I Became the Namgung Clan’s Omnipotent Item-Powered Martial God - Chapter 37

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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 37
Chapter 37 – We Have Grown
#1
To be honest, I was quite surprised.
The match was over in an instant, and the opponent’s opening gaped so wide it was impossible to miss.
As he stared blankly at me, I saw my old self reflected in his eyes.
So this is how I used to look at Namgung Yeon, the rising star.
Now I understood why Father was disappointed.
At the same time, a feeling bloomed softly in my mind.
‘Is this what real victory feels like? What true accomplishment tastes like? I’ve never felt this before…….’
My entire life had been nothing but winning.
Born into the Namgung Clan’s later generation—blessed with talent, born with privilege.
So Namgung Jinjin had drifted through life winning naturally, effortlessly.
People feel no thrill from what they’ve grown accustomed to.
For me, victory had always been like the air I breathed—always there, unremarkable.
The first time it left me was when I lost to Namgung Yeon.
That was also when I realized I had been living a life of comfort.
The various advantages my father, Baekryong Daeju, had given me.
The things I shared by walking alongside Namgung Jin, the Gaju’s son…….
‘In the end, I had achieved nothing on my own.’
But now was different.
This tingling sensation I was tasting for the first time.
The smile that kept tugging at the corners of my mouth.
Something refreshing seemed to wash away all the stale emotions, from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes.
Namgung Jinjin lowered his sword and quietly cupped his fist.
As everyone sat stunned, Chonggyo Du’s voice rang out, low and commanding.
“Team 3, Namgung Jinjin—victory!”
Roaaaar!
The team members erupted in cheers.
Namgung Jinjin turned with a smile.
The first thing he saw was his father.
The look of surprise on his face.
Somehow, it no longer seemed so towering.
Always before, he had loomed like a great tiger, impossibly vast…….
Namgung Jinjin recalled what his Team Leader, Namgung Yeon, had said.
‘So this is what he meant by having to stand alone.’
Until now, I had only lived beneath Father’s shadow, beside my powerful friend’s side.
My vision of the world itself had been narrow.
Namgung Jinjin descended from the Bimu Platform carrying these small revelations with him.
“You did well. Better than I expected.”
“It’s thanks to the Team Leader.”
“Now, shall we send out the ruffian?”
“Who’s a ruffian? I trained plenty hard too, you know?”
Everyone had changed since being with Namgung Yeon.
Their martial arts had improved, and they had been refined as people.
Yet Yi Hyeon’s reckless manner of speaking remained exactly as it was.
And strangely, he looked after sensitive souls like Hoho and Se Un with surprising care.
‘Like a neighborhood gang leader, sort of.’
Yi Hyeon spun the sword he’d received from Se Un in circles, grinning like a mischievous boy.
Then he said to Namgung Se Un,
“I’m going to tell everyone in the clan how amazing your sword is!”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Ha! They’re going to be shocked!”
“……I said you don’t need to.”
Namgung Se Un spoke with discomfort, but Yi Hyeon didn’t seem to be listening.
Second position.
Having crushed the enemy’s spirit, we should send out our most relentless fighter to flatten them completely.
Namgung Yeon’s eyes gleamed.
Team 3 would become the Namgung Clan’s strongest pillar.
Watch us grow.
#2
Yi Hyeon dropped his opponent in a heartbeat.
He seemed to toy with them almost gently, as though calculated to shatter their will to fight entirely.
The reason for this transformation was remarkably simple.
Namgung Yeon had sparred with him several times, and Yi Hyeon had once mentioned receiving a profound impression from those matches.
The process of thoroughly toying with an opponent while breaking their fighting spirit.
To master that art, Yi Hyeon had to endure training more brutal than anyone else’s.
“Phew! What do you think! This is all about the difference a Team Leader makes, isn’t it?”
……
“You should have learned it properly, you fool. Properly.”
Having even mastered the skill of grating an opponent’s nerves, from their perspective his pride wouldn’t merely be wounded—it would be obliterated.
Chonggyo Du’s voice rang out.
Everyone was forced to claim their victory in silence.
Not knowing what taste had entered their mouths.
“Well done.”
“I learned from the best.”
Namgung Yeon gave his shoulder a reassuring pat.
Yi Hyeon grinned widely and returned to his seat with a swagger.
Though he had not been born bearing the Namgung name, his bearing was worthy of the clan’s very laws.
The eyes of the elders, the sect masters, the former masters, and the executives gleamed with interest.
‘So that was Yi Hyeon.’
‘Useful. No—more than merely useful. He was nothing but a ruffian before, so how did he come to this?’
They had not remembered his name.
But they could certainly remember his bearing, his movements, his general appearance.
With the rough look of a street thug now paired with genuine skill, he had returned as an opponent radiating killing intent.
What had these children endured?
How had they grown so rapidly?
All eyes naturally turned toward the figure standing with arms folded, surveying the Bimu Platform with cold clarity.
Namgung Yeon.
All training occurred under the Team Leader’s supervision.
The instructors merely watched; it fell to the Team Leader to manage the schedule.
Which meant……
‘His skill at developing warriors seems superior to Chonggyo Du’s.’
‘He’d do excellently even if appointed to lead the martial academy.’
Namgung Yeon was already proving his capability.
Yet the atmosphere of refusal to acknowledge him persisted.
Namgung Hui, the Team Leader of Team 7, was the most glaring example.
“Idiotic bastards…… Can’t you beat even one of them?”
……
“Fine. Those people were already talented anyway. They must have picked things up watching and learning from my brother.”
They wanted to say it wasn’t so, but they could not open their mouths.
Namgung Hui.
This small tyrant would not permit it.
Namgung Hui selected his next Team Member—the most skilled one available.
This could not continue.
If they were to master the Namgung Clan’s Intermediate Martial Arts, they absolutely had to secure at least one victory.
And if they had the trump card he had prepared……
“Consume that.”
“That would be……?”
“What you received from your maternal uncle, remember?”
“Really—is that permitted?”
“If you want to lose pathetically, then don’t. But if that happens, I’ll slit the throat of any weakling bearing the Namgung name myself.”
……
A tyrant through and through.
Namgung Hui’s words were thick with greed.
The hunger to climb higher.
The pure hunger to break his brother, his sister, and ultimately even the Gaju himself, Namgung Mu.
Consumed by that hunger, the small boy carried an ego bloated far beyond his frame.
And that swollen ego, devouring everything around it, had chosen to actively exploit backing and support.
He had sought out someone from the Sacheon Tang Clan and obtained a secret weapon from them.
“Backing… well. Father was already stirring up something interesting anyway.”
“Namgung Yeon, wasn’t it? My nephew. I’ll need to be careful with him. If this plays out right, it could make for quite a spectacle.”
What he received was a secret elixir of the Sacheon Tang Clan.
In a flash, it smoothed the flow of True Qi; in an instant, it sharpened focus.
And with heightened concentration came an advantage in short, decisive bouts.
It dispersed through the breath, and when its efficacy faded, exhaustion was the only real drawback—side effects were nearly nonexistent.
Hwalmyeong Bidan.
(活明砒團)
It was one of the battle supplies the Tang Clan operatives favored in actual fieldwork.
The fact that it saw real combat use was verification enough.
It was far beyond what a mere trainee could be expected to handle.
Victory was guaranteed.
Namgung Hui’s eyes blazed with longing for triumph.
No—hunger would be the truer word.
It seemed so far away, so impossibly distant, that his desire for it clawed and gnawed at him without mercy.
‘I can’t lose to that muddled fool. Not even to someone like him—’
Clink.
The next trainee to step forward consumed the Hwalmyeong Bidan.
Since it was done in secret, they believed no one would notice.
Unaware that several pairs of eyes had turned to look at them.
#3
When martial artists spoke of Inner Force, they meant something dormant within, yet it could betray itself to the outside world.
There were several telltale points, and one of them was when Inner Force capacity surged from external augmentation.
Like now.
“Hoho.”
“Yes? Yes!”
“You go next.”
“M-me…?”
Hoho pointed at herself with a finger, questioning. Namgung Yeon simply nodded in reply.
Then he slipped something into her hand.
If they were going to play dirty, then he would answer in kind.
In his palm lay Gongcheong Yu.
The third contestant from Team 7 had already shown a drastic surge in Inner Force.
It was only temporary, but that window would be more than enough to secure victory in the Martial Competition.
‘Then we answer blow for blow.’
Namgung Yeon wanted absolute victory.
Let others commit fraud if they would, but shouldn’t we fight with honor?
He’d already tried that road, exhausted it, and felt acutely how futile it was.
The world was not a place overflowing with romance.
It was cruel, merciless, and cared only for results.
If the opponent played dirty, you played dirtier still—and made sure no one could see the seams.
This was the strategy Namgung Yeon had adopted to change his future.
Evil answered with greater evil.
Cheating answered with more cunning cheating.
The fervor of finality had rendered his heart all the more clear and composed.
If he could only snap this wretched chain, Namgung Yeon was prepared to laugh and leap into the inferno itself.
“Drink this cup before you go in.”
“Shouldn’t I say something confident like ‘I’ll be back before it gets cold’?”
“If you don’t want to lose before it cools, drink up and get going.”
“…Yes.”
Hoho drank down a cup of Gongcheong Yu in silence and climbed onto the Bimu Platform.
Where Hwalmyeong Bidan pursued explosive enhancement of Inner Force, Gongcheong Yu was a far more insidious elixir.
Less explosive, but stubborn and relentless—a slow, steady burn.
‘By the time you’re exhausted, you’ll kneel before the janitor you scorned so utterly.’
However meager her strength seemed now, Hoho was the greatest warrior of her generation.
That truth had never changed from the day Namgung Yeon was worthless until this very moment.
History had shifted countless times.
Through endless days of dread over what might change, the rope between them had never once frayed.
“Go now. Endure with that stubbornness of yours and come back.”
“Phew… I understand. Surely you’re not planning to kill me.”
“Right. There’s nothing left to lose anyway, is there?”
“Wow, that was a bit much just now.”
Her nerves had loosened somewhat, and Hoho climbed onto the Bimu Platform, gripping the Cheonggang Sword that Se Un had forged for her.
Her heart hammered against her ribs, yet her spirit was always poised as though standing at the edge of a cliff.
‘If I lose here, I won’t be able to face Young Master again.’
So even in defeat, she would not fall shamefully.
She held no illusion of victory.
Hoho knew her place well.
As Namgung Yeon had said, she would endure to the bitter end.
As Hoho ascended, the student from Team 7 furrowed his brow.
Each bearing their own reasons, the Martial Competition continued.

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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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