Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 143

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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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It was a perfect hour for an ambush.
The night was dark, and a thick fog blanketed the streets. The field of vision had narrowed so considerably that it was impossible to distinguish one person from another unless they stood arm’s length away.
In such darkness, a group of figures waited.
Two masked old men.
Kwon Mu-jin, gripping the Sobleung Twin Swords, steeling his resolve.
And Dan Woo-hyun, standing motionless, his gaze fixed ahead; at the rear, Namgung So-hye, her mind churning with questions about why they had come at this hour.
“Sigh. This really does feel like we’re heading out for a street brawl.”
Namgung So-hye exhaled a long breath. Walking through the late-night streets in a group like this, she felt little different from the common bandits who prowled the outskirts of Ak-yang.
They were heading out to kill someone, no less.
How could she not feel this way?
“Weren’t we supposed to come when there were more people and smash the place up?”
Sa Do-hak grumbled his own complaint. He was thinking how unnecessary it seemed to come so late, and how he needn’t have worn this stuffy mask at all.
He was itching to tear it off.
“Smash it up? That’s harsh language. We’re simply here to see his face…….”
Dan Woo-hyun spoke with an unhurried tone as he moved forward.
Their target was the inn where Ma Dok-jin was staying.
Inside, he could sense a considerable number of presences. The strange thing was that Ma Dok-jin’s subordinates ought to have shown traces of martial training, yet some did and some didn’t.
Dan Woo-hyun’s gaze grew thoughtful.
“He was waiting for us.”
Dan Woo-hyun’s lips curved into a faint smile.
They had been on guard all along.
Those gazes he had felt ever since leaving the School were certainly Ma Dok-jin’s subordinates, and they would have reported that he was heading toward Ak-yang.
Creak!
Then.
The window on the topmost floor of the inn swung open, and the familiar figure of Ma Dok-jin appeared. He had a courtesan tucked against his side and held a wine bottle in one hand as he looked down at the street below.
“I thought you’d grow tired of waiting.”
“Your spirit still burns bright.”
“Hmph, don’t mistake me for who I was last time, you dog…….”
Ma Dok-jin’s eyes narrowed as he forced a grin. The moment his gaze fell upon Dan Woo-hyun, a surge of rage threatened to overwhelm him.
He wanted to leap out and strike the man dead on the spot.
But that would be no fun.
He wanted to drive them further into despair, to savour the look of hopelessness on their faces.
“Shall we make a wager?”
Ma Dok-jin laughed harshly.
His gaze swept between Dan Woo-hyun and Kwon Mu-jin as his expression radiated arrogance. He was certain that this time events would unfold exactly as he envisioned, and that today was the day his blade of vengeance would sever their necks.
“A wager?”
“Since we’re already playing for our lives, we might as well make it entertaining.”
“What are you scheming, Ma Dok-jin!”
Kwon Mu-jin cried out fiercely, grinding his teeth.
He wanted to charge forward and kill him right then. The very sight of that laugh and expression made his stomach churn with revulsion and rage.
Ma Dok-jin snorted and drummed his fingers against the window frame.
“My subordinates are scattered throughout Ak-yang right now, surrounding the whole city.”
“So?”
“And there are several people in this inn as well.”
What was he trying to say?
Yet Dan Woo-hyun, Namgung Cheon, and Sa Do-hak had already understood, their faces hardening as they stared at Ma Dok-jin. Namgung Cheon’s eyes in particular blazed with killing intent.
Namgung Cheon took a step forward.
“Careful now, don’t move carelessly. If you take another step, I’ll slaughter everyone inside the inn.”
“You bastard! Do you know what you’re trying to do?”
“Of course I do. Kill everyone.”
Ma Dok-jin laughed deeply and rose from his seat. Then he pulled something from the room and hurled it out the window. It flew through the air and landed before Dan Woo-hyun and Kwon Mu-jin with a dull thud.
“A……a person……?”
Namgung So-hye’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at it.
It was a human head.
It was the innkeeper who had been working at this inn in Ak-yang, someone Namgung So-hye had known. To see him lying on the ground with only his head, his face twisted in agony, made her eyes blaze with murderous fury.
“Now, shall we begin? Chase me, and everyone in Ak-yang dies. Every last one! And come to think of it, your daughter is in the magistrate’s office too, isn’t she?”
Dan Woo-hyun’s eyes narrowed to slits.
He’d known for a fortnight that they were being watched, but since they didn’t seem inclined to make a move, he’d let it slide—a mistake that would come back to haunt him.
“Haha! Let’s see if you can really stop everyone with just these people! Or will you give up everything and kill me instead?”
Ma Dok-jin laughed loudly, mocking those before him.
His laughter only grew louder as he gazed at Dan Woo-hyun and Kwon Mu-jin, who offered not a word in response—clearly delighted by their silence.
That was when Dan Woo-hyun’s hand moved.
Bang!
In an instant, Ma Dok-jin couldn’t comprehend what had happened. The topmost room of the inn where he stood—it was half-obliterated, leaving scarcely a trace behind.
The shattered roof crumbled to dust, and the subordinates who had been standing concealed nearby collapsed to the floor as bloodied corpses.
Trembling seized his body.
Ma Dok-jin shook uncontrollably.
‘That man… what did he just do?’
“Flee with death at your heels. The next time I lay eyes on you will be your last.”
“You’re letting him go?”
“Seems like we could just crush him right here.”
Namgung Cheon and Sa Do-hak muttered, their eyes fixed upward.
Their voices carried clearly enough that Ma Dok-jin’s eyes widened. Were they truly prepared to forfeit the lives of all those others just to claim him?
Such confidence in the face of slaughter.
Ma Dok-jin rose to his feet, his expression unreadable.
“Is it him?”
A voice cut through the moment.
The door swung open naturally, and Yuk Gyeom-sa entered, whistling low as he took in the devastation of the room. He shuffled forward and steadied the reeling Ma Dok-jin, then peered downward at Dan Woo-hyun below, his expression supremely satisfied.
His smug composure never wavered.
Not even the wreckage of the room seemed to shake him.
And yet.
“Oh, isn’t this Yuk Gyeom-sa?”
“No kidding. What’s that bastard doing up there?”
The moment Namgung Cheon and Sa Do-hak saw his face, they spoke—their voices brimming with delight, as though they’d encountered an old friend.
“You know him?”
“Know him well. Got a thrashing from him back when I was young.”
“Ha, you too? I almost killed him myself.”
“Hehe.”
“Haha.”
The two old men burst into raucous laughter.
The incongruous merriment made Yuk Gyeom-sa’s brow furrow.
Who were these people to speak such nonsense?
They wore masks, obscuring their features completely. Yet at a glance, they hardly seemed like formidable opponents.
No presence, no aura emanated from them.
They were simply boasting.
“Why don’t you flee?”
Dan Woo-hyun’s voice cut through once more, tinged with warning. The sudden shift drained the levity from the air, leaving only an unsettling chill.
‘Impressive enough, but only to a point.’
Yuk Gyeom-sa dismissed his opponent again and stepped back. If a wager had been made, it had to be honored, hadn’t it?
At that same moment, something shot skyward with a sharp whistle.
Yuk Gyeom-sa’s signal flare had detonated.
The wager had begun.
“Move!”
Ma Dok-jin bolted at the sight of the flare bursting overhead.
Someone among them would surely give chase. And with his subordinates scattered throughout Ak-yang, they would need to be contained—meaning his forces would have to disperse.
He’d made extensive preparations.
All for this day.
A thin sneer played at the corner of his mouth.

“If we’d wanted to catch him, we could have. A shame, really.”
Sensing Ma Dok-jin’s presence receding from the inn, Sa Do-hak clicked his tongue. The distance was such that they could have ended him whenever they pleased, which made it all the more frustrating.
But it seemed Dan Woo-hyun had other ideas.
He tapped Kwon Mu-jin’s shoulder lightly.
“Go after him. You bring back his head.”
“Yes!”
Kwon Mu-jin threw himself forward without hesitation.
Though Yuk Gyeom-sa’s presence gave him pause, it wasn’t enough to make him defy Dan Woo-hyun’s command. If the opponent was strong, he would simply overcome them with greater resolve.
The one who had grown in precisely this manner was none other than Kwon Mu-jin, master of the Twin Swords Technique.
“So you let him catch you on purpose?”
“Yes.”
Dan Woo-hyun nodded.
From the start, this entire affair hinged on Kwon Mu-jin’s involvement. And since there were entanglements with Ma Dok-jin as well, for him to take another step forward, he needed to surpass Ma Dok-jin directly.
“Then we should scatter.”
Sa Do-hak cracked his knuckles and gazed toward the west.
It was where the most civilians had gathered in the vicinity. And precisely there, the presence of Ma Dok-jin’s subordinates felt particularly strong.
“Then I’ll head that way.”
Namgung Cheon turned toward the opposite direction. Though there weren’t many dwellings, sounds of movement—shuffling, rustling—had been audible since earlier.
Moreover, toward where Namgung Cheon was headed lay the Magistrate’s Office.
He couldn’t simply abandon Dan So-mi there.
“Then…… I suppose I should go that way…….”
Namgung So-hye hesitated, gazing in one direction.
The direction she was looking was also where Yuk Gyeom-sa and Ma Dok-jin had vanished, and instead of dwellings, there stood an abundance of bandit hideouts and establishments of the Red Light District.
Dongting Lake bordered the area nearby, and at this hour, with considerable numbers of people out for boat rides and drinking, a major catastrophe could easily unfold.
But there…….
“Are you afraid of Yuk Gyeom-sa?”
“Of course not!”
Namgung So-hye cried out indignantly.
Yet at that response, Dan Woo-hyun chuckled softly.
She was unmistakably burdened by the thought of Yuk Gyeom-sa and Ma Dok-jin. And with Kwon Mu-jin himself unable to match their strength, the prospect of heading toward a place where two masters among the Hundred Transcendent could hardly inspire enthusiasm in her.
“There was once a woman like you—timid and clumsy too.”
“Eh…… Eh? But I’m not like that…….”
“Hah.”
Namgung So-hye regarded Dan Woo-hyun with a pouting glare.
Why was he comparing her to another woman?
How irritating.
“But she was remarkable too. She made a name for herself in less than a decade.”
Namgung So-hye paused, lost in thought.
There existed no female master in the current Martial World who had risen to prominence in merely ten years. Nor did there exist one bearing the title of Sword Marquis, so Dan Woo-hyun’s words could not possibly be speaking of the present Martial World.
Then…….
“Was she truly remarkable?”
“She was not born with talent as you were. But she overcame it through sheer effort.”
Namgung So-hye swallowed hard.
Then she watched him turn away. He seemed ready to move, launching himself lightly upward with a push off the ground toward the Red Light District.
His Lightness Skill was extraordinarily fast.
It would surpass even Jang Sam-tae, said to be the swiftest within the School.
And so Namgung So-hye threw herself forward with all her might.
Merely keeping up with him drained the strength from her entire body, yet she gritted her teeth against it all and managed to speak.
“Could that be…… Nam Ju-ryeon of Samcheon……?”
Between the sounds of wind rushing fiercely, Namgung So-hye’s voice cut into his ears. Dan Woo-hyun started and his gaze instinctively turned toward her, and seeing that certainty shining in her eyes, he laughed quietly.
“Perhaps. Or perhaps not.”

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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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