Namgung Clan in ruins and her family’s fate unknown, she had fled to save her own skin.
Recovery of her damaged Martial Power and body had consumed considerable time—yet she’d done nothing for the clan in the interim. That truth, too, remained unaltered.
“Well… I was actually about to leave soon anyway. My body’s recovered somewhat… and I’m worried about the clan…….”
Dan Woo-hyun watched her falter through her words. Then he extended a finger and jabbed her sharply in the ribs.
“Ow!”
She collapsed where she stood.
It hadn’t been a hard jab, yet she seized her side as if he’d torn open an unhealed wound, her body trembling for a long moment afterward.
Beneath an outwardly unmarked appearance, an unhealed wound remained.
It was where a Hidden Projectile had struck her while she was shaking off pursuers.
At least it carried no poison, but the healing was noticeably slower than elsewhere on her body.
“What… what are you doing?”
“In that condition, going anywhere would be useless—that much seems plain. You made the right choice. Had you gone to the Murim Alliance with a body like that, you’d have found little but misery.”
“How… how do you know all this?”
“I’ve just returned from a tour of Anhui and Henan.”
“What?!”
Namgung So-hye’s eyes went wide with shock.
Dan Woo-hyun was a man who rarely ventured beyond Honam, as if he’d built a wall between himself and the world. He simply didn’t move.
And yet Anhui and Henan?
She needed to hear something believable.
Namgung So-hye turned her head with an incredulous look toward Dan So-mi.
The small girl smiled brightly and held out her hand.
In her palm lay a wooden carving bearing the image of Shaolin Monastery.
“Father made it for me in Henan. He said it was a keepsake.”
“You… you really went to Henan?”
“Yes! There were some really scary people there. I saw people without any hair too. We met Uncle Ma there as well.”
Namgung So-hye’s gaze drifted toward the window.
Now that she thought about it, there had been a familiar face outside for a while now. The more she considered it, the more certain she became—Ma Jang-gang, known as the Wolf King, ranked among the Top Hundred Masters.
What was he doing here?
Unable to grasp the logic, her mind spiraled in confusion.
Then, suddenly, a question emerged.
“The Namgung Clan! What happened to the Namgung Clan?”
“It’s all been destroyed. It’ll take time to rebuild.”
“I don’t care about the buildings! Have you heard any news of my family?”
“They annihilated the Blood Sect and went into hiding somewhere.”
With those words, Namgung So-hye’s legs gave out and she sank to the ground. Even in this distant place where she’d lived at ease, worry never truly left her.
Father and mother—and her only brother.
The faces of branch family members and elders began to surface in her mind. Some were dead; others lay gravely wounded. Having abandoned all of them to escape alone, her heart must have been in agony.
Tears spilled from Namgung So-hye’s eyes.
“It seems they’re all well enough. You needn’t worry so much.”
At those sudden words, Namgung So-hye flinched. Then she slowly turned her head to regard Namgung Cheon, who wore a mask across his face.
That voice—so achingly familiar.
The same bearing she’d always known, the pure white beard visible beneath the mask’s edge, eyes calm as a still lake—they reminded her of someone she’d been desperately seeking.
And wasn’t that one arm missing?
Her pupils trembled for an instant.
Though months had passed since she’d last seen him, Namgung So-hye’s affection for Namgung Cheon ran far too deep to forget that voice. She reached out and seized his sleeve.
“Grandfather?”
“C-cough! What… what are you saying, eh, hehehehe.”
Caught off guard, he attempted to smooth things over as naturally as possible. Not having anticipated she’d recognize him so instantly, he carefully pried her fingers from his sleeve and stepped back two paces.
“It is you, isn’t it, Grandfather?”
“What… I haven’t the faintest…….”
He turned his head, trying to hide his discomfort.
But he could not evade the sharp brilliance of Namgung So-hye’s gaze. He would have gladly fled, but Dan So-mi stood rigidly before the door, blocking his path.
“This voice—I’m certain! Grandfather! What’s happened to you! Why are you here… and what about that mask?”
Namgung So-hye held fast to his sleeve with unmistakable resolve. For him to escape, he’d have to wrench himself free from his granddaughter’s grasp—but he couldn’t bring himself to do such a thing, leaving him hopelessly trapped.
He cast a pleading look toward Dan Woo-hyun and Sa Do-hak, but both deliberately turned away.
This is a family matter.
It’s something the two of them must resolve between themselves.
In the end, it was Namgung Cheon who raised his hands in surrender.
He laughed softly and removed his mask.
For the first time in ages, his true face was revealed.
“I knew it! You’re alive! I always believed you would be!”
“Haha, So-hye. Don’t cling to me like that. It’s hot enough already.”
He managed to peel away Namgung So-hye as she rushed toward him with a bright smile, though she seemed determined never to let go—a feeling that transported him back to her childhood days. The memories of how affectionate she’d been and how heavily she’d relied on him, and how harshly he’d had to teach her in return, came flooding back.
He felt a strange tenderness as he recalled those days.
“Why… why didn’t you contact us…?”
Namgung So-hye sank down again, tears streaming down her face.
Everyone had believed he was dead, and no word came. She had clung to belief that he lived and tried to find him, but circumstances had made it impossible.
His sudden absence had shaken the Namgung Clan deeply, and ultimately they’d been destroyed by a force—the Blood Sect—they’d never even heard of before.
The emotions welling up inside her could not be easily contained.
She burst into sobs, her shoulders shaking.

Dan Woo-hyun led Dan So-mi by the hand out of the room.
Part of it was not wanting to intrude on two people meeting after so long, but mostly he simply didn’t want to be caught in such an awkward moment.
Outside, Dan So-mi’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. It seemed she’d caught some of the emotion that Namgung So-hye had displayed just moments before.
Dan Woo-hyun smiled softly and asked her.
“Why are you crying?”
“It’s just… Sister is crying so hard.”
She wiped her tears away with her small hand.
Dan Woo-hyun could understand Namgung So-hye’s grief. Young as she was, Dan So-mi too had known the sorrow of losing family. If the people she thought were dead suddenly appeared before her eyes again, wouldn’t she feel something like this?
“Dad is bad too.”
“Me?”
The unexpected words startled Dan Woo-hyun.
Bad?
What do you mean, bad?
As he looked down at her with confusion, she wiped her reddened eyes once more and glared at him pointedly, her round eyes growing even wider as if to say, “I’m very angry with you.”
“You should have told Sister! Then she wouldn’t have cried like that!”
“Haha, well, it’s also strange to tell someone something they don’t wish to know, isn’t it?”
“Still…”
“There are things in this world that cannot be hidden and things that can. If it was bound to come out eventually, then now was simply the right time.”
“…Okay.”
Dan So-mi answered with an expression that suggested she didn’t quite understand. Since it was Dan Woo-hyun speaking, she nodded along dutifully enough, but she couldn’t fully grasp all this talk about fate and destiny and timing—why telling something was different from keeping it secret.
Still, since it was Dan Woo-hyun saying it, she’d better pretend to understand.
“Mm-hmm!”
She nodded vigorously.
“So… is Grandfather going back home now?”
Dan So-mi asked with a note of reluctance in her voice. Whether one counted the time as brief or long, a few months was all it had been, yet she’d grown quite fond of Namgung Cheon in that span.
She’d even imagined what it might be like if she had a real grandfather—surely someone like Namgung Cheon.
And now that same Namgung Cheon was returning to his home.
Something bittersweet lingered in Dan So-mi’s voice.
It would have been nice if they could have lived together…
“Well, I’m not sure yet. Let’s wait and see how things unfold.”
“Oh! That works!”
Clap!
Dan So-mi clapped her hands together.
As if she’d struck upon the finest idea imaginable, her face brightened with a smile. She stepped in front of Dan Woo-hyun, who had been walking slowly, and spoke with a sweet, gleeful expression.
“You should marry Sister! Then Grandfather would really truly be Grandfather, right? He wouldn’t have to leave, and… you’d get Sister too. It’s the best of both worlds!”
“Haha! So you’ve grown that fond of him?”
“Yes! Grandfather Namgung adores So-mi so much! And the Gentleman’s Sword technique is so cool!”
Dan Woo-hyun couldn’t begin to fathom a child’s logic. He doted on her at least as much as Namgung Cheon, if not more—yet still she wanted to keep the old man around like this?
An unexpected pang of jealousy stirred in him.
“From where I stand, I’d be happier if he left.”
“What?”
Dan Woo-hyun chuckled at Dan So-mi’s startled expression.
So the girl could make that face too, he thought.
He wanted to tease her more, but when he saw her eyes beginning to water, his heart softened. Dan Woo-hyun reached over and gently pinched her cheek.
“Our So-mi likes her grandfather more than her father, does she? That makes me jealous.”
“Ah…… no! No, that’s not it! Father is the best in the whole world!”
“Haha, that’s kind of you to say. But you like your grandfather too, don’t you?”
“Um…… yes…….”
“Between father and grandfather, who do you like more?”
“That’s…… obviously father!”
Dan So-mi clenched her fists and spoke with fierce conviction.
She’d seemed to hesitate for a moment, but what did it matter?
Dan Woo-hyun smiled and ruffled her hair.
“There, there. Say you like father best when you’re with father, and grandfather best when you’re with grandfather. That’s the way to live comfortably in this world. You’ve learned something wise for one so young.”
“I really mean it! So-mi speaks from the heart!”
“Haha, yes, yes.”
Dan Woo-hyun, laughing freely for the first time in ages, led So-mi toward the main quarters. There was still time before dinner, and it seemed he wanted to rest awhile.
From a distance, three pairs of eyes watched the two of them intently.
Jang Sam-tae, Kwon Mu-jin, Ma Jang-gang.
All three had just witnessed an expression on Dan Woo-hyun’s face they held in their minds.
A chill ran through them so sharply their bodies trembled.
“That…… that man can actually make an expression like that?”
Jang Sam-tae rubbed his arms and shuddered, his skin crawling. It was a face he had never once seen in all the time he’d known Dan Woo-hyun.
The Dan Woo-hyun they knew was someone whose mere presence made the air grow heavy, and whose gaze alone could freeze the blood in one’s veins.
“Ahem! So…… our lord is human after all.”
Ma Jang-gang muttered softly, as if reassured.
He too had never thought of Dan Woo-hyun as human. Or rather—were there any humans at all among the three of them in this compound?
The old man called the Gentleman’s Sword, and the old man called Ma Cheon-gun. Just looking at those two, they had already risen to the level of the Celestial Realm.
And then there was Dan Woo-hyun.
‘This place is a gathering of monsters.’
Ma Jang-gang found himself grateful once again that he had come to follow Dan Woo-hyun. Merely imagining a scenario where he’d met them ignorant in the Martial World and crossed swords with them sent a terror crawling up his spine so intense his legs nearly gave way.
“I don’t know if we can afford to be this peaceful.”
It was then that Kwon Mu-jin spoke.
They had been back at the compound less than a day. And considering the power of those gathered here, they were people who could naturally withstand whatever might come.
But the world now knew.
That masters of this caliber were assembled in one place.
And the Demonic Emperor Castle would move as well.
Because they now knew Kwon Mu-jin was alive.
Ma Do-jin was cunning and relentless as a snake. He would certainly move again to take Kwon Mu-jin’s head.
Kwon Mu-jin’s eyes narrowed to slits as he clenched his fists.
He did not want this peace to be broken, no matter what. For that to happen, he needed to climb higher still.
He turned away.
At the end of his gaze sat Sa Do-hak, sprawled lazily on the veranda.

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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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