Chapter 176 – Three Eyes (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“The rulers of Shang and Zhou? Surely the spirit beast you’re talking about…”

-That’s right. It is the fox demon-and-monster with nine tails and golden fur. The Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox.

‘!!!!!!!’

At the meaning-laden words from the eyeball, Yeo Su-rin could not hide her shock.

“The Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox? So I take it it’s a demon-and-monster in the shape of a fox?”

Mok Gyeong-un, on the other hand, knew nothing at all about this being, so his reaction was no different from when the other Six Demons had been mentioned.

“Ha… The White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox…”

“The White-Faced Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox?”

“You’ve never heard of it?”

“No.”

Given that he knew nothing even of the other rulers of the spirit beasts, how could he know this one? Looking at Mok Gyeong-un, Yeo Su-rin spoke in a slightly trembling voice unlike before.

“It is a different sort of being from ordinary demons and monsters.”

“What do you mean by a different sort of being?”

“The reason demons and monsters are usually not well known among humans is that most of them simply have no great interest in the human world.”

“Hmm. Is that so?”

“But this one is different.”

“If it’s different, in what way? Isn’t it merely an old and powerful demon-and-monster?”

“Books used by occult practitioners, such as the Introductory Text on the Anomalies of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, naturally describe supernatural records like anomalies. But records of the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox remain even in old books and even in the Records of the Grand Historian.”

“Even in the Records of the Grand Historian?”

The Records of the Grand Historian were no different from an officially compiled history of the state.

That the historians who even hesitated to leave records of the martial world had recorded such a thing was quite interesting.

So Mok Gyeong-un said,

“I’ve read quite a lot of books related to the Records of the Grand Historian, but I’ve never heard a story about a fox demon-and-monster.”

“The earliest record was during the reign of King Zhou of Shang.”

“Shang… That’s very old.”

“Yes. It says in the Records of the Grand Historian that a fox anomaly devoured Suyang, one of King Zhou’s consorts, disguised itself as her, corrupted the king, made him create a garden of lakes of wine and forests of meat to indulge in pleasure, and caused countless tyrannies. Because of that, Shang fell to King Wu of Zhou.”

“Ah… I think I’ve heard something like that in passing. The story of the king who fell for a consort named Daji and ruined his country. But this is a little different from what I knew.”

“Because this is the true original text of the Records of the Grand Historian.”

The original text.

It was also called the original Records of the Grand Historian.

The true intentions the author had wished to leave were recorded in the original text.

“Daji of Shang, Bao Si of Zhou, Lady Huayang of Tianzhu, Wakamo of Dongying, Tamamo-no-Mae… Appearing under countless forms and names, it manipulated the fate and history of whole nations.”

At Yeo Su-rin’s words, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes narrowed.

Listening to this, this demon-and-monster called the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox truly was different from other anomalies.

As she had said, it had interfered greatly in the world of men.

Ordinary demons and monsters rarely regarded humans as anything more than prey.

This was no different from how humans took no interest in the world of insects or animals.

“…This anomaly has far more interest in humans than I expected.”

“That’s right. To a bizarre degree. That’s why it slipped among humans and caused every manner of trouble.”

“I can see why it’s called White-Faced.”

The White-Faced King, the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox.

This ancient great fox anomaly had always appeared in different forms, leading first a village, and then even entire kingdoms, toward destruction.

The claim that it had a hundred faces had not arisen for nothing.

“A demon-and-monster interested in humans… In a way, that sounds like an extremely troublesome being.”

“It goes beyond troublesome. It’s the worst kind of demon-and-monster. My master said the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox is the one we must be most wary of, because it can dig into the dark emotions of humans and corrupt them.”

“Corrupt…”

To dig into emotions and corrupt them.

What a very strange demon-and-monster.

He could not understand why it would repeat such acts.

If it had toyed with humans to such an extent, there could be no one that understood humans better than that being.

And yet it had continued to repeat it…

It seemed like one of two things.

‘A game, or…’

“Wait a second. Now that I think about it, eyeball, you’re no different from that Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox!”

At that moment Yeo Su-rin, who had been talking at length about the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox, glared at the eyeball caught in Mok Gyeong-un’s fingers as she spoke.

At that, the eyeball trembled and pleaded.

-I-I’ll no longer interfere in human affairs. So please, just spare me.

“After all the humans you’ve killed, you still dare ask to be spared. Young Master Mok, just crush it.”

Yeo Su-rin pointed at the eyeball with her finger, then drew her thumb across her own throat and stuck out her tongue as if miming death.

“Blegh.”

‘You dog of a bitch!’

The eyeball cursed Yeo Su-rin viciously inwardly.

Then it pleaded with Mok Gyeong-un.

After all, he was the one who held the choice.

-Haven’t I told you everything you asked for? Please spare me.

“Ah. Before that, there is one more thing I want to ask.”

-Ask me anything. I will tell you everything I know.

“There’s another one besides you, isn’t there?”

-…What?

At the eyeball’s question back, Mok Gyeong-un let out a short laugh.

Then he lifted the eyeball and met its gaze with his own.

“Your answer was a little slow.”

-No, I didn’t properly understand what you were saying…

“I’m asking whether there is another Three Eyes besides you.”

-…

At Mok Gyeong-un’s question, the one who reacted was Yeo Su-rin instead.

“What are you talking about? What do you mean there is another Three Eyes?”

“There is a sealed wooden box in Corpse Blood Valley. The demon-and-monster sealed inside that wooden box said the one who imprisoned it was a Three Eyes dressed like an occult practitioner.”

“A Three Eyes dressed like an occult practitioner? Then that means this eyeball, doesn’t it?”

“I thought so too. But it seems to know absolutely nothing. Doesn’t it?”

-What nonsense are you spouting? It may simply be that I do not remember because it was a long time ago. Everything that happens within the Heaven and Earth Society, I…

“Do you know what was sealed in the wooden box?”

-…

The eyeball shut its mouth.

“If you know, then say it.”

-…

At the sight of the eyeball suddenly growing tight-lipped, Yeo Su-rin furrowed her brow.

What in the world was going on here?

This eyeball was unquestionably the Three Eyes her master had spoken of.

A being in the form of an occult practitioner who commanded two demon beasts as shikigami.

If it wasn’t this one, then who was it?

“That can’t be right. Young Master Mok, aren’t you misunderstanding something? My master said that within the Heaven and Earth Society, the Three Eyes would throw the workings of heaven…”

“Ah!”

Come to think of it, her master had never specified anyone in particular.

To be exact, she had said this:

[Go and watch. A one bearing a third eye shall appear in the Heaven and Earth Society and throw the workings of heaven into disorder.]

“…Then what exactly is this eyeball bastard?”

“Three Eyes.”

“But…”

“There could be another Three Eyes too, so there’s no need to make it so complicated. Isn’t that right, Mr. Eyeball?”

At those words from Mok Gyeong-un, the eyeball hesitated, then said,

-I… truly… do not know.

“Simple enough.”

-What?

“When you talked about the Six Demons and the rest, you were trembling with fear and yet spoke quite well. But the moment talk turned to another Three Eyes, you worked desperately not to let it show, didn’t you?”

-What nonsense are you talking about? Human, I truly do not know. Yes. The world is vast. Why should there not be more beings like me? But I have absolutely no idea what you are saying.

-Squeeze!

-Aaaaaaak!

“It would probably be better for you to talk than to die here, wouldn’t it?”

-Aaaaaah. I truly, truly do not know.

“If you think what I’m saying is false, then keep enduring it.”

As Mok Gyeong-un tightened his fingers further, the eyeball truly came within a single step of being crushed flat.

It looked as though it might burst at any moment and spill white fluid.

Then the eyeball urgently tried to say something.

-I-if I speak, I die.

“Pardon?”

-A forbidden art has been placed on me.

“A forbidden art?”

-Yes.

“What kind of forbidden art?”

-I do not know. Part of my memory is missing in whole sections, and whenever I try to forcibly recall it, the spell activates and makes me lose consciousness.

“Hmm.”

Mok Gyeong-un was about to form a hand seal.

-D-don’t do it. I too once tried to forcibly break the forbidden art, and my body nearly burst apart.

“Is that so?”

-Neither the eighty-six widely known unsealing methods nor the thirteen secret breaking methods were of any use. I want to tell you too, but my life is at stake, so there is nothing I can do about this. Please spare…

“Ah, then I have no further use for you.”

-What?

“I’ll send you on your way.”

-Ah!

Was he going to spare it?

The eyeball, which had been tense the whole time, let out a sigh of relief.

But then,

-Slip!

‘!?’

In that instant, darkness swallowed everything around it.

And along with that, the eyeball was crushed outright by something.

-Crunch, crunch!

-Gkehk!

“Eek!”

Yeo Su-rin looked at Mok Gyeong-un with a bewildered expression.

“A-are you insane?”

-Munch, munch!

Mok Gyeong-un chewed thoroughly, swallowed it, and then said as though it were nothing,

“So this is what the eyeball of a demon-and-monster tastes like.”

“Pardon?”

“Salty and astringent.”

“No, how can you even say that right now…”

At those words from Mok Gyeong-un, Yeo Su-rin made a face that showed genuine disgust.

It would already have been revolting enough if he had merely eaten an eyeball, but to casually eat Three Eyes, the very thing called an aberrant vessel, meant he was not in his right mind.

‘Wow. This really is a first-rate lunatic.’

It was her first time seeing a man like this.

She herself had heard from her master and senior brothers that she had an unusual view of the world, but this man genuinely lay outside the bounds of comprehension.

There was even a faint sense of bizarre madness about him.

But then,

“Huh?”

Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes suddenly rolled white and began trembling.

Why was he doing this all of a sudden?

Could it be that something had gone wrong from eating that Three Eyes eyeball?

“Excuse me? Are you all right?”

Yeo Su-rin tried to move closer to Mok Gyeong-un, but she had to step back because Qinyuan, the demon beast trying not to miss this chance and wriggle free of its trapped wing, prevented her.

-Kiiiiyaaaaah!

“Of all times, now!”

Yeo Su-rin hurriedly drew a talisman from her waist and formed a hand seal with her left hand.

Earlier she had been lucky and managed to kill Earth Ram easily, but to begin with, even for someone like her, close to the Square Sun rank, demon-beast-rank demons and monsters were not easy opponents.

-Smack!

At that moment one of Qinyuan’s wings came free.

Apparently Mok Gyeong-un’s condition had worsened, weakening his grip enough for it to escape.

‘Why did he have to eat something like that?’

Why did he have to create such a troublesome situation?

This man really was exhausting.

-Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

‘Split. Be. Array. All.’

From the Earth-Holding Seal to the One-Wheel Seal, then the Inner-Clasping Seal and the Outer-Clasping Seal.

It was the hand-seal sequence of the Six-Person Combat-Stopping Art.

At the same time, the talisman contained an invocation of a guardian deity capable of momentarily weakening demonic energy.

-Flap, flap!

The demon beast Qinyuan spread its huge wings wide.

As it opened its wings, strange markings became visible within them, and because they resembled two enormous eyes, they were eerily unsettling.

Moreover, the force of the demonic power spreading in every direction was no ordinary thing.

It was enough to make the legs of most occult practitioners buckle.

Yeo Su-rin gritted her teeth.

“Come on, then. I’m the foremost disciple of Red Eyebrow Old Immortal, one of the Fang Gods.”

With that, Yeo Su-rin pointed the all seal of her hand sign toward Qinyuan and tried to unleash the Six-Person Combat-Stopping Art.

But it was at that very moment.

“Stop.”

The moment that shout was heard, the demon beast Qinyuan, which had been about to attack with both wings spread wide, folded its wings.

Then, as though in submission, it lowered its head and upper body.

And the target of that submission was, astonishingly,

“Huh?”

Mok Gyeong-un.

Yeo Su-rin’s eyes widened.

No, why was the demon beast Qinyuan obeying Mok Gyeong-un’s command?

Then she realized that was not the only strange part.

Since Mok Gyeong-un had chewed up and swallowed Three Eyes’ eyeball, the shikigami that had lost their master should naturally have perished or vanished once the bond was severed.

Yet the demon beast Qinyuan remained perfectly alive.

“How in the world did this happen?”

At her question, Mok Gyeong-un answered with a faint smile.

“Who knows.”

‘!?’

No, what in the world did any of this mean?

From her standpoint, she had no choice but to be intensely curious.

Of course, the only one who could even somewhat understand it was Blue Spirit, inside Mok Gyeong-un’s wooden doll.

-Ha! So it really works.

-Yes. It really does.

Mok Gyeong-un had wondered what to do about Three Eyes, who had been bound to him as a shikigami, so on a whim he simply ate it.

Since he had a prior case of turning a spirit vessel or medium into a shikigami by eating it, he had thought perhaps it might work, and it truly had.

The bond of the shikigami had been transferred.

And one more strange thing had happened as well.

‘The eye…’

After eating Three Eyes and absorbing its demonic power, that power had concentrated particularly in his right eye.

When he released Three Eyes’ demonic power the way he did when opening Ghost Eyes, astonishingly, he was able to see the flow of force even more clearly.

-Woooooo!

‘Well now?’

Even the route of the sword intent he had swung earlier remained behind as an afterimage of lingering thought.

And it was not only traces of true qi.

Even the form spell power took as it changed into a technique appeared faintly as lingering thought.

At that, Mok Gyeong-un’s lips twitched.

‘…This is actually quite useful.’