Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 22 - Form of Attachment (1)
Chapter 22 – Form of Attachment (1)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The connected red thread.
What it signified was that their souls were linked.
Shikigami.
The Blue Spirit, having become a strange phenomenon driven by a master, was so wronged and dumbfounded by this situation that she was tearing at her own hair, screaming, and making a scene.
She even went so far as to threaten Mok Gyeong-un in her rage.
However,
-Chiiiiik!
-Kh! Damn it!
The Blue Spirit had been choking Mok Gyeong-un, then suddenly looked flustered and pulled her hand away.
He wondered why, but red handprints had appeared around the Blue Spirit’s pale white neck.
‘Could it be?’
Seeing this, Mok Gyeong-un realized one fact.
He did not know the exact reason, but it seemed that when a master was harmed, a shikigami shared it.
‘So that was it.’
He felt he now understood why black spots had appeared all over the Demon Monk’s body.
It was because the damage the Blue Spirit had suffered while attacking with blood droplets had been directed to the Demon Monk as well.
‘I see.’
He now understood why beings known as shikigami followed their master.
Because their souls were connected and they shared harm, they had no choice but to eliminate anything that threatened their master.
Looking at it this way, he could understand why the Blue Spirit was reacting like that.
How furious must that arrogant being be now that she had become a shikigami, little different from a slave?
Even if she was only a being with her soul remaining, she would naturally be angry.
But that was the end of it.
Mok Gyeong-un did not care whether the Blue Spirit felt wronged or furious.
Rather, he was satisfied that he had achieved his aim.
‘Blue Spirit class.’
In terms of rank, she was a high-grade resentful spirit of the fifth of seven stages, close to the realm of the strange and uncanny.
Unlike the Demon Monk, who was Yellow Spirit class, a Blue Spirit class resentful spirit that had existed while bearing its grudge for more than a hundred years could influence not only living beings but other things as well.
Mok Gyeong-un wanted to confirm that.
‘Before that……’
Mok Gyeong-un spoke to the Blue Spirit, who was still venting her rage.
“Now that you’ve become a shikigami, what should I call you?”
-……..
“Isn’t it just a waste of time to keep acting like that?”
-……..
‘Hmm.’
Mok Gyeong-un let out a sigh.
At the sight of her snorting and refusing even to make eye contact, he shook his head.
“Then I suppose it won’t matter if I call you whatever I want.”
-……..
“Would you even be fine with me calling you idiot?”
-How dare you!
At that, the Blue Spirit, who had not even wanted to meet his eyes, abruptly turned her head.
Mok Gyeong-un gave a faint smile and said,
“So you don’t like that, either.”
At the sight, one of the Blue Spirit’s eyebrows rose sharply.
-This damned sentient being dares toy with this venerable one?
“Then if you don’t want to be toyed with, tell me an appropriate title to call you by.”
-There is no title that should be told to an insignificant sentient being.
After saying that, the Blue Spirit again snapped her head away.
Watching her, Mok Gyeong-un clicked his tongue inwardly.
Fortunately she would not be a threat to him, but he felt controlling her might be rather difficult.
“It can’t be helped. Since you don’t want to tell me, I’ll just call you whatever I like.”
-……..
“Nothing comes to mind, so I’ll call you Blue Spirit.”
Mok Gyeong-un had simply chosen Blue Spirit, the rank that indicated the level of a resentful spirit, as her title.
At that, the Blue Spirit’s brow twitched slightly.
It seemed to irritate her somehow.
Yet because of her pride, she did not seem willing to reveal her true name or proper title.
‘I’ll have to coax it out of her slowly.’
If he could not make use of a Blue Spirit class that he had gone to the trouble of obtaining, it would be meaningless.
Without showing that outwardly, Mok Gyeong-un walked over somewhere.
It was to the book whose cover of human skin had been torn off and was lying on the cave floor.
Picking up the book, Mok Gyeong-un asked,
“You know very well what is written inside, don’t you, Blue Spirit?”
-Who are you calling Blue Spiri…… Hoo.
She had been about to get angry, but then waved her hand sharply as if she did not want to speak.
Then she reached out, picked up the smoking pipe that had fallen on the floor, and began puffing on it.
She seemed to be quite a heavy smoker.
Mok Gyeong-un smacked his lips and flipped through the book.
‘Hm?’
A strange light entered Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.
The writing inside the book seemed to have been written in blood.
‘Interesting.’
The cover was human skin, and the writing was blood.
Most people would find this book too repulsive to even think of opening it.
Of course, Mok Gyeong-un did not care about such things in the least.
But that was not the problem.
‘What is this?’
Inside the book, the characters were all jumbled together without order.
They had been arranged so haphazardly that they were difficult even to interpret.
Mok Gyeong-un frowned as he looked at the characters.
‘Why are they arranged so incoherently?’
The characters were also made up of words that were highly abstract rather than ordinary expressions.
He had seen writing like this recently.
It was none other than the Wood-Transforming Heart Cultivation Method.
It described breathing and qi circulation methods, but the sections related to the core mental formula were composed of very abstract words, almost as if one were reading poetry.
‘It’s similar. But more complicated.’
Thirty characters in total had been arranged haphazardly.
It seemed one had to combine them, but no matter how he connected them, meaningless sentences emerged.
-Snort!
At that moment, he heard a mocking sound.
Looking over, he saw the Blue Spirit puffing on her smoking pipe and shaking her head.
Judging by her reaction, she seemed to be saying that even if he died and came back to life, he still would not know what it was.
Mok Gyeong-un paid it no mind and stared intently at the characters.
“Hmm…….”
Mok Gyeong-un looked at them for a long while.
Then he opened his mouth.
“Mujeolmangnyeoseo……. ihyeongwisimyang……”
-!?
As two sentences came out, the mocking Blue Spirit’s expression froze.
From that reaction, Mok Gyeong-un was able to infer that the two sentences he had formed were correct.
However, he felt that if he showed it, he would no longer be able to confirm it from the Blue Spirit’s face, so he deliberately kept a straight expression and inferred the latter lines.
“Muojeongeogeosang…… musanghyeongwijeon……”
When he said that, the Blue Spirit was not merely frozen but now frowned.
Apparently the latter lines were correct as well.
He was connecting them by what felt the most fitting, and it was working.
With the remaining six words,
“Magaryanghaegeo…… yeokhaemugeukhyeol.”
-Ugeujeok!
It was the moment those words ended.
The instant he finished the sentence, his lower abdomen tightened, and the book in his hand was grotesquely crushed.
‘What on earth is this?’
Mok Gyeong-un could not understand.
Judging from the way the book had crumpled, the paper had bunched in the direction of the hand holding it.
It almost looked as if it were trying to adhere to his palm.
Then the Blue Spirit’s voice came to his ear.
-How did you use Attachment?
“Pardon?”
When Mok Gyeong-un asked back and looked at her, the Blue Spirit had an astonished expression, then abruptly turned her head away.
She seemed firmly intent on not speaking with him.
Looking at her, Mok Gyeong-un asked in puzzlement,
“What is Attachment? Is it related to the way the book became like this?”
-………
“When the book crumpled, I felt a slight tightness below my navel. Is that related too?”
-Ha……
At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, the Blue Spirit looked dumbfounded.
The Blue Spirit had known long ago that Mok Gyeong-un had not learned martial arts at all.
Because of that, she had been certain he would never understand this.
No, she had no choice but to think that way, because this was something that, unless one had reached a certain level or attained insight, was difficult even to accept.
Yet astonishingly, Mok Gyeong-un had combined those thirty characters and produced the first oral formula.
-………
The Blue Spirit glanced sidelong at Mok Gyeong-un.
She did not even want to speak to him because he had made her into a shikigami, but her curiosity grew.
She wanted to know whether he had really understood that properly.
After hesitating for a moment, the Blue Spirit finally spoke.
-Hey, sentient being.
“Jeong…… no, Mok Gyeong-un.”
-What?
“Call me Mok Gyeong-un.”
At that, the Blue Spirit let out a snort and said,
-Sentient being.
Even after being told his name, she clearly had no intention of calling him by it.
Since he was not the type to assign meaning to such things, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged.
Whatever she called him, as long as they could communicate, it was fine.
The Blue Spirit drew on her smoking pipe, exhaled smoke, and said,
-Sentient being. Do you remember that sensation from just now?
“That sensation?”
-Yes.
“That’s too vague to understand.”
At those words, the Blue Spirit stared at him for a moment, then shook her head.
-Well, it would make no sense for an insignificant sentient being to learn the Form of Attachment so easily…..
-Ugeujeok!
She had not even finished speaking.
The book Mok Gyeong-un was holding crumpled even further and stuck to his palm.
A strange light entered Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes as he looked at it.
‘Ah?’
As the Blue Spirit had said, he recalled that sensation and, this time, concentrated while reciting the oral formula in his mind.
Then once again the paper crumpled and stuck to his palm.
It was a most curious thing.
But when he did that, the area below his navel tightened again.
Not only that, centered on his palm, even the blood vessels in his arm also felt taut, just like the area around his navel.
Mok Gyeong-un looked at the Blue Spirit and asked,
“What is this?”
The Blue Spirit clicked her tongue and muttered, as if she could not believe what she was seeing.
-……..To see in death what I never saw in life.
“Pardon?
-……..It’s nothing.
“What do you mean, it’s nothing?”
-Never mind it, sentient being.
“Now that we’ve become a community bound by fate, wouldn’t it be better to let go a little?”
-Let go? Ha! This venerable one has become the shikigami of an insignificant sentient being like you, and you think I can just let go of……
“Hup!”
Before she even finished speaking, Mok Gyeong-un clenched his hand.
At some point, the veins on the back of his hand and around his wrist had stood out as if they were about to burst.
-Parrrrr!
-Tch!
The back of the Blue Spirit’s hand trembled.
Because their souls were linked, Mok Gyeong-un’s pain had been transmitted to her.
At this the Blue Spirit shouted,
-Hey! Sentient being. Stop breathing and empty your mind.
“Hup, hup!”
-I said stop breathing!
At her shout, Mok Gyeong-un forcibly held his breath.
And to erase the oral formulae he had been unconsciously reciting in his head, he thought of other things.
The Blue Spirit’s eyes narrowed as she watched him.
His concentration was astonishing.
What had happened just now was caused by his inability to properly control the Form of Attachment.
Normally, once someone became engrossed in the oral formula, it was hard to break free from that state without another person’s help.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un was escaping it by his own power with just a single piece of advice.
It would be a lie to say she was not surprised.
“Haa.”
Before long, steady breathing came from Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth.
At the sight, the Blue Spirit clicked her tongue.
Mok Gyeong-un asked her,
“Why did that happen just now?”
-…….Because you failed to properly control the Form of Attachment.
He had expected she would refuse to answer again, but unexpectedly the Blue Spirit answered properly.
At this, Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly and said,
“So now you’re going to explain it properly?”
-Hmph! I am only trying to stop you from doing something useless again and causing harm to this venerable one.
At the Blue Spirit’s brusque tone, Mok Gyeong-un narrowed his eyes and looked at her.
Then he soon shrugged.
Whatever the reason, it did not matter.
As long as he could satisfy his curiosity.
“What is the Form of Attachment?”
-It is exactly what it sounds like. It draws things in and makes them stick.
“Stick, like just now?”
-Yes.
“But why did my stomach hurt, and on top of that, why did my blood vessels swell?”
-Because you were only drawing it in, even though there was nothing there.
“What do you mean by that?”
The Blue Spirit looked at the puzzled Mok Gyeong-un, then pointed somewhere with her smoking pipe.
It was Jo Il-sang, hanging there dead.
After being hung upside down and having his neck cut, all his blood must have drained out, for he was deathly pale.
“Try it on that.”
“On this?”
Mok Gyeong-un walked up to dead Jo Il-sang and tapped him.
The Blue Spirit nodded.
“……….”
He did not know why she was telling him to try the Form of Attachment on dead Jo Il-sang, but Mok Gyeong-un obediently placed his palm on him.
Then the Blue Spirit urged him on.
-No, not there.
“Pardon?”
-Even though his energy has scattered because he is dead, do it around the dantian.
“By dantian, do you mean the abdomen below the navel?”
-Do I have to explain even that one by one?
“………Well, I don’t really know.”
At that, the Blue Spirit snorted and drew on her smoking pipe, then exhaled smoke.
Mok Gyeong-un lightly inhaled and placed his palm on Jo Il-sang’s dantian.
And then he recited in his mind the oral formula of the Form of Attachment.
‘Mujeolmangnyeoseo ihyeongwisimyang muojeongeogeosang musanghyeongwijeon magaryanghaegeo yeokhaemugeukhyeol.’
Along with that, he recalled the sensation,
-Pak!
and then the skin over dead Jo Il-sang’s dantian instantly stuck to Mok Gyeong-un’s palm.
It felt different from when the book had crumpled, but otherwise there seemed to be nothing unusual.
That was what he had been about to think.
At that moment, something burrowed into his palm.
It was a warm energy.
‘This is?’
He could clearly feel the energy entering through his palm and flowing along his blood vessels.
Before long, the warm something flowing through his blood vessels made even his distended lower abdomen feel warm.
The warm energy was making his mood rise.
As that happened, the Blue Spirit spoke in a triumphant voice.
-Can you feel it? That is the mystery of the Form of Attachment. It can draw anything in and make it adhere. Even qi is no exception.
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