Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 132

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

Episode 132. The Sword Demon Wearies of the New Order
Dawn broke over the city.
Hangzhou had been turned upside down.
“Did you hear about it?”
“Of course. The Broken Bridge Blood Calamity, right?”
“They say the West Lake turned red, as if someone had poured cinnabar into it.”
“So which demon beast stirred up all that chaos?”
“The magistrate’s men are still investigating, but according to a relative in the inquiry team, it was one expert in unarmed combat and one swordmaster.”
“A pair of demons wielding fist and blade together, then. A true Fist-and-Sword Demon duo.”
“But here’s what’s strange—all the bodies scattered across Broken Bridge were wearing night-travel garments, and they were all Japanese.”
“Japanese? How in the world did they end up there? Surely they weren’t Japanese pirates?”
“That part’s unclear, but something is definitely off about the whole affair. The magistrate’s office is treating it as an internal dispute among the Japanese themselves.”
“Ridiculous! If they want to fight, let them do it in their own country. Why ruin the pride of Hangzhou?”
“My thoughts exactly. No one will be visiting Broken Bridge for some time. The reconstruction alone will take more than three months.”
The good citizens of Hangzhou were busy discussing the blood calamity that had unfolded at Broken Bridge wherever they gathered.
Though Hangzhou did serve as a refuge for criminals, it was rare for fools to actually cause trouble here.
Anyone foolish enough to stir up problems in a place like this had nowhere left to hide except some remote mountain valley.
For that reason, the Broken Bridge Blood Calamity was the largest bloodshed Hangzhou had witnessed in a long while.
While ordinary citizens chattered endlessly about the blood calamity, a few well-informed men of power spoke of a different matter entirely.
“Did you hear?”
“I certainly did.”
“In the dead of night, the Namgung Clan drew their blades.”
“The results of the Three Merchant Alliance meeting must have been shocking. From what I gather, those who were seized were all merchants who supported the Nanjing Merchant Guild.”
“Incredible. I never thought the Namgung Clan would stoop to intimidating merchants by force. So much for being an Orthodox Sect worthy of the name.”
“Indeed. If they keep acting without justification like this, they’ll face a terrible backlash.”
“Perhaps now that they’ve risen to fame eliminating river pirates along the Yangtze, they think themselves above all consequence. The young Lord Thunder Peak Dragon may simply be intoxicated with his own reputation.”
“I hear all the merchants who were attacked have now gathered at Thunder Peak Tower. The Namgung Clan is holding everyone they seized there.”
“Do you think they’ll release the merchants easily? If you ask me, they’re dragging out the process until the next general meeting to overturn the results of this one.”
“That won’t be so simple. Several sects throughout Zhejiang have come forward to lodge formal complaints. And fortunately, the venerable Byeok Hye, who happened to be waiting for passage, was quick to volunteer her aid.”
“What? The Sword Demon Nun herself? So the Botha Sect on Mount Putuo is making its move.”
“This could develop into an outright clash between the Baekga Maeng and the Martial Alliance.”
The men of power discussed the Namgung Clan’s sudden, sweeping actions that had unfolded overnight.
The great tiger that had been crouching in Anhui stretched, and the entire region began to convulse.
Those who heard the news kept watch on the Namgung Clan’s next move, their gaze fixed upon Thunder Peak Tower.
* * *
Before the pagoda with its five layers of octagonal tiles stacked in a tower structure, a sea of humanity pressed close.
Though Thunder Peak Tower was a famous landmark of Hangzhou, it had never been crowded like this.
Moreover, the crowd was visibly agitated, their faces flushed and pale by turns as they shouted at the top of their voices.
“Release Master Ping at once!”
“You villains! How dare you abduct innocent people!”
“Doesn’t Heaven mean anything to you?”
“How could the Namgung Clan do such a thing?”
“Please, please give my husband back!”
“Daddy! Daddy, come back!”
They were all family and associates of the merchant lords seized by Namgung warriors.
Business partners, hired martial artists, wives, children—all had gathered to plead against the Namgung Clan’s outrageous conduct.
The will of the people is the will of Heaven.
Even from the Namgung Clan, most agreed that this action had gone too far.
“You cannot enter.”
“It is forbidden.”
Yet the entrance to Thunder Peak Tower remained completely sealed by Namgung warriors.
At their front, the commander of the Iron Sword Brigade, Geuk Ji Ryang, and the commander of the Great Might Brigade, Meng Yi Gyeong, stood immovable as mountains.
The Martial Presence they radiated was so overwhelming that though people raised their voices in protest, none dared step forward.
Then.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of light footsteps thundered across the surroundings like distant thunder.
“Amitabha Buddha.”
Parting the crowd came an elderly nun in grey robes with a sword at her hip.
Her silver hair and deeply lined eyes sparkled with a clear, penetrating gaze as she approached Thunder Peak Tower.
“Ah, it’s the Sword Demon Nun!”
“Byeok Hye! Please clear my husband of these false charges!”
“Teach these lawless villains what justice and righteousness truly mean!”
At the nun’s arrival, the crowd erupted in cheers.
She was Byeok Hye of the Botha Sect, the Sword Demon whose name was known across the four seas as a master of the highest caliber.
“Clear the way, patrons.”
“That we cannot do.”
“You cannot pass.”
Even at the Sword Demon’s words, Geuk Ji Ryang and Meng Yi Gyeong declared it impossible.
Then the Sword Demon’s Nae Gong surged upward, and from that gaunt frame issued a voice so resonant it seemed impossible her body could contain it.
“How does the Namgung Clan, pillar of the Orthodox Sect, oppress innocent folk? You detain the guild masters because the council’s verdict displeases you? Release them at once!”
“That we cannot do.”
“Not until orders come.”
“You truly dare—!”
Whoooosh!
Crack!
White light blazed from the Sword Demon’s eyes, and her robes began to flutter violently.
She was channeling the Botha Sect’s secret technique—the Demon-Subduing Ocean Saint Technique—at full power.
At that display, Geuk Ji Ryang and Meng Yi Gyeong, along with all the Namgung Clan’s martial masters, drew up their Nae Gong in unison.
‘How far are they willing to go? Have they truly abandoned the Orthodox Sect?’
A frown creased the Sword Demon’s brow.
She had come here both to rescue the wrongfully detained innocents and to mediate between the Namgung Clan and the Three Merchant Alliance of South Yangtze.
She had meant to use her own standing to reproach the Namgung Clan for their rash error, providing them a way to save face and retreat.
But the Namgung Clan showed no sign of regretting their mistake, and so the Sword Demon had no choice but to change her mind.
‘So be it. As a fellow Orthodox Sect member, I offered my aid—but no longer. Now I stand with the wronged souls.’
Click.
The moment the Sword Demon resolved herself and placed her hand on the blade at her waist.
Creak-creak-creak!
Screeeech!
The doors of Thunder Peak Tower slowly swung open.
“Ugh. What’s all this noise about?”
As a young man’s clear voice rang out, the Namgung Clan martial masters who had stood like an iron wall instantly parted.
Click! Shuffle-shuffle!
With precise, measured steps, the divided Namgung warriors resembled a parting wave, their blue martial robes lending the image an almost liquid quality.
“Ah, did some midnight calisthenics and now my whole body’s stiff as a board.”
Step, step, step.
From that wave of bodies emerged a young man with three swords belted at his waist.
He yawned widely and glanced about with an air of complete ease.
Yet the Sword Demon, meeting his gaze, felt herself drawn as taut as a bowstring.
‘Thunder God Dragon Slayer—Namgung Ho Yeon!’
The Sword Demon could scarcely believe it.
Namgung Ho Yeon stood with his hand thrust carelessly into the loose fold of his robes, looking utterly unbothered, yet she could detect not the slightest opening in his defense.
‘When I heard news of the Dragon Slaying Palm, I thought it exaggeration!’
He hadn’t needed help from the Dan Ri Sega to slay the man-eating demon after all?
Could he truly have broken through at such a young age?
“Hmm? Who are you?”
Ho Yeon asked the nun, who was staring at him with an expression like carved stone.
The Sword Demon answered.
“I am Byeok Hye of the Botha Sect.”
“Namgung Ho Yeon. You’ve come to see Thunder Peak Tower?”
“I heard there were innocent folk wrongfully detained here, so I came. Now step aside.”
“Well, there are innocents here. The problem is they’re not good citizens—they’re false citizens masquerading as such.”
“What did you say?”
“Come inside. We’ve been waiting for you.”
As Ho Yeon moved aside, the Sword Demon’s expression became inscrutable.
“Waiting for me?”
“To be precise, we were waiting for a witness. Since you belong to the Martial Alliance rather than the Baekga Maeng or the Gucheon Sung, you’ll remain impartial between the two factions, won’t you?”
“……Of course.”
“Ha, that is precisely what I require. An impartial witness.”
Step, step, step.
Ho Yeon strode ahead into Thunder Peak Tower and gave his command.
“That’s enough. Don’t hold anyone back. They’ve worked hard—let them go eat something.”
“Ha, we shall dine with you, Master.”
“I am quite fond of meat side dishes myself, Master.”
Meng Yi Gyeong and Geuk Ji Ryang, who had seemed like iron pillars, broke into gentle smiles at a single word from Namgung Ho Yeon.
Byeok Hye, who had been watching them closely, followed in their wake and stepped into Thunder Peak Tower.
The eight walls of Thunder Peak Tower’s interior bore the Avatamsaka Sutra carved in stone, but what seized Byeok Hye’s gaze was not scripture—it was the sight at the tower’s center.
There, more than thirty people lay kneeling, bound in a line like fish strung together.
“Master!”
“No! Darling!”
“You animals! How dare you bind people like beasts!”
Those who had entered in Byeok Hye’s wake gasped in horror at the sight.
“You… you!”
“Ah! You’ve come to save us!”
“Please, make them release us. They’ve kept us bound all night without explaining anything!”
The merchant lords who had been captured cried out in relief the moment they glimpsed their families.
Watching Namgung Ho Yeon smile faintly at this, Byeok Hye spoke.
“Master. These men may have sided with Gucheon Seong, but surely this is excessive. Release them at once.”
“On the contrary, I think my treatment has been far too lenient.”
“What are you saying?”
In response to Byeok Hye’s question, Namgung Ho Yeon glanced about the tower’s interior as he spoke.
“This tower holds an interesting legend, does it not?”
“…Are you speaking of the Legend of the White Snake?”
“Precisely. A tale of love between a man named Xu Xian and Bai Su Jing, a thousand-year-old serpent demon, was it not?”
As Namgung Ho Yeon murmured this, watching the merchant lords’ families cry out for their immediate release, he continued.
“I feel rather like Fa Hai in this moment.”
Fa Hai is a high-ranking Buddhist monk who appears in the Legend of the White Snake.
Seeing through Bai Su Jing’s true nature, he warns Xu Xian.
Bai Su Jing is a fake—flee at once.
Yet Xu Xian and Bai Su Jing love each other truly, and Fa Hai, fearing that Bai Su Jing might harm mortals, seals her beneath Thunder Peak Tower.
“In the Legend of the White Snake, Fa Hai is cast as the villain. He is the one who tore the lovers apart by force.”
“Master… what are you trying to say?”
“But I understand Fa Hai. He acted only upon what he believed. A demon beast is a demon beast. A person is a person. The two cannot mix.”
“……”
Namgung Ho Yeon’s gaze, fixed upon the merchant lords pleading for rescue, turned glacial.
Reading the ominous shift in the air that emanated from him, Byeok Hye found herself instinctively stepping back.
Then Namgung Ho Yeon extended his hand toward the center of the tower and continued.
“Had this been a choice between a gentle lie and a painful truth, I might waver—but since both lead to a wretched reality either way, I shall leave the judgment to them.”
“M-Master?!”
“Great Might Heavenly Dragon.”
Crack!
The instant Byeok Hye cried out, white lightning erupted from Namgung Ho Yeon’s palm.
The Cheonrae Gi spread outward in a radial pattern like a casting net for catching fish, engulfing the merchant lords kneeling at the tower’s center.
Boom-crack-crack!
“Ahhhhh!”
“Uuuuuh!”
“No, no, nooo!”
“My love!”
“Father!”
Like the tower’s very name—Thunder Peak—a spike of lightning rose skyward.
Within Thunder Peak Tower, the screams of the merchant lords and the shrieks of their families crossed and tangled.
“Namgung Master! What is this madness! Are you in your right mind?!”
“Look closely. Look at the true nature of these raccoon demons.”
“What?”
Though Byeok Hye cried out in alarm, Namgung Ho Yeon’s gaze remained fixed on the center.
Then something impossible began to unfold before their eyes.
Crack-crack! Snap-snap!
The faces of the merchant lords struck by the Cheonrae Gi twisted in unison.
Like Bai Su Jing exposed after drinking realgar wine, their false masks were being stripped away.
“My… darling?”
“Father?”
“You’re saying… Lord Namgung?”
The screaming crowd fell silent, eyes snapping wide open.
Their lord, their husband, their father—his face crumpled like wet clay, then reformed into the visage of a man whose features carried a subtly foreign cast, nothing of the Zhongyuan about him.
“This… this… what is this…?”
Byeok Hye too found herself unable to comprehend what she had witnessed.
To her confusion, Namgung Ho Yeon spoke with disarming calm.
“The Legend of the White Snake endures because it tells a tragedy that breaks the heart. But tragedy born in this world is merely cheap sentiment, nothing more.”
And that is why people despise cheap sentiment.
When life itself is wretched melodrama, who in their right mind would choose to watch it?
Namgung Ho Yeon had always loathed sentimentality—those tears that came too easily, that emotional pandering.
Which is why the melodramatic spectacle that unfolded afterward at Thunder Peak Tower shall be omitted from this account.

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