Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 173 - Jo Tae-cheong (4)
Chapter 173 – Jo Tae-cheong (4)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Inside the round smoke entrance opened near the ceiling, Yeo Su-rin clicked her tongue.
She had never imagined this would actually work.
When she had first heard Mok Gyeong-un’s plan, she thought the man had gone mad.
[Pardon? You’re asking if I can go back to that man again?]
[Yes.]
[Have you lost your mind? We barely escaped and now you’re saying we’re going back to him? If you get caught this time, you could die.]
Three Eyes, the aberrant vessel.
It was hard even to count the number of occult practitioners who had died by that man’s hands.
And yet he wanted to go back to someone like that. He had truly gone insane.
[Even if I die, I won’t resent you.]
[No, that’s not the issue. Even so, after going to all the trouble of saving you, do you think I’d happily tell you to go die all over again?]
[But if we miss this chance while the shikigami are not by his side, it will be even harder to kill him.]
At those words from Mok Gyeong-un, Yeo Su-rin felt genuine concern.
Did he really believe he could kill that monstrous man?
If that had seemed possible, Three Eyes would have died long ago.
[Please, just go.]
[If Miss Yeo won’t help me, then there is no helping it. I will have no choice but to go back alone.]
[…Are you threatening me right now?]
[Threatening? I merely said I would go alone.]
[That is a threat. You’re trying to provoke my soft and gentle compassion.]
[Not quite that much.]
[…So irritating.]
Yeo Su-rin clicked her tongue.
Two demon-beast-rank demons and monsters were guarding outside.
If she left him here and went, that man’s body might be torn to shreds and devoured by those demon beasts.
If she simply ignored it and left, it would leave her feeling thoroughly uneasy.
[Ugh! I should’ve just passed you by earlier. Why did I have to go and save a stubborn fool like you?]
[You never know.]
[What?]
[If it goes well and Three Eyes dies, then your master’s concern will be resolved, and you also won’t need to strain yourself hiding here to keep watch any longer.]
[…You’re awfully confident.]
[You never know until you try.]
Mok Gyeong-un smiled lightly.
Looking at him like this made her feel as though her insides were bursting.
Why was it that men never knew whether something was dung or soybean paste unless they tasted it?
Yeo Su-rin shook her head and said,
[I don’t know. If you’re that eager to die, do as you please. I’ll bet that you’ll fail and end up crying and regretting it.]
[And if I succeed?]
[Pardon?]
[What will you do if I succeed?]
No. Why was he showing this much confidence?
Did he have some hidden trump card?
[Hah…]
After staring straight at Mok Gyeong-un, she took something from inside her bosom and held it out.
It resembled the treasured artifact she wore on her index and middle fingers.
[What’s that?]
[If you succeed, I’ll give you this.]
[You had two of them?]
[No. This is a spare my master gave me in case I ever lost the artifact.]
[A spare?]
[Yes. It can only be used once. But instead, it can open a door anywhere you want within a radius of around two hundred zhang.]
[Ho.]
[You look greedy all of a sudden.]
[How could I not?]
[You’re honest. Anyway, if you succeed, I’ll give you this.]
It had been a simple artifact that could only be used once, given to her in preparation for an emergency.
If by some chance this man really could kill Three Eyes, then she would no longer need to carry out her master’s order to watch him.
Then there would be no more danger for her either.
-Grab!
Yeo Su-rin grabbed Mok Gyeong-un by the sleeve and said,
[If you want this, then make sure you succeed. I already went to the trouble of saving you, and I really don’t want to watch you try to kill yourself.]
[Then for the sake of getting what Miss Yeo wagered, I truly must succeed.]
[Looks like you’re even more interested in the side prize, huh? You’re a really strange person. Sigh. So what exactly are you planning to do? I have absolutely no intention of helping if it looks like I’ll be put in danger.]
[All you have to do is open the entrance.]
[Pardon?]
[At the moment I give the signal, just open it at the exact spot I specify. Then close it immediately, since it will be dangerous.]
[…Will that really be enough?]
[Yes. That will be enough.]
What in the world was he thinking?
Would merely that much really be enough?
From her perspective, she could only find it deeply puzzling.
But then,
‘…This person knows martial arts?’
That was the part Yeo Su-rin had never anticipated.
Because Mok Gyeong-un knew so much about occult arts and techniques, she had been convinced that he was naturally a fangshi, someone in the same field.
But she could not help being startled by the martial skill that surpassed her expectations.
She had heard that only very high-level martial artists could send a sharp sort of force flying far away with a sword.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un could do that.
‘Could this person actually be a martial artist rather than a fangshi?’
Even the way he had landed after turning a somersault set him far apart from ordinary people.
Just what was this man’s identity?
Had he learned both occult arts and martial arts?
At that moment Mok Gyeong-un raised his head and looked at Yeo Su-rin.
At the sight, she clicked her tongue.
‘He’s asking for it.’
Yeo Su-rin immediately understood why Mok Gyeong-un was looking at her.
This was a situation where his life could be in danger if he failed, yet he had not forgotten this even now.
He really must have wanted it badly.
‘Impressive. Very impressive.’
So she reached into her bosom and took out the spare artifact.
Then she glanced at Jo Tae-cheong, staggering with a dagger buried in his forehead.
No matter how outstanding an occult practitioner or aberrant vessel he was, if a dagger was buried that deeply before the third eye could even fully open, then he would not be able to escape death.
So,
“Catch.”
-Whoosh!
-Tap!
Mok Gyeong-un caught the spare ring artifact she had thrown.
Though his face was covered like a mask with black cloth, the corners of Mok Gyeong-un’s lips rose faintly.
Even if it could only be used once, this was still more than valuable enough.
He had needed to kill that enemy anyway, and this was a profitable extra on top of it.
Looking beyond the smoke gate opened in the ceiling, Mok Gyeong-un said,
“Aren’t you coming over?”
At his question, Yeo Su-rin cautiously stuck out her head and said,
“He’s definitely dead, right?”
-…Ah.
At that moment Blue Spirit let out a sigh.
Mok Gyeong-un, puzzled, asked,
-Why is that?
-That woman of the world just said something unlucky.
-What do you mean?
-Remember this. After fighting an enemy, it’s best not to say things like, He’s dead, right? Is he dead? Did we get him? In my long experience, when people babble useless things like that, it becomes an ill omen…
-Smack!
Blue Spirit had not even finished speaking.
At that instant, Jo Tae-cheong’s body, which had been lying on the ground with a dagger buried in its head, suddenly straightened upright as if someone had hauled it to its feet.
‘!!!!!!!!’
“Be careful!”
Yeo Su-rin hastily formed a quick hand seal with her left hand.
-Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Confront. Soldiers. All. Arrange.
‘Five Gods Heavy Strike Art!’
When she thrust out her hand, a huge pillar of spell power shaped like a great beam came crashing down above the body of Jo Tae-cheong, which had risen upright.
It looked as though it would flatten Jo Tae-cheong’s body then and there,
-Crack, crack, crack!
But before it could even touch him, it split apart into the shape of a cross.
‘Gasp!’
What was this?
The spell power pouring out of Jo Tae-cheong far exceeded imagination.
To call this human was unbelievable. It carried an ominous and wicked aura.
-Thrust!
At that moment Jo Tae-cheong stretched out his left hand toward Yeo Su-rin.
At once, Yeo Su-rin’s body in the ceiling was pulled toward him on its own.
“Persistent, aren’t you.”
-Slide!
But in that instant Mok Gyeong-un used the Bright Manifest Water-Crossing Step, appeared in front of him, and tried to cut off Jo Tae-cheong’s left arm with the Evil-Answering Sword.
Yet at that very moment,
-Woooooo!
Dark shadows spread everywhere, and Mok Gyeong-un’s movement froze completely.
All sensation vanished, and once again everything but his consciousness was taken from him.
‘!?’
In that situation, Jo Tae-cheong’s bizarre state entered Mok Gyeong-un’s sight.
His eyes were rolled back, and with the dagger buried in his forehead, he was all but a dead man.
Then how was he moving in this situation?
He did not even seem conscious.
That was when it happened.
-Crack! Crack!
Jo Tae-cheong’s cheek split open, and something emerged from within.
It was none other than a wounded eyeball.
The center of the eyeball was sunken in as though something had stabbed it, and black blood was flowing from it.
‘Surely not?’
Just then Jo Tae-cheong staggered and opened his mouth in a hoarse voice.
“You damned human bastard. You dared stab my eye?”
That voice was full of rage and killing intent.
At the sight, Mok Gyeong-un, with only his consciousness still alive, clicked his tongue inwardly.
Seeing that it was alive even after its eye had been stabbed and the dagger had pierced through to the brain, it was already hard to regard this thing as human.
It seemed there was a reason it was called an aberrant vessel.
“I’ll make you feel the exact same pain.”
With those words, Jo Tae-cheong snatched the Evil-Answering Sword from Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.
And as he gripped the hilt,
-Start! Tremble, tremble, tremble!
In that instant the wounded eyeball of Jo Tae-cheong began to tremble.
“…Just what is this sword?”
The spiritual force that suddenly entered through the hilt, tried to interfere with his consciousness, and rode up the sword intent made Jo Tae-cheong try to let go of the sword in alarm.
It was at that very moment.
-Slash!
“Ghk!”
In that brief instant, Jo Tae-cheong’s neck was severed cleanly.
Thanks to the interference with his consciousness, the monster’s spell power had faltered for a moment.
Mok Gyeong-un did not miss that moment.
In that instant, when his senses temporarily returned, he simply cut off the man’s neck.
“You really have terrible luck.”
He had finally gotten a chance to kill him, but after grabbing the demonic sword, the Evil-Answering Sword, to return the same vengeance, it had backfired on him.
-Thud!
“Aah!”
At that moment Yeo Su-rin, who had fallen from the ceiling to the floor and landed hard on her backside, had no idea what had happened.
“Ow, my butt. W-what in the world just happened? Eek!”
She could not hide her bewilderment when she saw Jo Tae-cheong’s severed neck.
Just what had happened?
It felt as though only her own time had stopped for a moment and then started flowing again.
As if some part of the sequence had been cut out.
Blue Spirit clicked his tongue and said,
-What a truly grotesque creature. To revive even after the place that serves as the source of its power was pierced and its brain skewered.
At this point it possessed such tenacious vitality that one had to regard it not as human but as one of the demons and monsters.
Still, now that its head has been severed, it will truly be difficult for it to revive again.
That was what he believed, but inside Jo Tae-cheong’s severed head something strange was taking place.
-Tap. Tap.
The third eye, its veins standing out.
Unlike the dead flesh, that eye possessed a self of its own.
‘Damn it.’
This was clearly an oversight.
When I stole away his senses, I should have killed him without caring about any backlash from the return, since he had already all but lost his body anyway.
But that damned demonic sword ruined everything.
With only this head left, there was no way to do anything to that bastard.
At this point, the only answer was to pretend to be dead and wait until I could find a new body.
‘Just you wait.’
Even if it had not seen his face, it had memorized his voice.
The moment it found a new body, it would surely kill him…
-Crunch!
At that exact moment Jo Tae-cheong’s head was crushed outright.
That was because Mok Gyeong-un had simply stepped on it.
“Aah! What in the world are you doing right now?”
“Making sure.”
At the ghastly sight of him crushing the head, Yeo Su-rin protested, unable even to look, but Mok Gyeong-un paid her no heed and kept stomping on Jo Tae-cheong’s head.
-Crunch! Crunch!
“Hm?”
Then he reached a hand into the mangled ruin and pulled something out.
It was none other than an eyeball.
‘Y-you bastard!’
The veins of the eyeball bulged and it trembled violently.
Looking at that eyeball, Mok Gyeong-un let out a short laugh and said,
“I thought so. It seems you were an independent existence, separate from that dead body?”
At those words, the eyeball could not hide its inward alarm.
This bastard had noticed what it truly was.
Even the occult practitioners had never noticed it until now, and yet a bastard like this had exposed its existence?
-Gnash, gnash!
Fine, then.
You did well enough to notice my existence, but you made one mistake.
At the very least, you should have avoided making direct contact with me.
-Spurt! Spurt!
At that moment capillary-like strands sprang from the eyeball and burrowed into the flesh of Mok Gyeong-un’s fingers.
‘I’ll seize your body like this and… Kyaaak!’
-Fsssh!
The capillaries that had burrowed into his flesh soon scattered away.
‘P-poison?’
The eyeball was dumbfounded.
It had tried to burrow through his skin and consume his blood and nerves.
But this bastard’s blood was poison itself.
The poison that traveled up the capillaries caused unbearable agony.
-Crrrk, crrrk!
The eyeball twisted and writhed violently.
Seeing that, Yeo Su-rin said with wide eyes,
“Th-the eyeball’s shriveling up like it’s in pain!”