Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 97

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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 97
“The tea here has quite an exquisite flavor. They say Saheongang has tea leaves that can only be found there, and it seems to be true.”
“To be honest, I prefer alcohol to tea.”
“Is that so? Do you have a particular spirit you favor?”
“Any strong liquor will do, I suppose. Though if I had a choice, expensive spirits are always preferable.”
Dokgo Gun’s lips curved into a subtle smile.
“Fine spirits always have their reasons. Visit the Smoke and Ash Pavilion sometime. I’ll treat you to a bottle of exceptional liquor.”
“Well, that sounds wonderful.”
Dokgo Myeong laughed naturally, his eyes sweeping over Dokgo Gun from head to toe.
‘I knew someone from the outer branch would come, but I never expected it to be him.’
Dokgo Gun.
One of the Twin Dragons of Dokgo—the eldest grandson of the Sword Saint Dokgo Cheon—and a renowned swordsman known throughout Gangho as the Sword Dragon.
“So then.”
Dokgo Myeong set down his teacup.
“You came all this way just to discuss tea and spirits?”
“Yes.”
“…?”
“I have no particular business. It matters little what we discuss.”
Dokgo Gun set down his teacup.
Every movement—the way he gathered his robes, the way he lowered his cup—was restrained and measured. He was a man who seemed as though he would not even breathe or blink carelessly.
“I simply wished to face you directly like this, once.”
“Is that truly all?”
“What seems strange about it?”
“If it were me, I would have wanted to broach a more substantial topic. Would you not?”
Dokgo Myeong stared directly at Dokgo Gun.
“Do not be so wary. Nothing will change between us regardless.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are merely the leader of a minor faction that has just acquired a few insignificant sect branches.”
His smile remained unchanged.
With that smile, he drew a clear line between the weak and the strong.
The corner of Dokgo Myeong’s eye twitched slightly.
“Yet you couldn’t handle that minor faction and got stabbed in the back. How do you say such things?”
“Because I was not there at the time.”
“What?”
“And if the Main Sect had targeted them from the beginning, would they have been taken from you?”
Dokgo Myeong let out a short laugh.
“The barking of a defeated dog is nothing but hollow noise.”
“…”
“Or would you like to try taking them back right now?”
Dokgo Gun’s mouth fell silent.
Dokgo Gun, who had been fidgeting with his teacup with an inscrutable expression, curved his lips into a subtle smile.
Dokgo Gun shook his head.
“Let’s stop this. I said from the beginning—I didn’t come here for this.”
“Very well. I have no headaches about it, so it suits me fine.”
Dokgo Myeong, who had been responding listlessly, suddenly thrust his face forward.
“So? You wanted to meet face to face, and now we have. Why don’t you share your impressions?”
“Impressions, you say.”
….
“You seem to be the most rational thinker I’ve ever encountered.”
Dokgo Myeong tilted his head.
“Rational? I think you’re mistaken about me, sir.”
“Am I?”
Dokgo Gun let out a laugh.
“You merely appear emotional on the surface, but you never move without calculating the odds. Your thinking is closer to that of a soldier than a martial artist, wouldn’t you agree?”
“I appreciate the compliment.”
“Yet despite being so calculating, there are moments you act with more emotion than anyone else—moments that make no sense. I still can’t quite understand why.”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes narrowed.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You wouldn’t know, but I’ve been watching you for quite some time.”
Dokgo Gun shifted his posture.
Even as he raised his arm to rest his chin, his gaze remained fixed upon me.
“Muhakbu, your martial contest with Dokgo Ak, Geumsan Sect, the Law Enforcement Bureau, the Jeongcheon Alliance leading to Zhejiang, the Guhua Blood Fiends, rooting out traitors, and now this. You’ve made choices that defy understanding more than once.”
“Choices that defy understanding?”
“For instance, putting Ak-i forward to confront the Paedo Sect Leader directly. Couldn’t you have handled it easily yourself?”
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes sharpened.
He was speaking of a matter I had so naturally buried.
“That was a matter of me cleaning up after Ak-i’s mistake, sir.”
“Ah, so that’s how it was recorded. Then what about this?”
Dokgo Gun let out a thin laugh.
“I hear you personally went to the prison and interrogated a prisoner.”
“Is that unusual?”
“Of course not. Though the Jipbeop-bu Leader, who has seen everything, wouldn’t have raised his voice about the prisoner’s condition had you not interrogated him.”
….
“And regarding the Guhua Blood Fiends matter—that woman you captured alive was suddenly omitted from the report on her way back to the family, I hear?”
Dokgo Myeong faltered.
It was about Gi Sohwa, who had been a pawn of the Jeongheol Demon Cult.
“And then, at an empty manor not far from the Main Sect, screams were suddenly heard and blood traces discovered, prompting the magistrate to send constables. Quite the incident.”
Silence flowed between them.
Dokgo Myeong let out a soft laugh.
“So, now that you’ve met me directly, have you resolved those things you couldn’t understand?”
“No, if anything, I’m falling deeper into a maze. I suspect I won’t understand even in the future.”
Dokgo Gun smiled, letting out a soft hum.
“That’s precisely why I feel our minds might resonate quite well.”
“Given how differently I think from you, I doubt that would be the case.”
Dokgo Gun offered only his characteristic smile in response.
Dokgo Gun slowly adjusted his appearance and rose from his seat.
“Since you seem to find me troublesome, I shall take my leave.”
“Before that, allow me a moment of rudeness.”
“Hmm?”
The instant Dokgo Gun turned his head.
Whoosh!
Dokgo Myeong’s fist materialized before his eyes.
* * *
Dokgo Gun deflected the incoming fist with his palm, utterly unperturbed.
Swish! Thud!
Dokgo Myeong immediately released his fist and pushed against Dokgo Gun’s palm where they met.
Dokgo Gun’s expression hardened slightly.
Swish! Thud! Crack!
When he tried to seize, I pushed back; when he pushed, I redirected. I reversed that redirecting force and pushed again.
Dokgo Gun and Dokgo Myeong’s right hands remained locked in midair like a pair of intertwined serpents.
‘So, he still cannot reveal his true nature at this level.’
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes blazed with brilliant blue light.
My upper dantian was stimulated through sensory channels, seeking to read Dokgo Gun’s foundation.
‘Speak the truth.’
Dokgo Myeong exhaled sharply.
‘Dokgo Gun. Could you possibly be a member of the Twin Demon Alliance?’
That was the moment.
Whiiiiiing!
Dokgo Myeong suddenly surged with qi, brutally seizing Dokgo Gun’s wrist.
“…!”
The corners of Dokgo Gun’s eyes twitched with tension.
Dokgo Gun immediately unleashed his inner power.
Crash! Whoooosh!
A whirlwind erupted around the two of them.
To any observer, Dokgo Gun’s qi was deeper and more formidable. Yet he could not completely repel Hongcheon Gi’s penetrating assault.
It was due to the purity of the qi.
Though Dokgo Gun’s inner power was exceptional for a descendant of a Noble Family, it could not compare to Dokgo Myeong’s.
A purity capable of blocking several times its own force with merely a handful of strength.
Dokgo Myeong’s result—refined through blood-coughing effort, whittled down again and again—had overcome the absolute difference in quantity.
“….”
Dokgo Gun’s expression hardened completely. He had instinctively grasped that this was no simple contest of strength to be ended easily.
In that instant, Dokgo Gun’s technique shifted.
‘What is this?’
Between the two vital energies maintaining perfect equilibrium.
A foreign strand of vital energy burrowed through.
‘…!’
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes widened sharply.
BOOM!
With a deafening explosion, both men were simultaneously driven backward, their feet scraping the ground.
As the raging gale subsided, papers and dust that had been swirling through the air fell to the floor with a soft pattering sound.
“Cough!”
Dokgo Myeong spat blood, his complexion turning slightly pale.
Dokgo Gun observed him quietly.
Silence hung in the air.
Dokgo Gun opened his mouth with a subtle smile.
“Have you seen enough?”
Dokgo Myeong wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and spoke.
“Sufficiently.”
“Then I’m at a loss. I saw nothing from you today.”
“I believe I’ve paid the price for observing you one-sidedly until now.”
“Hmm, very well. Let us settle it at that.”
Dokgo Gun lowered his hand with a meaningful smile.
Or rather, he began to lower it, then paused and turned his gaze to his own wrist.
Throb!
The wrist he had been gripping was swelling progressively.
It was a masterfully subtle infiltration. A mere speck of vital energy was rampaging wildly, burrowing in to destroy his meridians.
Dokgo Gun’s eyes curved into crescents.
“I shall take my leave. See me out.”
“Please go.”
Dokgo Myeong silently escorted Dokgo Gun as he departed from Saheongang.
Just before stepping beyond the main gate, Dokgo Gun turned around and spoke.
“Dokgo Myeong.”
“….”
“I am not one who creates enemies. Whether in business or politics, it matters not. The moment I call someone an enemy, they truly become one.”
Dokgo Gun regarded Dokgo Myeong with unwavering eyes, speaking with sincerity.
“So do not harbor such hostility. I believe you and I can forge a good relationship going forward.”
“I see no harm in that.”
“Then I am relieved.”
“However.”
Dokgo Myeong fixed his gaze directly upon Dokgo Gun.
“Is not making enemies any different from not making allies either?”
In that instant, Dokgo Gun’s mouth snapped shut.
The faint smile that had lingered on Dokgo Gun’s face throughout vanished, if only for a moment.
“…You truly are entertaining.”
His voice was as cold as his expression.
Yet the expressionless face and frigid atmosphere lasted only a heartbeat. Soon he turned with a mysterious smile playing at his lips.
“This should suffice. No need to venture further.”
Dokgo Gun walked away with leisurely steps.
Dokgo Myeong watched his retreating figure and muttered to himself.
“…It’s not the Twin Demon Alliance.”
The mysterious energy differed from the Eight Divine Techniques of the Main Sect, yet its sensation was distinct from the blood arts of the Twin Demon Alliance.
‘Then what is it?’
Dokgo Myeong’s eyes grew sharp and focused.
* * *
An unexpected peace descended upon the Dokgo Family.
Yet everyone knew this peace would not last long. This silence was unmistakably the calm before the storm.
And contrary to all expectations, the storm erupted not from within, but from without.
Son Tae-im and Dokgo Jo-hak gathered at Saheongang.
Dokgo Jo-hak spoke first in an even tone.
“The Paedo Sect has made its move.”
“What?”
“Two vassal families and one branch estate—though distantly related—have been completely destroyed.”
Vassal families and branch estates were comparable to the affiliated sects of the Nine Schools.
Thus, Dokgo Myeong found himself muttering without thinking.
“Has Wi Mu-jin finally lost his mind?”
The Paedo Sect had recently begun clashing with the Heavenly Assembly. To create conflict with the Dokgo Family on top of that could only be the worst of strategies.
Dokgo Jo-hak let out a scoff.
“A rogue minion of the Black Path Sect who ran amok in the capital—his mind was never sound to begin with.”
“…”
“…”
Dokgo Jo-hak’s expression hardened.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Well, it’s just… a few days ago you were locked in your room drowning in wine, and now you’re saying such things…?”
Dokgo Jo-hak glared at Dokgo Myeong.
‘Whose side is this bastard on?’
First cursing this one and that one as mad, and now this.
Dokgo Myeong wiped the smirk from his face and asked.
“So, how does the Main Sect intend to respond?”
“It appears they will do nothing.”
“What?”

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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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