Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 437

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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 437
Hyeok Wi-sang couldn’t move an inch.
Watching him like this, Dokgo Myeong became certain.
‘This one is not the Bloodfiend Hyeok Wi-sang.’
If it were him, such conversation and threats would never work.
Rather than madness, he was instinctive by nature. More beast than human, yet too catastrophic to be merely a beast. No one attempts to negotiate with typhoons, tsunamis, or landslides.
‘But this one is human.’
That’s why he hesitates.
Because he is not a natural disaster, he wears the mask of composure and wavers.
“How utterly foolish. What kind of idiot threatens an enemy with their own life?”
Hyeok Wi-sang continued with a frigid expression.
“Go ahead. If the sect’s enemy wishes to die by their own hand, why would I need to stop it?”
Dokgo Myeong’s lips curved upward.
“If you truly didn’t care, you would’ve shut your mouth and charged straight at me.”
“….”
“Take even one step. The moment you do, I’ll sever my own throat and reverse my internal energy to destroy every meridian in my body.”
“Such bluffing….”
“Why? Do you think I can’t?”
Dokgo Myeong tightened his grip.
Slice!
The Emperor’s Divine Blade carved through his skin like tofu.
Hyeok Wi-sang cried out without thinking.
“Wait!”
He stopped.
Dokgo Myeong stood motionless, staring at Hyeok Wi-sang. Crimson blood trickled down the blade.
In that instant, defeat flashed across Hyeok Wi-sang’s face, while Dokgo Myeong’s smile bloomed with vindication.
“Wait? You said wait? So you do care about your enemy’s life after all, it seems?”
“….”
“Ha! What a predicament! It seems you haven’t heard how insane and fearless I am. Have you? Hahaha!”
Dokgo Myeong burst into manic laughter.
“Whether my body is some elixir for the descent of Hyeolbul or something resembling one, I don’t know….”
Dokgo Myeong gestured as he spoke.
“But there must be a reason you can’t afford to lose me, right? Just like the Grand General’s Ten Hells Technique and the Northern Ming Divine Art created by the Moyong Family… this reverse heaven energy or whatever it is.”
Hyeok Wi-sang’s eyebrows twitched.
“I won’t deny it. However….”
Then he spoke with eyes as cold as ice.
“The great technique is already close to completion. Do you truly think one person’s absence will hinder that grand momentum?”
“Ah, I see.”
Dokgo Myeong chuckled softly, then his eyes flashed.
“But if you can’t obtain me… that completion will be delayed quite significantly, won’t it?”
“What are you saying….”
“Even the Grand General couldn’t retrieve it, so we’re being pushed back further than expected?”
My body came to an abrupt halt.
Dokgo Myeong’s lips curved upward in a sinister grin.
“Struck a nerve, have I? Haha, hahaha!”
A torrential wave of killing intent poured forth from my entire being.
“If you don’t shut your mouth, I’ll rip that tongue out for you.”
“You must be suffering greatly. You’ve prepared and waited for such a long time… and yet your greatest obstacle turns out to be one of your most crucial ingredients! Haha! Hahahaha!”
“Gaaaah!!”
Crash! Crackle!
My vast inner power erupted like an active volcano.
The ground, already shattered in countless places, split further with jagged cracks, and within them, blood-red energy surged and undulated.
“Cough! Hack!”
Namgung Sohwa lost consciousness, unable to withstand the unleashed energy wave.
Dokgo Myeong would have also fainted without the Dragon Scale Armor. It seemed he had deliberately released his inner power with that intention.
So Dokgo Myeong….
Stepped forward.
One step closer to me.
Step by step.
One step, then another.
Walking toward me slowly and deliberately.
“…!”
My eyes wavered.
The momentum pouring from my body noticeably diminished.
Thud!
The remaining distance was three zhang—a distance at which a master of the Limitless Realm could claim a life in the blink of an eye.
Yet I could not move. I stood frozen in place like stone.
‘Yes, of course that would be the case.’
Gulp!
Dokgo Myeong swallowed the blood that had risen up his throat.
‘Of course I have no intention of taking my own life….’
My goal is to eat well and live well—not to end up dying in some gutter, cutting my own throat with these hands. What a pathetic, meaningless death that would be.
Besides, I’m needed to stop those bastards in time.
‘You know that too, but does your mind truly grasp it?’
I don’t know what kind of being you are now. But I know how desperately the Bloodfiends stake their lives on the descent of Hyeolbul.
He cannot come.
Because of that one-in-ten-thousand possibility.
Even if he does come, it matters not.
If that one-in-ten-thousand possibility causes hesitation to cloud his fingertips….
‘Then I’ll exploit that opening.’
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed with intensity.
‘Come in. Hyeok Wi-sang.’
Meanwhile, Hyeok Wi-sang’s sword trembled in his grip, shaking with the fury that boiled within him.
‘He is not one to consider suicide. If such an easy path had been his choice all these years, he would have died long ago.’
A master of his caliber would dream of mutual destruction, never fleeing through suicide.
Yet he could not move easily.
It was because of the suspicion that had surfaced in his mind.
‘If by some chance that bastard truly reverses the Primordial True Energy and twists my meridians….’
Ten years—perhaps even an opportunity to advance further—would slip away.
How viciously would the Martial Alliance, already formed by then, block their path?
All those long, arduous years of cultivation….
‘No. It cannot be. It must be a bluff.’
What he could not trust was himself.
At the moment of execution, could his hands truly remain steady?
Did he have the confidence to suppress him in time?
“….”
Hyeok Wi-sang remained motionless.
Though his mind threatened to be consumed by rage, he simply could not move.
That was when it happened.
Whoooosh!
A desolate wind blew from the west.
Both Hyeok Wi-sang and Dokgo Myeong’s eyes turned westward simultaneously. It was no ordinary wind.
‘In the end….’
Amid bitter hatred, murderous intent, and self-loathing, Hyeok Wi-sang realized he could do nothing.
“Dokgo Myeong.”
“….”
Dokgo Myeong turned his gaze.
His reflection appeared in those filthy, abhorrent, arrogant eyes.
“I will not forget this.”
“Of course you won’t.”
“When we meet next… it will not end like this. Anticipate it. I will inflict suffering far worse than death.”
Hyeok Wi-sang, who had been glaring at Dokgo Myeong with burning intensity, kicked off the ground.
His silhouette was soon engulfed in crimson twilight and vanished like a phantom.
Dokgo Myeong kept the sword pressed to his neck for a long time afterward. A very long time indeed.
How much time had passed since then?
“…Exhale.”
Dokgo Myeong slowly removed the sword from his neck.
Thud.
The swaying Dokgo Myeong collapsed to the ground.
Tinnitus rang in his ears as a headache washed over him.
Drip, drip.
The wound ran deeper than I’d thought, and the bleeding was considerable.
Dokgo Myeong pressed the wound to stop the hemorrhage and gazed at the dimming sunset.
‘What on earth was that one being chased by?’
* * *
The eastern flank of the battlefield.
The Jeongheol Sect Leader’s expression hardened.
Crack! Thud!
The intruder who had shattered through the formation array walked forward with heavy strides, trampling the wood and stones scattered across the ground.
Whoosh.
The stones and branches crushed beneath straw sandals crumbled into dust and scattered.
An old man approaching as if taking a leisurely stroll, or perhaps stumbling forward like a drunkard.
The Jeongheol Sect Leader clicked his tongue and spoke the old man’s name.
“Yongdu Sect Leader, Bang Jong-san….”
Tap.
The old man who had stopped beside Ye-hwa spoke in an unusual tone.
“That’s right, you brat. I’ve arrived.”
Bang Jong-san rested a cudgel on his shoulder with a tap as he spoke.
Color returned to Ye-hwa’s face.
“Sect Leader!”
Bang Jong-san turned to face Ye-hwa with the gentle smile of a grandfather cherishing his granddaughter.
“My, how you’ve grown. You’re quite the young lady now. Hehehehe!”
“H-how did you come to be here?”
“I’ve been hiding far away, watching for the right moment to intervene, but the situation here seemed dire, so I hurried over. It was torture holding back. Tsk tsk!”
Hiding far away and watching?
How was that even possible? Hadn’t he vanished into near-complete seclusion?
“Anyway, we can talk more later. Now step back. The path I’ve walked will have no formation arrays.”
“Yes!”
Ye-hwa began to retreat but hesitated, turning her body as she called out loudly.
“You must be careful, Sect Leader!”
“You foolish girl! Even if I’m old, I’m still Bang Jong-san of the realm! Hehehehe!”
The moment Bang Jong-san turned his head to face the Jeongheol Sect Leader, the warm smile vanished from his face without a trace.
“But what was that, you bastard? How dare you call an elder of such standing by his bare name, calling and calling? Did you learn manners through self-study?”
“The renowned Gae-bang… what business brings you to this remote frontier?”
Bang Jong-san grinned wickedly and shook his head repeatedly.
“Tsk tsk! That’s not it. You should be asking something else, not that. Why does a clever fellow ask such a foolish question?”
“…?”
“Why I came is obvious! I’ve been hiding here in secret, worried that you scoundrels’ treacherous scheme might cause our brilliant junior to meet a tragic end.”
Bang Jong-san laughed as if it were ridiculous.
“So the question you should ask isn’t ‘why’ but ‘how,’ isn’t that right?”
Bang Jong-san tapped his shoulder with the cudgel and spoke.
Cracks formed across the Jeongheol Sect Leader’s arrogant face at that leisurely attitude.
“…Then I must ask. You should not have been here. The probability of Gae-bang appearing in this place was three percent or less.”
“Your divine words showed that, did they?”
“…?”
“Tsk tsk, divine words indeed. Fine words they are. But in the end, you’re merely making remarkably accurate predictions through vast information, a bit of divination, and calculation. Isn’t that right?”
“Speaking as if you know everything when you know nothing….”
“You don’t prophesy at all—you merely calculate. And my presence here right now is proof of that, isn’t it?”
The Jeongheol Sect Leader opened his mouth with a growl.
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Rushing an elder? That confirms you’re truly uncultured. What a bastard you are.”
“….”
“Would I have hidden myself for no reason? And why would my junior brother keep making contact with Gae-bang? All that information reached me as well. Isn’t that obvious?”
“You were surely in a distant place in the northeast, difficult to approach.”
“I was.”
“You were? You mean it was a disguise?”
“You must have become certain when you heard about Yeon Gwan, the sacred treasure of Gae-bang, and some old beggar carrying a staff.”
“…Surely not?”
“Yes, deceiving your eyes is quite easy. I simply handed those items to someone suitable.”
He gave away all the Sect Leader’s sacred treasures to someone else?
He surrendered the authority symbolizing the Yongdu Sect Leader to another?
“What use are such authority and titles? Such hollow trinkets—I could give away a hundred or a thousand of them!”
“You… mad fool.”
“One must be half-mad to live the beggar’s life. Kha ha ha ha!”
At the ringing laughter that burst forth, the Jeongheol Sect Leader staggered backward.
Thud.
Bang Jong-san took a step forward as if to say the conversation ended here.
Beneath his feet, inner energy materialized in a hazy mist.
Grrrooooowwww!
A single dragon’s cry echoed through the mountain valley.
The Jeongheol Sect Leader’s face turned pale as he took the energy wave head-on.
“Cough!”
Crimson blood spilled forth in a rush.
The Jeongheol Sect Leader spat out his words.
“Indeed, a reputation well-deserved. Is that the Gae-bang ultimate technique, the Munja Dragon Cry Divine Art?”
“And soon it will also be the name of the technique that beats you to a pulp.”
“We shall see.”
The Jeongheol Sect Leader roughly wiped the blood flowing from his lips with his hand, then swung it toward empty space.
“Trivial tricks!”
Bang Jong-san’s foot struck the ground.
Boom!
The entire mountainous region trembled.
That power flowed entirely into the Drummer’s staff.
Crash!
The moment the Drummer’s staff struck the void, a translucent crimson barrier shattered like porcelain and scattered.
“Ugh!”
The Jeongheol Sect Leader could not dissipate the impact of that blow and was driven into the stone.
“Get up.”
Bang Jong-san spoke, twirling his staff.
“You need to take more punishment.”
Crunch!
The Jeongheol Sect Leader’s eyes gleamed as he ground his teeth.
‘In any case, the Bloodfiend Sect’s protectors and elders will arrive soon. Then someone like the Gae-bang leader won’t be a match. Our victory is assured.’
Bang Jong-san shook his head upon meeting that glimmering gaze.
“Tsk, tsk! Stop it. What could reinforcements possibly do for you?”
“…!”
“The momentum of battle has already died down. It seems those reinforcements have abandoned you?”
“Silence. The sect could never abandon a talent like me…!”
“Those are precisely the ones who get discarded like worn-out rags.”
Bang Jong-san laughed bitterly.
“You, who have led the Jeongheol Sect, know this better than anyone, don’t you?”
“…?!”
“Do you know how many have shed tears of blood because of the games you’ve played in the martial realm?”
Vital energy flickered like flames at the tip of the Drummer’s staff.
“Do you know how many have lost their homes, their families, their means of survival?”
“….”
“You turned the prosperous into beggars, stole the lives of the poor, made people distrust and betray one another… Did you have fun? Huh? Playing go with human lives as if you were a god itself—was that entertaining?”
Murderous intent gleamed in Bang Jong-san’s eyes.
“Now it’s your turn to pay the price of defeat.”
The Jeongheol Sect Leader ground his teeth at the low, grave voice.
Hiss!
Ominous blood energy erupted from his entire body.
“As I said, that remains to be seen.”
Crash!

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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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