Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 199

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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 199. The Sword Demon Meets Sura
“Everyone, push forward! Just a little more!”
Whoosh!
Hye Il deployed the Flowing Cloud Body Method, moving like drifting clouds.
Simultaneously, he channeled the Xuanxu Heart Method to its peak, drawing forth the mysterious Xuanxu Qi.
A secretive, ethereal aura unfolded from Hye Il’s outstretched palms, radiating outward in all directions.
‘One on the left! Two at ground level!’
Hye Il sensed the assassins’ presence.
Not through sight or sound, but through something far deeper.
While the Cotton Palm was Hye Il’s signature technique, it was far from his only mastery.
‘The Closed Eyes Substitute Palm is the ultimate evolution of the Trace Sensing Technique!’
A palm technique that substituted for closed eyes—the Closed Eyes Substitute Palm.
It was a martial art that radiated qi broadly to detect presence,
with outstretched palms serving as both transmitter and receiver in a wondrous technique.
“Haa!”
Boom!
Crack!
As Hye Il extended his left palm, the ribs of a man in dark night clothes hiding in the empty air shattered.
Whistle!
Thud! Bang!
Hye Il, who fell from the air, stamped the ground twice with the precision of a thousand-pound weight.
The assassins hidden underground by the Earth Evasion Technique perished without sound or trace, thin blood seeping into the earth.
“Seize that Daoist!”
Im Eom, commander of the Deng Huo Ghost Shadow Squad, shouted.
This lanky Daoist kept pinpointing the assassins’ positions and thwarting their ambushes.
Swoosh!
Whoosh!
At Im Eom’s command, a dozen black-clad figures appeared from the air.
They seized a wide steel net and descended in unison.
It was a tactic to seal off Hye Il’s fluid movements.
“A Daoist?”
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Just then, a round-bellied Daoist in mid-air kicked at the void, his robes fluttering.
“What is a Daoist?!”
Whistle!
The Daoist—Gwang Myeong—ascended to the heavens in an instant, flicking all ten fingers.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Sky-blue wind blades scattered like flower petals, turning three assassins into honeycomb.
“A Daoist commands the wind!”
Whoosh!
Kicking off the air again, Gwang Myeong glided like a dragon riding clouds, closing in on the next assassin from behind.
“And brings rain from a cloudless sky!”
Boom-boom!
The irregular strikes of the Dry Sky Rain Fist pierced the assassin’s defense, landing on his face, torso, and chest.
Whistle! Boom!
“And folds the heavens to run!”
Gwang Myeong flipped his body and kicked at the void; his direction shifted like a dragon swinging its tail.
Approaching the next assassin with the Cloud Dragon Tail Sweep, Gwang Myeong extended both palms flat, forming hand blades.
Slash-slash-slash-crack!
“And wields sharp hands to cleave the sky!”
Fingers sharp as a crane’s beak tore through the assassins according to the Crane Capturing Dragon Hand technique.
Whistle! Crack!
In an instant, Gwang Myeong had slain all the assassins in the air and landed beside Hye Il, announcing proudly:
“Above all, aiding a friend is the true calling of a Daoist! Never disrespect a Daoist again!”
“Gwang Myeong, that was magnificent!”
“Hah! I am none other than the right arm of the Blood Storm—Cheonran Gu!”
“Let’s go!”
“Onward!”
Boom-boom-boom!
With Hye Il and Gwang Myeong leading the way and clearing a path, the main detachment was able to cross Ha Jong unscathed and without incident.
Tap-tap!
“Gck!”
The masked figure who landed behind them—Im Eom—ground his teeth.
“Damn brats! Enjoy yourselves while you can! All that awaits you is despair!”
Whoosh!
Patter-patter-pat!
As Im Eom gave the signal, the assassins of the Deng Huo Ghost Shadow Squad surged forward in pursuit.
Im Eom, his expression grim as he watched them, soon let out a low chuckle.
“Heh heh! That’s right—no need for anger, you fools. In the end, you’re just fish in a net.”
The operation’s core was simple: the Chuk Saeng Gwang Soo Squad would stall for time, the Deng Huo Ghost Shadow Squad would pursue, and the Zhonghe Lock Prison Squad would cut off their escape.
The Zhonghe Lock Prison Squad had already moved north to the Sandbar, following the escaped boat.
Which meant that where those wretches were headed, there waited only a shattered hull and the mangled corpses of boatmen strewn about.
No escape route existed to begin with.
Tap-tap-tap!
“Heh, the faces of despairing brats never grow tiresome to watch.”
The moment Im Eom arrived at the northern Sandbar, one step behind, a dark smile playing at his lips—
“…Hm?”
He beheld a sight that made no sense.
The northern Sandbar was frozen as if time itself had stopped.
The Baekmu Academy brats, the assassins of the Deng Huo Ghost Shadow Squad—all stood motionless, as though turned to stone.
“What in blazes are you doing? Kill them!”
Im Eom roared in fury.
Then.
“Your loud mouth gives me a headache. Didn’t I say I’d kill you if you made noise?”
“What?”
A quiet voice sounded.
Turning, Im Eom saw a man perched on the bow of the beached vessel.
An unremarkable build, an unremarkable face—the sort of middle-aged man you’d pass without a second glance in any street.
“Who are you? No—how is the boat intact? What in hell did the Zhonghe Lock Prison Squad do?”
“The Zhonghe Lock Prison Squad? Ah, those fools in iron armor? They’ve all become fish food.”
“What—what did you say?!”
“A martial warrior stupidly wearing armor grows heavy and sinks. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
The middle-aged man clicked his tongue.
His figure vanished in an instant.
Whoosh!
“Ugh?!”
“That loud voice of yours—an assassin should remember his place.”
Im Eom, suddenly seized by the throat, thrust his hand out desperately and cut at the middle-aged man’s carotid artery with his short dagger.
Slash! Spurt!
“Heh! Rather painless… what—?!”
Im Eom smiled, thinking the matter settled—but in the next breath, he knew something was terribly wrong.
He had severed the carotid artery.
Yet the grip around his throat did not loosen; instead, it tightened further and further.
Crack!
“Gggaahh! This… what…!”
“You’ve only hunted weak prey all this time—that’s what it means. Tsk tsk. A gambler must roll the dice, and a gambler must gamble. Yet here you stand, an assassin, preening with vanity. What use is that?”
Squelch!
The wound on the middle-aged man’s neck sealed itself in an instant.
“You… surely not…?!”
And in that moment, Im Eom grasped the man’s identity.
“The Struggle… King…!”
Crack!
Im Eom’s neck broke.
To snap a man’s neck like a flower—it was an grip of terrifying, overwhelming strength.
Thud!
“An old acquaintance, then?”
“Yang Mu Cheon… the Great Master.”
Yang Mu Cheon, the Struggle King, cast Im Eom’s corpse onto the Sandbar and spoke, his voice even—and Hye Il answered with a trembling voice.
They had met exactly once before departing from Hwang San.
Then, they had not truly grasped what the man before them was—a King.
But now it was different.
A man who dominated his surroundings by mere existence — what else could you call him but a king?
“Why are you here? You said you were going to strike Hojeop Domun, pass through Honam, and head to Gui Zhou…….”
“I changed my mind.”
“……I beg your pardon?”
“The more I thought about it, the more I realized I’d fallen for a con. Felt like I’d been cheated.”
Yang Mu Cheon smiled faintly as he spoke.
“I came to collect interest.”
Crack!
Flash!
In that instant, a white bolt of lightning descended from across Ha Jong.
* * *
“Haah! Haah! Wheee! Hgh!”
Namgung Ho Yeon gasped for breath, cold sweat streaming down his face.
His body felt heavy as waterlogged cotton, and his Qi Sea Acupoint was hollow and empty as a drained vessel.
“……This is insane.”
Namgung Ho Yeon shook his head slowly.
Until now, he had only woven Qi Strike using Spear Bow Qi — he’d never once woven it using Cheonrae Gi.
Or rather, it wasn’t that he’d never done it; he couldn’t.
‘Before Ascension, when I was forcing out Nae Gong through True Qi burnout in gambling, generation itself was completely impossible.’
After Ascension, he’d tried it exactly once before stopping immediately.
Watching three Full Cycles’ worth of Nae Gong being drained in an instant, he’d been so startled he halted mid-technique.
‘Heaven Lightning Force — the most extreme Qi imaginable. Cheonrae Gi already has massive Nae Gong consumption, but Heaven Lightning Force burns through True Qi at dozens of times that rate.’
Yet as Namgung Ho Yeon witnessed the devastation of Heaven Lightning Force unleashed for the first time, such expenditure finally made sense.
This was no ordinary Qi Strike.
Its destructive power was so singular it deserved to be called a Unique Secret Force Technique in its own right.
“Ghhgh…… Uaaaaaahhh……!”
The pitiful figure of Jong Ri Pae screaming before his eyes proved the might of Heaven Lightning Force.
Crackle! Crackle-crackle!
Residual lightning refused to dissipate, greedily gnawing at Jong Ri Pae’s body.
Though it had already claimed his Qi Strike and his Geom Soo, even his right arm, the heavenly lightning seemed insatiable.
“If you could unleash such a strike…… why did you avoid the confrontation……!”
Jong Ri Pae glared at Namgung Ho Yeon with bloodshot eyes, shouting.
Namgung Ho Yeon smiled faintly in response.
“Well, look at the state I’m in — doesn’t that tell you?”
“One shot…… is all you can manage……!”
“Correct. I can’t use it twice. Sigh.”
Namgung Ho Yeon exhaled deeply and continued.
“So I mimicked Plum Blossom Sword Technique — something not even in my repertoire. Show weakness in a direct confrontation, and I figured you’d come at me first.”
“To make absolutely certain of landing a one-strike killing blow……?”
“If this had failed, there truly would have been no answer.”
“…….”
At Namgung Ho Yeon’s words, Jong Ri Pae’s eyes trembled.
‘Played? By this man?’
He couldn’t believe it.
Before the battle even began, he’d been lured with loose Qi Strike, drawing the setup for direct combat, only to have it reclaimed by lightning’s lethal blow.
From start to finish, he had never escaped the game board laid out by Namgung Ho Yeon.
This was a shock far greater than the revelation that Namgung Ho Yeon was an Ascended Master.
“It’s impossible……! How could you possess such strategic mastery at that age……!”
“You try being hunted for twenty years. Once you show all your good cards early, later on you’re fighting with nothing but trash. Bleak business.”
“The Hell Burning Technique landed true! How could you compress such Qi in such a brief span of time!”
Jong Ri Pae stared with disbelief.
Namgung Ho Yeon must have felt the agony of the Hell Burning Technique burning him, slicing him with blades.
Had he maintained his concentration even while enduring such pain?
“Did you descend into hell itself…… and return……!”
“Ah, that? It stung a little at first.”
Namgung Ho Yeon smiled faintly.
It had certainly been painful.
But how many times had his entire body been torn to shreds during his Sword Demon years?
It was simply a familiar sensation by now.
“Besides, once you understand the puzzle, the solution is simple.”
“……What?”
“You said you manipulated the Pain Receptor, didn’t you? When I observed the flow of Qi carefully, something fascinating emerged.”
Ho Yeon continued with a meaningful smile.
“This Pain Receptor you speak of—it transmits electrical signals. The pattern was familiar. When I created the Heaven Thunder Body Control, I mapped out every electrical signal in my body.”
“……!”
“If I sever the signal with Cheonrae Gi before it reaches your brain, pain doesn’t register. The Hell Burning Technique, was it? Certainly a clever method. I’ll have to use this later.”
“N-no……!!”
Jong Ri Pae coughed up blood as he realized his martial technique had been dismantled from beginning to end.
“Grrr! I’ll kill you! I’ll shred you to pieces and kill you!”
Jong Ri Pae let out a scream of pure hatred.
Crackle! Hiss!
But the Cheonrae Gi ravaging his body made it impossible to summon his Nae Gong.
Step, step, step.
Ho Yeon raised the Cheonrae Geom and advanced toward Jong Ri Pae.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed myself. In exchange, I’ll grant you a painless death.”
“Ugh……!”
Shink!
The moment Ho Yeon lifted the Cheonrae Geom.
Jong Ri Pae’s eyes flew wide open.
“Father…….”
“Hmm? A final word? I’ll hear it.”
“Please……forgive me…….”
“What?”
At that moment, Ho Yeon’s brow furrowed.
A flat voice came from behind.
“How pathetic.”
“……!”
“This useless thing.”
Sura whispered.

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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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