Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 217

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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 217
Three-colored cloths hung in profusion from the tree, and sacred ropes were bound around its trunk.
Before the tree stood a small wooden house that resembled a hermitage.
“I shall go no further. The Elder awaits you within.”
“You won’t come inside with me?”
“I am not permitted at this time.”
“Weren’t you someone like the village chief? Surely the chief should be the one granting permission.”
Dan-hu smiled gently.
“I merely speak on behalf of another. But before you go… I trust you will not take offense, yet I must offer some counsel?”
Dokgo Myeong nodded lightly, and Dan-hu continued with measured words.
“Once you enter, I ask that you conduct yourself with proper bearing and refrain from certain actions. This is for your own sake.”
“I shall observe proper etiquette. Have no fear.”
“I would ask that you abstain from spitting, bleeding, dropping objects, harboring lustful thoughts, uttering curses or words of ill-wishing, dragging your feet or trembling, and most importantly, refrain from any thought or word that would dishonor the dead.”
“What in the…”
Dokgo Myeong regarded Dan-hu with a displeased expression.
Such specific warnings only made him more uneasy.
“If I do such things, will something terrible occur? Will the village’s formation collapse, or some sealed great demon break free and…”
Dan-hu blinked.
“You certainly possess a vivid imagination.”
“…”
Dokgo Myeong’s face creased slightly.
He didn’t fully understand, but he could sense the man’s genuine consideration for him.
Dan-hu chuckled softly and spoke.
“Nothing will befall us, so do not worry. Surely a little spitting or misspoken words cannot cause such great calamity?”
“Then what was all that about?”
“It could become a curse upon you.”
“What do you mean?”
“This place is a sacred ground we hold holy. Within, words carry power, and the vital essence breathes with life. In such a place, even small malice can bring great misfortune.”
Dokgo Myeong nodded in acknowledgment and opened the wooden door.
Creeeeak…
The air inside stirred with the sound of aged hinges.
It was a peculiar air indeed.
Though not poorly ventilated, it felt as though one’s breath caught in one’s throat.
Particles—whether dust or smoke from something burned—drifted through the void, carrying with them a faint floral scent.
Peering cautiously about, he glimpsed the glow of a small incense burner within.
Dokgo Myeong opened his mouth.
“I am Myeong of the Dokgo Family. I was told a distinguished person wished to see me and would be here…”
As he hesitated at the threshold.
A raspy voice flowed from the shadows before the incense burner.
“Come further inside. If we are to speak properly, should we not look each other in the eye?”
Dokgo Myeong hesitated just as he was about to enter.
It was just stepping over a threshold, yet for some reason it felt deeply unsettling.
‘Unsettling? Nonsense.’
Dokgo Myeong brushed aside his misgivings and crossed through the doorway.
Creak! Squeak!
He closed the door behind him and strode forward with long steps, the floorboards groaning beneath his feet.
In the deepest corner of the chamber.
There sat an old man shrouded in thick darkness.
To be honest….
‘He just looks like an ordinary village elder?’
His back was bent, and his face was deeply lined with age.
The only remarkable thing about him was that he wore a shaman’s robe in the same color as the cloth hanging from the wooden frame.
The old man smiled faintly and looked at Dokgo Myeong.
“Now that you’ve arrived, why don’t you sit?”
“If I have to go through more formalities, I’ll drop dead. You need to offer me a seat first.”
“Then sit.”
“In that case, I won’t be shy….”
Dokgo Myeong plopped down directly in front of the old man.
The old man picked up an incense stick from the incense burner and held it to a nearby candle flame.
Only then did the surrounding darkness recede somewhat, and the old man’s eyes gleamed beneath his wrinkled eyelids.
‘…What is that?’
A moonlit blue radiance flickered.
It wasn’t that his eyes had colored irises like Cheolmu-baek’s, but rather a subtle blue light shimmering within them.
‘It’s not inner energy luminescence. What is it?’
Martial masters with deep inner cultivation often display the actual light of their power in their eyes.
But this old man was an ordinary person who had never cultivated inner energy. He shouldn’t have possessed any such radiance at all.
That was when it happened.
“Do you enjoy tea?”
Dokgo Myeong shook his head at the old man’s question.
“I don’t particularly enjoy it, but I wouldn’t refuse either.”
“Good that you don’t enjoy it. Truth is, I have no tea to offer.”
What? Then why did he ask?
This old man was certainly strange….
“…You thought I was just an old man, didn’t you?”
“Pardon?”
“You thought I was a strange old man, didn’t you?”
Dokgo Myeong was startled.
“D-did you just read my mind?!”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s written all over your face.”
“…Ah.”
The Old Man laughed like a mischievous child, gently lifting the corners of his mouth as he spoke.
“Don’t be so wary. I’m merely a common and disagreeable old fellow who has lived long enough to know many things.”
“I’ve never met anyone truly ordinary among those who speak with such gravity.”
“In truth, speaking this way appears more impressive than saying ‘I am remarkable.’ It’s all just performance.”
“Uh….”
Is this right?
This is less unassuming and more bewildering, isn’t it?
“But I heard you summoned me.”
“Curiosity got the better of me.”
“Curiosity, you say?”
“Before that, didn’t you have questions for me?”
The Old Man smiled broadly.
In that moment, as if wind had blown from somewhere, the candlelight flickered, and the shadows within the hermitage swayed back and forth.
“At my age, having communed with the Divine Spirits of heaven and earth for so long, they tell me many things and show me much. I learned of your capture of that creature who tasted blood in the same manner.”
“So some spirit or something informed you.”
“Something like that.”
The Old Man gazed intently at Dokgo Myeong.
“But even without that, I had my suspicions.”
“You did?”
“Your arrival at this mountain where the dragon spirit dwells, your awakening amid forgetfulness to save the children—all of it was but a single thread in some vast current.”
Dokgo Myeong’s expression twisted as if he’d bitten into something foul.
‘This is maddening. What in the world is he talking about?’
Normally he would have spoken his mind, but the Village Chief’s warning from moments before kept his lips sealed.
After a long silence, Dokgo Myeong managed to ask.
“Are you speaking of things like heavenly mandate or destiny?”
“Indeed. What are your thoughts on the Way of Heaven?”
“I don’t believe in it.”
Dokgo Myeong answered without hesitation.
If destiny granted by heaven or such principles truly existed, the world wouldn’t be in such chaos.
The Old Man chuckled deeply.
“How can one disbelieve in what already exists? You’re not merely denying it, are you? You of all people should understand.”
“What do you mean?”
The Old Man’s strange gaze seemed to shine more brightly for a moment.
“Several years ago, the movements of sun, moon, and stars reversed, and the Way of Heaven fell into disorder.”
“What?”
“When heaven suddenly moved in retrograde, earth drew upon unprecedented power to maintain its forward motion. This is why so many heroes were born in a single age, and why the beings of ancient tombs revealed unexpected forms.”
“Wait, why are you suddenly speaking without context?”
“The age of calamity arrived without warning. There were no omens or portents, yet it came to pass. If this is not the work of heaven’s design, then it can only be the will of mankind.”
The Old Man stared at Dokgo Myeong with piercing intensity.
“Unable to see even a step ahead, yet you appear before my eyes. You are the axis of all this distortion…”
In that moment, Dokgo Myeong felt as though a massive fissure had opened somewhere deep within his mind.
Throb!
Suddenly, a sharp headache accompanied by terrible vertigo seized him.
As his vision blurred, only the Old Man’s cold, piercing gaze continued to flicker before his eyes.
“How can you possibly exist here?”
“What do you mean by that, sir?”
His face contorted from the vertigo as the Old Man’s words continued.
“Why do you live as the destiny of someone else?”
Whoosh!
In an instant, the candle was extinguished.
Dokgo Myeong’s world sank into darkness.
* * *
Beeeep—
A long ringing sound echoed.
Like a fisherman adrift in the middle of a dark sea, he felt himself being swept about helplessly in all directions.
Throb!
It felt as though his organs were being violently compressed.
It was as if someone had shoved a heated iron rod into the crown of his head and was shaking it wildly.
Perhaps because of that excruciating pain.
Dokgo Myeong finally regained consciousness and opened his eyes.
And there, he saw a man.
The sky stained red, the earth stained red in this place.
The one who created this hellscape of corpses and blood, the blood demon who offers sacrifices in crimson.
The Bloodfiend Hyeok Wi-sang.
He spoke with tears of blood streaming down his face.
-Did you think it would end with this?
What had I answered to those words?
I cannot remember.
It should have been the most vivid memory of my life, yet now it was merely hazy.
-You know nothing. Did you think this was the end?
I seemed to have answered something.
At those words, Hyeok Wi-sang’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth.
-Yes, that’s right. In the end, we all played along together.
Had we had such a conversation?
How had I come to forget this?
His eyes flashed with intensity.
Why, how.
Why does he speak with tears of blood, as though so wronged and consumed by rage?
-…I can no longer …. My….
Beyond the fragmented words that cut off and on.
Hyeok Wi-sang’s voice came through clearly.
-Dokgo Hyeon. I acknowledge you. But this is not the end. Your soul shall find no peace.
-…You will not …me.
Talismans flew through the sky.
How did he still possess such strength?
The moment those talismans began to unleash their grotesque power, Dokgo Myeong brought his blade down on the man’s neck, talismans and all.
Thunk! Crack!
Hyeok Wi-sang’s head rolled across the ground.
In his dying gaze, Dokgo Hyeon’s face was reflected.
No—it was Dokgo Myeong’s face.
* * *
“Gasp!”
Dokgo Myeong jolted upright, breathing heavily as though he’d just been pulled from water.
‘What… what did I just see?’
A chill ran through him.
Only now did he notice his entire body was drenched in cold sweat.
Dokgo Myeong snapped to attention and looked ahead.
Flicker!
The hunched old man still sat before him, and the candle that had seemed extinguished moments ago now burned as brightly as before.
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes trembled.
“What did you show me?”
The old man blinked.
“I merely dimmed the light for a moment. You saw yourself.”
The blue luminescence that had dwelt in the old man’s eyes had vanished without trace.
Dokgo Myeong steadied his breathing and asked again.
“What was the meaning of what you said earlier?”
“What words?”
“That I live as someone else’s destiny….”
“The answer already dwells within you, does it not?”
Dokgo Myeong faltered.
The old man continued, using a wooden ladle to clear ash from the incense burner.
“Your spiritual form and your physical form are far too different.”
“Pardon? What does my spiritual form look like?”
“Weary and wounded.”
….
“The spirit of a general drenched in blood and mud. Tell me—do you not carry a karma that is not your own?”
Dokgo Myeong found himself astonished by his own reaction.
Normally such words would have startled him, yet strangely, his heart remained perfectly calm.
Dokgo Myeong answered calmly.
“I’m not sure whether it’s a soul or karma, but it certainly isn’t my original life.”
“Indeed. You shouldn’t have been able to come here in the first place.”
“What do you mean by that?”
The Old Man scraped out the ash, inserted fresh incense into the now-empty censer, and lit it.
As the floral fragrance that had briefly faded bloomed anew, he continued speaking.
“Those like me divine fate by discerning the hour of a person’s birth and the celestial energies of heaven and earth.”
“….”
“Most cannot escape their fate. There’s a reason the saying exists that one lives as one is meant to….”
The Old Man raised his finger, pointing at Dokgo Myeong.
“Yet you are living in a way completely at odds with both your innate energies and the world’s currents.”
Dokgo Myeong’s brow furrowed.
“Are you saying everyone lives according to their predetermined destiny?”
“Not entirely. For instance, there are those who overturn their innate energies through cultivation—much like your grandfather.”
“….”
“And though exceedingly rare, there are other cases as well.”
The Old Man wore a peculiar expression as he drew out his words.
“Those who remember their past lives, or those living a second existence… such things.”
Dokgo Myeong stared into the Old Man’s eyes for a moment.
Yet he could discern nothing. His gaze was far too transparent, reflecting only Dokgo Myeong’s own image like a mirror.
“How could such a thing even occur?”
The Old Man shook his head at Dokgo Myeong’s question.
“Your question is flawed.”
“Pardon?”
“What has occurred has already occurred. There is nothing to debate. The problem is that body and spirit are meant to be one, yet something about you is strange. It suggests you’re not merely defying heavenly fate—you’re moving in complete opposition to it.”
“Could it be….”
Dokgo Myeong asked in his composed tone.
“That I’ve become some malevolent spirit who seized a human body through dark sorcery?”
“Do you have some suspicion?”
“A little.”
The Old Man shook his head.
“If that were so, you would never have crossed that threshold to enter here.”
The conversation was impossible to follow.
Dokgo Myeong sighed before asking.
“Then what exactly is it?”
“If I knew that, would I cling to this withered body? I’d swap it for a young one in a heartbeat.”
“…The important thing is, I know nothing.”
Dokgo Myeong grumbled before pressing his lips shut.
A brief silence fell.
Dokgo Myeong closed his eyes, exhaled a long breath, then opened them again and asked.
“How should I go about understanding myself?”
“My, that’s quite the question a sage would ask while cultivating the Way.”
“That’s not… well, it’s not entirely wrong, but… sigh, what am I even doing right now?”
Feeling pathetic at his own words, Dokgo Myeong let out a heavy sigh.
The Old Man chuckled softly.
“Methods, you say. There are roughly two of them.”
“…Which ones?”
The Old Man pointed his finger at Dokgo Myeong once more.
“Awakening through your own realization.”
The finger that had been pointing now turned toward the sky.
“Or finding the cause that led to this.”
“The cause…?”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes widened.
The cause behind Dokgo Hyeon’s awakening within my body.
There was only one.
‘Could it be Hyeok Wi-sang?’
The Old Man’s words continued.
“Cause and effect always walk together, after all.”

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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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