Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 468

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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 468
“It has been a long time, Sect Leader.”
“…”
Dokgo Cheon said nothing. He merely gazed at me with an indifferent expression.
Soon Geom-jon’s gaze fell away. He lifted the wine cup placed before him.
“You have changed much.”
“…?”
“Has so much time truly passed since you left the family?”
The sight of the Sect Leader lifting his wine cup in the sunlight felt strangely unfamiliar.
He seemed as though he might soar away into that sky at any moment, or vanish like spray from the waterfall where sunlight shattered.
‘What has happened to him?’
Dokgo Cheon was a man who concealed his emotions well, not one who lacked them. Yet now he bore an indifference and transience as if observing something beyond human—something transcendent.
The only constant was that transcendent martial power, perhaps having ascended to an even greater height.
Then Dokgo Cheon spoke.
“Sit.”
“Yes.”
Dokgo Myeong slowly climbed onto the pavilion and sat before Dokgo Cheon.
‘It is suffocating.’
Sitting face to face made it worse.
Though I had grown closer than when I last saw him, that overwhelming disparity became all the more palpable because of it.
“What are you thinking?”
Dokgo Cheon asked abruptly.
Dokgo Myeong gazed at him steadily before opening his mouth.
“I thought perhaps you wished to see me, after all.”
Dokgo Cheon hesitated.
Dokgo Myeong deliberately spoke again.
“I missed you, Grandfather.”
“…”
The corners of Dokgo Cheon’s eyes trembled slightly.
He gazed at Dokgo Myeong with an air of surprise, then slowly countered.
“Grandfather?”
“Yes, Grandfather. When I think about it, we are not even within the family compound, and meeting outside like this—would not Grandfather suit better than Sect Leader?”
“How strange.”
Dokgo Cheon’s eyes deepened.
“You have never truly thought of me as your grandfather, not even once. You never even called me by that name. Have I not been merely the Sect Leader of the Dokgo Family to you all this time?”
So he knew after all.
How could I deceive the eyes of one who transcends heaven?
“Does it pain you so much? Looking at it, you are quite narrow-minded, are you not?”
“Your manner of speech remains disrespectful.”
“That was then. But now… I need not be that way anymore.”
Dokgo Cheon set down his wine cup.
Then he gazed intently at Dokgo Myeong and spoke.
“You’ve changed.”
“Me? Haven’t you changed as well, Sect Leader?”
“….”
Dokgo Cheon fell silent.
Dokgo Myeong threw the same words at him once more.
With sincerity.
“I missed you, Grandfather.”
A gleam flashed across Dokgo Cheon’s eyes.
“There was so much I wanted to ask you, so much to boast about, to receive praise for, to learn, and to seek your counsel on.”
“About what?”
“About everything that’s happened. The sort of conversations a grandfather and grandson should share.”
My feelings and thoughts toward Dokgo Cheon had shifted constantly over time.
He was an examiner who dispensed trials and rewards, a master who broadened my horizons and transmitted his profound understanding, and a dream that kindled ambition as much as reverence.
‘I, who am both Dokgo Hyeon and Dokgo Myeong, have come this far because of the Sect Leader.’
The existence of Dokgo Cheon and what he showed me played a crucial role in how my past life and this life could diverge so differently.
Rather than comforting me with affection like ordinary grandfathers, he sometimes gave me trials, sometimes engaged me in debate, and sometimes revealed higher realms—teaching me the ways of the world through it all.
“So now, won’t you treat me like a person for once?”
“….”
“You disappeared suddenly after going into closed cultivation, and while your grandson was brushing against death, not a single word reached me. Now you appear out of nowhere, yet you sit there bearing such weight—what is your little grandson supposed to do?”
Dokgo Cheon’s eyes wavered.
Then slowly, but unmistakably, his gaze transformed.
Emotion filled his eyes, and his rigid lips softened ever so slightly.
“Will you have a drink?”
From heaven to earth.
A demigod descended into the realm of mortals.
“Of course I should. You’re the one offering.”
Dokgo Myeong eagerly extended his cup.
“Come to think of it, this is almost the first time you’ve poured for me, isn’t it?”
As wine filled the cup, its fragrant aroma spread.
Dokgo Cheon opened his mouth.
“I misspoke.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re still the same. From that unruly manner of speaking to that incessant mouth of yours.”
“…?”
“If you fell in water, only your mouth would float to the surface.”
The corners of Dokgo Cheon’s mouth curled upward. It was that familiar smile—arrogant yet perfectly suited to him.
Dokgo Myeong laughed as well.
“You’re the same too, Grandfather. That crooked smile of yours. I missed it.”
The grandfather and grandson, similar yet different, sat facing each other and drained their cups in one breath.
* * *
I poured out countless stories.
I rambled on endlessly, speaking as much as the waterfall cascading beside us.
When my throat grew parched from talking so much, I drank more wine, and I even heard a sigh or two escape me.
Though he already knew most of it, he simply nodded along and listened appropriately.
However, his affirmations took a particular form.
“Well done killing him. That Young Master Muyong Tae was always bound to cause trouble.”
“But you’re sharing the power with the three families? Foolish! With justification on your side, you should monopolize it entirely.”
“Wielding power from the shadows is amateurish. You must seize all authority and control the center.”
“Well done. Power is not something to yield. It is something to grant. Put a leash around the neck of this Baek Mu-heun.”
I couldn’t tell if the wine was going into my mouth or my nose.
I felt it anew. I do respect Dokgo Cheon as a person, but that narcissistic, hegemonic side of his… I can’t handle it. I really can’t.
“I’m not interested in being the greatest under heaven like you are, Grandfather. Don’t you know what it means to live together with others? Good is good, that sort of thing.”
After I spoke such nonsense, Dokgo Cheon let out a hearty laugh.
“What a ridiculous thing to say.”
“Pardon?”
“The martial path you’ve chosen is transparent to my eyes. Breaking through the constraints that obstruct and bind you? The enlightenment embedded in martial arts carries the creator’s state of mind. Do you know what lies at the end of that state of mind?”
“What is there?”
“Being the greatest under heaven.”
“…!”
Dokgo Myeong swallowed dryly and spoke.
“I have no interest in such cringeworthy things. Me being the strongest in the world? I’d rather aim for dominion over Gangho or unifying the martial realm.”
Dokgo Cheon laughed again at those words.
As if finding it pathetic, or perhaps amusing.
“A day will come when you too realize this. From what I see, it won’t be long for you.”
“That won’t happen.”
Dokgo Cheon spoke with a leisurely smile.
“When that day comes, you will recall my words.”
It sounded like something bordering on divine insight and prophecy, so I could find nothing more to say and had to change the subject.
But eventually, I ended up bringing up “that story.”
The story of Dokgo Myeong and Dokgo Hyeon.
About the Reverse Heavenly Energy and reincarnation as well.
Dokgo Cheon listened intently to the tale. After I finished laying out the story, I broached the subject.
“Grandfather, could it be…?”
“…”
“Did you already know everything? Were you just pretending not to know?”
It wouldn’t be strange if someone like him had known all along.
But Dokgo Cheon’s response was different from what I expected.
“So that’s the true nature of the secret you’ve been harboring.”
“That is correct.”
“So then, are you Dokgo Hyeon, or are you Dokgo Myeong?”
What? His reaction seems rather odd.
“…Perhaps I am both?”
“Then that bizarre martial art, along with your insight and capabilities beyond your years—all of it stems from those memories.”
“Yes, well….”
“You did not predict the future—you merely exploited it…. So you have been deceiving this old man all this time?”
“…?”
“Hehehehe, even the great Dokgo Cheon fell prey to a three-inch tongue. No, wait. It was not just me—the entire world was deceived, was it not?”
He was laughing, yet his lips curled softly upward….
His eyes gleamed with a sharp light. At that piercing gaze, Dokgo Myeong swallowed hard.
“Did you… not know?”
“I do not know everything. Would I have ever imagined something so absurd?”
Dokgo Cheon now understood everything.
Yet he harbored no disappointment in his remarkable grandson.
‘Knowing something does not mean one can utilize it all.’
Knowledge of the future was a tremendous advantage, but who besides this straightforward grandson could have wielded the world with that alone?
In his honest heart, he preferred that the grandson had acted through brilliant intellect and foresight rather than knowledge of what was to come. After all, it meant he had achieved everything through effort, poison, and determination.
‘If anything, he has become more interesting since that day. Perhaps it was for the best.’
Dokgo Cheon gazed at his grandson, who seemed somewhat dazed, and continued calmly.
“I had my suspicions. But I had no certainty. Had I wished to know, I could have learned the truth, but I saw no need to pursue it.”
“What do you mean by that, Grandfather?”
Dokgo Cheon’s eyes deepened.
“The Way of Heaven, the Way of Man, providence… This old man never set his heart upon such things. I knew there existed a path to understanding them, but I deliberately did not choose it.”
Dokgo Cheon’s gaze turned toward the waterfall.
“A path? Could it be something like the realm of Transcendence?”
“Both yes and no.”
Dokgo Cheon turned his head again and tilted the wine bottle to refill his cup.
“A temptation of sorts—one that allows you to know even the unknowable and the things one should not know, if you desire it… Like a loose door that can be opened whenever one wishes.”
“I do not fully understand, but such a realm exists then.”
“This old man has no intention of walking that path in the future. The other two were different.”
The other two.
It was obvious who he meant.
“Did you deliberately choose the harder path?”
“Harder? I had no such intention. It was simply unnecessary, and I did not desire it.”
Dokgo Cheon crossed his arms and let out a soft chuckle.
“Even ignoring such things, I can perfect my martial way. What I desire can be obtained through my own strength alone. There is nothing difficult or easy about it.”
“Then what path did you choose, Grandfather?”
“Why ask the obvious? What else could there be?”
Dokgo Cheon’s hand, resting on the table, lightly tapped something.
A sword worn smooth by countless hands.
It was Reverse Scale, the cherished blade of Dokgo Cheon, called the finest sword under heaven.
‘Ah….’
For a moment, it seemed as though a halo shone behind Dokgo Cheon.
I didn’t need bizarre forbidden techniques, strange scriptures, the tricks of the heterodox path, Reverse Heavenly Energy, or even the principles of the world and heavenly laws that I still couldn’t comprehend.
Just a single sword.
With only that, I had stubbornly pioneered my own martial way. With only that, I had ascended to the seat of the Three Sovereigns, and moreover, I sought to become the greatest under heaven.
“Grandfather is truly impressive.”
“Hmm, so you’re trying to earn points again. How naive.”
“I’m sincere.”
Dokgo Myeong grinned widely.
“To be honest, what good would it do me to earn points from Grandfather now? You were a reliable backer in the past, but now you’re past your prime.”
“Past my prime?”
Dokgo Cheon’s eyes flashed.
“Do you now dare to match yourself against me?”
“Your grandson has also grown quite formidable.”
Dokgo Cheon let slip a cold smile.
“Merely to that extent?”
In that instant, Dokgo Myeong bristled.
“I am one of the Seven Contending Sovereigns. Do you understand? One of the Seven Contending Sovereigns?”
“A king who nearly died as a vagrant in some foreign land. The whole world would mock such a thing.”
“….”
He really knows how to leave me speechless.
Then, Dokgo Cheon suddenly changed the subject.
“What became of that old man from those days?”
“Since he was always on the battlefield, I wouldn’t know.”
“Now you lie without even blinking an eye.”
Yes, I’d sooner deceive a ghost than Geom-jon.
“He passed away.”
“….”
“I don’t know the details, but after he departed on a journey…I only heard that a grand funeral was held.”
Dokgo Cheon’s expression hardened for a moment.
But soon his characteristic cold sneer returned.
“That Dokgo Cheon was a pathetic failure.”
“Now you’re even criticizing yourself.”
“How can you call him myself? He and I must surely be different.”
“You’re certain without even seeing?”
“In this life, you exist, do you not?”
“…!”
A brief silence descended.
Perhaps I had wanted to hear such words from the Sect Leader. Those words stirred within me a complex emotion that was difficult to comprehend.
Dokgo Myeong, feeling oddly self-conscious, drank his wine in successive gulps.
Then he soon set down his cup and looked directly at Dokgo Cheon.
“Now it seems it is my turn to listen to your story.”
“….”
“Where have you been all this time?”

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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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