Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 340

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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 340
Thirteen-year-old Namgung Sohwa hid beneath a pile of stones on a hillside.
Her eyes were clenched shut, and both hands pressed firmly against her mouth. She gripped so tightly that her hands had turned pale white.
Yet if she didn’t apply such force, a scream threatened to burst forth at any moment.
“Since the child is still light in weight, her footprints are difficult to spot.”
“Damn this little rat…”
“What should we do?”
“While footprints may be hard to find, she cannot suppress her presence entirely. Focus your senses on detecting any aura.”
Having only two hands and unable to cover her ears was something she had never resented more than today.
‘I mustn’t tremble. If I tremble, I’ll be discovered. Hide-and-seek. Yes, I’m playing hide-and-seek.’
Namgung Sohwa deliberately recalled old memories.
She had often played hide-and-seek and tag with her older brother and sister. Since the Namgung residence was nestled deep in the mountains, such games were the only entertainment available.
Though she grew tired of it later, her less mature siblings would tug at her sleeves begging to play again.
As a child, she hadn’t understood. She didn’t know then that it was her siblings’ consideration for their youngest.
“A message has arrived from Amseong.”
“A message? What kind of message?”
“They say they’ve caught a scent at Gae-bang. It appears beggars are gathering in this area.”
“Mere beggars disrupting the main house’s event…? Sweep the surroundings quickly! Now!”
Whoosh!
As the Muyong Clan Warriors kicked off the ground, dust rained down upon Namgung Sohwa’s head where she hid. She bit her hand hard to stifle any scream.
She had spent years fleeing like this.
There were times she disguised herself as a beggar with soot smeared on her face, and on good days she would shut herself away in the mountains to focus on training.
As she grew older, she had to conceal her body in loose robes, and she cut short the hair she had carefully grown out.
Yet she had to survive.
—Run away! You must live!
—Little sister. Remember when we played tag? From now on, that’s what you’re doing. But there’s no end. You must keep running and hiding.
—There will be a horse if you go that way. Don’t even think of revenge. Live your own life. Go. Hurry. Go!
Yes, this was hide-and-seek. This was tag. If you hide and run well, you win.
But after years of fleeing, she came to understand.
Whether hide-and-seek or tag, the game never truly ends until you’re caught.
Like a convenient excuse appearing out of nowhere, she found one around that time.
“They say the Muyong Clan’s eldest son is coming to this recruitment examination?”
“Really? Isn’t he the foremost among the young dragons?”
Upon hearing this news by chance, she was drawn to that place as if enchanted.
If she was going to be caught anyway, she at least wanted to be caught by her own will.
‘I suppose it’s time to die.’
Where the one who was “it” caught you, others who had already been caught would gather. Perhaps this wasn’t resignation and acceptance, but rather going to meet her longed-for family.
Yet at that place, Namgung Sohwa’s entire life changed.
“Just a few words will do. Say you regret it, ask for my help. Then I’ll restore everything you’ve abandoned back into your hands.”
“If you’re going to do this, do it properly. We can’t be satisfied with just one greenhorn’s neck.”
“Your revenge begins now.”
The moment I met him, my life of running came to an end.
Now she had become the hunter, and he had kept his promise to me.
Three names written in the ledger of death.
He had brought one of those names before her.
* * *
“Listen here! Is there no one around!?”
Muyong Cheol squawked loudly.
“Untie me this instant! Is this how you treat a lord? We already reached an agreement—why are you holding me hostage!?”
Bound in cold iron with his limbs twisted behind him, Muyong Cheol wept tears like chicken droppings.
‘Why must I suffer this indignity? Where did that Wei Commandant go? Why does that bastard say nothing at all!’
Cold, hungry, and forced to kneel with the iron chains weighing on him, every muscle in his body ached.
Could he have been betrayed?
Had he fled from the tiger only to stumble into the wolf’s den?
He had run away in fear of the Gaju, and this was the result!
Then it happened.
“Uh, uh-uh?”
A long shadow stretched from the cave entrance toward the interior.
Thud-thud.
Soon footsteps echoed. The gait was impossibly slow, as if pressing down heavily with each step.
“W-who are you?”
“….”
“Are you from the Cheonma Sect? Then untie me at once!”
Backlit by the light, the face was difficult to make out from where he sat.
Muyong Cheol trembled with fear and stammered out his words.
Tap.
The figure stopped directly before him.
As Muyong Cheol lifted his head, he realized the person standing before him was a woman.
‘What is this? I’ve never seen her before, yet why does she seem so familiar?’
Muyong Cheol felt an inexplicable dread.
In the profound silence, the woman—Namgung Sohwa—opened her mouth.
“Muyong Cheol.”
At the murderous tone in her voice, Muyong Cheol’s body trembled.
“Do you remember me?”
“W-who are….”
“Look carefully. You really don’t remember?”
“Ugh!”
Crack!
Namgung Sohwa seized Muyong Cheol by the collar and forced him upright. Then she met his gaze directly.
“You held a blade to my family’s bodies, you butchered the loyal retainers who served our house… and you truly don’t remember me?”
Namgung Sohwa could never forget it.
That dark, blood-reeking chamber.
The madman surrounded by countless medicinal herbs and bizarre instruments, dissecting their bodies to examine them.
“Y-you couldn’t possibly be…?”
Muyong Cheol truly did not remember. How could he, when he had laid hands on so many people, left so many corpses in his wake?
Yet he could make an educated guess. There was one person known to travel with Dokgo Myeong, one who had every reason to harbor a grudge against him.
The last heir of the Namgung Clan—Namgung Sohwa.
“How could you dare seek us out without fear? How could you commit such atrocities and have the audacity to wish to live?”
“W-wait! Please, wait!”
Muyong Cheol cried out urgently.
“The C-Cheonma Sect Lord! I made a deal with the Cheonma Sect Lord! I was merely a hostage! In preparation for when I would eventually enter the Gajin Clan…!”
“That Cheonma Sect Lord handed you over to me.”
“That’s impossible!”
Sohwa’s hand moved toward her sword.
Sling! Whoooosh!
The blade was drawn slowly, as if reading its master’s emotions, and released a somber resonance.
Muyong Cheol poured out words in even greater desperation.
“I-it was unavoidable then! Gaju Muyong Tae ordered it! It was unavoidable!”
….
“I was a powerless puppet. I merely followed orders. I was simply obeying commands—why must you do this to me?!”
Sohwa gazed quietly at Muyong Cheol as he thrashed about and screamed.
She felt no anger. Only emptiness.
‘Was he truly like this?’
She had imagined a grotesquely twisted villain of great magnitude.
But what was this?
Merely this pathetic old man….
This unremarkable wretch had poisoned the bodies of her clan’s few retainers and blood relatives to uncover the Namgung martial arts, deliberately caused internal injuries, and desecrated the corpses of the dead with his blade?
“Yes! The m-martial arts! Just tell me! No, please! I was in the process of restoring the Namgung martial arts—I’ll tell you everything I discovered!”
“I don’t need it. I achieved it with my own hands.”
“What?”
“Not just the Changgung Boundless Sword Method, but something equal to it—a new divine sword technique. It’s an achievement your Muyong Clan, forever coveting others’ martial arts, could never accomplish.”
“A new sword technique?”
Muyong Cheol reflexively echoed Sohwa’s words.
Even as death hung over him, curiosity rose within him about what this divine sword technique was, how the inner energy circulation and incantations were structured.
But he soon realized his predicament and came to his senses.
“I-I… was wrong. I committed sins worthy of death. For what I did to your family and to you, I beg forgiveness, again and again.”
“That word….”
Sohwa swallowed once, suppressing her emotions with effort as she spoke.
“You should have said it first.”
…!
“My parents, my siblings, my clan members… and me.”
Namgung Sohwa gripped her sword tightly.
How was she supposed to release this resentment, this frustration, this deep-seated hatred?
Suddenly, Dokgo Myeong’s advice came to mind.
‘Satisfaction. Yes, I need to find satisfaction.’
In that brief moment, she deliberated countless times.
After all, if what happened here never leaked outside these walls, couldn’t she set aside everything for this moment?
At first, she had considered torture.
It had been long since she learned the bone-separating technique from Dokgo Myeong. She would inflict maximum pain over an extended period, and when he begged for death, she would throw him to the beasts as food.
She had also considered keeping him alive.
Instead, she wanted to cut out his tongue and gouge out his eyes, then sever his limbs’ meridians so he would suffer endlessly, unable to die or live freely for the rest of his life.
And, and, and…
Such cruel thoughts continued endlessly, but Namgung Sohwa ultimately made her decision.
‘I won’t do that.’
His suffering wouldn’t bring me satisfaction. I didn’t want to become a monster like him.
Simply killing him would suffice.
“Damn it! Damn it all!”
Muyong Cheol cursed as he saw the change in Namgung Sohwa’s eyes.
“What do you want me to do! Huh? I’ll do anything! I’m truly wronged! I’m a victim too!”
“Tell them in the afterlife. This is the Namgung sword you coveted so much.”
“Wait! Please! Please just give me a moment more…!”
His words never finished.
Slash!
Muyong Cheol felt his vision tilt sideways, the positions of heaven and earth spinning and flipping.
Thud!
It was the moment the first crimson line was drawn in Namgung Sohwa’s ledger of life and death.
* * *
Namgung Sohwa climbed to the summit of Cheonmok Mountain.
Dokgo Myeong was cultivating his energy with his eyes half-closed. From this angle, he truly had a picturesque face.
“You really were cultivating your energy.”
“What? Why are you back so soon?”
“Did you want it to take longer?”
Namgung Sohwa plopped down beside Dokgo Myeong.
Dokgo Myeong simply gazed down at the mountain landscape without speaking. He wouldn’t ask her anything until she spoke first.
‘Always reckless and wild, yet only at times like this…’
Namgung Sohwa laughed with a weary expression. After staring into the empty sky for a long while, she finally opened her mouth.
“I killed him.”
“I thought you might have spared him.”
“That’s impossible. I killed him. One clean stroke to the neck—whoosh!”
“One stroke?”
“Yes, with a single stroke.”
“Straight through the neck?”
“Yes.”
“That’s like you. I couldn’t have done it so cleanly.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
“I’m serious. If it were me, I wouldn’t have ended it so neatly.”
Namgung Sohwa always told him he was righteous, but in Dokgo Myeong’s eyes, she was the most righteous person of all.
The most martial artist-like person in the Cheonma Sect.
Namgung Sohwa was someone who understood the value of righteousness better than anyone and could genuinely follow it.
“Well done. You worked hard.”
“It was the right thing to do, wasn’t it?”
“Are you satisfied?”
“Perhaps.”
Namgung Sohwa nodded weakly.
“But why does your expression look like that?”
“I’m not sure. Just…”
Namgung Sohwa’s gaze turned toward empty space again.
“Father, my older brother and sisters, the other men too… would they have been satisfied?”
At her heavily spoken words, Dokgo Myeong couldn’t answer easily either.
After a moment of silence, he slowly opened his mouth.
“I don’t know.”
“I suppose.”
“That’s something to think about after we see this through to the end.”
“To the end?”
“There are still two more left.”
Namgung Sohwa closed her mouth firmly and nodded.
Right, that’s true. There were still two more left.
But why did it feel so unsettling?
“Father told me not to think about revenge. He said to find my own life.”
“Not even listening to Father’s dying words—you’re truly the most rebellious among us.”
“Tell me about it. I was originally such a well-behaved, obedient child.”
Namgung Sohwa closed her eyes tightly.
No matter how much I thought about it, there was no regret.
But.
“He… couldn’t resist at all.”
“…”
“And I cut down such a person.”
Namgung Sohwa opened her eyes and looked down at her hands.
And then.
“Damn it!”
Dokgo Myeong let out a scoffing laugh.
“Whether you sit still or thrash about, if you’ve taken down a villain’s head, you should be proud of it. And he wasn’t just any villain—he was your enemy. This is driving me crazy, seriously.”
“What do you mean?”
Dokgo Myeong shook his head with a smile.
“Never mind. Just show me your face.”
“Hm?”
“Just stay still.”
Dokgo Myeong suddenly reached out and grasped Namgung Sohwa’s face, then began gently wiping it with the hem of his dragon-scaled robe.
Namgung Sohwa’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re too precious to be walking around covered in such filthy blood.”
“…!”
“So once it’s done, clean yourself up properly. I’m telling you this with certainty—you’re someone who would never deviate from righteousness even if the heavens collapsed. I guarantee that.”
“….”
“If you still don’t feel confident, let’s share a drink. We’re here to help each other—me and the others. Isn’t that right?”
Namgung Sohwa broke into a smile.
It was her usual refreshing smile. Soon she spoke boldly.
“Since you mention it, help me out today then.”
“Hm?”
“Lend me your shoulder.”
“My shoulder? What shoulder?”
“I feel like leaning on something right now.”
“…What are you talking about?”
Dokgo Myeong frowned and shook his head dismissively. However, he didn’t push away Namgung Sohwa as she leaned her head against him.
The sound of Namgung Sohwa’s long sigh lingered in his ears.
“It’s hard and doesn’t feel very good.”
“What?”
“Still, it’s not bad. Is it because you’re a young man? Your shoulders are broad enough that leaning feels decent.”
“Now you’re saying things you shouldn’t.”
Namgung Sohwa chuckled softly and remained that way for a while.
Dokgo Myeong spoke.
“It won’t be long now.”
“….”
“You know you need to steel yourself, right?”
After a long moment, Namgung Sohwa spoke with a firm voice.
“Of course. I am Namgung Sohwa, the First Commander of the Cheonma Sect.”

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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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