Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 119

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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 119. Sword Ghost Commands Iron
“Where are we headed now?”
“I haven’t a clue.”
“If we keep going this way, we’ll reach Xiao Lake, won’t we?”
Clop, clop!
Creak, creak!
Some dozen laborers were walking along, leading horses and carts without the faintest idea why.
They were apprentices of the Tiannan Iron Forge.
They’d been taking a break from their duties when the master’s sudden orders came down, and they’d scrambled to prepare and slip out through the south gate of Hefei City mere moments ago.
“What is this about? Just some dog-training exercise?”
“Really, now. Can’t the master let us rest in peace? He’s being unreasonable.”
“Hey, hey. Keep your voice down. Don’t you see the gentleman ahead?”
“Who?”
“The young master in the blue martial robe.”
“……Huh? He’s carrying three swords?”
“You fool. That’s the young master Namgung Ho Yeon, the Thunder God Dragon himself.”
“Whoa! For real? Our patron?”
“That’s right. He’s going boating and needs entertainers, it seems.”
“Oh, we’d better put on a good show!”
“I’ll do a trick or two!”
“Do you think he enjoys dagger throwing?”
The apprentices were keeping their voices low in what they thought was hushed gossip, but to Ho Il Chi, the master of Tiannan Iron Forge who had trained in martial arts, it thundered in his ears.
“These brats……!”
As Ho Il Chi turned around, his muscular frame rippling, the apprentices fell silent and bowed their heads at once.
“Ahem. My apologies, young master. I’ll give them a proper scolding later.”
“Don’t worry about it. There’s no real harm done.”
“With respect, sir, small oversights lead to great disasters. You’ve seen what happened with Baiyun Trading Company.”
Ho Il Chi spoke with genuine gravity.
Tiannan Iron Forge, like Baiyun Trading Company, had grown with the support of the Namgung Clan.
The connection began when Ho Il Chi’s grandfather, once a youth-cultivation master of the Namgung Clan, retired and founded a small smithy.
The old man had proven quite talented—he began supplying swords to the Namgung Clan, and that modest enterprise had become the Tiannan Iron Forge of today.
Namgung Ho Yeon chuckled softly at Ho Il Chi’s words and replied.
“You need to choose what you’re comparing. The Tiannan Iron Forge never sold the Namgung Clan’s promissory notes to those dogs.”
“Of course not! How could we repay kindness with betrayal?”
“Honestly, I’m grateful Baiyun made their blunder. Thanks to them, I was able to root out the traitors who’d turned their backs on the main house.”
Namgung Ho Yeon spoke as if it were nothing, but Ho Il Chi felt the chill run down his spine.
‘When Baiyun Trading Company was destroyed, those who’d sold Namgung promissory notes to them fell apart, one by one.’
For all the Namgung Clan’s reputation as an upright, honorable sect,
they were not so soft as to spare those who showed their fangs from behind.
A martial house that stood supreme beneath heaven with a single blade—and when it drew that blade with intent,
Hefei was swept by a wind of blood for a time.
‘Was it only blood? There was also fire.’
A phenomenon called the Flash-Burn Phenomenon—where, in the blink of an eye, everything burned to ash and vanished—occurred sporadically.
Strangely, only those at odds with the Namgung Clan suffered great losses from the Fire Demon, and people harbored suspicions.
But no evidence remained, and so a legend was born that the Southern Vermillion Bird, guardian of the southern sky, protected the Namgung Clan.
‘A single choice in that moment saved our forge. If I’d been greedy for money and made a mistake, I’d have died with my tail burned off like Baek Won-gwang and Baek Won.’
Ho Il Chi, cold sweat dripping from his brow, watched the figure of Namgung Ho Yeon receding ahead.
That one, slender for a martial master, was the very person who’d personally destroyed Baiyun Trading Company.
Moreover, the people of the Namgung Clan were said to hang on his every word and would die for him without hesitation.
From Ho Il Chi’s perspective, Namgung Ho Yeon was the one person in Hefei he needed to keep most in favor with.
“Hehe, young master. How did you find the sword I gifted you?”
“All of them were fine. Especially the one Nan A chose—it has a dark luster to it.”
“Ah, that’s a blade forged from Crow-Iron! Not quite as legendary as the thousand-year cold iron that only breaks under force, but it’s extremely durable and resilient.”
“I thought it was Hyeon Steel.”
“It’s as rare as Hyeon Steel. Where Hyeon Steel is heavy and boasts high tensile strength—suited mainly for crafting heavy weapons—Crow-Iron is an alloy mixed with Purple-Gold Silk, making it light and wonderfully elastic.”
Ho Il Chi explained the excellence of the Crow-Iron Sword he’d gifted to Nan A, his words tumbling forth with fervor.
“I wouldn’t have brought out a blade of such caliber if she hadn’t been your beloved!”
“My beloved? Who said that?”
“Pardon?”
“She’s a nun.”
“Huh?!”
Ho Il Chi’s face went slack with shock at Namgung Ho Yeon’s words.
He’d taken out the Crow-Iron Sword, which he’d stored away so carefully to impress his future lady—only to learn he’d been mistaken?
“Ahhh! My Crow-Iron Sword! I used five full taels of Purple-Gold Silk on it!”
As Ho Il Chi clutched his head in despair, Namgung Ho Yeon let out an amused chuckle and murmured,
“Is Purple-Gold Silk really that precious?”
“Yes, yes! We use it mainly as a bonding catalyst for alloys. It increases durability and sharpens the blade. The purple radiance is beautiful too—it’s used in high-end jewelry work, which is why it’s so costly.”
“So if you made a sword entirely from Purple-Gold Silk, wouldn’t it be extraordinary?”
“Sir, that’s impossible. Purple-Gold Silk is only good when mixed into alloys. As a single material, it’s actually quite poor.”
“Then is there another iron that carries that purple hue? It was remarkably hard—I remember I could barely cut through it with a saw.”
“Ah… now that you mention it, I’ve heard that Persia produces tiny quantities of such iron. They call it Purple-Gold Diamond Copper, and in that land it’s regarded as sacred steel.”
“Hmm?”
“If a master smith could forge a whole blade from that, he’d be no ordinary craftsman. A sword like that would certainly be a Divine Sword. I’d wager you could buy an entire city with it, honestly.”
At Ho Il Chi’s words, Namgung Ho Yeon found himself recalling the purple-bladed sword that Yun Am had been carrying.
‘It did seem extraordinary. Could it have actually been a Divine Sword?’
Even by Namgung Ho Yeon’s standards—a man who had seen countless blades—it had been a rare masterwork.
It had been some time since a sword had kindled his collector’s hunger quite like this one.
‘Perhaps I should relieve him of it in some dark alley…’
―Don’t you dare.
‘I was only jesting.’
―You were about half serious, and you know it.
‘Caught.’
While Namgung Ho Yeon and the Cheonrae Geom traded jabs, the group arrived at Xiao Lake.
A lake so vast it could be mistaken for an ocean stretched before them, and the brine-heavy scent of water pricked at his nostrils.
“Master. Is there truly iron in a place like this?”
Ho Il Chi looked around uncertainly as he posed the question.
‘He said something about replenishing our iron stores—I assumed he’d secured a connection with the military bureaucracy or the Imperial Armory…’
But search as Ho Il Chi might, there was no government office in sight, not even a warehouse.
“Wait here. Don’t come down under any circumstances. Only come down when you think it’s roughly finished.”
“Sir?”
“Mark my words well. Come down only when it’s all done. Or you’ll die.”
“Sir?!”
Snap!
Namgung Ho Yeon’s form vanished.
Then, moments later.
Boom! Crash-crash-bang!
The whole world turned white.
* * *
Splash!
Namgung Ho Yeon arrived at the lakeshore.
“This is the right place?”
―Listen well, boy. Trust this old blade. Xiao Lake is a freshwater basin fed by countless tributaries—the Nanfei River, the Shangpo River, the Fengyang River, the Hangfu River, the Baisheng River, the Zige River, the Zhao River, and more besides.
The Cheonrae Geom spoke with complete confidence at Namgung Ho Yeon’s question.
―All that means thick layers of sediment have accumulated over time. And buried in those layers is exactly what you’re looking for—in abundance.
“Excellent. Let’s begin.”
Shing!
Namgung Ho Yeon drew the Cheonrae Geom.
Simultaneously, the Yang Qi Cycle and Yin Qi Cycle within the red thunder cloud in his Qi Sea Meridian Point began to collide.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Crack-snap! Crack-snap!
As the opposing Qi forces rubbed against each other, electrical voltage surged into being, and white clouds darkened in an instant, transforming into a Thunder Cloud.
Boom!
Thunder and lightning erupted, and amplified Cheonrae Gi radiated outward in all directions, turning the surroundings brighter than midday sun.
Boom! Crash-crash-bang!
“Ahhh! Ahhhh!”
“The heavens are wrathful!”
“Eeee-hyiii!”
“Calm the horses!”
From a distance, cries of panic from the Tiannan Iron Forge workers reached his ears.
But Namgung Ho Yeon’s gaze remained fixed solely on the lakeshore where the Cheonrae Gi struck with full force.
Bang! Bang!
Crackle-snap!
It was while Ho Yeon was cycling through the Lightning-then-Thunder Alternation, steadily raising the electrical voltage, that something peculiar began to unfold at the lakeside.
Whoosh!
“It’s starting to come up.”
A smile played at Ho Yeon’s lips as he watched black shimmers rise from the ground.
“Iron Sand.”
The black shimmer’s true form was tiny iron granules, fine as sand.
In other words, Iron Sand.
He’d first discovered this effect back when he was restoring the Land Vitality in the Northern Fields.
“Hm? What’s this?”
While Ho Yeon had been pouring lightning into the earth, black sand kept sticking to his body, and he’d furrowed his brow in confusion.
Then the Cheonrae Geom spoke.
―Congratulations, boy. Your Cheonroe Jewang Singong has reached the Seventh Ascendant Realm.
“What?”
―A magnetic field has formed around you. It’s proof that your Cheonrae Gi’s electrical power has grown that much stronger.
“Interesting.”
Ho Yeon felt a surge of curiosity at the sword’s explanation.
Generating a magnetic field? That meant he could manipulate magnetic force itself?
That brute Mak Cheon Ak, whom he’d met before, had wielded magnetism through some psychic ability, but was it possible to do the same with just Cheonrae Gi?
“That’s a complete jackpot.”
The Cheonrae Geom had only described it as a phenomenon tied to one’s cultivation level.
But Ho Yeon thought differently.
And so he began researching this magnetic field.
From that work, he’d developed several useful Qi Techniques.
‘The trap I used against Jin Heuk Cheon was one such application.’
Snap!
With that thought, Ho Yeon raised the Cheonrae Geom high.
At the same time, he focused his Mental Will Control, and the Cheonrae Gi began spiraling around the sword in response to his will.
Crackle-crackle! Snap-snap!
―Hmph! Lovely warmth to it.
The Cheonrae Geom murmured contentedly at that vortex of lightning.
Watching the whirlpool of lightning grow faster, Ho Yeon spoke.
“From what I’ve observed, the magnetic field forms around the lines where current flows. So if I stretch those lines and coil them in circles, wouldn’t the magnetic fields overlap and reinforce each other?”
What was created from this hypothesis was precisely this.
The Wheel Formation.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
Swirling-swirling!
A powerful magnetic field formed around the spinning Wheel Formation.
Iron Sand that had accumulated in Xiao Lake over thousands, tens of thousands of years erupted upward like a swarm of bees.
Thrummmm!
Ho Yeon manipulated the wave of Iron Sand that surged up like a tsunami using his Uigi Yeondong.
As a result, the Iron Sand divided into piles and accumulated behind Ho Yeon.
After about a quarter of an hour had passed, dozens of black hills had formed behind him.
“Whew. That’s enough.”
Snap-snap!
Ho Yeon felt his Qi Sea Meridian Point growing hollow and dissolved the Wheel Formation, prompting the Cheonrae Geom to murmur reluctantly.
―Tch, finished already?
“Give it a rest.”
Ho Yeon spoke as if exhausted, and the Cheonrae Geom continued.
―I felt it when you used the Divine Thunder Body Refinement too, but you’re quite a peculiar one. I’ve lived long ages and met many Cheonrae Gi users, but since Namgung Chu Jeol, you’re the first to use the Cheonroe Jewang Singong in such a twisted manner.
―Ha-ha-ha! That’s the advantage of being such a rebellious sort. You don’t follow the path laid out for you.
“They call it adaptive ingenuity.”
While Ho Yeon conversed with the swords,
the people of the Tiannan Iron Forge, confirming that the lightning had ceased, began hesitantly approaching.
“Good heavens. What manner of sorcery is this?”
“Merciful gods. Has the guardian dragon that dwells in Xiao Lake appeared?”
“Spirits of heaven and earth! I beseech your forgiveness for my sins!”
They gazed at the Iron Sand piled mountain-high and gasped in awe, and some even clasped their hands in prayer.
“Y-y-young master?!”
Ho Il Chi rushed toward Ho Yeon, who was sheathing the Cheonrae Geom, stammering like a man whose jaw had come unhinged.
Ho Yeon chuckled softly and gestured toward the heap of Iron Sand.
“What are you waiting for? Gather it.”
It was the moment the legend of the Iron Divine Dragon was born in Hefei City.

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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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