Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 335

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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 335
Wi Jang-chun, the Overseer of the Moyong Family, regarded himself as an ordinary man.
Of course, he possessed keen judgment in matters of profit and loss, and once held the ability to serve as the Overseer of an entire household as a trusted confidant of the Muyong Gaju.
Yet that was the fruit of countless efforts. Compared to the monsters who could see a thousand leagues from where they sat, he struggled with even the matters before his eyes.
Still, even he knew right from wrong.
Even after being driven from the Moyong Family, he had strived to set things right.
“Sect Leader Seongcheon, please, I beg you to help.”
“…Wi Overseer.”
“Do you not see? This is not right. The Gaju must be told!”
He attempted to draw in Yong Gun-baek, one of the few remaining loyalists.
“It is already too late.”
With those words, Yong Gun-baek stepped onto the battlefield.
In the end, Wi Jang-chun risked his own neck and cried out to Muyong Tae.
“Master Gaju, please understand my intentions! This cannot continue!”
“I told you to withdraw. Yet you remain at the main house?”
“This war lacks righteousness. It is neither to strengthen the main family nor to resist foreign powers, is it not? Moreover, what I have come to receive is nothing but…!”
Wi Jang-chun thrust forward documents detailing the countless insane acts that had transpired without his knowledge.
Muyong Tae’s response was utterly bland.
“It is merely the sacrifice of the small for the great.”
Sacrifice of the small? How could this possibly be called small?
“Is it not the reverse? The sacrifice of the great for the small?”
“What did you say?”
“We cannot win! How can you stake the fate of the main family on the honeyed words of blood demons whose very origins are unknown! Even if we were to triumph, what would remain for the family!”
For the first time, Wi Jang-chun crossed a line far beyond propriety in his words and actions toward Muyong Tae.
Though trembling with fear, he secretly hoped the Gaju would grow angry. He wished for his own head to be severed. At least then he would know the Gaju still possessed emotion, and his own guilt might be eased.
But Muyong Tae did not.
“Why do you believe victory is impossible?”
“…!?”
“If I survive and triumph, I shall ultimately reign over this age. The supreme martial prowess under heaven rests in my hands.”
Wi Jang-chun felt a chill. The Gaju was speaking words even he himself did not believe.
“Rather… would you not negotiate? A lord must protect his foundation. Do not take the field—remain at the main house. I shall negotiate with the Dokgo Family, meeting with those who speak reason…”
“Wi Overseer. It seems I have warned you sufficiently. Do you not know that I have kept you alive all this time solely because you were once my dear friend?”
“…!”
“Remember now—I have come too far to be swayed by such personal sentiments.”
Muyong Tae’s eyes were cold, terribly cold.
With those words, he stepped onto the battlefield.
The Moyong Family was no longer the Moyong Family. It had become nothing but something corroded by the madness of the Jeongheol Sect.
“It is finished.”
This household was now ruined.
Wi Jang-chun returned to those who awaited the outcome. The few remaining loyalists of the main family studied his expression, then exhaled only silent sighs.
Among them, there were those who believed Muyong Cheol to be Muyong Tae’s close associate.
He was the one who had become the Elder Council Leader through the Gaju’s appointment.
“W-what happened?”
“…The Gaju has taken to the battlefield.”
Muyong Cheol trembled violently.
If the Dokgo Family tore the Moyong Family to shreds, would they truly escape unscathed?
In the suffocating silence that descended, Muyong Cheol opened his mouth again.
“P-perhaps we should all defect instead?”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Keep your mouth shut.”
“You’ve gone mad.”
Muyong Cheol’s spirit wavered momentarily under the barrage of curses from all sides, but he continued speaking despite his trembling.
“It’s not the Gaju who’s mad! There are still many loyal subjects keeping silent, for instance, people like us….”
Wi Jang-chun suppressed the surge of anger rising within him.
‘I know all about those experiments that deserve universal condemnation, yet loyal subject be damned.’
But he was no different. No matter how late he had learned of it, as the Overseer, he could not escape responsibility.
Muyong Cheol’s persuasion continued.
“Think of practicality. At this rate, we’ll truly face annihilation. We must preserve the family members, must we not? Our lives as well… isn’t that so?”
“….”
“At minimum, we must preserve the bloodline! If we stay like this, everyone from the direct line to the servants will die! Overseer Wi, you must make a decision!”
By rank alone, Muyong Cheol should have been the leader of this group, yet he kept watching Wi Jang-chun’s expression throughout.
After much deliberation, Wi Jang-chun finally spoke.
“The Left Commander of the Dokgo Household is that Sword King. Whatever we try to take, he will surely refuse. He’s the type who would strip every last shred of flesh from the main family’s bones.”
“Even if not him, isn’t there someone else who might listen?”
“Who do you mean? The Right Commander is his son, and the other has no influence?”
“Dokgo Myeong.”
“You’re insane.”
Wi Jang-chun’s face contorted sharply.
“The Cheonma Sect Leader harbors tremendous rage toward the main family. He’s killed more of the main family’s masters than anyone else, and he’s the one who desired this war most of all.”
“That’s a statement that knows one thing but not two.”
“Since you seem ignorant, perhaps you should simply remain quiet….”
“Moryong Sohgyo!”
The suddenly uttered name made Wi Jang-chun fall silent.
“The Cheonma Sect Leader has taken in the direct bloodline of the main family, has he not? Moreover, he made her his military advisor—doesn’t that suggest he bears no ill will toward the main family?”
My head spins. What nonsense is this? Did such a man truly take charge of the main family’s Elder Council, even as a figurehead?
Regardless of the icy glares from everyone, Muyong Cheol’s voice grew increasingly louder.
“Who knows? Perhaps the girl and the Cheonma Sect Leader have taken a liking to each other? That girl did possess considerable beauty….”
“Not worth hearing. Silence now.”
“If that’s not it, then at minimum he must be planning to use that girl to seize the main family! Either way, the possibility isn’t entirely absent!”
“Did you perhaps receive a secret order from the Gaju to attend this gathering? Are you trying to have us all killed?”
“Stop spouting such negativity and think about this rationally!”
Muyong Cheol shouted explosively.
“The Cheonma Sect Leader may seem cold, but above all else, he values human life! If we bring him information or whatever else, he might just open a path for us to survive!”
Wi Jang-chun’s expression shifted.
The vulgar and senseless words spewed earlier hadn’t registered, but in those latter remarks, I glimpsed a sliver of possibility.
“Does a mere Sect Leader truly have the authority to spare us….”
Wi Jang-chun hesitated.
Come to think of it, he did.
Those who knew understood—Dokgo Myeong commanded one of the three major factions within the Dokgo Family.
“What say you?”
Watching Muyong Cheol’s eyes gleam with anticipation, Wi Jang-chun finally spoke after deliberation.
“Surely the Dokgo Family has members of Cheon I-gak-won embedded in Zhejiang. Is that not so?”
“Why do you ask?”
“The Alliance Leader. If the Alliance Leader were to move the Amseong—the main family’s intelligence organization—without detection, wouldn’t that be possible?”
“That, that might be possible, but it would be discovered soon! Why are you asking about Cheon I-gak-won and Amseong?”
Wi Jang-chun’s eyes grew cold.
“If I’m to beg for my life, I’ll need to offer a bribe.”
He recalled the records of the Moyong Family’s misdeeds that he had meticulously gathered over the years.
* * *
The realm had descended into chaos.
The conflict that seemed destined to end quickly stretched beyond a year.
It had long ceased to be merely a clash between martial sects.
The battlefields sprawled across Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Fujian, and Zhejiang. Both martial artists and commoners could only feel bewilderment.
“Is this truly the martial world I once knew?”
“Where has the martial tradition of warrior against warrior, of one-on-one life-or-death duels gone… Is this not simply war?”
Those who cultivate martial arts are martial artists, and when such warriors gather, they form the martial realm.
A war within the martial realm should naturally pit martial prowess against martial prowess, yet now the Dokgo Family and Moyong Family waged literal war.
‘There is no turning back now.’
‘I must gather more strength even now.’
The martial artists began to confront the reality that the martial world they knew had ended, and they prepared for the coming turmoil.
Of course, there were those who welcomed this atmosphere. Corrupt officials and bandit gangs who seized the power vacuum left by the three great families—the Dokgo and Moyong clans and the Gae-bang—and the dark path sects rejoiced.
“Kill them all! Now is the time to make our fortune!”
“Ahhh! Please spare us!”
“Hehehehe! At last, my era has begun!”
One fortunate aspect remained: the situation in Hunan, where the Dokgo Family held sway, was relatively stable.
“A frightening man. Did he predict this and sweep the region clean before leaving? What does the Inner Sect Leader think?”
“Whether coincidence or foresight matters little. This is an opportunity.”
“Indeed. Let us expand our influence into Jiangxi with this opportunity.”
No major powers dared to cause trouble in the territory where the Dokgo Family had established itself, thanks in large part to Dokgo Myeong having silenced the mouths of all those who dared to resist when he swept through with the Cheonma Sect.
Dokgo Hwi-hwa seized the momentum and began expanding her influence. She believed there would be no further chaos.
But then.
“What did you just say?”
“It appears they’ve even extended their reach to the commoners.”
“Isn’t that something we already knew?”
“Not after the war started, but from a very long time ago.”
“…What?”
“It seems to have been happening for quite some time with the tacit approval of the local magistrate’s office.”
The moment the true situation within Zhejiang—which had been shrouded in rumors due to the Moyong Family’s information control—came to light.
Even Dokgo Hwi-hwa and Wi Baek, renowned throughout the martial world, found themselves at a loss for words.
“Sob! Sob! Please help us! I beg you!”
“Cough! Cough! They made me consume something strange and unnatural!”
They had tested poisons and martial techniques on the commoners.
“Please, please save me… The Moyong Family took my child! Ugh!”
“Pigs, grain, iron… they didn’t stop at plundering everything, they even abducted the children!”
“Oh no, my child! What do I do about my child!”
It wasn’t enough that they had plundered their wealth—they had even kidnapped people.
“Since my disciples were taken to the Moyong Family’s Grand Manor, none of them have returned.”
“The disciples we sent to investigate have all vanished too! There’s not a single martial sect in Hangzhou that hasn’t been touched by this tragedy! Please, please help us!”
Martial artists were no exception. Nowhere that the claws of the Moyong Family and Jeongheol Sect had reached remained intact. What in the world had they done with all those lives they’d taken?
Dokgo Hwi-hwa was someone who had no interest whatsoever in worthless concepts like justice, yet she wasn’t so callous as to turn a blind eye to such reports.
“I’ll need to dispatch the Cheon I-gak-won immediately. Even if news from elsewhere comes a bit late.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“What do you mean?”
“A contact from the Moyong Family’s secret stronghold has arrived. Word has reached the main house through the Left Army.”
“From the secret stronghold…? And of all places, through the Left Army? What in the world is happening right now?”
It was a succession of confusions, but soon the situation became clear. Various letters, ledgers, and all manner of documents had arrived at the Dokgo Household’s administrative office through the Left Army.
“I’ll need to steel myself before reading this.”
“That may not be necessary.”
“Hmm?”
“There was already a text at the main house that prophesied such events would occur, and both the Alliance Leader and I have read it.”
“Could it be…?”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa urgently opened one of the documents.
It contained records of commoners being sold to Japanese pirates at the Zhejiang harbor, accounts of testing the Pacheonggun’s Four Great Divine Techniques and absorption methods on boys and girls under fifteen and young martial artists in their twenties, and details of secretly burying those who died in the process in wastelands and wild areas owned by the Moyong Family.
“….”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa closed the book with a hardened expression.
She had only skimmed through some of two books, one ledger, and ten letters, yet the shock was considerable.
“My stomach feels unsettled. I think I’ll skip dinner tonight.”
The hell depicted in the two books Dokgo Myeong had written—the Record of Official Disputes and the Treatise on Blood Blades—was unfolding as reality.
“Is there any possibility this could be false?”
“For it to be false would require too much coincidence, and these are details we’ve already glimpsed in the circumstances around us.”
“If this becomes known to the world, all hell will break loose.”
The true nature of the Jeongheol Sect, and the true nature of the Moyong Family that had aided them.
Until now, the martial world had merely regarded the Jeongheol Sect as peculiar beings. There was fear and aversion, but nothing was yet certain.
However, the moment this truth was revealed, the Jeongheol Sect’s future held only one possibility.
Public enemy of the martial world.
The Moyong Family’s future would be no different.
‘Even if the main family were defeated once in a thousand times, the Moyong Family would be finished now.’
Conversely, the main family would become the house of righteous martial artists who practiced true chivalry.
‘This is certainly a brilliant move. Depending on how I use this, I could significantly increase the main family’s influence….’
Dokgo Hwi-hwa fell into thought, weighing the gains and losses.
Then, Wi Baek spoke.
“But I don’t understand the reason.”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa tilted her head in confusion.
“What do you mean?”
“Why this information was sent to the main family. It seems almost like a bribe.”
Wi Baek tapped the letter and documents lightly, his eyes gleaming.
“If it’s a bribe, who would it be given to?”
“Well, there could only be one person. Didn’t you say it came through the Left Army?”
Dokgo Hwi-hwa’s eyes flashed with realization.
For someone to send news of this magnitude, they would have to be a high-ranking official. And information brought by such a high-ranking official might contain something that could significantly influence the course of the war.

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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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