Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 153

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 153
Twang!
The sound of the iron bow’s string being drawn was quite unsettling.
Dokgo Myeong looked down at the Black-Robed Man embedded in the thicket, aiming an arrow at him.
The aura carried the characteristic gloominess of an assassin, and above the mask, emotionless eyes devoid of feeling were revealed.
At first glance, there was a reason why Dokgo Myeong had stopped his fist against this assassin.
“A kid?”
“….”
The attacker was a young girl.
Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t an assassin, but….
‘What is this? Is she really an assassin?’
Quiver!
The drawn bowstring trembled with hesitation.
Somewhat bewildered, Dokgo Myeong asked instead.
“Why aren’t you shooting?”
“….”
The young girl kept her lips firmly sealed.
Dokgo Myeong scanned her from top to bottom and asked again.
“Are you even a survivor of Salgok in the first place? Then why did you target us? Or rather, why were you trying to drive us away?”
“….”
“Say something. You were talking just fine a moment ago.”
“….”
She remained silent to the end.
Finally, veins bulged on Dokgo Myeong’s forehead.
“Ugh, this brat is getting on my nerves in the middle of the night. Want a taste of my fist? I’m not the kind of good person who goes easy on young girls, you know? You won’t answer?”
“You….”
The young girl’s mouth opened. Her voice was less childish than expected.
“…Are you not an assassin of Salgok?”
“What? An assassin? You’re the assassin here, kid. Who are you calling an assassin?”
“…?”
“…?”
In that instant, Dokgo Myeong’s eyes widened.
“Could it be?”
The moment Dokgo Myeong took a large step forward.
Screech!
The young girl flinched in surprise and drew the bowstring even more forcefully. She looked wary, like a cat with its fur standing on end.
Seeing this, Dokgo Myeong swallowed dryly.
‘I thought she was a survivor of Salgok targeting Gwak Hyung… But thinking about it, there’s no way they’d already be entangled.’
He was beginning to grasp this young girl’s true identity.
This young girl was not an assassin belonging to Salgok, but she was indeed a survivor who had learned the assassin techniques of Salgok.
And while she was indeed a survivor of Salgok, I couldn’t help but reveal hostility toward the other descendants. The history between her and Gwak Dae-ryong was the reason.
In other words.
‘Wow, this is really tangled up, isn’t it?’
If she went to Gwak Dae-ryong and said something that could be misunderstood, they might simply erase their traces and disappear.
Then it would be nearly impossible to find their trail again.
…I had to clear up this misunderstanding here!
Right now!
“Ahem!”
Dokgo Myeong cleared his throat and raised both hands.
Then, forcing a smile onto his face, he conveyed with his entire body that he meant no harm.
“Hey, why don’t we both calm down and settle this through conversation? It seems to me there’s been a misunderstanding between us, don’t you think?”
“….”
“So I’m not a strange person or anything… Ah, do you like dried meat? I have some candied ones too.”
It was the moment Dokgo Myeong carefully pulled dried meat from his bosom to offer it.
“Young Master!”
“Sohyeop!”
Rustle!
The group that had belatedly chased after Dokgo Myeong parted through the thicket and revealed themselves.
Dokgo Ak muttered with a blank expression.
“What is this? A scene right before a kidnapping that looks like it came straight from a painting?”
Dokgo Myeong cried out in startled alarm.
“Hey! Don’t come! I’m just calming things down right now…!”
That was when.
The young girl finally released the bowstring.
Twang! Whoosh!
Dokgo Myeong twisted his body to the side and barely dodged the arrow.
The arrow that narrowly missed him shattered a tree behind him.
The moment Dokgo Myeong quickly turned his head.
Twang!
The young girl kicked off the ground and began fleeing at a terrifying speed. Her lightness skill was nearly on par with Geum Seok-du’s.
‘I can’t let her get away!’
Dokgo Myeong quickly unfolded the Gwangguk Movement Technique and kicked off the ground.
“Wait! I’m really not a strange person, I’m telling you! Let’s just talk!”
“…!”
“Ugh, this tiny thing is really dangerous!”
Boom!
Dokgo Myeong, who kicked off the ground with heavy force, instantly overtook the young girl.
The young girl’s eyes widened in shock.
Just as she hurriedly tried to draw her bowstring, Dokgo Myeong swung his arm faster.
Extending his fingers instead of his fist was perhaps the result of the last shred of reason he possessed.
Crack!
A single punch produced the sound of fireworks exploding.
The young girl’s head snapped backward violently.
When her head came up again, her eyes had lost focus. She collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
“….”
“….”
The surroundings fell silent in an instant.
Dokgo Myeong’s complexion turned ashen.
“This… this is bad.”
“What?”
“What’s wrong?”
The group that had followed behind tilted their heads in confusion.
* * *
“Damn it! You’re so slow! Move faster! You’re all like snails! This is a disaster because of you!”
All four of their expressions turned sour.
‘Why is he making a fuss again?’
‘Can someone at least tell us what’s going on, you bastard?’
‘Sigh, there’s no way this will pass quietly.’
‘Mm.’
Dokgo Myeong began complaining with an intensity as if breathing fire from his mouth.
“When I look at others, they have their subordinates handle these things, but I’m the leader doing everything myself! Is this right? Should I be doing this at my rank? Huh? It’s all because of you bastards!”
“You’re the one who recklessly charged out! Why are you blaming us!”
“If you hadn’t spouted nonsense and rushed out like that, things wouldn’t have come to this! You useless reckless fool!”
“What grievance are you bringing up now….”
Dokgo Ak sighed, and Dokgo Myeong scratched his head frantically.
Namgung Sohwa furrowed her brow.
“Who exactly is this young girl?”
“The daughter of Gung-goe… or should I say his master? Or his disciple? His junior?”
“…What are you talking about?”
What kind of bizarre family tree was this?
While everyone tilted their heads in confusion, Dokgo Myeong spoke with a sigh.
“In any case, she must be someone Gung-goe considers important. …Probably.”
It wasn’t probably—it was certain.
At those words, Dokgo Ak furrowed his eyes and fell into deep thought, and soon, his expression darkened as he opened his mouth.
“Regardless of what’s what, the fact remains that you just knocked out a young girl connected to Ogun by punching her in the head, doesn’t it?”
“….”
An uncomfortable silence descended once more.
Soon, everyone nodded and spoke one by one.
“Thank you for everything, Myeong Sohyeop.”
“Young Master. I, Geum Seok-du, shall take my leave now.”
“You’ve worked hard. I’ll deliver the news to the family myself.”
“These are the real ones!”
Dokgo Myeong shouted abruptly, then grabbed the collar of the unconscious young girl’s neck and hoisted her up with a swift motion.
The young girl hung limply as she was lifted into Dokgo Myeong’s grasp.
“Let’s not stay here. We should head toward the carriage.”
Cheolmu-baek, who had remained silent throughout, spoke up.
“Would you explain what this is all about?”
“What this is about….”
Dokgo Myeong’s expression grew uncomfortable.
Walking along with the group, their footsteps echoing through the darkness.
Dokgo Myeong spoke in a subdued voice.
“…Gunggoae and this girl are likely from Salgok.”
“But you said Gunggoae destroyed Salgok?”
“Yes, Salgok fell at the hands of someone who was once an assassin.”
“What do you mean by….”
Dokgo Myeong decided to hold his tongue. This wasn’t his story to tell—it belonged to Gwak Dae-ryong, and he couldn’t speak of it carelessly.
‘Gwak Dae-ryong was the greatest assassin of Salgok.’
At the same time, he was the man who erased Salgok from the world.
And all because of a single girl—this very girl here.
Once, when Geum Seok-du had brought out some hidden liquor, the two of them shared drinks and I asked him why he did it.
Gwak Dae-ryong answered briefly.
-I simply couldn’t bear to watch.
The greatest assassin of Salgok had become the primary culprit in Salgok’s annihilation, all because he couldn’t bear to watch.
After that, Gwak Dae-ryong raised this girl, and she became like a daughter to him.
She was also the sole blood relative of the sect lord, thus his liege; Gwak Dae-ryong was her teacher of assassination arts, making her his disciple; and since assassins had no formal master-disciple relations, she could also be seen as his junior.
And furthermore….
Gwak Dae-ryong became the Chamma Lord precisely because of this girl.
A deep sigh escaped from Dokgo Myeong’s lips.
“In any case, this girl mistook us for pursuers from Salgok. From a distance, she couldn’t hear us properly, but hearing us talk about Salmak and Gunggoae, she had no choice but to misunderstand.”
The situation had become remarkably tangled.
Either way, the misunderstanding needed to be cleared up.
Whether it was with this little one or with Gwak Dae-ryong.
Soon, a beam of light appeared in the distance through the dark forest.
It was clearly the light of a campfire lit beside the carriage. As everyone walked toward it, Geum Seok-du asked.
“How did you come to know about that person, sir?”
“Simply through my own deduction and the Dokgo Family’s intelligence network.”
“Even with the Dokgo Family’s superior intelligence, how could that be possible?”
Dokgo Myeong and his group stopped walking.
That last remark hadn’t come from any of them.
Rustle!
Carefully parting through the thicket, I arrived at the campsite.
An unknown man sat beside the campfire in front of the carriage.
Everyone except Dokgo Myeong widened their eyes.
‘I sensed nothing.’
‘What is this?’
Martial artists perceive the world through their five senses and their qi perception.
Yet this man was not detected through qi sensing at all. He felt like merely part of the surrounding landscape.
Crackle! Pop!
The man stirred the campfire with a branch he was using as a poker.
His mouth slowly opened.
“Who are you and where do you come from, oppressing my disciple like this?”
Night-traveling robes, a peculiar bow held in his hand.
The man Dokgo Myeong had been searching for—Gwak Dae-ryong.
* * *
A man approaching his fifties.
Dokgo Myeong gazed at him and let out a soft chuckle.
‘He looks somewhat more refined than I remembered.’
If white streaks were added to the hair swept back neatly, a scar marked his cheek, and weariness clouded his eyes, he would look exactly like the Gwak Dae-ryong from my memories.
Rather than an assassin, he bore the dignified appearance of a sect leader with the integrity of an orthodox righteous faction.
Yet the words from his mouth were quite far removed from such dignity.
“Tsk, look at this fellow. Even with my words, he won’t release my disciple.”
Gwak Dae-ryong fiddled with the bow he held in one hand.
‘His manner of speech was the same back then too.’
Even that discord was endearing beyond measure.
Dokgo Myeong paused, recalling past memories with Gwak Dae-ryong.
Then, Geum Seok-du poked Dokgo Myeong repeatedly and spoke in a hushed voice.
“Young Master! Why have you lost yourself?”
“Come to your senses.”
When Cheolmu-baek added a word as well, Dokgo Myeong regained focus, took a deep breath, and carefully opened his mouth.
“If I set her down here, she’ll be on bare ground. So I’ll place her on the bedding we’ve laid out beside that fire. Would that be acceptable?”
“…Hmm.”
As Dokgo Myeong spoke respectfully, one of Gwak Dae-ryong’s eyebrows raised.
He nodded.
“Do so. Don’t do anything foolish. Your companions must not come near.”
“Yes.”
Dokgo Myeong carefully set the young girl down on the straw and leather spread beside the campfire.
Throughout, Gwak Dae-ryong’s gaze remained fixed on Dokgo Myeong.
The moment Dokgo Myeong set the girl down, he slowly turned and met Gwak Dae-ryong’s eyes.
“….”
“….”
Everyone in the group swallowed hard, their throats dry with tension.
‘Oh no, this looks like real trouble.’
‘Of all things, now we’re going to end up fighting with Ogun!’
The four of them felt their mouths growing parched.
But then, Dokgo Myeong assumed a fist salute and lowered his head.
“I have the honor of meeting Gung Goe, one of the renowned sovereigns of the Gangho. I am Myeong of the Dokgo Family. It is a great privilege to make your acquaintance in this manner.”
“…Huh?”
Dokgo Ak inadvertently exhaled in disbelief.
Geum Seok-du behind him trembled, Namgung Sohwa covered her mouth in shock, and Cheolmu-baek took a step back.
Dokgo Myeong.
None other than that Dokgo Myeong.
He was showing proper courtesy with a voice that carried not merely politeness, but dignity itself.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————