Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 185 - Submission (3)
Chapter 185 – Submission (3)
===================
Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
===================
“Do you think you can make her submit?”
“I will try.”
“If you cannot keep her under control, tell me. Now that I think about it, it might not be so bad to use her as Gyu So-ha’s body.”
‘Gyu So-ha?’
Who was that?
At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Go Chan, who was possessing Jang Neung-ak, could not hide his puzzlement.
Thinking over what had just been said, that phrase about it being fine to use her as a body made it sound as though there were more vengeful souls like them.
As if that guess were correct, Mok Gyeong-un smiled and readily agreed.
“That is right. There are more.”
Gyu So-ha.
She was a vengeful soul that had been raised as gu poison below the cliff of Corpse Blood Valley.
She had become a shikigami through Mok Gyeong-un, and at present she had been given the order to possess Yang Mu-won, the keeper of the Corpse Blood Valley treasure vault, and guard that place.
Originally, because the gu poison had not been completed, she had remained no more than Green Spirit rank, but after receiving the demonic aura of the Binding Badger Tengu, Sea-Slaying King, a raccoon-dog spirit beast, what remained after Mok Gyeong-un had absorbed it, her rank rose to Blue Spirit.
-If that one who insists he is a man met this bastard, it would be quite amusing.
-It would.
Mok Gyeong-un agreed with Blue Spirit as well.
No matter how one looked at Gyu So-ha, she seemed like a woman, and yet though Blue Spirit constantly scolded her for it, she kept insisting she was a man.
-It seems about time to bring her over.
After her rank rose, Gyu So-ha had become a vengeful soul capable of dealing even with masters at the transcendent peak.
There was no reason to keep an existence like that merely as a vault keeper.
-Do you have someone to replace her?
Blue Spirit asked in puzzlement.
Most of the shikigami other than her already each had their own role.
The Demon Monk was possessing Guard Byeok, a close aide of the Shadow Sect Master, and was carrying out the role of watching him and gathering information, so there was no shikigami to switch in.
-The more loyal someone is, or the stronger their attachment to life or vengeance, the higher the chance seems to be that they are reborn as a vengeful soul.
-…What are you thinking?
-There is a spiritual presence coming from over there at just the right moment.
Where Mok Gyeong-un was looking.
That was toward the eastern side of the garden, where the martial artists of the lower seats had withdrawn.
Those martial artists from the lower seats had been killed by the demon beast Qinyuan and by Wi Maeng-cheon.
-You cannot mean?
-Yes.
After eating the eyeball of Three Eyes, Mok Gyeong-un’s spell power too had become overwhelmingly stronger, and so he could now feel with clarity the spiritual aura of souls that had just been born.
A vengeful soul that had only just been born would at best fail even to reach the level of an earthbound spirit; its will would grow weaker and weaker until it eventually vanished.
However,
‘With just a little help, that changes.’
If it reached even the level of a Red Spirit, enough to grant it rank, then he would be able to make it possess a body.
Mok Gyeong-un moved his feet.
At that moment Go Chan, who was possessing Jang Neung-ak, asked,
“Master?”
With his eyes, Go Chan pointed toward Ha Chae-rin, who was showing both fear and wariness at once like a wildcat with its fur standing on end.
At that, Mok Gyeong-un answered in an indifferent tone,
“Ah. Handle it yourself.”
Ha Chae-rin now fell under Go Chan’s charge.
Having entrusted her to Go Chan, Mok Gyeong-un shifted places, passed through the garden pavilion, and headed toward the place where he sensed spiritual power.
There the shrunken demon beast Qinyuan was flying about, and on the floor lay the cold corpses of the martial artists from the lower seats.
Among them he saw one existence that had been born as a vengeful soul.
-Found one.
The corner of Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth rose.
* * *
Go Chan approached Ha Chae-rin, who was tense all over.
Then Ha Chae-rin, startled, aimed the Jade-Glow Flying Needles at Go Chan.
“Do not come any closer!”
She had been trained as an assassin to remain calm under any circumstances, so ordinarily she was not one to be shaken by things like this.
But the situation now was not ordinary.
It felt as if she had been asleep for a long time and only now awakened, so there was a strange sense of dissonance in moving her body, and she could not even understand what kind of situation this was.
She had clearly been after Mok Gyeong-un’s life at Yeon Mok Sword Manor, so how had things turned into this?
To her, Go Chan said,
“Hey.”
At that call from Go Chan, Ha Chae-rin looked at him with tense eyes.
At that reaction, Go Chan felt a strange thrill inwardly.
Before he died, she had always regarded him as no more than a worthless low-ranked assassin.
And yet now she was properly on guard against him.
‘Heh.’
It was truly a strange twist of fate.
Now that he had changed bodies, she looked endlessly weak to him.
Though of course that was only because the body of Jang Neung-ak, the Society Leader’s second disciple, was that strong.
Puffed up with pride, Go Chan warned her.
“You would do well to behave quietly.”
“Damn it. Where in the world is this, and what are you?”
At her rough tone, Go Chan clicked his tongue.
He had forgotten for a while, but as expected, her way of speaking was rough to no end.
One’s original nature did not go anywhere.
“If you keep behaving like that, your life will be in danger. Because that person has no mercy.”
“That person? Do you mean Mok Gyeong-un?”
“Yes.”
At those words from Go Chan, Ha Chae-rin frowned.
Even as it was, her head was already in utter confusion because of the existence called Mok Gyeong-un.
She had no idea from where things had gone wrong.
The Mok Gyeong-un of Yeon Mok Sword Manor whom she had known had been no more than a coward who did not even possess martial talent.
Yet when she had closed her eyes and then opened them, the pressure he gave off and the way he controlled true qi made him look like nothing less than a peerless master.
‘What in the world? How did things become like this?’
How in the world had a monster like that become the final offering of the Hundred Days, Hundred Kills?
The Hundred Days, Hundred Kills selected those who could die without causing great problems.
But was he not someone who simply could not be killed?
Go Chan stared intently at her as she stood there confused.
The corner of Go Chan’s mouth twitched at the sight.
[Handle it yourself.]
Mok Gyeong-un had entrusted Ha Chae-rin to him.
That meant that now the authority over whether she lived or died belonged to him as well.
[Guard Gam died by killing the young master he served and then taking his own life, to avenge Uncle Gam. Got it?]
[Fr-from the very beginning…]
[Shh. Be quiet. Even if you had already retired, instead of failing to show gratitude that I am preserving your honor as a member of the Flying Assassin Sect, you…]
That time when he had been at her mercy came back to him fresh.
He had been treated like absolute trash.
On top of that, he had even died because of her.
And now, though against his original intentions, a chance had come around for him to pay her back with his own hands like this?
The corner of his twitching mouth curled up viciously.
Then Go Chan approached her.
At once,
-Pshuk!
The moment he came close, Ha Chae-rin fired the Jade-Glow Flying Needles at Go Chan.
But,
-Pak!
‘!?’
The Jade-Glow Flying Needles could not pierce Go Chan and were caught instead between his index and middle fingers.
‘I can see them. I can see all of them!’
Go Chan inwardly rejoiced.
Even the Jade-Glow Flying Needles, the very symbol of the infamous Flying Assassin Yeom-gaek, were useless against the current him.
He felt as though he could catch them with his eyes closed by sound alone.
At the sight of Go Chan like that, the startled Ha Chae-rin said,
“Wh-who are you?”
“Who am I? I am…”
[I never imagined I would see a retired man like this. Uncle Go Chan. Or shall I call you low-ranked assassin number eighty-three?]
At that moment, the words she had said in the past came back to him.
In his heart he wanted to bark, ‘I am low-ranked assassin number eighty-three!’
But from the moment he possessed this body, he had to stay faithful to the role.
Thus,
“I… no, this young master is Jang Neung-ak.”
“Jang Neung-ak?”
‘Jang Neung-ak…? Jang Neung-ak, you say? I have heard that name somewhere… Jang Neung-ak… Jang Neung-ak… Jang…!’
In an instant Ha Chae-rin’s eyes widened.
That was only natural.
There was only one Jang Neung-ak she knew.
He was Jang Neung-ak, second disciple of the Society Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, one of the giant forces that divided the current martial world into three.
Startled, she grew bewildered and then immediately denied reality.
“Impossible! You… Jang Neung-ak? There is no way. Why would the Society Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society’s second disciple be at Yeon Mok Sword Manor…”
“Does this look like Yeon Mok Sword Manor?”
“What?”
“This is the inner castle of the Heaven and Earth Society, and this young master’s estate.”
‘!?’
At those words, Ha Chae-rin’s expression stiffened.
No. Did that make any sense at all?
Why would she, who had definitely been at Yeon Mok Sword Manor just before she opened her eyes, now be in the Heaven and Earth Society?
To the bewildered Ha Chae-rin, Go Chan puffed out his neck and said,
“Ha Chae-rin.”
She lifted her head and looked at Go Chan.
How did this man know her name?
Had he heard it from Mok Gyeong-un?
While she was puzzled, Go Chan continued,
“Nineteen years old. The only granddaughter of Flying Assassin Yeom-gaek, who retired at the age of eighty, and the successor of the Flying Assassin Sect, one of the four great assassin groups.”
‘!?’
“Because of your impatient and hot-blooded temperament, completely unsuited to an assassin, you were forcibly shut inside the Flying Assassin Cave, then after coming out you began the Hundred Days, Hundred Kills in order to become the successor… Ah, though since you failed to kill Mok Gyeong-un, your final target, it would be hard to call you a successor any longer.”
“Wh-who are you?”
Ha Chae-rin’s eyes trembled.
The human mind worked in that way.
You knew almost nothing about the other person, while that person knew far too much about you.
The unease and fear that came from that were difficult to put into words.
It felt as though everything about oneself was being laid bare.
To her, Go Chan stepped right up before her and said in a low voice,
“From earlier on, hearing you say you and you is really grating on me. For someone who is at best only the successor of an assassin group, you are awfully insolent.”
“Th-that…”
At those words from Go Chan, Ha Chae-rin did not know what to do for a moment.
If the other party truly was Jang Neung-ak, the Society Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society’s second disciple, then he was not someone she could treat carelessly.
If the Heaven and Earth Society truly put its mind to it, wiping out the Flying Assassin Sect in a single night would be no difficult matter.
Even with all her flaws of temperament, she still had that much discernment.
“Young Master. I think there is some misunderstanding. I do not know why I am here, but…”
“Enough. Kneel.”
“Pardon?”
At those words from Go Chan, Ha Chae-rin hesitated for an instant.
Even if he was the Society Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society’s second disciple, was this not going too far for a first meeting?
What had she even done to be treated like this…
-Slap!
In that instant, Ha Chae-rin’s head turned to the side.
Her cheek burned hot.
Go Chan, who had slapped her, sneered and said,
“Kneel.”
Ordinarily, one might already have submitted at this point, but she had a stubbornness and disposition so fierce that even cold-blooded assassins recoiled from it.
Ha Chae-rin bit her lip hard and said,
“Young Master. I do not know what you heard from that man called Mok Gyeong-un, but this is that man…”
-Slap!
“Ahk.”
Ha Chae-rin’s cheek turned the other way.
The force carried in that strike could not even be compared to the one before.
Because internal power had been loaded into it, blood dripped from inside her mouth, which had been split open.
The blood vessels in her eyes had burst as well.
“This is too much.”
“Insolent bitch. How dare you slander him carelessly? He is the person I serve.”
“What?”
Ha Chae-rin could not hide her confusion at those words from Go Chan.
What kind of nonsense was this, coming from the mouth of someone as important as the Society Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society’s second disciple?
The person he served?
She had guessed there was some relationship between them, but this was a great shock.
Why was the disciple of the Society Leader of the Heaven and Earth Society saying he served the child of an orthodox martial family?
She could not understand it at all.
Yet then,
-Smack!
Go Chan slapped her cheek once again.
This time the force behind it was stronger than before, and her head twisted even farther.
And the whole side of her face heated up so much that bruises formed.
“Go…”
-Smack!
Before she could even finish speaking, Go Chan slapped the opposite cheek.
Ha Chae-rin’s cheek snapped the other way.
“Haa… haa…”
-Drip. Drip.
Blood flowing from her mouth as her head shook fell to the floor.
With each strike, more internal power was loaded into it, until the pain and dizziness were unbearable.
As Go Chan raised his hand once again,
-Thud!
Before he could, Ha Chae-rin’s two knees dropped to the floor.
She had grown up being revered as the successor to an assassin group and as an absolute-peak master, but in this moment she could do nothing but be powerless.
To her, now that she had finally knelt, Go Chan tapped her forehead with his finger and said,
“Yes. This is the level between you and me.”
-Clench!
Tears glistened in both of her eyes as she bit down hard on her lip.
She had never felt such humiliation in her life.
And the reality that she could not resist even in the slightest made her feel all the more miserable.
Seeing her suffer, Go Chan sneered in delight.
‘Heh heh heh.’
This was only the beginning.
He was so excited at the thought of grinding her down until she submitted to the very bottom that he could hardly endure it.
Watching Go Chan, whose face was filled with enjoyment and madness, Wi Maeng-cheon, who was possessing Ho Jong-hyeok’s body, clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘Was this why he saved her?’
He had thought the bastard was only a pervert, but he was far more vicious than he had looked.
* * *
The estate of Wi So-yeon, the Society Leader’s youngest disciple in the Heaven and Earth Society.
The atmosphere in the meeting chamber of the main hall was somewhat heavy.
That was only natural.
They had fainted and only awoken long afterward, so they had no face with which to look upon their lord, Wi So-yeon.
Because all of her close aides had been crushed by a single man.
This was a great incident no one had foreseen.
While everyone kept their mouths shut, one man rose from his place and then knelt on the floor.
-Thud!
“Great Unit Leader Wu?”
“Brother Wu!”
At that attitude, Yang Il, the Young Master of the Misty Sea Sword House, and Gi Ok-ryeon, the eldest daughter of Nurturing Rock Valley Master Gi Hae, called to him as if trying to stop him in alarm.
Even so, Wu Ho-rang lowered his head and apologized.
“…I am sorry. All of this happened because of me.”
Once he came to his senses, Wu Ho-rang believed all of this to be his fault.
It seemed that it had all begun because he could not control his feelings of love and had challenged Mok Gyeong-un to a duel.
‘To think that bastard would come out like this.’
He had thought it would end as a problem only between the two of them.
But he had never anticipated that Mok Gyeong-un would come not to just anyone, but to the estate of Wi So-yeon, the Society Leader’s youngest disciple, and beat down every one of her close aides.
-Gnash!
‘Mok Gyeong-un…’
Just thinking of that bastard made his teeth grind.
But for the moment, he believed he had to take responsibility for what had happened because of him.
-Swoosh!
Then he held out his left hand and said,
“Since I have damaged Young Lady’s face, I will first repay it with my left hand.”
“Brother Wu, no!”
“Great Unit Leader!”
The other close aides tried to stop him.
But as if he meant to see through his resolve, Wu Ho-rang drew a dagger and tried to cut off his left wrist.
It was at that very moment.
-Clang!
Before it could even touch his wrist, Wu Ho-rang’s dagger was knocked away and embedded in the wall.
Together with that, a decorative bead fell to the floor right before him.
Wu Ho-rang lifted his head and looked toward the direction from which the bead had flown.
“Young Lady…”
The one who had thrown it was none other than Wi So-yeon.
Wi So-yeon looked at Wu Ho-rang with cold eyes and said,
“I will not permit you to take responsibility in this way.”
“But…”
“Enough!”
At that small but sharp rebuke from Wi So-yeon, Wu Ho-rang closed his mouth.
Perhaps because they felt her anger, the other close aides too quietly shut their mouths.
This was the first time even they had seen her show such fury.
Naturally, they could do nothing but watch their step.
Then Wi So-yeon opened her mouth.
“Through this matter, I realized just how poorly I have managed the hierarchy.”
“No, Young Lady, how could…”
“Shut your mouth.”
Gi Ok-ryeon closed her mouth in surprise.
Ordinarily, Wi So-yeon treated her people well before everyone in order to preserve their spirit.
And yet this was the first time they had seen her come out this firmly.
“Now that I have realized that an organization without hierarchy has no future, I will correct the structure from this point onward. Do you understand?”
“…”
“No answer, I see.”
-Whoooosh!
The moment those words fell, a chilling aura flowed out from Wi So-yeon.
It was so cold that in an instant the entire room filled with icy air, to the point that steam escaped from everyone’s mouths.
At that, Yang Il, the Young Master of the Misty Sea Sword House, dropped to one knee, brought his hands together, and shouted,
“I will remember it!”
Then the others likewise took the same posture and repeated after him.
“I will remember it!”
“Hm.”
Looking down on them, Wi So-yeon gave a small snort and withdrew her aura.
When she withdrew it, Wu Ho-rang looked at her with somewhat startled eyes.
‘To control this degree of yin qi so freely?’
What was this?
He had known she possessed vast true qi because of her special constitution.
Yet her aura had become far more stable and stronger than before.
Had she perhaps attained some enlightenment in the meantime?
Looking closely, her face too seemed more lustrous, and she appeared even more beautiful than before.
As he stood there puzzled, Wi So-yeon said,
“And in this place I will declare two things. No one may object to these decisions.”
“I will remember it!”
Everyone answered at the same time to her words.
Once she had properly drawn the line, the effect was immediate.
Just as he had said, it seemed she had failed to properly play the role of lord to her subordinates and had indulged them far too much.
Through this matter, she had firmly decided to change.
Having steeled her heart, Wi So-yeon opened her mouth.
“The first concerns Mok Gyeong-un.”
‘Ah…’
At those words from her, all of them simultaneously lit up with intensity in their eyes.
Even as it was, they all regarded Mok Gyeong-un as the root cause of everything that had happened.
Naturally, they believed she would not simply let this matter pass.
To Wi So-yeon’s faction, that bastard was now no different from an enemy.
‘I will repay him.’
Wu Ho-rang waited inwardly for her command.
If only the command fell, he was ready to challenge Mok Gyeong-un again at any time.
But then,
“From now on, treat Mok Gyeong-un as you treat me.”
‘!?’
At the unexpected command that came from Wi So-yeon’s mouth, everyone looked at her with astonished expressions.