Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 255 - Mark (1)

Chapter 255 – Mark (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Hmph. Until next time, Heavenly Demon.”

-Thud!

After the door shut, Mok Gyeong-un frowned.

At that, Blue Spirit asked with a puzzled expression,

-Heavenly Demon? Why is the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox calling you that?

“…Who knows.”

He did remember that the reason she was calling him Ma was because the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox had said he was the very existence of demon itself.

But as for why she had added the character for heaven in front of it…

[How is it? Ma is a good title, is it not? If just Ma is too plain, should I add something in front? Something like fell from the hea…]

At that moment, the words she had spoken suddenly came back to Mok Gyeong-un.

She had rambled about something falling from the heavens before he cut her off.

Just what had that meant?

-Throb!

At that instant, a fierce pain struck the crown of his head at the Baihui acupoint.

Mok Gyeong-un clutched his head with his hand.

If it had only been a mild headache, he could have ignored it, but this was an intense pain that turned his vision white and made it difficult even to remain standing.

-sentient being!

When Mok Gyeong-un staggered, Blue Spirit hurriedly approached to support him.

But in her still-faded spirit form, she could not grab him by her own will.

-Srrr.

Mok Gyeong-un slipped through her hand and dropped to one knee.

-sentient being. Are you all right, sentient being?

At her worried voice, Mok Gyeong-un raised a hand and said,

“I am fin…”

-Throb!

Before he could finish, the pain pulsed again with violent force.

In that instant, a sight he had never once seen before abruptly rose in his mind.

It was

-Shuuuuuuuu!

the sight of himself falling toward the ground from a terribly high sky.

It was so high that even the mountains, no, entire mountain ranges on the ground looked tiny.

What in the world was this?

Why was a scene he had never experienced rising before him like an old memory?

And that was not all.

-Throb!

The scene vanished, only for another one to appear immediately.

This time it was the image of his dead grandfather staring at him with a look of utter shock, as though seized by awe, and then prostrating himself.

‘Why?’

It was the face of a grandfather he had never seen before.

Why was he bowing down toward him with such an expression?

As he wondered that,

-sentient being!

Blue Spirit’s voice rang beside his ear, and the scenes from memory that had seemed to unfold vividly before his eyes were suddenly cut off.

At the same time, the headache that had felt as though it would split his skull ceased.

“Ah…”

-sentient being? What is wrong? Did you injure your head?

Still dazed, Mok Gyeong-un lifted his head and looked at Blue Spirit.

The face with which she looked at him in concern was very different now from when they had first met.

Back then, it had felt as though she merely worried because if he died she too would be destroyed.

Now, it felt as though she were sincerely concerned for his well-being.

‘A different expression…’

People could not remain the same toward another person forever.

Even the look on his grandfather’s face in that memory showed that.

Then what exactly had that vision been just now?

Why had a scene he had never experienced… no, was it truly a memory he had never experienced?

‘This is strange.’

Come to think of it, there had been a point in his memory that seemed as though it had been carved away.

If so, then could what he had just seen be part of that missing memory?

As he was sinking into questions, Blue Spirit’s voice came again.

-sentient being. It seems to be because of the demonic power you absorbed. Sit and circulate your energy immediately.

“Circulate my energy?”

-Yes. No matter who you are, unassimilated demonic power is no different from poison. So it would be better to assimilate the demonic power first.

At Blue Spirit’s words, a strange light entered Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

She too was in danger right now.

Her spiritual power was still scattering, and if things continued like this she might be destroyed, yet she was worrying about him first.

That gave him a peculiar feeling.

So then,

“Before that, I will give you some demonic power first.”

-There is no need. Your condition, sentient being, is worse…

“No. Passing on demonic power will not take that long.”

-Slide.

As he spoke, Mok Gyeong-un placed his palm near the head of Blue Spirit’s spirit body.

Then he sent part of the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox’s demonic power remaining in his body into her.

The instant that demonic power entered through the head of her spirit body, Blue Spirit’s pupils trembled violently.

-Ah!

When she had received the Sea-Slaying King’s demonic power before, she had already been astonished by its high purity.

But this was beyond even that comparison.

The moment it entered, her eyes flew open, and it almost felt as though she were awakening fully.

This vast and highly purified demonic power seized her spirit body, which had been on the verge of scattering, and deepened its transparency once more.

-I told you… to do yourself… first…

“Assimilating demonic power will take quite some time anyway. So let us both assimilate it.”

-………

“And once that is done, I think we will be very busy.”

If what the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox had said was true, then among the Embroidered Uniform Guard there was someone bearing the mark, the scar left on his dead grandfather.

That person would surely possess some clue as well, so he had to be found.

* * *

The following night, when everyone had fallen asleep and the darkness lay deep.

Inside one of the offices of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Someone with their face covered slipped secretly into the dark room.

It was none other than Mong Mu-yak.

‘Just as the information said.’

Through spies hidden in the imperial palace, he had learned that around this hour the Office of Penal Service would be empty.

So he had watched for an opportunity and sneaked in at night.

At a glance it was a perfectly ordinary office, with display shelves, bookcases, desks, and the like.

However,

‘From the outside, the office should be a little larger than this. That means there is naturally a hidden space.’

-Tap. Tap.

Mong Mu-yak felt about along the bookcase fixed to the wall.

The moment he pulled out one particular book,

-Rrrrk.

the bookcase slid aside slightly.

‘Found it.’

Gripping the opened gap, Mong Mu-yak shoved the bookcase aside and it moved like a door.

At once the hidden space inside revealed itself.

Because the sealed dark room was unlit, Mong Mu-yak picked up a lamp from the desk, entered, and lit the candle.

‘Ah!’

The light of the lamp revealed the interior.

There were hidden ledgers, numerous books, and a locked safe.

After sweeping his eyes over it all, Mong Mu-yak approached the shelves.

He did not have much time. He needed to hurry before the night shift changed.

‘Let us see.’

Mong Mu-yak pulled out the untitled books one by one and examined their contents.

‘This is a secret ledger.’

They said there were quite a few rotten wounds even within the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but he had not expected them to have made such an obvious secret ledger.

Some might think they should never have kept something like this in the first place, but

‘The more corrupt someone is, the more meticulous they become.’

One needed ledgers to prepare for the future.

The more clumsy the person, the more casually they handled things, but those who prepared for contingencies kept their accounting and books in careful order.

After closely examining the secret ledger, Mong Mu-yak clicked his tongue and tucked it into his clothing.

‘It may prove useful if something goes wrong.’

Among the books on the shelves, there was nothing he was looking for.

That meant it had to be the safe after all.

Mong Mu-yak took out a thin copper wire from inside his clothes and inserted it into the lock.

Then, with practiced ease, he picked it.

-Clack!

‘Done.’

-Creeeak.

When he opened the safe, it was filled with quite a lot of things.

There were expensive stolen goods and all sorts of items, but he needed none of that.

There was only one thing he truly required.

It was one of the books within the safe,

‘Found it!’

the forbidden-prison register.

To find this, he had already used the spies to learn the safe routes at various hours in advance.

And now he had finally found what he wanted.

‘Now I will know the location.’

To accomplish the secret order they had received, they first had to learn where, in the underground forbidden prison, that person was being held.

The underground forbidden prison was so vast and so full of mechanisms, formations, and guards that if one did not first understand the location and routes, a rescue could easily fail.

‘Let us see.’

-Slide.

The forbidden-prison register recorded the cellblock locations and names of the prisoners being held.

True to its reputation as a place where only the most vicious and infamous prisoners were sent, even Mong Mu-yak of the Heaven and Earth Society recognized many of the names listed there.

But the name he sought was nowhere to be seen.

‘…This is troublesome. Is he perhaps held deeper?’

After turning through many pages, he at last reached the list for the lowest level of the forbidden prison, the Avici Prison.

According to the spies, those held in the Avici Prison were people the imperial palace had designated as the worst of the worst, such that even their identities were managed under strict secrecy.

That was why the guards around the Avici Prison were said to be beyond comparison with the upper floors.

‘This will be difficult.’

Clicking his tongue, Mong Mu-yak turned the page of the Avici Prison register.

-Rustle.

There were not many pages of names.

But the moment he turned the first one, Mong Mu-yak’s eyes widened.

‘The deputy leader of the Red Turbans was still alive?’

He had heard that over thirty years ago, when a great famine struck, uprisings had broken out across the country.

The ones who led it were the Red Turban leader Yi Jeok and deputy leader Yi Baek, and the number of government troops they had killed reached a hundred thousand.

He knew that leader Yi Jeok had eventually been captured when the Left and Right Military Commissions were mobilized.

The price of rebellion was naturally the punishment of being torn apart in front of the people.

He had assumed deputy leader Yi Baek had also died then, yet there his name was plainly recorded.

‘A major figure from the very first page.’

As he turned a few pages, astonishing names continued to appear.

Every one of them was a worst-class prisoner whose release would make it impossible to predict what chaos would follow.

He did not understand why they had been kept alive at all.

If it had been the Heaven and Earth Society, they would have simply killed them from the start to avoid trouble later.

‘Hm.’

As he kept turning the pages, Mong Mu-yak suddenly stopped.

Near the latter half he came upon a list marked martial artists.

‘There were martial artists here too?’

There had been the occasional martial artist included in the registers from the first through third underground levels, but he had not expected even the Avici Prison to contain martial artists.

If these were martial-artist prisoners the imperial palace regarded as its very worst, then who could they be?

Curious, Mong Mu-yak turned the list onward.

‘I have never heard of any of them.’

Even he, attached directly to the Society Leader’s intelligence branch of the Heaven and Earth Society, knew none of these names.

Was it because they were so old that almost no information remained on them?

Just as he wondered that, Mong Mu-yak’s eyes widened.

‘!?’

[One Hundred Twenty-Six – Old Blood Cult – Six Blood Stars]

‘The Six Blood Stars of the Old Blood Cult.’

Seeing the list, Mong Mu-yak could not hide his surprise.

The group no longer existed in the current martial world, but it was so infamous in old tales that he knew of it well.

That was because the remaining forces of the Old Blood Cult, said to have been wiped out long ago, had gathered with parts of the evil sects to found the present Evil Alliance, the center of the evil path.

‘So traces of the Old Blood Cult still remained.’

But what interested him even more was the note attached below.

The other entries merely recorded information, but under this prisoner’s listing there was something written like an instruction.

‘Keep a distance of ten steps. When placing meals through the prison mechanism, cover both eyes and ears.’

Mong Mu-yak frowned.

Why warn them not to approach within ten steps when the man was already imprisoned?

The next instruction was even stranger.

Surely if someone had been thrown into the forbidden prison, their martial arts would already have been destroyed or sealed. So why warn against him so severely?

Still puzzled, Mong Mu-yak turned the page.

The warning felt quite unsettling, but the man was not the one they were searching for, so it was none of his business.

-Rustle.

After a few more pages there were only two left.

With only three pages remaining, Mong Mu-yak grew anxious.

If the name was not on one of these pages, then contrary to the information they had obtained, that person would not be in the underground forbidden prison after all.

-Rustle.

Then he turned another page.

‘Hm?’

The one before the final page was strange.

Ordinarily the register listed the prison number, who was held there, and a brief identity note.

But this one simply stated prisoner number one hundred twenty-nine, and below that only warned never to approach within thirty steps of the forbidden prison.

‘Do not approach?’

That was an even greater distance than for the Six Blood Stars of the Old Blood Cult.

And beneath that was an even more baffling warning.

‘If someone enters within thirty steps, do not attempt a rescue under any circumstances? What in the world does that mean?’

Do not attempt a rescue?

What could that possibly mean?

Unable to understand it, Mong Mu-yak shook his head.

Since the person was not the one they sought, it did not concern him.

Then he turned to the final page.

And the moment he saw the name written there, joy flooded Mong Mu-yak’s eyes.

[One Hundred Thirty – Fire Worship Sect – Sacred Fire Leader]

‘The Sacred Fire Leader of the Fire Worship Sect!’

He had finally found it.

As if this prisoner had been brought in comparatively recently, the final page was strikingly clean.

But unlike the earlier entries, what was written beneath this one was not a warning, but a completely different sort of instruction.

[Locate the jewel Sacred Flame Spirit Bell.]

‘…What is this now?’

The jewel Sacred Flame Spirit Bell?

Why was there an order to find its location?

Just then,

-Hey. Hey. Why are you asleep?

At the voice and approaching presence outside the office, Mong Mu-yak quickly shut the safe.

If he did not withdraw immediately, the carefully secured route of escape would be disrupted.

Fortunately, he had already achieved his purpose in time.

* * *

-Daaaang!

The bell announcing the Ox Hour rang out.

Within the imperial palace, a bell was struck every two-hour watch to mark the time.

-Slide.

Having achieved his purpose, Mong Mu-yak left the office and headed toward the lodging along the route he had secured.

Because every смена happened around the Ox Hour, this was the best time to move while handovers were taking place.

Suppressing all trace of his presence, Mong Mu-yak moved through the darkness along his route and vaulted a wall.

-Tak!

Now only one more wall separated him from the lodging.

Walking softly through the darkness, Mong Mu-yak was about to leap the last wall when

-Pak!

At that exact moment, someone seized his ankle.

Startled, Mong Mu-yak immediately tried to kick away the one holding him with a leg technique.

But

-Pak!

the opponent lightly caught even that kicking technique.

Then the person yanked one of Mong Mu-yak’s legs and, in an instant, sealed his acupoints.

-Tatatatak!

As his body stiffened and he began to fall, the unknown person caught him.

Then laid him gently down onto the ground.

Mong Mu-yak’s eyes widened.

That was because the one who had subdued him was none other than a eunuch of the Western Depot.

He had barely escaped the office unseen, yet to think he would be caught by a eunuch of the Western Depot just before reaching the lodging.

‘Damn it!’

Judging by the garments, it was a eunuch of fairly high rank.

Then the eunuch of the Western Depot smiled faintly, placed a finger to Mong Mu-yak’s lips, and whispered,

“You have been carrying things out well even without me.”

The instant he heard those words, Mong Mu-yak’s eyes went round.

The owner of that voice was none other than

‘M-my lord?’

the very same Lord Mok Gyeong-un whom he had believed murdered at the infirmary of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.