Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 430

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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 430
After successive battles upon battles, we finally arrived.
The air of Cheonghae Fortress was cold and stale. The environment differed greatly from the Central Plains with its abundant grass and trees.
The Jeonmu Army’s fatigue was already considerable. We had fallen behind schedule by half a day more than anticipated.
“Reduce our pace. The safe house Gae-bang prepared should appear soon!”
“Jeon Myeong!”
“Once we arrive, gather all captains and above immediately.”
We soon reached the safe house. Though calling it a safe house was generous—there were merely a few thatched cottages hastily built into the mountainside.
Yet that was sufficient. The Jeonmu Army needed rest now.
“Welcome. I am Dan-du, Cheol Baek-gae, inspector of Gansu Province. I have been dispatched here and am currently stationed at this location.”
“Let us hear the intelligence first.”
“Many of our scouts have not returned, so please understand that some of this information is based on conjecture.”
Cheol Baek-gae sketched a rough topographical map on a flat wooden board with charcoal.
“Several days ago, an explosion occurred here, and a massive encirclement was established to the west of Cheonghae Lake.”
“A massive encirclement?”
“The bandits who ruled Cheonghae Fortress and the enemy forces including guards from Gansu and Sichuan. The encirclement is currently tightening….”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes darkened as he watched the hastily drawn map take shape.
‘Sado. It seems he was discovered earlier than originally anticipated.’
We too had been delayed far more than expected due to interference.
Perhaps this battle would prove more difficult than I had thought.
“Ah! Not long ago, we heard cannon fire from half a day’s distance from here. That is strange.”
The information would likely contain significant errors.
I couldn’t discern the current state of the battlefield.
‘Still, half a day away. That means it’s not far.’
Cheol Baek-gae soon excused himself, saying he would bring water and provisions.
Dokgo Myeong spoke in a low voice while looking at the captains of each unit and Baek Song.
“First, casualty reports.”
Baek Song and Geum Seok-du stepped forward.
“The Muleuk Division has no deaths, three severely wounded, and eleven lightly wounded.”
“The Cheonma Sect has only ten lightly wounded.”
“….”
Baek Song pressed her lips shut tightly.
A sense of guilt washed over her—if only she had performed better, perhaps the Muleuk Division wouldn’t have suffered severe casualties like the Cheonma Sect had.
Reading her heart, Dokgo Myeong spoke.
“The degree of actual combat experience differs. Our Cheonma Sect has always prepared for such real battles, while the Muleuk Division has not.”
“I apologize for causing concern.”
“In battles of martial skill rather than warfare like this, the Muleuk Division’s role will be significant. Until then, instruct the disciples to follow the overall situation rather than rely on individual martial prowess.”
“Understood.”
“It’s fortunate there were no deaths. Still, there will be fighting soon, so go check on the disciples and allow them to rest.”
“Thank you for your consideration. But before that, there is one thing I wish to ask.”
“What is it?”
Baek Song took a deep breath before asking.
“Captain. How do you assess the battles thus far?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I find something rather odd about it.”
Beside her, Dokgo Myeong tilted his head and muttered.
“What could possibly be odd about it…?”
Ye-hwa, standing next to Dokgo Myeong, jabbed her elbow into his ribs. Dokgo Myeong let out a sharp gasp and fell silent.
Moryong Sohgyo spoke.
“The Demon Slayer Commander must have doubts about the premise of this operation.”
“Yes, Strategist. In truth, I’ve been puzzled since we left Gansu.”
Baek Song’s eyes brightened.
“This mission was clearly meant to exploit internal strife within the Jeongheol Sect and eliminate their leadership. Yet the Sect Leader somehow discovered this and is now obstructing us. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“That’s precisely the issue. If he discovered our plan, wouldn’t he have already gone into hiding? By the time we arrived, wouldn’t it already be too late?”
Moryong Sohgyo did not answer, instead looking toward Dokgo Myeong.
Dokgo Myeong answered in her stead.
“The enemy won’t flee.”
“Why do you believe that?”
“Perhaps they’re drawing us in instead.”
“Pardon?”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed.
“It could be a trap.”
“…!”
Baek Song’s words caught in her throat.
Dokgo Myeong continued with remarkable composure.
“Nothing has changed. We came here to fight our enemies, so we fight and win.”
“…You would knowingly walk into a trap?”
“We must fall into the trap to drag them out of it.”
After a moment of silence, Baek Song asked.
“Do you believe we have a chance of victory, Captain?”
“Otherwise, I would have withdrawn.”
Baek Song clasped her fist in salute.
“I will issue orders once more to ensure all members of the Demon Slayer Corps are familiar with the existing operation.”
“Much obliged.”
Baek Song and the Demon Slayer Corps commanders departed. With so many wounded, the leaders had much work to do.
With only the Cheonma Sect commanders remaining, Dokgo Myeong opened his mouth.
“As you all know…”
Dokgo Myeong’s expression grew grave.
“The Jeonmu Army’s mission is to eliminate the Jeongheol Sect’s leadership. However, the Cheonma Sect has one additional mission.”
Moryong Sohgyo took up the conversation.
“Securing the Sado and Singnyeo alive.”
“And rescuing them, of course.”
The Managers’ expressions grew grave.
“If circumstances prove unfavorable, we abandon the effort. I have no intention of rescuing them at the cost of endangering everyone.”
“However.”
Namgung Sohwa interjected.
“They are people who reached out their hands to save us. They are no different from us. And… promises must be kept.”
She always spoke what was right. Perhaps due to such principles, she was the one who fit best with the Cheonma Sect.
“But neither the Cheonma Sect nor the Martial Alliance knows of the Sado and Singnyeo’s existence. We hastened our efforts simply to deceive the enemy’s attention and engage them at the right moment.”
“….”
“Baek Song and Baek Mu-heun seemed to sense something was rushed, but regardless, it remains hidden. And it must stay hidden for as long as possible.”
We could not know how the Martial Alliance might exploit their existence.
From the Cheonma Sect’s perspective, it might even be misunderstood as collusion.
Geum Seok-du exhaled deeply.
“Still, you navigated that moment well. In truth, the Cheonma Sect Leader has reason to be puzzled. He doesn’t know that the reason the enemies won’t escape is because of the Baekryeon Sect as bait.”
“Perhaps that’s not the case at all.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
“My mention of it possibly being a trap wasn’t mere deflection.”
“…!”
Dokgo Myeong pressed his temple and stared at the rough map Cheol Baek-gae had drawn.
“There’s something more. It doesn’t seem to be solely for pursuing the Baekryeon Sect.”
“Is that… intuition again?”
“No, I’m thinking that if I were them, I would have done the same.”
What could be gained by capturing the remnants of the Baekryeon Sect?
There seemed to be some hidden secret, but what the Sado mentioned was merely legitimacy.
‘Yet they’ve already failed in the last war—they have no time to worry about internal legitimacy.’
Then they must pursue something greater.
Having already lost everything, they could only think of taking what remains to repay their debts.
‘And that Grand General.’
He clearly targeted me back then.
More precisely, I myself.
Suddenly, Cheolmu-baek opened his mouth.
“Captain.”
“Speak.”
“Then shouldn’t we let them come easily? Why would we obstruct them deliberately?”
“What if even that is meant to deceive us?”
“…!”
“Of course, it makes more sense that the Baekryeon Sect is simply escaping well, and they’re obstructing us to capture them perfectly.”
Dokgo Myeong exhaled a long breath.
“The real problem is the Baekryeon Sect.”
“….”
“Too much time has already been wasted. I have no idea what their current situation is.”
Moryong Sohgyo’s expression grew serious.
“We will prepare as soon as repairs are complete.”
“Two hours. We depart immediately after.”
Dokgo Myeong did not believe in gods, yet he offered a brief prayer that the man burdened with such responsibility would survive.
* * *
Sado saw a vision.
-Master, why must we live in hiding like this? What meaning does any of this hold?
His master had answered.
-My disciple, meaning does not exist. Everything in this world ends in death—what meaning could there possibly be?
At that moment, Sado had wanted to ask.
Why must he endure and persevere with a heart chewing bitter gall, suffering through this agony?
BOOM!
The earth’s surface erupts.
Where grass and soil had shot upward like pillars, a massive cannonball now lay embedded.
‘Master?’
His master was nowhere to be seen.
“Cough! Cough!”
Sado lifted his head, spitting out the soil that filled his mouth.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
Arrows rained down from the sky.
Though his mind was still hazy, Sado released force through his left palm, deflecting the arrows.
‘What… how… cannons. Yes, I must have lost consciousness from the impact of the blast.’
Sado shouted.
“Is everyone alright!”
“Yes, we’re fine!”
“We’re alive!”
Yes, those who did not answer were surely dead.
‘The Singnyeo… she is safe.’
The iron palanquin carried by the Baekryeon Sect disciples remained intact. A faint breath could be heard from within.
“Move! Break through now!”
Sado pressed forward again.
Like a monk enduring ascetic practice, he advanced with his gaze fixed only ahead.
“Argh!”
SLASH!
At that moment, one of the Baekryeon Sect disciples was cut down by a blade. Sensing his death, he threw himself toward the Jeongheol disciples.
His final words were brief.
“Toward the direction of true emptiness, Musaeng Nomo. I will hold them back. Go now. Go….”
Splurt!
Blood sprayed across the ground.
Another disciple’s heart was pierced by the incoming arrow.
“Cough! Sado, I had a pleasant dream, however brief!”
One more wounded, one more dead.
Sado sighed.
‘Ah, what kind of teachings were they that I drove these people toward their doom?’
They did not stop even as night fell.
Moving through the darkness in silence, Sado’s mind was filled with questions.
‘Where should I go? Is there purpose in all of this?’
The heavens offered no answer.
‘I killed those who lived to survive. I drove my disciples to death in the name of teachings. How am I different from the Jeongheol Sect? Was I perhaps wrong all along?’
My convictions wavered, and certainty became doubt.
I had only wanted to cultivate freely and seek enlightenment. I had only wanted to live. How did it come to this?
‘What meaning is there in fleeing like this? What meaning is there in living through so much sacrifice?’
Meaning. I wanted to find that meaning.
It seemed I once knew what it was….
“First General… No, where has my disciple Natap gone? Natap, come here. There is something I wish to ask….”
“Sado.”
“What is it?”
“When the cannon fire came earlier, Natap pushed you aside and….”
“Ah.”
So I survived because my disciple pushed me out of the way.
Sado’s heart grew heavier still.
“Sado, which way should we go?”
“East. Further east… toward where the sun rises. Let us continue onward.”
I moved forward, guided by the star pointing east.
Though the stars shone so brightly in the sky, my heart was as dark as the barren wasteland I now walked through.
With each step, questions bubbled up.
Then, Sado encountered another pursuer.
“…Demonic Army Commander. How is it you are here?”
A captain ranked fifth in the Jeongheol Sect hierarchy.
An elite warrior who had served as a bodyguard to the sect leader, and a familiar face from my past.
“To think the Instructor would be such a filthy apostate.”
As the Cheonryeong General, I had been an instructor who trained talented disciples into captains.
In short, a disciple had come to find me.
Not bearing gifts or wine for his master, but wielding blade and poison.
“How am I an apostate? How can you call one who seeks to cultivate freely an apostate? Did I not teach you as well? Was that not the teaching of Musaeng Nomo?”
“Then you are a traitor. Going to the Central Plains to live—was death not our salvation?”
Sado sighed.
The higher one’s rank as a general, the more one’s sense of self exists. Yet for him to speak thus meant he had truly become absorbed in the sect’s teachings.
“The people of the Central Plains oppressed us. If we could communicate, all would be resolved, but they understand only steel and blood, not dialogue. So we responded in kind. To be purified through blood.”
“You’ve never even set foot in the Central Plains. How dare you speak as if you know?”
The Demonic Army Commander did not answer. Instead, he drew his blade and charged forward.
Crash!
The Demonic Army Commander was no easy opponent. Bringing him down came at a terrible cost.
They had to fight together, and Sado had to unleash his full power in a sudden assault.
Having spent five years of his lifespan, the accelerated aging of his body was an inevitable consequence.
Grrk!
The Demonic Army Commander, once his disciple, died with a crazed smile upon his face.
Sado wanted to ask again.
‘God, is there truly nothing but death in the end?’
He turned to look behind him.
Only a handful of Baekryeon Sect disciples remained. Most were young. The elder disciples had sacrificed their lives to protect these saplings.
“Hold on just a little longer. There’s not much left. It’s almost here.”
He had said the same thing last night, and the night before that.
And an hour later, Sado spoke similar words again.
“We’re almost there. Once we cross this mountain, it’s just ahead. The encirclement here is sparse, so we should be fine.”
Perhaps in two hours, or half a day, he would be saying the same thing.
All he could do was encourage the few remaining disciples and subordinates of the Baekryeon Sect with words like an incantation.
The arduous path seemed endless.
When the pursuit briefly halted, doubt crept in.
What meaning was there in all of this?
‘Wouldn’t it have been better to simply live as a member of the Jeongheol Sect instead of running? What difference does going to the Central Plains make? What is this teaching anyway?’
Bang! Crash!
Clang clang clang!
In the haze of confusion, explosions sounded again.
He couldn’t tell where the sounds came from, or even if he was fighting at all.
Flash!
It was then that dawn began to break.
As he lifted his head, a contingent of soldiers appeared, silhouetted against the dim morning light.
Sado sighed.
“Ah, if life’s end is nothing but death, what meaning was there in any of it?”
It was the moment he muttered thus with a sigh.
Someone he thought was an enemy spoke.
“Living itself seems to be the meaning.”
“…?”
“You’ve worked hard, Sado.”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed with light.

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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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