Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 123

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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 123. The Sword Demon Hears the Wind Blow Swift
The fleet of the party that had dealt with the Black Tide Gang in Ankyeong had grown to three vessels.
It was thanks to the seizure of two sand ships that the Black Tide Gang had operated.
And even before arriving at Tongling, two more treasure ships were about to be added to their number.
“This—this can’t be real!”
Soo Il Gwang, the leader of the Blood River Gang who had dominated the waters around Tongling on the Yangtze River, spun about in horror.
Splash! Splash-splash-splash!
Crack! Screech!
“Ahhh!”
“Please—save me!”
“Master! These monsters—ugh!”
Unidentified martial artists dressed in blue robes were slaughtering his subordinates.
Even when they had launched their assault on what appeared to be the flagship with such confidence, he had never imagined anything like this.
Soo Il Gwang, who moments before had been laughing with glee at fifty thousand taels falling from the sky, felt as though he were trapped in a nightmare.
“Who in blazes are you? Who commands such a force as this?”
The total force of roughly two hundred men would not have been remarkable in itself.
The Blood River Gang alone numbered more than three hundred.
But each of them was skilled beyond the second rank, and half bore Sword Qi wreathed around their blades—a mastery possessed by few powers under heaven.
“Curse it all! Water Ghosts—dive now!”
Soo Il Gwang barked the order at the top of his lungs.
At once, a dozen divers wrapped entirely in black cloth leaped into the river.
In their hands each carried a long awl—the Sea Bottom Awl, used to puncture holes in a ship’s hull and send it to the depths.
‘Abandon the ship! Victory comes first!’
Capturing such a massive treasure ship would have been quite profitable.
But now it was far more important to turn the tide of battle in his favor.
“Hold your ground! No matter how skilled these masters are, they’ll be no match for Water Arts!”
Soo Il Gwang’s formula for victory was simple.
Move the battlefield from land to water.
The river was the divers’ playground.
Even a master who commanded Sword Qi in torrents would be overpowered by a third-rate opponent in the depths.
“Hahahaha! Unless every last one of you knows Water-Skimming, we’ve won!”
“You!”
Boom! Boom! Crash!
Maeng Ui Gyeong, the fleet commander, came surging toward Soo Il Gwang like a mountain.
In his hands was a sword whose blade-back was twice the width of an ordinary blade—the Hegemon Sword.
As heavy as a military great-sword, it was more akin to a Horse-Beheading Sword than a conventional blade.
Whoosh!
Clang!
“Hgh!”
As numbness shot through both of Soo Il Gwang’s wrists as he gripped his Broadsword, he furrowed his brow.
“Crude as a bear, aren’t you?”
“Hah!”
As Maeng Ui Gyeong brought the Hegemon Sword down with a shout, blue radiance flashed and Sword Qi bloomed along the blade.
“Tsk!”
In response, Soo Il Gwang’s Broadsword rose swiftly to meet it, gray Sword Qi coiling up like a serpent.
Crash!
A tremendous explosion erupted.
Soo Il Gwang staggered back four paces, spitting out blood-tinged phlegm.
“Kah! Ptui! So you’re the brains of this outfit.”
“……”
“Hm. Taciturn, are you? But how long will your silence hold?”
As Soo Il Gwang smiled with sinister meaning, a series of small thuds began echoing from beneath the ship’s hull.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Kahahaha! Scream all you like while you can! Once you become water ghosts, you’ll keep silence forever!”
Soo Il Gwang, bursting into triumphant laughter, was certain of victory.
Though the enemies had far more skilled fighters, losing solid ground would tilt the advantage overwhelmingly toward his divers.
Then.
Rumble! Crash!
Suddenly, the sound of thunder and lightning erupted from the sky above.
“What? Thunder in a clear sky?”
Soo Il Gwang lifted his head.
His eyes widened in shock.
“Rats squeaking beneath the bow! Burn them all to ash!”
Rat-a-tat-tat! Crack!
Treading the mast, Ho Yeon sprinted upward and launched into the air.
A harpoon he’d seized from the water thieves gleamed in his right hand.
Crack-crack-crack!
White Jeon Ryeu Sa burst from the harpoon, and in an instant, two layers of martial presence coated it—it blazed like a god of thunder’s finger.
Witnessing this impossible sight, Soo Il Gwang murmured in a daze.
“……A bolt from the blue.”
Boom-crack! Flash!
White lightning fell from the sky and plunged into the Yangtze River.
The river water turned bright white as fresh snow.
Hiss! Crack!
The electrical surge was so violent that even those standing on deck felt their tongues numb from the shock.
Naturally, the water thieves who had been jabbing the ship’s underside with Sea Bottom Awls were killed outright and began floating to the surface one by one.
For a moment, time seemed to pause on the battlefield.
Every eye fixed on Ho Yeon.
Thud!
Ho Yeon landed softly on the deck, felt their gazes upon him, and his brow twitched slightly.
“What are you doing? Keep fighting.”
“Hrah!”
“Hyah!”
“Cut down the water thieves!”
At Ho Yeon’s command, time resumed its flow on the battlefield.
The warriors of the Namgung Clan surged forward with renewed fury, while the water thieves’ resolve shattered and they scrambled to flee.
“Agh, ahhh! A divine being!”
“We can’t overcome that!”
“How are we supposed to fight someone who commands lightning?!”
What had already been a one-sided battle now tilted decisively in one direction.
“Th-thunder god! Namgung Ho Yeon!”
With that single blow, Soo Il Gwang understood both the young man’s identity and whom they were truly fighting.
“Is the Namgung Clan declaring war on us?”
“Amusing. But wasn’t it Gucheon Seong that declared war first?”
Boom!
Maeng Ui Gyeong threw his foot forward toward the desperate Soo Il Gwang.
Like blazing fire erupting through the Li Bo Step, Maeng Ui Gyeong brought his Hegemon Sword crashing down.
‘Heavenly Peak Collapse!’
A tyrannical stroke as if heaven’s very summit were collapsing.
Soo Il Gwang frantically raised his broadsword to block.
But his conviction had already wavered, transforming into doubt, and his will—once as steel—crumbled.
He could not withstand Maeng Ui Gyeong’s strike, which was forged from unshakeable resolve.
Crack!
Thud!
As Soo Il Gwang’s corpse fell apart with his split broadsword, Maeng Ui Gyeong muttered as if he’d forgotten something.
“Ah, I’ve killed him with a direct slash again.”
* * *
The warriors who had shattered the Blood River Gang forced the captured water thieves to their knees upon the deck.
Men in wretched condition stumbled past those bowing and trembling with fear.
“Ah! F-freedom at last!”
“Wheeze! I thought I’d die a ship slave for the rest of my life……!”
“Hail! Long live our saviors!”
“These bastards! I wouldn’t mind eating them raw!”
These were the ship slaves who had been abducted by the water thieves and forced to labor as oarsmen on the vessel—weeping, rejoicing, and burning with rage.
Rowing was no ordinary heavy labor.
So the water thieves had forced men they’d kidnapped from nearby fishing villages to do it.
Ho Yeon, watching them intently, spoke.
“Sang Gwan. Please find out where these men are from and send them home through a merchant escort service. Give them some traveling money too.”
“Of course. We’re planning to stop at Tongling shortly to let them off.”
As Sang Gwan Hae nodded with a generous smile, Ho Yeon continued.
“By now, word of the Black Tide Gang’s collapse should have reached Ankyeong. This time, we’ll use them to spread rumors in Tongling—that the Blood River Gang has been exterminated.”
“So that’s why you plotted the route to loop around the Yangtze River.”
“Precisely.”
“Hmm…….”
Sang Gwan Hae exhaled in admiration.
The strategy Ho Yeon had devised was simple yet devastating.
‘This is a warning sent to every merchant guild along the Yangtze. The Namgung Clan’s power is formidable, and they are far closer than anyone imagines…….’
If the sole objective had been to reach Hangzhou, there would have been no reason to descend westward and take to the Yangtze.
‘Ankyeong and Tongling. And the cities we’ll soon pass—Wuhu, Hua County—all places where the Huishang Merchants who support the Namgyeong Merchant Guild hold sway.’
That was precisely why Ho Yeon was passing by their doorsteps, leaving a warning in his wake.
That when the Anhui First Family, crouching in Hefei, draws its blade, that sword’s reach extends all the way south of the Yangtze.
“Young Master. We’ve rooted out the ringleaders and executed every last one.”
“Well done.”
“What shall we do with those who remain to be watched?”
“The Iron Sword Brigade will handle that. Show no mercy to any who resist—execute them on sight.”
“Understood, sir.”
At Ho Yeon’s command, Geuk Ji Ryang sorted through the kneeling captives and distributed them between the two merchant vessels they had arrived on.
From now on, they would have to labor hard at the oars in place of the ship slaves.
“Sang Gwan. You said they’d lost how many ships?”
“Four vessels, they claimed.”
“Ah, well, that’s break-even then.”
Ho Yeon smiled broadly and gestured to the captives, pointing to the four confiscated ships.
“We’ll have these two vessels towed for you until we reach Hua County.”
“Ha! Much obliged to you.”
“Not at all. The main clan has invested considerably in transhipment operations, or so I hear. Partners ought to look after one another.”
Ho Yeon shrugged, and in Sang Gwan Hae’s eyes gleamed an unmistakable warmth.
‘Ah, ah, ah! Our dear god of fortune! May you enjoy a thousand blessings!’
* * *
Before the Namgung Clan’s fleet departed Hefei and reached Hangzhou, something else arrived first.
That something was rumor.
“Have you heard? The Namgung Clan has launched a campaign against the river bandits.”
“Heard of it! Word is they’ve already destroyed four pirate gangs!”
“Overwhelming, truly! When the colossus of Anhui stirs, those petty brigands scatter like autumn leaves before the wind!”
“Who could have guessed the Namgung Clan possessed such formidable strength?”
“Now hold on—is the Namgung an ordinary house? At this Yongbong Conference alone, they produced four Dragon Phoenix masters! Unprecedented!”
“Moreover, the swordsman leading this bandit suppression is none other than Namgung Ho Yeon, champion of the Yongbong Conference.”
“Ah! The one who slew the man-eating demon general—the prodigy of the Orthodox Path’s martial world!”
“It’s said that Thunder God Lightning Dragon showed mercy, and all those captured by the brigands have been released.”
“Truly, the Anhui First Family! A towering pillar of Orthodox Path martial society!”
“Ha! Serves those bandits right! They stripped me of my entire fortune years ago, and I barely escaped with my life!”
Common folk applauded the Namgung Clan’s righteous deeds.
Hangzhou had long been known as a city of water, so deeply intertwined was its character with the element.
It was partly due to the famous West Lake, but also because the great Grand Canal stretched northward, while the sea bordered it to the east—such was Hangzhou.
Consequently, many had suffered at the hands of great and small pirate gangs, and they harbored deep resentment, having endured Japanese raids that struck without warning.
So when the illustrious Anhui house of Namgung scratched this festering wound so satisfyingly……
Their reputation spread far and wide across not only Hangzhou but the entire Zhejiang Province.
“This—this is grave!”
“The Namgung Clan has moved!”
“After lying dormant all this time, how could they…….”
“Good heavens, Tongling is practically their backyard!”
Yet for the Huishang Merchants gathered in Hangzhou for the Three Merchant Conference, alarm bells were ringing.
Especially those merchant guilds stationed along the Yangtze and on friendly terms with the Namgyeong Merchant Guild felt as though a blade had been pressed to their throats.
“Have we…… miscalculated?”
“Perhaps we need to reconsider our numbers.”
“What if their sword is aimed at our main establishment? Oh no……!”
Some of the merchant guilds that had supported the Namgyeong Merchant Guild began to stir, moving with sudden urgency.
The Namgung Clan had not yet reached Hangzhou, yet they had already shifted much upon the board.
And Chang Gwang Yeo, principal of the Namgyeong Merchant Guild, who sensed these stirrings, brought his fist down upon the desk.
Bang! Crack!
“These mad dogs of the Namgung Clan! Do they mean to declare war!”
He’d struck a vital opening.
It was a move no one had anticipated.
That single step was so painful because it was a play the Namgyeong Merchant Guild could never hope to replicate.
“The Namgung Clan! Those self-righteous bastards pressing merchants into submission with naked force!”
Chang Gwang Yeo ground his teeth, but saw no way forward.
‘Soo Cheon is backing out. And after how much I’ve paid those dogs!’
Though Soo Cheon was called one of the thousand bandit chiefs beneath Gucheon Sung, his roots remained what they’d always been—brigands and thieves.
No amount of gold could lure men into a pit where death was certain.
One had to survive first; only then could silver or gold have any meaning.
“Cursed lot!”
Humiliation burned through Chang Gwang Yeo.
Before overwhelming martial might, even vast wealth meant nothing?
Since becoming the head of one of the ten greatest merchant houses in the realm, this was his first taste of true degradation.
A low growl escaped him.
“Sang Gwan Hae, you bastard! Are you playing the tiger’s lapdog?”
His hatred crystallized on Sang Gwan Hae, the head of the Haehoo Merchant Guild.
The Namgung Clan was too terrible an enemy to face alone; better to turn his wrath on a softer mark.
“Fine, then. If you’re summoning tigers, I’ll call the wolves down as well!”
Chang Gwang Yeo’s mind turned to the figure in black he’d approached not long ago.
“No one in this world can overcome those who endure in silence, so should you ever have need of our power, send word. We will be waiting.”
A sinister gleam kindled in Chang Gwang Yeo’s eyes.

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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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