Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 438

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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 438
“Gasp… huff! Gasp!”
Baek Song breathed heavily and ragged.
She couldn’t regain her composure. Everything she had experienced until now was nothing but child’s play.
This was a battlefield.
This was the ‘real’ battlefield.
“Kraaaagh!”
The Bloodfiend let out a bestial shriek.
One arm was severed and the other broken—naturally, he screamed.
“Krhkh!”
Yet even in that state, he lunged forward. Like a creature, his mouth gaped wide as he tried to tear into her throat.
Slash!
She barely managed to sever his neck.
Blood sprayed.
The sensation of cutting flesh and severing bone was vivid at her fingertips.
Flash!
In that instant, something flashed brilliantly across the distant battlefield.
Startled for a moment.
Boom!
A deafening explosion followed by a violent gust. Then blood rained down like a downpour.
Not the cannons or bombs that had been firing relentlessly.
A self-detonation.
If you didn’t sever their necks in time and merely disabled them, they would reverse their own qi flow to drag their enemies down with them.
“Kraaaaaaagh!”
Jeongheol Disciples didn’t scream in such agony. That was a cry from one of their own.
She recognized the face. A young martial artist of the Sega who had shown interest in her from time to time.
He was… dying at the hands of a Bloodfiend.
“Everyone, focus! These creatures are not human! Do not hesitate!”
Baek Song shouted without even knowing what words were leaving her mouth.
“Do not fear killing! If you do not slay them, the young disciples of our sect and the servants of our household will be violated by these beasts!”
Suddenly, Dokgo Myeong came to mind.
‘Was this why?’
The training of the Jeonmu Army that had driven her body to move before thought came flooding back.
‘Was it because this place exists… because the future the martial world must face is this cruel… that you pushed us so hard?’
She clenched her teeth.
The taste of blood—whether hers or the enemy’s, she couldn’t tell—lingered in her mouth.
‘Is that why you entrusted us with this difficult role, saying you believed in us?’
Thud!
Baek Song’s body wavered.
A Bloodfiend’s claws were embedded in her side.
‘I will succeed. So that Baekdo can remain Baekdo… Even if I and we must be drenched in blood!’
To honor his faith, who had risked his life to challenge the Grand General.
For the pride of being the elite of Baekdo’s martial world, I would show them more than they imagined.
Shhwaaack!
I cut.
Splurt!
Cutting, and cutting again.
Shhwaaack!
My blade swung frantically toward eyes gleaming with madness and killing intent.
It was a long stretch of time where the passage of moments grew sluggish.
She led the Melak Brigade with her throat raw, and even as her limbs threatened to fall away, she wielded her sword and pressed forward, seeing only what lay ahead.
That was when it happened.
“…Commander!”
Clang! Clang clang!
“Commander!”
Boom! Whoooosh!
“Commander! Melak Brigade Commander! Come to your senses!”
Clang! Clang clang!
Amid the cacophony of sounds, she snapped back to awareness at the sound of her name being called.
A familiar face filled her vision.
“A Cheonma Sect member?”
“Call me Un-rang.”
Yang Un-rang, a handsome young man who winked with one eye closed, swung his spear.
Clang! Clang clang! Boom!
A monotonous spear technique that poured all its power into each strike.
Rather than refined martial arts for facing individual warriors, it was a technique specialized for confronting multiple enemies on the battlefield.
“Phew! You’ve worked hard. To have come all the way here! Thanks to you, we survived!”
“All the way here…?”
“Didn’t you break through the enemies from the outer perimeter to reach here? It was truly terrifying, but thanks to you, we survived as well.”
That was when it happened.
“Uooooooo!”
A massive, muscular giant wielded an iron mace recklessly, flinging enemies aside.
It was Hang San-gwi, one of the Cheonma Sect Members.
“Seeing you again? I thought you’d grown up soft and naive, but you’ve got quite the venom in you!”
Bang Dan-a, with her coarse mouth, was also rampaging here and there.
“Ah….”
Baek Song gasped.
They had truly pushed through to the center where the Cheonma Sect was located.
Then, in an instant, she cried out in shock.
“Disciples! The Melak Brigade…!”
Looking around in a daze, I could see disciples covered in blood and battered from head to toe.
They were alive. Far more of them than I had expected.
Many of them were following behind her, their eyes gleaming with hope.
Yang Un-rang spoke in a worried tone.
“Commander, you led the Muleok Brigade all the way here. Are you alright?”
“I… I’m sorry. I lost myself for a moment.”
“Haha! If that’s all it is, we’re fortunate. It’s understandable. Now you can afford to let your mind rest a little.”
Yang Un-rang spoke with a refreshing smile.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Now we only need to mop up the remaining forces.”
“You mean…?”
“Yes.”
Yang Un-rang grinned widely.
“We’ve won.”
* * *
From the very moment Ye-hwa’s Baek Si descended upon the battlefield, victory belonged to the Jeonmu Army.
When the Blood Demon burst forth, disrupting the enemy’s vital energy circulation and afflicting them with auditory and visual illusions, the front lines began to crumble like a sandcastle.
The Grand General’s death was the final punctuation mark.
“Waaaahhh!”
“The Jeonmu Army’s first victory!”
“We won! We actually won!”
The euphoria of triumph, the relief of survival.
Countless emotions that set hearts ablaze erupted as cheers.
“Kugh… my teacher, my teacher…”
“Damn it! Just a little longer, hold on just a little longer.”
From a corner came the sound of someone’s sobs.
Yet they soon poured forth their victory cries, embracing even that sorrow.
Praying it would reach their fallen comrades.
And then the cleanup began.
“Start collecting the bodies! Leave the enemy dead for now… prioritize our own!”
“We need more effort! There may be Jeongheol disciples playing dead, so move in groups of three!”
“Wounded over here! Bodies over there!”
In the center of the battlefield.
A beautiful woman covered in dust ran about in all directions, barking orders. She was none other than Moryong Sohgyo, who served as strategist.
Despite her position, she did not shy away from grueling work. Rather, she believed it was her duty to do so.
“Strategist, why don’t you rest a bit?”
“No. I sustained fewer injuries than all of you, so I’m fine. Please receive first aid immediately.”
Though she had fought in the battle as well, she continued issuing commands without pause.
It was then that one corner of the battlefield began to stir with commotion.
“The Captain arrives!”
“Gasp! The Captains!”
Moryong Sohgyo rushed urgently toward them.
“Commander! Are you alright…!”
Moryong Sohgyo came to an abrupt halt.
The moment she saw Dokgo Myeong being supported by the disciples as he walked toward her, she thought her heart had stopped.
He was drenched in blood.
His entire body was stained crimson—the beautiful black of his Dragon Scale Robe was completely obscured.
Thud! Splatter!
Two Cheonma Sect members supported him by both arms as they brought him forward, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.
For a moment, she thought he was dead.
If only his lips weren’t moving.
“Ugh. Hey, hey… support me gently… gently, will you? It hurts like hell!”
Dokgo Myeong groaned while reproaching the disciple supporting him.
“Ah, come on! Captain! We’re injured too.”
“Cough! Wait, is that how you talk to your captain? Is it?”
“…Honestly, what a stubborn old man.”
“You bastard… argh! Are you supporting me properly? The wound’s opening up, you fools!”
“Tsk.”
“Seok-du! Did you just click your tongue? I heard that… ow! It hurts!”
“Then please stay still!”
Her worry had been needless.
Moryong Sohgyo let out a long sigh.
‘Of course.’
Watching Dokgo Myeong make such a fuss, she couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.
She approached him.
“Commander. Are you well?”
“Can’t you see? Does this look fine to you? Goodness, I’m dying! I’m really dying!”
Jang Han-chung, who was administering first aid beside him, shouted.
“Ah, please! Stay still! I can’t wrap the bandage!”
“Then don’t wrap it so painfully!”
“It needs to be tight enough to stop the bleeding!”
Watching his fussing, she felt her tension naturally ease.
“Captain.”
“Hmm?”
“You’ve worked hard.”
“That’s right, I did work hard. Wow, I don’t know how many times I brushed with death.”
If only he didn’t brag about it, he would have looked truly impressive.
Or perhaps he was doing it intentionally. Every time Dokgo Myeong fussed like this, the Jeonmu Army soldiers could at least manage a hollow laugh.
“Groooan.”
“Ugh, I’m really dying.”
“First, I need some water.”
Namgung Sohwa, Dokgo Ak, and Cheolmu-baek were brought in on stretchers one after another. Fortunately, all three were alive.
That was when Dokgo Myeong asked.
“Casualties?”
As always, that was the first thing Dokgo Myeong asked about.
“We’re still assessing the numbers.”
After a brief silence, Dokgo Myeong asked again.
“Many?”
“We estimate around ten deaths in the Cheonma Sect, though we’ll need more time to assess the severely wounded.”
In the Cheonma Sect, “severely wounded” meant those who had suffered fatal injuries requiring retirement from service.
“And the Melak Brigade?”
“…Close to thirty.”
“…”
Moryong Sohgyo could say nothing.
Had she been a proper military strategist, she should have said something like this.
‘With merely three hundred fifty soldiers, we’ve cut down nearly a thousand—an impossible, resounding victory.’
Or perhaps something like this.
‘We’ve completely destroyed the Jeongheol Sect as an enemy. Even the fallen would rejoice in the afterlife.’
But her thoughts wouldn’t translate into words.
Somehow, she too had become too deeply steeped in the Cheonma Sect’s ways. So instead, she rambled on with pointless excuses.
“The enemy relied too heavily on sorcery and charged recklessly. Without tactics, without formations, without proper command structure—that’s why we could win. And also…”
“I understand. We’ll discuss that later.”
“…”
“More importantly, what about the child… Hwa-a? Did the guards arrive in time?”
Moryong Sohgyo’s eyes widened.
“Oh! I forgot to mention that.”
“What is it?”
“Just as you said, Captain, Gae-bang arrived! He went to Manager Gwak!”
“What? Really?”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes went wide.
That was when it happened.
“Tsk tsk! Of course someone who moved would be fine!”
“…!”
“My junior, were you just talking about me?”
A familiar voice rang out.
Bang Jong-san and Ye-hwa’s unit were approaching them.
“Senior!”
Dokgo Myeong tried to jump up but collapsed back down due to the aching pain coursing through his entire body.
“Ugh… uuugh…”
“Tsk tsk, you look absolutely wretched.”
“You really came?”
“Did you expect me?”
“Just a feeling, you might say. A hunch connected by bibimbap.”
“Tsk tsk!”
“Hehe!”
The two of them laughed simultaneously.
But Bang Jong-san soon let out a sigh.
“Still… I think I owe our junior an apology.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was careless by accident.”
Bang Jong-san clicked his tongue.
“I tried to capture the Jeongheol Sect Leader alive, but let him slip away.”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes widened in shock.
* * *
A mountain path shrouded in darkness.
The Jeongheol Sect Leader, stumbling pathetically as he fled, tripped over a stone and fell.
“Cough! Cough!”
The moment black blood poured from his mouth, jade ornaments from his golden crown scattered down with a rattling sound.
The Jeongheol Sect Leader gnashed his teeth.
“An old fool facing his final days dares to…! Cough! Cough!”
Thud!
The Jeongheol Sect Leader tried to rise but collapsed again.
The imperial bearing he once possessed had vanished entirely. His crimson dragon robe had become tatters, and the golden crown adorned with jade ornaments was now discolored to ash gray as if rotting away.
“Even with the True Blood Dragon Robe, ninety-nine jade beads made from the He Shi Bi were destroyed in an instant…!”
The dragon robe and ornaments he wore were not mere decorative items.
Mystical artifacts like the Martial Treasure of the Immortals that allowed even third-rate sorcerers to command the world.
Yet they had all been destroyed. Unable to withstand the power of a single individual.
Escaping alive was itself a miracle. Had he not exploited those caught in the illusion formation and that female archer’s upper dantian, he would already be in the afterlife by now.
“Why… why did that person abandon me? I devoted myself so completely! How… how did it come to this! Cough! Ugh!”
The Jeongheol Sect Leader, leaning against a stone to catch his breath, gazed up at the sky with resentful eyes.
“This cannot be. If the flow had twisted again in that instant, I would not have sacrificed everything!”
In that moment, the pupils of the Jeongheol Sect Leader gazing upward dilated.
Whoooosh!
A starlit sky without a single cloud filled his eyes.
All phenomena of existence and the universe seemed to be contained within human vision.
“The heavenly mechanism remains unchanged. The flow has not deviated.”
Was his divine words merely calculation and prediction?
No. He had not spoken recklessly in self-intoxication.
Long ago, the study of the Reverse Heaven Liberation Diagram forcibly injected into his upper dantian truly granted him the ability to read the operation of heavenly mechanisms.
Of course, reading even fragmented scenes required the price of countless lives and his own lifespan.
But that was enough. With information and strategy as my foundation, I could narrow the flow of events as I wished, or bend it entirely, by simply blocking the major variables.
Then, in an instant.
“Ugh!”
The Jeongheol Sect Leader collapsed, clutching his eyes.
His already pallid complexion rapidly withered away.
“Khekhekhe!”
Sprawled upon the ground, the Jeongheol Sect Leader let out a mad laugh.
“It remains unchanged.”
Tears of blood streamed from his bloodshot eyes.
“The Heavenly Mandate is unchanged. Nothing has altered.”
Dokgo Myeong, that great star who moved the age, had fallen into decline and become the nourishment of a god who had lost its light.
And the stars that once illuminated his path also departed, withered, and lost their radiance.
And the god they had yearned for, yearned for so desperately, was arriving.
As the earth was dyed with blood and the flow of heaven reversed, it signified the achievement of the Twin Horse Alliance’s great undertaking.
Then why?
“Even those who have reached the Limitless sometimes twist the Heavenly Mandate, yet they never completely escape the shackles.”
The petty schemes Bang Jong-san employed could never be a variable. Neither could Dokgo Myeong’s deceptions, skilled as he was.
“Then….”
Joy kindled in the Jeongheol Sect Leader’s eyes.
“Perhaps it was simply not yet the time?”
Today’s failure was merely one among countless steps. Perhaps the god the Twin Horse Alliance awaited also knew this and chose not to intervene.
‘Ah.’
At last, my mind grew clear.
‘My devotion, my faith—they have not yet been abandoned.’
Then it was acceptable.
The Alliance would still have need of me. If I were to head to the Jeongheol Sect’s headquarters at once….
Whoosh!
Then, a gust of wind blew.
“…?”
The Jeongheol Sect Leader turned his head.
In that instant, his face was stained with dread.
Someone stood in the darkness.

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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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