Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 201

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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 201
“How many days have passed?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Since I entered this place, I mean.”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa asked in a tone of utter disbelief.
“How peacefully have you been living that you’ve lost all sense of time?”
“Ah, has the Hundred Sect Tournament already ended?”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa shook her head slowly.
“About two days remain.”
“Then roughly four or five days must have passed.”
One corner of Dokgo Hwi-hwa’s cheek twitched.
It wasn’t idle talk—he genuinely appeared to have lost track of time entirely.
‘How is this possible?’
His very foundation could be torn to shreds, yet he sat there as if in closed-door cultivation, his spirit utterly detached.
Such behavior might be expected from those obsessed with martial arts or those without ambition. But was Dokgo Myeong that sort of man?
‘If this isn’t an act, then he must have something to rely on.’
Dokgo Hwi-hwa let out a low chuckle.
Certainly, she did not dislike Dokgo Myeong.
Among the young men who all seemed either arrogant or foolish, he was one whose thoughts she could never quite fathom.
Yet that was merely personal sentiment. Dokgo Myeong remained her rival.
“You’re a carefree one. Even if I cast you on a deserted island, you’d manage just fine on your own.”
“I’m actually quite prone to loneliness, so I wouldn’t do well at all.”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa furrowed her brow as she spoke.
“You keep spouting nonsense. It seems you’re not even concerned about what’s happening outside.”
“The Alliance Leader will inform me.”
“Hmm?”
“The Elder Council Leader, despite being occupied with pressing matters, came all this way—surely it’s because there’s something to tell me.”
Dokgo Myeong smiled once more.
Though iron chains bound his limbs and his body was locked behind bars, his composure was absolute.
Dokgo Hwi-hwa, who had been studying him for a moment, let out a scoff.
“I came merely to see the face of one who will soon have no ground left to stand on. When the Hundred Sect Tournament begins, your faction will be torn apart in all directions, and you’ll be removed from the stage. What do you plan to do with yourself after that?”
He heard only that much.
Dokgo Myeong, maintaining his smile, countered sharply.
“If I were destined to be removed from the stage, would the Alliance Leader have sought me out?”
“….”
“Do you need me?”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa laughed coldly.
“First, let me hear why you think that.”
“Right now, the Alliance Leader is sailing a ship through turbulent waters where the currents are invisible.”
“What nonsensical riddles are you spouting?”
“The Outer Hall suddenly turning defensive, my faction still maintaining that eerie silence, and the Grand Assembly drawing ever closer….”
“….”
“How did a situation that was flowing so smoothly become so tangled?”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa stared at me with a face hardened into rigid lines.
I continued speaking.
“The Alliance Leader won’t tolerate sitting idle given his nature. He’s a man who abhors variables. Yet in the midst of all this, there’s a clean way to eliminate one variable.”
That would be to strike a deal with me.
Since the Outer Hall was the original target anyway, if I formed a temporary alliance with them to crush the Outer Hall, the board could be reset entirely.
“Hehehehe!”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa suddenly burst into laughter.
“You haven’t seen me in a while, have you? Do you think I’d be swayed just because a variable or two pops up?”
“You wouldn’t be, Alliance Leader.”
I let out a soft chuckle.
“But would the old men of the Elder Council think the same way?”
The conversation paused briefly.
Dokgo Hwi-hwa’s eyes curved like a crescent moon.
“Your tongue is certainly as sharp as the Outer Hall Master’s.”
At Dokgo Hwi-hwa’s composed response, my eyes sank.
‘So you came to test me.’
What I thought would be simple had spawned countless variables.
I had willingly locked myself in the Brain Prison and shaken the entire board by casting stones into the Outer Hall Master’s heart, yet Dokgo Hwi-hwa remained unshaken.
‘Even now, she’s taking my measure? Does she have something she’s counting on? Or….’
My eyes widened.
‘Is she already planning her escape?’
I had to admit it clearly.
I thought the Outer Hall Master was blinded, yet she detected the anomaly herself and acted accordingly. And the Alliance Leader came with a proposal I never anticipated, catching me off guard.
I knew the future and I knew people. So I believed I could look down at anyone from the palm of my hand.
But the world doesn’t work so simply.
Those who had fought fiercely their entire lives in their own battlefields of fate each carried their own hidden blades.
In the midst of this, Dokgo Hwi-hwa smiled enigmatically and spoke.
“Prison life seems to suit you well, but what audacity brought you here? Aren’t you worried?”
“….”
“Your faction will eventually split.”
“….”
“In the end, the Outer Hall faction and the Elder faction will….”
As Dokgo Hwi-hwa’s words continued, my voice cut through sharply.
“What if I side with the Outer Hall?”
The words stopped dead.
Dokgo Hwi-hwa turned her head and gazed at me quietly, and I spoke with eyes gleaming.
“Don’t drag this out. Let’s move quickly.”
“….”
“You’ve come to reshape the game board, haven’t you?”
The Elder faction and Outer Hall faction had been maintaining a precarious balance, pulling the rope taut between them.
That rope was none other than my faction.
At first, they had agreed to tear the rope apart. But at some point, Dokgo Hwi-hwa seized the rope and began plotting to topple the other side.
The problem was that my opponent, Dokgo Un-hak, was no pushover. He had detected Dokgo Hwi-hwa’s true intentions and devised a counter-attack.
Then, suddenly, they must have all thought the same thing.
What if this entire game board had been orchestrated by someone?
And why was he sitting still?
Neither Dokgo Un-hak nor Dokgo Hwi-hwa were the type to hastily join hands with others. Yet somehow, they had clasped hands without thinking.
I had never been the sort to remain passive like a rope. Rather, I was more like a rabid dog baring its fangs at everyone. Yet such a beast sat obediently still.
Suspicion, they say, breeds ghosts.
I dug into that very suspicion.
‘I was never looking at the situation from the start.’
My weight class was still too light to overturn the game board these two factions had constructed.
So I observed the people instead.
Not interests, not power struggles, not factions—rather, I gauged the thoughts of the two faction leaders that lay beneath all of it.
I suddenly stepped right up to the iron bars.
And spoke in a deliberately lowered voice.
“Don’t try to gain the upper hand through needless pressure. Let’s keep this simple and swift. You need me, don’t you?”
“Your arrogance knows no bounds. With a losing hand, you dare to swallow the stakes?”
“In gambling, you don’t need a strong hand.”
“What?”
“You only need to beat the opponent who sits at the table.”
“…!”
“Right now, Alliance Leader, you need me. Otherwise, you’ll have to push forward with a plan where unpredictable variables might emerge.”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa’s expression visibly hardened.
“You… did you know from the beginning that I would come looking for you? Is that why you’ve been moving like this?”
“Moving? I’ve been perfectly still from start to finish. It was you and the Outer Hall Master who moved.”
I smiled faintly.
The variable had never been me—it was their suspicion and greed.
Why was I being so docile? Why did I enter the prison? Did I have something to rely on? The Elder Council Leader, the Outer Hall Master, some third party who had constructed this game—what were they thinking?
Suspicion breeds ghosts.
I shook the board through silence itself.
“Heh.”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa drew a hollow breath, then stared at me with bewildered eyes.
“You’re completely mad. What if the Outer Hall faction and Elder Council had simply torn you apart and been satisfied?”
“Would I have revealed my entire hand by now?”
What exactly is this man…?
She glared at me with a rigid expression.
“One last question. Why the Elder Council?”
“Would you believe me if I told you?”
“Trust must be given before joining hands.”
“It seems you had trust with the Outer Hall.”
“….”
“Let’s hear your answer soon. What will you do?”
After staring at me for a long moment, Dokgo Hwi-hwa suddenly burst into loud laughter, her eyes gleaming with light.
“Good. But first, let’s speak plainly. From now on, this is no longer a gamble—it’s a transaction. Show me your wares.”
“I will attend the Hundred Hall Assembly regardless of the Elder Council’s help. When that time comes, I’ll ensure the Elder Council can also benefit from the matter I bring forth.”
“And what might that be?”
I continued my explanation in a calm, measured tone.
When my explanation ended, Dokgo Hwi-hwa understood.
This entire game had been broken from the very start.
“…Very well. Let’s join hands. We target the Outer Hall.”
When Dokgo Hwi-hwa spoke with gleaming eyes,
I simply smiled silently, my expression unreadable.
* * *
The Dokgo Household’s main residence.
Normally restricted by the Black Dragon Guard, countless people were now gathering in this place.
“Namryung Gakju, welcome. This way, please.”
“Daera Gakju, right this way….”
“A seat has been prepared over there.”
Countless chairs filled the great hall, and members of the Inner Hall Overseer’s office bustled about guiding them.
The Hundred Hall Assembly.
This event, which steered the rudder of the greatest household under heaven, was being held for the first time in a long while.
Wi Baek, the Overseer of the Inner Hall, sat in the seat directly below where the family head would sit.
‘How many years has it been since the Assembly was convened?’
It had ceased being held once the factional structure solidified. Even if the will of all hundred halls aligned, executing that will was another matter entirely, so unless it served the family head’s will, the Assembly’s significance would fade.
“Overseer. It appears everyone has arrived.”
Wi Baek nodded and briefly surveyed his surroundings.
The old meritorious servants who followed only the family head.
Outer Hall Master Dokgo Un-hak.
Elder Council Leader Dokgo Hwi-hwa.
Martial Arts Division Master Maecheon Yang.
Even the neutral faction following Dokgo Myeong.
The pillars of the Dokgo Household had gathered in this place.
And then it happened.
Another member of the Overseer’s office approached and whispered in his ear.
“Word has come from the Black Dragon Guard. The family head is coming.”
“What did you say?”
“The Household Head said he would attend in person.”
Wi Baek’s eyes widened.
It was then that Dokgo Hwi-hwa opened her mouth.
“Overseer. It seems everyone has gathered. Why not begin?”
“The Household Head is on his way here, it seems.”
The Outer Hall Master and Elder Council Leader, seated in the positions closest to the head seat, opened their eyes wide.
Not long after that moment arrived.
Creak—!
The doors of the great hall opened, and an old man in ceremonial robes walked steadily toward the front of the hall.
All the household members rose from their seats.
“We greet the Household Head!”
“We greet the Household Head!”
Dokgo Cheon had arrived.
It had been nearly a year since he last appeared at an official gathering, so every eye fixed upon him.
‘Why has Father come?’
‘What whim has possessed the Household Head?’
He was not one to take back his words once spoken, yet suddenly he attended the grand assembly.
If the Household Head moved, the grand assembly lost all meaning.
The old loyalists would gauge the Household Head’s expression and choose their factions, while the Inner Hall, Cheon I-gak, and the Law Enforcement Division would draw their blades without hesitation.
As the Outer Hall Master and Elder Council Leader studied Dokgo Cheon with calculating eyes, his mouth opened.
“Do not be alarmed.”
“….”
“Though I have stepped back from the front, I remain the master of this household. How could I be absent from matters of great importance to the main family?”
Dokgo Cheon was not that sort of man.
Even when the household fell into chaos, he was an absolute authority who merely observed until the line was crossed.
“I have come only to watch. Consider me absent and pay me no mind.”
As if to prove his words were true, his broad feet descended upon the seat of honor.
Everyone wondered.
What had Geom-jon come to see in this place?
Soon enough, they would have their answer.
Whoosh—
Wi Baek walked out calmly and opened his mouth.
“In these turbulent times, we are grateful that all of you Sect Leaders, despite your many pressing duties, have gathered here without exception.”
“….”
“Since all of you are already aware of the circumstances, I shall begin the assembly at once.”

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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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