I Became the Namgung Clan’s Omnipotent Item-Powered Martial God - Chapter 9

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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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Episode 9
Episode 9 – Calamity in the Lowest Place
#1
Those who received the provisions became infinitely reverent in their bearing.
Even those who had harbored complaints accepted their share in silence.
There was a reason Namgoong Yeon and the others had spent time carefully preparing and packing the ingredients.
It was the division into two kinds.
One was meant to fill their hungry bellies at once; the other was for storage and consumption at their dwellings.
Naturally, this division was for the purpose of selecting out the Demon Cultivators.
“What is piled on the lotus leaves can be eaten right away.”
“Thank you so much.”
“You shall be blessed, my lord.”
Innocent citizens hurriedly filled their empty bellies.
Rice was packed generously, with minced meat in the center.
And there, a little Bear Gall Powder had been mixed in.
Being a Demon Cultivator did not mean one felt no hunger.
They lay dormant here, awaiting orders.
Naturally, they had been sustaining themselves on less than their usual portions.
For Martial Practitioners, meat was truly vital sustenance.
More muscle than others meant greater caloric demands.
Namgoong Yeon watched them all eating ravenously.
And one thing more.
He observed the behavior of those Demon Cultivators who had tasted blood.
“Hey, could you share that with me?”
“Pardon?”
“Little one. You seem to have more than enough there — wouldn’t you consider sharing with your uncle?”
“But… this is provisions I was meant to bring to my mother.”
Those who coveted the child’s rations, despite the clarity of his refusal.
Their skin had begun to flush crimson.
Their breathing grew ragged, reeking with a sickening stench.
People naturally widened the distance between themselves and these men, creating a small empty space.
“Come now, it would be better to give it to your uncle. You received enough provisions already, didn’t you?”
……
The child, seized by terror, wavered.
Trembling, as though wrestling with what to do.
The man with flushed skin could not restrain himself even for that brief moment, stepping toward the child.
“You little bastard—. Why don’t you answer when an adult speaks to you!”
“Gasp—?! L-let go of me!”
“Hold on now! Isn’t that a bit too far? What sense is there in taking even a child’s food?”
“Who the hell are you!”
Crack-crack-crackle—!
Something terrible had happened.
The man who had seized the child by the collar and hoisted him up deployed a Martial Art against the man who had come to stop him.
“Gahhhhhhhhh—!”
“Hehehehe. Listen to me, uncle. Hand that over. Now.”
……
A slum dweller with his entire arm torn clean away.
The man, no longer hiding his Violent Nature and displaying it openly, blazed his blood-tinged eyes.
The child’s groin began to wet itself.
How deep did his terror run to provoke such a reaction.
‘Now is the moment.’
In that instant, Namgoong Yeon moved.
A sickening reek of blood wafted from everywhere.
They had grown their Martial Arts here like parasites, draining blood.
The Namgoong Clan remained unaware of their dwindling numbers, trapped in confusion both within and without.
First, Hap Bi must be cleansed.
To do that, one must begin with the deepest, filthiest places.
“Man Ho.”
“Yes!”
“From this moment on, execute all those whose skin has turned crimson.”
“……Zen Ming!”
Man Ho moved like an arrow shot from a bow.
Ting—
Namgoong Yeon drew the Maryeong Sword and began to move.
It was time to reap what had been sown.
#2
Namgoong seeks to embrace nature.
No—to dominate it.
A truth carved out across countless lives lived.
The Namgoong Clan’s martial arts had been founded from an utterly human perspective.
The Namgoong Clan was arrogant.
In that arrogance, they sought to conquer nature itself.
That disposition revealed itself plainly in their swordwork, in the methods of internal cultivation.
Just as it did now.
The Changgoong Daeyeon Divine Art.
Whenever he began a new life, a profound dissonance always struck him.
The internal power that had brimmed within him vanished entirely, and the blade-work that once could cleave mountains and seas in a single stroke could hardly sever a human body cleanly.
Yet those cycles of remembrance, layered upon one another, only hardened Namgoong Yeon’s blade further.
“Grrraahhh—!”
From above to below.
From left to right.
Each time silver light flashed, fragile flesh was split in two.
Namgoong Yeon’s sword was simple, but its power was undeniable.
He planted his feet firm and swung the blade with both hands.
The path of his sword was uncomplicated, his forms hardly different from the Samjae Sword Technique, yet the strength accumulated across those lifetimes was anything but weak.
“Aaaahhh!”
“…….”
“Run! Flee!”
The innocent scattered in all directions.
Now only Namgoong Yeon and Man Ho remained.
And the Demon Cultivators that surrounded them.
Those who could no longer hide their Demonic Energy due to the bear gall’s influence.
What else could they do?
What Demon Cultivators did best.
Murder and Silence.
“Grrrrrrr…….”
“Kill! Kill them all!”
With sounds like beasts, the Demon Cultivators poured toward Namgoong Yeon.
He didn’t think of what was behind him.
Man Ho would have grown during this time as well.
Namho Ho hadn’t yet mastered martial arts properly and was no help, but Man Ho was different.
Crack—!
The Demon Cultivator’s hardened skin shattered.
Hearing their cries, the burning slums came to mind.
“Aaaaaaahhh!”
“Scream more.”
The Maryeong Sword broke through skin, severed muscle and bone.
The blade trembled with hunger, greedily devouring the Demonic Energy—and he found it satisfying.
<How could none of you have known there were Demon Cultivators in this place!>
<The slums were not your responsibility!>
<What are you saying! This is clearly your jurisdiction!>
Calamity rising from the lowest places has always begun in negligence.
It happened because they pushed responsibility back and forth, each deflecting blame.
And the result was the death of the Namgoong Clan’s matriarch.
Was it the turning of Heavenly Mechanism?
He had returned many times, tried countless ways to change the outcome, but destiny would not twist so easily.
Always, in every cycle, his mother’s heart was pierced by someone connected to these slums.
‘This time, such a tragedy will not occur.’
If you can pierce through this, try.
For your opponent will be my mother, reborn as a master of unmatched skill in all the world.
A glimmer of light flickered across Namgoong Yeon’s deep, expressionless eyes.
The emotion that surfaced after so long was unmistakably rage.
He had crushed the seed of catastrophe sprouting in the lowest reaches.
Namgoong Yeon’s blade cut through the Demon Cultivators without a moment’s hesitation.
By the time the street ran red with blood, their leader finally appeared, though he came late.
He’d probably been hiding until the commotion drew him out.
“So you’ve deigned to show yourself at last.”
……
“Surrender your neck quietly, Demon Head.”
“Was it you who brought me to this state?”
Whether he understood or not hardly mattered.
Namgoong Yeon didn’t bother answering.
He simply held up the Maryeong Sword, blood dripping from its edge.
Grrrr—
The opponent’s entire body flushed crimson.
‘So he’s climbed high enough to maintain some reason.’
Between First-class and Peak.
The stage where mind and body had only recently stabilized enough to preserve Reason.
Among Demon Cultivators, they called this the threshold of the Ultimate Demon.
No.
No, that wasn’t right.
‘A true Ultimate Demon is nothing like this trash.’
“I’ll send you to death—!”
Words were unnecessary.
Namgoong Yeon’s eyes flashed as he bared his teeth and charged forward to meet him.
Crack—!
The faintest shimmer of lightning sparked from the tip of his blade.
#3
The conditions for choosing a Demon Cultivator to infiltrate Hap Bi were extraordinarily stringent.
He had to elude the eyes of the Namgoong Clan’s masters while possessing enough strength to command the surrounding area.
Few could satisfy both demands, and the one they’d barely managed to find was Yi Baek Cheon.
Between First-class and Peak.
A martial practitioner trained enough that even awakening his Demonic Energy wouldn’t cause him to run wild, and one who didn’t harbor excessive Demonic Energy.
Some might say: what could a mere Peak-class martial practitioner accomplish anyway?
‘But I have achieved so much!’
He’d seized control of the Slums near So Ho.
In secret, he was nurturing his subordinate Demon Cultivators through human sacrifice and blood harvesting.
Furthermore, he’d come to control a nearby martial society, allowing him to monitor his enemies’ movements.
But what in heaven’s name was this creature?
Boom—!
He hadn’t been careless.
From the start, he’d fought with full strength to kill his opponent.
Yet he’d already lost count of how many exchanges they’d had.
His foe vanished like a phantom, then materialized like a ghost to strike.
Though his Internal Power wasn’t strong enough to inflict mortal wounds, damage accumulated steadily with each pass.
Slice—!
The blade whisked past by the narrowest margin.
One must remember this truth.
Demon Cultivators bleed as well, and a sword—whether wielded or simply held—remains a lethal instrument.
A human is a being that inevitably dies without blood.
Namgoong Yeon swung his blade with steady, methodical purpose—to kill a man.
“Wretched little rat…….”
……
He wasted no words in combat.
He merely observed how best to end his opponent’s life most efficiently, swinging his blade accordingly.
Maximum effect with minimum effort.
That was the fighting style Namgoong Yeon had devised out of necessity—to survive.
Calculation.
Calculate the gap between his opponent’s movements and his own.
Then discern the opponent’s technique and find the opening.
‘You will die slowly. Regardless of your martial prowess.’
Dodging by the width of a sheet of paper while watching his enemies’ faces—it was exquisite beyond measure.
Some might have called it a twisted pleasure.

Namgoong Yeon didn’t deny it.
He wondered what frame of mind those who destroyed his family, his friends, his home and hearth had cultivated their martial arts in.
All of them, no doubt, had believed themselves righteous and devoted their lives to the pursuit.
To shatter the lives, the ideals, and the dreams of such men—that was Namgoong Yeon’s justice.
Ting-ting.
The Maryeong Sword continued to devour the Demonic Energy that crept outward from all sides.
“Why, why does nothing connect! Why!”
“Try harder.”
“Fine…. Let’s see how far your arrogance takes you.”
Yi Baek Cheon’s eyes gleamed as he spotted what he coveted.
Then he reached out to claim the Demonic Energy from those who lay dead around him.
A trait common to those who had learned Demonic Cultivation without proper discipline.
They absorbed the lingering Demonic Energy from corpses in their vicinity.
The price was terrible, but in a single moment, one could seize tremendous power.
Yet there was one fact he did not know.
“What!?”
“Why won’t it absorb? Is your grand stratagem truly nothing more than draining blood from the dead?”
Namgoong Yeon laughed coldly.
Yi Baek Cheon’s face went pale with shock.
Of course it would fail.
The Maryeong Sword had already consumed all the Demonic Energy the Demon Cultivators had left behind.
No matter how much power he exerted, not a single shred of Demonic Energy would answer his call.
Namgoong Yeon’s blade moved.
To trample the calamity rising from the lowest depths.

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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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