Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 21 - Possessed by Evil (4)
Chapter 21 – Possessed by Evil (4)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The human skin that formed the surface of the book’s cover.
No one would ever have thought to tear it off and stuff it into their mouth.
To begin with, who in their right mind would put that into their mouth when it had been made from human skin and was steeped in ghostly aura just from looking at it?
It was sheer madness.
-Munch munch!
‘It’s tough.’
Mok Gyeong-un chewed wildly with the human skin in his mouth.
Strangely, no matter how much he bit down, the human skin was so tough that his teeth were neither damaged nor did it tear.
However, it did not seem as if this had no effect at all.
-Haaak!
The Blue Spirit’s existence twisted her fine brows and clutched her chest.
She seemed to be in pain.
At this, Mok Gyeong-un chewed the human skin even harder.
-Damn sentient being!
-Paaaaaaah!
At that moment, the Blue Spirit’s eyes turned blood-red.
At the same time, when the Blue Spirit swung her long smoking pipe, the dead Jo Il-sang’s blood that had flowed across the floor rose into the air and began to spin.
‘This is?’
It absolutely was not a hallucination.
The sight of the droplets of blood floating in the air and spinning was imposing beyond words.
At this, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes trembled as he fixed his gaze on the droplets of blood.
They were spinning so fast that it was hard to make them out with the naked eye, but he was somehow following them.
-This brat…..
Even the Blue Spirit’s existence noticed that Mok Gyeong-un was staring precisely at the droplets of blood.
He was a human who had not learned occult arts or martial arts of any kind, yet it was astonishing.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say that his body and reflexes completely surpassed those of an ordinary human.
-Even so, you are only a sentient being.
The Blue Spirit pointed her smoking pipe at Mok Gyeong-un.
At that instant, the droplets of blood that had been spinning rapidly inside the cave all rushed toward Mok Gyeong-un at once.
-Chwachwachwachwachwa!
-Chwareureureuk!
It was at that very moment.
As he stared at the droplets, the instant the Blue Spirit swung her smoking pipe, Mok Gyeong-un slid along the floor and hurled his body toward the Blue Spirit.
-Foolish.
He was just a single step away from reaching the Blue Spirit.
From the front of Mok Gyeong-un’s upper body, a rain of blood fell and burrowed into his flesh.
-Papapapapapapapapak!
Mok Gyeong-un frowned.
Ordinary pain did not stir much reaction in him.
But the blood that burrowed into his flesh was tearing through his skin wildly like sharp hidden weapons.
As if enjoying Mok Gyeong-un’s pain, the Blue Spirit curled up the corner of her mouth.
-Does it hurt? Then spit it out.
-Clench!
The Blue Spirit made a grasping motion toward Mok Gyeong-un.
Then the droplets of blood that had burrowed into his skin dug even deeper into his body and stimulated his nerves.
“Nngh.”
For the first time, a groan escaped him.
At the sight, the Blue Spirit clicked her tongue.
Normally, pain to this degree should have made him writhe all over and beg to be spared.
Yet that was all.
-Are you used to pain? Or is your patience simply foolishly strong? Sseup.
The Blue Spirit put the smoking pipe to her lips and drew on it.
Then she exhaled a hazy cloud of smoke and, as if about to finish things, extended the pipe.
-Foolish sentient being. Just die.
Then Mok Gyeong-un, writhing in pain, muttered.
“Aseung.”
-What are you babbling about?
“Aseuuuuung!”
Because he still had the human skin in his mouth, his pronunciation slurred, but what Mok Gyeong-un shouted was none other than,
-Seureureureuk!
the Demon Monk.
The Demon Monk appeared, passing through the ceiling.
But something about his condition was not good.
He had always looked hazy for a resentful spirit, but now black spots like specks had appeared all over his body.
Upon seeing that, the Blue Spirit let out a snort and said,
-So it was you?
At those words, the Demon Monk dropped to one knee, bowed his head, and paid respect to the Blue Spirit.
‘Why?’
Watching that, Mok Gyeong-un could not understand.
Was it because she was a strange phenomenon of a higher rank? But that was merely a rule made from the perspective of occult practitioners, just as the author of the Foundation of the Yin-Yang School from the Overview of the Hundred Schools had said.
It was not absolutely exact.
-So you do have spiritual talent. I can see that you are linked to a resentful spirit. But unfortunately for you, this bald monk brat is practically nothing more than my hands and feet.
‘Hands and feet?’
Was she someone he had known in life regardless of rank?
If that was the case, then this was bad.
The Demon Monk was a shikigami to Mok Gyeong-un, but if he could not control it, then it was worthless.
Then he would have to break through this situation by his own strength.
-Clench!
Mok Gyeong-un once again ground the human skin in his mouth with his teeth.
-Hngh! You!
At once the Blue Spirit clutched her chest again, then glared at him with murderous eyes as if fury had filled her and swung her smoking pipe.
-Papapapapapapapapak!
As she swung the pipe, the droplets of blood that had burrowed into his body now came back out.
It looked as if she were going easy on him, but that was not it.
-Chwareureureureu!
The droplets of blood that came out of his body gathered together and became a single sharp spike.
When the Blue Spirit made a motion as if flicking her smoking pipe downward,
‘Damn it!’
-Paaaaak!
The sharp spike aimed for Mok Gyeong-un’s heart.
Mok Gyeong-un rolled his body to the side and dodged it.
-Hmph!
The Blue Spirit snorted as if to say he could not escape, then swung her smoking pipe again.
Then the spike of blood embedded in the floor changed direction toward Mok Gyeong-un.
-Paaaaang!
It was moving so fast that he could not dodge it.
But then,
-Pak!
‘Huh?’
He thought it was about to pierce straight through his heart, but something appeared and shoved Mok Gyeong-un away.
It was the Demon Monk.
-That bald monk dares!
-………
The Demon Monk waved his hands helplessly, at a loss for what to do.
Mok Gyeong-un likewise found this situation strange.
Just a moment ago, the Demon Monk had been kneeling with his head lowered, yet now he had suddenly helped him evade the Blue Spirit’s attack.
‘Why?’
As he was thinking that, the Blue Spirit clicked her tongue and said,
-Hah. So you mean to fulfill your duty as a shikigami?
-………
The Demon Monk could not hide his troubled expression.
Mok Gyeong-un could not help but scoff inwardly as he looked at him aiding him yet still watching her mood.
He did not know for what reason, but regardless of his will, the Demon Monk was helping him.
That was extremely important in the present situation.
“Maga!”
-Seureureu!
At Mok Gyeong-un’s shout, the Demon Monk naturally moved to block the way in front of the Blue Spirit.
Clearly, the Demon Monk could not refuse Mok Gyeong-un’s command.
If so, then although the Blue Spirit was of a higher rank, it might be possible to make him fight her…..
-Pak!
He had been thinking that, when in an instant the Blue Spirit closed the distance and seized the Demon Monk by the throat.
-Then I will kill both of you.
-………
The Demon Monk, caught by the throat, could not move an inch.
Even though the Demon Monk had a larger build, the fact that he could not struggle at all seemed to show the difference in rank.
Not all resentful spirits were the same.
-Gnash gnash!
Mok Gyeong-un chewed violently on the human skin to free the Demon Monk.
Then,
-Hngh! So you are desperate to die.
As if enraged, the Blue Spirit brandished her smoking pipe with a distorted face.
Then once again the scattered droplets of blood rose into the air.
-Whik whik whik!
The droplets of blood transformed into sharp spikes and spun rapidly around Mok Gyeong-un.
This time she truly seemed intent on finishing him off.
In that split second, Mok Gyeong-un’s thoughts moved in a direction even the Blue Spirit did not expect.
-Gulp!
Mok Gyeong-un swallowed the human skin he had been chewing in his mouth.
-!?
The blood-red light in the Blue Spirit’s eyes shook at the sight.
No one had ever put that thing in their mouth and chewed it to begin with, but he was the first to swallow it as well.
-You insane sentient being!
The Blue Spirit swung her smoking pipe toward Mok Gyeong-un.
Then the countless droplets of blood that had been surrounding him and spinning rapidly all rushed toward Mok Gyeong-un at once.
-Papapapapapapapapak!
‘Kh!’
As the sharpened droplets of blood burrowed into him, Mok Gyeong-un’s body twisted.
It felt as if the droplets of blood, once inside his body, were stiffening not just his nerves but even his muscles and making him move against his will.
-I will tear your body to shreds and pull it ou…..
The Blue Spirit could not finish the rest of her sentence.
No, the hand holding her smoking pipe trembled, and then her face twisted in pain.
-Wh, what on earth……
The Blue Spirit glared at Mok Gyeong-un as if she could not understand what was happening.
It had already hurt when he merely chewed the human skin wildly, but this was incomparable.
Her entire body made of soul ached as though it were splitting apart with cracks.
‘She is in pain.’
Mok Gyeong-un also did not know the exact reason.
However, there was one thing he did know: after forcibly swallowing the human skin, his stomach had become strangely hot.
‘My insides……’
That heat even made him feel as if his internal organs were burning away.
It had been a long time since he had felt pain like this, not since he had first put poison in his mouth in the past, and Mok Gyeong-un’s lips curled in a savage smile.
Pain rising from within was something he was used to from the start.
But right at that moment,
-Grab!
The Blue Spirit, writhing in agony, suddenly appeared before him and seized Mok Gyeong-un by the throat.
-How dare a mere insignificant sentient being!
-Jureureuk!
A strange light appeared in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.
Blood tears were flowing from both eyes of the enraged Blue Spirit.
That sight was chilling, yet her resentment looked deep enough that the term resentful spirit did not seem misplaced at all.
-How dare something like you!
The Blue Spirit began choking him with both hands.
As his breath was cut off, Mok Gyeong-un reflexively grabbed the Blue Spirit’s wrists to tear them away.
-Clench!
It was at that very moment.
A bizarre scene appeared in Mok Gyeong-un’s mind.
An entire great battle was drenched in blood, and countless people were being killed cruelly.
At the center of it all was someone standing there soaked in blood, gasping, with a sword planted in the ground.
That someone was the Blue Spirit.
[Haa…… haa…..]
The Blue Spirit was in tatters.
It would not have been strange if she had died at any moment.
That Blue Spirit turned her head and looked toward the jade throne in the great hall.
There sat someone arrogantly.
The Blue Spirit looked at that existence, whose face was hidden in shadow, with eyes full of hatred.
[……….]
The Blue Spirit coughed up blood and shouted at the being seated upon the throne.
Strangely, however, her voice could not be heard.
Then the Blue Spirit, furious enough to spit blood, gripped her sword hilt tightly.
She tore her clothes, wrapped them around her wrist in quick loops to secure it, and tried to launch her body at the one seated on the throne.
-Pak!
[!!!!!!!]
But in the blink of an eye, the one on the throne had already thrust a hand into the Blue Spirit’s chest.
Then, before long, that being pulled something out from within the Blue Spirit’s chest.
It was,
‘A heart?’
a heart that was still pounding.
How many times could one ever see one’s own heart while still alive?
And beyond that, how would it feel to witness one’s own heart being crushed by someone else?
-Kwajik!
At the same time,
-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
a scream sharp enough to rip apart his eardrums tore through them.
Then the vision he had just seen vanished, and he saw the Blue Spirit with her crown fallen off, her hair hanging loose, staring in shock.
‘She……was a woman?’
When she had worn the crown and radiated a sharp, overpowering presence, he could not tell, but looking at her now, she clearly appeared to be a woman.
But why was the Blue Spirit reacting like this?
As he wondered, Mok Gyeong-un realized that something like a red thread coming from his own body was connected to her.
‘This is?’
And that was not all.
That thread was also connected to the Demon Monk.
‘Could it be?’
He felt as if he could roughly guess what this was, while the Blue Spirit tore at her hair and screamed.
-Aaaaaaagh! I, this venerable one, am a shikigami?!
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