Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 358

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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 358
Beyond the gate lay nothing but darkness.
As if ink had been poured across the sky, the pitch-black night descended upon the earth itself. The central avenue that bisected the Moyong estate was buried beneath that oppressive darkness.
“Master Gaju.”
Mumeong called out to him.
Muyong Tae stared vacantly into the darkness before stepping onto the road.
“Let us go.”
The surrounding air was cold and deathly silent.
Neither the martial artists who should have been guarding the family nor the servants who once attended to his every need were anywhere to be seen.
Even the moon seemed to turn away from him, hiding behind clouds and refusing to cast even a single ray of light.
“The Yukcheon Unit still lives, and many influential figures remain within the reach of the main family’s influence. Surely you should hide yourself and plan for the future.”
“Do not speak words you yourself do not believe.”
“Master Gaju.”
“It is already finished.”
….
Scattered across the dark ground lay all manner of debris. Broken pottery, weapons, torn books and silk—all kicked aside beneath their feet.
It seemed those who remained in the family had gathered everything of value and fled.
Muyong Tae gazed endlessly upon the Moyong estate, now consumed by that vast darkness.
This was the end to which the Mogyeong Sega’s dream had led.
‘No. It was my dream. My own dream.’
I would not flee from responsibility. Both the failure and the burden belonged entirely to me.
Yet I wondered.
When had I first taken a wrong step?
Looking back upon the past, I could not find that first misstep. Surely that initial wrong turn had been only slight, just a little off to the side….
Of course, it meant nothing now.
I had already come far too far. I could no longer remember what path I had originally intended to walk.
Step. Step. Step.
My leisurely pace soon led toward the central master’s hall.
The moment I arrived at the vast courtyard before the master’s hall, my eyes widened.
A single, tiny flame emerged from the darkness to greet me.
“…Jang-chun?”
“I bow before you, Master Gaju.”
It was none other than Wi Jang-chun.
“You remained.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“How could the Overseer responsible for the family’s internal affairs abandon his post?”
“You are no longer the Overseer.”
“Since you have not appointed a new Overseer after dismissing me, I may still claim that title.”
Muyong Tae offered no further response to those words.
Wi Jang-chun continued his report in the same measured tone as always.
“I’ve released most of the family members from their duties and sent them back to their hometowns. As for the martial artists, I’ve gathered every last one down to third-rate swordsmen and ordered them to prepare for urban warfare, positioning them throughout Zhejiang Province.”
After a brief silence, Muyong Tae spoke.
“And the Dokgo Family forces will enter here by the only path that avoids encountering those positioned defenders.”
“…You knew.”
“Why did you betray us?”
“Family Head. Or rather, Prince Tae.”
Wi Jang-chun addressed Muyong Tae as he had in those old days when they were close friends.
“It wasn’t I who betrayed—it was you, wasn’t it, Prince?”
“…!”
“You’ve gone too far. Too long, far too far…”
Muyong Tae gazed into Wi Jang-chun’s eyes.
Wi Jang-chun appeared to have walked a long road and finally returned to his true path. His eyes looked at him honestly, directly, without wavering.
“Yes, I see.”
“I will serve you.”
“No need. Go do what you believe is right.”
Wi Jang-chun looked at Muyong Tae with slightly widened eyes in surprise, then bowed deeply.
Muyong Tae passed him and entered the great hall.
He sat upon the golden, ornate throne and slowly closed his eyes.
How uncomfortable this is.
Truly, how unbearable.
Surely even the greatest throne under heaven could never be comfortable.
“…”
How long had he remained thus?
It seemed as though he’d merely closed his eyes for a moment, yet several hours appeared to have passed.
Slowly.
Muyong Tae gradually lifted his eyelids.
The vast hall came into view, and beyond it stretched a long avenue extending into the distance.
“They come.”
Muyong Tae gazed toward the distance as if he could see something approaching.
Mumeong, now with only one arm, opened his mouth.
“Family Head.”
“If you fail to stop them even once more, I will show no mercy.”
“That will not happen. The entire Crimson and Azure Sword Disciples have been positioned throughout the family compound. We will hold back the enemies until not a single one remains.”
Then it came.
Clang! Clang clang!
Sounds erupted from every corner of the family compound.
Boom! Whoooosh!
Flames surged upward, driving back the darkness.
The chaos did not cease, and it steadily drew closer to this place—the heart of the family compound.
Crash!
Finally, the last door of the great hall shattered.
“Muyong Tae!”
The intruder called out his name in a loud voice.
The final moment Heaven had arranged had arrived.
Muyong Tae slowly rose from his seat.
“Yes, now it’s time to end this.”
He descended the stairs.
* * *
The Cheonma Sect, White Tiger Corps, and Cheongunmun disciples held the rear.
The Moyong Family forces that had finally discovered them and the Crimson and Azure Sword Disciples who had rushed out from the estate couldn’t stop their advance.
“Go!”
“Move forward!”
Dokgo Ak, Ye-hwa, and Geum Seok-du sent Dokgo Myeong and Namgung Sohwa ahead without further words.
And so they had finally arrived here.
Dokgo Myeong and Namgung Sohwa, Seo Ryun, and even Gwak Dae-ryong.
They had finally reached the heart of the Moyong Family.
“You’ve come.”
Muyong Tae descended the stairs slowly.
Whoosh!
Cracks formed across the stair surface from the immense qi spreading outward.
Crack! Crunch!
The cracks deepened until his feet gouged into the stairs, and as he reached the ground, a spider web of fractures spread across the floor.
Hummmmm!
The broken blade in Muyong Tae’s hand trembled fearfully.
“Are you Dokgo Myeong?”
Whoosh!
The air changed.
A low voice and oppressive gaze turned toward them.
“Yes, I am Dokgo Myeong of the Cheonma Sect.”
“We meet for the first time.”
“It seems our Sword King has dealt with you quite harshly. Your qi is raging wildly.”
“You don’t seem much different from me.”
Dokgo Myeong asked abruptly.
“Why didn’t you flee?”
At those words, Muyong Tae, whose expression had remained unchanged, let out a laugh.
“I am the patriarch of the Great Moyong Family. Where in this world would you find a patriarch who abandons his own land and home to run away?”
His voice was arrogant beyond measure.
Yet his voice carried qi befitting such arrogance. Though ultimately a defeated man, the qi he displayed was undeniably at the pinnacle of the martial world.
“If you are Dokgo Myeong, then the one beside you must be….”
Tsssssh!
A crystalline blue vital energy spread across the space.
“It has been long. Muyong Gaju, Muyong Tae. Do you remember me?”
“Yes… those eyes. I remember them now. I thought that if I let you slip away, it would surely become a future calamity.”
“…Yes, so you do remember.”
Namgung Sohwa’s voice dropped low.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Her heart was racing so violently she wondered if it could possibly beat any faster.
It felt as though her blood was flowing backward. Her stomach burned as if molten metal coursed through it, and if she opened her mouth, she feared every curse in existence would pour forth in an instant.
‘Mother, Father.’
Namgung Sohwa glared at Muyong Tae with bloodshot eyes.
‘Older brothers, older sisters, uncles, aunts.’
Had her nails dug into her palms?
Blood beaded in her tightly clenched fists.
‘At last, we meet.’
How could she even express this surging emotion?
No, there was no need to express it.
A swordsman did not speak such things. She was a martial artist.
Shing!
Namgung Sohwa leveled her blade at Muyong Tae and spoke in a composed tone.
“I have come to settle an old grudge. I am Namgung Sohwa, heir of the Namgung line, and I challenge you, Muyong Tae, Muyong Gaju and blood enemy of my clan, to a duel to the death. Will you accept?”
“You speak of propriety in such circumstances?”
“…”
“You are far too arrogant standing before me, Muyong Tae.”
Whoosh!
The great hall was instantly shrouded in darkness.
It was the Northern Ming Divine Art.
The overwhelming power that had single-handedly overwhelmed the elders of the Dokgo Family began to dominate the space.
Boom! Boom-boom-boom!
The entire world trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
Muyong Tae spoke.
“Come.”
“…!”
“Only when you stand upon this Muyong Tae’s corpse will you be able to proclaim the resurrection of Namgung and the victory of the Dokgo Family.”
Kaboom!
A deafening explosion erupted.
The floor of the trembling hall shattered completely and buckled, and a pillar was torn asunder by the energy wave.
Crash!
A shockwave burst forth between Dokgo Myeong and Muyong Tae.
Whoooosh!
Both figures were pushed back simultaneously.
In that instant, Muyong Tae’s eyes widened.
‘This bastard. He blocked it.’
The Northern Ming technique was stopped.
It was different from being countered or broken through. As the energy wave of the Northern Ming technique spread, it mingled with Dokgo Myeong’s energy wave and canceled out.
And Dokgo Myeong felt the same thing.
‘The same lineage?’
In the nature of the penetrating energy wave, Dokgo Myeong read the same texture as the martial art he had created.
‘But how is that bastard doing this without sensory perception?’
He was reproducing a martial art that required reading gaps through sensory perception as if it were nothing.
“Watch out!”
At that moment, Namgung Sohwa suddenly cried out.
Clang! Crash-crash-crash!
Mumeong, the one-armed swordsman, suddenly threw himself at Dokgo Myeong.
He was not alone. From somewhere they had been hiding, four or five Crimson and Azure Sword Disciples burst out and rushed at Dokgo Myeong.
“Not so fast!”
“Commander! Leave this to me!”
Crash-crash-crash!
Seo Ryun and Gwak Dae-ryong intercepted them without hesitation, and they were sent flying through the wall and outside.
“So you’re going to interfere after all.”
Muyong Tae shook his head as he watched Mumeong’s retreating figure.
His only remaining loyal retainer, an orphan he had taken in long ago, was now offering even his life to him.
“Since we both must endure a combined assault, harbor no resentment. Then let us begin.”
Whoooosh!
Another collision erupted.
Namgung Sohwa faced Muyong Tae.
Muyong Tae faced Dokgo Myeong.
Each owed debts to the other.
Debts that must be settled.
A battle to resolve their long-standing grievances had begun.
* * *
Namgung Sohwa brought her sword down urgently.
Clang-clang-clang!
From the impact of a single strike, internal injuries seemed to bloom. The tremendous recoil traveled through her sword-wielding hand and shook her very organs.
‘As expected, he’s strong!’
This was Muyong Tae.
Despite the considerable internal injuries sustained in his battle with Dokgo Un-hak, he remained formidable.
Still, I had to fight.
I had debts to settle.
Clang! Clash-clash-clash-clash!
Countless sword strikes painted dots, lines, and planes across the empty air.
They clashed and shattered.
They advanced and retreated.
In that instant, Namgung Sohwa’s breath caught. A blade that had glimmered beyond the darkness materialized before her eyes.
“Sohwa!”
Dokgo Myeong burst forward and deflected the sword for me.
Splash!
But.
Namgung Sohwa coughed blood as she felt the treacherous demonic energy of the Northern Ming infiltrating her body.
‘This is…! It’s the same as Myeong’s martial technique!’
If that were true, the method of resistance would be the same as well.
Namgung Sohwa recited the secret incantation of her family’s divine technique.
The true qi of the Great Flame Divine Art spread like a clear sky, dissolving the invasive sword energy that had burrowed into her upper dantian.
“Kyaaaaaah!”
Crash!
Namgung Sohwa’s eyes blazed as she surged forward.
She raised her true qi with force, and with each step forward, she drove her blade down.
Boom! Boom!
The earth’s surface erupted, and gales of wind swept relentlessly.
That was when.
Crash!
“Gasp!”
“Myeong!”
Dokgo Myeong took a direct hit from Muyong Tae and was driven into the wall.
He had been battered and broken even before arriving here. Yet he had stepped into the fray despite having no strength left to fight.
Then, from behind, Muyong Tae’s voice rang out.
“Is this the time to worry about others?”
A blade came slashing down from the front, accompanied by darkness.
‘The voice came from behind?’
Namgung Sohwa flinched in surprise.
The sword flew through the sky.
A sovereign sword—one guided by will alone.
A divine technique unseen in this world.
A masterless blade soaring through the heavens unleashed a barrage of strikes upon her.
Screech!
Blood erupted from Namgung Sohwa’s forearm.
Before she could even cry out, murderous intent pressed down from behind.
“Ugh!”
Muyong Tae’s hand-blade strike shattered the defensive formation of the Spear Palace Sword Technique.
Muyong Tae, shrouded in darkness across his entire body, spoke with ease.
“Is that all you have?”
The sword spreading jet-black true energy hummed as it danced around him.
“Then I’m disappointed. Your father was weaker than you are now, yet he showed a far superior display.”
“…!”
Whoooosh!
The blade filled her entire vision.
Namgung Sohwa hurriedly brought her sword down.
Clang! Screech!
She drove downward to push him back, but Muyong Tae’s blade spun in a circle, aiming straight for her crown.
A sword path no human could draw.
An attack only possible through swordless technique.
“Hah!”
Clang!
Namgung Sohwa met it without hesitation.
Flash! Screech!
She deflected the blade and extended another strike to check the advancing Muyong Tae.
Namgung Sohwa’s eyes gleamed.
‘I will not waver.’
Not to the enemy’s martial arts.
Not to hollow provocations.
‘I no longer waver at anything.’
The center.
Everything in Namgung martial arts connects to that center.
An upright heart and blade that waver at nothing.
Boom!
“Cough! Sohwa!”
“Myeong-i. You can step back now. Thank you for your help.”
Namgung Sohwa smiled brightly and looked at Dokgo Myeong.
“This is my fight after all.”
She advanced.
Namgung Sohwa confidently extended her sword toward Muyong Tae.
Boom boom boom boom!
She gazed at the darkness surging like a tidal wave. Even amid the overwhelming energy waves that filled her surroundings, she remained composed.
Because she now knew she would not waver.
‘Infinite Window Sky.’
Her blade extended forward.
Heaven and earth.
The first technique that split the cosmos.
Screech! Clang
The blade bounced back, and the darkness split apart.
In the end, Muyong Tae abandoned his ethereal swordplay and grasped his blade, blood trickling from his lips.
Crack!
Namgung Sohwa staggered backward, spewing blood from her mouth.
But she immediately straightened her waist and swung her sword.
‘Now I understand. The expanse of the heavens is boundless and infinite, yet that is not all.’
At the center of that vast sky and space stands only one—myself.
Claaaaaang!
Namgung Sohwa suddenly felt tears welling up.
Her entire life was contained within the extending blade. All the countless memories and stories she had cherished were unraveling thread by thread.
Her father and mother, her siblings, her household, the Cheonma Sect, and Dokgo Myeong.
Learning, mastering, experiencing, laughing, weeping—the story of her life, centered upon herself, was now contained at the tip of her sword.
‘Now I can finally name this blade.’
She bid farewell to the past that had been both cruel and joyful, and greeted anew the future that awaited.
She had come to understand that only she could govern and shape her own story, and thus she could finally name her sword.
Swhiiiiiiing!
A single stroke unlike any before cleaved through the darkness of the Northern Abyss.
“Ugh!”
Swish!
A wound opened across Muyong Tae’s chest.
Thud!
Driven back, one of his knees struck the ground.
Muyong Tae looked up at Namgung Sohwa.
“What is that sword…?”
“The Sovereign Sword Form.”
Namgung Sohwa gazed down at Muyong Tae calmly and spoke.
“The blade of the Namgung Family—my blade, Namgung Sohwa’s.”

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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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