Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 246

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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 246
“So I just enter here and exit—that’s all there is to it?”
“That’s correct.”
Five passageways.
Five people standing before them.
Seo Ryun, who stood at the entrance, spoke.
“Will you take the trial?”
“No, I should probably explain first—”
Just then, one of the five young men standing in a line called out eagerly.
“Of course! I’ll take the trial!”
His name was Jang Han-chung.
A hot-blooded young martial artist from Hubei, a disciple of Jeong Do-mun.
‘F-finally… the moment has come…’
Jang Han-chung clenched his fists tightly to hide his trembling hands.
Unbelievable as it might seem, he was a man with a history—he had once crossed blades with Dokgo Myeong and even received a recruitment offer from him.
‘I’m different from these people. I’ve already been recognized!’
He had spoken of it like a glorious tale ever since, but no one believed him.
Not even those who had been present at the time remembered it. No wonder his sect regarded him as a braggart.
But!
‘Dokgo Myeong. Surely you remember!’
The martial contest at the Deungyong Pavilion!
That thrilling moment!
In truth, what had occurred was merely Dokgo Myeong toying with him one-sidedly, and Dokgo Myeong himself had long forgotten the encounter, but Jang Han-chung knew nothing of this.
‘All my life I’ve been called ordinary, but now my time has come. I, Jang Han-chung, a late-blooming martial artist. My legend shall be written here!’
Jang Han-chung’s eyes gleamed as he kept his fists clenched.
Seo Ryun, watching him, let out a sigh.
“Aren’t you going to enter?”
“Pardon?”
“Go on in now. What are you doing standing there clenching your fists and trembling? The others have already entered.”
“Ah, yes.”
Jang Han-chung lowered his head awkwardly and entered the canvas passageway.
From behind, he heard muttering: “Why do all these people coming to take the trial seem so…” but he deliberately ignored it.
Just then, voices came from the adjacent passageways where those who had gone before him were.
“What is this? What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Good grief, why hide something like this?”
As if bewildered, or as if dumbfounded.
Jang Han-chung walked forward with confusion, his spirit slightly dampened.
And not long after, he too faced the trial.
In the middle of the passageway.
A massive stone blocked the path entirely.
“…?”
Jang Han-chung blinked his eyes as he approached the massive boulder that rose up to his shoulders.
Crack! Thud!
That sound was quite impressive.
When I tapped it, there was no sign of it crumbling or resonating at all.
Stones like this were packed so densely inside that they were as hard as iron.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
Enter through the entrance and exit through the exit.
But a boulder was blocking the way in between.
“…?”
Jang Han-chung blinked as he stared at the boulder.
* * *
The reactions of the other candidates varied.
“Cut that stone?”
“I’ve trained in palm techniques, but how am I supposed to handle a boulder….”
“What kind of ridiculous test is this?”
It was no easy task.
Striking stone with a blade would only cause it to bounce back, not cut. To actually cut or break it required sufficient training in both internal and external martial power.
Most candidates touched the boulder a few times before giving up and returning to the entrance.
As a result, rebellious voices erupted from those who had failed.
“If I could break that stone, why would I have come here? What kind of ridiculous test is this!”
“You said you’d recruit anyone with talent, so I came, and now you’re telling me to break a boulder? If that’s the case, why did you post such a notice!”
Complaints mixed with dissatisfaction burst out from all over.
Of course, there were also those who, mindful of their dignity, lodged their protests with some decorum.
“The nature of martial arts varies greatly depending on one’s school, so how can you possibly evaluate people simply by testing whether they can break or cut stone?”
“This is an unjust test. If you’re going to evaluate martial prowess, you should employ a different method. Please summon Myeong Sohyeop.”
None of it was entirely wrong.
After all, even Geum Seok-du, who was a manager, couldn’t break a boulder of that size.
“Bah! Forget it! This makes no sense…!”
It was then.
A well-built man walked into the passage on his own terms.
“Time’s up. If you’re not going to do it, get out of the way. What’s with all this talking from a martial artist?”
“Who are you… Gasp!”
The man who had suddenly shouted and turned around was startled.
His appearance was far from ordinary.
A man dressed in animal hides haphazardly layered over cloth, with what appeared to be tiger stripes visible underneath.
‘What kind of bandit came to this place?’
The man smirked, pushed past the previous candidate, and stepped forward.
“A boulder? Why are you all dragging this out so much? Ptui!”
The man spat a wad of phlegm onto the ground, then drew an iron club from his waist.
And then.
Crash!
It was a single strike.
With the explosion, stone fragments scattered in all directions.
“Hmph! This much is nothing.”
He snorted and slung the iron club over his shoulder.
Soon he emerged from the exit, and directly in front of it stood a platform.
“Is that it? Am I done?”
The managers watching from above the platform grinned widely.
“Pass! Next!”
“Hmm!”
The man trudged away.
Namgung Sohwa glanced to the side and spoke.
“That man will definitely be under Mu-baek.”
“Absolutely.”
“Who else would take him? He’s a perfect fit.”
“…I’m fine with it too.”
That was the beginning.
Soon, one or two at a time, people began passing through.
“I greet the renowned elders of the Cheonma Sect.”
It was a swordsman wearing a bamboo hat.
He cleanly executed exactly three sword strikes to cut through the stone and emerged from the exit.
Cheolmu-baek spoke.
“Pass. Next.”
“Thank you.”
The man bowed respectfully and walked on.
All the managers looked at Namgung Sohwa simultaneously.
“Me? Really?”
“Who else would it be?”
“It has to be Manager Namgung.”
Namgung Sohwa laughed softly.
“But Manager Ak is here too.”
Dokgo Ak nodded as well.
However, the other managers’ reactions were somewhat different.
“Hmm, this young master is less of a swordsman and more…”
“A brute? A blade wielder?”
“Hey, hasn’t everyone been too harsh on me lately?”
Regardless of Dokgo Ak’s grumbling, the test continued.
Eventually, Jang Han-chung also faced the test in his own way.
“In the end, all I need to do is make it to the exit, right?”
Jang Han-chung tilted his head in confusion.
“…Why are you struggling with this?”
The passage he had traversed was nothing more than a tent structure to begin with.
Jang Han-chung pushed the tent aside to widen the space slightly, then simply passed by the stone and emerged from the exit.
“That, well… Is it perhaps not allowed to do it this way?”
The White Tiger Guard at the exit also looked uncertain and gestured toward the platform with his eyes.
The managers’ expressions were also somewhat ambiguous.
“It’s a bit unclear. Is there no other method?”
“Ah… Unclear? Then we don’t need to destroy it?”
Jang Han-chung pushed the tent aside again and returned, this time leaping in one bound to jump over the stone.
He neither destroyed nor cut it.
Once he went around the side, once he jumped over it.
This time, Ye-hwa spoke.
“Good. You pass.”
“R, really? Waaah!”
No one said a word, but their meaning was understood.
“He should be under Manager Geum.”
“Ye-hwa. Looking at his technique, he could even be under you? What do you think?”
“Still, Manager Geum seems like a better fit.”
But then, a short man who had taken the test earlier shouted.
“That bastard didn’t even destroy the stone—he just jumped over it! Why does he pass?”
He was the man who had given up midway and returned to the entrance.
The White Tiger Guard tried to stop him, but Ye-hwa spoke to him instead.
“We never once told you to destroy or cut the stone. We simply said to pass through the corridor and come out the exit.”
At Ye-hwa’s crisp words, the man flinched slightly.
“Ah, but surely there’s no such wordplay allowed? If that were permitted, who couldn’t pass?”
“Exactly!”
“What kind of test is this anyway?”
Eventually, voices of protest emerged from among those who had failed.
One man among them opened his mouth.
“If it’s not presumptuous, may I offer a word to the heroes of the Cheonma Sect?”
“And you are?”
“I am Son Baek-chan, born in Shaanxi. I trained for ten years at the White Eye Sect, but ultimately gave up and left.”
The surroundings stirred.
The White Eye Sect was a reasonably renowned faction in Shaanxi. Indeed, there was something distinctive about his bearing.
“That man just now seems like someone from some rural martial school—he lacks the courage to challenge and only knows how to scheme. Where would you even use such a person?”
Jang Han-chung, who had been standing uncertainly in a corner, trembled slightly.
Son Baek-chan continued.
“Moreover, this is the martial force of the greatest family under heaven. If the warriors of the Cheonma Sect were to be pointed at as a gathering of schemers, it could become a matter of concern.”
“Ha, is that bastard right now….”
Ultimately, Dokgo Ak’s eyes gleamed as he started to rise.
I understood voicing complaints, but he had torn apart not only those who passed but the entire Cheonma Sect as well.
‘Does this man think he’s just here to show off his martial prowess on the testing grounds?’
This was the inner courtyard of the Dokgo clan.
No matter how chaotic the atmosphere had become due to that madman Dokgo Myeong, I could not tolerate such language.
But then, a pale hand from beside me stopped Dokgo Ak.
“Please, allow me to handle this.”
“Pardon?”
Namgung Sohwa lightly pushed off the ground and descended before Son Baek-chan.
“I am called Namgung Sohwa. Would it be permissible for me to offer a word?”
“Ah, the Blade Sage of the Heavens. I have heard much of your reputation.”
Namgung Sohwa nodded calmly and opened her mouth.
“If all you sought were those capable of breaking stone or cutting it, you would never have gone to the trouble of arranging such an occasion.
“Heh, yet you speak such words with raw Cheongang stone laid before you?”
An exclamation escaped from somewhere at Son Baek-chan’s words.
“Ah! So that was Cheongang stone!”
Cheongang stone—as hard as diamond and as resilient as steel.
It was a premium material typically laid on the floors and walls where martial artists trained.
Namgung Sohwa tilted her head.
“What does Cheongang stone have to do with anything?”
“It was not placed to measure martial prowess. Yet you passed such a person, which makes me suspect the winners were already decided before the examination even began.”
“Martial prowess. Can you truly measure martial prowess with mere stone?”
“What did you just say?”
Shing!
Namgung Sohwa drew her blade without a word.
“What are you—”
She then moved toward the side of the platform. Now I could see that Cheongang stones, apparently used in the examination, were piled up there.
Namgung Sohwa slowly pushed her blade into one of them.
Shuuuk!
“…!?”
Everyone gasped in shock.
As if she had plunged her blade into water, her sword smoothly penetrated the Cheongang stone.
Thud! Crack! Scrape!
Namgung Sohwa slowly withdrew her blade, then lightly marked a point before striking downward with her sword several times in rapid succession.
With each pass of the blade, the Cheongang stone fell to the ground, sliced like tofu.
Son Baek-chan, his spirit broken, cried out.
“The sword skill of the Blade Sage is known throughout the realm! This is a different matter entirely!”
“I did this only because I take pride in my blade. However.”
Namgung Sohwa looked toward the upper platform.
“The one called Manager Cheolmu likely relied on strength since he has confidence in his power. And Manager Dokgo Ak beside him, being skilled in aggressive techniques, may have utilized penetrating force.”
Namgung Sohwa glanced around at the gathered applicants who were about to lodge their protests.
“This examination was merely intended to observe your approach to problem-solving. Since there were so many applicants, I sought to classify you by temperament through this and conduct a second examination under each manager.”
In essence, this first test was a preliminary round.
A preliminary screening to categorize the applicants and have them take secondary examinations under each manager.
“The passing requirement for the examination is quite simple. All you needed to do was challenge it in your own way without giving up midway.”
“…!”
“In other words, the stone itself was never important. I trust you understand my meaning now.”
Shwing! Clang!
Namgung Sohwa deliberately sheathed her sword with a sharp sound.
“Ah, no! It was constructed that way from the start—who would challenge it? You deliberately led us to misunderstand!”
“Would you say the same thing on enemy territory?”
“…!”
“In the end, it’s merely an excuse. When an enemy digs a trap, would you think the same way? That because a trap was laid, there’s nothing to be done?”
Namgung Sohwa’s pointed remark left Son Baek-chan speechless in an instant.
Silence descended upon the gathering.
Namgung Sohwa calmly returned to her seat.
Ye-hwa’s eyes sparkled brightly.
“That was amazing. You truly are something, sister.”
“Amazing? If it were you, you would have done better.”
“Would I have?”
“Of course!”
Ye-hwa tilted her head curiously.
“If it were me, I would have asked if his mouth had caught a disease, and since he applied, I would have kicked his rear end and told him to leave if he didn’t like it.”
Namgung Sohwa’s expression showed a hint of bewilderment.
The first examination had ended.
It was merely a single stone, yet more than half of the applicants had been eliminated.
* * *
Son Baek-chan, who continued to protest and refused to accept the results for quite some time, was eventually dragged away by the White Tiger Guard.
“Tsk, really. I’m at a loss for words….”
The White Tiger Guard whispered to him as he grumbled.
“Do you perhaps still have grievances?”
“Ah, no! It’s not that….”
“If you have grievances, come this way. There is an additional examination.”
“Huh? An additional examination, you say?”
“Surely you don’t think the examination ends with breaking a stone?”
Son Baek-chan’s eyes brightened even as confusion crossed his face.
“An additional examination? What kind of examination?”
“A martial duel.”
“A martial duel?”
“For those with grievances, Young Master Dokgo Myeong has arranged an additional examination.”
“Ah! Is that so?”
Finally! Now this is a proper test!
I had confidence in martial combat.
After all, they were selecting a martial corps to operate in the jianghu, so naturally there should be a martial test in the selection process, shouldn’t there?
‘But against whom?’
Son Baek-chan didn’t notice.
The White Tiger Guard guiding him wore an expression of regret.

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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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