Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 135

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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 135
Whoosh!
The air tasted bitter on my tongue.
Every breath I drew reeked of blood, and my throat stung each time I swallowed.
All four of Dokgo Myeong’s companions felt a chill run down their spines.
‘A terrifying master!’
I knew he was skilled, but to this extent?
If the Paedobyeon Sect Leader’s depth was unfathomable, then Muyong Ji was visible yet the gap between us was so vast it inspired dread.
Everyone’s expressions hardened.
Dokgo Myeong was no exception.
‘So he’s already mastered blood cultivation.’
My eyes grew heavy.
His stance, the qi radiating seamlessly in all directions, the aura perfectly contained within—he was an elite master at the ascending realm.
Once one reached that level, age became irrelevant. His mind would be sharp, his joints and muscles responsive to his will.
He was several moves ahead of me. I was clearly at a disadvantage.
‘Can I win?’
In this life, I had faced three ascending realm masters, and I had defeated two.
The Hwangsan Sect’s Danhak Swordsman, Dokgo Jo-hak, and Shadow Army Commander Yalul-ryeong.
As for the Hwangsan Sect Elder, we never actually fought, so that doesn’t count.
Dokgo Jo-hak’s mind and body were broken, and against the Shadow Army Commander, I seized victory through a breaking technique and pressed the advantage.
So what about this time?
‘He hasn’t just mastered the Black Bloodfiend technique—he’s mixed various qi methods together. If I rashly attempt a breaking technique, I’ll be the one who suffers.’
Moreover, my opponent was whole, while I carried injuries.
I glanced at my companions standing guard beside me.
‘If they could help… but…’
The number of hidden assassins had decreased significantly, yet there were still over ten of them.
And they had even opened their blood gates.
The situation was not favorable.
Then Muyong Ji let out a low chuckle and spoke.
“Circulating your qi in that brief moment to observe me? You’re certainly true to form.”
“…”
“Your expression is grim. Why, won’t you loosen that rigid tongue of yours like you did this afternoon?”
I blinked rapidly, shook my head, and spat out my words.
“Old Master. I apologize for what happened this afternoon.”
Muyong Ji’s wrinkled eyes widened slightly, as if he hadn’t expected an apology to come so suddenly.
“Now you’re begging for your life…”
“You pretended not to care back then, but it seems your pride was wounded. The fact that you’re still dwelling on what happened this afternoon shows that you’re… quite…”
“…”
“Ah, I almost hurt you again. I apologize for that too. It’s laughable for an assassin to speak of pride, but still, it was disrespectful to an elder. Since I’ve apologized twice now, let’s call it even.”
Muyong Ji clamped his mouth shut and glared at me with fierce eyes.
I tilted my head and spoke to Dokgo Ak.
“I even apologized, so why does he still have that expression?”
“…Are you really asking because you don’t know?”
“Well, a slave who’s spent his whole life severing people’s necks wouldn’t be expected to understand reason. But I get what you’re after.”
“Heh, so you’re toying with me?”
Muyong Ji let out a hearty laugh.
His mouth smiled, but his eyes glared at me with murderous intent.
My companions felt fear for multiple reasons watching this.
‘His way with words has truly reached the realm of transcendence.’
‘If he’s skilled enough, he could probably drive his opponent into demonic madness and kill them with just his tongue….’
Radiating an increasingly ominous aura from his entire body, Muyong Ji shook his head.
“This won’t do. This really won’t do. The family lord ordered me to bring you and that woman from the Namgung clan back alive….”
Killing intent leaked from Muyong Ji’s eyes in streams.
“I’ll just have to bring that woman back alive. I’ll report to the family lord that your martial prowess was too exceptional and your resistance too fierce, leaving me no choice but to kill you.”
“So you’re becoming an assassin who won’t even follow orders now.”
Muyong Ji didn’t answer my words and gripped the end of his staff.
Shhhhk!
As he pulled the staff, a sword was drawn out.
It was no ordinary blade.
From the unsheathed sword, a chilling, icy blue aura unraveled in layers.
“Let me tell you my name. Though it’s not recorded in the family register, my name is Muyong Ji.”
“You want to exchange names at a time like this?”
“You should have a name to speak before the King of Hell. Don’t worry about getting lost in the afterlife. I’ve sent many souls there, so the messengers will guide you very well….”
The words “very well” echoed as if reverberating from a distance, but “will guide you” rang out clearly right before my face.
My eyes widened.
As if transcending space itself, Muyong Ji appeared before me.
He immediately threw a punch.
Kwaaaang!
That collision was the beginning.
“Krraaagh!”
“Aaaaah!”
With a thunderous roar, the assassins who had opened their blood gates shrieked like demons and rushed toward me and my companions.
* * *
Crack! Crunch!
Right after the first exchange, I felt a sharp pain as the arm bones I’d barely managed to brace trembled.
Boom! Booooom!
With each collision, concentric shockwaves erupted and swept across the surroundings.
Not just at the point of impact, but the tangled energy waves became whirlpools, creating smaller shockwaves in the vicinity.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
First exchange, second exchange….
With each exchange of blows, I was driven backward, my feet scraping across the ground, and after more than ten strikes, my body was lifted from the earth and sent flying backward.
Crash! Boom!
Only after smashing through several trees did my body finally slam into the ground and come to a halt.
Whoosh! Bang!
Yet I had no time to catch my breath—I had to throw my body to the side.
“Wretched rat.”
Muyong Ji had descended upon that very spot and driven his blade into it.
Muyong Ji frowned as he watched me evade by the narrowest margin.
“Quite skilled at deception and misdirection. Your evasion and forward momentum are rather impressive… Hah!”
In that instant, Muyong Ji swallowed his breath mid-sentence.
Whoosh!
I had detected the opening created by his careless words like a ghost and drove my kick through it.
Bang!
My heel struck his ribs.
Muyong Ji staggered backward several steps, exhaling a pained groan.
And that was the end of it.
“Lighter than I expected.”
Muyong Ji reset his stance and brought his blade down.
As I retreated hastily into the Cheonryu Yubo, a flicker of regret crossed my vision.
‘I had targeted the opening perfectly.’
Yet I could not pierce through the protective technique of the Black Bloodfiend Art.
Among the martial techniques of the Jeongheol Sect, it was counted among the most formidable for its density.
To inflict true damage, I would need more than a single strike exploiting an opening—I would need to invest time in developing my leg techniques.
‘The Black Bloodfiend Art combined with the Moyong Family’s swordplay. Eclectic. Eclectic, yet… powerful.’
My sensory perception dissected Muyong Ji’s martial prowess.
He had taken only the density from the Black Bloodfiend Art, layered the Moyong Family’s sword techniques upon it, and finished with the assassin’s lethal methods.
Balance had been forged from this eclecticism.
A martial balance I had not yet achieved.
Boom! Whoosh…
Each time our energies clashed, the inner force barrier protecting my entire body crumbled like a sandcastle and scattered.
Muyong Ji’s protective technique showed only slight tremors. Even the hem of her garment remained pristine.
Crack! Screech!
Before I could restore my shattered protective technique, Muyong Ji’s blade came slashing down.
The flesh on the back of my hand split open where we collided, and blood sprayed forth.
Muyong Ji spoke with calm composure.
“Let’s see how you handle this.”
My eyes widened.
A flash of light streaked before my eyes. It was a devastating swift strike.
My sensory perception detected it, but my reaction came too late.
Screeeech!
Where Muyong Ji’s blade passed, the air split with a sharp crack, and blood sprayed upward.
He had drawn his sword through the gap that the Dragon Scale Guard couldn’t protect.
The bitter truth that I lacked defensive qi techniques, martial arts, and the Ascendant Heaven realm gnawed at me.
‘Fine. If I have no teeth, I’ll fight with my gums!’
Eyes wide open, I pushed forward, enduring the surging pain through sheer willpower.
“…!”
Crash!
Muyong Ji’s eyes flashed.
I drove my fist forward.
I drove it in—not with a cutting blow, but with a pushing strike that cleverly deflected the blade to the side.
Through the opening I created, I suddenly hurled something I’d been holding in my hand.
Whoooosh!
“Tsk! How crude….”
Muyong Ji quickly shielded his eyes.
Dirt and dust. He recognized the familiar scent—the poison from the Dark Secret Blade technique I’d scattered earlier was mixed in.
When he opened his eyes again, Muyong Ji suddenly felt killing intent surging from below.
Boom! Crack!
My foot swept diagonally across his shin.
Muyong Ji’s face twisted from the impact.
Immediately after, instead of withdrawing my extended leg, I stamped the ground to anchor myself, then extended my fist again.
Boom!
For the first time, Muyong Ji’s feet left the ground as he was sent flying.
Watching Muyong Ji recede into the distance, I coughed up blood.
“Cough! Hah.”
After spitting blood once, I wiped the blood from my lips and lifted my gaze.
Finally, at last.
I had landed a proper strike.
Boom!
Muyong Ji, who had been sent flying several zhang and crashed into the ground, exploded upward and landed back down.
“Tsk tsk! Twisting your body to dissipate the impact, breaking the flow of my defensive technique by targeting the lower section, then attacking the upper? You really are a terrifying one.”
Limp, limp!
Muyong Ji dragged his broken leg as he approached me.
‘Truly a monster beyond monsters. The difference in realm, a body that’s not whole, and poison that seems to have taken considerable effect….’
A chill ran down my spine.
If I hadn’t prepared slightly more troops.
If I had grasped his intentions even a moment later, and my numbers had been further reduced.
‘I might have actually lost. By any measure, this should be my victory, so why is it this difficult?’
Muyong Ji shook his head slowly.
“It’s been quite some time since my bones have been broken. I really don’t know where you crawled out from.”
“Unlike you, I’ve trained in divine techniques rather than waterman techniques. Injuries like these heal just from breathing.”
My head was admittedly spinning a bit.
In any case, even the slimmest chance of victory was enough.
“Even as you’re dying, your mouth won’t stop moving, will it?”
Muyong Ji laughed with a bitter edge to his voice.
Dokgo Myeong let out a small chuckle in response.
“Come then. Let’s try killing each other again.”
Before I could finish speaking, I lowered my body and swept my hand across the ground.
Several flying blades caught on my fingertips and soared through the air.
Whoosh! Bang! Bang!!
Each time the flying blades flew, explosive sounds erupted.
Cowardly flinging dirt, launching surprise attacks with flying blades—a relentless, unrestrained fight.
Yet Muyong Ji drew his sword and flicked the blades away, a laugh escaping him.
“Tsk tsk tsk! Good. I don’t like it, but you’re arrogant enough to deserve respect.”
Muyong Ji’s figure suddenly vanished before my eyes.
Screech! Bang!
I felt something coming at me and desperately deployed the Hongcheon Technique at full power to deflect it.
But I couldn’t deflect it.
A blade embedded itself in my side.
I survived thanks to the Dragon Scale Armor. But the impact sent my inner energy surging wildly through my body.
Whoosh! Bang! Crash!
“Cough! Gasp!”
I didn’t look away even as blood poured from my mouth. Another blade was coming at me.
Bang! Crack!
The arm bone I’d braced dislocated.
Crash!
I swung a blade that had been rolling on the ground, but I couldn’t even withstand one exchange before Muyong Ji’s overwhelming inner power crushed the blade like mud.
Clang!
The Hongcheon Technique finally shattered completely.
My broken arm was flung backward.
Whiiiing!
At the moment my focus reached its absolute limit.
I felt something strange.
Inner power, body, mental strength, and even sensory perception.
I felt all of it converging into one in a single instant.
My eyes snapped wide open.
‘It’s here.’
Everything moving in the world slows down. And from those slowed movements, countless threads extend outward into my vision.
I’ve entered it. The realm of ascension.
But then.
“You… reached this far at your age?”
Muyong Ji let out a hollow laugh as he swung his sword.
Thwack! Thwack! Thud-thud!
In an instant, the threads of energy I had conjured began to dissipate uselessly.
That’s right. My opponent was also a master of the Ascending Realm.
‘Not yet.’
I planted my feet before all the threads could be severed.
Boom! Crash!
I deflected his sword strike with Jecheon-gi, then lashed out with a Hwacheon Strike.
I struck his shoulder, then drove a Collapse Fist directly into his solar plexus.
“Kugh!”
Muyong Ji coughed blood and was driven backward.
A flicker of regret crossed my eyes.
‘Too shallow.’
Was it due to accumulated internal injuries, or perhaps the severe external trauma?
I hadn’t been able to unleash a strike powerful enough to end everything.
“You… what are you?!”
Her eyes no longer held any carelessness.
Before those words even finished, a deep blue sword aura crashed down upon me.
Boom-boom-boom! Crack-crack!
My eyes widened.
The defensive power of the Dragon Scale Robe had finally reached its limit. The front of my garment tore open, exposing my abdomen.
Even though I had channeled my full inner force and carefully deflected the impact with Jecheon-gi, it was still not enough.
Boom!
‘Not yet.’
I stomped down hard on the ground to stabilize my stance.
Boom! Crash!
I coughed blood and was driven backward in succession.
Still, not yet.
The moment had not come.
‘It doesn’t matter if I’m badly wounded. Just one moment—until then, I’ll surrender everything.’
Even as blood poured out so profusely that my breathing grew dizzy, I never averted my gaze.
Splat! Splat!
Something flew through the air and burst.
Muyong Ji had thrown a poison jar she’d picked up from somewhere.
“Cough!”
The poisonous scent burrowed into my respiratory passages.
The moment I hastily held my breath and deflected the sword, Muyong Ji thrust a palm strike forward.
‘Palm technique?’
My eyes deepened.
That palm strike.
That was not the martial art of the Moyong Family.
A familiar stance, a familiar deployment of inner energy.
It was the technique of the Black Bloodfiend—and the distance between us was close enough that I chose the spear over the sword.
‘Now.’
The moment I had been waiting for.
Dokgo Myeong threw himself toward Jang-ryeok.

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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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