Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 265 - Clue (4)

Chapter 265 – Clue (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“I have heard that Fire Worship Sect prisoner received some sort of revelation

from what they call the Sacred Flame

and was able to foresee the future.”

At those words,

Mok Gyeong-un cocked one brow and tilted his head.

At Mok Gyeong-un’s question,

Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo answered.

“Yes…

I do not know whether that is true or not either,

but the higher-ups talked about it often enough to make a great fuss.”

“Foreknowledge…”

To foresee the future.

Leaving aside whether it was interesting or marvelous,

Mok Gyeong-un judged it completely impossible.

If it had truly been possible from the start,

then there was no way the Fire Worship Sect could have

failed to prevent being suppressed and ending up like this.

‘Still…

if one assumes it is possible,

then it is indeed an ability everyone would covet.’

The ability to know what would happen

in the future was an astonishing power.

It would grant the advantage of being

able to prepare for what was to come.

‘This has made things more confusing.’

It had become unclear whether the Society Leader was targeting the Sacred Fire Leader because he was on the same side as the organization of the mark,

or because of this ability of foreknowledge.

An ability to foresee the future was something anyone would covet.

Still,

there was one point to settle here.

“That is correct.”

“That makes it sound as though he cannot do so now.”

“……..”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words,

Sang Ik-seo inwardly clicked his tongue.

The man let not even a small detail slip by.

“…You are correct.

Whether he used to be able to do it and lost that ability,

or whether he deceived everyone from the beginning while never being able to do it at all,

I do not know,

but right now that man cannot foresee anything.”

“At first we suspected he might simply be lying, so he was tested several times.

We gave him tests that could affect his life,

such as setting before him a cup with poison and one without and making him distinguish them,

yet even then he could not do anything like foreknowledge.”

“So in the end it amounted to something meaningless.”

“Yes.

Still, because of that, the higher-ups judged that Fire Worship Sect prisoner to be nothing special, and their interest in him diminished.

No,

it almost disappeared.”

“That is probably the case.

If by some slight possibility they were to find that thing called the treasure bead,

which the Fire Worship Sect prisoner is desperately trying to conceal,

then perhaps foreknowledge might become possible…”

Then,

as he was speaking,

Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo clutched

his abdomen and let out a groan.

His face had gone pale and was tinged purple.

His condition was poor.

This was the sign of poison spreading beyond the five

viscera and six bowels and through his whole body.

He no longer looked able to endure it.

“Urk.”

With a retching sound,

Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo vomited black blood.

A foul smell rose from the black blood that had fallen to the floor.

“I…

am going… to die… p… please save…”

“Hmm.”

As Sang Ik-seo crawled across the floor after vomiting blood and looked up at Mok Gyeong-un with pleading eyes, Mok Gyeong-un gazed down at him indifferently, shook his head, then cut his own finger and pried open the man’s jaw.

“Drink.”

Mok Gyeong-un’s blood dripped into Sang Ik-seo’s mouth.

Suddenly being told to drink blood was strange, but Sang Ik-seo, whose desire to live was strong, swallowed it down his throat as instructed.

Then the pain that had felt as though all five viscera and six bowels, and indeed his entire body, were burning began to subside.

“You will be fine for a while.”

Strictly speaking, this was not detoxification.

It was the principle of fighting poison with poison, using one poison to suppress another.

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo’s expression hardened.

“I never said that.”

“What do you mean by-”

“Mmph!”

Mok Gyeong-un seized both of Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo’s cheeks with his hand and said with a smile,

“There is, strictly speaking, a difference between saying I will save your life and saying I will cure you.”

‘Th… this!’

As he stared in confusion at the realization that he had been deceived, Mok Gyeong-un leaned to his ear and whispered.

“You used poison to make someone else your servant, so being controlled in the same way in return will not be such a bad experience.”

At those words, Thousand-Household Commander Mara Hyeon of the Embroidered Uniform Guard flashed through Sang Ik-seo’s mind.

Sang Ik-seo had used gu poison to manipulate Mara Hyeon.

But now he himself was poisoned and looked destined to be controlled by this man.

This was cause and effect in its purest form.

* * *

After finishing his business and moving secretly, Mok Gyeong-un fell into thought.

He had obtained far more information than before, yet many things still remained vague.

In particular, many things he had not known surrounding his grandfather’s death had come to light, which left him increasingly full of questions.

The only key figure who could resolve all these questions was Ghost Sword.

‘Ghost Sword…’

Almost absurdly, everything kept leading back to him.

To make contact with such a man, the urgent matter was still to make contact with the Society Leader.

Another oddly fitting matter here was the Sacred Fire Leader.

That was because, just like his grandfather, the organization of the mark was also aiming at this person called the Sacred Fire Leader.

No, to be precise, they seemed to want the Sacred Fire Leader’s ability.

‘The power of foreknowledge.’

He still did not believe in it, but if it truly existed, then it was a rare ability that everyone would covet, not merely the organization of the mark.

This Sacred Fire Leader, who possessed such an ability, could also become a clue that would resolve part of the mystery.

At the very least, regardless of whether the ability was real or not, that person himself would know clearly why the organization of the mark was after him.

‘If I learn that reason, then he will have value as a tool.’

The Society Leader, the organization of the mark, and the Fire Worship Sect.

All of them were aiming at the Sacred Fire Leader.

If he secured that person’s person before any of them, then by using him as leverage he might be able to obtain everything he wanted.

He would likely also be able to learn the hidden relation among them.

* * *

Office of the Six Service Offices of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The masked Thousand-Household Commander Mara Hyeon paced anxiously around the office with his hands clasped behind his back.

If things went wrong, it would be he himself who lost his life because of the gu poison.

He had not known that entrusting his life to someone else could wear down a person this much.

But when he thought about it, if he had moved together with Mok Gyeong-un and been discovered, the situation might instead have turned against them.

Either way, there was nothing he himself could do.

Thus, while anxiously circling the guest table, the blue eyes of Mara Hyeon suddenly shook.

Sudden, violent pain stabbed into his abdomen.

This was not mere pain.

Startled by the savage agony that felt as though something were gnawing at his abdomen, Mara Hyeon clutched his stomach and sank to one knee.

“Huff.”

Along with the pain transmitting itself through the region of his dantian, it felt as though his intestines themselves were being twisted.

Instinctively, Mara Hyeon became certain that this was caused by the gu poison.

Otherwise there was no way he would be feeling pain like this.

Mara Hyeon ground his teeth.

If that bastard had failed and Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo had triggered the gu poison, then he was as good as dead.

If he was going to die anyway, then he had to do everything he could.

The pain was so severe that he wanted to collapse and roll on the floor clutching his stomach, but Mara Hyeon endured it through superhuman willpower and sat cross-legged.

‘Let me try to force the gu out with true qi.’

That was the only thing he could do now.

Fortunately, contrary to the threat Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo had made, the gu poison was rampaging without striking directly at the dantian, so it seemed possible to draw out true qi.

“Hoo.”

Mara Hyeon raised his true qi and sent it toward the place where the gu was rampaging.

He moved his energy as carefully as possible to control the gu.

But the instant he sent the energy near it, the gu went mad more violently and injured the organs inside his body even more.

Even a simple wound would have been painful enough, but gu poison was poison in the truest sense.

The instant the gu bit, an extreme poison spread into his organs.

“Ughhh!”

Even Mara Hyeon, who had tried to endure through superhuman will, broke his meditation and twisted his body.

This was no state in which he could carefully move true qi or anything of the sort.

Even when his mask slipped off in the midst of it all, Mara Hyeon was too out of his mind with pain to notice.

Even his blue eyes rolled back as his whole body convulsed.

Purple blood vessels rose across his face, and his state worsened with terrifying speed.

As his consciousness slowly faded, Mara Hyeon sensed that his death was near.

At the final moment, everything began to flash through his mind like a revolving lantern.

[Your father… came from a very far western land with a mission. Do not hate him too much.]

Even the words his mother had spoken about that damned man just before she died rose up in his mind.

Thinking he would die like this when he had accomplished nothing yet left him feeling utterly hollow.

The only fortunate thing, if one could call it that, was that he had caused no real trouble for his teacher, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin.

With the evidence remaining like this, if it were the clever So Ye-rin, she would be able to seize Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo.

“Ughhh…”

His consciousness drifted farther and farther away.

Then it happened.

At that moment, someone placed a hand on Mara Hyeon’s abdomen and on Baihui, the crown point at the top of his head.

Then something was pushed into his body.

Mara Hyeon’s eyes, which had been closing, snapped open.

His eyes trembled.

The energy being forced into his body did not move on the same track as the normal internal energy that carried the nature of life-preserving qi.

This was not the sort of true qi he knew.

It was like an abyss, endless darkness pouring in without limit.

And within that darkness,

something savagely violent, enough to approach despair, was seated.

‘W… what in the world is this…’

Faced with this unknown violent energy he had never experienced even once before, Mara Hyeon felt a strange sensation seize him.

He should have rejected this dangerous energy, yet instead, together with a shiver, he gradually found himself growing accustomed to it.

No, it would be more correct to say that he was rapidly being assimilated by it.

At some point, black haze began to seep out from Mara Hyeon’s entire body.

That haze was demonic aura.