Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 1

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 1. The Sword Ghost Reborn
The vast plain was drenched in red.
Bodies lay strewn everywhere.
Those without limbs were the lucky ones.
Those without heads had it easy.
Compared to the corpses shredded like plum blossoms scattered to the wind, or those trampled into the shape of crushed raspberries, they’d been blessed by fortune indeed.
“Cough! Your power truly is…… far too dangerous. Sword Ghost.”
An old man, tall as six feet, with a gaunt face weathered by decades, spoke these words.
His condition was beyond description.
His left arm had been severed, and three swords were embedded in his chest, solar plexus, and thigh respectively.
“The Three-Path Alliance gathered all its strength and barely managed to stop you…… now perhaps the Martial World shall find peace.”
Thud!
The old man knelt, his expression one of relief.
“Damn it…….”
A man sprawled prone on the ground spat out a curse at the old man’s words.
A long sword was lodged through his chest.
That blade belonged to the old man—Namgung Cheon-gang, Master of the Martial Alliance, the Sword Sage—and was the Heavenly Thunder Sword.
“What the hell did I do to make the three lords gang up on me like a pack of dogs…….”
“Because you are a psychic.”
“I’m not the only psychic in the world! There are plenty of others who’ve opened their upper dantian! You’re one yourself!”
“But there is only one soul in all heaven who can wield Will-Force Telekinesis.”
Namgung Cheon-gang continued, gazing at the shattered sword fragments scattered around the man.
“You were alone, yet you were never alone. That ability to command legions of blades—if you had ten more years…… who knows what would have become of the world.”
At merely forty years of age, the Sword Ghost had become the greatest master under heaven.
The Martial Alliance, the Sahdo Union, and the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect—all had feared his power and joined hands.
Every master of renown in the Central Plains, including the Three Sages themselves, had gathered here.
The Three-Path Alliance had been certain of victory.
Yet the outcome was mutual destruction.
The Sword Ghost had been far stronger than anticipated.
“Heh, you’re all ridiculous, aren’t you? First you said the weak should die, now you say the strong must die?”
“Cough! Forgive me. I could not be certain that a tiger would not bite.”
To the old man’s words, spoken between mouthfuls of blood, the man on the ground cried out in blazing fury.
“Then why didn’t you kill me then! Ten years ago, you had your chance!”
What a ridiculous old fool.
If this was to be his end, why not have killed him on the bridge at West Lake ten years ago instead?
“Heh, heh heh. I confess, I wished to be your friend…… but I too have my circumstances, you see…….”
Namgung Cheon-gang gazed down at the man, his eyes a mixture of apology and regret.
“Life is the accumulation of karmic ties. You accumulated too many bitter ones, and sought to sever them all with your blade. I pray that in your next life, you will sow seeds of good fortune…….”
“Nonsense! What next life!”
“Once more…… on behalf of this world…… I apologize to you…… truly, I am sorry…….”
His words trailed away mid-sentence.
At that same moment, Namgung Cheon-gang’s breath ceased.
He was dead.
Thus an unprecedented event transpired—the Demon Sage, the Heretic Sage, and the Sword Sage all fell in one place, all at the hands of a single man.
And the man who had orchestrated it all—
Dan Wi-myeong felt only bitter injustice.
“What a wretched life…….”
Born an orphan, he had been forced to protect himself. To survive, he’d taken up the sword.
Never refusing those who came, always pursuing those who fled until he’d slain them—before long, he’d earned the name Sword Ghost.
He could not fathom what he had done wrong.
Didn’t everyone live this way?
“Heh, perhaps a man’s fate is sealed from the moment of his birth…….”
Every time he swung his blade, the same question arose in his mind.
Why was I born? Why do I live? Why do I wield this sword?
He had never found an answer to that question.
Dan Wi-myeong, orphan of the endless world, believed in nothing but his sword, loved nothing but his blade.
Even as his life ended with a sword thrust through his chest, he could say that his life had indeed been one with the sword.
Dan Wi-myeong gathered all his remaining spiritual energy and poured it into the Heavenly Thunder Sword.
Whoooosh! Crack!
The Heavenly Thunder Sword tore itself free from Dan Wi-myeong’s chest, moving of its own accord.
“Kugh…….”
At the same moment, the Heart Meridian he’d forcibly maintained snapped apart, strand by strand.
Yet Dan Wi-myeong only gazed at the Heavenly Thunder Sword hovering in empty space.
He made no attempt to prolong his life.
“Cough! Cough! How alike we truly are. A life wielded by the very thing you wield. Hehehehe!”
Hum!
As Dan Wi-myeong muttered while coughing blood, the Heavenly Thunder Sword trembled in the air as if in resonance.
No one would believe that the greatest master of the martial world had lived a life of being wielded.
Yet Dan Wi-myeong held this thought with absolute sincerity.
“What a meaningless life it was…….”
In the hollow gaze fixed upon the sky, Dan Wi-myeong’s past days of desperate struggle were reflected.
His hand had reached out to grasp something, but nothing remained in his grip.
He had believed himself to be holding firm to the sword hilt, enduring and persevering—but was even that merely an illusion?
‘A fleeting life lived only to survive…….’
The Sword Ghost, Dan Wi-myeong, closed his eyes as he reflected on his pitiful existence.
Clang!
As he heard the Heavenly Thunder Sword fall to the ground, his consciousness plummeted into a deep abyss.
* * *
In a darkness of profound solitude.
Voices reached him.
“Ho-yeon! Open your eyes……!”
“Sob! Sob! My child!”
“What on earth……!”
‘Is this hell? Hell shouldn’t be this loud?’
Dan Wi-myeong furrowed his brow at the voices disturbing his quietude.
“H-he just moved!”
“H-he’s alive!”
“Ho-yeon! Hang on! Just a bit longer!”
‘Prattling on since just now…… who are these people?’
Dan Wi-myeong lifted his heavy eyelids to confirm who these rude persons were, disturbing the peace of the dead.
Light.
“Ugh…….”
“H-Ho-yeon!”
“His eyes opened!”
“Fetch Seo the physician at once!”
Light struck his retinas, blinding him, and voices now rang in his ears like a high-pitched hum.
Before, everything had felt muffled, as though he were listening from underwater; now it was as if he’d surfaced.
“H-how is this possible? I’m certain his pulse had stopped……?”
“What are you saying! Ho-yeon is perfectly fine!”
“Seo, physician! Come feel his pulse at once!”
Irritated by the cacophony echoing through his skull, Dan Wi-myeong muttered in annoyance.
“Ngh…… quiet…….”
“He spoke!”
“Fool! Can’t you hear—be quiet!”
“Cheong-gang! Sang-ah! All of you, silence!”
The world outside remained chaotic, and gradually his eyes began to adjust to the light.
“……Huh?”
What came into view first were a total of eight eyes.
Beyond them, four figures parted the brightness and revealed themselves one by one.
A broad-shouldered, hearty middle-aged man, and a beautiful lady whose beauty remained untarnished despite tears streaming down her face.
And a young man who resembled the middle-aged man perfectly, and a young woman who looked exactly like the beautiful lady.
As Dan Wi-myeong stared blankly at these two men and two women, the middle-aged man asked carefully.
“H-Ho-yeon. Are you alright?”
Then Dan Wi-myeong, whose eyes had been blinking, let his inner thoughts spill directly from his lips.
“……Who are you people?”
“……!”
“……!”
“……!”
“……!”
* * *
“…….”
Namgung Baek, the patriarch of the Namgung Family Residence and master of the Will-Driven Sword, sat with an expression rigid as stone.
Before him, a lean man was spewing words with flecks of spittle flying.
“I cannot believe it! The pulse had stopped — it had certainly stopped! The youngest master was dead, and yet……!”
“Physician Seo. You’ve been repeating yourself since before. Ho-yeon lives.”
“Yes, yes — he lives. But how could such a thing…….”
The physician, Seo Jung-hak, trailed off under Namgung Baek’s cold gaze.
He cleared his throat and pressed on.
“Well, it may be that mysterious Lightning Qi that brought this about.”
“Lightning Qi?”
“I’ve heard tell — rumors speak of a man whose heart had stopped, struck by lightning and brought back to life.”
“…….”
“But where would the youngest master have been struck by lightning? Not from a clear sky, and certainly not in a sealed chamber?”
As Seo Jung-hak spoke in bewilderment, Namgung Baek’s gaze drifted toward the desk.
Upon it lay a sword, slightly longer than three feet.
Though its scabbard was worn, the blade itself retained a mysterious pearlescent gleam, like moonlight reflected on still water.
It was the Heavenly Thunder Sword, the treasured heirloom of the Namgung Family, forged from Meteoric Iron.
‘Could it be the Heavenly Thunder Sword? No, that shouldn’t be possible…….’
It was a sacred blade passed down through generations, yet never once had it released Lightning Qi of its own accord.
And three hundred years ago, during that legendary incident — the Sword Ghost Blood History.
With the death of Namgung Cheon-gang, the Heavenly Thunder Emperor’s master, the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art was lost.
Since then, lightning had never flashed from the Namgung Family’s blade…….
“……And Madam Paeng?”
“Madam Paeng is unharmed. She merely fainted for a time.”
“And Ho-yeon?”
“That is…….”
Seo Jung-hak’s expression grew troubled as he answered Namgung Baek’s question.
“Amnesia. A loss of memory brought on by severe shock.”
“Treatment?”
“I cannot provide it.”
“…….”
Namgung Baek’s expression hardened at the physician’s words.
That the boy’s life had been spared was fortune enough, yet his beloved youngest had lost his memories.
It was like a bolt from the blue.
“Still, there is hope. Some amnesia patients do recover their memories gradually.”
Seo Jung-hak hurried to add this, and Namgung Baek pressed his palm to his forehead, exhaling deeply.
“Ah…… It rests with Heaven’s will.”
* * *
“Heaven’s will, or curse of fortune?”
Dan Wi-myeong gazed down at his small, pale hands and murmured to himself.
They were his hands.
Calluses marked them still, but compared to his days as the Sword Ghost, they were negligible.
Whoosh.
As he turned his head, a boy in the mirror looked back at him.
With pale skin and red lips, long hair clinging damp to his neck, one might take him for a girl.
But the deep brows and sharp nose, the larynx beginning to protrude — he was unmistakably a boy.
“That’s you?”
As Dan Wi-myeong spoke, the boy in the mirror echoed his words in a beautiful voice, like a talking bird mimicking its master.
“Well, this is strange.”
Dan Wi-myeong shook his head slowly, closed his eyes, and began to piece together what had happened.
‘I was certain — ambushed by the Three-Path Alliance, three days and nights of battle, and then death. That old man Namgung Cheon-gang’s Heavenly Thunder Sword piercing through my Heart Meridian and into my chest…… Ugh!’
At the thought of the Heavenly Thunder Sword, Dan Wi-myeong’s throbbing head flooded with unfamiliar memories.
“The Heavenly Thunder Sword! I need the Heavenly Thunder Sword!”
‘I’ could not hide my agitation.
This very morning, I had suddenly been able to sense a sword’s will.
The blade at my waist had trembled faintly, and I could understand what the sword was trying to tell me.
“Understood! Just a moment! I’ll bring the Heavenly Thunder Sword and oil it for you!”
‘I’ rushed toward the main hall, coaxing the whimpering blade, ready to tend to its needs.
‘Isn’t that Sword-Heart Resonance?’
Dan Wi-myeong muttered to himself as he glimpsed the memories of the “me” before him.
Sword-Heart Resonance was an extraordinarily rare supernatural ability—the power to sense and commune with the mind of a blade.
Among all the psychic adepts Dan Wi-myeong knew, Namgung Cheon-gang was the only one who possessed this gift.
“That’s it! The Heavenly Thunder Sword!”
The “me” slipped into the main hall without warning and seized the Heavenly Thunder Sword from where it hung upon the wall.
Returning to the study, he drew the blade and made his plea.
“Heavenly Thunder Sword! I beseech you! Please teach me the incantations of the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art!”
The “me” believed that if the Heavenly Thunder Sword would only share its knowledge, he could restore the lost Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art to the Namgung Family Residence.
After all, it had belonged to Namgung Cheon-gang, the Sword Sage of the Boundless Sky, who had achieved mutual destruction with the Sword Ghost three hundred years past.
‘Three hundred years ago?!’
The moment Dan Wi-myeong recoiled at this startling revelation, the “me” erupted into delighted, uncontrollable laughter.
“Haha! So you did know all along? When I tell Father, how overjoyed he’ll be! Excellent! Heavenly Thunder Emperor Gathering Incantation. Yin and Yang Clashing Transform Heavenly Thunder. Qi Drawn to Dantian Thunder Essence. Sovereign Might in All-Consuming Thunder.”
The “me” immediately began to circulate the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art, speaking each incantation exactly as the sword transmitted it.
‘You madman! Stop! Stop this instant, you fool!’
Dan Wi-myeong was seized with horror at the stupidity of the “me,” but his voice could not reach across the veil.
‘The Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art is an ultimate divine technique that summons thunder and lightning! It cannot be learned by just anyone, and to begin circulating it so recklessly like this……!’
As it turned out, disaster struck.
Something went catastrophically wrong.
“Revolving Heaven’s Celestial Circulation. Twin Ascent Yin-Yang Descent Sequence. Gathered Force Windless Thunder Movement. Heaven Fire Earth Water Mutual Confluence. Heart-Spirit Unified Passage Through Heaven’s Distance. Breath Intake Exhale Human Thunder Essence. Dantian Single Point Fire Ten-Thousand Heaven. Thunder Light Flashing Stone Destroys Space……ugh!”
As the “me” recited the incantations of the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art, he realized something had gone terribly wrong.
Yet to halt the circulation mid-technique invited the risk of Demon Entrance Qi Deviation—a fate worse than death.
“……Sovereign Divine Passage Transcending Heaven. Long-Heart Thunder Movement Shake Heaven-Earth. Thunder Essence Balanced Transform Becomes Sword. One Sword Sweeps Out Shatters Creation’s Bow. Heaven-Earth Reversed Chain Celestial Thunder. Thunder Foundation Unceasing Warm Spiritual Qi. Sovereign Single Fury Heaven-Earth Transform. Ten-Thousand Thunder Sovereign Erupt Destroy Everything.”
‘Fool! Better to become crippled than stop now! If you keep going……!’
The instant Dan Wi-myeong cried out his warning of catastrophe—
Crack! Crackling lightning!
White-hot thunder erupted from the dantian, engulfing the entire body of the “me” in searing current.
Violent crackling thunder!
“Gaaaaaaahhhhh!”
The study flooded with blinding white light, and the “me,” shrieking in agony, collapsed to the floor.
‘……I told you so. I told you to stop.’
What followed was all too familiar.
The maidservant who opened the door at the commotion let out a scream, and the “me”‘s family and physician came running.
The physician checked the pulse, then shook his head slowly.
The family members stood in stunned disbelief, their denial crumbling into fury, then into tears.
Dan Wi-myeong, watching this scene unfold, twisted his mouth and spoke with bitter resignation.
‘Tch. Still, you had it better than I did. At least you had family at your side. I died alone in a heap of corpses.’
It was at that moment, as Dan Wi-myeong offered this hollow comfort to the short-lived “me”—
A deep hum resonated through the air.
The Heavenly Thunder Sword, lying upon the floor of the study, began to rise slowly into the air.
As if lifted by invisible force itself.
‘What……?’
Everyone in the room had their attention fixed on the “me,” who lay breathless on the floor, and saw nothing of what transpired.
But Dan Wi-myeong perceived it clearly.
A resonant hum! A brilliant flash!
A stream of white radiance poured forth from the Heavenly Thunder Sword and was drawn into the “me” through the Baihui point at the crown of the head.
And in that moment, Dan Wi-myeong understood.
The “me” was truly him.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————