Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 256

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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 256
The Cheonma Sect had been completed.
Martial artists with balanced, orthodox styles were assigned to Namgung Sohwa.
Those who were reckless and fierce were assigned to Cheolmu-baek.
Those who were aggressive and free-spirited were assigned to Dokgo Ak.
Those specialized in ranged attacks or assassin techniques were assigned to Ye-hwa.
Those responsible for supporting the martial corps, handling miscellaneous duties, and reconnaissance were assigned to Geum Seok-du.
Namgung Sohwa, Cheolmu-baek, and Dokgo Ak each took command of similar numbers of disciples.
Geum Seok-du took charge of somewhat fewer, while Ye-hwa managed only around ten people.
“This is going to be quite a challenge getting them all to work together.”
Dokgo Myeong chuckled and spoke.
“I’m not worried at all.”
Surprisingly, Ye-hwa showed no tension whatsoever.
“I think… they’ll become close faster than expected, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
Geum Seok-du, who was naturally sociable, also seemed unconcerned.
The problem lay with the remaining three.
“W-what should we start with, exactly?”
“Shouldn’t we proceed in order?”
“Order? What order are you talking about?”
Since they had never trained or led anyone before, they seemed full of doubts even before beginning.
Dokgo Myeong grinned and spoke.
“What do you mean ‘what to start with’? You’re asking something obvious.”
“Pardon?”
“Obviously, we start by drinking!”
“…?!”
* * *
Jo Ryang-ui’s eyes twitched.
How had things come to this?
“Kahahaha! Pour! Drink!”
“Ugh! I… I think I’m done…”
“What? You won’t accept it? Your lord is offering you a drink and you refuse? Come on, open your mouth. Here comes the alcohol!”
“Gulp! Gulp!”
“Drink! It’s a joyous day, so let’s celebrate with all our might!”
Jo Ryang-ui stared ahead with a reluctant expression.
‘Wait, if it’s such a joyous day, why is he charging at me talking about dying?’
Dokgo Myeong was tangled up with the Cheonma Sect disciples, throwing a drinking party in all directions.
“Pour! Drink! Kahahaha!”
Wasn’t he in his mid-twenties?
Then why was he flailing about like some old drunkard with wine bottles clutched in both hands?
‘Where did that impressive and majestic bearing from earlier go?’
After the inaugural ceremony concluded, a modest banquet was held. Since we would be working closely together going forward, it was arranged as a proper first meeting.
But the moment Dokgo Myeong appeared with an entire bottle of liquor from somewhere, the purpose changed entirely.
From a first meeting to survival….
‘Is this really how it should be?’
Jo Ryang-ui sighed in resignation and nodded his head.
‘Yeah. This is normal for the Cheonma Sect.’
Right, who’s the host anyway?
Jo Ryang-ui quietly turned his body away.
But at that very moment, his eyes met Dokgo Myeong’s, who was shoving a bottle into another person’s mouth.
“…Overseer Jo?”
“Why, why are you looking at me like that?”
“Where’s our Overseer Jo going?”
“I, I have work today….”
“Hey now! A day like this calls for drinking! I’ll vouch for you! Take the night off!”
“You won’t actually excuse me from my duties, will you!”
“This guy really doesn’t know how to conduct himself in society. When a superior tells you to drink, you should just play dead and drink anyway!”
“No, what kind of stubborn—— Ugh! Ugh ugh!”
No one, not even Jo Ryang-ui, could escape the drinking session.
It was truly a hellish pit of alcohol.
And so the drinking continued.
What had started as a properly arranged spread eventually devolved into everyone huddling together, each downing their drinks.
And those with weak constitutions began dropping their heads one by one.
Thud! Boom!
“Ugh!”
“Now, now stop….”
Few remained standing.
By this point, even Dokgo Myeong had stopped his rampage and settled into his seat.
“Kack! Do, Dokgo Myeong! I acknowledge you…. But! I don’t think I lost to you….”
“Wow, this guy managed to follow me this far.”
“Blech!”
Thud!
Among those who became Cheonma Sect members was Yeom Jeok, a top-tier ronin from the Ten Thousand Ranks to the Ascension Gate, known for his dual sword mastery.
‘This man seems to get crushed every time I see him.’
To endure all that and still decide to join the Cheonma Sect—whether that was admirable or foolish was debatable.
Dokgo Myeong chuckled at this strange twist of fate and carelessly shoved Yeom Jeok into a corner.
Then, someone spoke up.
“Captain. I’d like to offer you a drink.”
A rough-looking man, none other than Hang San-gwi, stepped forward.
Dokgo Myeong grinned and extended his cup.
“Yeah, that’s good.”
Glug, glug, glug!
Hang San-gwi, whose face hadn’t even flushed despite drinking, slowly opened his mouth.
“I have one curiosity, if I may ask?”
“Of course.”
“Seeing that you contacted me through Gae-bang, it seems you already know my circumstances and identity, doesn’t it?”
Dokgo Myeong nodded.
“You mean your identity as a descendant of the last great bandit leader of the Green Forest?”
“…So you did know.”
“I also know there are quite a few such descendants, and that you have a considerable number of followers.”
“But you’re fine with it?”
At Hang San-gwi’s words, Dokgo Myeong tilted his head.
“Fine with what?”
“I am a bandit. I came here purely to look after my bandit family.”
“I know. I also know those family members are refugees who fled from the exploitation of martial artists.”
“…!”
“Come now, let me speak some drunken nonsense. All of you who are still alive, pay attention here.”
Dokgo Myeong glanced around.
“The fact that you’ve survived this long means your inner energy cultivation is quite deep. You’ll likely become the finest among the Cheonma Sect, so listen well and grasp the atmosphere properly.”
Dokgo Myeong looked at those who had gathered around him.
Some were former Cheonma Sect members, and some were not.
“You all heard at the inaugural ceremony what kind of person I am and what the Cheonma Sect is.”
“…”
“But it seems only the managers have grasped it. That’s understandable enough.”
Dokgo Myeong looked at Hang San-gwi first.
“First, bandits are indeed bad fellows.”
At Dokgo Myeong’s words, the corners of Hang San-gwi’s eyes twitched.
“You should be thinking of earning money through honest sweat, not using the martial arts you’ve trained to extort from others—that’s not right, is it?”
“…”
“But if you protect slash-and-burn farmers who came up fleeing exploitation, fight against vicious bastards crossing from the neighboring mountains, maintain mountain paths when you have time, protect travelers from wild beasts…and in exchange take some toll, is that really banditry? By my standards, it isn’t.”
“Still, you called them bad fellows.”
“They are bad fellows. They are indeed bad. But which is worse—a bandit who became one, or the world that made him a bandit? I honestly don’t know.”
A moment of silence fell.
Dokgo Myeong looked around at the Cheonma Sect members watching him with startled eyes and let out a soft chuckle.
“Shall I give more examples? I see we have a illegitimate son of the Yang family, one of the renowned spear-wielding clans of the martial world.”
“…!”
“He loves drinking, loves playing with people, loves courting women—notorious as a libertine, a philanderer, and a reckless fool, they say?”
A man trembled slightly.
It was Yang Un-rang, a strikingly handsome man.
“And next to him is an ungrateful woman who repaid her master’s kindness by stabbing his senior martial brother.”
“Excuse me, that’s—!”
“I treated the sect master’s family as my own, but when he died, did my senior brother reveal his dark heart?”
“…!”
“Still, the world sees it as ingratitude and betrayal of righteousness. That’s why you’ve lived as a fugitive, isn’t it?”
Bang Dan-a’s hand trembled as she gripped the wine cup.
Dokgo Myeong turned his head.
There was an ordinary-looking man who had been silently drinking.
“Have a drink, Assassin.”
“What are you saying now….”
“Weren’t you raised by the blade from birth, going around cutting the throats of high officials, and only recently came here dreaming of freedom?”
Jin-sa’s expression, which had remained unchanged throughout, twitched slightly at one corner of his eye.
Dokgo Myeong turned his head again.
“But how have you stayed awake until now?”
“What, what do you mean?”
“Is it just talk?”
“…Actually, I’ve been carefully discarding the wine bit by bit.”
“Wow, that bastard Seok-du really picked someone just like himself. Go on, have another drink. Don’t throw this one away.”
“Of course!”
Even Jang Han-chung, who had become connected through the Register of Merit and arrived as the very definition of ordinary.
Dokgo Myeong looked around at the disciples again.
“The world sees you as problem children.”
“….”
“But that’s not entirely wrong. By the world’s standards, you are indeed flawed.”
Dokgo Myeong tilted his head.
“But why doesn’t anyone say the world is wrong? What about you? Do you think you’re the ones who are flawed, or does the world seem flawed to you? In my eyes, this damned world is the one that’s wrong.”
Dokgo Myeong pointed at Yang Un-rang.
“Why do you stay silent when insulted for being a bastard? Wasn’t it the family head who misused his position? You just want to receive the affection you couldn’t get at home elsewhere—why are you being scorned for it?”
He pointed at Bang Dan-a.
“If the family treated you as a woman, you deserved the blade. What ingratitude and betrayal of righteousness? Isn’t that right?”
He looked at Jin-sa again.
“You escaped from living like a slave to try to live as a human, but the world won’t help you. Isn’t that so?”
Dokgo Myeong drained his wine in one gulp.
The others followed suit, drinking their wine.
Soon, everyone except Dokgo Myeong was swaying from the alcohol.
“If we just grumbled and lived in the martial world like that, we would have been treated as rebels or problem children and thrown into the gutter. So we must band together with fellow rebels. We survive by banding together. That’s exactly what the Cheonma Sect is.”
“….”
Everyone looked at Dokgo Myeong with peculiar eyes.
Shwoosh!
Dokgo Myeong emptied his cup in one breath.
The wine tastes sweet.
Very sweet indeed.
I felt grateful that I could gather these before they broke down, and now I had the leisure to haul them out.
“So don’t overthink it and just follow along well. It’ll be tough, but at least it’ll be worthwhile.”
Thump!
Around that time, one or two at a time began to nod off.
“…Thank you.”
“We’re in your debt, Commander.”
Words of gratitude spilled from the mouths of the new Cheonma Sect disciples as they collapsed one by one.
“I should be the one thanking you.”
* * *
The drinking that began during the day stretched into the night.
With everyone else collapsed in drunken stupor, Dokgo Myeong approached those who still appeared relatively lucid.
“I thought we’d forgotten that new people had arrived.”
“Indeed, sir.”
The managers had been grumbling amongst themselves while drinking.
Dokgo Myeong chuckled.
“Are you jealous?”
“Jealous? Ha! Come now!”
“Jealous, my foot.”
Dokgo Myeong opened his mouth slightly.
“Ah, I had set aside some precious liquor I was saving to drink only with our managers… but it seems today isn’t the right time?”
“You’ve been saving some?”
They all turned their gazes toward Dokgo Myeong.
“Ah, I have this liquor I painstakingly brewed after all the hardship I endured at Seonsan. It’s practically at the level of an elixir!”
“Did you brew it with Yeongcho? But didn’t we consume all the Yeongcho back then?”
Dokgo Myeong made a fuss and waved his hand dismissively.
“Pshaw! It’s absolutely incomparable to that sort of thing! It’s liquor so potent that two could drink it and one might die! Just one cup and you’ll be knocked flat on your back!”
The managers’ eyes gleamed with interest.
Except for Ye-hwa, not a single manager disliked alcohol.
“Ahem! Well, it wouldn’t be bad to at least taste what kind of liquor it is….”
“Y-yes, quite right! If it’s liquor brought from Seonsan….”
They had endured considerable hardship, but weren’t they the ones who had reached the Five Orifices Realm through Seonsan’s Yeongcho?
How extraordinary must the efficacy of liquor painstakingly brewed at Seonsan be!
“I’m pouring this out of gratitude for the hardship you’ll endure for us managers. Understood?”
“We understand, so bring it out already!”
Dokgo Myeong chuckled and retrieved bottles of liquor in a box from somewhere.
The managers tilted their heads upon seeing the bottles.
“…?”
What on earth was this?
Why were the bottle caps tied shut with string?
What were those grimy, dark stains smeared on the outside of the bottles?
‘It must just look like stains because it’s nighttime, right? That has to be it, right?’
‘What is this? Why am I getting chills….’
Dokgo Myeong pulled bottles of liquor one by one from the box and handed them to the managers.
“Come now, everyone take one. Careful! Use both hands! Do you have any idea how precious this is?”
They all accepted the bottles in bewilderment.
Thunk!
‘Huh? Thunk? Not a splash?’
‘What is this? Is there really liquor inside? Why is it so heavy?’
Tingle!
The managers were martial artists who had long since crossed the threshold of transcendence. Even without keen senses, they possessed the instinct to detect danger.
Then Dokgo Myeong spoke.
“Ah, that’s sealed with inner force, so you need to carefully crack it open?”
Following his instructions, the managers channeled their inner force and brought it to the mouth of the bottle.
Even Geum Seok-du, the weakest among the managers, possessed that much inner strength by now.
Glug glug!
As the managers tilted the bottles, their eyes widened.
‘What? It’s just liquor?’
They examined the liquid in their cups carefully, but it was merely somewhat unusual in aroma.
“Go ahead, have a taste. At this point, it’s a spirit that needs no medicinal enhancement.”
They all hesitated before drinking.
And then.
“Huh? This is delicious?”
“The sharp, tingling taste is exquisite.”
“What on earth is this made from?”
It was potent, but the flavor was far better than expected. There was a peculiar fishy scent, yet it harmonized remarkably well with the sweetness of the liquor.
“Seok-du. Aren’t you drinking?”
“Ah, yes, yes. Um, just a moment….”
Geum Seok-du—the man among the managers most skilled at detecting danger.
Following his instincts, he tilted the bottle this way and that, and soon discovered the true nature of the liquor.
Flash!
“Ugh, ugh-ugh-ack!”
Geum Seok-du cried out in alarm, fell backward, and hurled the bottle away.
“Damn it! This precious thing!”
Dokgo Myeong shot forward like an arrow and caught the bottle.
But something had already slipped from the mouth of the bottle as it flew through the air.
“…?”
It was a snake.
And not just any snake—one with three heads.
“….”
“….”
Silence descended.
“What on earth is this liquor?”
Namgung Sohwa asked with a pallid complexion.
Dokgo Myeong shrugged his shoulders.
“Can’t you tell? It’s snake liquor.”
“Does the snake… originally have three heads?”
“Ah, it’s a demonic creature, so that’s why.”
“….”
“And I added a few drops of venom squeezed from a water serpent!”
“…!”
“It’s an elixir, right?”
That’s when it happened.
“Bleuuugh!”
“Kack! What did you make me drink!”
“This bastard is trying to poison us after all!”
Everyone threw down their bottles, but Dokgo Myeong wasn’t the type to let that slide.
Bouncing up like an acrobat once more, he snatched every single bottle from the air.
He grinned wickedly and spoke.
“Come on! Open your mouths! Here comes the viper liquor with eyes wide open and gleaming!”
“No way!”
“Aaaaah!”
* * *
The Cheonma Sect was a sight too horrifying to behold with open eyes.
Suddenly, unfamiliar figures entered that place.
“What’s happening with the outer sect martial artists here?”
“We greet the Dragon Blood.”
Judging by their attire, they were guards stationed at the main gate of the main house.
As Dokgo Myeong openly frowned and glared at them, one of them hastily opened his mouth.
“A guest has come to see the Cheonma Sect Master, and we came to inform him. Since they arrived without any prior notice….”
“A guest? Without notice? Ah!”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed.
True to the festive occasion, it seemed a beggar had come calling.

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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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