Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 76

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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 76. The Sword Demon’s Keen Eye
“Hmm?”
Namgung Ja Ryang, the seventh unit commander of the Changgun Order, furrowed his brow as he surveyed the distant landscape from horseback.
Someone was galloping toward them from afar.
Whip-crack!
“Halt.”
Namgung Ja Ryang clenched his fist and raised his hand in a stop signal.
“What’s wrong?”
“Bandits?”
“Ha—hardly. We’re flying the Changgun banner.”
“Even without the banner, what madman would ambush a group this size?”
The later generation disciples of the Namgung Clan carried themselves with perfect ease.
Who were they, after all?
The elite vanguard of the Great Namgung Clan, rapidly reclaiming its former glory.
They could have repelled an entire bandit stronghold single-handedly.
“Silence! Everyone maintain formation!”
Namgung Ja Ryang barked orders over the desultory chatter, sharpening their vigilance.
“But Commander, it’s just one person—”
“One or two makes no difference! Move!”
Thwack! Clatter-clatter!
At Namgung Ja Ryang’s sharp command, the seventh unit of the Changgun Order wheeled forward and formed a circular defensive perimeter in the Azure Sky Boundless Sword Formation.
After a moment’s wait, the identity of the approaching figure became clear.
“…A woman?”
“Looks like some village wife.”
“Is that swaddling cloth in her arms?”
The figure rushing toward them was an ordinary woman in her mid-thirties, her hair in disarray.
“Huff! Huff! Please—please help me!”
The disheveled woman bore scratches and scrapes all over her body; clearly she had suffered some terrible ordeal.
“Stop!”
“P-please—!”
“Explain yourself from there.”
Though she was alone, Namgung Ja Ryang kept his guard up and brought her to a halt.
The woman caught her breath and poured out her story in an urgent tone.
“We’re slash-and-burn farmers moving our settlement from Zhangfeng to Fengwang—we were crossing the mountains when we ran into a band of robbers!”
“Robbers? There’s a Green Forest gang on Palgong Mountain?”
“Green Forest or not, bandits are thick as weeds everywhere.”
“That’s the truth. When I did escort work, that was the most surprising thing to me—bandits really are everywhere.”
The members of the Changgun Order nodded at her account.
It was a relatively common occurrence in the harsh Martial World of the Central Plains.
But Namgung Ja Ryang did not relax his expression and pressed further.
“Odd. Even third-rate bandits wouldn’t be clumsy enough to let a woman escape while nursing a child. How exactly did you manage to get away?”
“That is…”
The woman bit her lip hard and, swallowing her shame, forced out the next words.
“I—I stopped to nurse my infant, and fell behind. When I saw my group being attacked from a distance, I fled that very moment.”
“Ahem.”
“Wah! Wahhh!”
Just as Namgung Ja Ryang cleared his throat, a baby’s cry burst from the swaddling cloth in the woman’s arms.
“Oh, little one, don’t cry. Forgive me, please forgive me.”
The woman bowed her head repeatedly, apologizing lest the infant’s cries offend.
At her manner, the wariness in Namgung Ja Ryang’s eyes softened.
“Commander, we should help.”
“Agreed. Lord Ho Yeon once said that justice delayed is justice denied.”
“Besides, bandit suppression is part of our daily duty.”
“The Dragon Phoenix Assembly awaits anyway—let’s limber up.”
True to their calling as later generation disciples of the righteous sects, the chivalrous heart in them stirred at a woman’s plea for aid.
Namgung Ja Ryang nodded and dropped down from his horse, approaching the woman.
Tap. Stride-stride.
“Climb onto my horse for now. You’ll need to guide us to the location.”
“Ah! Thank you, thank you so much!”
“Wahhh! Wahhhhh!”
The woman kept bowing her head, and from the swaddling cloth came the increasingly frantic cries of an infant.
“Dear me, perhaps soothe the child first. It seems quite startled.”
“Would you be so kind as to rock the baby, sir? I’m afraid I have no strength left in my body whatsoever…….”
The woman, her complexion ashen, made her request with shameless desperation, and Namgung Ja Ryang replied with evident reluctance.
“I’m not particularly skilled with infants.”
“It’s all right. The child is docile.”
“Well, then…….”
The woman handed over the swaddling cloth, and as Namgung Ja Ryang reached out to take the baby from her arms.
Thud!
“You simple weasel. How do you expect to survive on fighter’s wages with such naïveté?”
“Hmm? Ho Yeon?”
“A woman we just met on the road—a brigand—hands her child to a complete stranger? Does the weasel look that foolish to you?”
Namgung Ho Yeon, gripping Namgung Ja Ryang’s arm, smiled as he posed the question to the woman.
At this, the woman’s face went deathly pale and she stammered.
“I, I truly have no strength…….”
“Is that so?”
Slash!
Namgung Ho Yeon suddenly drew the Flowing Love Sword and slashed horizontally at the woman.
“What—!”
In the instant Namgung Ja Ryang cried out in shock, the woman crossed both arms and blocked the blade strike.
Clang!
When blade met arm, the sound that rang out was not the dull thud of flesh, but the metallic ring of steel.
Namgung Ja Ryang’s eyes widened as he stared at the woman’s arm.
“Iron Arm Guards?!”
Beyond the severed fabric of her sleeve, gleaming metal guards fashioned of iron were visible.
Gone was the frantic expression from moments before; now the woman drew two Flying Blades and glared at Namgung Ho Yeon with murderous intent.
“No strength, my foot. You’re practically bursting with it.”
“Hah!”
Tap-tap-tap!
The woman rushed at Namgung Ho Yeon in response to his taunt, deliberately loosening her garments to bare her chest as she advanced.
She was using the fact that her opponent was a man to distract his gaze and create an opening.
Whoosh!
Then she hurled a Flying Blade—its edge no more than two inches long—with surgical precision toward the space between Namgung Ho Yeon’s brows.
Whistle! Thwack!
In the same motion, she kicked up the pommel of another blade that appeared to have been dropped by accident, sending it spinning skyward in a graceful arc.
“Die!”
The woman lunged at Namgung Ho Yeon, who stood motionless.
But.
Slash!
Namgung Ho Yeon merely drew the Flowing Love Sword downward in a languid stroke.
Crash! Crunch!
Both Flying Blades shattered, and in that same instant, the woman’s body was split cleanly in two.
“Good heavens……!”
Namgung Ja Ryang stared at the bisected corpse, then shifted his gaze to the swaddling cloth.
“Waaah! Waaah!”
“Using a baby as a decoy—!”
“Don’t touch that.”
“Hmm?”
“It’s a Special Grade Assassin.”
At Namgung Ho Yeon’s words, Namgung Ja Ryang furrowed his brow and spoke.
“But that woman was only third-rate.”
“I’m not talking about the woman.”
“Then……?”
Namgung Ja Ryang tilted his head in confusion, and Namgung Ho Yeon walked toward the swaddling cloth and prodded it with his foot.
At that moment.
Rustle!
The cloth unraveled, and a small-bodied monkey bounded out toward Namgung Ho Yeon.
“Waaah! Waaah!”
The monkey rushed forward, mimicking the cries of an infant, its claws fitted with custom-forged metal talons.
Those iron claws were thickly coated with a sinister, greenish poison.
“As someone who cares for animals, I must say my heart isn’t pleased.”
Thwip!
As Ho Yeon flicked the Finger Wind, the monkey’s head snapped backward and it crumpled to the ground.
Thud!
Namgung Ja Ryang stared blankly at the dust settling in the air as Ho Yeon spoke.
“High martial skill alone doesn’t make you a Special Grade Assassin. A true assassin is one who creates openings in the opponent.”
“This… this is vicious….”
“Heavens, what is happening?”
“An assassin…!”
“Young Master!”
Tap-tap! Tap-tap-tap!
The Later Generation Disciples came rushing over in a flurry at what had unfolded in mere seconds.
Yet Ho Yeon’s gaze remained fixed on the corpse of the woman split in two.
‘Far cruder than I expected, but that Flying Blade Art definitely had merit.’
He’d seen it before, two years ago at the Baekga Geom-hoe.
As Ho Yeon stood lost in thought, Namgung Mu Won approached from the side and examined the woman’s shattered Flying Blade before speaking.
“There’s a martial sect in the region that uses such distinctive Flying Blades.”
“The Danli Family, isn’t it?”
“Ah, you knew. About a day’s journey from here on Palgong Mountain lies the city of Fuyang, which that family controls.”
Grin.
Namgung Mu Won pulled his mouth into a smile as he spoke.
“And they’re the sort who boast of being Anhui’s finest while eyeing the positions of the Ten Great Families.”
“…….”
“But it’s strange. No matter how much they want to bring down the main family, would they really resort to such crude tactics? There must be considerable enmity to unleash such a vicious move….”
Namgung Mu Won muttered in bewilderment.
At that, Ho Yeon felt for his chest and touched the Moon Shadow Crimson Red.
‘Hmm, enmity… there may well be.’
* * *
“Open your eyes! Please, come on!”
“Ugh… ah….”
“Come on!”
In a place where thirty-odd men had drawn their swords and stood guard all around.
At the center, a youth in his mid-twenties held a boy barely into his teens and shouted in disbelief.
“What… what on earth is this…!”
“Ugh….”
Cho Jin Gwang’s eyes trembled finely as he looked at his younger brother teetering on the brink of death.
They were from the Cho Family of Yunnan, affiliated with the Baekga Maeng, and had departed a month ago for the Dragon Phoenix Assembly.
Yunnan lay south even of Sichuan, marking the frontier of the Central Plains.
And so they had hoped to use this Dragon Phoenix Assembly as a chance to raise the fame of the Cho Family.
Cho So Pyeong, his younger brother, wasn’t participating in this year’s assembly, but had tagged along insisting he’d surely join the next year’s.
The mood had been light. Everyone was excited after so long away in the Martial World.
That is, until they met that father and son.
“Huff! Huff!”
“Ah, what an incompetent old man I am. Bringing shame on my son.”
“Huff! Ha, don’t worry.”
“I’m fine… Cough! Cough!”
They had encountered them while ascending the mountain path.
A middle-aged man was carrying an old man on an A-frame carrier up the mountain—no, ascending the mountain.
When they asked, he said his father had fallen ill, and since the village couldn’t treat him, he was heading to a larger city where there was a skilled physician.
“What a filial son! Elder brother, let’s help them!”
“Ha, shall we?”
Moved by the pitiful circumstances of the father and son, Cho So Pyeong had asked, and Cho Jin Gwang had readily agreed.
It was a mistake.
The moment So Pyeong approached to help the old man down from the carrier, they changed their expressions and rushed at him.
The Cho Family warriors, alarmed, immediately cut down the father and son, but by then a short blade was already lodged deep in So Pyeong’s shoulder.
“So Pyeong! So Pyeong!”
“Brother….”
“Yes! Yes! Your brother is here!”
“You… must… become… a… dragon….”
“Hold on! Hold on!”
Thump.
Cho So Pyeong’s head fell limply to one side.
Cho Jin Gwang caught his brother’s neck quickly, but the boy was already gone.
“Ah—ahhhh! No, no, nooo!”
Cho Jin Gwang’s face flushed crimson as he screamed, murderous energy pouring from him in waves.
“Who are you? Why have you killed my brother—an innocent boy?”
No one answered his question. The father and son assassins were dead.
Instead, a warrior standing nearby spoke to Cho Jin Gwang.
“Master, I believe this is Miasma Poison.”
“…Miasma Poison?”
Miasma Poison—a toxic vapor born from decomposing leaves and corpses in warm, humid environments.
Ordinarily it remained a contagious endemic disease, but there were those in Miaojiang, north of Yunnan, who cultivated it deliberately as a weapon.
“The Southern Miasma Five Poison Palace?! Why would they—”
“They may not be, but how else would their poison reach here in Shaanxi?”
The warrior spoke flatly, his expression hardening. “These assassins are certainly from Yunnan.”
“…!”
“The Five Poison Palace’s toxins circulate only in small quantities within Yunnan itself. That these men carried it means…”
“They followed us from Yunnan? If that’s true—!”
Cho Jin Gwang’s bloodshot eyes blazed.
The Cho Family held roots in Dali, Yunnan, and there existed a rival faction with whom they endlessly contested territorial rights.
“The Falling Petals Martial Hall—it has to be them!”
The Falling Petals Martial Hall was founded by Ling Zhi Feng, a member of the inner disciples of the Spot Spear Sect, known as the Falling Petals Twin Swords.
They gnawed steadily at the Dali Stone distribution monopoly the Cho Family held so tightly.
The conflict had intensified, and deaths had become frequent of late.
Crack!
Suspicion hardened into certainty. Cho Jin Gwang’s neck cords trembled visibly as his voice emerged, laden with primal hatred.
“I will not share this sky with those wretches! I swear by blood I shall wash away So Pyeong’s grudge!”
His brother’s final plea—to become a dragon for the Dragon Phoenix Assembly—was forgotten.
Cho Jin Gwang no longer cared what became of the Dragon Phoenix Assembly.
“I will. I will, I will!”
A dangerous madness glimmered red in both his eyes.
* * *
“A coin, kind sir! If you’re well off, how about two?”
The Great Righteousness Road—a massive thoroughfare running north to south through Zhengzhou in Henan.
A short beggar rubbed his palms together eagerly, begging passersby.
The man, who appeared to be in his thirties, boasted an ugly, roughly-hewn face that seemed to have a dozen sharp angles.
“Ugh. That beggar’s so hideous.”
“Eek! A monster!”
“Ha ha, how ugly!”
“Hehe! Just one coin for this wretched fellow!”
Passersby regarded him with contemptuous eyes, but the beggar paid them no mind, rubbing his palms together all the more vigorously.
Clink! Clink!
His shameless manner earned a few coins tossed his way.
“Oh, generous sir! My thanks! I’ll live well, I swear it!”
Each time, the beggar bent at the waist and wagged an invisible tail with abandon.
“Heh heh, the generosity of Zhengzhou! Is it because so many outsiders pass through?”
The beggar stuffed the coins into his pocket and hummed a tune all his own.
“Clink, one coin! Oh, clink, two coins!”
The women walking the street wrinkled their noses in disgust at his vulgar scratching and sidestepped him.
“Puh heh heh!”
The beggar laughed coarsely at their reactions and glanced around.
Then.
Clip-clop! Clip-clop!
Whirrrr!
A contingent of armed men moved eastward along the Great Righteousness Road.
Those dressed in blue martial robes carried themselves with such refined arrogance it bordered on the intimidating.
‘They’re here.’
On the blue flag mounted upon a carriage was written: Azure Heaven Namgung.

The Beggar’s eyes gleamed as he watched the carriage recede into the distance.
‘A person of note. Namgung Ho Yeon!’

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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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