Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 72

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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 72. Year Two of the Sword Demon
Step, step, step.
As Mo Yong Yul walked into the quiet courtyard, a man in black robes and a black hat materialized like a ghost.
“You’ve arrived, Spirit Lord.”
“……I am not the Spirit Lord.”
Mo Yong Yul answered Wu Ying Jin’s greeting with a voice stiff as wood.
But Wu Ying Jin paid no mind, bowing low instead.
“Of course. Even if you say you don’t wish to become the Spirit Lord, I will tell you everything exactly as it is.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because once you hear my story, you will become the Spirit Lord of your own accord.”
“…….”
“You need power, don’t you?”
Whoosh.
Wu Ying Jin removed his black hat, revealing hair turned completely white with age.
Yet his face appeared to be in his mid-to-late thirties, and his blackened lips gave him an unsettling air.
“Forgive me for showing you such an ugly visage. I received this punishment for coveting power beyond my capacity.”
“Power beyond your……capacity?”
“I’ll explain in time. Come, let us go inside.”
“…….”
Step, step, step.
Mo Yong Yul walked slowly, following Wu Ying Jin’s guidance into the building.
Creak! Creak! Creak!
The old wooden floor screamed out in protest.
Cobwebs hung in places where no one seemed to have lived in ages.
“Where is this place?”
“This is the inner residence of our Xuan Men.”
“Xuan Men?”
As Mo Yong Yul tilted his head in confusion, Wu Ying Jin smiled with his blackened lips and asked:
“How much do you know about Hao Mun?”
“……It’s a top-tier information organization. I know that five professions each form their own faction.”
“That is Hao Mun as the outside world knows it. But the truth is somewhat different.”
“What do you mean?”
“Professions can change. For instance, three hundred years ago during the Jian Gui Xue Sha period, A Men was annihilated and Ge Men was born.”
Crash!
Wu Ying Jin forced open a stuck wooden door and continued:
“But each faction serves a different Ling Ling, and those never change.”
“Ling Ling? What exactly is……?”
“Allow me to introduce them now. The Ling Ling of our Xuan Men. Yin Xing Wu.”
Creak!
As Wu Ying Jin opened the final door, an empty, dark warehouse-like space appeared.
Within it sat a single birdcage, and even that was empty.
“What are you……introducing?”
Mo Yong Yul furrowed his brow and looked at Wu Ying Jin, who shook his head slowly.
“Dear me, you seem quite displeased.”
“……?”
“Yin Xing Wu. I apologize for bringing you here so suddenly from afar. But the Spirit Lord is present, so it was unavoidable. Please, set aside your anger.”
Wu Ying Jin began to plead with the empty birdcage.
‘Is he simply mad?’
Mo Yong Yul’s expression was growing increasingly strange when——
Flutter!
“Caw!”
Suddenly, the sound of wings beating and a raven’s cry came from the empty birdcage.
“What——what is this?”
“Ha, thank you.”
Mo Yong Yul stumbled backward in shock, while Wu Ying Jin repeatedly bowed in gratitude.
Rustle-rustle-rustle.
Then, moments later, a black raven appeared perched on the cage’s wooden bar.
“Caw!”
“……A raven?”
The raven regarded Mo Yong Yul with eyes black as pitch.
Mo Yong Yul gazed at the raven as though mesmerized.
“Yin Xing Wu has the power to erase his very presence from this world entirely. He is also our eternal guide, we boatmen.”
“A Ling Wu?!”
Mo Yong Yul’s eyes widened.
Throughout Zhong Yuan, legends of Ling Wu have been passed down since ancient times.
The four celestial beasts—the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, and Black Tortoise—need not even be mentioned.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Phoenix, the Single-Horned Flood Dragon, the Man-Faced Tree Spirit, the Golden-Furred Celestial Ape, the Crimson Fire Divine Demon, the Three-Eyed Monitor Lizard—names varying by region and people—yet none deny the existence of such wondrous beings.
‘But Ling Wu should have died out after the Shen Mo Jing Tian Qi era, shouldn’t they?’
Animals that lived for hundreds or thousands of years, becoming Ling Wu, form a Nei Dan within themselves much as a relic crystallizes in the body of a great monk.
The problem is that this Nei Dan is precisely the supreme Shen Dan that martial artists search for with fire in their eyes.
Thus, roughly a thousand years ago, with the end of the Shen Mo Jing Tian Qi era, most Ling Wu vanished from sight.
Whenever rumors surfaced that a Ling Wu had been discovered, the region would invariably be ravaged by every martial artist seeking that Nei Dan.
“R-really a Ling Wu?”
“Caw!”
“So I’m told. Hehehehe.”
As Mo Yong Yul asked in disbelief, the raven snapped its beak upward with a sharp click and puffed out its chest proudly.
“Goodness me…….”
“You mentioned Sugam Dongtong, did you not?”
Wu Ying Jin watched Mo Yong Yul, who sat dumbfounded, and smiled knowingly.
“Sharing an animal’s senses with them—that’s not wrong, but it’s merely the smallest fragment of your true ability.”
“Then what……?”
“Haven’t you experienced something strange? Using an animal’s abilities directly as your own, for instance?”
……
As Wu Ying Jin’s eyes gleamed with intensity, Mo Yong Yul fell into thought.
And soon his mouth began to fall slowly open.
‘Now that I think about it…… there were times when I didn’t merely share an animal’s senses but felt myself merge with them entirely.’
It was last year, when he first succeeded with the Dou Zhuan Xing Yi.
Wu Gong Jiao Du had explained Dou Zhuan Xing Yi with a sneer.
He said it was an advanced technique of You Neng Ti Qiang that incorporated the mysteries of Yi Hua Jie Mu and Si Liang Fa Tian Gen, something Mo Yong Yul could never possibly master.
Yet Mo Yong Yul had simply relaxed his entire body, loosening his muscles with suppleness, and accomplished it with ease.
Though Wu Gong Jiao Du remained unconvinced, the fact that Mo Yong Yul had grasped Dou Zhuan Xing Yi—something even Mo Yong Hu and Mo Yong Cheol could not—remained unchanged.
‘It came naturally to me. Back then, I thought it was because I was young and flexible…….’
Perhaps.
Could it have been thanks to Yue Miao?
If he had gained Yue Miao’s fluid, supple physical agility—the way she landed soundlessly even when falling from a wall—then everything made sense.
‘I had a similar experience recently too. Even after severing my link with Ji Seo, my sense of smell remained acute.’
Because of that, he had been able to catch the scent of blood that emanated from Ho Yeon’s entire body.
Was that because he had inherited Ji Seo’s ability?
“Just as I thought! You sense the truth!”
Crack!
Wu Ying Jin clenched both fists at Mo Yong Yul’s reaction, his voice trembling with exultation.
“Your true spiritual power is Shou Ling Tong Hua! An ancient transcendent ability to merge your soul with an animal’s and wield its power without limitation.”
“Shou Ling…… Tong Hua?”
“For three hundred years, since Hao Mun’s Ling Zhu was slain by the Jian Gui, we have waited for you—oh, how we have waited!”
Thud!
Wu Ying Jin dropped to his knees and bowed his head before Mo Yong Yul.
“Please, guide us and fulfill Hao Mun’s long-cherished wish!”
“P-please, get up!”
Mo Yong Yul moved to lift Wu Ying Jin, but the spirit showed no sign of rising until he received an answer.
“What exactly is this wish you speak of?!”
“We are called Ha O—the lowly filth beneath—and are despised accordingly. They flatter us as an elite intelligence network, yet ultimately we are powerless and exploited by all sides.”
Wu Ying Jin raised his head.
His eyes burned with sorrow and rage.
“If the Ling Zhu accepts the power of the five ‘O’s that Hao Mun serves, you will surely be able to ascend to the Shi Zhi Shi Zu Zhi!”
“Shi Zhi Shi Zu Zhi…….”
Ten fingers and ten toes.
To be counted among the twenty supreme masters across all of Zhong Yuan?
‘If I reach that level…… could I not help Ho Yeon? Could I not earn his recognition?’
As Mo Yong Yul’s eyes glazed over with longing, Wu Ying Jin nodded and continued.
“If only you will place Hao Mun’s name upon a solid foundation, we shall support you in every way possible.”
“……”
Mo Yong Yul fell silent.
The sorrow that Wu Ying Jin felt was something Mo Yong Yul understood all too well.
Being rejected for blue eyes and white skin was not so different from being despised for one’s lowborn profession.
Moved by their earnest longing, Mo Yong Yul posed the question that mattered most.
“Does that mean I can use Hao Mun’s intelligence network as freely as I wish?”
“Of course.”
“……!”
At Wu Ying Jin’s firm affirmation, Mo Yong Yul clenched both fists tight.
Hao Mun was one of the five great intelligence organizations of Zhong Yuan.
In particular, its vast network of information was famous for rivaling Gae Bang itself.
If he could use that power for his brother’s sake, how much value could he bring?
Perhaps his brother would even ruffle his hair in praise.
“……Very well.”
“Ah……!”
The moment Mo Yong Yul gave his consent, color flooded back into Wu Ying Jin’s face.
“I’ll take on this Ling Zhu business.”
“Hahahaha! Thank you! I’ll inform the sect masters of Jian Men, Qi Men, Dao Men, and Ge Men of the Ling Zhu’s birth at once!”
Whoosh!
Wu Ying Jin vanished from the room like dust, leaving only Mo Yong Yul and Yin Xing Wu behind.
As Mo Yong Yul slowly approached the birdcage, Yin Xing Wu tilted his head and gazed at him.
“Hello?”
“Squawk.”
“You’re quite splendid to look at, aren’t you?”
“Screech!”
Click!
At Mo Yong Yul’s praise, Yin Xing Wu chirped happily, then hopped out through the birdcage door with a flutter of wings.
Flap!
With a powerful beat of his wings, Yin Xing Wu circled the ceiling once and landed atop Mo Yong Yul’s head.
Hum! Hummmm!
As Mo Yong Yul then focused his spirit on the upper dantian and deployed Shou Ling Tong Hua, something extraordinary occurred.
Whoosh-crash!
Flash!
A subtle yet formidable energy arose from the Qi Hai point and began racing through all the meridians of his body.
Throb! Throb-throb!
At the same time, Mo Yong Yul’s form began to flicker like a lamp wavering before the wind, appearing and vanishing in turn.
“Ah, aaaah!”
When Wu Ying Jin returned to the room moments later, he saw this sight and wept with ecstasy.
For it was the moment when Hao Mun’s Ling Zhu was born, after three hundred years.
* * *
Two years had passed.
* * *
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
“Oh my.”
“There it goes again.”
“Heaven’s wrath, surely. Tsk tsk tsk.”
“It’s the Jin Yu Dao direction, isn’t it? Sigh!”
When rough waves suddenly churned the calm surface of Sao Hu, the fishermen aboard their boats all clicked their tongues in unison.
“What kind of monster has taken up residence here? What’s been happening for the past two years?”
“Haven’t you heard? They say it’s the work of something called the Water-Devouring Turtle Demon.”
“The Water-Devouring Turtle Demon?”
“There’s supposed to be a turtle demon that drinks the water itself. How else would all the fish in that area have vanished?”
“Tsk tsk tsk, what are the martial artists doing? There’s a Ling Wu right there and they don’t go capture it.”
“It’s a demon, not some spirit thing.”
Creak! Creak! Creak!
As if accustomed to such strange occurrences, the fishermen rowed in the opposite direction from where the waves were being drawn down.
The Jin Yu Dao vicinity had become forbidden ground among the fishermen over the past two years.
Once, a brave young fisherman had steered his boat toward Jin Yu Dao when the waves began to churn, only to collapse unconscious for ten days afterward.
Since then, the fishermen would not so much as venture near the Jin Yu Dao waters.
Gurgle-gurgle-gurgle!
After some time had passed, the shockwave subsided, and a quiet stillness settled low over Sao Hu.
Footstep, footstep, footstep.
Then, from within the limestone cave on Jin Yu Dao, the sound of footsteps echoed out.
Had someone begun trafficking in contraband salt here again?
Thump!
But the young man in the blue martial robe who emerged from the cave possessed such refined and radiant features that even if he’d attempted something illegal, his appearance would have drawn attention—making any such undertaking seem utterly impossible.
He stood about five feet eight inches tall, a height neither short nor tall but perfectly proportioned, yet the three swords hanging at his waist marked him as anything but an ordinary common person.
His eyes gleamed like polished mirrors, his nose was straight and elegant, and his jawline was sharp enough to inspire admiration.
Fair skin and crimson lips gave him a delicate appearance, yet his long, tousled hair added to that impression of fragility.
But one glance at the broad, powerful shoulders and the defined chest muscles visible through the loose fit of his martial robe revealed that he was no ordinary trained fighter.
“What time is it now?”
As the man glanced around and spoke, his prominent Adam’s apple bobbed, and his voice emerged clear and resonant—a pleasant, deep tone.
“What? Already the Hour of Wine? Tsk!”
Whoosh!
As if someone had told him the time, he furrowed his brow sharply and launched himself forward, diving into the lake.
Splash! Splash! Splash!
The man ran across the water as though it were solid ground, but a closer look revealed that each footfall landed before the other lifted—never breaking contact with the surface.
“Here we go again. How many times do I have to tell him that if he’s going to be late, he should just go ahead and eat?”
As he muttered his complaints, a subtle smile played at the corners of his lips—a softness that belied the gruff tone of his words.
It was Namgung Ho Yeon, now eighteen years old.

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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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