Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 30 - Gudiao (1)
Chapter 30 – Gudiao (1)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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‘What in the world is this…….’
Occult practitioner New Moon could not hide her bewilderment.
If the sensation from a moment ago had not been mistaken, then it had certainly surpassed Yellow Spirit class.
That had been even more unexpected than the pain of having reverse kill struck back at her.
A resentful spirit above Yellow Spirit class?
“Practitioner New Moon? Are you all right?”
The First Madam, Madam Seok, helped her up and asked.
At the question, New Moon nodded.
Though the reverse kill had been struck back at her, she had been protecting her body with a warding talisman, so she had avoided a fatal internal injury.
“Koff, koff……”
“What in the world happened?”
“The reverse kill I sent was struck back.”
“Struck back? What in the world is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like. Junior disciple Myo-shin lost his life to the kill of a resentful spirit. So, with the aid of the Northern Emperor, I sent that kill back in reverse toward the resentful spirit that had cast it.”
“But you’re saying it repelled that?”
“Yes.”
At her answer, Madam Seok frowned.
Just what kind of situation was this?
An occult practitioner more capable than Myo-shin had sent reverse kill, and it had been repelled. She did not know how to take that.
“……..Then can this matter not be resolved?”
-Shhk!
At Madam Seok’s question, occult practitioner New Moon wiped the black blood from the corner of her mouth and said,
“This is no longer a question of whether it can be resolved.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The matter has become far more dangerous than I had assumed.”
At New Moon’s serious voice, Madam Seok asked back with concern in her eyes.
“Dangerous?”
“If its rank had only been around Yellow Spirit class, then I could have sent reverse kill and then exorcised the weakened resentful spirit with talisman arts. But that did not happen.”
“By saying that did not happen, you mean……”
“It is a far more malevolent resentful spirit of a much higher rank.”
At those words, Madam Seok asked in a tone that said she could not understand,
“Do resentful spirits have ranks as well?”
“Yes. You can think of them as a scale of danger.”
“Then just now you said Yellow Spirit, was it? In any case, you said it was a resentful spirit ranked higher than Yellow Spirit, so just how much more dangerous is it?”
Pushing back her disordered hair, New Moon answered,
“To be honest, even Yellow Spirit class is already dangerous enough to directly inflict kill upon a person and take a life. But above that, even occult practitioners who regularly deal with strange phenomena cannot help but tense up.”
“Even occult practitioners?”
“Yes. Resentful spirits of Green Spirit rank or higher are fairly rare.”
“Why is that?”
“To become Green Spirit rank or above, their grudge must have endured for decades, or they must have experienced immense suffering. Most resentful spirits, however, gradually lose their resentment over time and are naturally exorcised on their own.”
“…….Then does that mean beings called Green Spirit are resentful spirits that have survived through many long years?”
“Yes. Resentful spirits that have existed for decades. That is what Green Spirit is. A high-rank resentful spirit of that level is not easy even for occult practitioners who specialize in such matters. In most cases, at least five of the lowest title, Conveyance, must stake their lives to exorcise it.”
Green Spirit was a being that those with the title of Conveyance, like occult practitioner Myo-shin, could never handle.
At these words from New Moon, Madam Seok asked carefully,
“Then is the resentful spirit clinging to that boy this Green Spirit thing that has existed for decades?”
“Probably.”
That was New Moon’s estimate.
Even she had seen higher ranks only twice.
Those were things one could call disasters without exaggeration, and she judged this was not to that degree.
To begin with, if it were a resentful spirit of that level, then Yeon Mok Sword Manor would already be drenched in blood.
The radius of its influence was on a wholly different level from those below Green Spirit.
That was why she was certain it was Green Spirit.
“Practitioner New Moon…… can you handle something that dangerous by yourself?”
At Madam Seok’s question, New Moon held out her hand.
“……..What is the meaning of that?”
“You will need to pay additional silver.”
“What?”
“If it is Green Spirit class, then five hundred silver is not enough. You must raise it to one thousand.”
“……….”
To think she would bargain at a time like this.
At those words from New Moon, it was not Madam Seok but rather bodyguard Ho Aeng who cut in, too dumbfounded to bear it.
“A thousand silver? No matter what, do you really think that makes sense, when five hundred silver alone could buy how many sacks of rice?”
“Silver and life cannot be compared.”
“Life? Ha! You must be under some illusion just because Madam gave the request. This is a martial household. It isn’t some place filled with ordinary peop…..”
“Then bodyguard warrior, I suppose you can resolve it yourself.”
With that, occult practitioner New Moon turned to leave the storehouse.
‘This bitch really!’
Unable to tolerate her any longer, bodyguard Ho Aeng stepped in front of her.
“Who said you could just leave like that?”
“Please move.”
“Unless you’re returning what you’ve been given, then…..”
“No. It’s fine.”
“What?”
At the sudden words, bodyguard Ho Aeng was puzzled, but New Moon glanced at the claw stand on her shoulder and muttered as if soothing something.
“Calm down, Gudiao.”
‘!?’
There was nothing on the claw stand.
Yet why did she keep talking to herself as though something were there?
Apparently bothered by it, bodyguard Ho Aeng asked,
“What is supposed to be on that claw stand that you keep saying things like that? Just now too, and now again, talking as though something is there…..”
-Paseseuseu!
She had not even finished speaking.
A faint rustling sound reached her ears.
Ho Aeng turned to look.
‘Hm?’
There were only stacked sacks there, and nothing else.
Yet once again the rustling came to her ears.
And this time from all over.
-Rustle rustle! Rustle rustle!
-Shhk!
Ho Aeng, her face tense, brought a hand to the sword hilt at her waist.
It was an unpleasant sound.
It was coming from everywhere and grated on her.
Then New Moon waved her hand and said in a firm voice,
“Gudiao. Enough.”
No sooner had she done so than the rustling that had just been sounding everywhere stopped all at once.
Growing ominously uneasy, Ho Aeng asked in a somewhat cowed voice,
“Wh….. what was that just now?”
At her question, New Moon shook her head from side to side and said,
“Do not provoke Gudiao.”
As she spoke, New Moon brought her hand to the empty air atop the claw stand and made a petting motion.
She had done the same thing earlier, and there was no understanding what she was doing.
“There is nothing there, so what in the world…..”
“Gudiao is very shy.”
“No, what exactly is Gudiao that you keep…..”
“Gudiao is a native demon-beast of Yeoa Mountain at the far end of Mount Gal.”
“A demon-beast? A monster?”
“Something like that.”
Demons and monsters of all kinds.
More precisely, mountain goblins and monsters were called chi and mei, while monsters living in rivers or the sea were called mang and ryang.
Since ancient times, people had grouped them together as chi-me-mang-ryang.
“Gudiao is a demon-beast that has become my shikigami. Of course, though it is shy, it absolutely does not forgive those who harm its master.”
-Flare!
No sooner had those words ended than the torch wavered, and behind the claw stand a strange shadow was cast.
‘Wh, what is that?’
Seeing the shadow, Ho Aeng retreated with a terrified face.
There was clearly nothing visible atop the claw stand, and yet the wavering shadow was that of a great thing with a body twisted like a snail, a bird’s beak, and a serpent’s tail.
It was an exceedingly bizarre sight.
“If there is nothing else you need, then please step aside.”
New Moon tried to pass the frightened Ho Aeng.
At that moment, Madam Seok said,
“Wait!”
“……..”
“Can you truly handle that resentful spirit, that thing you called Green Spirit?”
At the question, the corner of New Moon’s mouth, though she had her back turned, rose slightly.
She had expected they would be unable to refuse in the end.
Though a spirit at the level of Green Spirit was indeed very dangerous, if it was she, a Skill-ranked practitioner who could command shikigami, then she would somehow be able to deal with it.
Wiping away the smile at the corner of her mouth, New Moon turned with a grave expression and said,
“Now that the reverse kill has been struck back, the resentful spirit will be very angry. If it is not dealt with immediately, a greater calamity may occur.”
Madam Seok stared at New Moon with sharpened eyes.
Then she made her decision.
“Very well. One thousand silver. It will be paid.”
“In advance.”
“………”
This occult practitioner wench.
She seemed rather crazed for money.
* * *
Mok Gyeong-un slowly opened the eyes he had closed.
Everything was different from when he had taken in life energy with a normal qi-circulation method.
Rather, these cold, yin energies taken in through the reversed breath cultivation method could be circulated as freely as if he were wearing clothes that fit his body.
They did not even disappear after entering below his lower abdomen.
‘So this was the answer.’
This was better than trying to take in life energy that did not suit his body in the first place.
Furthermore, he could even circulate it.
But there was one problem.
‘There isn’t much.’
This energy of death was markedly less abundant than life energy.
It was not even one tenth as much.
Like a dried-up spring, it was too scant to fill properly no matter how much he circulated it.
‘What a shame.’
If only he could secure a greater amount of energy, it seemed he might be able to form something called a dantian even with this energy of death.
Would it be faster to kill someone appropriate and absorb the energy of death with the Form of Attachment?
‘Hmm.’
For a brief moment, Mok Gyeong-un considered just that.
But for the time being, that seemed difficult.
The more carelessly one killed, the more restrictions one incurred, so even if he were to kill someone, it required a fairly thorough calculation.
Otherwise he might end up in trouble again as before.
‘Should I ask them instead?’
If they were resentful spirits like the Demon Monk or the Blue Spirit, they might know where this energy of death was gathered most densely.
So he looked for the Demon Monk, but,
‘Hm?’
The Demon Monk looked in rather bad condition.
He was sitting collapsed on the floor, leaning back, with wounds all over his body and a gray haze rising from him.
Mok Gyeong-un did not know why he was like that.
Moreover, Guard Gochan was sleeping on the medicine-hall bed in a bizarre posture, as if unconscious.
‘What is this?’
Had something happened while he had been circulating his energy?
As he wondered that, someone’s voice rang out.
-Hmph. You truly are troublesome, sentient being.
The owner of the voice was the Blue Spirit.
She sat on the bed with a smoking pipe in her mouth, exhaling thick smoke.
Lifting Mok Gyeong-un’s chin with the end of the pipe, she said,
-Are you really a living human?
“Were you perhaps afraid I’d died? My heart is beating just fine.”
-Hmm. If you were truly a living creature, you should have been drawing in life energy instead of death energy, and should have been performing proper qi circulation.
“Did something go wrong?”
At that question, the Blue Spirit snorted.
It was not a matter of right or wrong in that sense.
Her curiosity had merely been stirred by something that strayed outside all reason.
-Do you not feel as though your heart will burst or your head will split?
“No. Why?”
-Strange. Very strange. You are the first sentient being like this that I have ever seen.
“Is that so? By the way, may I ask something too?”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s question, the Blue Spirit put the smoking pipe back to her lips, inhaled deeply, exhaled, and said in a bored tone,
-Hoo. What is it that you want to know?
“Nothing much. How can one gather more energy of death?”
-And what do you intend to do by gathering it? Are you truly planning to form a dantian with that energy?
“You’re quite accurate.”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s answer, the Blue Spirit’s red lips twitched.
She truly hated this sentient being who had bound her, but at the same time she was curious.
If he formed a dantian not from life energy but from the energy of death and wielded it, then what kind of power would it produce?
‘The energy of death inside a living human body…….’
It was most interesting.
Tapping her smoking pipe with her fingers, she said,
-Fine. I will tell you. There is one easiest way.
“What is it?”
-Kill.
“…….If I kill?”
-Whether human or beast, once living things die, their life energy is corrupted into death energy. What you absorbed must have been that.
At first, even the Blue Spirit had not believed it.
From the outset, a living human could not absorb the energy of death.
At her words, Mok Gyeong-un smacked his lips lightly and said,
“That’s unfortunate. I also think that would be the fastest way, but it would become quite troublesome. So I don’t think I can go around killing freely for the time being. Is there another method?”
‘Unfortunate……’
The more one learned about him, the more certain it became that this bastard was unlike ordinary people.
His way of thinking was completely different.
-If that is difficult, then change the place and the time.
“The place and the time?”
-To begin with, places like this medicine hall are places where people are healed. How much death energy do you think you can gather in a place overflowing with life energy?
“Oh.”
Mok Gyeong-un nodded as if he understood.
Seeing this, the Blue Spirit shook her head and continued,
-The time when life energy reaches its peak is the dawn before sunrise. Since it is the time when life stirs into being, life energy is abundant. And what is the opposite time?
“Around sunset?”
At that, the Blue Spirit laughed softly.
-No.
“No?”
-You may think so, but there is another time when death aura is at its fullest.
“When is that?”
-From Rat Hour until the middle of Tiger Hour. That is called the hour of the dead.
“The hour of the dead? That sounds fitting.”
-The time when it reaches its greatest peak is the opening watch of Ox Hour within that span. That is when the energy of death is most abundant.
“Then I should aim for that time. And for the place, somewhere overflowing with yin energy would be best. A graveyard, for example.”
-So your head works to that extent, sentient being.
The Blue Spirit curled up the corner of her red mouth.
But then, conscious of her own expression, she quickly made her face stern again.
At the sight, Mok Gyeong-un scoffed inwardly, but without showing it he said,
“Thank you for telling me. By the way, could you tell me why Guard Gochan is like that, and the Demon Monk too?”
He had been curious about that as well.
-So now you finally wonder. That sentient being was trying to stop you from…..
She had been about to say from killing yourself through reversed qi circulation, but caught herself and quickly changed the subject.
As she was about to point at the Demon Monk with her smoking pipe and explain,
-Uyeouuuuuyeo…….
a bizarre sound came from outside.
It sounded something like the cry of a bird, and if one listened another way, like the cry of a fox.
As he wondered at it, this time he heard a rustling sound from somewhere.
Mok Gyeong-un looked toward it.
‘What is that?’
It seemed to be coming from the left side of the bed, but there was nothing there.
-Rustle rustle!
But now the sound came from the right.
So he looked there too, and again there seemed to be nothing.
He was finding this strange when,
-Rustle! Rustle! Rustle! Rustle! Sssssssssssss!
Sounds began to ring out from everywhere at once.
When he turned his gaze toward them, black things were already creeping across the floor, filling it.
They were insects.
And insects of all kinds at that, so numerous that one could not even count them.
“…….What might this be?”
-A more troublesome thing than I expected has latched on, sentient being.
“Pardon?”
-Gudiao.
One of the three great forbidden books of the Central Plains, the Classic of Mountains and Seas, says this.
In the deep mountains of Yeoa Mountain at the far end of Mount Gal there lives a fierce beast called Gudiao.
It has a bird’s beak in its mouth, owl-like eyes, and a serpent’s tail.
Gudiao shuns people.
The cry of Gudiao sounds like it is calling its own name.
Where Gudiao appears, insects always swarm, not a single grain of rice can be harvested, and the land turns into wasteland.
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