Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 56
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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 56
Patter! Thud!
Sand and stone fragments rained down like a deluge as the boulders that had struck the entrance shattered into pieces.
“Phew! I really thought I was going to die!”
Dokgo Myeong, Geum Seok-du, and Seo Ryun all scrambled to their feet simultaneously, gasping for breath.
“Captain Seo! Are you alright?”
“I’m fine!”
“Seok-du! What about you!”
“Ugh… Young Master? I think I just saw some kind of river….”
“Did you have a dream in that short moment? You’re always so scattered.”
….
Geum Seok-du’s mouth hung open.
‘Wow, his conscience really….’
What sin did I commit in my past life to end up meeting such a person!
“What, what are those things?”
“What are all these boulders….”
“This isn’t the time to look at that! The Moyong Family has already claimed three of them!”
After a brief commotion, the martial artists began hurling themselves toward the center once more.
Dokgo Myeong surveyed the situation around him and furrowed his brow.
“What is all this chaos?”
In the darkness, I could feel sparks flying as weapons clashed against each other, and the metallic scent of blood hung in the air.
A sight so familiar it had become tiresome.
This place had already become a battlefield.
“Gasp! Young Master! Look there!”
Geum Seok-du pointed ahead.
There, the Moyong Family could be seen grunting as they destroyed the Twelve Zodiac Statues while simultaneously fighting against the crowd.
“Could it be…?”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed.
‘Twelve? There are twelve of them?’
If I use some and sell the rest….’
Since the Giwang’s divine weapons were worth whatever price one could command, what could their true value possibly be?
Dokgo Myeong exclaimed with excitement.
“We’re going too!”
“You, you mean over there?”
“Of course! How dare those bastards lay their hands on my divine weapons! They’re asking for death!”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed with fervor.
‘Young Master, your eyes have gone mad….’
‘But wait, why does he think those are his?’
“Captain Seo!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Clear the path! Let’s go!”
“Understood!”
* * *
“My lord! There are too many enemies!”
“Damn it, these wretched bastards…!”
Moyong Ryung gritted his teeth and shook his sword.
No matter how elite the Cheonryong Troop was as the main force of the Moyong Family, one hand could not block ten. The injuries among the Cheonryong Troop members were mounting as the Zhongyuan forces surged forward.
“How many have we extracted so far!”
“Eight blades, sir!”
“Merely eight!”
“The stone statues are too hard to break, and they’re fixed so firmly that extraction is difficult!”
Eight blades. Merely eight blades…
Originally, I had planned to take only one blade, so this was already an excess of success.
But I had seen twelve blades right before my eyes.
Once the wheel of greed began to turn, it knew no stopping.
Then it happened.
Crash!
Suddenly, one section of the Cheonryong Troop’s defense collapsed, and a stone statue shattered.
“Kahahaha! This Triple-Pointed Double-Edged Blade is now mine!”
A young man roared with laughter that sounded like it came from some villainous overlord.
‘What the hell is this bastard?!’
A youth barely past his prime was grinning with blood-red eyes, his lips stretched wide.
‘What is this? A leader of some heretical sect that has fallen into depravity?’
It was not, of course.
The young man’s true identity was none other than Dokgo Myeong, a direct descendant of Zhongyuan’s greatest Noble Family.
“Using a legendary divine weapon for the first time—what a thrill!”
Dokgo Myeong grasped the spear shaft and grinned wickedly.
Click!
Dokgo Myeong lifted the spear with an overwhelming sense of exhilaration.
The Triple-Pointed Double-Edged Blade.
He infused his true energy into that grotesque weapon, whose blade resembled three overlapping edges on the spear shaft.
“Huh?”
But in that instant, Dokgo Myeong’s expression grew disappointed.
‘This is supposed to be a divine weapon?’
Dokgo Myeong was staring blankly at the Triple-Pointed Double-Edged Blade when—
“That young bastard has obtained the divine weapon!”
“Seize it!”
“Tch!”
Screech! Crash!
Seo Ryun hastily swung his blade.
Yet no matter how renowned a martial artist might be, there were limits to endurance. With the Moyong Family’s Cheonryong Troop joining forces alongside the surrounding martial artists, I no longer had the luxury of holding out.
“Young Master! We must retreat now!”
“Out of the way! The Giwang’s legacy belongs to us!”
“Ugh!”
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The martial artists, their eyes now completely wild with greed, surged forward like an ebbing tide, sweeping aside Seo Ryun’s weapon.
“Tsk!”
Dokgo Myeong clicked his tongue and hoisted the Hwicheon Gi.
Grasping the spear shaft of the Samcheom Yangin Sword, Dokgo Myeong swung it with tremendous force.
“Haaaah!”
“Kugh!”
Flash! Crash!
It resembled a wildfire spreading in an instant.
Not only the blade of the swung Yangin Sword, but the martial artists caught in the energy wave enveloping the spear shaft collapsed in a heap.
And then.
Crack—!
“Huh?”
It breaks.
A divine weapon, the Giwang’s legacy.
From the weapon of the greatest craftsman of the previous generation, renowned for divine craftsmanship, came a sound that should never have emerged.
“No, what is that?”
“What?”
Even amid combat, the crowd stirred with unease.
It was a sight that defied belief.
The middle section of the spear shaft snapped cleanly, and the spear blade crumbled like soft pottery, scattering downward.
* * *
I had sensed something was amiss.
If it were truly a divine weapon, the feel in my hand should have been different from the start, yet it felt crude and dull.
In short.
‘It felt wrong.’
Still, I had dismissed it as a mistake. I thought perhaps I simply didn’t understand it well since it was the first fine weapon I had ever wielded.
“Young Master?”
“Now I understand.”
Thump! Thump!
I felt my heartbeat accelerating gradually.
And I felt an unidentifiable emotion spreading through my entire body in rhythm with that heartbeat.
“What on earth has happened?”
“…It’s a fake.”
“What!?”
With a contorted expression, I carelessly hurled the broken spear shaft away.
Seo Ryun and Geum Seok-du gaped in astonishment, their mouths hanging open.
“There’s no way this could be called a divine weapon. It’s not even worth a yawn from a masterpiece.”
“Could it be… that it has corroded due to the passage of many years?”
“How could that possibly be?”
Dokgo Myeong shook his head.
“A weapon worthy of being called divine must harbor special qi. Corroded after merely a hundred or two hundred years? That’s nonsense.”
“Then?”
“It was inferior from the very beginning.”
Dokgo Myeong’s lips and eyes curved upward, and laughter suddenly burst forth.
“Yes, that’s how it was. Now it makes sense.”
“M-Master?”
A chill ran down their spines.
Seo Ryun and Geum Seok-du felt goosebumps rise across their skin.
This was not a smile born from despair and resignation.
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes gleamed like ghostfire.
Whiiiiiing!
A ringing sound, as if a swarm of bees were flying about, filled their ears with dizziness.
In an instant, Dokgo Myeong’s gaze turned toward some distant place.
* * *
“Lady Gi! Have you found the exit?!”
Moyong Ryung, having secured eight blades and judging that he could not carry the remaining four, shouted with a resolute expression.
“We cannot take any more! We must escape with what we have! Where is the exit?!”
In response to Moyong Ryung’s urging, Gi Sohwa smiled and opened her mouth.
“There is no exit.”
“You could not find it?”
“That cannot be. There was never one to begin with.”
“Then how are we supposed to leave? Must we pass through that formation again?”
“No. That passage will close soon as well.”
“What?”
It was then.
“The final weapon has been removed!”
“Hahahaha! This blade belongs to the Tianzhong Sect!”
Shhhhwing!
The moment the Tianzhong Sect Master drew a long sword from the stone statue of the Divine General Chen among the Twelve Earthly Branches.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Moyong Ryung’s head snapped around.
The source of the sound came from the passage they had walked through.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The passage was sealing shut. Solid stone blocks fell thud after thud at the entrance, scattering stone fragments.
Moyong Ryung cried out in a bewildered voice.
“An organization? What’s suddenly happened!”
“It’s not just a stone. They call it Deep Heavy Rock, and it’s said to be a rare material that only leaves scratches even on fire steel.”
Moyong Ryung’s voice rose without his realizing it.
“Giwang, you vicious bastard! You’ve set traps like this all the way through!”
“Don’t worry. Not everyone will die.”
In that instant, Moyong Ryung doubted his own ears.
He slowly turned his head toward Gi Sohwa.
“…Lady Gi. What did you just say?”
Gi Sohwa was still smiling.
Those eyes had been so captivating before, but now in this moment, they filled me with dread.
“A few survivors will escape and spread word, which will deepen the chaos throughout Anhui and Zhejiang. Of course….”
Gi Sohwa turned to face Moyong Ryung.
“You won’t be one of those who escape.”
“Lady Gi? What have you been saying since earlier?”
“Do you perhaps remember Ying Yan Village, located south of Zhejiang Haiyan?”
“What? Where?”
Ying Yan Village in Zhejiang Haiyan.
I don’t remember it. I know Haiyan is a coastal area near Hangzhou, but there’s no reason I would remember a village name in such detail.
“Ying Yan Village is one of the fishing villages that pays tribute to the Moyong Family.”
“Why are you suddenly bringing that up?”
“Common folk must pay taxes to the Empire, and under the pretext of protection from pirates, they had to pay tribute to your Family as well. Did you know that?”
“Of course….”
“Sixteen years ago, when you were young, you were the one in charge of collecting those tributes.”
“…!”
“If someone can’t pay taxes to the nation, they can take a beating or perform labor service instead, but the Moyong Family… was truly ruthless. Those who claimed to protect from pirates actually sold entire families to them.”
“…You!”
Moyong Ryung glared at Gi Sohwa with murderous eyes.
Having heard this much, there was no way he couldn’t understand.
“This was all a trap you set up!”
“That couldn’t be. We simply made appropriate use of this legacy that Giwang left behind.”
“You damned woman! You deceived me!”
Whoosh!
Moyong Ryung’s blade shot toward Gi Sohwa’s heart.
In that instant, Gi Sohwa’s fingertips turned blood-red.
Crack!
“…!”
Gi Sohwa caught the blade with her bare hand.
Moyong Ryung’s mouth fell open.
“This… what is this….”
Screech! Screech!
The Moyong Family’s secret technique, unleashed as a surprise attack, had been blocked far too easily. Regardless of how much inner energy I had expended, it was utterly impossible.
“How… how did you manage this?”
“Is it truly so surprising?”
Whoosh!
Gi Sohwa revealed the technique she had concealed all along.
“The only difference is that I am no longer a powerless woman from a small fishing village.”
Her seductive gaze transformed into a cold sneer laced with murderous intent, and her clear eyes blazed with a wild, frenzied light.
Gi Sohwa, wrapped in blood-red vital energy, gripped the sword in her hand with crushing force.
Crack!
Shatter!
The blade burst apart from sheer grip strength alone.
Moyong Ryung coughed blood as the backlash of inner energy sent him collapsing to the ground.
“You… you witch! You orchestrated all of this merely for your petty revenge?”
“How absurd. As if I would arrange such an affair merely for the sake of a wretch like you.”
“What?”
“My revenge is but a trivial matter. This gathering shall become the cornerstone of a holy war—a purification through which the immoral Gangho will be reborn anew.”
Ahahahaha!
Gi Sohwa’s laughter erupted like tearing fabric.
In the next instant, she suddenly struck the stone coffin beside her.
Crash!
The stone coffin shattered into countless fragments.
Rumble… rumble… rumble…
Immediately after, a heavy sound reverberated through the common area, and the air within trembled.
“Huh!”
“What was that just now?”
“Some kind of explosion sound…”
Even those continuing their battle, heedless of the blocked passage, hesitated for a moment.
Pitter-patter!
Soon, the warriors felt something falling upon their heads.
“This is…”
Sand.
From the ceiling, from the walls.
Sand suddenly began to fall like a fine drizzle.
And in an instant.
“Ah, ahhhhhhh!”
“There, there! Look there, a crack…!”
Crack! Crackle!
The sound of something splitting echoed through the air.
“The… the ceiling!”
“Run, escape!”
Crrraaash!
The ceiling began to collapse.
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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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