Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 73

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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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Chapter 73. Sword Ghost Province Boundary
Tianshan.
A certain place.
A woman in flowing white robes, ethereal as an immortal, murmured softly to herself.
“The age of great strife approaches.”
Her voice was strange and mysterious, as though many people spoke through her at once.
The woman’s expression—whether born of suffering, joy, ecstasy, or despair, none could say—lifted toward a sky so crowded with stars it seemed they might pour down upon her, and she cried out.
“The Heavenly Mandate, chaotic beyond measure! Torrents of talent bursting forth like a broken dam! Has the Star-Filled Flowing Light Period truly arrived!”
The Star-Filled Flowing Light Period.
An age when stars brim full and light flows across the heavens.
For the past three hundred years, the Zhongyuan had known no great wars or upheavals.
Heaven’s will is mysterious and ever seeks balance; thus the starlight long suppressed would cascade forth like rain.
Indeed, even among the absolute masters known as the Ten Fingers Ten Clans—the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns and Twelve Kings—there were those who, had they been born in another age, might have contended for supremacy under Heaven.
“Mars and Saturn invade the Horn constellation, Venus breaches the Well—when Regulus and Antares turn their backs, the world shall wash its sins in blood!”
From her lips poured words that were curse and prophecy alike.
A snap of her fingers.
She pointed toward a particular region of the heavens and her brow furrowed.
“Yet something troubles me. In the Ghost constellation, the gathered essence of the dead stirs against Heaven’s will to live again?”
A deep, resonant hum filled the air, then another.
Before her eyes spun a crimson star moving in a direction contrary to the ordinary course of the heavens.
“Strange. Most strange indeed. I cannot fathom what variables this may bring.”
At her murmuring, the old woman behind her—who held brush and scriptures, recording her every word—suddenly opened her eyes wide in shock.
‘W-what? The Divine Maiden says she cannot predict? In all my years, I have never heard her speak thus!’
The old woman watched the Divine Maiden, still tilting her head in bewilderment, and moved her brush with frantic speed.
Swish, swish, swish!
Ghost Constellation Accumulated Corpse Reverse Heaven Resurrection
‘I must report this at once! But then, who is this one who walks against Heaven?’
The old woman waited anxiously for the Divine Maiden’s next words, but she only repeated that single word: strange.
* * *
“The preparations?”
“Complete, my lord.”
“At last, then.”
“A long wait it has been.”
“Hehehehe.”
A middle-aged man in a Red Dragon Robe, seated upon a resplendent golden throne, laughed—and the vast Grand Hall seemed to laugh with him.
‘……He has grown even stronger. Impossibly so.’
Before him stood a lean man of middle years in civilian dress, his eyes burning red as blood, and he marveled at the sight.
“You have done well, Sima Hwan. Your White Path Counter-Infiltration achieved perfect success. The orthodox faction has split in two.”
“Surely that cannot be the work of myself alone, sir.”
“Modesty is unnecessary. Without the Red Eye Secret Pavilion, such schemes could never have been conceived, much less executed.”
From the middle-aged man’s lips came the name of one of the five great intelligence organizations of Zhongyuan: the Red Eye Secret Pavilion.
None of the other information networks dared even attempt to rival them in espionage and disinformation—that was the domain of the red-eyed pavilion alone.
The pavilion master of the Red Eye Secret Pavilion was Sima Hwan, the supreme military strategist of Gucheon Sung and the lord of Thunder Heaven, one of the nine heavens.
Then who was this middle-aged man in the Red Dragon Robe whom even Sima Hwan addressed with such deference?
“I am honored that the Demon Emperor of All Heavens recognizes the service of our Sima Clan.”
Sima Hwan’s red eyes gleamed as he accepted the man’s praise.
The middle-aged man in the Red Dragon Robe was emperor of all the heterodox heavens.
Baek Ak Gyeol, the Demon Emperor of All Heavens.
He was an absolute master, one whose fingers counted among the top three in all the Zhongyuan Martial World.
“Where does that keen red gaze of yours turn, General?”
“To Henan, my lord.”
“As does mine.”
“This Dragon Phoenix Gathering will be a festival.”
“Of course—with us in command.”
“I shall contact each of the other heaven lords. We have already cracked the stone; now we need only strike the chisel home.”
“Ahhahaha! Lose no time! The day when our clan claims the heavens of Gucheon draws near!”
Guiyang, Guizhou Province.
A secret conversation that had passed between the heart of Gucheon Sung and this place.
* * *
“Hmm…….”
In the place where moonlight fell, Namgung Ho Yeon sat in lotus position, his jade-like face serene.
He was no longer a youth—eighteen years old suited him well enough now.
Hum! Hum!
Ho Yeon had concentrated his spirit on the Yin Tang Point.
The space between his brows grew hot, and in the next moment, something miraculous unfolded around him.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
Every pebble, grain of earth, and twig within three paces rose into the air as one—each hovering approximately an inch above the ground.
To suspend different objects at identical heights demanded both exquisite control of force and perfect command of will.
‘At this rate, I could manage fifty blades without trouble. Still, there’s so much further to go.’
Three years ago, he couldn’t even manage a single blade. By that measure, his progress was extraordinary—yet Ho Yeon remained unsatisfied.
‘After my battle with Gwang Bi Chang, my Spirit Energy exploded with growth. But these past two years… I’ve hit a wall. There’s no stimulus quite like a life-or-death struggle to shake the soul awake.’
His expression twisted.
Life-or-death struggle, my ass.
One small cough, and the Medicine Hall Master came running with bundles of needles and medicinal supplies.
No matter how many times Ho Yeon explained that he’d merely choked on water, the old man insisted he lie in bed and recuperate, muttering and fretting like a worried hen.
‘Damn it all. By eighteen, shouldn’t a man have brushed against death a hundred times over? What is this suffocating overprotection?’
For the past two years,
Ho Yeon had found it nearly impossible to leave Hefei.
Once, he’d tagged along with the Iron Sword Brigade on an escort mission, thinking a bit of fresh air would do him good—and the whole clan nearly fell apart.
Ho Yeon hadn’t known it, but the various divisions of the Namgung Clan had taken what they learned from the escort mission and refined it through his lectures.
When they returned to find that Ho Yeon had left with the Iron Sword Brigade, all hell broke loose.
Division heads from the other branches stormed the clan hall demanding to know why only the Iron Sword Brigade received such favor.
After that day, Ho Yeon became the Namgung Clan’s watchdog, bound to the estate.
‘Damn dogs. Am I your babysitter? Why do you fall apart the moment I’m gone? The martial arts manuals are all gathering dust in Changgyeong Pavilion anyway!’
Ho Yeon let his frustration spill out.
In his first year as Namgung Ho Yeon, he’d used Sword Heart Resonance to annotate the Namgung Clan’s martial insights into a coherent corpus.
Over the past two years, he’d attempted to graft the techniques and insights from his days as a Sword Demon into the Namgung martial tradition.
The result was the creation of new martial arts—the Layered Cloud Myriad Tribulation Palm, the Ethereal Soul Flying Swallow Sword, the Life-Stealing Flowing Water Sword, and others.
Having developed a late-blooming interest in martial theory, Ho Yeon scribbled these out roughly and left them in Changgyeong Pavilion one by one.
Without fail, the next day saw the Library Master arrive gasping and pleading for mercy.
He claimed he’d developed arthritis in his wrists from transcribing all day.
As a result of this chain of events, Ho Yeon’s title had been elevated from Junior Martial Sage to Junior Patriarch.
‘Junior Patriarch? It’s nothing—just mixing old techniques together like straw in rice.’
During his Sword Demon years, such things were commonplace.
Since he’d never formally studied under any master, he’d developed the habit of trial and error, attempting whatever came to mind.
Yes, he’d nearly died from qi deviation a few times, but isn’t that something everyone experiences?
‘Thank heaven I found that secret base, or I’d have lost my mind from boredom.’
Cursing softly, Ho Yeon shifted his focus this time to the Qi Hai Point.
Unlike the upper dantian, the lower dantian had undergone spectacular advancement over the past two years.
The sea of blue qi was as vast and boundless as the sky itself.
Changung Qi deepened in hue as one’s cultivation grew, and now it had become a brilliant, vivid cyan—brighter than any blue in nature.
Rumble-rumble!
Crack!
And upon the foundation of this stable Changung Qi, an enormous thundercloud churned endlessly, unleashing torrents of Heavenly Thunder Qi.
‘Unbelievable. I gathered it myself, but at this age, the sheer quantity is madness.’
Over these past two years, Ho Yeon had claimed a small island called Geumeo Island in the Xiaohu, making it his private secret base where he repeatedly practiced Spirit Energy Absorption Circulation.
He couldn’t afford to do such things in the city—he’d be branded a demon cultivator. So he’d chosen a place as remote and unfrequented as possible.
‘And that’s only what I gathered while keeping the dantian’s capacity in mind. I could have collected far more, but…’
Ho Yeon sighed wistfully.
A dantian, like muscle, expanded and solidified through gradual strain, and Ho Yeon’s was currently pushed to its absolute limit holding this much inner force.
He knew the principle of moderation, but he couldn’t help wishing he had two dantians.
‘Still, at this level, I should rightfully be considered Transcendent Peak now, shouldn’t I?’
Ho Yeon consoled himself with the thought.
Transcendent Peak was generally understood as surpassing the Peak Realm, with the most straightforward indicator being whether one could form Barrier Qi.
Yet Ho Yeon had been capable of forming it two years ago, at the very height of the Peak Realm.
That was because of his experience and understanding from his Sword Demon years—he’d grown skilled at controlling qi.
‘I could only deploy it in short bursts because of my limited total inner force, but now I should be able to use it with some stability.’
Satisfied with this assessment, Ho Yeon nodded to himself.
Had anyone else witnessed him, they would have called him a monster without hesitation.
Transcendent Peak at eighteen?
That level of attainment was comparable to the realm of elders or clan heads of major sects.
‘All that remains is this wall.’
Yet Ho Yeon did not settle for what he had achieved; his gaze turned toward the next realm.
Thump-thump-thump!
Whoooosh!
Ho Yeon’s consciousness drifted past the Qi Hai Point and through the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.
The flow of consciousness that had been advancing unobstructed came to a halt midway—this was the space between the Conception Vessel and the Governing Vessel, which pierce vertically through the center of the human body.
The Gate of Life and Death.
‘If this opens, I can circulate the Major Heaven Circulation through all the meridians of my body. Then I’ll be able to manifest Barrier Qi.’
No matter how accomplished Ho Yeon was, he could not manifest Barrier Qi in his current state.
It was not a matter of internal strength, but of output capacity.
‘With only the Minor Heaven Circulation, no matter how skillfully I manipulate my qi, I can only create the warp threads. I cannot draw out the weft threads and complete the weaving.’
Once the Gate of Life and Death is pierced, the total quantity of qi that can be released in one burst increases.
Conversely, if the Gate of Life and Death remains sealed, whether there is ten units or twenty units of qi in the Dantian, Barrier Qi cannot be manifested.
‘Not yet…… then.’
Ho Yeon had to turn back from the solid, towering wall of the Gate of Life and Death today as well.
Impatience clawed at his throat, desperate to leap to the next realm, but Ho Yeon held it back.
‘I cannot repeat the mistakes of the past.’
In truth, long ago Ho Yeon had used a shortcut to ascend the wall.
He had forcibly pierced the Gate of Life and Death using the power of Uigi Yeondong.
‘At that time, I had no choice. With my neck hanging by a thread, there was no leisure to seek enlightenment or anything else.’
Because of that, Ho Yeon had been able to see through the condition of the Fire Doctrine Master Gwang Bi Chang at a glance.
He too had clearly forced his way up the wall using some method, just as Ho Yeon had done in the past.
‘And look how much I suffered for it. Without Uigi Yeondong, I would have died a hundred times over.’
The method by which he had shattered Gwang Bi Chang’s coarse Barrier Qi was the same method Ho Yeon himself had endured in a former life.
Having ascended the wall without enlightenment, Gwang Bi Chang had never learned how to withstand the bitter wind.
So he had rushed to learn the technique of weaving and manipulating qi, had improvised, had tested his methods in real combat and accumulated experience through trial.
‘But something was always lacking. The flow of my qi was not as smooth as that of properly enlightened ascenders.’
While other ascenders’ internal strength flowed in straight lines, his own flowed in curves and bends.
He had labored hard to sand down those curves, to make them as straight as possible, but in the end had failed to achieve perfect straightness.
‘The problem is that I don’t know the method of how to properly ascend the wall…….’
It was a strange situation indeed.
To give an example:
Ordinarily, ascenders climb the wall diligently and pluck the apple jutting out over the top of the barrier.
But Ho Yeon of the past had stood beneath the barrier and swung a pole to knock the apple down and snatch it.
So he knew intimately what the apple tasted like, how sweet it was, but he did not know how to climb the barrier itself and could only stamp his feet in frustration.
‘They say each person’s enlightenment to wall-ascension is different…… Hah, this is maddening.’
The karma of having taken a shortcut in the past had returned to him now.
The subtle working of Heaven was truly vexing.
Thump-thump-thump!
Then, at the boom echoing from outside, Ho Yeon turned his consciousness outward.
Opening his eyes, he saw the Massive Boulder blocking the cave entrance beginning to move slowly.
“Finally he emerges, that stubborn fool.”
Ho Yeon murmured with a smirk.
Today was the day his older brother, Namgung Cheong Gang, was finishing his closed-door cultivation and returning.

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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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