Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 149

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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 149
Kwaaang!
A deafening roar like a thunderbolt explosion swept through the room.
Am Seong-ju’s eyes wavered as he was driven backward by the tremendous recoil.
‘I was pushed back?’
In contrast, Dokgo Myeong showed not even a tremor, slowly rising to his feet without budging an inch.
Dokgo Myeong smiled wickedly and spoke.
“Just about right.”
“What?”
“This fight should be just right for adjusting my martial arts.”
Before his words even finished, Am Seong-ju’s hands urgently moved backward.
He drew two short swords hidden behind his waist and swung them down like lightning.
Swish! Kwaaang!
Am Seong-ju smashed through the inn’s wall and was hurled outside. He didn’t stop until he’d also shattered the windows of the building across the way.
“Kyaaaah!”
“Huh! W-what is this!”
A man and woman inside the building, drinking their wine, screamed at this unexpected calamity.
“….”
Am Seong-ju didn’t even glance their way. Maintaining his stern expression, he brushed the dust from his clothes with his blade and rose to his feet.
Beyond the gaping hole in the inn’s wall, Dokgo Myeong stood calmly, staring at him intently.
Am Seong-ju nodded.
“So you’ve broken through to the Ascending Realm. An unprecedented growth rate. Yet still insufficient. How did you withstand the Dark Sword technique?”
Am Seong-ju spun his twin swords and unleashed a wave of energy.
Kuuuuuuung!
A violent whirlwind erupted around him, sweeping away all the debris scattered across the ground.
It was the Heaven-Earth Unified Qi Technique—a supreme divine art that only the direct bloodline of the Moyong Family could master.
To hold the position of chief intelligence officer for an entire organization required more than ordinary martial prowess. Am Seong-ju was a true master who had reached the Ascending Realm through orthodox martial arts alone, without relying on blood techniques.
“I’ve already grasped your level. I’ve finished studying the weaknesses and strengths of your martial arts. Your techniques cannot touch me.”
“Is that so?”
Dokgo Myeong cracked his neck.
“Good. Then I won’t hold back.”
White light erupted from Dokgo Myeong’s feet.
Thwack!
He vanished for an instant, reappearing right before Am Seong-ju’s face. With a single step, Dokgo Myeong had closed the distance until their fists could touch.
Kwang! Bang! Bang!
Explosive sounds erupted.
Nothing remained in the range where Dokgo Myeong’s fists struck.
‘I need to fight in a wider space.’
Am Seong-ju pushed Dokgo Myeong back with a cross-shaped sword energy and rushed out onto the main street through the shattered wall.
Dokgo Myeong charged after him like a raging bull. A barrage of lightning-fast thrusts and strikes poured down like a sudden downpour.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Am Seong-ju calmly deflected the incoming attacks.
Dozens of collisions erupted in the span of a single breath, and countless sparks scattered through the air.
‘He’s using martial techniques exactly as analyzed. Dokgo Myeong.’
Every major sect meticulously analyzes individuals of concern.
Dokgo Myeong was no exception.
Am Seong had analyzed Dokgo Myeong through the corpses of Moyong Lim and Moryong Baek, eyewitness accounts, temperament, and various other traces, crafting a countermeasure.
‘Aggressive striking and footwork focused on offense. Martial techniques aiming for one-hit kills with single strikes. Direct confrontation means certain defeat, but his inner energy consumption is substantial—if I simply maintain solid defense….’
Am Seong-ju’s movements shifted.
He shortened his stride and moved with concise efficiency, keeping his elbows pressed against his body.
Dokgo Myeong’s movements changed as well. The nature of his true energy transformed.
Whoosh!
Crimson light mixed with white.
Am Seong-ju’s eyes gleamed.
‘…Crimson true energy. He has a tendency to shift toward joint locks and finger strikes when the opponent’s defense is solid.’
Exactly as predicted.
Dokgo Myeong extended his fist as if to strike, then suddenly grasped the blade with his bare hand.
Crack!
In that instant, Am Seong-ju felt his wrist joint twist unnaturally.
He abandoned one of his short swords entirely before the true energy could penetrate deeper.
Thud!
Thus one of Am Seong-ju’s hands emptied.
Dokgo Myeong’s expression hardened.
This was the moment he had waited for.
‘His greatest weakness is the absence of defensive martial techniques and loss of balance. He merely compensates through external force and body technique.’
Swish!
A pushing palm thrust displaced the air itself. The air touched by his fingertips vaporized from the heat of the Qiankun energy, leaving traces in the void.
‘It’s over.’
The finishing blow.
He had poured all his power into this single palm strike.
Boom!
The palm force erupted directly below Dokgo Myeong’s heart.
Dokgo Myeong was driven backward, his feet scraping the ground.
Am Seong-ju’s expression, which had relaxed with certainty of victory, gradually began to contort.
“…What?”
Am Seong-ju uttered a vacant sound like a man whose soul had left his body.
And then.
Whoosh!
A fist shot forward, sweeping away the fragments of true energy and debris floating in the air.
Boom!
“Gack!”
Am Seong-ju’s jaw snapped violently to the side.
His vital energy flow severed abruptly, causing him to stagger, but Dokgo Myeong didn’t pause—he brutally seized Am Seong-ju by the collar.
“Men like you fight as if playing baduk. But what will you do about this?”
“…!”
“Plans are only perfect while they remain plans.”
Whoosh!
Am Seong-ju’s body lifted into the air.
Dokgo Myeong drove his body straight into the ground.
Boom!
It was as if an earthquake had struck.
The earth caved inward, creating a crater one zhang deep.
“Ugh…!”
Am Seong-ju felt his vision darken. The impact crushed his lungs and stomach, leaving him unable to even groan properly.
‘No, not yet.’
One might call it remarkable—this willpower that refused to surrender even now.
Even as his vision spun wildly, Am Seong-ju thrust the short blade he’d never released toward Dokgo Myeong.
Clang clang clang!
Am Seong-ju’s eyes widened as if they might split.
The short blade, laced with meteoric iron and coated in poison, trembled against something blocking it, unable to advance even an inch further.
‘What is this?!’
Whoooosh!
From Dokgo Myeong’s feet, a hazy golden-silver radiance bloomed, wrapping around his entire body without a single gap.
The Immovable Stance of the Saintly Heaven Technique. The protective inner energy of the Silver Han Wall.
Am Seong-ju felt a sudden sense of despair.
A martial technique absent from all reports and analyses.
Dokgo Myeong had already compensated for his vulnerabilities.
“Your own plan devoured you. That old man Moyong Ji you raised would have been far more troublesome.”
Crack!
Dokgo Myeong’s knee thrust upward, shattering the short blade.
He stamped the ground with the same raised foot, then swung his fist.
‘Danger!’
Boom! Crash!
Am Seong-ju deployed his martial techniques without surrender.
But it was futile.
In contests of strength, he was overwhelmed.
When he closed the distance, he was caught and broken.
When he sought openings, they were sealed; even successful attacks couldn’t penetrate.
It was flawless martial technique.
The martial arts Am Seong-ju had refined his entire life produced results inferior to third-rate techniques before Dokgo Myeong.
‘What is this Dokgo Myeong’s true identity? What martial technique has he mastered?’
Spewing forth torrents of blood, Am Seong-ju felt a chill run through him.
It differed from every martial technique he had witnessed and analyzed thus far.
How could such a martial art even exist?
His technique possessed neither harmony nor flow. Even blood arts weren’t like this. It was a martial art that negated the very foundation of Zhongyuan’s martial philosophy.
‘This… this kind of technique… from some record somewhere…’
Boom!
“Gack!”
Am Seong-ju took Dokgo Myeong’s fist directly and was sent flying backward, scattering blood.
Rolling across the ground, he contemplated.
‘There’s no chance of victory. Defeat.’
Even as his vision blurred, Am Seong-ju coldly accepted his own defeat.
‘I must retreat. This man is dangerous. He will become a formidable enemy to the main family. I must survive and report this!’
Am Seong-ju’s eyes gleamed with resolve.
He didn’t fear death.
But the family’s grave miscalculation regarding Dokgo Myeong was a critical problem. He had to return alive and inform them of this truth.
“Krraaaagh!”
Am Seong-ju suddenly let out a bestial cry and drove his palm force into Dokgo Myeong.
Boom!
At close range, the palm technique’s backlash reversed into his own meridians, and he felt his blood vessels tearing apart.
Am Seong-ju used that explosive force to launch himself backward.
‘I must escape. I have to flee and deliver this intelligence to the Shaanxi branch!’
Am Seong-ju kicked off the ground without even confirming whether his attack had succeeded.
No matter how solid one’s protective qi was, at this distance there would inevitably be impact. He had to seize this fleeting moment.
“All Dark Assassins, reveal yourselves! Sacrifice your lives to block him! Create an escape route!”
Am Seong-ju shouted without looking back as he ran.
He was a man who dwelt in the shadows of the martial world.
He harbored no qualms about turning his back or sacrificing his subordinates.
But.
Whoosh!
“Why are you like this? You were acting so impressive before—did a ghost possess you? Who are you talking to?”
“…!?”
Dokgo Myeong pursued him from behind, scattering white light.
No one.
Not a single person stood to block Dokgo Myeong.
“What?”
Dokgo Myeong let out a cold laugh.
“You’ve always fought battles where you had superior numbers, haven’t you? Your analysis is excellent, after all. But what happens when we outnumber you this time?”
“…!”
“By now, my allies are beating your subordinates to death.”
Am Seong-ju’s eyes widened as if they might split open.
From the start, I had confidence I could capture Am Seong-ju even without Seongcheon-gong. Such men always hesitate between life and death before stepping into the line of fire.
I saw neither life nor death. I looked only forward. It was this difference in mindset that sealed his defeat.
My hand descended like a guillotine blade toward Am Seong-ju’s back.
* * *
Squad Leader of Am Seong-ju’s honor guard.
A master at the pinnacle of his realm, he faced a monster.
“This monstrosity…”
Crash!
A colossal figure plummeted through the shattered ceiling—Cheolmu-baek.
With merely five swings of his axe, he had demolished the inner residence where the Squad Leader hid, then drove his weapon into the man’s torso, his eerie blue eyes flashing with cold light.
“This one’s secured.”
In ages past, the Spear Palace Unobstructed Sword was called a martial art that dominated space itself.
The qi waves and sword paths that consumed the surroundings shattered all resistance and erased every choice.
‘The principles of this sword technique that Sohwa entrusted to me are identical to the Spear Palace Unobstructed Sword.’
This martial art shared the same roots. It was merely more practical and tyrannical in application.
Perhaps because of this.
After a day of continuous combat, Namgung Sohwa achieved victory even when crossing blades with a master of nearly equal skill.
“Cough, hack…”
The Am Seong’s Squad Leader coughed blood yet his eyes gleamed with light.
“That sword… what is its name?”
“It is an incomplete technique without a name as yet.”
“Should it be perfected… it would surely rival the greatest swords in existence.”
“Your blade was formidable as well. Depart without regret.”
“…”
Moyong’s Dark Swordsman closed his eyes.
Even enemies deserve courtesy.
Namgung Sohwa turned her body.
Crash!
Dokgo Ak burst through the building, tearing his way inside.
“No, wait!”
“Dokgo Ak! The reckless fool of the Dokgo Household!”
“Damn it! I said I’m not anymore! Why do even the enemies call me a reckless fool!”
Dokgo Ak grumbled as he tore through the Moyong Family’s assassins rushing at him from all directions.
This was the third branch of Am Seong in Shanxi.
Gae-bang and Dokgo Myeong’s forces had begun destroying not only the newly infiltrated assassins, but also the organizations that had originally been connected to Moyong’s strings.
The purge had begun in earnest.
Hu-gudang’s Lord Ju Won-gwang seized all of Moyong’s hideouts, retreats, and external collaborators.
Cheon I-gak cut off escape routes for anyone suspected, while Gae-bang disciples scattered throughout Shanxi handled the cleanup to ensure no loose ends remained.
It was the final reckoning.
I had captured not only the Assassins of the Moyong Family, but Am Seong-ju as well.
* * *
Ju Won-gwang, who was staying at my estate, gazed up at the empty sky.
Flash!
In broad daylight, something suddenly gleamed as if a meteor had fallen from the heavens.
Whoosh! Boom!
What struck the ground was none other than myself.
Ju Won-gwang asked in an exasperated tone.
“Must you always make such a spectacle of your entrances?”
“Huff, huff….”
I brushed the dust away and breathed heavily.
Then I hurled something I’d been holding.
Thud! Crash!
“I’ve brought him. This is Moyong’s Dark Swordsman.”
“….”
“Get him to the physician quickly. This man was nearly dead when I arrived, so I had to rush.”
Ju Won-gwang looked down at the middle-aged man thrown like a bundle of rags with a dubious expression.
“Do you have to reduce people to rags before you can subdue them? Is this some strange preference of yours?”
“Listen, Ju. At my level, it’s difficult to subdue an opponent without killing them. In any case, you know nothing of such matters….”
“…Yet for someone saying that, you appear to have only minor scratches?”
“I won through psychological warfare before the battle even began. Otherwise, I would have been in serious trouble.”
“Don’t lie with a straight face! You did this testing your martial prowess! Be honest!”
I narrowed my eyes.
“An amateur… talking back?”
“…?!”
“Tsk tsk! How could an amateur understand the profound world of a master? Just accept it as it is. Really now.”
“Grrr!”
Ju Won-gwang ground his teeth.
I chuckled and then opened my mouth slightly.
“What about the cleanup?”
“All handled. The remaining arrangements will be coordinated with Cheon I-gak.”
“So it’s finished then?”
“Capturing the Dark Swordsman was the most critical part.”
Ju Won-gwang continued.
“The Assassins and the Dark Swordsman. As long as Moyong doesn’t know if they’re alive or dead, they must either kill or rescue them. It’s their weakness and their reverse scale. They won’t avoid confrontation going forward.”
I nodded.
“That’s true. Now that the Dark Swordsman is captured, the real battle begins.”
“They’ll attack you both openly and covertly. Most likely first….”
“They’ll manipulate public opinion.”
“Yes, a war of public perception. You already beheaded someone at the festival where the Posterior Disciples gathered. They’ll seize on that and tear into you.”
“The sentiments of the people near Zhejiang will turn against you.”
“The Posterior Disciples at Dengyongji and other conservative old-timers won’t view you favorably either.”
The beginning of a dirty fight.
Moyong would launch subtle insinuations against Dokgo Myeong. And using that as justification, he would mobilize Moyong’s forces.
Not the shadowy forces, but the overt ones—the main martial corps and the elder elders of the Moyong Household.
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed.
“Then I’ll have to strike back. Once this mud-slinging war begins, Moyong will suffer far greater losses.”
“Right, we’re preparing as we speak. Just give it a little time.”
“You’re already leaking information about me to Moyong, aren’t you?”
“I am, but… I’m not sure if this is really the right call.”
“I’ll handle the consequences, so just keep making Moyong fixate on me. Make them really annoyed with me.”
“Tsk.”
Ju Won-gwang clicked his tongue.
Dokgo Myeong asked.
“How long do you think it’ll take, roughly?”
“Two weeks.”
“Interesting. Let’s proceed.”
“Proceed is… what will you be doing in the meantime?”
Dokgo Myeong gazed toward the distance.
“I need to go see an old friend soon.”

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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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