Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 375

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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 375
Geum Seok-du spoke matter-of-factly as he shuffled through the documents.
“This is a debt record from the Yeom King’s Estate, the letter above it contains information about human trafficking, counterfeit silver circulation, illegal salt trading, and so forth… and this document records evidence of the Moyong Family’s collaboration.”
“Wait, hold on!”
Gong Ho-bang reached toward the materials scattered across the table like a thunderbolt.
But then.
Thud!
Gong Ho-bang’s hand froze in place.
“W-what is this…!”
Despite straining with all his might until veins bulged along his forearms, his hand wouldn’t budge an inch.
“F-Father? What’s wrong?”
“Ugh!”
Finally, a groan escaped from Gong Ho-bang’s lips.
And in that moment, Dokgo Myeong’s voice rang out.
“Making sudden movements like that in front of martial artists isn’t wise.”
Gong Ho-bang’s eyes widened as he stared at Dokgo Myeong.
“Y-you wouldn’t be…?”
“Next time, refrain from such actions. If I were to misinterpret it as an assassination attempt, that would be rather tedious, wouldn’t it?”
Gong Ho-bang’s complexion turned ashen.
As Dokgo Myeong chuckled softly and leisurely lifted a ledger.
Crack! Thud!
Suddenly the resistance he’d been struggling against vanished, and Gong Ho-bang collapsed into his chair.
“Father! Are you alright?”
“Y-yes…”
He stared at Dokgo Myeong in disbelief.
‘What manner of sorcery is this?’
Rustle, rustle.
For a while, only the sound of paper rustling echoed through the guest hall.
And as the noise continued, Dokgo Myeong’s expression grew increasingly rigid.
“…Tsk.”
Dokgo Myeong clicked his tongue.
After unfolding new materials, reading them, and picking up fresh ones several times over.
Slam!
Dokgo Myeong shut the book as if he could tolerate no more and opened his mouth.
“These are nothing but absolute bastards, aren’t they?”
“Watch your language. Surely you don’t believe these fabricated documents? Do you know who he is!”
They didn’t understand the relationship between Geum Seok-du and Dokgo Myeong, which is why they spoke that way.
However, since revealing the relationship here would complicate matters further, Dokgo Myeong simply played ignorant.
“If I choose to believe them, what exactly can you do about it?”
“…!”
“What matters is this—I now have credible evidence in my hands.”
“You, you can’t possibly be thinking of doing this now….”
“Someone once told me that justification matters more than truth.”
Dokgo Myeong lightly waved the ledger he held and continued speaking.
“I said something felt off. Assassins aren’t the kind of thing you can cultivate so easily. I suspected there’d be something rotten behind it….”
The phrasing was odd, but raising proper assassins required enormous effort. Whether through forbidden arts, brainwashing, or drugs, the process of killing someone’s sense of self and turning them into a slave was quite complex.
‘Wait.’
Dokgo Myeong suddenly paused.
Then he fixed his gaze intently on Gong Ho-bang.
“What are the names of the assassins the Gong Family raised?”
“That is… why do you ask?”
“Just answer. Haven’t you grasped the situation yet?”
When Dokgo Myeong revealed his killing intent, Gong Ho-bang clamped his mouth shut, but his son Gong Cheon-tae opened his mouth hesitantly in a frightened voice.
“The, they’re called Bi-geom….”
“Cheon-tae, you fool!”
Gong Ho-bang cried out urgently and cut off his son’s words.
But words once spoken cannot be taken back.
“Bi-geom….”
Dokgo Myeong’s voice grew cold.
“The Moyong Family’s information network called the assassins they raised ‘Hidden Blade Assassins.'”
“….”
“Ordinary assassins are typically raised from childhood, or created from ordinary people using drugs and forbidden arts like brainwashing. Which do you think the Hidden Blade Assassins were?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Really? Then why do I think you would?”
“….”
“Fine, I’ll tell you. The Hidden Blade Assassins were the latter. The problem is that finding people requires considerable effort. Moreover, since the process is quite messy and leaves traces, it usually involves those Black Blade heretics….”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed.
“Did you dip your feet in as well?”
“….”
Gong Ho-bang closed his eyes and exhaled a long sigh.
When he opened them again, he spoke with a very cold expression.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. The main family’s fortunes declined because of the Moyong Family—why would we have helped them?”
“Do you really think I’d play innocent after digging through all this?”
“Then I’ll say the same thing again. Even if it’s revealed, what can the Dokgo Family do?”
Gong Ho-bang laughed coldly.
“How many officials in Zhejiang—both civil and military—do you think have connections to this family? And how much money have I fed them? What do you think will happen the moment the Dokgo Family touches me?”
Dokgo Myeong let out a hollow laugh before asking.
“Master of the Gong Family. How did a prestigious martial clan that even produced a Grand General become so vulgar?”
“…Vulgar?”
Gong Ho-bang blinked as if doubting his own ears, then exhaled deeply.
“I was trying to let this pass peacefully… but it seems that’s impossible.”
He sprang to his feet, seized his son by the collar, and hurled him behind the chair.
“Bi-geom-ju! Begin!”
Boom-boom-boom!
With a deafening explosion, countless hidden weapons rained down into the hall.
“What is this now?”
Dokgo Myeong let out a hollow laugh, then while still seated, he lifted one foot lightly and brought it down with force.
Crash!
An explosion erupted.
The shockwave sent the hidden weapons scattering in all directions, and every window and door in the hall shattered and fell away.
Thud-thud-thud!
As the debris settled in mid-air, the scene before them became clear.
Everywhere except where Dokgo Myeong, Geum Seok-du, and the Cheonma Sect disciples stood was in complete chaos.
Boom-boom-boom!
Then, assassins leaped down from all sides, surrounding the group.
Dokgo Myeong blinked and glanced around.
“Wow, assassins.”
His voice was hollow, as if reading from a book.
The Cheonma Sect disciples standing behind Dokgo Myeong spoke in equally disinterested tones.
“Indeed. Assassins, it seems.”
“How long has it been? It’s been so long, it feels fresh. Don’t you think so, Seok-du?”
“…Captain. Wasn’t it our agreement to pretend we don’t know each other?”
“Oops.”
Gong Ho-bang’s eyes widened.
‘Captain? Were they all in on this together? Could it be that the Hao Sect itself…?’
As if he didn’t care whether Gong Ho-bang understood or not, Dokgo Myeong rose leisurely to his feet.
“Gong Family Master. Tell me, are you perhaps naturally a bit slow?”
“…?”
“Or else this doesn’t make sense… Is this really all? Is this truly the end?”
Dokgo Myeong looked more displeased than he had since arriving here.
Yet his subordinates were giggling behind him, amused.
“Wow, I still have a long way to go. Assassins, huh. Heh, assassins.”
“Captain, please calm yourself.”
“I can’t believe I’ve been fighting opponents like that until now.”
Watching them chatter among themselves, Gong Ho-bang’s expression hardened completely.
‘Have these fools lost their minds?’
How else could they maintain such composure?
What was the difference in numbers?
Moreover, Bi-geom-ju was a force cultivated by investing all of the main family’s wealth.
But then, Dokgo Myeong let out a deep sigh and turned his head.
“You there. Bi-geom-ju or whatever your name is.”
Dokgo Myeong gestured casually toward Bi-geom-ju among the identically dressed assassins, his hand flicking dismissively.
“Why don’t you all just lower your weapons now?”
“….”
“I came here today to help my subordinates, not to cause trouble. The Gong Family head might not understand this, but you should be able to calculate what’s about to happen, shouldn’t you?”
Just then, Gong Ho-bang cried out.
“Bi-geom-ju! What are you doing! Strike!”
“….”
Despite his master’s shout, Bi-geom-ju only sweated profusely, cold beads streaming down his face.
Trembling seized him.
Not only Bi-geom-ju, but the other Black Blades stood frozen like rabbits before a tiger, unable to do anything.
Dokgo Myeong exhaled deeply.
“Right, I knew this would happen. People usually need a few hits before they come to their senses.”
Dokgo Myeong clicked his tongue and flexed his fists open and closed several times.
Immediately after, he vanished from where he stood, as if sinking into the ground.
Crash!
With a tremendous explosion, the Gong Family’s guest hall completely collapsed.
* * *
“Gong Family head.”
“Cough! Hack!”
“I’m telling you, you should’ve just smashed your head in when you were caught. Did it really have to come to this?”
Dokgo Myeong spoke while meeting the eyes of Gong Ho-bang, who knelt on the ground.
“You… can you handle this?”
“This fellow still hasn’t come to his senses. Unbelievable!”
“Ugh!”
As Dokgo Myeong raised his hand, Gong Ho-bang pathetically shrank back.
“Captain. I’ll take it from here.”
“Hmm?”
Dokgo Myeong glanced at Geum Seok-du.
“Just to be sure, what was your original plan for handling this?”
“To do it cleanly, we’d need to handle it within the official’s domain.”
“Touching that side isn’t easy for me either.”
“I can manage it.”
Dokgo Myeong looked at Geum Seok-du with slightly surprised eyes.
“Really?”
“Yes, I have a plan.”
Dokgo Myeong chuckled and asked.
“Did I perhaps get in your way?”
“Not at all. Thanks to you, Captain, what would’ve taken a week can now be finished in a single day.”
Geum Seok-du spoke calmly as he gathered the materials he had brought.
“From here on, I’ll take care of it. It was my responsibility in the first place, after all.”
“Good, very well. I’ll wait here.”
“Yes, two or three hours should be sufficient.”
Geum Seok-du rose from his seat and departed without hesitation.
About two hours later, an enormous contingent of government soldiers burst through the manor gates as if to shatter them.
At their head was a stout man breathing heavily with exertion.
Gong Ho-bang’s eyes wavered.
“Inspector Jo?”
“You wretch, Gong Ho-bang! What in blazes have you been doing! Because of you, I…!”
“Inspector, Inspector Jo… how did you come to be here…?”
“You dare ask me that!”
At the man’s sharp rebuke, Gong Ho-bang’s eyes twitched as if possessed.
The man was none other than Jo Eui-gun, the Provincial Inspector of Zhejiang whom Gong Ho-bang had been trying to cultivate.
A Provincial Inspector is a high-ranking official responsible for the laws and prisons of an entire province—one who could fabricate crimes where none existed.
At that moment, Jo Eui-gun, spotting Dokgo Myeong, started in surprise.
“Why is Young Master Dokgo Myeong here…?”
They had shared a seat together a couple of times during his temporary duties as Outer Hall Master.
Dokgo Myeong smiled broadly.
“Greetings, Inspector Jo. I merely came to investigate after learning that the Gong Family had involved themselves in martial world affairs.”
“The martial world is entangled in this too? That man Gong Ho-bang, I’ll…!”
His anger seemed not to stem from righteous indignation, but rather from fury at someone who had made a fool of him.
‘Ah, so Seok-du orchestrated all this?’
Dokgo Myeong asked in a measured tone.
“And what brings the Inspector to this place?”
“Well, that is… given these already turbulent times, a petition arrived accusing the Gong Family of disturbing public sentiment, so I came personally!”
“You mean the Inspector came in person merely over a petition?”
“That, well, never mind about that.”
Dokgo Myeong stepped closer and lowered his voice to a whisper.
“Could that petition have come under the name of the Hao Sect?”
Jo Eui-gun started in alarm and spun his head around.
“The Hao Sect? Is that the name of the sect that uses that strange black emblem?”
A black emblem?
Dokgo Myeong nearly burst out laughing despite himself.
‘That Seok-du fellow is quite clever.’
It seemed he had written the Inspector’s troublesome secrets in a letter, affixed an unknown seal, and left it on his desk.
In such matters, stimulating the target’s imagination is always key. Seok-du clearly understood this well.
‘Still, did he infiltrate secretly? It must not have been easy.’
The Provincial Inspectorate is responsible for judicial matters, so security is considerable.
But what if an unidentified letter bearing an incomprehensible emblem were placed upon the desk of its chief?
Surely, even now, cold sweat must be running down Jo Eui-gun’s spine, wouldn’t it?
I suppressed the corners of my mouth that kept rising and dropped the act entirely.
“It seems to be the case. It’s a mysterious sect with quite the reputation in the martial world these days… Have you not heard of it before?”
“Hao Sect, Hao Sect… I haven’t heard of it before.”
“Our main family only learned of it recently.”
“The greatest family under heaven only learned of it recently…!”
Though unintended, it seemed I had further stimulated his imagination.
“Please don’t worry too much. We merely possess information—we’re not the ones wielding it. Of course, if someone crosses the line…”
“Ahem! A line, you say? I… I don’t understand what you mean.”
“Ah, and regarding matters in the martial world, our main family will handle them. Wouldn’t that spare your hands from getting soiled?”
“…Do as you wish. Either way, the Gong Family will meet its end.”
Jo Eui-gun then shouted to his soldiers.
“Search the estate thoroughly!”
“Yes, sir!”
Gong Ho-bang, who had been anxiously shifting about, cried out to Jo Eui-gun.
“Jo, sir! Surely you don’t mean to do this? If you proceed like this, our main family will also…!”
“Shut that mouth! The vaunted Gong Family will meet its end today, so prepare yourself!”
At Jo Eui-gun’s sharp rebuke, Gong Ho-bang’s expression crumbled as if the world were collapsing.
Then he whirled his head around and glared at me with murderous intent.
“You, you…! You bastard! What have you done!”
I chuckled softly.
“You should have known your place better.”
“…!”
Gong Ho-bang, who had divided people by rank and wielded them like servants.
The moment he received back the words he had spoken to others his entire life, the nape of his neck burned hot and the world spun before his eyes.
Gong Ho-bang lost consciousness on the spot.

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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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