Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 105 - Master of Corpse Cadavers (1)
Chapter 105 – Master of Corpse Cadavers (1)
===================
Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
===================
-Human. Open the wooden box. If you do, then I, who rule corpse cadavers, will grant whatever wish you desire.
‘!?’
At that voice coming from the wooden box, Mok Gyeong-un gave a short laugh and muttered,
“This is a little too obvious a sales pitch.”
-……
This was temptation.
It differed little from outright telling him to open the wooden box.
Blue Spirit said in a tone that suggested she found it absurd,
-Something that cannot even preserve its own body dares speak of granting wishes?
“I agree with that. But what is it?”
-It would seem some kind of demon creature has been sealed. But to hear a voice even while sealed… this too is the first case I have seen.
She had lived a hundred years as a vengeful spirit.
And she herself had also once been sealed, just like this uncanny thing in the wooden box.
But this was the first time she had seen such a case.
Normally, once sealed, one’s aura and everything else were blocked, and the inside and outside were cut off from one another.
Yet the fact that its voice could be heard meant…
“Ah. There is a crack in it.”
-A crack?
On the upper part of the wooden box that Mok Gyeong-un pointed at, there was indeed a crack.
-I see. But this wooden box…
“It is strange that there is nothing like a talisman on it.”
-You noticed that too.
It was strange.
As Blue Spirit said, there was no talisman or anything else sealing the demonic aura on the wooden box.
Then by what means was this ominous being trapped within the box?
It made no sense.
As they were finding it puzzling, the voice spoke.
-Damn it. For a moment I thought I was blessed by fortune because there was a human who could hear my voice, but judging by how you speak of talismans, you must be a Taoist adept who has practiced sorcery.
“A Taoist adept? What are you talking about?”
-Do not pretend otherwise. Do you think I would be fooled?
“I do not know what you are talking about, but it would be best to regard me as no more than an occult practitioner learning occult arts.”
-An occult practitioner? Ahh. Then you must be of the same kind as that human in Daoist robes who came before.
‘The same kind?’
Judging by the tone, someone really had come here before.
Well, there was no way an occult practitioner versed in occult arts would fail to detect such a baleful demonic aura.
To begin with, the red line was itself a method that no one but a practitioner of the immortal arts could use.
At this, Mok Gyeong-un asked,
“Someone came before?”
-He did. A sinister bastard with Three Eyes. It was the first time I had seen one with those eyes that were said to have vanished since the age of high antiquity.
“Three Eyes? What is that? Do you know, Blue Spirit?”
-Do you take me for one who knows all the principles of the world?
At that answer from Blue Spirit, Mok Gyeong-un tilted his head.
If one unraveled the words Three Eyes literally, it meant someone with three eyes.
Had such a grotesque existence come here?
As he was wondering, the voice from the wooden box spoke.
-How could petty ghosts and insignificant humans like you know of matters from the age of high antiquity?
-……You have been saying “petty ghost, petty ghost” for a while now, you demon thing.
“Wait a moment.”
-What?
Mok Gyeong-un said, restraining her anger.
“So what exactly are Three Eyes?”
-Just what the words say. A three-eyed one. It is an aberrant thing born from a human womb. There is talk that when one is born, signs of doom arise.
“Doom?”
-Yet it is quite amusing. In the age of high antiquity, even if Three Eyes were born, they would not survive even a day before being killed.
It was hard to understand what in the world it was talking about.
So Mok Gyeong-un put it in order.
“I do not fully understand what you mean, but are you saying that the occult practitioner in Daoist robes who had Three Eyes left you here?”
-Yes. I do not know what sort of trick that bastard used, but after he came and went, no one could perceive me anymore.
“By no one could perceive you…”
-They accepted me as though I were not there from the start.
“As though you were not there?”
At the words flowing from the wooden box, Blue Spirit denied it firmly.
-Impossible. No matter how much human occult arts have grown stronger over the ages, erasing perception defies the principles of the world.
-Hooh. For a mere petty ghost, you know quite a lot.
-Petty ghost? Since a moment ago, you damned demon thing!
-Crack!
A crack formed in the wooden puppet that sealed Blue Spirit.
She looked ready to burst out at once and smash the wooden box to pieces.
Mok Gyeong-un restrained her.
“Blue Spirit. Endure it.”
-If you were in my place…
“Rather than continue like this, would it not solve everything if I simply made it mine first?”
-Make it yours? Hoh.
At Mok Gyeong-un’s whisper, Blue Spirit muttered as though intrigued.
The expression “make it mine” meant, in the end, making it into a shikigami.
This was Mok Gyeong-un, who possessed the ability to make even high-grade vengeful spirits into shikigami.
If it was a strange being whose power had weakened from being sealed in the wooden box, he might well be able to make it into a shikigami.
After all, he had already confirmed that possibility through absorbing the gu poison.
-Still, be careful. It would be better to reduce its demonic aura while disturbing the seal as little as possible.
“That is what I intend.”
Mok Gyeong-un was of the same mind.
In the case of demonic aura, it was like condensed death aura, so absorbing it would help him.
Just then, the voice came from the wooden box.
-Hey, human.
“Yes.”
-Because I am trapped here, I suppose I look easy to you. But I am the master who rules corpse cadavers.
“So?”
-If you only take me out of here, I will grant whatever wish you want. Did you say grandfather earlier?
“……”
-Do you not wish to see that grandfather, that treasure vault?
At that voice, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes sharpened unlike before.
He did not much like other tricks either, but dragging his grandfather into it was truly unwelcome.
Without answering, Mok Gyeong-un approached the wooden box.
And picked it up and set it down on the floor.
-Yes, that’s right. Break the wooden box.
“I am going to. Ah. Though before that…”
-Slide.
Mok Gyeong-un placed his palm over the cracked part of the wooden box.
And inwardly recited the Form of Attachment.
Then the ominous demonic aura flowing from the crack began to flow into Mok Gyeong-un’s palm.
-Suuuuuuuu!
-!?
Perhaps sensing it, the voice could not hide its bewilderment.
-Human… what are you doing right now…
“Even after being trapped so long, your aura is considerable. Share some with me.”
-Stop!
“Too late.”
With those words, Mok Gyeong-un kept absorbing the demonic aura that flowed out.
The sheer quantity made his eyes gleam.
‘A lot.’
There was far more aura than he had expected.
He had never imagined the aura leaking through the crack would amount to this much.
He had absorbed only a little, yet he had already taken in an amount equal to the death aura of twenty men.
What level of strange being was this, to possess such powerful demonic aura even while imprisoned?
-S-st-stop. You insignificant human dare touch my aura…
“I’m almost done, so wait just a little.”
The aura flowing through the crack was nearly all absorbed.
It was demonic aura approaching the death aura of nearly fifty men.
He had already spent a fair amount of death aura while making the living corpse through the Six-Person Spirit Descent Art, so this felt like a stroke of luck.
-Suuuuuk!
At last, no more demonic aura flowed out.
Judging by that, he seemed to have absorbed most of the imprisoned thing’s aura.
-You baaaastard…
From its voice, its strength had greatly drained away.
It seemed it no longer even had the energy to be angry.
-It seems to have weakened. Make it into a shikigami now.
“Yes.”
Mok Gyeong-un immediately brought the hand holding the sword-finger sign toward the cracked part of the wooden box.
-Sss.
The air wavered around the hand that held the sword-finger sign.
He had raised sword energy.
Since it did not appear to be an ordinary wooden box, he meant to cut it with sword energy.
Mok Gyeong-un set the sword-finger sign laden with sword energy against the wooden box.
It was right then.
-Baaang!
“Huh!”
With a powerful recoil, Mok Gyeong-un’s body was pushed back nearly five steps.
‘What in the world was that?’
-What happened?
Even Blue Spirit asked in surprise.
Mok Gyeong-un looked at the fingers of his own hand that held the sword sign.
Fortunately his fingers were unharmed, but the instant he tried to pierce the wooden box with sword energy, an unknown force had shoved him back.
‘What is this?’
He had certainly absorbed all the demonic aura that had been leaking from the crack in the wooden box.
Then what was the meaning of this?
As he was wondering, the voice spoke.
-Do you think wood made from Sacred Spirit Wood can be broken so easily?
“Sacred Spirit Wood?”
-Seeing that you do not even know that, it seems the immortals no longer remain in this latter age.
“Immortals? What are you talking about?”
-No matter if you do not know. More importantly, if you wish to know how to break Sacred Spirit Wood…
-Craaack!
It was right then.
Before the voice could finish speaking, the area around the crack in the wooden box split apart.
-What?
-Psssss!
Then, centered on the split area, the wooden box began to rot away and soon crumbled down like ash.
It was strange. Up until just now it had been perfectly fine.
Mok Gyeong-un looked at his own sword-finger sign.
‘Was it because of the death aura?’
His sword energy was formed not from ordinary internal power, but from death aura itself.
Since death aura was opposite to the aura of life, it caused it to disperse.
Whether that was the cause, or whether the already-cracked box had simply given way when more force was added, it was difficult to say exactly.
Whatever the case, the wooden box had broken.
-Isn’t that a hanging scroll?
“It seems so.”
Something could be seen buried in the broken gray ash of the wooden box.
It was a scroll rolled up tight.
Mok Gyeong-un approached and picked it up.
It was a very old scroll, and judging by its considerable length, it seemed likely that calligraphy or a painting was inside.
-The scroll… unfold the scroll.
The voice sounded then.
Mok Gyeong-un gave a short laugh, then immediately recited the Form of Attachment with the hand holding the scroll and tried to push it into his mouth.
-……What are you trying to do now?
“Eat it.”
-What?
He had no intention of dancing to the demon creature’s tune.
If this scroll was the true body connected to that thing, he intended to eat it and make it into a shikigami.
It was the moment he was about to place the end of the scroll in his mouth.
-Impudent thing!
-Pachichichik!
In that instant, blue flames leapt from the scroll like lightning.
At the same time, the scroll sprang from Mok Gyeong-un’s hand, rolled across the floor, and then began to unfold all by itself.
-Catch it!
-Pat!
Mok Gyeong-un stretched his burned hand toward the scroll and unfolded the Form of Attachment.
He had thought it would naturally be dragged to him, but it held fast in midair.
Then the fully unfurled scroll rose into the air.
‘Ah!’
A strange light entered Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes as he looked at it.
Because inside the scroll there was painted a landscape, and it was so beautiful it was like gazing upon a hidden paradise.
A vigorous mountain peak stood shrouded in thick mist, and trees bearing blossoms embroidered the place.
‘Beautiful.’
But there was one part there that alone was displeasing.
On the peak at the center of the landscape painting, a white-haired middle-aged man sat in meditation with his eyes closed.
‘Why did it have to paint a person there of all places…’
It was at that moment.
-Pak!
The white-haired middle-aged man in the painting opened his closed eyes.
Then,
-Suuuk!
he stepped on the mist within the painting and walked out of it.
‘!?’
-Shiver!
At the instant it came outside, Mok Gyeong-un felt a chill run down his spine for the first time in his life.
-Gooooooo!
The instant the white-haired middle-aged man passed through the painting and emerged, a tremendous demonic aura billowed out, as though innumerable currents of death aura had gathered into one.
-Impossible.
Blue Spirit muttered with a flustered look.
Until now, no matter what strange being or vengeful spirit had appeared, she had never shown even the slightest fear or wavering.
But why was she reacting like this? As he was wondering, she opened her mouth with difficulty.
-……How can there be a strange being of spirit-beast class?
‘Spirit-beast class?’
The Classic of Mountains and Seas records it this way.
In this world there exist countless strange beings that humans cannot see.
Yet among such strange beings, there are those that dwell in a higher realm that not only humans but even such beings can never dare approach.
Those are spirit beasts that have lived long lives over unfathomably vast ages.