Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 24

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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 24. The Sword Demon and the Matter of Trust
“Puh-hah-hah-hah! The spread is modest, but please, eat your fill!”
Du Tae-bo burst into hearty laughter as he pressed food upon his guests.
This was the private quarters of Wa Ho Fortress’s Fortress Master.
Inside a log house that dwarfed the others in size, Ho Yeon and Geuk Ji-ryang sat across from Du Tae-bo.
“Quite the unexpected hospitality. Are all bandits these days so courteous?”
Ho Yeon picked up his chopsticks and helped himself to the Mountain Boar Water Meat without ceremony.
“Mmm, mmm. More tender than I expected.”
“……sir.”
Geuk Ji-ryang’s expression grew anxious at Ho Yeon’s unguarded behavior, while something flickered across Du Tae-bo’s eyes.
“Puh-huh-huh! Tell me, friend—you think I’d poisoned it?”
Du Tae-bo shook his head with a grin toward Geuk Ji-ryang.
“If anything, I’d gladly shower you with gold and jewels. You’ve solved a headache of mine, after all.”
“A headache?”
“Mak Cheon-ak—you know, that grotesque brute.”
“Damn, that epithet never stops being crude. What an utterly pathetic title.”
“Kuh-hah-hah-hah! My sentiments exactly! You’re a man worth talking to, aren’t you?”
Du Tae-bo drummed the table—bang, bang!—his laughter booming as Ho Yeon matched his crude humor.
The two seemed to find easy common ground in their banter.
Watching them, Geuk Ji-ryang, commander of the Iron Sword Corps, was bewildered.
‘How can it be? Surely Ho Yeon was not some lowborn ruffian of the Martial World?’
Here he was at a mountain fortress under the Green Heaven—one of the Nine Heavens—joking freely with its Fortress Master as though they were old companions.
‘And that suffocating murderous intent from before… who exactly is this man?’
Geuk Ji-ryang stared at Ho Yeon, utterly unable to reconcile the contradictions.
Ho Yeon caught something of that gaze but chose to ignore it.
‘The moment I used Qi Flame Movement, I had already lost. That ambush by Mak Cheon-ak was every bit as dangerous as it felt.’
He had been careless, plainly.
Who could have anticipated that a pack of bandits would harbor an Energy User?
It was the sort of blunder that arose from playing the naive child seeking praise.
The Ho Yeon of old would never have indulged in such recklessness.
‘I need to close the gap. I am a sword demon, yet not a sword demon.’
He was no longer the Greatest Master Under Heaven who once wielded Thousand Swords.
He was merely a sixteen-year-old stripling commanding Ten Swords.
And yet he must live with the keen awareness of a sword demon’s mind fully awakened.
This Central Plains Martial World was far too harsh for a hothouse flower to survive.
And proof of it came from Du Tae-bo’s own lips.
“Puh-huh-huh! The truth is, Mak Cheon-ak doesn’t belong to Wa Ho Fortress at all.”
“Then what?”
“He’s under Qing Lu Fortress.”
“……!”
At Du Tae-bo’s words, Geuk Ji-ryang’s eyes widened.
Qing Lu Fortress was the Main Fortress of Green Heaven itself.
‘A fox disguised as a bear—clever bastard.’
Geuk Ji-ryang’s brow furrowed as he regarded Du Tae-bo.
‘Using a knife borrowed from another’s hand. Sow enmity between the Namgung Clan and Qing Lu, then profit from the chaos in between.’
The moment Mak Cheon-ak fell dead, Du Tae-bo had stepped in to broker peace—all by design.
The scheme was to minimize the loss of his own fighting force and bide his time.
Glug, glug! Tap.
Ho Yeon set down his tea and smiled, then spoke.
“Then I’ve done you a favor.”
“Puh-huh-huh! That’s precisely why I’m treating you like this.”
“So you’re calling it even with one night’s hospitality after picking a fight with formidable enemies?”
At Ho Yeon’s words, Geuk Ji-ryang realized that Ho Yeon had grasped the situation completely.
“Huh-huh, why so serious? Your side couldn’t very well wage a Life and Death Battle against us, could you?”
Du Tae-bo spoke with smug satisfaction.
By his logic, a single squad of the Iron Sword Corps alongside the Thousand Sword Corps simply lacked the strength to wage war against Wa Ho Fortress.
Not unless Ho Yeon unleashed the full might of the sword demon.
“You’ve got a long road ahead. Rest easy for the night, think of it as good experience in the Martial World, and then be on your way. Huh-huh-huh!”
Du Tae-bo drained a cup of alcohol, and Ho Yeon chuckled softly, nodding as he extended his tea cup.
“Then I suppose I ought to join you in a drink—it’s the way of the Martial World, after all. So why am I stuck with tea?”
“Oh? You know the Way of Alcohol?”
“I know it well enough to be thorough about it.”
“Kha-ha-ha-ha! Now this is a small hero after my own heart! Come, take a drink!”
Ho Yeon’s quip—delivered with a levity that might have defused an otherwise grave moment—prompted Du Tae-bo to tilt the bottle with evident delight.
Glug.
Clear liquor filled the teacup to the brim, and Ho Yeon drained it in one swift motion.
The sharp, acrid reek of cheap Fire Alcohol escaped through his nostrils.
“Ahhh!”
“Magnificent! Such a spirit!”
“Now let me pour one for you.”
“Heh-heh! So this is what it takes—I finally get to drink a cup poured by the young master of the Namgung Clan!”
Du Tae-bo and Ho Yeon exchanged cups back and forth as they drank.
Each time the bottle emptied, Geuk Ji-ryang kept his senses sharp, vigilant of their surroundings.
“Two Fortress Masters. There’s something I’ve been curious about.”
“What is it? Ask away!”
Thump. Thump.
After tilting the bottle for some time, Ho Yeon posed his question; Du Tae-bo, his face flushed, beat his chest and urged him to ask whatever he pleased.
Ho Yeon’s eyes brightened as he pressed forward.
“On the way here, I noticed a house gathering children. What’s that about?”
“Hmm?”
At Ho Yeon’s question, Du Tae-bo’s expression shifted to one of alarm.
‘These bastards! Their guard was down!’
Du Tae-bo furrowed his brow as he cursed his subordinates inwardly.
‘That presence. Definitely children. About thirty of them.’
Ho Yeon’s eyes settled into a cold, composed gaze.
If his suspicions were correct—
tonight might prove to be a very long night indeed.
“Ah, well. That’s the handiwork of that dead bastard Mak Cheon-ak.”
“Mak Cheon-ak?”
“That wretch rounded up those children on orders from the Main Fortress, even conscripting our own people to help with the kidnappings.”
……
“Mind you, the fool wasn’t completely stupid—he only snatched orphans from the Slum District. One wrong move, and he’d have grabbed a child from a noble house, bringing the military garrison down on our heads.”
……
Ho Yeon remained silent, studying Du Tae-bo intently; there was no sign of a lie in the man’s manner.
“Then now that Mak Cheon-ak is dead, those children serve no purpose?”
“Tsk—they’re just a nuisance, eating and producing nothing.”
“I’ll take them with me.”
“Hm?”
Du Tae-bo’s eyes widened at the proposal, and Ho Yeon smiled gently as he spoke.
“We’re short on hands at our tea plantation.”
* * *
“Geuk Ji-ryang. When dawn breaks, we’ll descend the mountain and visit the nearest village.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Arrange with the Messenger Pigeon Service to have the children sent to the tea plantation. No sense letting them idle here unproductively—they might as well be put to work.”
“A wise course of action, sir.”
“Rest well, then.”
Geuk Ji-ryang watched Ho Yeon’s retreating figure fade into the distance.
Then, with the air of a man reaching a resolution, he drew a deep breath and cried out.
“I stand with you, sir!”
“What? Where did that come from?”
“I believe in you, sir! So I ask that you believe in me as well! I am Geuk Ji-ryang, Master of the Iron Sword Corps!”
……
Faced with Geuk Ji-ryang’s fervent declaration, Ho Yeon fell silent for a moment, then gave a slight shrug and continued on his way.
Footfall, footfall, footfall.
Ho Yeon arrived at his assigned quarters.
Moonlight cast its melancholy glow across all things.
As Ho Yeon opened his mouth, the food and alcohol he’d held back with Qi Flame Movement snaked up his throat like serpents breaking free.
Splurt.
“Ugh! Ptooey!”
―Damn it, you filthy wretch! What are you doing wasting perfectly good food like that!
“Tsk, there doesn’t seem to be any poison, but one can never be too careful. The food might have spoiled.”
―Good grief! You’ll try anything! If you trust people so little, how can you expect your subordinates to trust you?
Ho Yeon let out a quiet laugh at Cheon Roe Geom’s rebuke, lifting his head as he murmured.
“You know what? At the root of trust lies a psychology of reward.”
―What? What kind of nonsense is that?
“Expectation of compensation to come in the future. That is the true nature of trust.”
Ho Yeon gazed at the clear moon and murmured as if recalling old memories.
“All those people who claimed to believe in me were really just expecting the rewards I would bring them. When I didn’t understand that, I was swayed by them far too often. Heh heh heh.”
―……So what’s your conclusion? Are you saying you don’t trust anything anymore?
To Cheon Roe Geom’s question, Ho Yeon shook his head and answered.
“No. I’ve decided to trust only what I can control.”
―And what’s that?
“Myself.”
Cheon Roe Geom fell silent.
* * *
“I can’t believe it!”
Seo Seon-rim cried out as though screaming.
Two hours had passed, yet the image of Ho Yeon refused to fade from her mind.
Slaughtering bandits with unpredictable Movement Technique? She could do that herself.
Drawing out blue Sword Qi? Reaching First-Class Realm at sixteen was remarkable, but not without precedent.
But that killing intent vast as an ocean was something no one could ever produce—it was a quality beyond reach.
And most of all, the one stroke of Divine Sword Union he displayed at the end was simply impossible to believe.
“How could he have attained such enlightenment at that age……!”
Divine Sword Union was not a technique representing a particular stage, like Sword Qi or Qi Flame.
Rather, it was a Secret Technique that emerged from pure enlightenment itself—
A martial art that appeared when a swordmaster who had spent a lifetime with the blade entered a state of Unity of Self and Object, becoming one with the sword.
In theory, even a third-rate warrior could perform Divine Sword Union, but in all the long history of the Martial World, such a case had never once occurred.
‘One must reach at least Peak Stage to even imitate it, and even a Flower Realm swordmaster cannot manifest it without sufficient enlightenment. And yet he……!’
Mak Cheon-ak was certainly a Peak Stage master who could exhale Qi Flame.
But he never even got a chance to move against the First-Class Ho Yeon before being slain.
A Superior Stage Kill.
Seo Seon-rim recalled a term popularized three hundred years ago by the Greatest Master Under Heaven.
‘If it had been me?’
Gulp.
Seo Seon-rim swallowed hard.
She could not have guaranteed victory.
“Why can’t you believe it?”
“Young lady, it’s Divine Sword Union we’re talking about! Does that even make sense at sixteen?”
To Jegal A-hyeon’s question, Seo Seon-rim cried out as if seized by a fit.
Huum.
Through Heart Sutra Perception, Jegal A-hyeon read Seo Seon-rim’s heart.
She was wallowing in various negative emotions—inferiority, defeat, emptiness, doubt.
As Jegal A-hyeon watched her, she smiled gently and tilted her head.
“Why doesn’t it make sense?”
“Pardon?”
“You said it yourself, Fortress Master Seo. That Ho Yeon is the greatest prodigy since ancient times?”
“W-well, but that’s……!”
“Just idle gossip spread by the Namgung Clan?”
“…….”
To Jegal A-hyeon’s question, Seo Seon-rim could not answer.
The conviction she had held just two hours ago was wavering.
Instead, biting her lip, Seo Seon-rim began searching for Ho Yeon’s shortcomings.
“……His build can’t be normal regardless. Even though he carries the blood of the Peng family, his frame is quite small. Perhaps he suffers from some ailment.”
“I’m not sure. The Peng lady wasn’t large either, but she showed no signs of illness.”
“His martial skill may be excellent, but his judgment is lacking. Accepting the bandits’ proposal so readily? That was reckless.”
“Is that so?”
At Seo Seon-rim’s desperate attempt to find fault, Jegal A-hyeon smiled faintly and continued.
“Since night had fallen and they had to camp in the mountains anyway, it was better to keep the enemies in sight than to spend the night on guard. That was sound judgment.”
“…….”
Caught between what she had witnessed with her own eyes and her desire to disbelieve, Seo Seon-rim heard Jegal A-hyeon speak with certainty.
“A Dormant Dragon. Its true worth had never been properly recognized until now.”
“…….”
“If I told Father this, I know exactly what he’d say.”
Jegal A-hyeon spoke with the same turn of phrase her father habitually used.
“I’ll need to recalculate. That’s what he’d say.”
* * *
Five days later.
Whoosh!
Flutter-flutter!
A messenger pigeon descended onto a large Fortune Ship moving eastward along the Yangtze River.

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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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