Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 68

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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 68. The Sword Ghost Solar Salt Method
Trickle, trickle.
Water flowed gently from the bamboo channel into the pond, leaving ripples in its wake.
The pond was so clear that one could see straight through it, and silk carp the size of a forearm swam lazily across its surface.
In the room overlooking the pond, three people sat across from one another at a low table.
“Gwang Cheon Ho is dead.”
A middle-aged military official in golden-trimmed armor spoke the words with a hard, clipped tone.
“Rumors have spread widely centered around Ban Ji Hwa, claiming that the Gang Am Cheol Ryeon So was boiling brine and trafficking in illegal salt.”
“Mm. The castellan must be in quite a predicament.”
A young man who appeared to be around thirty years old replied with leisurely composure, sipping his tea despite the official’s grim words.
He was a handsome man dressed in a pale blue robe, though a scar running vertically down the right corner of his mouth kept his expression from appearing altogether gentle.
“Scholar Yu, this is a grave matter! What will we do if the castellan mentions our names?”
“Heh heh, General Baek. Do not worry too much. The castellan is indeed in trouble, but he won’t collapse because of this.”
“The First Prince and Second Princess will certainly seize upon this matter! What assurance do we have that the Sa Cheon castellan won’t throw in his lot with them?”
“There’s no need to fear on that account.”
As General Baek raised his voice, a thin, reedy voice interjected.
The speaker wore formal court robes and a purple cap, had no beard, and possessed hands as delicate as a woman’s.
“Inspector Seong, what do you mean by that?”
General Baek looked at the man called Inspector Seong, struggling to conceal the disdain in his gaze.
Inspector Seong merely smiled, covering his mouth with slender fingers.
“Heh heh. We have a firm grasp on the castellan’s weakness. Should he so much as open his mouth carelessly, it would be a secret from which he cannot escape ruin.”
“…Information extracted from the Do Chal Won?”
“Indeed.”
Inspector Seong delivered his reply to General Baek with a meaningful smile.
“Unless one is as forthright a military man as you, General, surely everyone accumulates some weakness or two in the course of life?”
……
General Baek’s brow furrowed at Inspector Seong’s words.
The remark had sounded like a threat, and it grated on him.
“However, one of our agents who infiltrated the Yeom Bang has recovered an unusual ledger.”
“A ledger?”
“Gwang Cheon Ho’s secret ledger.”
“What?”
At Inspector Seong’s words, the gaze of both General Baek and Scholar Yu turned toward him.
“Heh heh. For several years, thirty percent of the Yeom Bang’s revenues have been flowing to an unknown destination.”
“Th-thirty percent?”
“An unknown destination, you say?”
General Baek, who knew the Yeom Bang’s massive income, was taken aback, while Scholar Yu maintained his composed expression as he voiced his curiosity.
Inspector Seong then spoke.
“We have not yet determined the destination. The funds were handled with great skill, divided and consolidated across multiple transactions.”
“Remarkable. So even the Do Chal Won could not trace it?”
“I intend to pursue the matter to its end. My master is exceedingly displeased.”
At Inspector Seong’s words, General Baek’s mouth twitched.
The man he served was none other than Insu Taegam, one of the Twelve Great Chamberlains.
Insu Taegam’s power—managing the seals of officials, issuing appointment documents and important state papers—was such that even a bird in flight would lose feathers in his presence.
If he had taken offense, it was wise to keep one’s head low and weather the storm.
“Ahem. Thirty percent would indeed provoke his wrath. Where could such vast sums possibly have gone?”
“Heh heh. That is precisely the question. Do you have any knowledge of this matter, General?”
“What? Are you accusing me now?!”
“Not at all. But Gwang Cheon Ho was originally of the Geumui-wei. Was he not recommended by you, General?”
As Inspector Seong’s eyes narrowed, General Baek’s face flushed red and white in turn.
“That’s absurd! It’s been ten years since I’ve laid eyes on the man! How would I know whether he harbored treachery?”
“Heh heh. Of course. Someone as forthright as you, General, would never betray us.”
General Baek’s outburst caused Inspector Seong to step back slightly, yet the suspicion never left his eyes.
“Now, let us calm ourselves. There is a more pressing matter than Gwang Cheon Ho’s transgression.”
Scholar Yu, who had been observing the two men’s confrontation, spoke with a gentle smile.
“We must establish a new Yeom Bang. Official salt has become so expensive that common folk cannot afford it. We must supply cheap salt to the people as quickly as possible.”
“Ahem! Well spoken. No one can match Scholar Yu’s devotion to the common people.”
“Heh heh. How fortunate you are, Tae Sa, to have such a devoted son. What a source of pride he must be.”
Both General Baek and Inspector Seong agreed without reservation to Scholar Yu’s proposal.
Though the two men held higher rank than he, they did not presume to act carelessly toward him.
Because Scholar Yu was the adopted son of Tae Sa, the Emperor’s teacher—the most powerful figure even among the highest-ranking officials.
When both men agreed, Scholar Yu, Yu Hui Sung, broke into a gentle smile and spoke.
“Well then, shall we select our candidates?”
* * *
Splash.
Yu Hui Sung stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the ripples spreading across the pond.
“Heh, there are far too many fools—it’s almost tiresome.”
In the surface of the water, Yu Hui Sung’s reflection bore not the gentle smile of before, but a cold, contemptuous smirk.
“Mil Wei.”
Whoosh!
At Yu Hui Sung’s murmur, a man in black night clothes descended from the empty air and prostrated himself.
“What do you make of this one-in-ten chance?”
“Still just one, sir.”
“Indeed?”
Yu Hui Sung gave a soft laugh, then issued his command in a cold voice.
“The Lord of Sa Cheon is no longer needed.”
“Understood.”
Poof!
The man in night clothes vanished without trace, and Yu Hui Sung scratched at the scar at the corner of his right mouth with his forefinger.
It was a habit that surfaced unconsciously whenever he fell into deep thought.
“That fool Gwang Bi Chang. How long has it been since he received the Society Lord’s favor, and already he’s dead? Tsk—I could have used him for years yet.”
Yu Hui Sung’s voice was thick with irritation.
One of his game pieces had broken at an unexpected moment, after all.
“There is no pawn easier to manipulate than one who mistakes himself for capable.”
Gwang Bi Chang had surely believed he possessed free will.
But Yu Hui Sung had been the one to reveal the Society’s existence to him, and he had been the one to plant the seeds of rebellion.
Gwang Bi Chang thought he had betrayed his masters and become a wolf—but that was merely the delusion Yu Hui Sung had cultivated.
Gwang Bi Chang remained a dog on a leash; only the hand holding that leash had changed from the palace to the Society.
“But who could it be? Gwang Bi Chang was a Wall Ascender, true enough, but his skill was genuine.”
Gwang Bi Chang, a former commander of the Geumui-wei, was a master who had honed his martial prowess his entire life and reached the Peak Realm.
And while desperate beneath the Wall, he had been forcibly lifted above it by the Society Lord himself.
Though he might fall short of an orthodox Wall Ascender by half a step, there were not many in Zhong Yuan capable of killing him.
“Could it have been a Wall Ascender I’ve encountered? Who? The Wolf King? The Beggar King? If it was Sa Cheon, it might even be the Poison King.”
Yu Hui Sung pondered a moment, then shook his head and murmured to himself.
“In any case, the Society Lord must soon enter dormancy, so I’ll need to restore the financial networks during his rest period.”
Scratch-scratch.
Yu Hui Sung’s fingernail accelerated its scraping against the scar.
* * *
“You did well, Ho Yeon! You truly answered my request!”
Upon arriving in Seo An, Ho Yeon met with Eun Cho Ae at once and recounted the events at Ban Ji Hwa, though embellished in the telling.
He could not mention controlling corpses to set them against one another, so instead he reported that he had exploited the conflict that naturally arose between them.
“I was tempted to set the whole place ablaze, but I held back.”
“That too was wise! The vile and lawless deeds of such men are now exposed to all heaven and earth, and the Yeom Chal Sa will commence their investigation. The more evidence, the better.”
The Yeom Chal Sa was a surveillance apparatus under the Do Chal Won, tasked with tracking and arresting illegal salt-smuggling organizations.
By any measure, this would be the largest smuggling ring dismantled in the history of the Yeom Chal Sa.
“I’ve also brought along a few pieces of evidence.”
Ho Yeon produced the ledgers he had stolen from the residence of the Yeom Bang master.
Thereupon, General Eon Jang Hwan, who stood beside Eun Cho Ae, stepped forward and received the ledgers, passing them to the Princess.
“Hmm! How utterly lawless!”
As Eun Cho Ae frowned with phoenix-like eyebrows, flipping through the ledgers, Eon Jang Hwan turned to Ho Yeon with a rigid expression and asked sharply.
“Are you even human?”
“Pardon?”
Startled by Eon Jang Hwan’s sudden remark, Ho Yeon looked up at him in confusion.
“I cannot trust my own two eyes…”
Eon Jang Hwan’s gaze swept across Ho Yeon’s entire frame, struck with shock.
It was not as though Ho Yeon had shifted his weight to one leg or displayed any irreverence before the Princess.
‘The aura he gives off is extraordinary. Just a short time ago, he was merely First Class.’
First Class at sixteen.
Truly befitting a disciple of the renowned Namgung Clan.
Even those renowned as prodigies seldom reached First Class at that age.
‘But now…… Peak Realm. And it seems to touch the very extreme. Does this even make sense?’
How could a person change so drastically in mere days?
Even granting an enormous breakthrough that allowed him to reach Peak Realm at such an age, say.
But the path from First Class to Peak Realm’s extreme was far too long and arduous.
And he’d traversed it in only a few days?
“You’re not some demon wearing human skin, are you?”
“Well, you look more like a demon yourself, don’t you?”
Ho Yeon swept his gaze over the hulking, muscular frame of Eon Jang Hwan and let out a snort.
“I’m not talking about the outside, but the inside. What on earth happened?”
“Nothing special. That Cheon Gang Dan—it had quite good effects.”
“Cheon Gang Dan heals internal injuries and supplements the Blood Vessels and Blood Channels, but it’s not a divine elixir that elevates one’s realm.”
“Then perhaps my constitution just responds well to such medicines.”
“Hmm…….”
Eon Jang Hwan regarded Ho Yeon as if looking upon an inexplicable mystery.
At that gaze, Ho Yeon shrugged and thought to himself.
‘The Heart-Qi-Body Trinity merely came into balance. Though there’s still much lacking.’
Mental fortitude, enlightenment, technique—he possessed every preparation necessary for a martial artist.
The reason he’d been floundering in First Class Realm this whole time was solely a matter of the Body.
The Cheon Gang Dan had supplied what was lacking, allowing Ho Yeon to leap in a single bound from First Class’s extreme to Peak Realm’s extreme.
‘The Blood Vessels and Blood Channels have grown resilient and sturdy, infused with the vital essence of Cheon Gang Dan. But the bones, cartilage, and muscles remain weak.’
For this reason, throughout his journey back to Seo An, Ho Yeon had to employ the Changung Dae Yeon Divine Art to release the accumulated fatigue across his entire body.
‘It’s like a cannon made of porcelain. Powerful, yes—but capable of only limited use before it shatters.’
Despite the tremendous elevation in realm, Ho Yeon felt no satisfaction.
Compared to his past self, it was as though he wore a hundred pounds of iron chains across his body.
‘Still, my ceiling should be higher than in my Ghost days. I learned Divine Art and Technique Learning from childhood, and ate everything good for the body.’
As Ho Yeon swallowed his regret with a wry smile,
Eun Cho Ae nodded and spoke.
“If this ledger is accurate, the Do Chal Won will be busy for some time.”
“Ah, may I take the ledger for the Hap Bi region?”
“Mm?”
“I’ll use it and return it to you.”
As Ho Yeon spoke with a meaningful smile, Eun Cho Ae blinked and nodded.
“That is yours to take, so do as you wish.”
“Thank you.”
“No—I should thank you. You have saved the suffering people of the Eun Kingdom.”
As Eun Cho Ae regarded Ho Yeon with a soft smile, it seemed as though light burst forth in the room.
But soon the light faded and clouds gathered, for Eun Cho Ae’s expression had turned bitter.
“Ah…… They say Yeom Bang has vanished. Yet the people’s suffering has not diminished.”
Eun Cho Ae gazed upon Yeom Bang’s ledger and felt contradictory emotions well within her.
Surely the collapse of Yeom Bang, which had worked the people like slaves, was cause for celebration.
But with Illegal Salt blocked from its cheap circulation, the people now had to purchase the expensive Official Salt, making it difficult to rejoice outright.
“Is Yeom Bang truly…… a necessary evil? I have a feeling another Yeom Bang will emerge in its place.”
“Your Highness…….”
Eon Jang Hwan looked upon Eun Cho Ae’s troubled countenance with worried eyes.
He feared that the tender-hearted princess might be wounded by this affair and grow disillusioned with the world.
“Then why not simply abolish the salt monopoly system?”
“I wish to as well. But it is not such a simple matter.”
In response to Ho Yeon’s question, Eun Cho Ae sighed and explained the complicated position of the imperial court.
“Salt and iron are strategic resources, so the center must control them to limit the independence of regional powers.”
“I can understand iron. But is salt truly a strategic resource and not a necessity?”
“I think the same. But there is one more problem—the matter of Tax Revenue.”
At Eun Cho Ae’s words, Ho Yeon smirked.
So it all came down to money.
In which case, he wondered what difference there was between Yeom Bang and the imperial court.
“Of course, no one speaks of it so bluntly. They merely say it must be treated as a strategic resource due to production limits.”
“Mm……?”
As Ho Yeon listened to Eun Cho Ae’s words, the voice of Heuk Ya Tae Geom—scoffing as he surveyed Yeom Bang’s facilities—brushed past his ear.
―What are these fools doing? Are they idiots? Why do they make salt production so complicated?
“Then what you’re saying is, if production increased dramatically, those who advocate for the monopoly system would have nothing to say?”
“That would be true, but……?”
Eun Cho Ae lifted her eyes, sharp as a phoenix’s gaze, and looked at Namgung Ho Yeon as if to ask what he was talking about.
He smiled faintly and relayed what he had heard from Heuk Ya Tae Geom.
“Have you ever heard of Solar Salt?”

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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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