Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 161

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Wheeee-eee-eee!
The shrill blast of a whistle cut through the air.
To those fleeing, it was the sound of hell itself; to those pursuing, it spoke only of urgency.
An escape from Thunder Prison—the place that had never allowed a single prisoner to flee in all its history—had just occurred.
This crisis had to be contained at any cost.
There was no telling how many heads might roll if it spiraled beyond control.
All of Tianshan was placed on alert, and countless members of the Makyung mobilized for pursuit.
The situation had spiraled to a critical point, and the tension drawn wire-taut.
“Damn it! At this rate, they’ll have my head!”
Ma Jang-gang, supporting the limp weight of Dong Bang-gu across his shoulders, gasped for breath and glanced behind them. It didn’t seem as though the pursuers had closed in yet, but at this sluggish pace, capture was merely a matter of time.
They hadn’t even managed to escape Tianshan itself.
If only they could break free from this mountain, the escape would become manageable—but even that was proving impossible, and the frustration was beyond words.
The three men, unable to find their way, simply pressed forward.
Unlike their initial assumption that running eastward would grant them an easy escape, Tianshan’s mountain paths were so intricate and treacherous that the slightest deviation sent them completely astray.
Jang Sam-tae fell into deep thought.
Without any knowledge of the path ahead, they couldn’t afford to stumble about aimlessly.
Even erasing their tracks with each step was draining what little strength remained.
Should they attempt a desperate breakthrough?
No—doing so would mean death for all of them.
As tension wound tighter, cold sweat began to bead on his forehead without his knowing.
‘What do I do? What can I do?’
He glanced sideways at Ma Jang-gang, but the man was in no state to think clearly.
Between finding their way and carrying Dong Bang-gu’s weight, he had far less room to maneuver than Jang Sam-tae did.
‘I have to find the breakthrough myself.’
Think about what could be done in this situation.
Crack!
The sound came at that very moment.
Both Ma Jang-gang and Jang Sam-tae froze, dropping into low stances with bated breath.
They’d thought they’d covered their tracks well enough, but the Makyung’s pursuit abilities were not to be underestimated.
Ears pricked, they turned toward the sound only to see an animal pass by.
“Phew…….”
“Damn it! Can’t even tell the difference between a beast and a man…….”
Ma Jang-gang spat out a rough curse, his face twisting in frustration.
Under ordinary circumstances, he wouldn’t have startled at such a trifle, but given the dire situation, his nerves were so raw that any sound—whether beast or man—sent a chill through him.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it, is there? More importantly, if we keep going like this, we’re really going to die…….”
“Should we leave him behind?”
“That might be one way……but I don’t have enough information.”
That something had gone wrong within the Makyung was evident enough.
But they had learned nothing of the crucial details—what exactly had happened, and why the Vice Commander Dong Bang-gu had been imprisoned in Thunder Prison in the first place.
Without those answers, they couldn’t abandon him—his knowledge of the Makyung’s inner workings was too valuable.
“He doesn’t look like he’ll last much longer anyway…….”
Ma Jang-gang’s brow furrowed deeper.
Dong Bang-gu’s condition was grave. Even if they could reach a physician and seek treatment at once, his survival was far from certain.
They couldn’t allow the two of them to die in an attempt to save him.
But Jang Sam-tae’s words weren’t wrong either.
No matter what, they had to fulfill Dan Woo-hyun’s orders.
“I……put me down.”
“You’re awake?”
“Cough, cough! Quickly!”
Dong Bang-gu understood the state of his own body well.
Sensing that his time was running out, his voice took on an urgent edge.
At his harsh command, Ma Jang-gang hastened to lower him to the ground.
“Cough……! Listen……carefully.”
“Say whatever you need to, sir.”
“Tell the Cult Master he must never return to the Makyung.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Just listen!”
Return Light Reflection.
The dying light in his eyes sharpened, and his voice grew clearer still.
Though he seemed to strain with the effort, it was plain he’d summoned his last reserves of strength to reclaim his wits.
Jang Sam-tae hurried forward and took his hand.
“The Makyung is in the grip of one called Heuk Poong Shin-ma now. He’s severed the Master’s limbs entirely, and all the disciples bow to him.”
“How can that be?”
Dong Bang-gu offered a bitter smile.
Even he found it difficult to believe.
Yet looking back across the long history of the Makyung, it was hardly unprecedented.
The Makyung had always been a place ruled by the Law of the Strong.
When the Master’s seat lay vacant, if one seized it and proved vastly superior to all others, there were always those who would follow strength rather than loyalty.
Most of those who had endured through loyalty alone to Sa Do-hak had not even managed proper resistance before they fell.
That those he’d once trusted would bow to power and turn their backs gnawed at Dong Bang-gu beyond bearing, yet knowing this was the law of the Makyung, he could only swallow his bitterness.
“Just how strong is this Heuk Poong Shin-ma that he forbids even you to return?”
Ma Jang-gang could not fathom it.
Sa Do-hak was one of the Five Emperors themselves.
He had stood as an equal with the Sword Emperor Namgung Cheon—meaning he ranked among the two supreme powers in all the Central Plains.
An opponent Sa Do-hak could not defeat?
Yet Dong Bang-gu offered no answer, only another bitter laugh.
He could not explain Heuk Poong Shin-ma’s strength.
And there was no time left to try.
“Go now! Warn them of the Makyung’s betrayal, and aid the Master!”
“Will you be all right?”
“I’m a dead man anyway. I’ll hold them here. Now go!”
A sigh escaped Jang Sam-tae’s lips.
Hold them? Hardly.
The man couldn’t grip a blade if his life depended on it. Yet to the Makyung dogs, he remained a person of consequence—they might waste precious moments subduing him.
“Strange to say it now, but I swear I’ll have your vengeance.”
“Haha… I’m counting on you.”
Watching Jang Sam-tae, Dong Bang-gu’s smile turned wry.
Heuk Poong Shin-ma was in a class apart from any warrior he’d faced before.
The promise of vengeance against such a being sounded absurd, yet somehow it kindled a strange warmth in his chest.
“Keep riding northeast and you’ll break clear of Tianshan.”
Jang Sam-tae and Ma Jang-gang hesitated no further.
Dong Bang-gu had already pledged his life.
Neither of them had the strength to sway him, nor the heart to dishonor a man who’d chosen death.
They could only accept his sacrifice and keep their eyes ahead.
That was the best they could do.

***

The Makyung harbored many adept at tracking.
Ask who stood foremost, and all would name the Eun Yeong Dan.
They had never once lost their quarry, and thus held the Makyung’s greatest trust.
Mun Ju-hak, commander of the Eun Yeong Dan, regarded the figure before him in silence.
He spoke not a word, seeming almost mute—yet his gaze was sharp as a blade’s edge, cutting keenly enough to draw blood from mere sight.
“Haha… so you’ve come yourself at last.”
Sitting slumped, Dong Bang-gu managed a wry smile.
The Eun Yeong Dan was an organization Sa Do-hak had poured his heart into building. They owed their very survival to him.
Yet now they had betrayed him, turned their backs.
Dong Bang-gu found it impossible to accept.
“You know the law as well as I do, Vice Commander—only the strong survive in the Makyung.”
“I know. Yes, I know it well.”
Mun Ju-hak spoke at last, and Dong Bang-gu nodded to him.
Yet even in a world where only the strong endure, to abandon one’s liege in a heartbeat—one whom you’ve served a lifetime?
Was Heuk Poong Shin-ma’s power truly so immense?
Or had the strength he offered simply proved too tempting to resist?
There was no way to know.
“Heuk Poong Shin-ma… is he truly greater than the Master?”
“His strength lies beyond what a man like me could even speak of, and the mercy he shows his followers cannot be compared to the former Master.”
“Ha ha ha, the former Cult Master, it seems.”
The Heuk Poong Shin-ma took only half a day to seize control of the Makyung.
With overwhelming martial skill, he had struck down the elders and men of power—who could dare claim his strength was false?
Even Dong Bang-gu, captured first and forced to witness it all, could not bring himself to disbelieve.
More than that, the carrot he dangled was sweet.
He freely opened the Secret Techniques of the dead elders, hall masters, and branch masters.
For any who wished to rise higher and possessed the skill to match, he granted access to those secrets without restriction.
He did not so much as flinch at the possibility that he might be nurturing with his own hands someone who would one day drive a blade between his shoulders.
That was the true dignity of a ruler—a power before which one could not help but bow.
Mun Ju-hak felt it too.
The audacity with which the Heuk Poong Shin-ma executed without hesitation even those actions Sa Do-hak had refrained from taking to preserve the Makyung’s order, and the sheer force that brought a hundred thousand Demonic Cultists to their knees in a single breath—these had captivated Mun Ju-hak’s heart entirely.
“One final question. Where is the former Cult Master now?”
“Ha ha ha.”
Dong Bang-gu laughed hollowly.
He was grateful Sa Do-hak had not revealed that location to anyone when he left the sect.
Had he done otherwise, that place would surely be rubble by now.
‘The Heuk Poong Shin-ma, the Heuk Poong Shin-ma….’
Dong Bang-gu squeezed his eyes shut and conjured the man’s image.
Though the phantom of the Heuk Poong Shin-ma hovering before his mind’s eye terrified him, he was certain his lord Sa Do-hak would prevail.
Even if he himself would not live to see it.
Even if he would never witness that glorious spectacle.
Still, his smile did not fade.
He knew that one day the laughter on the traitors’ lips would vanish.
He knew his lord possessed the power to make it so.
He lifted his head and gazed at the sky.
The moonlight of the night was uncommonly bright.
Slowly its radiance dimmed, and his vision grew dark.
“Go ahead… and take my head….”
Dong Bang-gu collapsed as he spoke those words.
His breathing ceased; no sound of respiration could be heard anymore, and his pupils began to dilate and glaze.
In the moment his body was about to touch the cold ground—
Slash!
Scarlet blood sprayed upward, and his severed head rolled across the earth.
“Damn it….”
Mun Ju-hak scowled and cursed.
He had meant to deny him a clean death and cut off his head, but the unease would not fade.
Worse still, they had failed to achieve their objective.
“Chase down that one and the ones who escaped. They must know where Sa Do-hak is hidden.”
“Yes, sir!”
But too much time had already slipped away.
Far too much had been wasted dealing with Dong Bang-gu.
‘This too must have been that bastard’s ploy….’
He cursed his own stupidity for seeing it only now.
He should have sent his subordinates ahead at the very least.
No—the fault lay with those who had interrogated him.
Dong Bang-gu was someone who should never have died; yet left untreated after being subjected to every conceivable torture, he had died pathetically and in vain.
Crack!
Mun Ju-hak gnashed his teeth and threw himself forward without thinking.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————