Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 229

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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 229
Kyaaaaaaah!
A scream erupted from the sacred mountain.
“What kind of wind sound is that…?”
Dan-hu, the Village Chief of the Daesan clan, gazed toward Yongryeong Mountain with an uneasy expression.
Hong Lu and her brother Hong Ta, who followed him, wore expressions of alarm.
“Myeong-i should be fine, right? Nothing bad happened, did it?”
At Hong Ta’s question, Dan-hu let out a hollow laugh.
“That was just the sound of wind. There’s no need to worry about Young Master Myeong-i. Didn’t we say he entered the Sacred Tomb?”
“But it’s already been more than a month since that day! If he still hasn’t come out, doesn’t that mean something serious happened?”
At that moment, Hong Lu sighed.
“Do you say nothing but that all day long? You’ve said it more than ten times already today! The elder said everything is fine!”
“But how can I not worry? He’s our benefactor! Our village’s benefactor! Even if I worry and give thanks ten times a day, it’s not enough!”
Hong Ta’s eyes gleamed brilliantly. It was almost as dazzling as a demonic creature’s gaze.
Hong Ta had become somewhat strange ever since witnessing Dokgo Myeong strike down the Gwisucheolmang.
If the elder hadn’t informed them of Dokgo Myeong’s survival, things would still be this way, but right after the battle when Dokgo Myeong disappeared, he had made quite a fuss.
Dan-hu spoke.
“Calm yourself. Since ancient times, the trials of the Sacred Tomb have grown longer with each successive generation. I’ve heard that a previous Household Lord once took three years.”
“T-three years?”
“Yes, that was the longest case.”
“Then what’s normal?”
“At minimum, one to two years. Even the shortest took half a year.”
“You mean we won’t see Myeong-i for that long?”
Hong Lu wore an expression of disbelief.
‘Why does he seem to like someone he spent only a few days with more than his own older sister?’
Hong Lu, whose eyes had narrowed, struck Hong Ta’s back.
Smack!
“Ow! What was that!”
“Stop your whining! You learned this too! The trials grow longer as the Household Lords increase!”
“But why are you hitting me for that!”
“We’re the ones managing it, so why are you acting like you don’t know!”
“What do you want from me!”
The two siblings bickered for a moment.
After their brief quarrel ended, Hong Ta asked again.
“Then what’s the shortest time it’s ever taken?”
“Two months.”
“Two months?”
While others took years, two months?
“Actually, it was one month, but I heard he spent an additional month organizing his enlightenment.”
“That must have been a Household Lord from quite some time ago, then?”
“No, it’s the current Household Lord.”
He was referring to Dokgo Cheon.
Moreover, unlike previous Household Lords who matured and were appointed as Junior Household Lords before entering the inner sanctum, Dokgo Cheon had entered it at a remarkably young age due to the aftermath of the war—truly as young as Dokgo Myeong.
“Then Myeong-i will come out soon too! Myeong-i is incredibly strong!”
“I suppose.”
Dan-hu’s expression became peculiar.
“The trial set by the current Household Lord won’t be so simple.”
* * *
Dokgo Myeong was confident.
Hadn’t he even twisted the snout of a river dragon?
But what? Myself?
To knock myself down?
‘Bah, that’s nothing.’
Whether it was an illusion or not, how difficult could defeating oneself be?
Or so he thought.
“Gasp! Cough?”
Dokgo Myeong jolted upright, breathing heavily like a man on the verge of drowning.
‘Did I… survive? What was that? My neck just twisted?’
Dokgo Myeong dazedly touched his neck.
Before he could even prepare, the illusion created by the formation—Dokgo Myeong’s own illusion, in other words—had attacked with an ambush strike, and he’d been caught completely off guard.
He’d lost consciousness from the shocking sensation of his neck twisting, but when he came to, he was fine.
‘An illusion… yes, it was an illusion. Get your wits about you. You were inside the formation, weren’t you?’
The sensation of his neck twisting as Hwaecheon Strike embedded in his jaw felt far too real, but it must have merely been an illusion.
‘But… is this right?’
That opponent was himself, after all.
No matter how careless he’d been, should he really have been defeated in a single instant?
‘Wait. Calm down.’
Dokgo Myeong took a deep breath and reviewed what had happened.
Only after carefully retracing his steps did he realize what had occurred.
‘He exploited a gap in my perception. That bastard got a half-breath ahead and my response was delayed, taking the full force of his strike…’
But still, that shouldn’t have happened!
Dokgo Myeong bristled and rose to his feet.
“Hey, you cowardly bastard! Ambushing while I’m talking…!”
That was the moment.
The instant he uttered ‘ambush,’ the illusion standing far away vanished without leaving an afterimage.
And by the time he finished his sentence, it was already right in front of him.
‘Gwanggeuk Unheung!’
Impossibly fast!
Dokgo Myeong yelped in alarm and swung both hands.
Silver Han Wall with his left hand, Jecheon-gi with his right.
A perfect combination for self-defense—blocking and then subduing in one seamless motion, unparalleled in its effectiveness.
Crash! Boom!
Yet as if he had anticipated it, the opponent’s body suddenly crumpled downward.
Dokgo Myeong’s left hand extended for defense and his right hand extended to seize the opponent both swept through empty air.
“…!”
At the same moment, Dokgo Myeong heard a tremendous roar erupting from beneath his chin.
Boom!
The sound of a fist tearing through air was chilling.
Just before the opponent’s fist connected with his undefended jaw, Dokgo Myeong cried out.
“Ah, this bastard’s been relentlessly targeting my mouth since earlier…!”
Crash!
* * *
Second knockout.
Or should I call it unconsciousness?
Dokgo Myeong sprang to his feet and let out a roar.
“Argh! You son of a bitch! No more carelessness now!”
Dokgo Myeong charged forward with everything he had.
Smack! Crack! Boom!
“Ugh!”
Dokgo Myeong’s leg was broken, his arm was broken, and once again his jaw was dislocated.
But this time he lasted three seconds.
In that instant, Dokgo Myeong saw it.
Smirk.
The opponent was smiling.
Pulling both corners of his mouth wide.
“You bastard!”
Eyes blazing, Dokgo Myeong charged again the moment he regained consciousness.
Knockout, knockout, and another knockout.
By then, Dokgo Myeong realized that expression too was a form of psychological warfare.
Had he not often provoked opponents by scratching their nerves with words and expressions?
In a word, it was karma.
Boom!
Around the tenth time he was knocked out.
“Damn it! Seriously!”
Dokgo Myeong sprang up and spat fire from his mouth.
“Same conditions, right? Why is that bastard so damn strong! How does someone like that even exist!”
Dokgo Myeong was now acutely experiencing the feelings of all the opponents he had faced.
‘Whenever I use surprise attacks or deception, he catches everything with his senses.’
‘Meanwhile, he sees through every opening I have with his senses.’
‘No techniques, nothing. Well, of course—he’s from the Cheonoe Gyeong.’
‘Why is his body so incredibly tough? How strong is his external cultivation!’
‘And his inner energy is absurdly abundant!’
The conclusion was singular.
‘He fights in the most infuriating way possible!’
What an insufferable bastard. How does such a person even exist?
Dokgo Myeong, who had vented his frustrations with his usual colorful curses, suddenly found himself engulfed in peculiar emotions.
“Damn it, am I cursing myself or praising myself right now….”
At this rate, I’d fall into demonic obsession.
Dokgo Myeong stood motionless, his gaze fixed upon his own illusion with darkened eyes.
‘Everything about him is far more natural than me.’
Drawing power from the Cheonoe Gyeong, employing and blending martial techniques through Hyeon-cheon cultivation—he was far more adept at it all.
If I had to explain it….
‘It’s like watching the ideal version of myself that I imagine.’
Same conditions, same methods.
Yet he displayed the most perfect form that Dokgo Myeong had ever envisioned in his mind.
“Hehehehe….”
Dokgo Myeong rose from his seat with a hollow laugh.
“Hehehehe, hahaha!”
His faint chuckle soon erupted into wild laughter.
“That means I can become like that, doesn’t it?”
When he thought about it, it was obvious.
An illusion cannot create what doesn’t exist. It merely unfolds the image of myself that Dokgo Myeong imagines.
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes blazed with intensity.
“Perfect. Let’s give it a try!”
The challenge began.
Collapse and rise, collapse and rise again.
There was no analysis, no reflection. Dokgo Myeong learned by throwing his body at the problem.
Crash!
On the twelfth attempt, I surpassed ten exchanges for the first time before my protective energy shattered under the illusion’s Hwa Cheon Strike, and I fell.
On the fifteenth attempt, a gap opened in my conversion of true energy through the mysteries of Hyeon-cheon cultivation, and I was pierced straight through.
On the eighteenth attempt, I realized this opponent was as vicious in combat as Dokgo Hyeon had been in his past life.
‘Yes, that’s right. In my past life, I fought just as well as this.’
I’ve gained so much in this lifetime.
I possess far more and have grown stronger than when I lived as Dokgo Hyeon.
But was I ever as fierce as back then?
Did I ever gather everything I had and everything I lacked to bring down the strong with such desperation?
On the twentieth attempt.
By this point, the duration of each exchange began to stretch longer and longer.
Dokgo Myeong reflected.
‘This opponent is both my greatest teacher and my greatest rival.’
I absorbed every single one of them.
It was different from merely learning.
Everyone paints the most perfect version of themselves in their mind. But that image remains vague, never concrete.
However, this illusion was real. I could endlessly narrow the gap between my ideal self and my actual self.
Thwack!
The thirtieth time.
For the first time, Dokgo Myeong drove his fist into the opponent’s solar plexus and shouted.
“You damned bastard! Serves you right—! Ugh!”
Right after experiencing that exhilarating yet unpleasant sensation of striking himself, his head was driven into the ground.
The fortieth time.
The fiftieth time…
The battle continued endlessly.
By the time Dokgo Myeong had lost count, he finally succeeded in defeating the opponent.
“Krrgh…”
Of course, the price was mutual destruction.
After that, he fought again and again.
He no longer bothered counting. Dokgo Myeong simply continued fighting ceaselessly.
And then, in an instant.
Boom!
Dokgo Myeong realized that his posture and the illusion’s posture had become perfectly identical.
Left hand collides with left hand.
Grasping each other’s arms and attempting to throw before switching to a joint lock, blocking with the Silver Cold Wall, then extending a strike.
Whoosh!
Two palms collided in mid-air at the precise location with the exact force.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sand and dust erupted with each collision.
Now, if anyone else were watching, they couldn’t even guess which one was the real Dokgo Myeong—their movements were identical.
With the same martial arts, the same strength, they struck, blocked, and evaded in perfect synchronization.
Uuuuuung!
That was when it began.
With each collision, one figure’s form began to blur.
Soon, the illusion dissolved like mist clearing at dawn.
Dokgo Myeong, whose movements had stopped, slowly lifted his eyelids.
Rustle.
Dokgo Myeong opened his eyes.
Coming to his senses, he recognized himself sitting in lotus position. As if all those frantic moments of combat had been nothing but a fleeting dream, there was no illusion before his eyes, no trace of the formation’s presence.
“Phew.”
Dokgo Myeong exhaled shortly and smiled wryly.
He had passed the final training chamber.
* * *
“Yelp! Yelp yelp! Growl!”
“Stay still for a moment, will you.”
“Yelp!”
Did it still think it was only the size of a small cat?
Hoa had discovered what seemed to be an amusing game, repeatedly crawling up onto Dokgo Myeong’s shoulder and sliding back down. After finishing the final trial and regaining my senses, it had been wary at first, as if everything felt unfamiliar, but it had quickly become affectionate.
“If I take you with me, my friends will certainly find you adorable. You look like a cat, but you act almost like a dog—a complete dog.”
“Whimper?”
“Now that I think about it, what are they doing right now?”
Dokgo Myeong recalled the Cheonma Sect Elders.
They were probably enduring a chaotic stretch of time, weren’t they?
Yes, it had to be that way.
Otherwise, I’d twist their spines right off.
‘I’ve been grinding away, wandering around covered in poison, and here they’ve been lounging about carefree—if that’s the case, I’d just….’
Whoooosh!
Ghostly flames ignited in Dokgo Myeong’s eyes.
Not content with living in the mountains while covered in poison to crush the water serpent, I’d chewed nothing but grain-abstaining pills in this trial’s chamber until my breath reeked of decay.
I had to grow stronger.
Those bastards had better be growing stronger too.
“Well, setting that aside.”
Dokgo Myeong walked along the path illuminated by night-luminous pearls.
Once I escaped the formation, the crude stone cavern gave way to a properly finished corridor lined with bricks.
Whoooosh!
The sound of wind rushing through the corridor was quite ominous.
‘Is this really the path to an ancestral tomb?’
Come to think of it, everything I’d encountered so far resembled a brutal trial ground more than a tomb.
Given the Dokgo Family’s traditions, it seemed fitting enough, but still—as the ancestral burial ground of a noble clan, shouldn’t there be a proper tomb?
Besides.
‘He said there was a reason the black dragon is the symbol of the Main Sect.’
Dokgo Myeong swallowed hard.
Beyond the corridor, where pale night-luminous pearl light extended.
An unidentifiable aura of qi was emanating from there.
“Growl! Growl!”
Hoa, who had been sliding and playing the entire time, adjusted its posture as if clinging to Dokgo Myeong’s shoulder, then cried out as if protesting.
‘The power maintaining the formation spread throughout the training chamber came from there. Literally the axis of the formation. And… it’s suffocatingly intense.’
Whiiiing!
The qi of the Cheonoe Gyeong naturally surged forth, protecting my entire body.
Dokgo Myeong stepped forward into this new space, and perhaps the last one I would encounter at the ancestral grounds.

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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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