Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 34

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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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Slash!
“Ugh!”
Namgung Sohye felt her shoulder open as she retreated. But the massive Great Sword came rushing in too quickly, pressing forward without mercy, denying her any space to escape.
Clang!
“Kh—?”
When blade met saber, a staggering force thrummed through her. The Overwhelming Force Sword—no exaggeration at all.
What troubled her more deeply was that Ma Dokjin had yet to reveal his true strength.
Slash-slash-slash!
His raw power, wielding the massive Great Sword one-handed as though it weighed nothing, was formidable—but what truly terrified her was his speed.
A Great Sword’s size imposed constraints on its movement; it could not help but be slower than a sword. Yet Ma Dokjin moved with the agility of a swordsman.
That was what pushed Namgung Sohye to her limits.
Scrape.
She felt her abdomen tear and winced.
Fortunately the cut wasn’t deep enough to damage anything vital, but the loss of balance left her defenseless against the next strike.
Boom!
“Ahhh!”
Her slight frame flew through the air like a stone, slamming into a tree.
Thud!
The coarse impact sent her vision reeling.
The shock was so brutal she couldn’t breathe—she coughed up a mouthful of black blood and gasped for air.
Her eyes swam; the hand gripping her sword trembled violently.
Even Namgung Sohye, who made her name as the finest of the Late-Stage Experts, was nothing before a Master who had spent decades in the Jianghu.
“Tch, how dull. Not even worthy of licking the boots of the Sword Emperor, leader of the Martial Alliance.”
“Haah… haah… haah…”
“They say the Namgung Family stands foremost among the Eight Great Families, but it seems that reputation is mere empty talk.”
Ma Dokjin did not relent in his mockery.
She was as fragile as an ant he could crush underfoot if he wished—weak, delicate, pitiful.
‘Is this all the Namgung Clan’s sword amounts to?’
Ma Dokjin found himself deeply disappointed.
“I am weak… but my family is not!”
“Hmph, still flapping your tongue. It’s not just you who is weak—your clan that raised you is weak too. They produced a Sword Emperor and now do nothing but strut about.”
“Ungh!”
Ma Dokjin walked toward Namgung Sohye slowly. He had already lost interest; his manner had grown listless.
Standing now directly before her, he leveled his massive Great Sword at her.
“The Jianghu is governed by the Law of the Strong. The loser must know his place and show respect to the victor.”
Ma Dokjin pressed his right foot onto her head, applying weight. He meant to grind her face into the earth.
But Namgung Sohye hardened her neck, resisting.
Her will to refuse submission blazed through.
“Then… just kill me.”
“Hmph, does killing one mere woman change the world? Besides, a Jianghu warrior should know how to submit to the victor. Hahaha!”
Ma Dokjin burst into laughter. He stared down at the fallen Namgung Sohye straining against his foot, savoring every moment of his triumph.
This was the Jianghu.
A prestigious family? Formidable Internal Energy?
Such things were worthless.
Only strength mattered.
Only the strong endured in the Jianghu.
Whoosh—whoosh—
That was when it happened.
A strange sound came from somewhere. Ma Dokjin, still pressing his foot on Namgung Sohye’s head, raised his eyebrows and turned to look.
The brush trembled violently.
And footsteps drew near.
‘Gwon Mujin?’
No—these were not the footfalls of his subordinates. Worse, as the sound grew closer, an immense pressure began to radiate outward.
It was so intense that drawing breath became difficult.
“Who goes there.”
Ma Dokjin watched that spot with a keen gaze. Namgung Sohye did the same.
With her Internal Energy badly depleted, she could barely withstand the crushing pressure, gasping for breath.
Soon, a man emerged from the shadows.
“The Law of the Strong, then. I rather like that.”
Thump—!
Dan Woo-hyun hurled the mangled remains of Gwon Mujin to one side and laughed.
Gwon Mujin, drenched entirely in blood, lay motionless—whether unconscious or beyond feeling, no one could say.
“Y-you…… how did you……?”
“You said you were headed to Hannam, yet you’re still lingering in Akyang.”
Dan Woo-hyun brushed his hands clean without bothering to answer Namgung Sohye’s bewilderment.
His gaze remained fixed on Ma Dokjin, and a smile more genuine than ever played at the corners of his mouth.
“Bold little creature, aren’t you? You managed Gwon Mujin well enough, I’ll grant you that much—but do you know who I am, coming at me with such swagger?”
Ma Dokjin’s eyes narrowed, fixing Dan Woo-hyun with a heavy stare.
Something about this man’s face was oddly familiar. He’d seen him somewhere before, yet the memory wouldn’t surface.
In that moment, Dan Woo-hyun turned his gaze from Ma Dokjin to Namgung Sohye, his expression shifting to something almost impish as he took in her shocked face.
“Didn’t I tell you? Pride blinds the eyes—you see nothing clearly.”
“Ugh——!”
“Fool! Don’t you see me, Ma Dokjin?”
Feeling slighted, Ma Dokjin unleashed a savage roar.
His ferocious Internal Energy shook the air itself, trembling through everything around them.
This was the power of a Master at the Peak Realm.
“Run! You can’t face someone like—wait……?”
Namgung Sohye’s shout died mid-breath as she spun around.
Her vision was too blurred to see clearly, but judging by the clothes—the man lying crumpled there was unmistakably Gwon Mujin.
‘Did he…… did he learn martial arts? This man?’
Namgung Sohye swallowed hard.
So he wasn’t just a wealthy wastrel after all.
What’s more, Dan Woo-hyun faced the violent gust of Ma Dokjin’s power head-on without so much as flinching.
‘Come to think of it…….’
She recalled the first time she’d met Dan Woo-hyun.
It was strange how the pieces fit together so perfectly, as though she should have questioned this long ago.
She’d met him on the road to Cheonja Mountain, and not long after, the Black Sword Society had collapsed. And he lived here in Akyang.
“Surely not.”
Dan Woo-hyun walked toward Namgung Sohye.
His gait was so unhurried it seemed almost languid.
Yet the strange thing was that Ma Dokjin, who’d seemed so unstoppable moments before, now retreated, widening the distance between them.
This man who looked like he’d never back down no matter the circumstances was doing exactly that.
Sweat even glistened on his brow—cold sweat.
“Just who are you……?”
Clang—
Dan Woo-hyun ignored Namgung Sohye’s question and took the sword from her hand.
He examined the blade carefully from one angle to another, nodding with apparent satisfaction.
“This is a fine blade.”
“That sword is mine…… ugh!”
Namgung Sohye cried out in surprise at the theft of her sword, but pain shot through her and she crumpled where she stood.
And finally, Dan Woo-hyun stood before Ma Dokjin.
“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you coming?”
“You damnable bastard! Do you know who I am?”
“Just another fool bloated with confidence. Like someone else I know.”
Dan Woo-hyun glanced sidelong at Namgung Sohye.
He felt her gaze tremble, but gave it no thought and looked away.
In truth, they all looked the same to Dan Woo-hyun—equally unremarkable—so comparison itself was meaningless.
“Have you lost your mind? Here stands the Overwhelming Force Sword, Ma Dokjin, and still you run your mouth. Do you think you have two lives?”
“I only have one…….”
Dan Woo-hyun pointed to his own neck and smiled.
“And no one alive can claim it.”
“You arrogant bastard!”
Ma Dokjin’s eyes rolled back in fury, and he charged toward Dan Woo-hyun with a snarl.
Carrying a tyrannical aura in his frame, he rushed forward with violence that seemed ready to sweep away everything in his path.
“Get away!”
Namgung Sohye let out a cry that bordered on a scream.
But mere evasion wouldn’t suffice. Ma Dokjin’s swordplay was so swift that it hardly seemed like he was wielding a Great Sword at all.
Whoosh!
The Great Sword, heavy with crushing power, hurtled toward Dan Woo-hyun.
Clang!
“What?!”
Yet in the next instant, confronted by the impossible sight unfolding before her eyes, Namgung Sohye—and even Ma Dokjin himself—stood motionless, jaws agape.
The Great Sword never reached Dan Woo-hyun.
A slender blade’s edge had intercepted it.
“Hgh?!”
Ma Dokjin possessed such monstrous strength that he had earned the name Overwhelming Force Sword; his Great Sword ought to have shattered or knocked aside any blade meeting it directly.
Yet here it was—blocked by nothing more than the tip of a sword?
“This… this cannot be!”
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Ma Dokjin swung the Great Sword with savage ferocity.
He poured his full strength into relentless attacks, yet Dan Woo-hyun’s blade danced lightly, turning aside every single one.
‘As if he were dealing with a mere child…’
Namgung Sohye could not tear her eyes away.
It was a truly wondrous sight.
She had dismissed Ma Dokjin’s reputation as mere rumor, but now she felt its weight firsthand. Each stroke carried an immense force that seemed impossible to withstand, and his flashy technique was swift as lightning.
Yet Dan Woo-hyun appeared utterly at ease.
Responding to Ma Dokjin’s Great Sword with an effortless flick of his blade, it simply would not penetrate—as impenetrable as unyielding armor.
Even closing the distance proved impossible.
“Impressive. Using speed to overcome the Great Sword’s monotony. An interesting approach. But…”
Dan Woo-hyun smiled faintly and swept his blade in a wide horizontal arc.
Ma Dokjin sneered at Dan Woo-hyun’s judgment and drove harder still, channeling every ounce of his strength to obliterate him in one blow.
That was why he bore the name Overwhelming Force Sword.
“Foolish!”
The Great Sword rushed forward like a tempest, the blade suffused with enough force to shatter even a mountain. Who could possibly withstand such devastating power?
By contrast, Dan Woo-hyun’s blade moved gently, like a spring breeze.
It bore no technique, no force—nothing apparent at all.
A single, casual strike, as one might offer a child gentle correction.
And in the moment blade and Great Sword collided—
Boom!
A deafening roar echoed through the air, and Namgung Sohye’s eyes went wide as she witnessed the impossible.
Ma Dokjin, who had always prided himself on yielding to no one in raw strength, was sent flying through the air as though cast away.

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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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