Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 112

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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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Chapter 112
The martial arts match hadn’t even begun, yet I was already suffocating with frustration.
Watching Namso, I recalled my past life—one spent with a collar fastened firmly around my neck.
When the path to turn away, the better road, was plainly visible, yet I had to choose something else instead.
Those inevitable circumstances appeared to me like a collar drawn tight around my neck.
Of course, I understand now.
Not just myself, but everyone in this world wears their own collar.
And people don’t struggle to remove it out of fear, but out of a sense of responsibility.
To endure that suffocation and press forward becomes the righteous path, while to recklessly break free and rampage becomes the wicked path.
‘That man was the former.’
Yet now that collar was strangling his breath. No—he was tightening it himself as he moved forward.
That frustrated me immensely.
Then, I heard Geum Seok-du’s voice from beside me.
“Oh, so the person the young master was trying to bring has appeared.”
“Yes.”
“But why does that person’s expression seem a bit….”
Geum Seok-du trailed off, watching Namso ascend to the Martial Arts Arena.
‘That’s the face of someone about to kill.’
There was no murderous intent, yet somehow that made it feel even more eerie.
“Young master, your expression looks equally constipated.”
“I’m so frustrated I’m going mad.”
“What troubles you?”
“I hate being bound, yet my heart keeps pulling toward it. I know it’s not my place to interfere, but I can see his future clearly.”
Unlike usual, my voice was stripped of all jest and playfulness, and Geum Seok-du’s expression grew serious.
“Is it because of that man?”
“You could say that.”
“So the young master does experience worry. This is a new revelation for me.”
“Right? And yet you don’t crack your skull open hearing such words. My cultivation must have deepened considerably, wouldn’t you say?”
….
For a moment, my eyes flickered with a dangerous light.
“I should just tear down this entire damned arena…!”
“W-wait, please calm down! Calm down!”
He’s about to have another fit.
Geum Seok-du hurried to calm me and shook his head vigorously.
“Young master. Does that man frustrate you so much?”
“Yes.”
Geum Seok-du regarded me with an enigmatic expression.
“Why are you frustrated?”
“Because he’s walking a path that will clearly destroy him. I could help him, but he hasn’t asked for my help.”
“Young master.”
“Why.”
“Have you ever lived that person’s life, sir?”
“…!”
For a moment, I was at a loss for words.
Dokgo Myeong stared blankly at Geum Seok-du as if he’d been struck on the head.
-You haven’t lived that person’s life, so what right do you have to pretend you know everything and judge what’s right and wrong?
That was what Geum Seok-du was asking.
Soon, Geum Seok-du continued with an indifferent expression.
“Of course, you’re not wrong, sir. You’re right most of the time. But sometimes people are so weighed down by their own lives that they can’t see what’s around them. You shouldn’t be frustrated by that.”
“….”
“Why would someone who understands so much act this way?”
Dokgo Myeong lost his words and fell into thought.
‘Yes, that’s right. I made a mistake.’
It wasn’t a mistake—I was wrong from the start. Back at that drinking gathering, I shouldn’t have spouted empty platitudes to Namso as if I knew everything. Even if I understood his life, I hadn’t experienced it myself.
He must know it too. That there’s a catastrophe waiting at the end of the path he walks.
How sharp a blade must my words have become to someone walking forward despite knowing that?
“…I’m receiving all my lessons from Seok-du.”
“Didn’t you know? Despite my appearance, I was a disciple of Manpaknoesa, a great scholar of our time.”
“Fine, I’ll concede this one.”
“So, what will you do?”
“There’s nothing to deliberate. I’ll do as I always have.”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed.
“Just as I always have.”
* * *
Namso closed his eyes gently and regulated his breathing slowly.
And when he was ready, he slowly lifted his eyelids.
Moyong Lim was there.
Namso asked quietly.
“Do you remember me?”
Moyong Lim tilted his head.
“Do you know me?”
“How could I forget, no matter how long ago I saw you as a child?”
“…?”
“Though it’s human nature to trample wildflowers beneath one’s feet even when aware of their presence.”
Moyong Lim furrowed his brow.
Namso slowly drew his blade.
“When our swords clash, you’ll know who I am.”
“…This is becoming uncomfortable, even unpleasant.”
Moyong Lim also drew his blade.
Whoosh!
The two fighters’ qi began to heat up intensely.
“…?”
“…Huh?”
In that instant, the martial artists watching the Martial Arts Arena blinked their eyes.
Right foot forward, upper body turned halfway to the side. The sword point aimed at the opponent’s neck and head, the posture refined with an undeniable dignity.
The two fighters’ stances were identical, without even a hair’s breadth of difference.
“Their basic forms are the same?”
“How is that possible?”
Remarkably, the qi they emanated was also similar.
As if they had learned the same martial arts.
As if they had studied under the same master.
And no one felt this more acutely than Moyong Lim, standing face to face with Namso.
“You…?”
“….”
Namso took a small, deep breath.
-When the sword stands true, distracting thoughts naturally fade away.
As I calmed my racing heart, my father’s words came to mind.
I was certain I would not be able to uphold that teaching.
“I shall begin.”
With those quietly uttered words, Namso moved first.
Crash! Swish!
The blade cut heavily through the empty air.
The speed was slightly slow, but the strike was honest and weighty.
A heavy sword that seemed mismatched with Namso’s slender frame.
Finally, the two clashed.
“This is impossible!”
Moryong Baek, Moyong Lim’s uncle who had been watching the spectacle, shot up from his seat on the platform.
‘That can’t be right? No, surely not?’
Complex emotions welled up in Moryong Baek’s eyes.
At the end of those complex emotions lay greed.
* * *
Screeeech!
The two blades tore through the air and clashed in the void.
Crash!
“…?”
Moyong Lim’s eyes widened.
He had extended his blade intending to suppress him in a single second as he had done until now, but it was deflected far too easily.
Whoosh!
In that moment, Namso’s foot extended like a phantom, piercing into the path of Moyong Lim’s footwork.
“Tsk!”
Moyong Lim’s foot twisted beneath him, and he stumbled backward.
Screech!
With that chilling sound, Namso’s blade sliced across Moyong Lim’s forearm and swept past.
Fortunately, only the skin was cut, but blood sprayed forth.
Moyong Lim’s eyes widened.
“You bastard! How do you see through my footwork and sword path?”
“That’s what I should be asking.”
“What?”
Namso pushed off the ground again, thrusting his blade forward.
Whoosh! Clang!
Moyong Lim drew in a sharp breath.
The force contained in the sword pressed to his face was heavy. It was a ponderous strike that seemed incongruous with those thin arms and frame.
“Audacious! But that’s all you—!”
Moyong Lim drew upon his inner energy with a contemptuous expression.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
In the empty air, two blades tangled fiercely together.
“Ugh.”
Namso was driven back several steps, releasing a low groan.
Each time the blades clashed, Namso’s inner energy wavered violently.
It was due to the difference in cultivation level. Moyong Lim surpassed him by several degrees in both the amount of inner energy and the refinement with which he wielded it.
“For someone so solemn, you’re rather unremarkable.”
Moyong Lim’s blade abandoned weight and chose speed, his specialty.
In that instant, Namso saw Moyong Lim’s blade stretch and extend endlessly.
Whoosh! Boom!
A tremendous impact crashed down upon Namso’s body.
Though he swung his blade to block, knowing where the strike would land, he could not fully dissipate that impact.
Namso’s already pale face grew even more ashen.
Yet his eyes still gleamed with brilliant light.
“That’s not a sword technique you can wield so carelessly.”
“Nonsense!”
Moyong Lim laughed bitterly and planted his feet firmly.
Boom!
It was the true stance of a peak master.
Dust from the Martial Arts Arena floor erupted upward, and a strike of tremendous force descended toward Namso’s crown.
But in that moment.
Clang!
Namso angled his blade diagonally beside his head and deflected that strike.
Moyong Lim’s blade, scraped across Namso’s sword surface, was redirected away.
Moyong Lim was astounded.
‘He deflected that!?’
This is madness.
It wasn’t something that could be accomplished through composure, courage, and swordsmanship alone. It was a technique made possible only because he knew exactly where and when the blade would fall.
The moment Moyong Lim faltered in shock, Namso unleashed a strike.
Crash!
Moyong Lim stumbled backward several steps.
Namso advanced, raising his blade overhead.
“…!”
Whoosh!
Namso’s sword cleaved through the air in a straight descent.
A heavy, decisive strike—honest and direct, as if it would bisect everything in its path.
It was a blow so similar to Moyong Lim’s own strike that one couldn’t replicate it even if instructed to do so.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
Moyong Lim couldn’t deflect the attack with the same refined technique that Namso employed.
He could only hastily unfold his blade and desperately parry the strike.
‘Damn it! What in the world—!’
Moyong Lim’s expression hardened.
He shouldn’t be struggling like this against some nameless martial artist.
Wasn’t this the moment to display his overwhelming dominance?
“I was going to let you leave unharmed, but you’re inviting your own destruction.”
Moyong Lim’s eyes widened as he unleashed his qi.
Crack! Bzzzzzzt!
A sound like thunder and lightning erupted.
It was a peculiar qi burst. Rather than attacking the opponent directly, it spread outward in all directions, disrupting the opponent’s momentum.
In that instant, Moyong Lim’s eyes gleamed.
Boom!
“Hgh!”
Moyong Lim’s blade, driven from the ground, slashed across Namso’s shoulder.
Fabric tore, and blood sprayed.
With a single strike, Namso’s body swayed like a kite with its string cut.
“Cough!”
Even as Namso spat blood, he quickly steadied his stance.
“Let’s see how far you can hold out!”
Moyong Lim shouted harshly and drove his feet into the ground again.
Crash! Crash! Boom!
Namso was pushed back, pushed back, and pushed back further.
No matter how identically he wielded his blade along the same sword path, the overwhelming difference in power was unavoidable.
I knew it. Namso knew it well too.
Yet Namso did not retreat.
‘As long as I can swing my blade, that’s all that matters.’
Boom!
Unable to deflect the blade, Namso’s body flew to the edge of the Martial Arts Arena.
“Ugh! Cough!”
Namso barely managed to drive his sword into the arena floor, preventing himself from falling outside, and clenched his teeth.
Namso sprang to his feet as if propelled upward.
Crash!
A blade plunged down into the spot where he had been lying, sending fragments scattering into the air.
Namso seized the momentary opening, but Moyong Lim’s blade struck his body even faster.
Crunch! Crack!
It was brutal.
Blood sprayed and the sound of joints grinding continued without pause, yet Namso refused to retreat.
‘How is this possible?’
Moyong Lim furrowed his brow, staring at the battered Namso.
‘Why can’t I bring him down?’
Meanwhile, confusion rippled through the spectators.
“Isn’t that young man using the same sword technique as Moyong Lim?”
“His inner strength level seems low, but the way he reacts and counters in advance… it really does seem that way?”
“What on earth is happening?”
Moyong Lim heard their whispers.
Moyong Lim’s face twisted.
“You! Who are you to imitate the Main Sect’s sword technique!”
“Are you still spouting such nonsense?”
Blood dripped from between Namso’s nose and his split lips.
Even so, he dragged his feet forward slowly toward Moyong Lim.
“No, what…”
Moyong Lim furrowed his brow as if fed up, glaring coldly at Namso.
He resembled a vengeful ghost. The words obsession and madness seemed more fitting than willpower or mental fortitude.
“Why would you go to such lengths in a mere martial bout?”
“The outcome of this bout doesn’t matter to me.”
Namso’s voice had changed.
“Do you know the name of that sword technique?”
“What?”
“If it’s truly your family’s sword technique, then answer me.”
Moyong Lim’s face contorted completely.
“It’s the Main Sect’s secret family art, the Heavenly Prison Divine Sword. Why are you asking?”
“Heavenly Prison Divine Sword?”
Namso’s eyes turned crimson.
A single drop of blood streamed from his eye.
“That’s not what it should be called.”
“What?”
“Still… you still don’t know who I am?”
Namso suddenly placed a hand upon her own face.
Crackle! Screech!
Namso tore away her face.
It was literal in every sense. The human skin mask that had concealed her visage peeled away, revealing her true appearance beneath.
Crack! Snap!
Followed by the sound of bones shifting and realigning.
Simultaneously, Namso’s physique transformed subtly.
“…!”
Everyone gasped in shock.
“…A woman!?”
“What!?”
“She was a woman all along!?”
Chaos erupted among the assembly.
The human skin mask fell to the ground, revealing the cold and beautiful face of a woman.
She opened her mouth.
“That sword technique’s true name is not some vulgar title like Heavenly Thunder Divine Sword. Much less is it some trivial family secret of the Moyong Clan.”
Namso had already closed the distance to stand directly before Moyong Lim.
“The sword’s true name is the Azure Expanse Without Bounds.”
“…!”
“It is the supreme technique of the Cheoncheon Sword Gate and the Namgung Clan. Now do you understand who I am?”
She took another step forward.
“I am the rightful successor of a clan that suffered annihilation during the Milgyo Rebellion, cast aside by the Four Great Families who were once our allies. I am the sole survivor of a household that was slaughtered and abducted by cowards who coveted my family’s secrets.”
“Wh-what nonsense is this!?”
“My name is Namgung Sohwa.”
Namso—no, Namgung Sohwa’s expression twisted with fury.
Screeeech!
Her blade became drenched in murderous intent.
“And now, as the sole heir of the Namgung Clan, I will exact vengeance for my family’s wrongs.”
Whoooosh!
Namgung Sohwa launched a surprise attack, her sword descending toward Moyong Lim’s throat.

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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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