I Became the Namgung Clan’s Omnipotent Item-Powered Martial God - Chapter 85

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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 85
Chapter 85 – An Old Friend
#1
The deeper a place needed to store vast quantities of goods, the wider and more cavernous its underground storage tended to become.
Hwanghakmnu was known for receiving the finest Ingredients and serving the most exquisite dishes.
This underground storage could be said to be the beginning of that entire process.
Naturally, strict discipline and hierarchy existed even within the storage itself.
If someone saw it, they might ask what rank and order mattered in a mere underground storage.
Perhaps that was precisely where excellence separated itself from the ordinary.
“Move carefully, quickly now!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Those Ingredients are worth more than your lives. You must not drop them under any circumstance.”
Watchful eyes gleaming with menace.
Boys and girls scurrying between them.
The moment one stumbled or misstepped, they would be beaten and cast out on the spot.
But if they persevered here long enough, a generous wage and a lifetime of security awaited them.
‘Hwanghakmnu is the finest training ground… There he is.’
Namgung Yeon had arrived at this place and cast his eyes about.
Nothing here had changed.
Changcheonnu was much the same.
No—if anything, Changcheonnu operated under even stricter discipline.
It constantly competed with Hwanghakmnu for supremacy among the great establishments.
“Which one would you prefer, sir?”
“That boy there will do nicely.”
The Storage Manager heard the news and asked Namgung Yeon.
Namgung Yeon raised his finger, pointing to a boy.
The Storage Manager, seeing the boy he’d indicated, looked puzzled.
“He looks terribly thin, sir… as for serving meals…”
“That’s fine. His frame is sturdy and his eyes are sharp.”
Thinness is nothing—feed him well enough and it will remedy itself.
Namgung Yeon made this remark without hesitation, words that could easily be misheard as ‘Hwanghakmnu exploits children.’
The Storage Manager, who had been standing quietly, nodded readily.
Yes, that one stands out in my memory.
One day he came asking to be taken in.
A scarred wolf with a predatory gaze… no, more like a small tiger.
A child who seemed frail yet worked tirelessly when given a task.
‘Perhaps I discovered his talent then.’
The Storage Manager decided to himself and called the boy over.
“You, Han Lim. Come here.”
“…”
The boy did not answer.
But he glanced at Namgung Yeon and the Storage Manager once, then approached without a word.
The look in his eyes as he regarded Namgung Yeon was peculiar.
The marking of ‘Namgung’ carved into his chest.
The pupils of the boy called Han Lim lingered there for a moment, then turned toward the Storage Manager’s face.
What came next was enough to darken the boy’s expression.
“From now on, you will follow this young master. You are to become one of the Namgung Clan.”
“…”
“What, you don’t like it?”
The Storage Manager asked again, seeing the boy’s darkened face.
The answer that came from Han Lim was cold.
“…I don’t like it.”
“It matters not whether you like it. No arguments—come along.”
Only, Namgung Yeon was not as soft a person as Han Lim might have thought.
Namgung Yeon walked forward without turning back.
The Storage Manager watched Namgung Yeon go, then let out a soft laugh.
“That young master is a formidable one. You’d best follow quickly.”
“…”
Who knew.
Perhaps a new life awaited him in that direction.
The Storage Manager left those words behind and vanished without a trace.
……
Han Lim, who had been watching Namgung Yeon’s back for a moment, carefully followed after him.
In the meantime, the Eun Wol Trading Company had completed their transactions for the specialty goods produced in Muhan and loaded everything aboard the ship.
Now all that remained was to sail back to Anhui.
“Group Three, we’re halfway through the mission now. Let’s head back—everyone aboard.”
“Yes!”
Under Gwang Min’s direction, they were able to board the ship once more.
Everything they had seen, heard, and experienced here would become the foundation for their important growth.
Before long, he turned back with a bright face, and as he watched them working diligently to help, he broke into a satisfied smile.
“……What’s there to be so pleased about.”
“You talking about me?”
……
And from the boy standing quietly at the rear came a muttering voice.
Namgung Yeon turned his head to look at the boy.
Somehow, that rough edge had never changed.
No matter which time they met, the first encounter was always like this.
Namgung Yeon let out a soft chuckle and opened his mouth.
The last one.
This was the final chance, so there was no need to probe or hold back.
He would not come to understand his heart gradually.
Because…… he had already waited far too long.
“I understand why you resent the young masters of the great martial families, Jegal Moonlim.”
……
The boy’s eyes trembled finely.
Yet Namgung Yeon’s gaze remained steady, looking straight at him without betraying his emotions.
Your talent is desperately needed in this Martial Realm.
So become my friend once more.
“I won’t ask about your past. But if you wish to begin a new life, it would be best to walk that path with me.”
“You did that on pur—!”
“That’s right. I genuinely need the talent you possess.”
Jegal Moonlim.
An illegitimate son of the Jegal Family Head.
A child born by accident, forever treated as invisible—a man of misfortune.
Yet his talent alone shone brighter than anyone else’s, and he had bloomed into flower all too quickly.
“In Namgung…… no, I do not envy your talent.”
What he had obsessed over was a Secret Teaching, a Forbidden Technique, something that defied the will of heaven.
The greatest secret of the Jegal Family—the very foundation that had once allowed the Miraculous Jegal to produce the greatest master under heaven.
And so, he had been wrongly accused.
“Whatever research you conduct, I will not persecute you for it.”
……
For Jegal Moonlim, this was sudden.
When did you ever see me……
But the words Namgung Yeon had thrust upon him without hesitation all caressed his past.
Like siblings.
And he received comfort and encouragement that he had never received from any family.
“I will let you do as you wish—your research, your broken Dantian, everything.”
“You’re not trying to sell me off?”
“If I were, I would have sent word to the Jegal Family first.”
His guard had not yet been lowered.
But now, at least, he seemed willing to hold a conversation.
Time was running short.
His stalled talent and broken body had to be restored to normal as soon as possible.
“I too was bedridden. For ten years.”
……
“But now I am moving toward becoming a Small Household Lord. What about you?”
Namgung Yeon’s question struck a deep chord in Jegal Moonlim, who was a fugitive.
Though their circumstances differed in the details, he too was pressing forward through hardship just the same.
“The Seven Star Gold Forbidden Array.”
And from his lips spilled the name of the forbidden formation technique.
Namgung Yeon looked directly at Jegal Moonlim and spoke plainly.
“Whether it’s a hundred thousand taels or two hundred thousand, I will provide the funds. So make certain you see it through to completion.”
Jegal Moonlim’s fists tightened.
Until now, no one had ever supported his research.
Not a single soul.
No one had ever agreed with the idea of restoring that monster-like array to its original form.

The memory of that time surfaced in Jegal Moonlim’s mind.
He looked at the young master of the Namgung Clan—a man taller and far more powerfully built than himself—and asked.
“Then what will you do later if the Jegal Family demands the secrets of the array and my person?”
“The Namgung Clan does not carelessly surrender what belongs to it. And they certainly do not allow themselves to be robbed.”
The reason the Namgung Clan was called the mightiest.
The reason they could suppress the Peng Family and reign as overlords of the Martial Realm.
It was because of the supreme law of the Namgung Clan.
Even among the Five Great Clans of the Martial Realm, there was no exception.
“Those who seek to steal what belongs to another receive punishment from the Namgung Clan.”
With those words, Namgung Yeon boarded the vessel.
The time of departure was nearly at hand.
Jegal Moonlim felt it instinctively.
The moment he set foot on that ship, his wretched life would be transformed utterly.
“Exhale….”
Yes.
You’ve got nothing left to lose.
There was nothing left to lose now, nothing left to protect.
Jegal Moonlim stepped onto the vessel under Namgung Yeon’s clear gaze.
#2
Namgung Yeon was doing what he always did—standing against the night wind.
When his thoughts grew heavy, it had become a habit to cool his mind this way.
Three group members approached him.
“You’re not sleeping?”
“Now that I think about it, while we were hauling cargo all that hard work, you went topside and came back down?”
“….”
“Must be nice to have energy left over to enjoy the romance of a place like this, huh?”
Yi Hyeon pouted his lip and grumbled.
Namgung Yeon turned slowly and asked in a leisurely voice.
“So, what have you learned from this mission?”
“That there’s considerable effort behind the things we ordinarily eat and use.”
Namgung Jinjin offered the textbook answer.
“We really need a lot of fighting power. I need to get stronger. And… speed really is everything, I think.”
Yi Hyeon’s perspective was somewhat narrow, but what he pursued was clear-cut.
Namgung Se-Yun spoke next.
“Technique is what matters, after all. If the ship had defensive mechanisms, the bandits wouldn’t have dared approach so easily. And—”
Namgung Se-Un likewise highlighted many technical considerations.
All of them were good observations.
Namgung Yeon’s gaze finally fell on Ho Ho.
What had he felt as he carried out this mission?
“I thought that there need to be many good people. Because all of those things… they all happen through people, don’t they?”
“….”
Everyone fell silent at his words, lost in thought, and nodded in agreement.
Demons and bandits and everyone gathered here—they were all people.
Namgung Yeon concurred with Ho Ho’s words and opened his mouth.
“A person’s character is important enough to reshape history itself. But… to carve that humanity into the world, something far more crucial is required.”
Steel whispered as it left its sheath.
Namgung Yeon drew his sword.
He pointed it toward the group members and continued.
“Strength. The strength to preserve one’s humanity against any unjust pressure.”
“….”
“So draw your blades. Recreation is finished.”
“Good grief… are you really a demon?”
“If you all grow strong enough to shoulder the future of the Namgung Clan, then I’ll become Yama himself if that’s what it takes.”
The time had come.
After the mission was complete, what would be waiting?
Next would come the season when he truly had to face formidable opponents.
The Namgung Swordsmanship Conference
was a celebration unique to the Namgung Family, its dates coinciding precisely with the Small Household Lord Trials.
To not merely win there but survive it, he needed to grow stronger still.
Not just himself, but all those he held dear.
The wind off the Changjiang River was growing cold.
Autumn was drawing near.

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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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