Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 86

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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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“The Blood Demon…….”
Namgung Cheon sat on the hillside overlooking the Estate, nursing a cup of wine, turning over the words Dan Woo-hyun had spoken—letting them circle through his mind.
The Blood Demon.
It wasn’t a name he’d heard for the first time.
A thousand years ago, when the Central Plains lay in turmoil, that being appeared. But Musin had purged it, and since then, the name Blood Demon had never been spoken of again.
Yet Dan Woo-hyun had uttered it as though he knew of it—as though he had seen it with his own eyes.
‘A peculiar thing. How could he know what even I do not?’
The confusion only deepened.
Dan Woo-hyun’s identity had already caused him no small amount of reflection.
A being of unknown origin.
A figure possessed of such omnipotent martial mastery that the absence of any known history was itself suspicious.
But now something troubled him more than the man’s identity—a single remark he had made.
‘He was the strongest, but not the greatest……’
What in the world could that possibly mean?
Namgung Cheon could not hide his bewilderment at Dan Woo-hyun’s identity, nor at those cryptic words. The more obscure the meaning, the deeper his thoughts spiraled.
After sitting lost in contemplation for some time, Namgung Cheon rose from his seat and shook off his reverie.
“Come to think of it, this is my first time here.”
Though he had been at the Estate for quite some time, he had never set foot on this hill behind it. He had come seeking solitude to clear his mind and take in the scenery, and now that the view opened before him so freely, he could not imagine a better place.
As Namgung Cheon gazed about with a satisfied smile, his eyes caught the faint outline of a burial mound.
A tomb, in a place like this?
It seemed out of place.
He drew closer, studying it, and tilted his head in confusion.
Three burial mounds, and standing squarely upon them, three spirit tablets.
As he read the inscriptions on the tablets, a strange familiarity stirred in him.
“Tae Gong-jin, Nam Ju-ryeon, Cheon Mu-gwang…… What……?”
Namgung Cheon blinked and stared at them for a long moment, then looked up at the sky.
Had the loss of his internal energy somehow afflicted his body? His eyes felt strangely clouded.
He rubbed his eyes with one hand and turned his gaze back to the mounds. But the characters only became clearer still.
What’s more, the mounds didn’t look as though they’d been made long ago.
“What on earth…… is this……!”
So the Demonic Sect, or some other faction, had not taken the remains after all?
He could never bring himself to open them, and even if he did, he could not prove that they contained Samcheon’s remains.
Judging by the color of the soil, these mounds could not have been made more than a few months ago. The timing, and the names on the tablets—could all of this truly be coincidence?
Suddenly, Namgung Cheon recalled words spoken by Namgung So-hye.

“Grandfather, could a person…… live for a thousand years?”

Why did those words return to him now?
Namgung Cheon began to assemble the pieces with a sinking dread.
He called to mind every detail of Dan Woo-hyun—his actions, his words—and fitted them together one by one.
Piece by piece, the fragmented riddles seemed to align, seemed not to, until at last a single hypothesis took shape in his mind.
But he shook his head almost at once.
“Absurd. Even as a hypothesis, it makes no sense.”
It was impossible.
Troubled by the mystery of Samcheon’s remains and desperate to understand Dan Woo-hyun’s identity, Namgung Cheon went directly to seek him.

“Samcheon’s remains?”
“Yes. When I went to the hill behind the Estate, there were spirit tablets bearing their names.”
Flinch—!
Kwon Mu-jin and Jang Sam-tae’s bodies tensed.
They didn’t care about anything else, but this—this they had not wanted Namgung Cheon to discover. That’s why they had done everything in their power to keep him from the hill, yet somehow it had come to light.
The eyes of Kwon Mu-jin and Jang Sam-tae turned toward Dan Woo-hyun.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Don’t lie to me. Those mounds looked to have been made only months ago, and the names on the tablets are identical. There’s no question that……!”
“They must be people who share the same name.”
“That…… that can’t be…….”
Dan Woo-hyun decided to brazen his way through it.
He knew they wouldn’t believe the truth anyway. If that was the case, there was no point sweating over excuses—better to just push forward with a thick face. Especially against someone like Namgung Cheon.
“Do you have proof that they are Samcheon?”
“No, I don’t have anything like that… but from the circumstances…”
“They are acquaintances of mine. We merely moved their tomb here. Only a few months ago.”
“But no matter how I think about it…”
“If you call the remains of Samcheon simply because the name is the same, then the Central Plains must be crawling with living Samcheons.”
“Ugh…!”
Namgung Cheon found himself at a loss for words.
Dan Woo-hyun was right.
There were countless people who shared the same name. If they gathered everyone named Samcheon, there would be enough to form an army.
‘Still, isn’t this too much of a coincidence…?’
Frustrated that nothing he said seemed to get through, Namgung Cheon sighed repeatedly.
But he was not a man to back down so easily.
“Tell me—are you hiding something from me?”
“Hiding something? What are you talking about?”
Namgung Cheon let out a laugh and began to compose a theory that had taken shape in his mind, steadying his breathing.
It was hardly something he wanted to say aloud—it made no sense no matter how he thought about it.
Yet in that moment, he sensed this one phrase might be the key to cracking that expressionless face.
“Could it be… that you have a connection to Musin?”
Twitch—
Dan Woo-hyun’s eyebrow twitched.
It was only for an instant, but Namgung Cheon did not miss it. His eye for detail was legendary even within the Murim Alliance—he caught every smallest movement.
“So it seems I’ve struck a nerve. That strength at such a young age, the way you speak of events from a thousand years ago, and now these burial items that appear to be Samcheon’s remains… you can’t deny it.”
“Haha.”
“As I see it, you are a descendant of Musin.”
“…?!”
“A descendant of Musin?”
It was Kwon Mu-jin and Jang Sam-tae who looked startled at those words.
They had always wondered about the origins of Dan Woo-hyun’s almost miraculous martial strength, but if he truly was a descendant of Musin, much could be explained.
“Surely you must have obtained Musin’s fortune in this Honam region. That’s why you also know of the Blood Demon and Musin…”
The two men nodded as well. Namgung Cheon’s words certainly seemed to fit. All the scattered pieces were falling into place, one by one.
Now that he thought about it, Dan Woo-hyun often smiled when good things were said of Musin, yet seemed displeased when bad things were mentioned.
“You brought Samcheon’s remains here because you are a descendant—to honor their spirit?”
“Hahaha.”
Yet Dan Woo-hyun merely laughed.
His expression was neither a denial of every argument Namgung Cheon had laid out, nor an affirmation of them—he simply laughed, like a child who had heard an amusing old tale.
The three men exchanged puzzled glances.
What on earth was the truth?
“An amusing theory… though in some respects true, and in others false.”
“…What does that mean?”
“Well, it means what I said.”
Dan Woo-hyun smiled faintly and said nothing more, as though he thought whatever conclusions they drew were their own business.
Because of this, the three men—especially Namgung Cheon—felt their curiosity kindle all the more.
What on earth was this man’s true identity?
A person bold and skilled enough to walk off an island filled with so many warriors from the Murim Alliance and the Demonic Sect, carrying the remains of three corpses.
A man with no internal energy to speak of, yet one who refused even a single stance from Namgung Cheon, the Sword Emperor himself, and sent him fleeing.
In frustration, Namgung Cheon called out toward Dan Woo-hyun.
“Surely you’re not Musin himself! What on earth is your true identity?”
Dan Woo-hyun smiled—a genuine smile, for the first time in a while.
The sight of these three men struggling to figure out who he was struck him as rather endearing.
“My name is Dan Woo-hyun. From long ago until now, that fact has not changed.”
“Well, that’s your name, after all…”
“And this place is my estate, and you three are my household. If that doesn’t change, what need is there for identity? Don’t you agree, Sword Emperor?”
“Cough!”
“Ahem!”
Dan Woo-hyun rose from his seat, smiling. The afternoon was drawing near. He needed to wake Dan So-mi, who had gone to sleep late the night before, and feed her.
As Namgung Cheon watched Dan Woo-hyun’s retreating figure moving slowly toward So-mi’s room, he turned around with a furrowed brow. Kwon Mu-jin and Jang Sam-tae had already approached him.
“Do you think he really is a descendant of Musin?”
“Your guess was spot on! It all fits perfectly!”
“Hmm, it’s merely speculation, but…… there are pieces that fit rather well.”
Moreover, Dan Woo-hyun neither confirmed nor denied it. He’d also said it wasn’t quite right, yet wasn’t wrong either.
In the end, that amounted to an indirect acknowledgment that it was connected to Musin.
At this revelation, all their hearts leapt.
The greatest master under heaven.
A towering sky that no one throughout all ages had ever surpassed.
That was Musin, and Dan Woo-hyun was his descendant.
Even the Sword Emperor of all the world could not keep his heart from racing.
“Then, the one we are now serving…….”
Namgung Cheon’s expression darkened.
He could imagine what words might tumble from Kwon Mu-jin’s lips. This was the moment when even the title of Sword Emperor, one of the Five Emperors of the World, became trivial and shabby before him.
“He may well be the greatest under heaven.”
Namgung Cheon spoke with a bitter smile.
Truth be told, before they discovered the tomb, before he recalled Namgung So-hye’s words, such thoughts had never crossed his mind.
He’d simply wondered if Dan Woo-hyun was perhaps the disciple of some eccentric master.
Why were they not uncommon in the Central Plains?
Throughout a thousand years of Murim history, there had been countless exceptional figures: Sky Secret, Blood Wind Demon, Hegemony Emperor, Yin-Yang Old Sage, Musin Master, Silent Path, and others.
Even setting aside such renowned masters, there were no shortage of powerful practitioners who chose quiet seclusion and devoted themselves solely to raising disciples.
But the moment Namgung Cheon saw Samcheon’s remains, he understood.
Dan Woo-hyun was undoubtedly connected to them. The proof lay in the tomb’s construction immediately after the remains were removed.
Whether it was the Murim Alliance, the Demonic Sect, or the Evil Sects—whoever found those remains would have first sought to examine the bones and understand how the Qi pathways had flowed through them.
Of course, the surface pretext would be to retrieve a ancestor’s remains, but if they’d opened them, they would have witnessed something far from pleasant. Namgung Cheon was certain of this.
“In any case, that is what I believe. So all of you must keep everything you’ve heard here…….”
“We shall remain silent.”
“No, why?”
Jang Sam-tae was greatly delighted by the revelation that Dan Woo-hyun was Musin’s descendant. Moreover, since he was learning martial arts from him, he too had become a disciple of Musin’s heir.
As he gleamed with the thought of being praised by all martial artists and wielding tremendous wealth and power, Jang Sam-tae felt the frigid gazes of the two men upon him.
“I, I will be silent.”
Sensing both Kwon Mu-jin’s killing intent—as if to cut out his tongue and tear it from his throat—and Namgung Cheon’s murderous aura—as if to shatter every last tooth—Jang Sam-tae held his breath.
‘Damn this…….’
In the end, his dream became nothing but a daydream.

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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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