Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 80

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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 80. The Sword Demon’s Affection
“This way.”
“It’s like a marketplace here.”
Ho Yeon followed Jegal Ahyeon’s guidance toward the open grounds where the Yongbong Conference preliminaries were being held.
Twenty martial arenas, each constructed from Cheonggang Stone, dotted the vast expanse.
Spaced five zhang apart—roughly fifteen meters—the arenas were crammed between with spectators so densely packed they could barely move.
“Come on, senior!”
“Five silver coins on Ju So Jung of the Cheongun Sword School!”
“Yim Mu Rim of the Cheongchuk Sect takes it!”
“Won Myeong of the Jeomchang Sect advances without a fight!”
“Oho! The First Young Master of the Cheljang Sect draws his sword aura!”
Classmates cheering for their brothers-in-arms, gamblers placing wagers, crowds roaring at spectacular techniques—the preliminary matches unfolded amid an atmosphere that rivaled a festival.
The entire event brimmed with vitality.
“Tsk. Direct descendants of the great clans get automatic passage through preliminaries. Feels like I’ve become the very incarnation of unfairness.”
Ho Yeon smacked his lips, muttering to himself.
The sensation of becoming part of the privileged class he’d once sneered at as a sword demon was remarkably peculiar.
Jegal Ahyeon smiled faintly and replied.
“Hehe. From their perspective, isn’t it unfair that you’re not even participating in the preliminaries?”
“Hmm?”
“Direct descendants of noble families who’ve trained in Divine Technique Secret Learning since childhood and consumed fortifying elixirs naturally exceed their peers in strength.”
Jegal Ahyeon gestured toward the arenas as she continued.
“They all came to the Yongbong Conference with dreams of glory. But if they’re eliminated in their very first match after meeting you, don’t you think they’d feel cheated?”
“…Now that you mention it, that makes sense.”
Ho Yeon nodded in agreement.
So it wasn’t a privilege—it was a restriction.
“Then only our Ja Ryang will have a fair fight?”
“Ja Ryang?”
“Namgung Ja Ryang. Look, he’s coming up now.”
Ho Yeon’s eyes gleamed as he pointed toward the eastern arena.
The reason he’d come here, despite not competing himself, was to observe the martial matches of the Changung Corps members.
‘Those who lose face hell training. They’d better steel themselves.’
A malicious smile crossed Ho Yeon’s face.
He’d sworn that if any of his carefully trained soldiers lost so miserably, he’d drive them to the brink of despair.
The Changung Corps would have to wield their blades with the desperation of fighting for their lives.
“Well, there’s no need to worry about Ja Ryang. He’ll advance to the main tournament without issue.”
“Puhehe. Do you really think so?”
A laugh drifted from behind Ho Yeon in response to his words.
When he turned, he saw a beggar with a face as wrinkled as a potato, scratching his belly vigorously.
“Who is this vagrant?”
“Hehe! No need to hype me up like that.”
“That’s an insult.”
“What brings you here, Cheol Mu Gu?”
As Ho Yeon furrowed his brow while studying the beggar’s face, Jegal Ahyeon stiffened her expression and asked politely.
The beggar—Cheol Mu Gu, also known as the Merciful Fool—turned to answer her.
“A celestial maiden descended from heaven, so I came to pay my respects. Hehe.”
“……….”
Jegal Ahyeon’s eyes narrowed at his words.
‘A lie. He came to see Ho Yeon, not me.’
Woom! Wooom!
Through her Simseogamhwa technique, Jegal Ahyeon sensed the cool, dark blue emotion flowing from Cheol Mu Gu directed toward Ho Yeon.
‘Wariness? Suspicion? Of what about Ho Yeon?’
‘So the rumors about the Heavenly Heart Maiden weren’t exaggerated. I’ll need to be more careful with my words and actions.’
In that same moment, Cheol Mu Gu felt Jegal Ahyeon’s guard rising against him.
Originally, he’d intended to find Ho Yeon alone, but the young man was always surrounded by family or his betrothed.
He’d judged that Jegal Ahyeon would be easier to approach than Namgung Cheong Gang, who radiated such oppressive presence—but had he miscalculated?
“If Cheol Mu Gu, then ‘Gae Bang’?”
“Exactly. Cheol Mu Gu, the Merciful Fool. A wanderer with quite the reputation for righteous deeds.”
“My goodness! Such praise from a beauty—this humble beggar doesn’t know where to put himself!”
At Cheol Mu Gu’s theatrical display, Ho Yeon clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘Tsk. Nothing but well-fed beggars playing at virtue.’
Namgung Ho Yeon did not like Cheol Mu Gu.
The man possessed outstanding martial skill and sharp intelligence, yet did nothing but wander about begging—how could that be?
No matter how he looked at it, they were ne’er-do-wells dressed in a beggar’s rags.
“Ahem!”
The moment disapproval flickered across Ho Yeon’s eyes, Cheol Mu Gu scratched his head with an awkward laugh.
His teeth began to fall—yet Ho Yeon’s gaze remained fixed upon the man’s eyes.
‘Looking at it this way, it doesn’t seem like I’m avoiding him because he repels me.’
That noble sons disliked beggars was hardly remarkable.
Indeed, it was expected—who would take a liking to filth and stench?
But Namgung Ho Yeon was different somehow.
Sensing this, Cheol Mu Gu asked with genuine curiosity.
“Tell me—what transgression has this one committed against you? I regret interrupting your time with your lady.”
“It’s not that. I simply dislike beggars as a matter of personal principle.”
“Why? A beggar is merely impoverished, is he not?”
“Poverty and malice are not the same thing. No more than weakness and evil are one.”
‘I saw enough of it in the back alleys. Those same beggars who bowed and scraped to their betters—I watched them torment those weaker than themselves with a cruelty that turned my stomach.’
Whether from being beaten senseless by beggars in those days, Ho Yeon’s mood soured the moment he encountered one.
“Words with bone inside. You speak with weight.”
Having caught the deeper meaning in Ho Yeon’s words, Cheol Mu Gu clasped his fist in formal salute, his tone grown grave.
“If you have suffered harm at the hands of beggars, then I, Cheol Mu Gu, shall apologize on their behalf.”
“No apology is needed. You do not represent all beggars. For my part, I was wrong to project my past grievances onto you.”
Ho Yeon, too, felt the sting of old memories and recognized he had spoken too harshly; he returned the salute with genuine contrition.
—Well done, boy. The Beggars’ Guild must never be turned to an enemy.
—Ha! Oniya has hated beggars since the old days, hasn’t he.
Cheon Rae Geom spoke with relief, while Heuk Ya Tae Geom chuckled at the memory.
“Hehehehe! That’s how friends are—they misunderstand each other, they quarrel. And through it all, their friendship deepens, does it not?”
“I have no intention of being friends with you.”
“Ah, there you go again. Can’t you feel how much closer we’ve become since just a moment ago?”
“I feel nothing of the sort.”
Even as Ho Yeon pushed him away, Cheol Mu Gu persisted with playful banter, drawing closer, while Jegal Ahyeon watched the pair with quiet amusement.
“Hehe! As a commemorative gift for our newfound friendship, let me tell you—that Namgung Ja Ryang will be eliminated here.”
“Why?”
“His opponent is formidable.”
Cheol Mu Gu pointed toward the man in a Red Robe ascending the eastern competition platform.
“Hang Seo—a third-generation disciple of the Hyungsan Sect, one of the Five Peaks. He exhales Qi Flame, I’ve heard.”
“Peak Realm? Why is such a man competing in the preliminary rounds?”
“He’s not a direct disciple of the sect master. He said the formal trials were tiresome and refused to use them.”
“An eccentric, then.”
Ho Yeon smiled faintly and studied the man called Hang Seo.
Clad in crimson robes and bearing a crimson sword adorned with a red tassel, his Qi Aura was unmistakably singular.
“The Hyungsan Sect—they pushed aside the declining Huashan Sect to earn a name in the Nine Sects and One Alliance. And among them, Hang Seo is a prodigy who became a Three-Knot Sword Master at merely twenty-five.”
“Three-Knot Sword Master?”
“See the tassels on his sword? Three knots—proof he has reached the Peak Realm.”
The moment Cheol Mu Gu finished speaking, a roar erupted from the eastern platform.
“Ooh, Qi Flame exhaled!”
“Peak Realm! A Three-Knot Sword Master!”
“This Blazing Yang Qi—could the Bright Yang Heart Method truly have been transmitted to him?”
Whoosh!
From the blade Hang Seo drew came a crimson Qi Flame so fierce its heat could be felt from a distance.
“What a pity.”
“Indeed.”
“You seem rather unmoved—isn’t he one of the promising young talents the Namgung Clan has been cultivating with such care?”
When Cheol Mu Gu questioned Ho Yeon’s composed demeanor, the latter smiled and replied.
“I was saying it was a pity for Hang Seo—not for us.”
“Eh?”
“Don’t underestimate our weasel. We’ve fed and trained him well.”
The instant Ho Yeon finished speaking, a pale blue Qi Flame erupted from Namgung Ja Ryang’s blade.
The crowd roared with delight.
* * *
Whoosh!
“That’s a gracious word. Concede, then.”
Hang Seo, a third-generation disciple of the Hyungsan Sect, spoke in a stolid tone.
“My Bright Yang Heart Method is founded on the Blazing Yang Qi of Extreme Yang. One misstep, and this won’t end with mere internal injury.”
True to the Hyungsan Sect’s nature—symbolizing Mount Nan among the Five Peaks—the Bright Yang Heart Method channeled the Fire Qi of the southern Vermilion Phoenix, a Divine Technique renowned for its superior internal cultivation.
Moreover, the sword technique he had mastered was the Zhurong Sword Technique, named after the Zhurong Peak, which was called the foremost of the Hyungsan Sect’s peaks.
“Zhurong, who serves Emperor Yan of the South, is the god of fire and summer. My sword method focuses purely on destruction—a blade of Extreme Killing. Therefore…….”
It was just as Hang Seo, exhaling a red Qi Flame, was urging the concession—
Boom!
A sky-blue Qi Flame erupted from Namgung Ja Ryang’s blade.
“The seventh commander of the Changung Corps, Namgung Ja Ryang. He has never turned his back in a match, not once.”
“……Ho.”
Hang Seo’s expression shifted the moment he saw Namgung Ja Ryang’s Qi Flame.
A smile played at the corner of his mouth, and his eyes began to blaze with fire.
“I misjudged a master. My apologies.”
“Don’t mention it. This much hardly proves anything.”
Namgung Ja Ryang shrugged his shoulder.
‘If I’m skilled, then Cheong Gang and Ho Yeon are monsters. Though monsters is exactly what they are.’
As Namgung Ja Ryang let out a low chuckle, Hang Seo, unable to contain himself any longer, cried out.
“Then! Here I come!”
Whoosh!
Hang Seo, treading the One Thread Wind, closed the distance to Namgung Ja Ryang with blinding speed.
In his wake trailed a wind of dancing, roaring flames.
‘Extreme Strength Extreme Killing technique.’
Namgung Ja Ryang analyzed the martial arts bearing down upon him.
In truth, there was little to analyze.
Beneath the stolid expression he wore lay a temperament as fierce and consuming as an open flame.
His martial arts could be no different.
‘My strongest is the Changung Unhindered Technique, but there’s a better choice for this moment.’
Click.
Namgung Ja Ryang assumed the starting stance of the Life-Stealing Flowing Water Sword.
Originally, this technique was merely the Flowing Water Sword—a basic sword form for learning the subtleties of Flow.
But under the hands of the Dragon of the New, “Life-Stealing” had been grafted onto it, transforming it into the flowing currents of water that claimed life itself.
‘Against fire, water is perfect.’
Crash!
“Hah!”
In that instant, Hang Seo drew upon his Bright Yang Qi to its utmost and released it all at once in a detonation.
The Zhurong Sword Technique could be called savage and ferocious, each strike a killing blow unto itself.
The red Qi Flame that poured from his blade surged like lava from an active volcano, releasing the Fiery Boiling technique in a scalding display.
“Hmph!”
Smooth as silk.
Against this, Namgung Ja Ryang’s blade moved with the gentleness of water.
Watching the sky-blue Qi Flame trace circles like the Taiji Sword of the Wudang—one seemed drawn into that vortex, ready to lose one’s very soul.
The Vortex Soul-Sucking, born from the flow of Suction and Rotation, burst forth from the tip of Namgung Ja Ryang’s blade.
Boom-crash!
Splinter-snap!
Though Hang Seo’s Qi Flame exploded with a deafening roar, Namgung Ja Ryang’s stance remained unmoved.
He had succeeded in Softness Controls Rigidity.
“Splendid!”
“Hah!”
Even as his killing blow was parried, Hang Seo voiced his admiration—and now the initiative passed to Namgung Ja Ryang.
Smooth as silk.
Namgung Ja Ryang’s blade began to flutter, like a fallen leaf dancing with the ripples on a water’s surface.
Should one lose concentration, entranced by that sight, the very next moment would see one’s life stolen.
‘It comes!’
Hang Seo sensed something approaching covertly and released his Bright Yang Qi from every pore of his body, wrapping himself in a protective Qi Aura.
And sure enough, Namgung Ja Ryang’s blade penetrated from a direction Hang Seo had never anticipated.
Flowing Water Infiltration.
Tap-tap! Crack-crack!
Recognizing that his sword would be too slow to respond, Hang Seo switched to the Grappling Technique.
‘Caught him!’
But Namgung Ja Ryang broke into a knowing smile. The Flowing Water Infiltration had been a feint all along.
Having exploited his opponent’s tension to create an opening, Namgung Ja Ryang unleashed a series of distances that flowed forth in Continuous Immersion.
Crack-crack-crack!
The sky-blue Qi Flame, which until now had lain dormant, suddenly erupted in a chaotic scatter, embroidering sword shadows across the void in dizzying profusion.
Hundred Water Bubbles Emerge.
“Nngh!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Scrape! Whoosh!
Hang Seo sought to intercept each bubble-like sword flash one by one, but could not defend against them all.
Thump!
“Huff! Huff!”
“Gasp! Gasp!”
Both men retreated, catching their breath.
Though the exchange had been brief, the extreme concentration and tension left his body heavy as a water-soaked sponge.
‘……The matchup isn’t favorable.’
Hang Seo assessed himself.
The wounds weren’t deep—only because his opponent had shown restraint.
‘If I were to invoke Blazing Yang Surges to Heaven here and amplify my Bright Yang Qi, I could shatter that Flowing Water Sword. But then this would cease to be a martial match and become a death match.’
Moreover, Hang Seo sensed instinctively that his opponent still held a trump card yet unplayed.
‘The world is vast, and talent runs deep. Now I understand why the elders urged me to broaden my horizons.’
Hang Seo had never understood why his sect master had driven him beyond the school’s walls when cultivation in Hyungsan alone brought such joy.
But now, crossing swords with Namgung Ja Ryang, he grasped the reason.
‘This is exhilarating! Who knew anything could be this thrilling!’
Hang Seo sheathed his sword, his face alight with a smile.
“It is my defeat.”
“……But you still have reserves, it seems?”
“From the moment you laid bare my shortcomings, my defeat was already sealed. Truly, Namgung is Namgung.”
As Hang Seo offered a fist salute in acknowledgment, Namgung Ja Ryang sheathed his sword and returned the gesture.
“I learned much. Truly, you are a disciple of Hyungsan, renowned as the Five Peaks Alone Eminent.”
“Ha ha, I wonder if my inadequacy has brought shame upon my sect.”
“Surely not. Look around you.”
At Namgung Ja Ryang’s words, Hang Seo swept his gaze across the arena below.
The crowd stood with gaping mouths, their minds adrift in the splendid spectacle that had unfolded before their eyes.
“Heh, this isn’t so bad after all.”
Hang Seo nodded and turned to Namgung Ja Ryang with a question.
“That sword technique—what is it called?”
“It is called the Life-Stealing Flowing Water Sword.”
“Hmm? Does the Namgung Clan possess such a technique?”
“Ha ha, it is a newly created sword technique by our main house’s youngest lord.”
“I see……”
At Namgung Ja Ryang’s words, Hang Seo shook his head slowly.
Creating a new sword technique was no simple matter.
Even the Three Talents Sword Technique contained the profound wisdom of Heaven, Earth, and Man.
“To possess the caliber of Zongshi quality—I am without peer in my own shortcomings. I must undertake far more rigorous training.”
Hang Seo felt that above heaven there was yet another heaven, and he nodded quietly.
Despair did not touch him. The higher the mountain, the greater the exhilaration when one reaches its peak.
“Ha ha ha! Splendid. Lord Namgung, if nothing else calls, might you join me for a cup of fine wine?”
“I’d be delighted. But is it acceptable for a Daoist to drink?”
“In all things under heaven there exists a Way, and thus the Way of Alcohol too is a Way.”
“Ha ha, well said. Let us go together.”
The sight of the two sword masters descending companionably after the match was the very image of those spirited heroes one heard of only in tales.
Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap!
The crowd around them erupted in thunderous applause for the two who had displayed such a magnificent martial match.
“The Life-Stealing Flowing Water Sword—a blade as its name suggests, flowing like gentle waters that steal life itself.”
“Who created that technique?”
“The Namgung Clan’s youngest lord?”
“Ah! That Brilliant Young Scholar, is it not! The one called the Dormant Dragon Talent!”
“But he was definitely nearby just now?!”
At once, the crowd began craning their necks and glancing about.
It was a scene that would unfold repeatedly in the days to come.

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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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