Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 13

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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 13. The Sword Demon’s Martial Match
“…Hoyeon.”
Namgung Cheonggang stood in the center of the Training Ground, his gaze settling on his youngest brother with evident concern.
‘Jaryang has reached the Sword Energy Stage—a First Class master.’
In the Martial World, those called Third Class were typically men who’d learned some crude Three Calamity Heart Method from street stalls and fought mostly with brute physicality.
Second Class practitioners had strengthened their bodies through Internal Energy and grasped the basic shapes of techniques, though only superficially.
But First Class—that was where one earned the title of Master, the realm where one could channel Energy into both body and weapon.
‘A middle-tier branch sect could comfortably entrust a unit command to someone of that caliber. Jaryang’s talent is genuine.’
Namgung Jaryang.
He was a promising prospect within the clan itself, one expected someday to command a Changgung Unit—talent that had long caught the family’s eye.
‘Compared to him, Hoyeon…’
He was a brother Cheonggang loved so dearly he couldn’t bear to see him hurt, but this match was beyond him.
The theoretical ability to interpret and execute sword technique was simply not the same as prowess in real combat.
‘Even if Jaryang’s Changgung Boundless were flawed, there’s no way Hoyeon could match him in sheer power.’
If Cheonggang’s assessment was this bleak, the other Changgung Unit members thought far worse—if anything.
Yet Namgung Jaryang, facing off against Hoyeon, merely watched as the younger man grinned and opened his mouth.
“Well then, shall we begin the lesson? Since I’m the teacher here, you can speak freely with me, yes?”
* * *
“…I warned you you’d regret this. I won’t go easy on you just because we share direct lineage.”
Namgung Jaryang shot him a glare, his voice rough.
Hoyeon’s smile widened into something almost serene as he murmured back.
“Honestly, you’re loud. Is there an inferiority complex festering somewhere?”
“…!”
“Once you’ve drawn a blade, all that matters is Martial Skill—direct lineage, collateral lineage, none of it means anything. Steel cuts fairly, and everyone dies the same way.”
“How dare you—!”
Namgung Jaryang’s eyes rolled back in fury at Hoyeon’s words.
Of all people, the head’s own son was spouting such insolence!
Shing!
Namgung Jaryang drew his blade and began circulating the Vast Heaven Heart Method.
Whoosh!
A faint azure luminescence kindled in his eyes.
“You’ll need to employ the Changgung Danyeonsin Technique at full power!”
“Hmm, really? Is that a sledgehammer to crack a nut?”
“Enough of your heresy! I’ll make you swallow those words!”
Tap-tap!
Namgung Jaryang closed the distance with rapid footwork—the Changgung Step.
Scrape!
Only then did Hoyeon draw his blade—but it wasn’t the Heavenly Thunder Sword.
“Come on, earn your rice. Show me what you’re worth.”
Whoosh!
“Do I oil you when we’re done? You love your oil so much—do you have parasites in your belly? From now on, you’re the Oil-Loving Sword.”
“Stop your chattering!”
Clang!
Namgung Jaryang’s blade swept up from below in a crescent arc, aiming for Hoyeon’s shoulder.
It was the Heaven High Cloud Walking technique—the form that spoke of the sky rising high and clouds parting.
“Here’s your first lesson. Heaven High Cloud Walking is not so shallow a form.”
Hoyeon responded with Heaven High Cloud Walking of his own—yet his posture bore no resemblance to Jaryang’s.
“If you thought ‘the sky rises high’ meant ascension, you were wrong. The sky rises slowly, spreading too wide for human comprehension.”
Hoo—!
Hoyeon’s blade, unlike Jaryang’s line-based stroke, cut through space itself as a plane, sweeping clean.
Krang!
“Ngh—!”
Where Hoyeon’s blade met his own, Namgung Jaryang felt his wrist sing with pins and needles; his eyes went wide.
“Wh-what is this…?”
“Here’s your second lesson. Fight like that dazed fool on a real battlefield, and you’ll die.”
Boom!
Hoyeon’s blade, which had soared skyward, now plunged downward with crushing weight.
Changgung Star Marking.
A single-point strike that pierced the stars of the firmament.
‘This can’t be right! This isn’t Changgung Star Marking!’
But the Changgung Star Marking that Hoyeon deployed was not what Jaryang had known.
Originally, the Changgung Star Marking was a technique of extreme speed—a single, piercing strike—and the Changgung Unit trained by hurling stones into the air and striking them to see how many they could pierce.
He had prided himself on completing the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper by piercing seven stones in a single breath.
Crack!
The incoming blade felt slow.
Yet it was heavy.
There was no space to evade.
“Ugh!”
Jaryang could not withstand the blow and threw himself aside—his only chance for survival.
Slam!
Like a lazy donkey tumbling across the ground, Jaryang rolled and rolled, then rose with shame written across his face.
“Third lesson: after executing a perfect thrust, don’t be ashamed—bray like a donkey. At least you’ll startle your opponent that way.”
“Argh!”
Taking Hoyeon’s words as mockery, Jaryang lost his composure and charged forward.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Too shallow. Heaven Beyond Heaven demands depth—thrust as though piercing a sky beyond the sky.”
Blocked.
“Hyah!”
Whoosh! Whoosh!
“Think about the meaning embedded in the form. Boundless Heavy Pressure doesn’t mean simply swinging slowly. It means striking downward with your entire body’s weight, pressing with force.”
Blocked.
“Nngh!”
Slash! Slash! Slash!
“Are you tone-deaf? Who executes Nine Heavens Boundless like that? When you strike nine times, a rhythm should form within those strikes. That’s how you trap your opponent within your own breathing.”
Blocked.
Blocked.
Blocked.
“Haah! Haah! This… this cannot be…”
Jaryang stared at Hoyeon, gasping for breath.
He held his sword at an angle, his expression one of pity.
Tsk.
At that condescending gaze, Jaryang’s lips trembled.
He spat blood in thin rivulets as he muttered low and ragged.
“Don’t… don’t look at me that way. My Changgung Boundless… don’t dismiss it…”
“A cornered weasel, are we?”
“This is all I have! I’ll reach the pinnacle with this, I swear it!”
Whoosh!
Then, a pale blue Sword Energy surged forth from Jaryang’s blade.
“J-Jaryang!”
“No!”
“We must stop him!”
The Changgung Unit members, who had been absorbed in the bout, jumped in alarm.
He was drawing his Sword Energy.
This was no longer a friendly match, nor a teaching bout.
“…The pinnacle? What good would that do you?”
Yet Hoyeon merely tilted his head, watching the surging Sword Energy pour forth.
“If you mean to mock my dream…”
“I’m not mocking—I’m asking out of curiosity. If you reach the pinnacle? Then what?”
“I… I, a collateral branch, will surpass the direct lineage! Changgung Boundless—I will soar into the endless sky itself!”
It was absurd.
All because of bloodline.
That one’s fate should be decided at birth.
“How can a person’s destiny be fixed the moment they are born? I refuse to accept it!”
……
“Emperor Sword Form? I don’t need such things. I can climb higher without them! Changgung Boundless is enough!”
At Jaryang’s anguished cry, Hoyeon fell silent for a moment.
Then he smiled and nodded slowly.
“I see. I understand now.”
“…What?”
“You want to be acknowledged. For your own existence.”
“.…….”
“If you desire it so deeply, then I’ll show you. The destination you must strive toward.”
Whooosh!
From Hoyeon’s sword, a brilliant blue Sword Energy flowed forth with visceral intensity.
“Good heavens!”
“Sword Energy!”
“Sword Energy at the Third Class level?!”
“First Class!”
“The Changgung Sword Energy!”
Shouts of disbelief erupted from the crowd in rapid succession.
Had he reached the Sword Energy Stage at merely fifteen years old?
Anyone hearing of it would shake their head in disbelief, calling it an absurd jest.
‘It’s possible, though barely. The problem is his meridians are still too weak at this age.’
But for Hoyeon, who once drew forth Sword Strength in torrents, this was only natural.
Rather, his body lagged behind his understanding, binding his abilities with numerous constraints.
After briefly taking stock of his physical condition, Hoyeon spoke to Namgung Jaryang.
“Your words hold some merit. Changgung Boundless will suffice.”
“……What?”
“Did the Emperor Sword Form fall from the sky like ripe fruit? Of course it has roots.”
“The roots of the Emperor Sword Form……?”
“I’ll give you one final lesson. Come at me.”
“…….”
Thump!
Namgung Jaryang drove off the ground.
What unfolded was his finest technique.
Changgung Boundless.
Slash! Slash!
Namgung Jaryang’s sword moved with lightning speed, inscribing a blue cross upon the empty air.
Whoosh!
But then something unexpected occurred.
‘He scattered the Sword Energy……?’
The Sword Energy layered over Hoyeon’s blade dispersed like smoke.
“You all thought there were gaps in Changgung Boundless, so you stuffed in unnecessary flourishes, didn’t you? That broke the flow of your technique entirely.”
Shwoooosh!
The scattered Sword Energy spread around Hoyeon like an overflowing tide, like an expanding sky.
Normally, Sword Energy is compressed.
Just look at Sword Silk or Sword Strength—they’re formed through the compression of energy itself.
But Hoyeon’s action was the opposite.
It was the dispersal of energy.
“That emptiness isn’t a gap. That void itself—that is the sky.”
Slash! Slash!
Hoyeon traced a cross through the void in the same manner.
Then the blue mist of energy scattered into the air divided into four directions, commanding the entire space.
Whoaaah—!
The world turned entirely blue, and that boundless sky expanded without end, truly infinite.
“Ah……!”
Namgung Jaryang, witnessing this sight, found himself thinking unbidden that it was beautiful.
His own sword, cast into that infinite boundless sky before him, appeared so fragile and pathetic.
Crack!
The two Changgung Boundless collided.
The outcome was clear.
“Cough! Hack!”
Namgung Jaryang’s sword shattered into fragments and scattered, and he collapsed, coughing blood.
“Hrk…… Ugh…….”
Sprawled flat on his back, the sky above him was nothing but blue.
Within that blue expanse, Hoyeon’s face appeared, wearing a smile.
“You alright, weasel?”
“……Who are you calling weasel?”
“Ha, thanks for playing the role of straight man. Man, I panicked when you suddenly asked me to lecture. What would I have done without you?”
“…….”
Namgung Jaryang watched Hoyeon chattering away merrily, then murmured without conviction.
“Am I really that… lacking?”
“You? For your age, you’re doing well enough.”
“Age… well, that’s certainly encouraging to hear.”
Namgung Jaryang let out a bitter laugh.
To stand before a monster who’d drawn Sword Energy at fifteen, and dare to speak of reaching the pinnacle—what folly.
“What exactly was that technique you used just now?”
“That? It’s right here.”
Hoyeon pointed to his own chest in response to Jaryang’s question.
More precisely, to the cloud pattern embroidered across his breast.
“It’s called Sword Cloud. The sky needs clouds, after all.”
“Sword Cloud…”
“The Changgung Boundless is a martial art concerning space itself. The Emperor Sword Form, which evolved from it, works the same way.”
“…”
“You all thought of emptiness as merely a gap to be filled, but without that void, there’s nothing to fill. You must empty first before you can ever fill.”
“Ah…”
As Jaryang listened to Hoyeon’s words, understanding dawned on him.
‘To fill, one must empty… Why didn’t I think of that? I’ve always tried to fill, never once considered emptying.’
The competition had begun the moment he was born.
He’d had to fight his enemies with the weapons he possessed and defeat them.
Fortunately, he’d been armed with something called ‘talent.’
He’d soared from victory to victory until he encountered a wall he seemingly could not surmount.
That wall bore the name Namgung Cheonggang.
‘I… hated Cheonggang. He’d mastered the Changgung Danyeonsin Technique, could learn the Emperor Sword Form.’
Because of that, he couldn’t admit Cheonggang was stronger than him.
He’d convinced himself it was merely a matter of good breeding, of bloodline luck.
‘But… can I say the same of this man?’
Namgung Jaryang gazed at Hoyeon and smiled faintly.
‘Even collateral, even without the Namgung name, Hoyeon would have become the greatest. There is always a sky above the sky…’
Namgung Jaryang felt his vision broadening.
With someone like this in the world, what had he been doing, like a frog in a well?
Could he ever truly claim to have lived his entire life for the Changgung Boundless?
Whoosh!
The sky reflected in Namgung Jaryang’s eyes began to expand, deeper and wider than before.
Hoyeon rose to his feet at the sight and nodded.
“As expected, I’m a real animal lover.”
* * *
“…”
Unit Commander Namjung Jungjeon stared at the devastated Training Ground with trembling eyes.
All seven members of the Changgung Unit’s seventh squad sat cross-legged in the Training Ground.
After his Martial Match with Namgung Jaryang, Namgung Hoyeon had immediately faced the remaining Changgung Unit members one after another.
He had not lost even once.
“Surely you don’t expect me to fight the Unit Commander too? You look pretty intimidating, sir.”
“Ha, haha!”
Namjung Jungjeon burst out laughing at the youngest lord tilting his head before him.
“Ohhahaha!”
“…What, what is it? Why suddenly…?”
“I’m overjoyed! Haha! Finally! Finally…!”
Crack!
Namjung Jungjeon clenched both fists and swallowed the rest of his words.
‘A Divine Dragon has appeared in the Namgung!’

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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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