I Became the Namgung Clan’s Omnipotent Item-Powered Martial God - Chapter 48

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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 48
48 – Misalignment
#1
Multiple converging factors had made it possible to prevent the sacrifice of a young life.
Namgung Hwayeon stood with disheveled hair dusted here and there with white powder, staring at her brother with a dazed expression.
The first to arrive was none other than Namgung Yeon.
She hadn’t expected it, if she was honest.
No—even as she detonated that brilliant white sphere, his face hadn’t crossed her mind.
He was the sort of person whose very existence had faded to almost nothing, someone not worth shouldering into the cracks between her thoughts.
And yet, now that he stood before her, Namgung Hwayeon found herself irritated.
“What are you doing here alone? Where are the reinforcements?”
“They’ll be here soon. Where are the pursuers?”
“I don’t know. We just ran for our lives.”
Namgung Yeon turned his head without a word despite his sister’s grumbling.
Gripping the Demon Spirit Sword, he activated his Qi Perception.
His newly awakened Dantian began to work.
Far off, something that resembled tens of thousands of writhing earthworms came into view.
Now that he could perceive what was once invisible, distant enemies became easy to identify.
It was a sensation familiar to him.
He had always tried to reach this state quickly.
‘The early framework is always much the same… but something feels deeply out of alignment.’
As the time required to build a body and stack abilities grew progressively shorter, the variables multiplied in equal measure.
Unease suddenly washed over him.
If variables compounded upon variables until they spiraled beyond his control, would he be able to respond?
Namgung Yeon pressed the anxiety down and took a step toward where the enemies lay.
Ting.
The Demon Spirit Sword chimed, as if to reassure him.
In the darkness, in the grip of silence, a bell’s sound was bound to draw the enemy’s attention.
“Well, they’re coming right to us.”
“We have to run—!”
“Fine. If you won’t help, then stay out of the way.”
There was something he wanted very much to tell her.
Which meant she could not be injured or die here.
He thought it best to plant a deep impression on her beforehand.
She was, after all, a creature of perpetual change.
“Have you lost your mind? You’ve barely gotten out of bed, and these men have killed instructors—how can you—?”
“Sister.”
Shhhhring.
The Demon Spirit Sword sang a chilling note as it drew forth.
The blade, catching the faint light of dawn, gleamed with a soft blue radiance.
Namgung Yeon spoke to his sister, though whether with concern, complaint, or pity, even he could not quite say.
“There’s no need to burden yourself with guilt.”
……
“You made the best choice you could. Didn’t you?”
Before Namgung Hwayeon could answer, figures emerged from the brush.
Things that defied categorization as either monster or man appeared, each radiating a thick, suffocating killing intent.
“There you are, you vermin.”
“What, you want a fight?”
“Hehehehe… I’ll cut off your limbs first, then give you a real show.”
Sickening words spilled from the Demon-Humans.
Namgung Yeon studied their faces and tilted his head.
These creatures… here? Now?
“I’ll beat the answer out of a few of them.”
Questions demanded answers.
It had always been this way, and no method proved more effective.
Why they were here.
Why the attack had come so soon.
Now it was time to learn what had befallen his enemies.
#2
Park Manho wandered alone across the rooftops of Hapbi.
For a first-rate martial artist like him, this task was child’s play.
By now, surely the young master was safe.
He ground his teeth and drove his feet harder against the rooftop.
Crack!
The sound of tiles shattering reached his ears, but he paid it no mind.
Park Manho was caught in a tempest of emotion so vast it consumed him entirely.
And every gust of that storm carried darkness.
“Worthless bastards.”
Why was he running alone?
Because the instructors had ignored his pleas.
No matter what he said, it fell on deaf ears.
Why?
Bound by clan regulations.
Or more precisely, afraid of discipline.
Afraid it might derail their promotions.
For such petty reasons, the instructors had refused to move.
‘We’re supposed to go? And if another crisis erupts here while we’re gone?’
‘If we leave only skeleton crews, the higher-ups will have our heads. Things are already tense enough as it is.’
‘Who bears the responsibility? We’re already marked as persons of concern.’
It was shameful to work alongside such men.
Men like Byeok Changho—utterly unreasonable.
Rather than waste time persuading them, he’d decided it was better to lend a hand himself.
Behind him as he ran, the mocking laughter of the instructors still seemed to echo.
‘They clearly know trouble has struck. So why do they refuse to act?’
Were they not family?
Beneath the name of the Namgung Clan, shouldn’t everyone move as one?
At least those bearing the Namgung name should stand together to protect the clan’s heirs from death or injury.
But the instructors of the third division were different.
Since Ma Cheolwi’s death, they’d become cautious to the point of paralysis, unwilling to take responsibility for anything.
They even treated Manho as if he were the strange one.
‘The fourth young master has caught his eye, it seems. How fortunate for him.’
‘In any case, we’re the ones who assign the marks.’
‘So this opportunity…’
He couldn’t forget that murmured conversation.
Nor the petulant groans about being woken from sleep.
Disgust threatened to choke him.
Demon-Humans were running rampant, and now enemies were drawing daggers even within the great walls of the city.
Yet they fretted only about their own safety.
When Manho entered the Namgung Clan, he had sworn before its sacred law.
To protect the weak and defend family.
To glorify the Namgung name and bear its honor as a lifelong burden.
That was the vow he had made.
‘Where have those oaths gone?’
He’d believed he’d carried them deep in his heart all these years.
But it seemed only he had held them—and the hollow realization crashed over him.
What if someone from the direct line of the Namgung Clan perished because of their inaction?
They would simply claim they’d been managing the third division students and wash their hands of it.
Despite knowing full well what was happening.
“I will not do such a thing.”
No doubt Namgung Yeon had thrown himself into danger with the same resolve.
Since he’d chosen to follow him, Manho would embrace the same belief.
Sunlight had begun to paint the city.
Would the young master truly be unharmed?
Manho sensed it in the distance—a thick, clinging Demonic Aura rising from within the forest.
Their numbers were significant, but if he arrived, they posed no real threat.
Then Namgung Yeon’s words came back to him.
‘Perhaps only your swift arrival can protect my sister.’
What had he meant by that?
Seized by an ominous feeling, Manho released his True Qi to its limit and unleashed his Lightness Skill.
#3
Namgung Hwayeon couldn’t suppress her shock.
She’d heard the rumors.
That he’d subdued Namgung Hwi, one of the more capable participants in the mock battle.
Was it mere luck?
Or was this truly the blossoming of his talent?
Relief washed through her, but so did worry—and nestled between them, a cool analytical instinct awakened: perhaps she could finally discern Namgung Yeon’s true measure.
Even as death hovered uncertain over them all, her nature pressed forward undeterred.
‘What in the world is this? A prodigy?’
Each time Namgung Yeon’s blade flashed, another Demon-Human crumpled to the earth.
His swordsmanship was something she herself knew well.
As a direct descendant of the family head, she had learned the forms from childhood.
The Daeyeon Swordsmanship.
Yet his mastery and understanding of it defied all reason.
Evade, then cut.
Namgung Yeon infused that simple principle with a seasoned grace.
His positioning was as if he could glimpse the future several seconds ahead.
Military treatises speak of such matters.
Victorious soldiers secure victory first, then seek battle.

The soldier who triumphs first creates the conditions for victory, then enters the fray.
Following the subtle wisdom of such tactics, Namgung Yeon had already positioned himself where enemy strikes could not find him, yet his own blade found an escape-proof angle.
The reason this was possible was remarkably simple.
He could perceive with both eyes the Qi that Demon-Humans could not see.
To see Qi with one’s eyes was to see the path itself.
If one knew in advance the direction the enemy intended to move, countering became trivial.
“Aaarrrghhh!”
“Brother, be careful! Those creatures—!”
They fell.
The space around Namgung Yeon was already thick with Demon-Human corpses.
Then, a critical realization struck Namgung Hwayeon, and she rushed to convey the fatal truth.
Killing them didn’t mean everything was finished.
“You arrogant fool! You’ve walked right into it!”
Boom!
In an instant, a tremendous explosion erupted.
Earth and dust were thrown skyward, a detonation so violent the world itself seemed to ring deaf.
Seasoned instructors had all fallen to such an attack.
Shredded flesh became whips that tore skin from bone.
Fragmented bone became deadly projectiles that pierced through warriors’ bodies.
Those whose hearts, throats, and organs were pierced died screaming in agony. Namgung Hwayeon tumbled across the ground in the blast’s wake before finally clawing her way upright.
“Are you unharmed, Lady Hwayeon?”
“… And you are?”
“I am Park Manho, guardian to Young Master Namgung Yeon.”
Park Manho.
Without his intervention, her body too would have been torn to tatters and splinters.
She rose shakily, her voice urgent.
This was no moment to take stock of her own injuries.
“My brother—where is he?”
“He will be fine.”
He had to be.
He simply had to be, or all the distance she had run with bleeding feet meant nothing.
‘Please, let him be safe.’
The blast’s roar had reached not just her ears but her very heart.
Could anyone have survived in that maelstrom?
As their fear hung heavy, the thick smoke began to clear.
And what emerged was rather astonishing.
“How is it…?”
“How is it that only one of them exploded?”
There stood Namgung Yeon, having severed a surviving Demon-Human’s shoulder blade clean away.
And beside him, another Demon-Human, its expression one of disbelief.
The corpses on the ground remained intact, not detonated at all.
Why……?
Ting.
The Demon Spirit Sword rang out with a clear, satisfied chime.
Namgung Hwayeon could see her brother’s profile.
What she beheld was——
“Hah…….”
Namgung Yeon, whose face had become even more demonic than any Demon-Human.
Within his hollow, vacant eyes, a blue ghostly light bloomed.
His face bore a ghastly smile, his gaze never wavering, never blinking.
Could this truly be a member of the Namgung Clan, the pillar of the Orthodox Martial Realm?
‘A monster…….’
Within Namgung Hwayeon’s young heart, one emotion took root.
The name of that emotion was fear.
A darkness that threatened her very survival — viscous and suffocating as a swamp.
Namgung Yeon, who had survived that brutally catastrophic explosion.
He scattered something upon the figure bleeding profusely before him, and whispered.
Very slowly.
With contempt in his voice.
“So then…… shall we hear why the Gwangma Order has already begun to move?”
Zzzzzzzzzt-!
The violent sound of a wound being forcibly cauterized echoed out.
The price of intrusion would be no small matter.
At minimum, for each life that fell, precious information must be wrung out.
Namgung Yeon smiled with rapture, like a starving man who had discovered meat.

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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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