Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 205 - Karma (1)

Chapter 205 – Karma (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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-Swaaaaaa!

In the fiercely driving rain, Seop Chun, Third Guard Captain of the Heaven and Earth Society’s main hall, clicked his tongue.

‘Now that we have come to the riverside, it feels like the rain is getting even worse.’

At this rate, even if the boat was large, he could not tell whether crossing the river would really be possible.

When they climbed up to the high hilltop, they could see the river current itself looking like a raging torrent, and it was deeply worrying.

It was then that the only manor in the village appeared before their eyes.

Compared to the grand manor houses within the Heaven and Earth Society’s inner stronghold, it was shabby beyond compare, but one could definitely tell that for something in a tiny riverside village like this, it was quite wealthy.

Mong Mu-yak looked at the manor and said,

“It seems there are quite a few people inside.”

At those words, Mok Gyeong-un nodded.

And for good reason, signs of human presence could be felt from within the closed manor, and smoke was even rising in thin wisps between the tiled roofs.

“They are probably hired hands. Let us go inside first.”

Seop Chun took the lead and walked to the main gate.

As he reached out to seize the ring handle and knock, he noticed something like a plaque attached beside the gate and said with interest in his eyes,

“My lord.”

“What is it?”

“It seems the owner of the boat is not an ordinary wealthy villager.”

“If he is not ordinary, is he extraordinary?”

“Look here.”

On the plaque Seop Chun pointed at was written:

[Fourth-Rank Meritorious Retainer Who Pacified a Crisis]

“A fourth-rank meritorious retainer who pacified a crisis?”

When Mok Gyeong-un read it aloud, Mong Mu-yak, who had come closer, frowned and said,

“It seems the owner of this manor was an official who rendered distinguished service.”

“An official?”

“Yes. Judging by the fact that he hung the plaque right beside the main gate, he may have been an official who retired to the countryside after earning merit.”

“Good grief. What kind of day is this?”

Seop Chun clicked his tongue.

At the inn as well, they had run into people who might be connected to the government or the imperial palace.

So if the owner of this manor was also a former official, it could only be called an uncanny coincidence.

Of course, unlike the reactions of those two, Mok Gyeong-un said, as if he did not care at all,

“Whether he was an official or not, is there any need to care? We only have to borrow the boat and cross the river.”

“That is… well, you are right.”

That was true.

It was merely that the situation felt oddly coincidental.

Seop Chun soon took hold of the ring handle and knocked on the gate.

-Bang! Bang!

Perhaps because the downpour was so fierce, there was no response from inside.

So Seop Chun shouted as he kept knocking.

“Is anyone inside?”

-Bang! Bang!

After he knocked several times like that, the main gate was not long in opening.

-Creeeak!

As the gate opened, a woman in her mid-twenties appeared, holding a paper rain umbrella and accompanied by two sturdy-looking men.

Seeing them, a glint appeared in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

‘Hmm.’

She did not seem to be the owner of the boat that the innkeeper had spoken of.

Still, she did seem to be related.

The innkeeper, and also the man called Old Man Beom, had both said that the owner of the boat was dying.

The face of the woman who appeared to be in her mid-twenties was quite haggard, and judging by her dark complexion and drained appearance, she might be the boat owner’s daughter.

“What brings you guests here at such a late hour?”

“Pardon us, but may we meet the owner of the manor?”

“……”

At Seop Chun’s question, the woman with the haggard face gave no answer.

Rather, after glancing once at the weapon hanging at Seop Chun’s waist, she asked,

“Forgive my forwardness, but are you merely travelers trying to cross the river? Or are you people who came after seeing the petition posted in front of Seok Samjang in the nearby county?”

At her words, Seop Chun furrowed his brow.

He had said they wanted to meet the owner of the manor, yet the question she asked in return was rather strange.

He understood asking whether they were merely travelers trying to cross the river, but he had no idea what she meant by the petition in front of Seok Samjang.

A petition was, literally, a written request for help.

Perplexed by this, Seop Chun thought it had nothing to do with them and was about to answer that it was the former.

“We are only cro…”

“We came after seeing the petition.”

At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un abruptly cut Seop Chun off and answered.

‘My lord?’

Startled, Seop Chun looked at Mok Gyeong-un.

Their only purpose was to borrow a boat and cross the river.

But if he unnecessarily said they had come after seeing a petition they knew nothing about, what if she asked what its contents were…

“Ah…”

At that moment, the haggard-faced woman let out an exclamation, and her eyes reddened.

‘Huh?’

Seop Chun could not understand her reaction.

Was she not even suspicious?

Then the woman clasped both hands and bowed her head, speaking in a tearful voice,

“Thank you. Thank you sincerely for coming, even in this way.”

‘!?’

Her reaction looked exactly like someone so desperate that she would clutch at even a straw.

Just what kind of situation made her react like this?

While he stood there puzzled, Mok Gyeong-un asked her calmly,

“We did come because of the petition, but we would like to see the master of the house first. Would that be possible?”

‘Ah!’

Only then did Seop Chun nod, finally understanding.

The woman had been very sharp when she asked whether they were merely travelers trying to cross the river.

So rather than openly stating their purpose, approaching it indirectly like this was indeed a way to confirm whether the manor owner was really in a condition to steer a boat or not.

At Mok Gyeong-un’s question, the woman raised her head, let out a heavy sigh, and said,

“I can show you my father’s condition, but for some time now he has not even been in his right mind. It seems this is all the karma from that time.”

‘Ah… so it really was true?’

At her words, Seop Chun looked at Mong Mu-yak with troubled eyes.

Mong Mu-yak likewise could not hide his difficulty.

If they could not cross the river quickly, they might fail to arrive at the gathering place by the appointed date.

While they were worrying over that, Mok Gyeong-un was interested in something else.

Mok Gyeong-un’s gaze was not on the woman but behind her, to be exact, beyond the gate.

‘It is roiling.’

From inside the manor he could feel the aura of deeply resentful spirits.

It was so cold and sinister.

Moreover, perhaps because it had gone on for quite a long time, the entire inside of the manor had been seized by that sinister aura and was sinking into a heavy stagnation like a ship going under.

[That household’s master has been possessed by a Water Ghost.]

‘So that was what it meant.’

It seemed the old innkeeper woman’s words had not been a mere rumor after all.

What was strange, however, was that he had only felt this degree of sinister aura once the gate opened.

Just like at the cliff in Corpse Blood Valley, it was as though someone had deliberately blocked it…

‘Ho. Is this it?’

Mok Gyeong-un’s gaze turned to the six talismans carefully pasted into the cracks of the gate.

The moment he saw them, he immediately understood what it was.

‘Six Talisman Four Directional Art.’

Whoever had done it, they seemed to be a fairly skilled occult practitioner.

He could feel considerable spell power from the talismans.

‘They were attached not long ago.’

After absorbing the demon power of the Sea-Slaying King and the Three Eyes, Mok Gyeong-un’s spell power had risen to a level nearly equal to Square Sun, and from the aura flowing from the talismans alone, he could vaguely infer when this talisman art had been formed.

So he said,

“It seems a skilled occult practitioner came here?”

At those words, the woman replied with wide eyes,

“How did you know that?”

“It seems the person is skilled in talisman arts. They pasted them not only into the cracks of the main gate but on the rear gate and the east and west walls as well, correct?”

“That is right! That is right! They were hidden by the bamboo rain screen so I did not notice, but are you perhaps an occult practitioner too?”

The reason she asked that was because Mok Gyeong-un was not wearing the daoist robes that occult practitioners wore.

To her question, Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly and replied,

“My skill is not much, but I learned occult arts from an eminent occult practitioner.”

‘Not much?’

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak clicked their tongues inwardly.

How could one call it unremarkable when he possessed such miraculous occult skill that he could even reattach a severed arm?

It was humility for no reason.

Of course, from the woman’s point of view, knowing none of that, she merely shook her head and said in gratitude,

“It is enough that you came all this way through a violent storm in the middle of the night. Thank you sincerely.”

“It is nothing. But are we to keep standing here?”

“Oh my, look at me. I have kept you all standing in the rain. Please, come inside at once.”

With that, the woman let Mok Gyeong-un’s group into the manor and guided them within.

As she led them inside, she introduced herself.

Her name was Wu Hyang, and she was the manor owner’s eldest daughter.

Mok Gyeong-un and his party had said they came after seeing the petition, and because of that her attitude remained friendly the whole time.

But the two stout men escorting her were not.

Throughout the walk, they kept casting sidelong looks, their eyes plainly showing that they did not like this one bit.

At that, Blue Spirit said,

-Those fellows seem thoroughly displeased.

-Yes.

-Their muscles are well developed so they look the part, but their footwork is rough. Judging by that, they seem to have learned mere martial techniques rather than martial arts.

-Yes, it does not look like they learned martial arts.

-They may have been government soldiers.

-Government soldiers?

-Yes. Even without paying attention, both of them are naturally matching their steps.

-Oh. I see.

The two stout men were walking side by side, and their advancing footsteps matched.

For it to be mere coincidence, even the way they walked was quite similar.

-Seeing that, the owner of the manor may have been a military officer.

-Ah.

Mok Gyeong-un also seemed to agree, nodding his head.

Thinking about it, the plaque hanging beside the gate, Meritorious Retainer Who Pacified a Crisis, could also mean one who rendered merit by subduing a disorder.

Combined with the fact that his escorts seemed to be former soldiers, as Blue Spirit said, the possibility was high that the manor owner was a retired military officer.

At that moment, Seop Chun edged closer and whispered to Mok Gyeong-un,

“My lord, forgive me, but are you planning to help the owner of the manor?”

“We need to ride the boat.”

If the man had been in good condition, they could have simply threatened him into rowing the boat, but the situation was the opposite.

“That is true, but…”

“Let us see first whether it is because something sinister is clinging to him or not.”

“What?”

At those words, Seop Chun looked puzzled.

He had thought Mok Gyeong-un might be planning to help the dying manor owner with some miraculous occult art, as he had when reattaching Mong Mu-yak’s severed arm, but suddenly saying he would check whether something sinister was attached made no sense to him.

So he cautiously asked,

“What exactly do you mean by that sinister thing?”

“Something like resentful spirits or demons and monsters, perhaps.”

“……”

That only made him more confused.

Were not resentful spirits and demons-and-monsters the sort of thing that belonged to rumors and uncanny tales?

He could not understand at all why his lord was saying such things, when Wu Hyang, the manor owner’s daughter who was leading the way, said,

“The benefactors who came earlier after seeing the petition are guarding the main hall where Father is.”

“The main hall?”

“Yes, the occult practitioner Yi Mun-hae said tonight would be the critical moment…”

At her words, Mok Gyeong-un nodded.

That was only natural, because the closer they drew to the main hall, the more violently the sinister aura churned and intensified.

An aura of this degree could never be of a low rank.

“Ah! One of them is over there.”

Wu Hyang pointed toward the front of the main hall building visible beyond the pavilion.

At that sight, a glint appeared in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

‘Hm?’

Leaning with his back against the wall beneath the eaves of the main hall, there was a man drinking from a bottle gourd.

This man was not especially tall, but his muscles were so massively developed that he looked nearly twice the size of an ordinary person.

Even more striking than that, however, were his hair, cut short almost to baldness, and the rosary hanging around his neck made of cracked beads.

‘A monk?’

His clothes and bearing did indeed look like those of a monk.

In one sense, he even gave off something of the same feeling as the Demon Monk.

At that moment, Seop Chun spoke.

“Good grief. What is that man doing in a place like this?”

“Is he someone you know?”

Instead of Seop Chun, Mong Mu-yak cut in and answered,

“That is Ja Geum-jeong, the Demon-Subduing Fist Warrior.”

“The Demon-Subduing Fist Warrior?”

It was a peculiar epithet.

Subduing demons literally meant suppressing demons.

There was indeed a group that used such a designation, namely Shaolin Temple, called the birthplace and center of the righteous-path murim.

Within Shaolin Temple were monks given various precepts and titles, and ordinarily the designation subduing demons was used for warrior monks who cultivated both the Buddhist path and the martial path.

Yet unlike such warrior monks who trained the Buddhist path and might use the term subduing demons, the aura coming from that man instead reeked of rough, coarse bloodshed.

Mok Gyeong-un’s doubt was quickly resolved.

“That man is a Shaolin vow-breaking monk.”

“A vow-breaking monk?”

“Yes.”

A vow-breaking monk.

Literally, a monk expelled for violating the precepts.

At those words, Mok Gyeong-un nodded as if he understood.

“Ah. Then it must have been because of the commandment against killing.”

The commandment against killing.

A monk who cultivated the Buddhist path must not kill living things.

Even the monks of Shaolin Temple, called the center of martial learning, were no exception.

At that, Mong Mu-yak shook his head and replied,

“No. He was cast out because he was too fond of drink.”

‘!?’