The God of Death and the God of War - Chapter 6
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Evil Hegemon Martial God
Chapter 6
A dark night where clouds devoured the moonlight.
Heavy rain poured down as if holes had been punched in the sky, and fierce storms raged just as violently.
Despite the harsh weather that would keep even wild beasts holed up in their lairs.
Thud-thud-thud-!
A single horse was fearlessly galloping along the rough and steep mountain path.
Was it a wild horse born in the fields?
Or perhaps one that had escaped from a farm?
But it was neither.
A rider sat boldly atop the horse racing through the mountain terrain.
“Hiya, hiya!”
The rider was even spurring the horse onward while climbing the mountain path.
Anyone who saw this would think he was either insane or a criminal fleeing after committing a grave crime.
If not that, no one would commit the suicidal act of racing down mountain paths in a raging storm.
Whinny!
Just then, the running horse let out a groan, seemingly exhausted.
“Whoa, whoa, you’re tired? I know. I understand.”
The rider, Jeok-un, gently stroked the horse’s mane to soothe it.
“Running for two shijin (4 hours) is no easy task, is it? Only someone like you could manage such a thing.”
The horse had good reason to be tired.
As Jeok-un said, it had been running non-stop for nearly four hours.
Right after awakening Tamrang, Jeok-un had immediately snuck out of the family estate.
He had taken with him the Baekwuseon he’d received from the family head and stored in the Inner Sanctum, along with a horse.
It was remarkable that he had successfully breached the security system of the Jegal Family, one of the Seven Great Houses.
‘Before my regression, I even snuck into the Demonic Cult and escaped. This is nothing.’
But Jeok-un didn’t think much of it.
He had awakened the first star of Paecheon-gi, hadn’t he?
This kind of task was easier than eating cold porridge.
‘But that aside…’
Just then, Jeok-un subtly turned his head and glanced at the space between the dense foliage hidden in darkness.
On the surface, it looked like ordinary, unremarkable brush.
‘It seems the old fox’s body has heated up quite a bit.’
Jeok-un had such an incomprehensible thought and turned his gaze forward again.
“Just hold on a little longer. We’re almost there now.”
Then he soothed the horse once more.
But what was remarkable was the horse’s reaction.
As if it understood Jeok-un’s words, it snorted and nodded its head.
Amazingly, even its heavy breathing began to gradually subside.
Clop! Clop!
The horse’s pace, which had been gradually slowing, began to quicken again.
Jeok-un also entrusted himself to the changed flow, beginning to synchronize his breathing with the horse.
Rain-soaked ground, pitch-black visibility, exhaustion from hours of running.
Even under conditions that would make skilled riders hesitate to gallop, he was handling the horse perfectly.
It was horsemanship of perfect unity between man and horse, unaffected by ground conditions, visibility, stamina, or any other factors.
Truly an ability bordering on the miraculous.
However.
Remarkably, throughout his entire life before regression, Jeok-un had never once learned horsemanship from anyone.
‘It came instinctively from the very first day I rode a horse.’
That was right. This was Jeok-un’s innate talent.
Just as a newborn baby breathes naturally without learning how, Jeok-un had been able to handle horses this naturally from the moment he first mounted one.
As if it were carved into his blood, it was based on an inborn sense.
Thud-thud-thud…!
Thus, Jeok-un used this talent inherited through his bloodline.
“Hiya!”
He began pursuing once again the object left behind by his ancient bloodline.
* * *
Hwanggang County, true to its name meaning “Yellow Hill Village,” had many sedimentary areas.
This originated from the river that flowed majestically around Hwanggang County, and like all rivers and mountains, the terrain itself hadn’t changed much from before his regression to now.
‘Fortunately, I should be able to find it quickly.’
Jeok-un smiled inwardly as he surveyed the surroundings.
Conveniently, there was a large tree nearby that could provide shelter from the rain.
“Wait here for just a moment.”
Jeok-un tied the reins to a tree branch, then immediately walked toward the riverside.
Naturally, there was no one around.
In this darkness where moonlight barely shone, one wrong step could mean falling into the river and drowning.
But Jeok-un paid no heed to such concerns and began thoroughly examining the area around the riverbank.
“Hmm, it was definitely around here somewhere.”
Whoooosh-!!
Was it because of the open river?
The storm raged even more fiercely, and the waves rippling on the river responded in kind.
On such foul weather days, it was usually easy to make good money, so there would normally be a ferryman or two around, but even they were absent, which showed just how insane the current weather was.
But even such weather couldn’t stop Jeok-un.
Jeok-un continued searching the riverbank and cliffs while swaying back and forth…
Finally.
“Ah!”
He found the rock he was looking for.
A large reddish-brown rock beside the cliff.
Because of that rock, the people of Hwanggang County called the surrounding cliffs by a different name.
‘Jeokbyeok.’
When one hears Jeokbyeok, it’s easy to think of the Battle of Red Cliffs from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but this wasn’t that Jeokbyeok.
The Jeokbyeok from Romance of the Three Kingdoms was located on the southern shore of the Janggang River that flows north of Puqi County in Hubei Province.
It was much further west than Hwanggang County, and its scale was embarrassingly small compared to the Jeokbyeok where a major naval battle had taken place.
Yet the reason Jeok-un sought out Jeokbyeok was simple.
This Jeokbyeok served as a landmark structure for his ‘search.’
‘Now that I’ve regained my martial arts, I need to recover the divine artifacts as well.’
Before his regression, Jeok-un’s reputation as the supreme master of Sapa wasn’t solely due to his powerful martial arts.
[There are five stars that escort the black sky.]
[Many masters fade away relying on the stars.]
[Ten seats swallow their tears and submit to this.]
[As long as one is with the five stars, who could break the black sky?]
The weapons called Paegunjoshingi, each a peerless armament.
These weapons, each possessing different powers and functions, were not created by Jeok-un.
Just as heavenly punishment was inherited through bloodline, divine artifacts were also passed down through bloodline.
The weapons created by ancestors who inherited the same blood were called Paegunjoshingi.
But there was one fact that no one in the world knew.
There were not five divine weapons but seven, and he had failed to obtain two of them due to poor luck and timing.
‘If I had obtained those two as well, it would have been Cheonma’s head that rolled, not mine.’
Actually, that’s why he initially wanted to go to Ogang first.
The weapon he hadn’t been able to obtain in the past was located there.
However, Ogang’s location is in Henan, while Jegal Sega is in Wuhan.
Since time was far too tight to travel from Wuhan to Henan, he had no choice but to give up reluctantly.
‘Right, everything has its time.’
It would be better to start with what he could recover first.
So let’s not be impatient.
Someday he would obtain everything.
Jeok-un muttered as if consoling himself, and a strange light flashed in his eyes.
“Now then…”
Paegunjoshingi.
No, it was now time to recover the first divine artifact among the items that would be called Paegunjichinggi.
Swoosh-!
As Jeok-un drew the White Feather Fan from his chest.
Wooong-!
The White Feather Fan already began to resonate.
Jeok-un hadn’t done anything.
Befitting an artifact that controlled wind, it began resonating in response to the wildly raging wind energy.
Jeok-un smiled faintly at the sight, then opened Tamrang’s power and began pouring it into the White Feather Fan.
Swaaaa…!
The White Feather Fan possessed the ability to summon wind and rain.
When combined with the power of Tamrang, the star of change that symbolized desire, transformation, and pioneering.
Wooooo…!
That power doubled, and the White Feather Fan’s ability to command wind and control rain was literally maximized.
“I humbly request your assistance, ancestor.”
Jeok-un spoke to Jegal Wiyeon.
As mentioned before, though it was a different Jeokbyeok, he asked him to summon wind just like when his ancestor brought the southeast wind.
‘Come to think of it, I’m borrowing one ancestor’s power to obtain another ancestor’s power.’
From different eras and complete strangers at that.
While finding this situation rather amusing, Jeok-un raised the White Feather Fan high.
Swish!
He swung it down forcefully.
And.
“…”
Nothing happened.
As if its resonating just moments before had been a lie, the White Feather Fan remained quiet.
While one might be flustered by this, Jeok-un’s face showed no concern.
Had he anticipated all of this?
His attitude suggested he had expected this all along, and this attitude was proven correct by a single strand of thin wind that blew shortly after.
Whiiing…!
Could it even lift a strand of fluttering hair?
The wind was so light that one might wonder if this was truly wind created by the White Feather Fan.
Neither scorching hot wind nor flesh-cutting cold wind, but truly an infinitely light and trivial breeze.
However, the path of that wind was by no means light.
‘I’d heard about it, but I didn’t expect it to be this much. What a spectacular sight.’
Others might not know, but Jeok-un, who had directly operated Paecheon-gi, could feel the power contained within that frail wind.
The gentle breeze touched the river’s surface and gradually began penetrating it.
Despite the river water churning with insane storms, overflowing currents, and house-sized waves.
The small wind created by the White Feather Fan began changing its form and shape as if cutting tofu with a knife.
Crashhhh…!
Finally, from the point when its outline became somewhat visible, as if an invisible wall stood there.
The river water began shattering into pieces, crushed against the wall and spilling white foam.
‘I expected the ability to grow since I used Paecheon-gi, but I didn’t think it would be this much.’
Then this was a pleasant surprise.
Jeok-un smiled faintly while watching the scene as if the water current had been carved out by an invisible blade.
Step.
While operating Paecheon-gi, Jeok-un took one step forward.
Then the wall of wind surrounding Jeok-un also advanced one step forward.
If people saw this, they would be shocked.
When storytellers spoke of martial arts masters, they often used examples like ‘stepping on duckweed to walk on water’ or ‘crossing a river on a single reed leaf.’
But who in the world had ever seen someone literally parting a river as they advanced?
Probably ten out of ten would agree that this was a sight they were seeing for the first time in their lives.
However, Jeok-un, who had accomplished such a feat, seemed to feel no emotion whatsoever.
“Shall we go.”
Stepping on the riverbed that had revealed its depths for the first time in thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years, he began advancing without hesitation.
* * *
Shortly after Jeok-un’s figure disappeared.
Rustle!
Not long after, the bushes behind stirred and a man in black night clothes revealed himself.
His tight-fitting night clothes were in a shabby state, soiled with rainwater, mud, fallen leaves, and such.
It couldn’t be helped.
He had been secretly tracking Jeok-un ever since he left the Jegal Family.
Until just moments ago, he had been full of irritation as his target couldn’t even ride a horse and had been using movement techniques.
Drip drop!
But faced with the unprecedented strange sight of the river before his eyes split into two.
‘…What is this?’
Hak-yeong, a first-class assassin of Salak and known as the Life-Stealer, was showing bewilderment.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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