Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 208 - Karma (4)
Chapter 208 – Karma (4)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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-Flinch!
‘He is… smiling?’
The being occupying the body of the occult practitioner Yi Mun-hae could not hide its bewilderment for a moment.
This was not the kind of expression someone trying to save the owner of that body from it should be showing.
Rather, it was filled entirely with malice.
‘What in the world is this bastard?’
-Smack!
“Agh!”
Every time it was slapped, it writhed in burning pain.
It did not know what method he was using, but perhaps because of the strange aura felt from the man’s hand, pain was being inflicted on both the fleshly body and the spirit body at the same time.
Because of that, screams burst out from it against its true intention.
-Smack!
Yi Mun-hae’s cheek snapped back the other way.
The pain burning even through the spirit body was enough to make it feel like it was losing its senses.
‘I-is this bastard planning to keep doing this?’
It was then.
As Mok Gyeong-un moved to strike the occult practitioner Yi Mun-hae’s cheek again, the vow-breaking monk Ja Geum-jeong shouted,
“Stop!”
At that cry, Mok Gyeong-un slowly turned his head.
Then Ja Geum-jeong scowled fiercely and demanded,
“You gigolo-faced bastard, just what are you doing right now?”
“What do you mean, what am I doing?”
“You talked as if you could solve this, and now what in the world do you think this is?”
Ja Geum-jeong was furious.
That was only natural, because the occult practitioner Yi Mun-hae was no different from a benefactor to him and his only friend.
That was why he had quietly watched, thinking that if it was Mok Gyeong-un’s level of occult skill, he might well be able to save him.
But this was not saving him. It was much closer to one-sided torment.
He judged that if he left things alone, Yi Mun-hae might die at that bastard’s hands, and so he stepped in.
“If you do not take your hands off him at once…”
“If you want him, then take him.”
“What?”
-Pak! Whiik!
Just as he was about to slap him again, Mok Gyeong-un seized Yi Mun-hae by the collar and threw him straight toward Ja Geum-jeong, the vow-breaking monk.
At the sudden action, Ja Geum-jeong hurriedly caught the flying Yi Mun-hae.
After setting him upright with gentle force, Ja Geum-jeong asked,
“Hey. Mun-hae. Are you all right?”
“Bald monk bastard. That body of yours looks rather usable.”
“What?”
-Grip!
At that instant, Yi Mun-hae, no, the possessing being, grabbed both of Ja Geum-jeong’s arms.
The moment Mok Gyeong-un removed his hand from the shoulder, the being felt its spirit body become free again, and without letting that opening go, it tried to move over into Ja Geum-jeong’s flesh.
However,
-Whirl!
The moment it tried to pass through the point of contact, Ja Geum-jeong reversed the arm of the being possessing Yi Mun-hae with a grappling technique.
Then he smashed his forehead into its face.
-Thud!
“Ugek!”
When hit by the headbutt, the being occupying Yi Mun-hae’s body fell backward at once.
Even if it could not feel pain, the physical body itself could not endure the strike infused with martial power, which was why that happened.
“Damn it! Help him!”
After staring at the fallen Yi Mun-hae, Ja Geum-jeong shouted at Mok Gyeong-un.
Then Mok Gyeong-un replied mockingly,
“I thought you said you did not need help.”
“Help him.”
“I am not so sure.”
“You bastard!”
-Crack! Crack!
At that moment, the being possessing the body that had fallen on the ground rose up with an even more hideously transformed face and rushed at Ja Geum-jeong.
“Kieeeeeek!”
-Grip!
“Keh!”
But Ja Geum-jeong seized its throat with one hand.
The thing inhabiting Yi Mun-hae’s body tried to wrench that hand away or twist it off.
-Pak pak!
But Ja Geum-jeong did not budge in the slightest.
With his body nearly twice the size of an ordinary man and thick muscles, Ja Geum-jeong’s wrist was like an old tree trunk.
Even using the fleshly body to generate strength two or three times that of a grown man, it could not twist the wrist away, and all it could do was dangle there and struggle.
“Stay still, you little shit.”
-Creak!
Ja Geum-jeong put even more strength into his hand and shook the thing violently.
“Kekek!”
From the possessing being’s perspective, it was maddening.
It was not painful, but what in the world was this monstrous bastard?
Were these people really human?
As it was flustered, Ja Geum-jeong looked at Mok Gyeong-un and said,
“Hey! Please save him.”
“I do not feel especially inclined.”
“You bastard! Are you really going to be like this?”
“The one who rejected it first was you.”
“You accursed bastard!”
Ja Geum-jeong cursed roughly as if dumbfounded, then lifted the bottle gourd hanging at his waist and gulped from it.
Naturally, there was strong liquor inside the bottle gourd.
Though his condition had improved compared to the past, he was still a man who could not live without drink.
-Gulp gulp!
After draining the liquor in a single go, Ja Geum-jeong, his face flushed, said to Mok Gyeong-un,
“I truly do not like it, but if you save this man, then if there is anything this bald monk can do, I will do it all.”
At those words, Seop Chun looked at him in puzzlement.
Ja Geum-jeong was famous, just as his epithet as one of the Three Mad Ones suggested, for committing every kind of mad act.
Yet he was acting like this just to save one acquaintance?
Seeing this side of him, so different from the rumors, was genuinely unexpected.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un opened his mouth.
“Can you keep that promise that you will do anything you can?”
“No matter how much I have lived as I pleased, not once have I ever broken a word I spoke.”
“Hmm.”
“Damn it all! So long as it is not some absurd request like asking me to die, there will never be a reason for me to break it.”
“I see. Then I find that appealing.”
“Appealing?”
-Swoosh!
Mok Gyeong-un stretched out his hand toward Yi Mun-hae, whom Ja Geum-jeong was holding by the throat.
At once, a powerful pulling force could be felt.
This was one of the techniques of the Eight Forms of Heart-Breaking, the Form of Attachment.
Of course, to Ja Geum-jeong, who did not know that, it looked like grasping objects through the void.
‘He really is a monstrous bastard. How can a youth not yet even twenty possess internal power this deep?’
Clicking his tongue inwardly, Ja Geum-jeong released Yi Mun-hae’s throat.
-Paaaaak!
In the same instant, the body flew over and was once again seized by Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.
‘T-this bastard is far too dangerous.’
The being occupying Yi Mun-hae’s body, now genuinely frightened, spoke in a pleading tone.
“Listen, human. I will leave this occult practitioner’s body. So let us stop here.”
“By whose permission?”
“Are you not trying to save this man?”
It had clearly heard that damned bald monk and this monstrous fellow discussing it together.
That meant saving this body somehow was their purpose, so why was this fellow taking such a hard line?
While it was bewildered, Mok Gyeong-un said,
“Your grade is low.”
“What?”
“At best you are only at the level of a Crimson Spirit. Since you came into an occult practitioner’s body, someone else must have helped you.”
‘!?’
At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, accurately gauging its grade, the being was greatly startled.
Whether or not it was startled, Mok Gyeong-un went on speaking.
“Each one of you is nothing special, but for someone to move this many stray spirits, as well as low-grade resentful spirits like you, the power behind it does not seem to be any ordinary uncanny thing.”
“…….You are no ordinary human.”
The resentful spirit inside Yi Mun-hae clicked its tongue and said.
Mok Gyeong-un only laughed faintly.
“There is no need to dwell on that. I am rather busy.”
“Then leave. Why are you trying to help these people? This is something these people brought upon themselves.”
‘Brought upon themselves?’
At the spirit’s words, Mok Gyeong-un was puzzled.
He had thought there had to be a reason, but had they really done something that provoked the resentful spirits?
Come to think of it, the old innkeeper woman had said something like that too.
[The owner of that boat over there… that household elder is dying because he did evil and received heaven’s punishment.]
Heaven’s punishment.
Ordinarily, people did not use such words unless there was some cause behind them.
It was no different from saying one was paying the price for a bad cause one had created.
“What exactly did they bring upon themselves?”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s direct question, the resentful spirit in Yi Mun-hae’s body turned its pale white eyes toward Wu Hyang, the manor owner’s daughter, who was trembling in fear.
“That girl knows very well.”
“She knows very well?”
“Yes. This is the punishment and the karma these people deserve.”
“Hmm.”
Mok Gyeong-un looked at Wu Hyang.
Her face was white as a sheet, and she was trembling in fear.
What in the world had they done that so many resentful spirits and stray spirits were gathering here?
As he wondered, the spirit said loudly,
“Leave, travelers. We bear no grudge against you.”
“You get out of his body first, you bastard!”
In an angry voice, Ja Geum-jeong let out a roar like the Lion’s Roar.
It rang so thunderously that it seemed to shake the surroundings even through the pounding rain.
The spirit clicked its tongue and said,
“I understand now that you are no ordinary humans. But when that One comes soon, even you will not preserve your lives.”
“That One?”
“Yes. So leave. Then you may live.”
-Rumble crash!
At that moment, thunder rolled in the sky.
And with it, blue lightning flashed as well.
It felt as though heaven itself were raging in anger.
The spirit showed its yellowed teeth and spoke in a voice full of madness,
“Heh heh heh. That One is enraged. When that One comes, that wrath will spread even to you. At any moment…”
-Smack!
“Agh!”
Before it could finish, the spirit’s head snapped to the side.
The spirit jerked its head back around and shouted at Mok Gyeong-un,
“When I was magnanimous enough to spare people like you who had no relation to this…”
“Let me put it the other way.”
“What?”
“I happen to need the owner of this manor. So if you leave quietly along with this so-called One, I will spare you exorcism at least.”
“You truly…”
“Whatever happened was your situation. I will count to five.”
“Five?”
“If you do not get out before five, I will indiscriminately exorcise every resentful spirit in this area the moment I see them. A word of warning, just in case. Using the manor owner’s life or the villagers as hostages means nothing to me.”
“What?”
“If anything gets in my way, I will kill everything in this area, the living and the dead alike.”
‘!!!!!!!’
At those words from Mok Gyeong-un, the white eyes of the spirit trembled.
What kind of bastard was this?
It had planned, if necessary, to possess not just the people of the manor but everyone else as well and place curses upon them.
But this bastard was threatening it in return.
Kill all of the living and the dead?
‘Bluster?… No.’
This bastard absolutely was not bluffing.
He seemed filled entirely with malice, and feelings this extremely one-sided were hard to find even among resentful spirits.
Because of that, he scarcely felt human.
“…….Are you truly in your right mind?”
“I am not very interested in things that are not mine.”
“Ha?”
It was then.
“There is no time, so let us begin. Five.”
“What?”
“Four.”
No, was he really planning to do it?
It was utterly bewildering.
Right before the spirit, Mok Gyeong-un counted down with an expressionless face.
“Three.”
-Kwarurururur boom!
At that moment, the thunder grew even more violent.
At that, the spirit possessing Yi Mun-hae clicked its tongue and said,
“This is your doing. If you had simply left, it would have ended with their karma, but you just had to…”
“Two.”
“…….”
“Ha…”
No sooner had that word ended than
-Flash! Kwang!
lightning fell from the sky and struck the main hall building exactly.
With blue flames, the hall burst into fire in an instant, despite the driving rain, and was engulfed by blazing flames.
-Swaaaaaa! Fwoooosh!
The scene was so strange that everyone was left unable to hide their shock.
How could the building be burning like this when the rain was coming down so heavily?
Then a figure was seen within the burning main hall.
At the sight, someone shouted,
“Father!”
The one who shouted was none other than Wu Hyang, the manor owner’s daughter.
‘Father?’
Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak frowned and looked at the person who had emerged from the burning building.
It was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his late fifties.
Unlike his haggard face, gaunt enough to seem wasted away, black veins were bulging all over his skin, and his pupils were dyed blue.
‘Is that man also possessed by something?’
No matter how they looked at him, that was what he seemed to be.
Yet the atmosphere coming from him was clearly different from that of the occult practitioner Yi Mun-hae.
It was sinister enough to overwhelm everyone present.
It was then.
In a voice full of madness, the spirit possessing the occult practitioner Yi Mun-hae cried out,
“Travelers who have lost your fear. All this is your doing. That One’s wrath has reached even the heavens, and tonight every living thing shall…”
“You talked it up so much that I thought it would be impressive, but in the end it is only this much.”
‘!?’
At that moment, the spirit glared at Mok Gyeong-un in utter disbelief.
After seeing a resentful spirit of a grade great enough to stain this village with blood, all he could say was only this much?
It had reached the grade of a Blue Spirit.
To call a resentful spirit whose grudge had passed a hundred years, one that could rival demons and monsters, merely this much, had he truly lost all sense of fear?
It seemed not only the spirit but the Blue Spirit-grade resentful spirit lodged within the manor owner was angered by Mok Gyeong-un’s words.
-Swoosh!
The Blue Spirit-grade resentful spirit inhabiting the manor owner’s body pointed a finger at Mok Gyeong-un.
-Foolish human. Die.
At once, the rain falling all around became sharp spikes and shot toward Mok Gyeong-un, as if to pierce his whole body.
But at that exact moment,
the spike-like raindrops halted as though blocked by something.
Then they fell to the ground again as ordinary rainwater.
-Chwaaaak!
Seeing that, the Blue Spirit-grade resentful spirit inside the manor owner raised one eyebrow.
That had not been done by the living one.
A high spiritual power had blocked its force.
What in the world was going on…
-Shwaaaaaaaa!
It was then.
Suddenly, the color of the pounding rain changed.
The rainwater, which had been normal, turned blood-red and stained everything around with blood.
“Hiiik! W-what in the world is this?”
“Bl… blood?”
Everyone in the main hall courtyard was horrified at this gruesome situation.
‘!?’
At that, the spirit possessing Yi Mun-hae looked toward the higher-grade spirit inside the manor owner.
In response to that look, the higher-grade spirit narrowed its eyes and shook its head.
This was not something it had done.
Then it happened.
-Srrr…
From the blood pooling on the ground, a majestic woman wearing a ceremonial crown and holding a pipe between her lips slowly rose up.
‘!!!!!!!!!’
Even among resentful spirits, there existed such a thing as rank.
And the older such beings were, the more clearly they could perceive one another’s rank.
-An… Indigo Spirit.
It was a rank that could not even be approached.
The Blue Spirit-grade resentful spirit inside the manor owner recoiled a step without realizing it.