Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 141

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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 141. The Sword Demon Beyond Reproach
“Hack-hack! Whew, I’m stuffed! The people of Hefei sure know how to treat a wanderer.”
A disheveled beggar in tattered robes patted his protruding belly contentedly as he ambled through the marketplace.
‘Not a trace of worry in their faces. A city like this is rare indeed.’
Especially since the Nine Hundred Contests—in their aftermath, common folk walked as though on thin ice.
A careless brush with the martial artists who now prowled with sharpened nerves could cost a life.
That was why the marketplaces in conflict zones wore such a desolate air.
People avoided venturing out for fear of trouble, and the merchants who had no choice but to peddle their wares were half-paralyzed with dread.
‘In the northern fields, rice pours down like rain; in the western lands, premium tea grows in abundance, and they say it’s become wildly popular in Beijing?’
Thanks to this, the Namgung Clan had resolved its financial troubles at a stroke and spent the past years expanding its reach.
When you counted all the branches of the Namgung escort business network spread across Zhongyuan, the number exceeded several thousand—a measure of their true power.
‘Wealthy households that dispense charity because they can afford to live well are rare. The reputation of the Righteous Sword Master Namgung Baek is no mere legend.’
The old man smiled at the pleasant air of the city before him—a feeling he hadn’t experienced in years.
Just then, a shopkeeper rushed toward him.
Was this one of those merchants who’d chase off beggars with a stick? True, the man held something in his hand.
“Grandfather! Please, take this!”
“Eh?”
“Grilled chicken skewers with our signature sauce!”
“Well.”
The old man scratched his weathered cheek.
A chicken skewer instead of a cudgel.
He was used to being turned away, but such enthusiastic hospitality was new to him.
This marked the fifth time such a thing had happened, and each instance astonished him anew.
“Oh, how you honor this beggar with such kindness! Three generations will prosper from your goodness!”
“Ha-ha! Three generations aren’t necessary. I’m a widower, you see.”
“Oh, oh! Soon you’ll meet a beautiful bride and marry! A man with such a generous heart—of course that’s how it must be!”
“You think so? Ha-ha! Just hearing it is encouraging. I too wish to turn my life around like the great transformations of old, and have marriage proposals come flooding in.”
Charmed by the old man’s courteous remarks, the shopkeeper handed over the skewers with a grin.
“Do try them.”
“Then let me—crunch, crunch, oh!”
At the merchant’s urging, the beggar plucked the meat from the skewers and exclaimed in satisfaction.
The chicken itself was crispy on the outside, tender within, but the real marvel was the sweet soy glaze.
“My, what is this sauce? Good enough to resurrect the ancient Emperor Qin!”
“Ha-ha! It’s a sweet soy glaze. I developed it myself.”
“A sweet soy sauce?”
“Our young master Ho Yeon has a taste for sweets, you see. Since he stops by our shop now and then, I keep a batch on hand so it never runs dry.”
The old man’s eyes gleamed at this.
“Oh? You know this young master Ho Yeon well?”
“Of course! Our young master—he’s a divine dragon sent from heaven, a genius born of the earth itself! From childhood he made a name for himself with his brilliant mind…”
The merchant’s face flushed with fervor as he began to sing the Song of Ho Yeon’s Celestial Command.
The old man’s lips twitched as he listened to this torrent of praise.
This was the third time he’d endured such a performance, so he managed.
“Puff, puff! What a pity that my humble tongue lacks the words to describe the young master’s genius! If I’d known, I’d have attended school as a boy.”
“Is that so? Such a remarkable person indeed.”
The old man nodded appropriately and murmured in an offhand way.
“Hmm, it seems this person and the one I know are different folk?”
“Eh? Who do you mean?”
“Ahem, this old beggar has heard that the youngest master of the Namgung Clan was called ‘Gold and Silver Flowing Like Water’ in Liaoning.”
“Well, he does scatter gold and silver about, that’s true.”
“Ahem! Drinks wine like water, frequents pleasure houses as if they were his own home, and toys with women as casually as eating rice, or so they say…”
“That can’t be! You’ve mistaken the person!”
At this, the shopkeeper’s temper flared suddenly.
“Don’t spread such talk elsewhere! There’s not a soul in this city who hasn’t benefited from Young Master Ho Yeon’s kindness!”
“Ah, no, this old beggar merely—”
“The Namgung Clan has reason to celebrate, so we let such things pass. We don’t want bad fortune on a fortunate day. Tch!”
The merchant turned away in a huff, and watching him go, the old beggar pursed his lips thoughtfully.
“Tch, so that’s why the youngsters said information gathering was difficult here? Say one ill word about the Namgung Clan and you’ll face a beating—that’s the mood of this place.”
Now he understood the groans of the Hefei branch office.
This city had already become one body with the Namgung Clan.
‘A faction’s true strength flows from the common people of its lands. This is why the unorthodox sects that rule through fear and force cannot maintain their power for long.’
It was certainly a desirable state of affairs, but for Bang Ui Chae, who had come to investigate the connection between Namgung Ho Yeon and the society, it was an unwelcome development.
“Well, there’s always a way around it.”
Bang Ui Chae’s eyes glinted as he smiled meaningfully.
“Poverty is like a disease even a ruler cannot cure. The lives of orphans, especially those who’ve lost their parents, are so wretched that words cannot describe them.”
No matter how much benevolent governance the Namgung Clan had enacted, they couldn’t possibly have looked after every orphan in the back alleys.
Moreover, Namgung Ho Yeon, who was his peer in age, was already being called the Thunder God Dragon and making a name for himself across Zhongyuan.
If one were living day after day in the back alleys, repeating a life as vile as a sewer, how intense would that sense of deprivation be?
“Heh heh, the answer lies not in the marketplace, but in the back alleys.”
Bang Ui Chae was confident that this time he would finally hear Namgung Ho Yeon speak ill of someone.
* * *
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swooosh!
The fine brush moved with fluid grace.
Sharp, black characters appeared on the paper.
Among heaven and earth’s nature, humans are most precious.
The character of heaven and earth—mankind alone holds the greatest value.
“Phew…….”
The girl with her hair bound in a topknot, Cho Seon Hyang, set down the brush and rotated her stiff wrist.
Her legs had grown numb from kneeling, as she was already making a second copy of the Classic of Filial Piety and the Book of Rites.
Yet after a brief rest, Cho Seon Hyang took up the brush again.
‘Compared to the kindness my master has shown me, merely copying characters is…….’
Cho Seon Hyang concentrated with clenched lips.
Her ability in poetry, calligraphy, and composition had long been renowned at Geumobong Ru.
The elegant script of Wang Xizhi, the precise hand of Ouyang Xun, the majestic strokes of Yan Zhenqing, the concise style of Zhao Mengfu—and more.
The number of celebrated masters’ hands she could imitate far exceeded twenty.
‘Master Ho Yeon’s brushwork is sharp. Like a sword.’
Swoosh! Swooosh!
As Cho Seon Hyang copied characters with the precision of executing sword forms, a faint smile played at her lips.
It brought her joy to know she could be of use to her benefactor in this way.
“Oh, what’s this. You’re actually quite useful, aren’t you?”
When she helped him with his copying despite his furrowed brow, her master had praised her for the first time.
“Good. From now on, you’re Namgung Seon Hyang. My shadow guard, understand? Copy the Classic of Filial Piety and the Book of Rites. I’m going to go spar with that damnable old mole. That bastard’s eyes work just fine, I’m sure of it.”
“Hehe.”
Cho Seon Hyang laughed softly as she recalled the conversation with her benefactor.
“To dislike reading so intensely, as if you were a child.”
Swoosh! Swoosh!
As she copied with the precision of a master swordsman, Cho Seon Hyang’s thoughts turned to Namgung Ho Yeon.
‘What a mysterious man.’
At first, she had been afraid.
To her, martial world practitioners were drunkards who caused riots and harassed the courtesans.
The other girls said that Geumobong Ru was at least better than most.
Small-town establishments were so dreadful that ten courtesans would hang themselves in a single day, they said.
‘I was fortunate, I suppose.’
As a candidate for the next Premier Courtesan at Geumobong Ru, Seon Hyang had been granted various privileges.
She could choose which gatherings to attend, and guards were assigned to protect her in case any trouble arose.
‘Eventually, I would have had to marry, but that’s my fate.’
She had thought that once her value faded from selling wine and laughter, she would become some official’s concubine and spend her remaining days in comfort.
In truth, had things gone that way, she would have counted herself fortunate.
‘I don’t resent my late mother. Rather, I’m grateful to her.’
Her mother, too, had been a courtesan at Geumobong Ru, and thanks to her, Seon Hyang had grown up under the protection of the other girls.
In her thoughtless childhood, she had yearned for freedom, but once she understood how harsh that freedom truly was, she had given up on it.
‘I’ve always wondered who my father was. But who would have thought that man who sent gold every month was actually my father?’
Cho Seon Hyang smiled broadly.
At some point,
gold began arriving in her name each month.
The other girls insisted it must be some wealthy young man who had fallen for her, but Cho Seon Hyang could not laugh.
‘It’s futile, yet he sends it so faithfully…….’
As a candidate for Premier Courtesan, Seon Hyang was not merchandise Geumobong Ru could sell for money.
She was an irreplaceable courtesan who would become the establishment’s signature beauty for the next ten years, maintaining its prestige.
No matter how much gold was sent, the miracle of her name being erased from the courtesan registry could never occur.
That’s what she had always believed…….
‘A miracle had truly happened.’
One day, a merchant who had come from a certain trading company said he would buy her.
Naturally, the haughty proprietor of Geumobong Ru had given them a thorough humiliation.
But the moment a name spilled from the merchant’s lips, the proprietor’s face went ashen, and he trembled.
“Namgung Ho Yeon.”
Cho Seon Hyang tried uttering that incantation, as if it were magic.
After that day, her life changed.
She boarded a ship bearing the imperial seal and arrived in Hefei, where she met her father—her only blood relative in the world.
Though they parted soon after, merely knowing that family existed somewhere in this world made her feel far less alone than before.
And the Namgung Clan.
“It’s so…… wonderful. I don’t want to leave here…….”
Cho Seon Hyang’s hand trembled as she held her brush.
Plink!
Ink droplets fell one after another.
A Lord and his Retainers Must Uphold Righteousness.
A lord and his subjects must share bonds of loyalty.
“Ah…….”
Cho Seon Hyang hastily set down her brush.
The words, as if pinching at her conscience, made her bite her lip.
“They had their reasons for letting me go…… I can’t refuse that…….”
The moment Namgung Ho Yeon’s name was mentioned.
The proprietor had taken her to the uppermost floor of Geumobong Ru.
The uppermost floor of Geumobong Ru was a mysterious place where even imperial family members could not lodge.
There, Cho Seon Hyang encountered a being of mysterious bearing—a divine personage.
“Go to the Namgung Clan and make yourself useful to Namgung Ho Yeon in any way you can. And wait for further orders.”
The blue-eyed divine being had assigned her a task.
At that time, she had nodded without realizing how things would unfold.
It turned out that Namgung Ho Yeon was a young Later Generation Disciple called the Thunder God Lightning Dragon.
She had been confident that with her beauty and talent, she could certainly win his favor.
In exchange, if only her name could be erased from Gi Jeok, she would do anything.
But.
“A concubine? No. The one who paid is someone else.”
“Just stay as a guest, will you?”
“You’re not my type. You’re terrible.”
He was nothing like the crude, ill-mannered martial artist she had imagined.
Something about him was…… different.
And he was warmer than she had expected.
“If…… an order comes telling me to betray you…… then I…….”
Just as Cho Seon Hyang was biting her lip.
Tap-tap-tap! Creak!
“Young Master! Oh?”
“What is it?”
“You…… are the Young Master’s attendant, then. Where is Young Master Ho Yeon?”
“He should be at the Thousand-Character House.”
“Ah, this is trouble.”
“What is the matter?”
At Cho Seon Hyang’s question, the martial attendant from the Namgung Clan’s main hall let out a heavy sigh.
“Alas, this is serious. The children at Hoa Won are disappearing.”
“They are?”
“I don’t know how to tell the Young Master about this…….”
Tap!
The martial attendant shook his head and closed the door behind him, and Cho Seon Hyang’s face turned deathly pale.
“The children at Hoa Won are…… disappearing?”
Kidnapping? Abduction?
Could human traffickers really be operating so brazenly in Hefei?
‘My benefactor cherishes those children dearly. He will surely grieve when he hears this…….’
The moment she thought this.
Cho Seon Hyang felt a sharp pang in her chest.
‘But if I ask them for help…….’
Unable to do one thing or the other, Cho Seon Hyang stood there biting her lip as her vision began to cloud.
A passage from the *Book of Rites* caught his eye as he was copying it out.
When facing hardship, do not seek to escape it shamefully.
When difficulty comes, face it without cowardice.
Rip!
Tear! Tearing sound!
Cho Sun-hyang immediately tore the paper and began writing rapidly.
[A request from Cho Sun-hyang of the Gisaeng Gate.
Please locate the whereabouts of the abducted children.]
* * *
“Good gods! What kind of cursed city is this! Help me!”
In a back alley of Hefei.
An old beggar who had somehow become the culprit in a serial child abduction let out a wail of despair.

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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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