Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 18 - Possessed by Evil (1)
Chapter 18 – Possessed by Evil (1)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The Demon Monk was bowing in full courtesy, filled with fear and reverence.
As that being, both a resentful spirit and a strange phenomenon, showed such an unexpected side, Mok Gyeong-un looked at the book inside the wooden box with puzzled eyes.
A bizarre book made of human skin.
Why was the Demon Monk reacting like this upon seeing this bead-wrapped book?
Unconsciously, Mok Gyeong-un reached his hand toward the book inside the wooden box.
And the moment his fingertips touched it,
-Thump!
‘!?’
Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes narrowed.
‘……..A pulse?’
For an instant.
In that single instant, he had felt a pulse.
It was as vivid as the beating of a heart.
And yet, paradoxically, such a pulse was not something that occurred because it was alive.
Rather, it was closer to death.
-Thump! Thump!
The pulse seemed to be growing steadily stronger.
‘……….’
After staring at the book for a moment, Mok Gyeong-un closed the lid of the wooden box.
A powerful attraction had arisen.
He wanted to strip away the prayer beads and see what exactly was inside, but for now that seemed difficult.
The reason the Demon Monk had appeared was because someone had intruded into the medicine hall.
‘An interruption.’
Mok Gyeong-un licked his upper lip as if in regret.
Then he turned his gaze upward.
* * *
-Tap! Tap!
There was a man in black mask and garb moving across the roof tiles of the building.
The masked man noticed Bodyguard Gochan guarding the pavilion on the only path leading to the medicine hall and erased his presence even more.
‘Hmm.’
A strange glint entered the masked man’s eyes.
That was because Mok Gyeong-un had two guards.
Of those two, one could no longer really be called Mok Gyeong-un’s man, so in truth it was hardly an exaggeration to say he now had only a single guard.
‘Then why is he not staying by his side?’
Ordinarily, a bodyguard stayed right by his master’s side.
But instead he was standing apart from the medicine hall, guarding the approach?
‘It is one of two things.’
First, that the master being guarded was sensitive and would not allow the guard to remain at his side.
But that did not seem likely.
It made no sense to guard from afar a master whose thigh had been pierced through.
Then the answer had to be the second.
That was,
‘Is he standing watch?’
Watching the surroundings under his master’s orders to see whether someone else might come.
There was simply no other reason for him to be standing that far away.
The masked man stroked his chin.
‘Late in the Rat Hour, in the depth of night, and instead of sleeping he is standing watch……’
This had become more interesting than expected.
His name was Jo Il-sang.
He was one of the three guards under the Second Young Master, Mok Eun-pyeong.
[Just in case, I should verify it. Whether this is a flesh-wounding stratagem or not.]
There was only one order he had received from Mok Eun-pyeong.
Whether Mok Gyeong-un had truly lost his martial arts or not.
If he had not lost them, then Guard Gam’s request to be taken in would have been a lie, and if he truly could no longer use martial arts, then his request would have been sincere.
[Should I only confirm it?]
[That would not be very entertaining. If he truly has lost his martial arts, frighten him a little. Tell him not to get carried away.]
[Hehehe. Understood.]
That was why, of the three guards, he himself had come like this.
Jo Il-sang’s martial ability could be said to lie between that of a second-rate warrior and a first-rate expert.
He was a cut above Gochan, which was why he had come.
-Ssk! Tap!
Avoiding Gochan’s line of sight, Jo Il-sang moved in another direction and vaulted over the wall.
Then, after crossing the wall, Jo Il-sang climbed onto the roof of the medicine hall and slipped in through a gap between the tiles.
‘Just what is an injured brat doing, to the point that he set a watch?’
Was the injury false?
Or was the information that he had lost his martial arts false?
Either way, since he was doing this, there had to be something.
‘Let us see what you are hiding.’
Thus Jo Il-sang infiltrated into the medicine hall through the roof gap.
Even suppressing his breathing, he hung quietly from the ceiling and looked below, and one of his brows rose.
‘What is this?’
The scene below was different from what he had expected.
To the eyes of Jo Il-sang, now disappointed, there was Mok Gyeong-un with only his upper body raised on the bed, reading a book by the light of a single lamp.
‘He is only reading a book?’
Jo Il-sang looked around suspiciously.
But inside the medicine hall there was no one besides Mok Gyeong-un.
‘Strange.’
No one could have come in through the door, and Gochan, his only guard, was outside keeping watch, so there was no way he should have noticed.
He wondered whether someone had warned him, but that did not seem to be the case either.
Then…….
‘Could it be that there is a secret in that book?’
That possibility could not be ruled out.
In any event, he had to make contact if he was to confirm whether the man had martial arts or not.
Jo Il-sang carefully suppressed his presence and moved along the ceiling toward the bed where Mok Gyeong-un was.
And then,
-Tap!
he jumped down.
At the same time, Jo Il-sang snatched away the book Mok Gyeong-un had been reading with lightning speed.
-Pak!
Having snatched the book, Jo Il-sang naturally expected Mok Gyeong-un to be startled or counterattack.
Yet contrary to expectation, there was no counterattack, nor did he look surprised.
Rather, he only looked at Jo Il-sang calmly.
“Who…..”
-Ssk!
As Mok Gyeong-un started to say something, Jo Il-sang aimed his dagger at his throat and whispered,
“If you do not wish to die, keep quiet.”
“……..”
Mok Gyeong-un closed his mouth.
Things could be said to be proceeding well, but Jo Il-sang did not feel that way.
‘This brat……’
Suddenly, a masked man had appeared, snatched away his book, and was threatening him with a dagger at his throat.
Ordinarily, anyone would have shown confusion.
No, at the very least he should have looked frightened or tense.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un was looking at him with an expressionless face, showing no emotional change, as if this were an everyday occurrence.
‘Judging by this bastard’s reaction……’
He looked like someone who had known in advance Jo Il-sang would come.
But that was impossible.
Then, for him to show such calm, at minimum he would have to possess martial ability great enough to protect his own life.
‘!?’
Jo Il-sang’s eyes narrowed.
Come to think of it, regardless of whether one had martial arts or not, when startled, a person’s body would move one way or another by reflex.
But Mok Gyeong-un had not moved at all.
‘Could the information that this bastard lost his martial arts be false?’
-Glance!
Jo Il-sang shifted his eyes to the book he had stolen.
But the moment he saw the title of the book, his eyes shook wildly.
‘!!!!!!!’
It was,
[Yeon Mok Sword Secret Art]
That.
There was no one in Yeon Mok Sword Manor who would not know the name of this sword art.
It was the sword art that symbolized Yeon Mok Sword Manor.
The reason was that this sword art was a martial art containing the highest mysteries, one that only the Manor Lord of Yeon Mok Sword Manor could learn.
‘Ha……’
Jo Il-sang’s next move, stunned, was one he himself had not planned.
Using a grappling technique, Jo Il-sang seized Mok Gyeong-un by the shoulder and dragged him down.
At the same time, with the hand holding the dagger, he struck a pressure point at the back of his head.
-Thud!
Struck there, Mok Gyeong-un’s head dropped down at once.
Jo Il-sang’s heart pounded as he let out a rough breath.
“Haa…….”
For an instant, shocked by the secret manual of the Yeon Mok Sword Secret Art, he had struck the pressure point at the back of the bastard’s head and knocked him unconscious.
‘Was this why he set a watch?’
Jo Il-sang brought his hand to the pressure point of the unconscious Mok Gyeong-un.
He had almost forgotten, but he also needed to confirm whether Mok Gyeong-un had truly lost his martial arts or not.
-Ssk!
Placing his hand on the pressure point, Jo Il-sang sent his true energy into the body.
‘Ah!’
There was no need to examine for long.
If even a little inner power existed, the moment another’s true energy entered, a rebounding force or some sort of rejection reaction would arise.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un showed nothing of the sort.
-Press, press!
Jo Il-sang pressed on the abdomen near Mok Gyeong-un’s dantian.
‘There is none.’
There truly was no dantian.
The corners of Jo Il-sang’s mouth lifted.
After confirming whether Mok Gyeong-un had martial arts or not, even the Second Young Master Mok Eun-pyeong’s request to frighten him had already vanished from Jo Il-sang’s mind.
Jo Il-sang opened and flipped through the pages of the secret manual, Yeon Mok Sword Secret Art.
“Hup!”
After turning several pages, Jo Il-sang’s lips twitched.
He almost laughed without meaning to.
He had wondered whether it might be a fake, but this was undoubtedly the real sword forms of the Yeon Mok Sword Secret Art.
From the beginning itself, the sword forms were far from ordinary.
‘Calm down.’
He had never even dreamed that this would be in Mok Gyeong-un’s hands.
The Manor Lord was already grave enough that death might come today or tomorrow, and even before that, the Manor Lord’s seal and the secret manual of the Yeon Mok Sword Secret Art, which were crucial to the succession, had gone missing, making even the retainers deeply anxious about the situation.
Yet now the Yeon Mok Sword Secret Art had fallen into his hands.
‘It is done.’
The fact that the Yeon Mok Sword Secret Art had come into his hands was nothing less than good fortune.
If his lord, Mok Eun-pyeong, learned the Yeon Mok Sword Secret Art, the martial art reserved for the Manor Lord, then even should the Manor Lord die as he was, the next Manor Lord would belong to his lord.
‘This is the advantageous position.’
No matter how much the living Manor Lord cherished the youngest, Mok Yu-cheon, and no matter that the eldest, Mok Yeong-ho, existed, because this was a martial clan, the retainers would ultimately have no choice but to support his lord.
It was just as he was delighting in this.
-Flinch!
Suddenly, a chill strong enough to make his whole body erupt in goosebumps seized him.
At the same time, something pressed down upon his shoulder.
‘What is this?’
Startled, Jo Il-sang hurriedly tried to draw up his inner power.
It was at that very moment.
-Thud!
“Hup!”
Someone struck the region of his dantian with a fist.
It was none other than Mok Gyeong-un, whom he had believed he had knocked unconscious.
‘Wh-what strength is this?’
This was supposed to be the strength of a bastard with no inner power?
It was at least above the second-rate level.
-Tremble!
Having been struck in the dantian before he could draw up his inner power in a situation where he had let down his guard, Jo Il-sang’s body stiffened for a brief instant.
But that brief instant worked very badly for him.
“Kuh!”
-Tick! Tick!
His veins rose.
A bizarre sensation burrowed in through the shoulder being pressed down.
That sensation tormented and agonized him enough to make him shudder.
At this, grinding his teeth, Jo Il-sang tried to drive out the bizarre sensation with true energy.
However,
-Thud!
In that very moment, without missing his chance, Mok Gyeong-un swung his fist into Jo Il-sang’s jaw and at the same time rained fist after fist into his abdomen.
-Thudthudthudthud!
Ordinarily, such a method would not have worked on Jo Il-sang, who stood on the verge of first-rate.
But the slight lapse brought on by getting the secret manual,
and then, in a situation where a freezing sensation was pressing on his shoulder, even he could not endure the fists relentlessly targeting only the region of the dantian.
“Gnnnn! Y-you bastard……”
“You are tough. Then.”
-Pak!
Mok Gyeong-un grabbed the back of his head with both hands, yanked it down, and drove his knee up into his face.
-Crunch!
“Guh!”
The sound of his nose bone and teeth breaking rang out.
Even so, Mok Gyeong-un did not stop, and kept punching the face of Jo Il-sang as he staggered backward.
-Thud! Thud!
Even when blood wet his fists, Mok Gyeong-un did not stop.
‘Thi…..this vicious……’
Thus Jo Il-sang lost consciousness rapidly.
* * *
How much time had passed?
Jo Il-sang, having regained consciousness, opened his eyes with difficulty.
Once he opened them, he felt as if his head were about to burst.
‘What in the world….’
Having only just awakened, he could not clearly remember what had happened.
Then it came back to him.
Mok Gyeong-un, expressionless, pounding his face like a madman.
‘Damn…….’
He had let down his guard completely.
No, should it even be called letting down his guard?
The first blow had certainly come from lowering his guard after confirming that Mok Gyeong-un lacked a dantian, but that was not true of what came afterward.
‘What in the world was that sensation?’
He could not forget that sensation that chilled his spine.
Because of that sensation, his body had stiffened, and while he tried to endure it with inner power, Mok Gyeong-un had struck his dantian and vital points at will until he lost consciousness.
In truth, it would not have been strange even if he had died.
‘……..What is this bastard?’
Jo Il-sang was puzzled.
He had definitely confirmed that Mok Gyeong-un had no inner power.
Yet with blows of that degree, it was hardly an exaggeration to say he possessed strength almost comparable to Jo Il-sang’s own.
‘Damn it.’
“Haa…..haa….”
But that was not what mattered right now.
Jo Il-sang, struggling to open eyes crusted over with dried blood, looked around.
‘!?’
As he looked around, Jo Il-sang frowned.
This was not the medicine hall.
Come to think of it, he had been feeling oddly cool and damp for some time now, as though he were in some sort of cave.
-Drip! Drip!
‘Huh?’
Jo Il-sang noticed drops of sweat or blood from his own body floating upward into the air.
He wondered what sort of phenomenon this was, and then,
‘Could it be……am I hanging upside down right now?’
Only then did he understand why his face had seemed about to burst.
He had thought it was because he had been hit so much in the face that it hurt, but it was the effect of blood rushing to his head because he was hanging upside down.
“Haa….haa…..”
Jo Il-sang’s breathing grew rough.
He did not know where this place was, but it felt ominous.
It seemed he had to get out quickly.
“Hoo.”
Jo Il-sang focused his breathing and tried to draw up the energy in his dantian.
But,
‘Wh-what is this?’
No strength entered his body at all.
He wanted to focus, but apart from his face, all other parts of his body felt as if they had lost sensation altogether.
“W-why is this happening?”
His real voice burst from his mouth in panic.
-Ssk!
While that was happening, he heard someone’s presence.
“It seems you’ve woken up.”
When he looked toward the source of the voice, he saw Mok Gyeong-un walking along the ceiling upside down.
Of course, it only looked that way because his own field of vision was inverted.
Panicked by the numb sensation throughout his body, Jo Il-sang shouted,
“Y-you, what in the world did you do to me?”
At those words, the corners of Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth curled up as though about to split to his ears.
“Who knows. What do you think I did?”
-Shiver!
Unlike the smile, there was nothing but sinister malice in his gaze.
For the first time in his life, Jo Il-sang felt a chill.
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