Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 140

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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 140. The Sword Demon Becomes the Furnace
Trickle, trickle.
Water flowed gently from a bamboo aqueduct into a pond below.
Droplets falling in irregular rhythm rippled the surface, layering wave upon wave.
Through the disturbance, the silk carp swimming in the clear water scattered into fragments of color, as though flowers were blooming across the surface.
“Hehehehe.”
Yu Hui Seong, the man gazing at the pond, laughed.
But it was not laughter of admiration for the pond’s beauty—it was cold mockery.
“Mil Wei.”
Snap!
At Yu Hui Seong’s word, a man in black night clothes descended from empty air and prostrated himself.
“You have it easy, haven’t you? The reputation of the Eumsal Mun spreads across all Under Heaven.”
“…….”
Mil Wei lowered his head at Yu Hui Seong’s words.
“Answer me, Mil Wei. Or rather—Han Jo.”
“My apologies.”
Han Jo, leader of the Iga-ryuu and current master of the Eumsal Mun, offered his bow of apology.
At this, Yu Hui Seong smiled thinly and spoke.
“If the Gangnam Samshang Hoe had fallen into your hands, your coffers would have run deep indeed. And that’s not all—you would have seized tremendous power, enough to topple the great houses of Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang whenever you wished.”
Clench!
Yu Hui Seong clenched the empty air as though grasping at the power that had slipped through his fingers, and continued.
“The Samshang Hoe was a golden opportunity. Why did you fail?”
“There was a variable.”
“What variable?”
“The Namgung Clan.”
“That’s no variable. Did you not anticipate they would resist if you squeezed their distribution channels?”
“…….”
“The true variable in Hangzhou arose not from a collective, but from a single man—Namgung Ho Yeon, the Thunder God’s Light Dragon.”
Yu Hui Seong’s eyes narrowed to slits.
That name had been reaching his ears with increasing frequency of late.
‘The young dragon of the Namgung Clan, who killed the wall-breaker Chu Um and disrupted the Society’s grand scheme.’
Chu Um had originally been scheduled to enter Gucheon Seong and become a protector of the Ten Thousand Heavens Sect.
With the unique ability he possessed—Psychic Suggestion—he could have sown tremendous chaos within Gucheon Seong.
‘And then he killed the anthropophagic demon Jin Heuk Cheon, slowing Gucheon Seong’s rampant expansion.’
Currently, Gucheon Seong had paused after consuming all the territory it could, now digesting its gains.
This was partly why the Baekga Maeng, which had suffered a sudden ambush, began regrouping to oppose Gucheon Seong.
And standing at the watershed of this temporary lull in the Nine Hundred Power Struggle was the Thunder God’s Light Dragon’s assassination of the anthropophagic demon.
‘I ordered the assassination of the Thunder God’s Light Dragon, and yet he failed spectacularly.’
Yu Hui Seong looked down at Han Jo with cold eyes.
Had Namgung Ho Yeon been assassinated at this juncture, he could have fanned the dying embers of Martial Chaos into a raging fire, accelerating the Nine Hundred Power Struggle.
Instead, the reverse had come to pass.
“I’ll concede that failing to seize control of the Gangnam Samshang Hoe was an acceptable loss. But the revelation of the Eumsal Mun’s existence—that is fatal.”
“…….”
“Assassins are most formidable when they remain hidden. Now your identities have been exposed to the entire world.”
“I did not know the Cheonroe Jewang Singong possessed such a function……”
Han Jo’s face contorted beneath his mask.
The Sky Face Technique, one of the Lanpa-ryuu’s second-generation secret arts, was a supreme secret technique that elevated the Eumsal Mun’s value within the Society.
That it had been broken through meant the Eumsal Mun’s worth had diminished proportionally.
Han Jo spoke urgently.
“This time I shall venture forth myself. Fortunately, there is but one user of the Cheonroe Jewang Singong in all of Zhongyuan. If I can assassinate Namgung Ho Yeon alone……!”
“Enough. It’s already too late.”
“My lord!”
“The situation has moved to the next act. This time, the Baekga Maeng has set the stage.”
Scratch, scratch.
Yu Hui Seong, lost in thought, began scratching at the scar at the corner of his mouth.
“The Baek Wu Hak Gwan. They’ve brought forward a method I never anticipated.”
“…….”
“It bears the name of an academy, but look inside and it’s nearly a provisional reconstruction of the Martial Alliance. Talents from across the realm, hungry for a righteous cause, are gathering in droves.”
“…….”
“Hehehehe, they’ve caught me off guard. But if we’re speaking of a righteous cause, I’ve prepared a countermeasure of my own.”
Yu Hui Seong’s body trembled.
His lively, racing mind sent shivers coursing through every fiber of his being.
‘Ah, what a fascinating world this is! How fortunate to be alive!’
Scratch!
Unable to contain his excitement, Yu Hui Seong raked his fingernail across the corner of his mouth.
Blood welled up from the gash he’d torn across his lip, flowing like a crimson stream.
“Summon the master of the Gong Ryeong Mun.”
“…….”
“He’ll be occupied with Hao Mun’s inner matters, no doubt—but an opportunity like this cannot be passed up.”
“……Very well.”
Han Jo bowed and answered.
There was an unmistakable edge to Yu Hui Seong’s words—an implicit exclusion of the Eumsal Mun from this operation—and the taste in Han Jo’s mouth turned bitter.
Whoosh!
As Han Jo turned to leave the garden, one of his subordinates appeared before him and prostrated.
“What is it?”
“The Huma-ryuu members have betrayed us.”
“Again? They’re stirring up trouble again, are they? Tch.”
Han Jo clicked his tongue at the report.
The Huma-ryuu members were a perpetual headache—without fail, they caused problems just when you thought they’d quieted down.
Yet they couldn’t be abandoned entirely, for they remained useful nonetheless.
“Arrest a few and make examples of them—”
“It’s not that, sir. The Huma-ryuu members have betrayed us en masse.”
“……What?”
“On the same day and hour, they assassinated the leaders of each cell and disappeared.”
“……!”
“They took several months’ worth of the Poison Antidote that the leaders possessed and fled.”
“That’s impossible! They’d betray their own sect just to survive a few more months?!”
Han Jo cried out in disbelief.
The Huma-ryuu members all had solitude sleeping in their bodies—a poison deeply embedded within them.
Without regular doses of the Antidote, that poison would seep into their veins and their hearts would dissolve away.
Until now, the Antidote had been the leash by which the Huma-ryuu were controlled.
For them to betray without going mad was unthinkable.
“It’s true. I’ve yet to tally the full extent of the damage, but it will be catastrophic—”
“These treacherous wretches! How dare they drive a blade into their own people’s backs! Curse them!”
Han Jo, whose order valued Endurance as its foremost virtue, felt a fury beyond containment.
The Eumsal Mun’s standing within the Gangnam Samshang Hoe had already diminished when their takeover bid failed—and now an internal crisis erupts?
“Curse it all! Namgung……Ho Yeon……!”
Han Jo harbored a bitter resentment, convinced that all of this calamity had its origin in Namgung Ho Yeon.
“That whelp’s neck will be mine one day—I swear it!”
* * *
“Ah, my ears are burning.”
“Seems someone’s cursing you, young master.”
“Well, there are so many reasons to curse me, I couldn’t say who it is.”
“Hehe, who would curse a kindhearted young master like you? If such a man existed, this Ho Il Chi would never forgive him!”
Ho Yeon was seated within the depths of the Cheon Nam Iron Forge alongside the Ho family father and son.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Hiss-hiss-hiss!
Inside the Cheon Nam Iron Forge, the relentless clang of hammers and the sizzle of quenching echoed without cease.
The scorching heat from the charcoal fire and the thin mist of steam hanging in the air made it feel as though they’d stepped into a tropical jungle.
“So, what is this method you mentioned?”
“Yes. Exactly where are we to find a heat source to substitute for Mount Hua……?”
Ho Mok No, eyes closed, turned his gaze toward Ho Yeon with his question, and Ho Il Chi too looked at him with obvious curiosity.
At that, Ho Yeon smiled broadly and raised a finger.
Crackle!
A white Thunder Qi swirled around his fingertip before vanishing.
“This is what we’ll use.”
“Hmm, that won’t work.”
At Ho Yeon’s words, Ho Mok No shook his head.
“In my youth, I once visited Thunder Cry Peak in Tian Shan, hoping to forge a blade using thunder—”
“Father, you went to a place like that?”
“I nearly died, but I lived.”
“……It’s a miracle you only lost your sight.”
“Well, in any case, getting struck by Thunder Qi repeatedly did melt the iron. But the shock was so intense that the iron’s structure changed entirely. Some of it even vaporized.”
Ho Mok No finished speaking, and Ho Yeon smiled meaningfully before responding.
“That would happen with direct contact to Thunder Qi.”
“Hmm?”
“The method I intend to use is non-contact. Well, just watch.”
Crack-crack!
Ho Yeon placed the Eternal Cold Iron Chain into a ceramic crucible shaped like a flowerpot and settled into position.
Then the Cheonrae Geom and Heukya Tae Geom spoke.
―Ahem! My boy, you should be grateful to this old master here. Without me, you’d never have discovered this technique, would you?
―Ugh, enough of that, old sword. Get out of the way. I still haven’t tried that hot buckwheat noodle soup!
The Cheonrae Geom bragged while the Heukya Tae Geom panicked.
Ho Yeon let out a soft chuckle in response.
‘I’m grateful, old master. I’ll give you a nice warm compress later, just for you.’
―Ahem! All right then.
―Old master, wasn’t that unbearably hot? I nearly melted myself!
―Perfect, just right. You grow old someday. Every bone in this body aches.
Ho Yeon recalled the time he’d first discovered this technique, listening to the swords’ banter.
It was during the days when he was developing the electromagnetic coil.
He had discovered that a magnetic field forms around a current-carrying wire, and had been in the midst of experiments layering those fields.
The Cheonrae Geom had enjoyed these experiments, expressing satisfaction at how the blade felt pleasantly warm.
Then curiosity seized the Heukya, and it pestered Ho Yeon to do the same—a day that nearly became the Heukya’s memorial.
―Aaaah! It’s so hoooot! My body’s burning! Help me! I don’t wanna die!
The Heukya shrieked at the top of its lungs, spouting Japanese with abandon.
‘That’s when I first understood it. Induction heating.’
The Cheonrae Geom, forged from a meteorite, had been struck by Thunder Qi for centuries and had grown immune to ordinary heat. But the Heukya had not.
Though the Heukya was also a fine blade, sharp enough to cut steel like tofu, induction heating was beyond its endurance.
‘I never grasped the precise mechanism, but the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil generates a magnetic field. And inside the metal surrounded by this field, eddy currents form in a vortex pattern.’
The stronger the current, the stronger the eddy currents within the metal became, and when they reached their limit, the metal melted.
This was induction heating.
“Exhale.”
Ho Yeon took a short breath and cradled the ceramic crucible in both hands.
Crackle!
Whirrrrr!
Then the Thunder Qi spiraled around the crucible, forming an electromagnetic coil.
“Hmm?”
“What in the world…?”
Ho Mok No sensed something and his brow twitched; Ho Il Chi simply tilted his head in bewilderment.
Crackle!
Whirrrrr―!
Ho Yeon concentrated, maintaining the electromagnetic coil.
Yet no change could be detected from the ceramic crucible.
‘Of course—Eternal Cold Iron lives up to its name.’
Rumble! Boom!
Impatient with the Eternal Cold Iron’s reluctance to melt, thunder and lightning erupted from Ho Yeon’s lower dantian.
Lightning struck and then thunder followed in rapid succession, and soon the electromagnetic coil blazed with a white radiance bright enough to turn the smithy into noon.
Flare!
“Oho.”
“Ugh!”
Ho Mok No, though blind, marveled at the unprecedented heat gathering in the ceramic crucible, while Ho Il Chi shielded his face with both arms against the searing light.
“Huh!”
In the moment Ho Yeon exhaled sharply and burst forth with his Qi Aura.
Sizzzzz!
‘Done!’
The Eternal Cold Iron Chain, glowing red-hot inside the ceramic crucible, began to melt.
Once it began to liquefy, the rest followed swiftly. Soon the interior of the crucible rippled with a mystical molten metal the color of flame.
“Gasp, gasp! Ho Noya, how does it look?”
“Haha! This is the first time I’ve seen such craftsmanship. To think a human could melt Eternal Cold Iron so perfectly!”
“Phew. We did it, then?”
“At this rate, we’ll forge a blade finer than anything that’s come out of the Wudang forges. The heat distribution is far more uniform than before.”
Clink!
Ho Mok No seized a pair of tongs with evident excitement, grasping the Ceramic Crucible.
“First we’ll set it in the mold to shape it, then begin the real tempering.”
“Well then, I’ll be on my way—”
“What? Without you, how am I supposed to temper it?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You think forging happens in a single pass? It takes repeated cycles of heating and hammering before a blade comes to completion.”
“What?!”
“Hehehehe, you’ll be staying here for a while. You’re going to be my furnace.”
“……!”
While Ho Mok No hummed cheerfully, Namgung Ho Yeon’s complexion darkened to ashen.
‘Is this old madman actually treating me like a furnace?’
Did he have any idea how exhausting this was? Even if he could replenish his Nae Gong through Qi Breathing Circulation, maintaining concentration was brutally taxing.
‘I’ve got a mountain of overdue work already, and now my head’s pounding!’
He wanted to bolt for the door, but he’d been the one asking for this favor in the first place.
Realizing he’d backed himself into a corner, Namgung Ho Yeon finally lost his patience and snapped.
“Damn it all!”
“Ahahaha! You’re having fun too, aren’t you?”
“Master, are your ears broken?”
“Phahahah! Be reasonable. Fine blades don’t come cheap.”
“Stop spouting wisdom and show some common sense! A person needs flexibility.”
“Now that’s well said. From now on, I’ll call you Melting Vessel.”
“You absolute madman!”
“…….”
Ho Il Chi watched the two of them—their banter so perfectly timed—and mused silently.
‘They say geniuses recognize each other. These two must have completely lost their minds.’

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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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