Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 210

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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 210. The Geom-gwi and the Ancestor’s Contest
“Pip pip. I’m here.”
“Pip?”
Whoosh!
Namgung Ho Yeon pulled Baek Seol O from his pouch and tossed him out.
Baek Seol O spread his wings wide and glided down to the floor of the Practice Chamber, looking around in bewilderment.
“Ah, you’ve kept an interesting companion.”
“Animals are often better company than most people.”
“Haha, now that’s a remark that speaks to serious social deficiencies. Is this the loneliness of genius? No matter. This old man shall cure you of it.”
Crack-crack-crack! Pop-pop-pop!
Peng Hwan flexed his fingers with an unsettling series of joints popping.
“A troubled mind stems from an unhealthy body. Medicine takes many forms—physical rehabilitation, as it were.”
“What manner of crude logic is that?”
“Our grandson appears malnourished, thin as a wisp. It’s no wonder his spirit is weak.”
“…Malnourished, you say.”
Namgung Ho Yeon stared at Peng Hwan with an expression of sheer incredulity.
True, from the perspective of a grandfather who stood well over eight feet tall, he might appear small—but he was average by any reasonable standard.
Not small by any measure.
At Namgung Ho Yeon’s pained expression, Peng Hwan grinned wickedly.
“Show me everything you can do. This old man shall take it all.”
Boom-boom-boom!
Hunyuan Qi surged forth like a tidal wave, filling the entire Practice Chamber with a grey torrent of martial presence.
Hunyuan signifies the primordial state that existed before the creation of the universe.
In “The Way produces One, One produces Two, Two produces Three, Three produces All Things,” the “One” itself is the state of Hunyuan.
Hunyuan Qi, which resembled the primal chaos before even the Supreme Ultimate and Yin-Yang differentiated, was pure and thus raw, and because it possessed no fixed form, it held infinite potential.
‘The same qi as Peng Gu Pae. The Hunyuan Lightning Divine Technique.’
Namgung Ho Yeon recalled the secret art of the Peng Family.
The Hunyuan Lightning Divine Technique could not be mastered by just anyone.
It was not a matter of direct lineage versus collateral descent, but rather whether one was born with Divine Strength.
‘The Hunyuan Lightning Divine Technique unleashes devastating destructive power in an instant. I’ve heard that improper practice ruptures the qi pathways and shatters the acupoints, leaving one crippled.’
It’s not that practice makes one strong.
Rather, one must already be strong to practice it.
That was the true essence of the Hebei Peng Family, celebrated throughout the martial world as warriors born with Divine Strength and towering talent.
Strong from birth, they were like great tigers that commanded the realm through their inborn power and unchecked vigor.
“Hahahaha! I can’t very well kill my dear grandson, so I’ll face you using only martial body techniques! If this old man has to draw upon his Qi, you win!”
“Understood. Let’s begin!”
Bang-bang-bang!
Namgung Ho Yeon stomped the ground.
As he executed the Thunder Step, his form twisted like a lightning bolt, appearing instantly behind Peng Hwan.
Shing!
Changgung Direct Rigidity Qi erupted from the Cheonrae Geom, and without hesitation, Namgung Ho Yeon drove the blade toward Peng Hwan’s groin.
“Ho? Skillful weaving of qi, I see.”
At the appearance of Direct Rigidity Qi, Peng Hwan’s white eyebrows shot upward.
In the next instant, like a horse kicking with its hind legs, Peng Hwan’s right foot ascended toward the heavens, unleashing the Iron Wall Breaking Wind.
Crash!
The Cheonrae Geom was sent flying by the explosion of lightning.
The shock rippled through Namgung Ho Yeon’s wrist, causing him to furrow his brow.
“Tch!”
“Hehe, attacking the groin without preamble? Quite the audacious grandson.”
Whoosh!
Spinning his body, Peng Hwan then unleashed the Iron Measure Crown Strike, one of the Iron Blood One Hundred Forty-Eight Leg Strikes.
Boom-boom-boom!
A leg straight and rigid as bamboo, like an iron pillar. The sole of his foot, spread like a spear-point, shot directly toward Namgung Ho Yeon’s head.
“Huu!”
Drawing a steady breath, Namgung Ho Yeon shifted the Cheonrae Geom to middle guard and took the opening stance of the Changgung Unobstructed Sword Method.
The blade at center guard, heavy with presence, rose slowly yet deliberately, drawing across the surface with the grace of Heaven High Cloud Walk.
It was a technique born of perfect stillness within motion, motion within stillness.
“Hm!”
At the sight of this, Peng Hwan chuckled.
‘Still young. He doesn’t yet understand what the Divine Strength of the Peng Family truly is.’
Block it with the heavy sword?
No.
This is an attack that must be evaded.
How could a human body possibly withstand a direct kick that shatters city walls?
‘It’s over.’
As Peng Hwan’s certainty crystallized, leg and sword collided.
Clang!
“What?!”
Peng Hwan’s eyes snapped wide open.
The sensation from his foot was wrong.
‘Light?’
Crack! Boom-crash!
Watching the sword slip from his grandson’s grip and tear through the Practice Chamber wall, Peng Hwan finally understood what had happened.
‘He let go! He released the sword?!’
The opposite of every classical swordmaster’s teaching—hold the blade even unto death itself.
“Ha! Worried about dislocating your wrist? Who expects someone to catch a blow like that?”
Tap!
Namgung Ho Yeon slipped into the opening in Peng Hwan’s defense, laughing.
The man was mad as a hatter.
That monstrous siege-hammer kick would shatter bone if it landed even once.
‘Even Peng Gu Pae avoids direct confrontation with you, yet you expect to trade blows properly with me?’
The Hebei Peng Family’s Divine Strength was itself a formidable weapon, forcing the opponent into a choice.
Stand and fight, or evade?
If one chose to stand, one would soon understand why the Peng lineage earned the name Divine Strength Heaven’s Talent—by kissing the ground.
Evasion was the wise answer, yet pure evasion alone would never bring victory.
‘Always holding the initiative in combat is an enormous advantage. The flow must change.’
That was why Namgung Ho Yeon had taken a full-frontal stance, baiting the opening.
Now came only the execution—seizing initiative and pressing the attack without relent.
“Haaaah!”
Thud-thud-thud!
Whooosh!
A peculiar phenomenon manifested in Namgung Ho Yeon’s dual palms as he rushed Peng Hwan.
Blue points drew lines, lines overlapped into planes, and those planes curved into perfect jade spheres.
“Huh…!”
Peng Hwan’s eyes bulged as he beheld the Eternal Moon River Qi.
‘Secret Sect Rigid Qi? Even among lords and kings, few possess such a thing!’
Was this even possible?
It had been stunning enough to manifest Direct Rigidity Qi so soon after breaking through to Ascendant, but what in heaven’s name were these Rigid Spheres?
What sorcery was this?
“Whoosh!”
Namgung Ho Yeon, now holding two Eternal Moons suspended in his palms, moved his hands with blinding speed.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Phantom palms layered endlessly, each inscribed with cunning illusory principles.
A technique from Star Descends Falling—stars plummeting from the heavens.
The Twin Eternal Moons, compressed through sheer dominance, hammered Peng Hwan’s entire frame.
Boom! Crash-crash-crash-crash!
“Ugh?!”
As the heavy impact pierced his Body Protection Rigid Qi, Peng Hwan recognized that this Secret Sect Rigid Qi was no mere illusion—it possessed substance and devastating force.
“Kekeke! Bahahaha!”
Peng Hwan burst into uproarious laughter.
Exhilarating.
His grandson was the greatest prodigy of this age.
His blood grandsons were all weaklings; he’d never tasted such joy with them.
His daughter’s son was revealing a new happiness to this old man.
“Yes! Let’s indulge in a proper brawl!”
Crack! Crack!
Peng Hwan clenched both fists.
Tendons swelled across his frame, and his white whiskers trembled with delight.
“Break!”
With a roar, Peng Hwan spun his body with explosive speed.
He concentrated centrifugal force into his fist, then drove a straight punch forward.
Crack!
Clang!
Cracks began to spider across the Eternal Moon where Peng Hwan’s fist collided with it.
Revolving Hammer Breaks Armor.
This was a technique from the Armor-Breaking Hammer, which, it was said, once shattered Mongol cavalry iron plates with bare hands during the Yuan Dynasty.
True to its name—a hammer that breaks armor—it was a form of Point Breaking Strike that concentrated force at a single point upon impact, neutralizing the opponent’s defense.
“This is insane…!”
“Hah! Come on now!”
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Clang-clang-clang!
With Rapid Consecutive Hammer Strikes, Peng Hwan drove his fists forward in a brutally straightforward assault, forcing Namgung Ho Yeon into constant defense.
‘He’s shattering the compressed Eternal Moon with nothing but raw innate Divine Strength and the savage fury of Hunyuan Qi! This mad boar!’
Even as he was pushed back, Ho Yeon analyzed the ashen Rigid Qi coalescing in Peng Hwan’s hands.
That Rigid Qi burned fierce and uncontrolled, as if to return all things to their origin, manifesting a crude, ravaging momentum.
‘Powerful, yet full of gaps. Attack as the best defense—is that it? Tch!’
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ho Yeon crossed both arms in an X shape to block Peng Hwan’s descending Heavy Hammer Falling Stone, his eyes flashing with light.
‘Which means—he may be vulnerable to orthodox, methodical defense!’
Crude, surging power might be tyrannically aggressive, but it couldn’t maintain tight, layered defense.
This old tiger had lived a life relentlessly driving opponents to the wall; he’d had little experience fighting on the back foot.
‘Then…!’
Whoosh!
Ho Yeon planted his Departure Step and sprang upward like a flame.
“Hah! Where are you going! Want to play more with this old man?”
“No!”
Boom! Boom!
Ho Yeon launched both palms toward Peng Hwan, who bent his knees as if to pursue.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
His right hand traced a semicircle toward the right, his left hand traced a semicircle toward the left.
He’d sent the Eternal Moon using a variation of Cloud Sea Overturning, the technique of a layered palm strike that flipped the clouds and sea.
Boom-boom-boom!
Boom-boom-boom!
The two Eternal Moons, now released, screamed toward Peng Hwan from front and back, cutting off his escape.
“Heh! If front and back won’t work, left and right will do!”
Whoosh!
Peng Hwan planted his Shadow Leaving Step and slipped left with startling speed, as if dissolving into shadow.
Then.
Something impossible happened.
Boom! Ker-boom!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Faint explosions sounded from the two Eternal Moons, and suddenly—they changed trajectory in midair.
“What?!”
“Got you!”
Peng Hwan startled; Ho Yeon smiled.
He’d embedded locks into the Eternal Moon using the Seal Transform technique.
This was primarily used when throwing short blades.
It was a method of predicting the opponent’s movement in advance and bending the trajectory at the precise moment and angle.
‘He read my movement?’
Shock flickered in Peng Hwan’s eyes.
The leftward movement had been instinctive.
Martial arts prized balance, so most warriors eventually became ambidextrous after years of training.
Yet in that verdant youth, Peng Hwan had definitely favored his right leg.
He’d even countered with his right foot when Ho Yeon had thrust toward his groin.
When pushing off the ground with his right foot, the fastest path to traverse was diagonally leftward.
‘He seized upon that faint habit and gambled everything on it?!’
Observation, analysis, execution, nerve—a perfect ambush lacking nothing.
“Hah-hah-hah! Remarkable! But—”
Stomp!
Peng Hwan planted his feet shoulder-width apart and drew both hands to his waist, clenching them firmly.
“If I can’t land a blow, it’s all for nothing!”
Peng Hwan drove both fists of the Twin Hammer Shake Mountain technique directly into the Eternal Moon River Qi.
Crack! Crack!
Crash!
The Eternal Moon River Qi shattered, and fragments of the brilliant blue Changgung Qi scattered like dust.
A spectacle as if Heaven Thunder Mines had detonated.
Yet it was not a decisive blow—not enough to penetrate Peng Hwan’s Body Protection Rigid Qi.
“Ugh! What—?!”
A sting shot through him.
In that instant, Peng Hwan felt a peculiar tremor rising through his tailbone.
Heat bloomed in his belly, his senses sharpened to a knife’s edge, and tension seized his entire frame.
‘… A premonition? From this boy?’
Peng Hwan’s head snapped up.
A rushing sound split the air.
The grandson he’d thought had fled was descending through the blue mist, blade first.
Both hands gripped an enormous black sword as the boy unleashed a war cry.
“Haaaaaaaaa!”
Lightning crackled violently.
Simultaneously, dozens of threads of Heaven Thunder energy burst forth, weaving left and right.
As Heaven Thunder Rigid Qi formed, scorching heat rippled outward, and his entire body tingled with electricity.
“White Tiger Kill!”
A tremendous roar erupted.
The Heaven Thunder Rigid Qi descended like lightning splitting the world in two.
Peng Hwan’s expression hardened to stone as his arm shot back, fingers closing around the Large Blade slung across his back.
A sharp draw.
Crash!
In the next breath, a deafening boom shook the entirety of Hefei.

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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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