Namgoong the Sword Ghost - Chapter 90

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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 90. The Sword Ghost’s Modern Secret
Baekga Maeng, Inner Garden [Waryong Hall].
A middle-aged man with a serene countenance opened his lips with a faint smile.
“You were foolish.”
His voice was soft, yet carried an indefinable weight of pressure.
“……I apologize.”
Jegal Ahyeon sat demurely before the middle-aged man.
Unlike her usual appearance, she wore a white martial robe with a high collar.
“Tell me the nature of your foolishness.”
“I misjudged the enemy’s strength. Because of that, I brought upon myself injuries that need not have occurred.”
“Wrong.”
The middle-aged man, Jegal Shinsan, shook his head and continued.
“Your analysis of their forces was sound. You committed Danri Jeok and Ja Song—two supreme masters—and mobilized the Black Beggar Gang and Bongchu Corps from Gaebang. The problem was the variable.”
“…….”
“The Cruel Fiend Sword, Chu Eum. There was no intelligence anywhere that he had achieved Transcendence. Therefore, this is not your fault. A strategist operates by the information given to them. This is Baekahn Corps’ shortcoming.”
Jegal Shinsan gazed at his daughter—his only masterwork—with affection and offered his counsel.
“Your foolishness lies in going to Wol Ha Ru yourself.”
“…….”
“Heavy Head Light Feet. Your head grows heavy while your feet grow light. You should have sent only the Bongchu Corps leader and remained here.”
“…….”
“Foot soldiers may be lost without consequence. But lose a general, and the board tips. From now on, rather than fixating on the present battlefield, focus your efforts on preparing the chariot and supplies for what comes next.”
“……I shall bear that in mind.”
At Jegal Ahyeon’s response, Jegal Shinsan nodded with a satisfied expression.
Yet in truth, Jegal Ahyeon remained unconvinced by his words.
‘Laughable. He made such a fuss about the Waryong Body, and yet it amounts to mere talk.’
The Waryong Body.
The supreme physique that masters both martial and civil arts.
Jegal Shinsan had long yearned for the Waryong Body to elevate the name of the Jegal Clan, and had already marked her as the vessel for it.
Yet despite this, his thinking and teachings remained at the level of a strategist.
There was no need to take direct action, and yet master both arts? It was a contradiction.
‘This truly is my foolishness. If my misjudgment had led to something happening to Namgung Ho Yeon?’
Crack!
Jegal Ahyeon clenched both fists so tightly that veins rose along her knuckles.
It was certain that she would never have forgiven herself if such a thing had come to pass.
‘From now on, I cannot afford to make mistakes. I must become ever more perfect. Otherwise, I throw away all his efforts!’
Thrumm! Thrumm-thrumm!
The space between her brows burned with heat.
Simseogamhwa activated, drawing in every emotion that surrounded her.
Among them, one emotion shone with peculiar intensity—and registered sharply in her senses.
“Hehehehe, yet your words ring true. Namgung Ho Yeon. He was truly a divine dragon.”
Jegal Shinsan laughed with genuine satisfaction.
“Never mind that he was exhausted from struggling against Danri Jeok and Ja Song—a Transcendence cultivator, a Fire Realm master, defeated by a young man not yet twenty through Rank Breakthrough Kill? Such talent is rarely seen in this world.”
“…….”
“Ahyeon. You must not let him slip away. The Namgung Clan will undoubtedly rise on the basis of this Yongbong Gathering.”
Jegal Shinsan’s eyes gleamed.
At the Yongbong Gathering, the greatest attention falls upon the champion and his house.
The champion is Namgung Ho Yeon.
Already, people spoke of him as the Thunder God Light Dragon, whispering that he would claim one of the Ten Fingers Ten Families in the next generation.
‘Moreover, there is the Emperor King Sword Dragon, Namgung Cheonggang. He too is a prodigy.’
Having emerged brilliantly with the restored Emperor King Sword Technique, he was praised as having no peer among those his age.
‘He may have a betrothed, but what of it? This is an opportunity to strengthen the bonds between the Namgung Clan and ourselves.’
The Namgung Clan, situated in Haphui’s Anhui, and the Jegal Clan, situated in Muhan’s Hubei, were connected by the Yangtze River—geographically close.
This was also why Jegal Ahyeon had been bound to one of the Namgung Clan’s children through a betrothal contracted before birth.
Though he had never anticipated such a windfall.
‘Double bonds through marriage would also serve well. There should still be a few more girls of fair complexion among them. Which piece should I play…….’
As Jegal Shinsan’s mind raced through calculations, Jegal Ahyeon’s expression grew increasingly cold.
Then.
“General. It is Jegal Gwanwol.”
“Ah, have him wait a moment.”
At the voice from outside, Jegal Shinsan turned to Jegal Ahyeon and spoke with paternal gentleness.
“Let’s solidify her position as quickly as possible. We can’t be careless just because she’s still young. Every hero of that caliber draws the covetous eyes of the great powers.”
“……Yes.”
“The surest method, of course, is to have a son. My grandson will surely be a prodigy of the century, transcending the Waryong Body itself. Hehehe!”
Jegal Shinsan burst into raucous laughter. Jegal Ahyeon remained silent.
Though his two-faced nature was truly at odds with her own sensibilities, on this matter at least, they saw eye to eye.
‘I’ll ensure it happens without any prompting from you. And if I do bear children, I have no intention of introducing them to you.’
“You may go now.”
“Yes.”
Jegal Ahyeon rose from her seat and opened the door.
Creak!
“Lady Ahyeon. It’s been quite some time.”
“Indeed. Uncle Gwanwol.”
“Ha, uncle? That’s far too generous a title for someone like me.”
“Nonsense. You are my uncle.”
As Jegal Ahyeon smiled brightly, Jegal Gwanwol looked embarrassed and scratched the back of his head.
“Until we meet again, then.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Swish.
Jegal Ahyeon stepped out, and Jegal Gwanwol closed the door behind her, turning to report to Jegal Shinsan.
“Word has just come from Gaebang. They’ve completed the interrogation.”
“What did they find?”
“All orders were issued directly by Chu Eum himself. There were no connections to Gucheon Sung beyond that.”
“Tsk. They used the Black Beggar Gang as a disposable piece. After all, those wretches have no real backing.”
“That would seem to be the case.”
“I wish they’d kept Chu Eum alive……but I can hardly fault our son-in-law’s sense of righteousness. A troublesome situation, truly.”
……
“Ah, well. This affair has made one thing certain—the Baekga Maeng’s intelligence capabilities are woefully inadequate.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Jegal Shinsan drummed his fingers on the desk with a sigh.
“The Murim League has Gaebang, Gucheon Sung has Jeogan Bigak, yet our Baekga Maeng sits blind as a beggar.”
Of course, the Baekga Maeng did maintain an intelligence apparatus. When Jegal Shinsan became commanding general, the first thing he reorganized was the espionage corps.
“The Baekahn Corps is all bulk and no substance.”
The Baekga Maeng’s intelligence network, named for its hundred eyes, was no monolithic force.
The Baekahn Corps was merely a coalition of the separate intelligence networks operated by each family house within the Baekga Maeng.
“The truly important intelligence they hoard, claiming it contradicts their family interests, while they spend all their time watching each other’s faces. It’s infuriating…….”
Jegal Shinsan shook his head and turned to Jegal Gwanwol.
“Can we make contact with Hao Mun?”
“……I regret to say we cannot.”
“Tsk. I didn’t harbor great hopes. Not after the Sword Ghost Blood Incident—those rats won’t simply crawl over to us overnight.”
The Baekga Maeng had existed for merely thirty years—a fledgling confederation.
Consequently, its roots ran shallower than those of other organizations.
‘Setting aside Gaebang, Jeogan Bigak, and the Eastern Window, we have Hao Mun and Geum Yi Jeon. But those Money Ghosts from Geum Yi Jeon—their origins are murky at best, and they’d sell their own client’s secrets for enough coin.’
No matter how he calculated it, bringing Hao Mun into the Baekga Maeng as an affiliate was the superior move.
“Continue making contact. Tell them if they step into the light with us now, we’ll offer our full support.”
“Understood.”
* * *
“Phew.”
Creak! Thud!
Namgung Ho Yeon slipped into his room and swiftly shut the door.
He’d just escaped from a mob of people intent on congratulating him on his victory.
“Yesterday you two were going on about it, and today I can’t walk two steps without someone wanting to exchange pleasantries. Should I give you all a lesson in what courtesy actually means?”
―Achievement is best savored when shared. You’ve claimed victory—why do you flee like a coward?
“What nonsense is that? It’s obviously bigger when you hoard it. Sharing just dilutes it.”
―……You should return to the academy and relearn the principles of righteousness and propriety. You need to be a person first, not merely a master of the blade.
“An academy? That’s just a fancy name for a place that extorts pennies from the ignorant. What good is studying when without connections you’re worthless anyway?”
―Ha! You fool occasionally speaks truth!
―Tsk tsk tsk, being with you two—it’s the Boundless Way Classic indeed, where there’s no gap for principle or righteousness to slip through.
As he continued his banter with the swords, Namgung Ho Yeon rummaged through the bundle he’d hidden in the corner of his room.
Clang!
As he unwrapped the heavy bundle that rang with the weight of metal, a blood-stained Sabok Sword fell out in two pieces.
“At last, let me have a look.”
It was the Sabok Sword, which he had set aside after turning Chu Eum into flatfish soup.
‘The little flatfish. His upper dantian was definitely forcibly opened. According to what they said, he was an Earth Selected One.’
Namgung Ho Yeon’s eyes sharpened.
Two years ago in Yao Ryeong, while tracking the Hwaedongjidan, he had happened upon a group of disciples using Jiseon’s Secret Art.
Their identity remained unknown, but with such power and organizational capacity, they were clearly no ordinary rabble.
‘What’s more, Chu Eum wasn’t even a proper Transcendent like Gwang Bi Chang. How on earth did this come to pass?’
If it were just Gwang Bi Chang alone, he could have thought the man forcibly opened the Life Death Gate through some stroke of fortune.
But with two of them, the matter was different.
Where coincidence repeats, necessity emerges.
“Come now, tell me. What has happened all this while?”
Namgung Ho Yeon placed his hand on the Sabok Sword and activated Sword Heart Resonance.
Zzz… Zzz-zzz…
But the Sabok Sword only emitted sporadic sword-cries, conveying no clear intent.
“Tsk, is it too damaged? Can this even be called a sword?”
Namgung Ho Yeon examined the Sabok Sword.
It was severed at every joint, and the tip was in a pitiful state that he had completely shattered.
―Agh, how brutal! Breaking a sword into pieces like this. A dismemberment incident!
―Hmm, don’t even bother repairing it. Melting it down would be the kindness the blade deserves.
The Heukyak Tae Sword and Cheonroe Sword exercised their Sword Sensitivity upon the Sabok Sword’s condition, speaking with genuine sorrow.
“Hey, you. Say something.”
Zzz… zzz…
“That’s it, come on! You can do it!”
Zzz…
“Don’t you want revenge against that flatfish bastard who hacked you to pieces?”
Zzz! Zzz-zzz! Zzz!
As Namgung Ho Yeon poured his spirit into encouraging it, the Sabok Sword began to transmit its will in fragments.
* * *
A space unknown.
A time unknown.
Voices echoing hollowly.
“Khehehe! What rare faces we have here. ■■ and ■■. And ■■ came too?”
“Chu Eum. So word reached you as well.”
“Heh, aren’t you all just failures who faltered before Transcendence?”
“■■. Don’t speak as though you stand apart.”
“What of it. If what they say is true, you should be able to achieve Transcendence today.”
“Khehehe! Do you truly believe that?”
“Why else would you be here?”
Voices tangled over one another.
Then.
“So this time there are five?”
A voice—grave.
Eerie.
Ominous.
Dreadful.
—it descended.
Ku-ku-ku-ku-ku—!
And in that same instant, the staggering weight that washed over them sent bodies crashing to their knees in succession.
Thud! Ku-ku-kung!
“Ugh… w-who are you?!”
“What is… this?!”
“What in the—!”
“…What kind of monster are you?!”
“Reveal… your identity…!”
The voices that had been so assured moments before grew frantic.
They trembled in unison with shock and terror.
“Hehehehe, I am the one who shall draw you up beyond that wall.”
The mysterious voice laughed indolently, speaking with playful mockery.
“Call me Hoe Ju. I am ■■■ ■■■■■.”
* * *
“Hey! Hey! Stay with me!”
Zzzt… zzzt… zzzzt….
Namgung Ho Yeon cried out urgently, but the will of the Sabok Sword, which had been reaching him in fragments and broken pieces, finally severed completely.
Its life had run its course.
Namgung Ho Yeon stared down at the Sabok Sword, his expression hardening into something brittle and fixed as he muttered.
“Hoe Ju?”

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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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