Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 156

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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 156
Gwak Dae-ryong’s mornings began earlier than anyone else’s.
Even earlier than Dokgo Myeong’s. The reason was simple—the sun grew too fierce during the day to work, so everything had to be done at dawn.
Once the sun strengthened, he’d roam through every corner of the village, offering swift assistance wherever labor was needed.
He repaired homes, cleared away stones washed down by rain, and even served as a tutor to the village children.
“Oh my, guests have arrived? Here, take this with you. Go on and eat it.”
“Goodness, so much arrowroot? We’ll enjoy it gratefully.”
“Brother! Take some eggs with you! Since we have guests!”
“Oh! Thank you so much!”
Dokgo Myeong witnessed every moment of it.
Gwak Dae-ryong was a young man held in remarkably high regard throughout the village. Since the village’s population skewed elderly, even Gwak Dae-ryong, approaching middle age, was treated as a youth.
After following him for several days, Dokgo Myeong came to a realization.
Gwak Dae-ryong was no longer a deviant.
His hands bore soil rather than blood—he had become a man to whom such stains suited him perfectly.
“Gwak, brother.”
“Hmm, what is it, brother?”
For several days now, Dokgo Myeong had been speaking to Gwak Dae-ryong as an equal.
Dokgo Myeong asked him.
“Living like this… it’s quite decent, isn’t it?”
Gwak Dae-ryong smiled broadly.
“You’re too kind. Why don’t you retire too and abandon all those useless martial world affairs?”
Only then did Dokgo Myeong become certain.
‘Ah, I cannot take this man with me.’
Geum Seok-du, Namgung Sohwa, Cheolmu-baek, and Gwak Dae-ryong—they were different from the start.
He had already found his own sanctuary. He was someone who had never been misaligned from the beginning.
There might be a future where he could become misaligned, but I could simply correct that.
‘I cannot wait for him to become misaligned simply because I desire him.’
Only after so much time had passed.
Now, having lived two lives, Dokgo Myeong finally understood the meaning behind what Gwak Dae-ryong had once said.
“Gwak, brother.”
“What is it?”
“Salgok is still alive. You know that, don’t you?”
Gwak Dae-ryong paused.
Silence flowed between them.
After a moment, Gwak Dae-ryong spoke.
“So not all of them died after all. What are you getting at?”
“If they target Ye-hwa, what will you do?”
“I’ll protect her.”
“Why?”
“Why? Children are meant to be protected by adults until they grow up—that’s just how it is.”
Yes, that’s right.
That’s why it’s difficult.
“Don’t you have any regrets or worries? A perfectly decent life could vanish entirely.”
Gwak Dae-ryong chuckled softly.
“It’s all my karma. If I was born a man, I must live responsibly without complaint.”
Dokgo Myeong burst into laughter and nodded.
“Gwak, how much time do you have?”
“What?”
“Let’s test our skills against each other.”
“Huh?”
* * *
Dokgo Myeong stood alone, steadying his breathing.
Gwak Dae-ryong stood at a distance.
“I’m not suited for martial contests. I was never a martial artist to begin with. Yet you want to spar?”
“It’s been a while. Let me take a few of your arrows, brother.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Let’s go by the rules I mentioned earlier. If I capture you within a quarter hour, that’s my victory.”
“You’re underestimating me. Even like this, I’m the greatest archer under heaven.”
“Let’s see for ourselves.”
Dokgo Myeong unleashed all the power he had been concealing.
Kwaaaaaah!
At the opening of the Three Divine Energies, Gwak Dae-ryong’s eyes widened.
Dokgo Myeong kicked off the ground without announcing his start.
Gwak Dae-ryong’s expression changed in an instant.
Thwang! Thwang! Thwaaang!
“…!”
White arrows shot forth from the divine bow.
The moment they were nocked, wind rushed toward his face.
Kwaaang!
Dokgo Myeong swept the sleeves of his Yongrin Robe broadly, deflecting all three arrows.
Immovable Stance, Silver Han Wall.
In that brief moment, Gwak Dae-ryong had hidden himself among the brush, erasing his presence.
Dokgo Myeong quickly surveyed his surroundings.
Crack!
His sensory technique responded.
Dokgo Myeong smirked.
“There you are.”
Dokgo Myeong crouched and kicked off the ground, ramming directly into a tree.
Kwaaaaaang!
The tree trunk snapped, and Gwak Dae-ryong, who had been perched above, staggered and fell.
No sooner did I think I was falling than I kicked off a branch and vanished from sight once more. It was truly a movement technique of unpredictable brilliance.
Whoosh! Boom!
Immediately after, an arrow traced a curved arc and struck where I stood.
Rapid fire, curved trajectories, and arrows infused with explosive inner energy.
It was always shocking to witness how much martial prowess could be channeled through archery.
Boom! Crash!
The tree pierced by the arrow shattered, and the ground caved in.
In a single breath, arrows following different trajectories came flying at me from multiple angles.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen this. It’s truly formidable.’
I clicked my tongue.
This was the terror of an archer who had reached the Ascendant Realm. Once distance was established, even a master of the Limitless Realm would have to concede several moves and fight defensively.
‘Your skills haven’t dulled one bit!’
Rat-a-tat-tat!
As I quickly twisted my body to the side, something flew through the air and tore up the ground.
This time it wasn’t an arrow. He had infused his inner energy into the bowstring and released it instead of an arrow.
Pure inner energy without an arrow—a technique of the Void-Breaking Bow.
Boom!
As I fled in disarray, I suddenly planted my feet and pivoted sharply, charging forward.
‘Where are you going!’
Gwak Dae-ryong, who had been firing arrows while weaving between trees, released one toward me.
Screech!
A strike that tore through the air.
In that instant, Gwak Dae-ryong’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Crash!
I had caught the arrow with my bare hand.
I clenched my fist and snapped the arrow, then resumed my pursuit.
‘Yes, that’s it.’
My eyes grew cold and sharp.
‘Strong, but dull.’
Not in comparison to my past life. Gwak Dae-ryong’s archery technique itself had grown dull.
I struck the ground with my foot.
Boom!
I switched my movement technique.
The permeating footwork—Cheonryu Yubo.
Gwak Dae-ryong’s eyes widened.
‘What is that technique?’
Shifting direction erratically as I closed in, my speed never diminished.
The distance narrowed, and narrowed again.
Then, in an instant, I appeared before his eyes.
Thud!
Dokgo Myeong’s hand stretched toward his back.
Gwak Dae-ryong hastily drew the bowstring of the red bow taut, but….
Crack-crack-crack!
…he couldn’t release it.
As he’d said, this wasn’t a life-or-death match.
He was no longer an assassin.
Dokgo Myeong’s hand slowly touched his back.
Thud!
“I won.”
“Damn. You’re ridiculously fast.”
Gwak Dae-ryong and Dokgo Myeong laughed simultaneously.
* * *
“So what was the meaning of this martial contest?”
“Well, it was my way of saying goodbye.”
“When has there ever been such an unusual farewell?”
Dokgo Myeong chuckled and pulled out all the liquor he’d brought.
Then he deliberately suppressed his inner energy and drank heavily.
Having reached the Ascending Realm and elevated his body’s status further, he had to suppress his inner energy to become intoxicated. After all, alcohol was ultimately a form of poison.
The two of them drank and drank.
Only after their faces had flushed red did Dokgo Myeong ask.
“Brother Gwak. Is life worth living?”
Gwak Dae-ryong let out a scoff.
“So-so. Originally I lived because I couldn’t die, but now life is worth living. What about you?”
“I live to beat the hell out of those who made me live when I couldn’t die. There are too many people in this world who deserve a beating.”
“….”
Dokgo Myeong and Gwak Dae-ryong each drank in turn.
Dokgo Myeong muttered like a drunkard.
“To enjoy life, one must drink poison. Is this what living in Gangho is like?”
Gwak Dae-ryong asked with a slurred tongue.
“Aren’t you worried? What if I poisoned your drink?”
“…?”
“Right now you’re drinking in front of a man from an assassin organization. I have over a hundred ways to poison your cup.”
“If you were capable of that, you wouldn’t have annihilated Salgok.”
After staring at Dokgo Myeong for a long while, Gwak Dae-ryong spoke.
“What kind of person do you think I am?”
Dokgo Myeong answered in a drawling voice.
“The greatest assassin born and raised in Salgok, a master of archery at the Ascending Realm who could kill even masters of the Wuji realm…but now a wastrel living carefree in a mountain village.”
“Heh heh, accurate. Then do you know what kind of history Salgok has?”
“It was the Dark Sword of the Milgyo.”
More precisely, it was one of many factions scattered after the Milgyo Rebellion.
“If Salmak severed ties as the eldest, then Salgok can be called the independent second. In short, the two are no different from brothers. Am I wrong?”
“You know quite well about a secret history of Gangho that few are aware of. What is your real identity?”
Gwak Dae-ryong smacked his lips.
“In any case, you’re accurate. The doctrine of Milgyo flows through the cycle of birth, prosperity, death, and rebirth, and Salgok was said to oversee death. Truth be told, I don’t know much either. I was simply educated.”
Education was merely a guise for brainwashing.
It was Milgyo’s method of forcibly opening the lower dantian through numerous drugs and brainwashing.
Gwak Dae-ryong spoke while drinking.
“I was an assassin who mastered nearly all of Salgok’s secret techniques, but I retained emotions. Especially what I’d call frustration… whenever I saw my own state or the state of those around me, resentment would pile up steadily.”
“Resentment?”
Gwak Dae-ryong’s eyes gleamed.
“Am I strange? Is this right? Why do people live like this? Those thoughts kept coming to me.”
“You’re similar to me. My resentment burst too, and I went around destroying everything.”
“What was your catalyst?”
“There was no grand catalyst. It just kept piling up and then came crashing down.”
Gwak Dae-ryong let out a hollow laugh.
“So that’s why you and I connected. Now let me teach you why I came to be called Gwak Dae-ryong.”
Gwak Dae-ryong continued speaking.
“How do men who make killing their profession maintain their organization? Obviously, they must raise assassins. Whether buying or kidnapping them, they must bring children from a young age and raise them.”
Gwak Dae-ryong’s throat was parched, and he kept drinking.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, I had talent for the assassin’s work, so I never did petty kidnappings. But I had to keep watching. How children would enter a certain chamber and emerge years later as cruel and cold-blooded assassins. When ten would enter, only three would come out.”
“You just watched that happen?”
“I secretly smuggled a few out. But damn it, the number of children being kidnapped only increased.”
Gwak Dae-ryong laughed bitterly.
It was a laugh tinged with bitterness.
“Then one day, Gok-ju summoned me and assigned me an assassination. An assassin of Salgok swallows solitude and cannot refuse an order. What do you think the mission was?”
Gwak Dae-ryong laughed like a madman, then filled his cup to the brim and muttered as if lamenting.
“It was a mission to kill a child.”
“….”
“And it was just an ordinary child. A back-alley orphan with no reason whatsoever for an assassin to step in.”
Gwak Dae-ryong’s face contorted and relaxed repeatedly.
“Gok-ju knew. It was only natural, after all. It’s impossible for someone with a broken mind to master martial arts. Anyway, when I pushed back saying to just disembowel and kill the child, Gok-ju made a proposal.”
Gwak Dae-ryong’s expression grew grave.
A voice followed, as if mimicking Gok-ju’s tone from some time past.
“Create a child to become the Assassin King. Transmit everything you have to that child.”
Gwak Dae-ryong twisted his lips upward.
“That was Ye-hwa. That madman Gok-ju gave birth to a child to create the Assassin King. When I saw that emotionally shallow child, my mind spun. So I prepared this woman and set the plan in motion.”
“….”
“Flaming arrows, poison arrows, ordinary arrows… I shot them all without discrimination. Running away, using traps I’d dug in advance, using gunpowder… I shot and shot again.”
Gwak Dae-ryong’s eyes rippled strangely.
“As I kept drawing the bowstring, I no longer knew whether I was shooting the bow or the bow was shooting me.”
“You’ve achieved quite the enlightenment.”
“Perhaps I could have, if the assassins struck by my arrows hadn’t been children who were kidnapped in the first place.”
“….”
In the silence, only the sound of drinking continued.
Dokgo Myeong imagined Gwak Dae-ryong, who had no choice but to draw his bowstring while swallowing his curses, borrowing the courage of intoxication.
Gwak Dae-ryong continued speaking.
“Now then, what of Solitude? Actually, that’s the most amusing part. When Gok-ju transmitted his secret techniques to Ye-hwa, the sovereignty of Solitude was transferred to her instead.”
“Is Gok-ju an idiot?”
“Of course he is. He’s the leader of assassins. Anyway, thanks to that, the Supreme Assassin’s delightful rebellion succeeded.”
Gwak Dae-ryong would have certainly rebelled regardless of whether Solitude existed in his body or not.
Dokgo Myeong nodded and emptied his cup.
Gwak Dae-ryong spoke with a more serious tone.
“Though she escaped that way, Ye-hwa was… unstable. Her upper dantian was already opened.”
“So that’s why.”
I remember that formidable arrow.
Despite her clumsy resolve, the martial power embedded in that bow was not to be ignored.
“Since she hasn’t killed anyone, she’s not yet an assassin, but if she had committed even a single murder, she would have become one immediately. When Gok-ju entrusted Ye-hwa to me, he had already killed her sense of self-will. It was fortunate that it wasn’t too late.”
In that moment, Dokgo Myeong’s hair stood on end with a chill. As he listened to the story, an ominous thought suddenly struck him.
“Was Gwak hyung supposed to be Ye-hwa’s first victim?”
“….”
“Damn.”
Dokgo Myeong laughed, then laughed again.
To transmit everything meant to offer one’s own life as well. For an assassin’s completion requires a first murder, after all.
Truly remarkable. Truly.
What a variety of methods.
“It’s in the past. Though it took time, now that child is no longer an assassin but simply a person named Ye-hwa.”
“For someone like that, her prayers were exactly those of an assassin.”
“That child’s world consists only of Gok-ju, me, and this village. It would be good if she could see a wider world….”
Suddenly, it occurred to Dokgo Myeong that Gwak Dae-ryong genuinely regarded Ye-hwa as his disciple.
Dokgo Myeong exhaled a long breath.
“So, what is it you want to tell me?”
“Dokgo Myeong.”
The intoxication had vanished from Gwak Dae-ryong’s face.
He gazed at Dokgo Myeong with a more solemn expression.
“Through me, you see someone else, don’t you?”
Dokgo Myeong hesitated, then smiled bitterly.
“Your discernment is something else….”
“Archers always have good eyes.”
The two laughed simultaneously.
Gwak Dae-ryong continued speaking.
“I know why you came looking for me. But I have no intention of following you. I no longer wish to draw the bowstring, and instead of blood, I want to bury soil in my hands. That is my life now. It seems you understood that, which is why you didn’t speak of it to me.”
“Yes.”
“Let me ask you one thing.”
Gwak Dae-ryong’s eyes gleamed.
“Why did you need an assassin? Did you need someone to kill easily for you?”
Dokgo Myeong shook his head.
“No, I needed someone to protect us.”
“An assassin is one who kills.”
“An assassin understands an assassin best. I came to you, Gwak, because I needed an assassin to protect us from assassins.”
“….”
Gwak Dae-ryong stared at Dokgo Myeong intently.
In this moment, Dokgo Myeong felt as though he and Gwak Dae-ryong had shared a long conversation without words.
After a long pause, Gwak Dae-ryong opened his mouth.
“So you’ve given up now?”
“What else can I do? The person who would eat the rice cake refuses.”
Dokgo Myeong drank deeply with a bitter smile.
He had no desire to force a leash upon himself.
Wasn’t that why he had been gathering companions in the first place?
Then it happened.
Gwak Dae-ryong emptied his cup in one gulp and spoke.
“Come here, Ye-hwa.”
“Yes.”
Ye-hwa approached silently and sat down.
Gwak Dae-ryong spoke.
“Would you have any interest in venturing out into the world with this man?”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes widened.

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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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