Ice Dragon of Namgung - Chapter 120

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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 120
As Seop Gyeonghwan withdrew with the Youmyeong Branch, the martial artists of Yeonam approached Namgung Geom.
They rushed to lavish praise upon his martial prowess and bearing.
Namgung Geom accepted their greetings with measured courtesy, then returned to the quiet inn where he was staying.
Not long after, Yuk Musang, the branch master of Jeonseobang, came seeking him at the inn.
“I knew your martial skill was formidable, but I never imagined you’d dispatch the Youmyeong Branch so cleanly.”
Yuk Musang spoke with evident admiration.
“Had the Valley Master himself appeared, it wouldn’t have been so simple.”
Namgung Geom recalled the Youmyeong Ghost Soul Formation Power that Seop Gyeonghwan had unleashed.
Seop Gyeonghwan had amplified his energy to nearly twice its normal force through that formation.
Though the gap in his realm had kept him from being a true threat, he’d been formidable nonetheless—had the Valley Master fought instead, it might well have been dangerous.
“Even the Valley couldn’t have anticipated you’d reach this level of strength.”
Namgung Geom smiled faintly and replied, “The branch master’s praise won’t change the main family’s decision, regardless.”
“How unfortunate. It seems my words sounded like flattery. I was merely speaking what I observed.”
Yuk Musang protested, feigning wounded feelings.
“Does the branch master intend to remain in Yeonam?”
“If it suits you, I’d like to accompany you to Shaolin Temple.”
“And if I refuse—will you seek Shaolin’s aid instead?”
“Ha. I cannot depend on you alone, after all.”
Yuk Musang spoke with disarming honesty.
“Very well. Let us travel together.”
“Thank you.”
“But tell me—do you have skill with the Shin-bop?”
Namgung Geom asked.
“The Shin-bop is what I’m most confident in.”
“Then that’s fortunate.”
“Fortunate? Why, exactly?”
Yuk Musang asked, puzzled.
Namgung Geom smiled broadly.
“Because I mean to quicken our pace considerably before we reach Shaolin.”
At that moment, Yuk Musang didn’t yet understand.
He didn’t comprehend what “quickening the pace” truly meant.
* * *
“Enough! I can’t run anymore!”
Yuk Musang collapsed to the ground, retching violently.
“Tsk. And here I thought you’d only run half a double hour without rest.”
Namgung Geom clucked his tongue.
“Half a double hour? Who runs at full strength without stopping for half a double hour?”
Yuk Musang protested indignantly, and Namgung Geom merely shrugged.
“The Changyong Sword Corps under my command in the main family trains for a full double hour as standard.”
“That’s absurd……”
“How else can a martial artist grow strong without that level of resolve?”
At Namgung Geom’s words, Yuk Musang found himself struck by a profound realization.
Until now, he’d always blamed his lack of advancement on the absence of superior martial texts and manuals.
But it had been a misunderstanding.
What he’d lacked was not martial skill, but his own will and effort.
No—his very resolve had been fundamentally different from the start.
Yuk Musang had never even conceived of deploying the Shin-bop at full strength for half a double hour or more.
Namgung Geom, by contrast, treated it as ordinary common sense.
It wasn’t merely that his realm was higher or his martial skill more profound.
Namgung Geom had never placed limits on his own training; he continually shattered those boundaries and tempered himself through relentless repetition.
Yuk Musang, by contrast, had never once truly collided with the wall of his own limits.
He’d prided himself on his efforts, modest though they were, but facing Namgung Geom had laid bare how little they truly meant.
“If the branch master truly wishes to protect Jeonseobang, do not rely upon others.”
Those words struck Yuk Musang like a hammer blow to the skull.
All this time, he’d sought to safeguard Jeonseobang by leaning on the strength of others.
He’d never dared to think he might grow strong enough to change the board himself.
He’d simply conceded defeat from the start, convincing himself that his martial skill was too weak to make a difference anyway.
Why had he never thought to strengthen himself?

Why couldn’t I find the resolve to protect Jeonseobang with my own strength?
The light in Yuk Musang’s eyes shifted as he looked at Namgung Geom.
Yuk Musang understood then that Namgung Geom’s strength was no accident.
With such conviction, one could become strong.
“I am truly grateful for your teachings, Young Master Namgung.”
Namgung Geom smiled.
Many turned a deaf ear to advice, taking offense at the very offer.
But watching Yuk Musang, Namgung Geom saw a man who absorbed counsel down to his bones.
In that alone lay Yuk Musang’s potential for growth.
Everything came down to his will.
If Yuk Musang truly wished to grow stronger, Namgung Geom decided he would lend some aid.
After that, Yuk Musang stopped complaining.
Even when he looked ready to collapse and die, he never ceased his Shin-bop cultivation.
Eventually, he collapsed in complete exhaustion.
“Quite the troublesome business.”
Namgung Geom muttered a complaint and fed Yuk Musang a Recovery Pill.
A Recovery Pill swiftly restored both physical strength and vital energy.
For someone as depleted as Yuk Musang, nothing surpassed a Recovery Pill.
“Gasp!”
As the pill took effect and Namgung Geom stimulated the energy meridians to spread its potency, Yuk Musang awakened.
“Begin your cultivation now.”
Yuk Musang performed Qi Circulation Cultivation as instructed.
When inner power had been completely depleted, running the cultivation made the Elixir Field and energy meridians grow stronger and more expansive.
The quantity of inner power also increased, however slightly.
Of course, a single cycle could not make such a difference felt.
But through repeated cycles of depletion and recovery, growth accumulated until one reached a moment of tangible change.
Only consistent effort could yield real results.
Namgung Geom did not bother explaining this to Yuk Musang.
Those who needed such words would lack the perseverance anyway.
Those who could endure without seeing immediate change would figure it out without being told.
Once Yuk Musang finished his cultivation, Namgung Geom set out again.
He would stop when Yuk Musang collapsed from exhaustion, then resume once the man had recovered.
For Yuk Musang, it was agony.
But having hardened his resolve, he never gave up, wielding his Shin-bop to the end.
Gradually, his body began to adapt.
The pain seemed to diminish with each cycle.
The duration of his cultivation stretched longer, bit by bit.
As he wielded the Shin-bop, he came to understand how to use his inner power and physical strength efficiently.
The pace of his recovery quickened.
It was not dramatic progress.
Yet Yuk Musang could feel himself growing, piece by piece.
He grasped why Namgung Geom had him deploy the Shin-bop at full intensity.
Through the Shin-bop, Namgung Geom was teaching him to allocate inner power, regulate breathing, and employ his body with maximum efficiency.
Yuk Musang felt anew the magnitude of Namgung Geom’s insight.
Namgung Geom was barely past his early twenties.
How did he know all of this?
Part of him yearned to receive proper martial training from Namgung Geom.
If he could learn from Namgung Geom, his own martial arts would surely leap forward.
“If it would not be an imposition, might you observe my martial arts and offer guidance?”
Unable to hold back, Yuk Musang made the request without shame.
“Go ahead.”
Namgung Geom spoke casually, as though it were no great matter.
Emboldened, Yuk Musang demonstrated the martial arts he had learned.
The art was the White Cloud Sword Technique, composed of soft and supple forms.
The White Cloud Sword Technique favored defense over attack.
Its defense relied not on meeting the opponent’s force head-on, but on yielding and flowing with it.
The individual forms of the White Cloud Sword Technique were sound enough.
Yet without sufficient talent, one could not fully realize the technique’s potential.
The White Cloud Sword Technique embodied the principle of Soft Overcomes Hard, and that was not something mere instruction could instill.
The sensation of releasing an opponent’s crude strength through sword paths that flowed as naturally as drifting clouds—that was a realm of Heart Attainment that one had to discover oneself.
The martial master who first created the White Cloud Sword Technique must have been a formidable expert.
But as generations passed and fewer practitioners grasped its true essence, the technique had degenerated into something merely ordinary.
The White Cloud Sword Technique that Yuk Musang now wielded was nothing but an empty shell, stripped of its substance.
“Proprietor, would you be willing to share the mantra of the White Cloud Sword Technique?”
To obtain the true essence of the White Cloud Sword Technique, he first needed to learn its mantra.
Through the sword intent contained in the mantra, he would be able to complete the form of each move.
“The mantra of the White Cloud Sword Technique?”
“Proprietor, seeing only the moves you demonstrate isn’t enough for me to grasp the true essence of the White Cloud Sword Technique.”
A mantra was the very heart of any martial art.
No matter how unremarkable the White Cloud Sword Technique might seem, it was his unique inheritance.
Sharing its mantra was naturally something he would hesitate over.
“If you’re reluctant to share the mantra with me, we can forget about it.”
Namgung Geom spoke as though he felt no loss whatsoever.
Yuk Musang suddenly realized that it was he who stood to lose, not Namgung Geom.
Namgung Geom would never have coveted the White Cloud Sword Technique enough to ask for its mantra.
He was the eldest son of the Namgung Clan.
And the Namgung Clan possessed sword techniques far superior to the White Cloud method.
There was no reason for him to desire this technique.
More importantly, it was Yuk Musang himself who wished to receive instruction.
If he could become stronger through Namgung Geom’s teaching, sharing the White Cloud Sword Technique’s mantra would be a hundred times worth it.
“No, I will share the mantra of the White Cloud Sword Technique with you.”
“Have no fear—I will not pass on the White Cloud Sword Technique’s mantra to anyone else.”
Yuk Musang nodded and then revealed the mantra of the White Cloud Sword Technique.
Namgung Geom closed his eyes upon hearing it.
In his mind, the mantra and the moves Yuk Musang had demonstrated wove together as one.
And according to the mantra, the forms transformed.
A flash of light.
After a long while of concentration with his eyes shut, Namgung Geom opened them at last.
He raised his sword and began to recite the mantra of the White Cloud Sword Technique in a soft voice.
“Clouds have no substance and cannot be cut; following the wind, they never break. When strength comes, embrace it. When weight falls, let it flow.”
Namgung Geom moved his blade.
At first, the moves were identical to those Yuk Musang had just displayed.
But as the sword began to rotate from Namgung Geom’s fingertips, the air around him twisted in an uncanny way.
Following his impossibly slow sword, a clear white sword aura rose like clouds.
For a moment, it seemed as though the space around him was filling with vast white clouds.
As his sword drew gentle circles in the air, those clouds layered upon each other, forming a boundless sea of white.
Any attack that descended into that sea would surely vanish without trace.
The White Cloud Vast Sea.
A secret technique that Namgung Geom had manifested through the mantra of the White Cloud Sword Technique.
Yuk Musang’s eyes widened beyond what he thought possible.
“That’s the White Cloud Sword Technique?”
* * *
During the journey to Shaolin Temple, Namgung Geom taught Yuk Musang the White Cloud Sword Technique.
Having witnessed the White Cloud Vast Sea that Namgung Geom unleashed, Yuk Musang became his complete devotee.
He would have believed anything Namgung Geom told him—even that beans could be fermented into soy sauce with red beans.
Through Namgung Geom’s instruction, Yuk Musang came to realize that the White Cloud Sword Technique he had known was merely a hollow husk.
And he believed that Namgung Geom could fill that emptiness with true substance.
Yuk Musang applied himself with utmost dedication to gain even one more insight from Namgung Geom.
Namgung Geom, too, gave his instruction with full earnestness.
But unfortunately, Yuk Musang’s martial talent was not particularly exceptional.
He was above average, yet not outstanding like the Four Elders of the Changyong Sword Corps.
Still, with Namgung Geom’s teaching and consistent practice, he could eventually reach a respectable height.
In due course, the two arrived at Songshan.
They sought out Jeonseobang’s Songshan Branch.
A reply from the Namgung Clan had arrived at Jeonseobang’s Songshan Branch.
Namgung Geom examined the reply the Namgung Clan had sent.
“What does the Namgung Clan say?”
Yuk Musang asked.
“They leave it to my discretion.”
“Then, what is your intention, Young Master Namgung?”
Yuk Musang asked with hope and apprehension mingled in his voice.
Namgung Geom smiled and replied.
“Of course I shall aid Jeonseobang.”
Namgung Bing-ryong
Author |
Baek Wol-geom
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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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