Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 369

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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 369
Dokgo Un-hak’s relentless blade had torn through everything the Moyong Family possessed.
The scattered remnants—wealth, organizations, rights, and talented individuals—were gracefully dispersed by the hands of General Shin Heum.
Of course, the fact that Inner Sect Leader Wi Baek and Elder Council Leader Dokgo Hwi-hwa, stationed in the rear, quietly gathered up those fragments and swallowed them whole remained unknown to the world.
Naturally, the Outer Hall Master’s workload only accumulated. Dokgo Myeong had to venture outside and travel about.
“Huff… huff… I’ve returned…”
“You’re finally here? Did negotiations with the Yukcheon Unit go well?”
“We dissolved part of it… and agreed that once Moyong Sohgyo becomes the family head, they’ll come under our command…”
“Well done.”
“Now please… let me rest…”
“Before that, what of the negotiations with the Three Great Houses?”
“The working teams have reached an agreement! The family heads said they’d visit soon!”
“By then, the Moyong Family’s status will be decided and the remnants dealt with. It would be fitting to declare an end to the war.”
“Then, please! Just a bit!”
“Very well, there’s nothing urgent. You may rest now.”
Clench!
Dokgo Myeong’s fist tightened.
Even a tyrant had feelings. He had finally been granted rest!
Dokgo Myeong quickly gathered an armful of alcohol and food, then rushed to the office.
Crash!
“Hey! Spread out the mats! Let’s eat! The Chairman said I could rest! Since we’re having a gathering anyway, I brought meat and alcohol from the rear supply…”
Dokgo Myeong, who had returned after two days, stood speechless as he surveyed his surroundings.
Whoooosh!
Death.
The upper dantian and sensory meridians—even within the office, only the aura of death could be perceived.
Dokgo Jo-hak, collapsed over the desk and groaning.
Jo Ryang-ui, moving a brush with lifeless eyes.
Moyong Sohgyo, the former most beautiful woman of Zhejiang, with her eyes rolled back.
And various other scribes rolling about on the ground.
“Uuuugh…”
“C-Commander…”
“P-Please… save us…”
What? Had someone harboring resentment poisoned them?
Or had those Jeongheol Sect bastards finally developed some long-range sorcery technique?
“What’s going on? Why is everyone like this? Who attacked?”
“P-Please, please let us sleep…”
“…?”
“The work… the work never ends…!”
One of the scribes Jo Ryang-ui had personally hired clung to the desk, trembling at his fingertips.
The workload should have decreased as they worked through it, yet instead, tasks had multiplied like an endless cornucopia.
“I only realized spring had come after the flowers withered. It was because you lodged complaints—or rather, objections—that my workload was reduced at all.”
“Huh?”
“While you were away, I worked without complaint, and the Chairman kept asking if I could handle more, then just kept—kept….”
“This is—this is insane….”
“He kept—kept throwing more tasks at us! We simply couldn’t…!”
Even Jo Ryang-ui squeezed his eyes shut.
How could he shed such sorrowful tears just from being away for a few days?
“Ah, ah… everyone, rest a bit. The atmosphere is already winding down anyway, and our acting household head has granted us leave….”
“Sob! I’m going to sleep! I absolutely will!”
“Hurrah! We can finally rest!”
Perhaps rolling around outside would have been better after all.
Dokgo Myeong casually tossed aside the wine bottle and food he’d brought in his arms.
“Right, let’s rest. This is truly the final stretch.”
As Dokgo Un-hak said, the post-war cleanup was nearly complete.
Son Tae-im had also joined in and firmly secured control of the upper echelons, and I heard Geum Seok-du was steadily organizing the underworld while expanding his influence.
After all that hardship, shouldn’t we be allowed to rest now?
“Right, let’s get some rest….”
That was when it happened.
Knock, knock, knock!
At the sudden sound of knocking on the door, silence fell over the office.
Everyone stared at the door with frightened eyes, and Dokgo Myeong also slowly turned his head.
Soon a voice came from outside.
“Is the Cheonma Sect Leader, or rather the Outer Hall Master Dokgo Myeong present? I am Wi Jang-chun, the Wei Commandant—or rather, a humble visitor.”
A visitor had come to see Dokgo Myeong.
* * *
Everyone except Dokgo Myeong and Moryong Sohgyo fled without even looking back.
Dokgo Myeong stared intently at the one who had disturbed his rest.
“That… why are you looking at me that way?”
“It’s nothing. It’s been a long time, Wei Commandant.”
“I’m just an ordinary person now. Please speak more casually.”
“That’s not necessary.”
At their first meeting, they had been in the positions of prisoner and general, but now he had become a collaborator of the main household. A certain degree of courtesy was only proper.
“Uncle Wi.”
“Miss Sohgyo. Have you been well?”
“I have been, but… you don’t look well at all. Are you alright?”
Moryong Sohgyo looked at Wi Jang-chun with concern. She hadn’t seen his face in some time due to the busy work, but now he appeared twenty years older than his actual age.
“Hehe, I’m fine. You should take care of yourself, Miss. You are now the last remaining blood relative of the Moyong Family, after all.”
There was no strength in the eyes of Wi Jang-chun, who laughed hollowly.
“I came today to inquire about your wellbeing and to express my gratitude.”
“I understand the inquiry, but what gratitude are you speaking of?”
“I’ve heard the news. It seems things are winding down.”
Wi Jang-chun smiled gently.
“It appears you’ve been quietly looking after the innocent members of the Moyong Family and their branch families. I’m grateful for your compassion.”
“I only kept them alive to collect bribes. I also had the ulterior motive of building my own power base.”
“I heard you created new identities and saved them for five silver coins each. Five silver coins seems too little to call a bribe.”
Dokgo Myeong took a sip of tea and redirected the credit to Moyong Sohgyo.
“Many grains of dust make a mountain. Besides, it seems our Moyong soldier was the one who did that.”
“Yes, let’s count it that way.”
“But that’s actually the truth, isn’t it?”
“Hehe.”
Wi Jang-chun let out a laugh.
Then he slowly rose, and suddenly dropped to his knees and lowered his head.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Thank you for keeping your word, Master.”
“Thanks to you, the process of dismantling and absorbing the Moyong Family’s interests went smoothly. As I said, it was merely an act for my own benefit.”
Dokgo Myeong helped Wi Jang-chun to his feet. He barely exerted any force, yet the man rose abruptly.
“….”
In that moment, I noticed his clouded eyes.
Dokgo Myeong held Wi Jang-chun’s shoulder, freezing for a moment.
“I… why are you doing that?”
“Ah, forgive me. But Commandant Wi.”
“Yes, please speak.”
“Once matters are settled, would you help my soldier?”
“Help them?”
“Our Moyong soldier seems to need someone they can trust and rely on.”
Moyong Sohgyo quickly added her voice.
“Uncle. I’m still young and don’t understand the ways of the world well. Once everything is settled… please help me. If you help me from my side, I think I can quickly organize the family.”
Perhaps she sensed something amiss.
An urgency uncharacteristic of her seeped into her rapid words.
Wi Jang-chun chuckled and gently wrapped his hand around Moyong Sohgyo’s.
“You will surely do well enough on your own, Miss. There’s no need to keep someone as disloyal as me close by.”
“Uncle, why do you call yourself disloyal?”
“And I am a sinner who served the previous Family Head. Isn’t there a saying that new wine requires new wineskins?”
Wi Jang-chun spoke thus and turned his head away.
“Then I shall take my leave.”
“If an old wineskin is cleaned thoroughly, one can simply use it as is—why must one necessarily buy a new one?”
As he grasped the door handle to leave, Dokgo Myeong’s voice reached him.
Wi Jang-chun smiled faintly and spoke.
“After all, new things are always better, aren’t they? Hehehehe!”
The next day.
Wi Jang-chun was discovered in his quarters with his eyes gently closed. No one would ever know how he had obtained the poison.
And upon his desk lay a suicide note written in neat characters.
The lengthy letter, as if there were so much left unsaid, ended with a single sentence that brimmed with sincerity.
As a villain who abandoned righteousness and a disloyal servant, I have only now come to understand my shame, and I shall atone with my life.
In the end, only Wi Jang-chun bore responsibility for all these countless sins.
* * *
The Cheonma Sect was assigned particularly fine quarters within the Grand Hall.
The spacious training grounds attached to those quarters.
“Haaah… Ugh!”
Namgung Sohwa exhaled a long breath and opened her eyes, letting out a soft groan.
“It’s been several days already, yet my entire body still aches.”
Nearly half a month had passed since she had sent off her family at Taesan, but her injuries had been so severe and the depletion of her spiritual energy so great that her body had yet to fully recover.
Then, someone entered the training grounds.
“You speak words that would make the physicians faint if they heard them.”
“Ah, Captain Cheol?”
“Since we’re alone, speak freely.”
“Of course, Mu-baek.”
Cheolmu-baek approached, leaning on a crutch.
Cheolmu-baek’s external injuries were more severe than his internal ones. Because his right elbow was broken, he could only lean on the crutch with one side.
“When the physicians first took my pulse, they said my internal injuries were at the level of a corpse walking about.”
“Physicians tend to exaggerate, don’t they?”
“From what I could tell, it wasn’t exaggeration.”
“Actually… when I finished the funeral rites at Taesan that day, my spiritual energy’s circulation suddenly improved dramatically.”
“Is that possible?”
“I’m not sure. It felt as though something that had been blocking one part of my mind had departed. Once my spiritual energy came alive again, both my heart and body felt so much lighter.”
Whoooosh!
The light of the Divine Ascension Scripture and the Great Celestial Divine Art enveloped Namgung Sohwa’s body once before dispersing.
For reasons unknown, ever since descending from Taesan, her spiritual energy had begun recovering at a terrifyingly rapid pace.
Cheolmu-baek spoke.
“It may have been a gift from your family.”
“A gift… do you really think so?”
“Or it could be the recovery power gained from reaching a higher realm. I envy you.”
At those words, Namgung Sohwa smiled brightly.
“If anyone heard that, they’d think Mu-baek couldn’t cross the wall.”
“You noticed?”
“Of course.”
Cheolmu-baek also smiled gently.
In that final moment fighting the Northern Sky King.
Cheolmu-baek had once entered a special realm where he could read all breathing patterns. Only later did he realize that realm had been the domain of ascension.
In other words, Cheolmu-baek was now a true master of the higher realm.
“It was a bit strange, I’ll admit. Unlike the Captain or Namgung, I didn’t experience any dramatic changes.”
“Perhaps your vital energy and body were already perfected.”
What needed transformation was only the mind.
That’s why Cheolmu-baek ascended to a higher realm without major external changes. Though the journey itself was certainly not smooth.
“Either way, congratulations.”
“Don’t congratulate me too much.”
“…?”
“Because I’ve now become the strongest in the Cheonma Sect. I’m only sorry about that.”
“The strongest in the Cheonma Sect?”
In that instant, Namgung Sohwa’s eyes flashed with intensity.
“Ah… confidence is good, but you might bite off more than you can chew.”
“I’m merely stating facts. In the end, I’ve always been the one who wins.”
“You reached the higher realm later than me.”
“Since when does being early or late matter?”
“…when did your way with words improve?”
“I’m merely stating facts.”
“….”
The two of them fell silent, staring at each other.
Crack!
Their gazes were so intense it seemed lightning might spark between them.
Namgung Sohwa spoke bluntly.
“Let’s have a match later.”
“That’s what I want.”
“Let’s just set a date. When works for you?”
“We both need to recover first.”
The two of them smiled at the same time.
They were comrades who could stake their lives for each other, yet simultaneously carried an unwavering competitive spirit that refused to yield.
“And both you and Mu-baek need new weapons as well.”
“Mm.”
Cheolmu-baek nodded heavily at Namgung Sohwa’s words.
The iron axe, Cheolmu-baek’s personal weapon obtained long ago from Mandeng Clan, had become too warped to use.
“I should ask Shin Heum for a favor.”
“Since he’s the one who forged the Hyeonchul Heavy Sword, he’ll make something decent for us.”
This war had taken much from them, but it had also brought much in return. Now was the time to appreciate what had been gained rather than dwell on what was lost.
And they weren’t the only ones who had gained something.
Whoooosh whoooosh whoooosh!
Beyond the wall, a tremendous flow of vital energy could be felt.
Namgung Sohwa let out an exasperated laugh.
“…just how much stronger has our Captain become?”
“I have no idea. He shows remarkable achievements every time we fight.”
Beyond the wall stood Dokgo Myeong.
With his eyes closed in a lotus position, tremendous vital energy surged forth from his entire being.

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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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