Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 31 - Gudiao (2)
Chapter 31 – Gudiao (2)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The Classic of Mountains and Seas, one of the three forbidden books that has existed since the time of King Yu of Xia.
It is the oldest geographical record, and within it are written many strange accounts.
Gudiao was one of the demons and monsters recorded in that Classic of Mountains and Seas, a dangerous being severe enough to be described as a ferocious beast.
-Scritch! Scritch! Scritch! Scritch! Sssssssssssss!
It was hard to even count the countless kinds of bugs that had swarmed in.
As if troubled, Mok Gyeong-un stroked his chin and spoke to the Blue Spirit.
“Are these bugs Gudiao?”
-No. There is a type of demon and monster that is a good match with bugs. No, rather than being close to them, it would be more accurate to say it makes the bugs unable to move as they please.
“There are a lot of them.”
There really were a lot.
Before he knew it, the floor had been blackly covered by bugs.
There were so many filling it without any space to set a foot that he was reluctant to get down from the bed.
For those with weak stomachs, even looking at it might have been a torment.
Mok Gyeong-un glanced at the demon monk, who was still sitting there leaning back.
-Sssslither!
The wounded parts of the demon monk were slowly knitting back together.
After seeing that, Mok Gyeong-un said to the Blue Spirit,
“These bugs. They must be related to the demon monk ending up like that, right?”
-Probably so.
“It seems even you are not certain, Blue Spirit.”
-What do you mean, not certain? I saved you after reverse kill flew in, and now what? Be grateful. If I had not been here, you wretched sentient being would have died without fail.
“Reverse kill?”
Reverse kill.
He remembered reading about it in the Foundational Text of the Yin-Yang School.
It said that being assailed by a strange phenomenon, that is, by a vengeful spirit, was called a kill.
And it seemed that sending that kill back again to the vengeful spirit or its host with the help of a higher being was called reverse kill.
It was a kind of revenge.
‘No ordinary person should know how to do something like that.’
At that point, Mok Gyeong-un’s mind moved extremely quickly.
Ordinary people would have had their thoughts freeze or would have been thrown into utter confusion by the mass of bugs, but Mok Gyeong-un coolly saw through the situation.
‘An occult practitioner… then Madam Seok.’
And he immediately identified the culprit.
In this situation, the only person who would summon another occult practitioner and commission a reverse kill was the First Madam, Madam Seok.
As expected, she did not seem to be the type to give up easily.
Mok Gyeong-un shook his head from side to side.
-What will you do? If you stay still like this, you will become food for the bugs.
The Blue Spirit tilted her head.
The legs of the wooden bed that the bugs had reached were lowering with a crunching sound.
-Scritch-scritch!
The speed was quite fast.
The only places without bugs were on top of the bed and on top of the long table where the medicinal ingredients were laid out.
No, there was one more.
‘The lamp.’
That spot was a little different from the others.
Normally, bugs had the habit of gathering toward bright places.
Those bugs too had unknowingly approached, then been driven back because of the heat or burned, so only that area had opened into a round space.
“Blue Spirit. Can you help me?”
-Well now. Why should I?
“………”
Mok Gyeong-un looked at her with one eyebrow raised.
Then the Blue Spirit gave a snort, took a deep pull from her pipe, exhaled, and said,
-Earlier I was circulating my energy, so I helped you out of compassion, but now that I am awake, do you not have the confidence to handle even this much on your own?
At her words, Mok Gyeong-un smacked his lips.
She was the type to take the contrary line at important moments.
She had answered his questions decently, so he had thought perhaps she might start acting a little more favorably, but apparently not yet.
“We are in a relationship no different from symbiosis. Are you really going to act like this?”
-I will at least let you keep your life.
“Ah.”
She truly was a shikigami that was hard to handle.
At that moment, the Blue Spirit sneered at Mok Gyeong-un and said,
-Hey, sentient being. I will make you a proposal.
“A proposal?”
-Yes. Get through this crisis with your own power. If you overcome this situation by yourself, I will seriously consider whether or not I should help you from now on.
At her words, Mok Gyeong-un clicked his tongue.
Since she was his shikigami anyway, if his life truly came under threat, she would have no choice but to help.
So it was laughable for her to make such a proposal.
Unlike the demon monk, perhaps because her rank was higher, she was really stubborn and strong-willed.
“Well, there is nothing for it. The side that is more desperate has to adapt. I will try the easy method first.”
-The easy method?
At her question, Mok Gyeong-un raised his voice and shouted,
“Is anyone there?”
Outside the medicine hall were the fighters of the outer court.
Getting their help was the easiest method rather than solving it himself.
“Guards?”
But no answer came.
The shadows on the paper doors had clearly shown them standing there…
‘Hmm.’
Yet their heads were tilted slightly to the side.
It looked like they had lost consciousness.
Apparently something had been done to them.
-What were you expecting?
“……..Indeed.”
Mok Gyeong-un shrugged.
-Step, step!
At that moment, a shadow approached the paper door on the side of the hall’s entrance.
Judging by the shape of the shadow, it seemed to be a woman, and on her right shoulder there was a claw perch, and atop it a grotesque-shaped shadow could be seen.
It was an unusual shadow with the beak of a bird and the tail of a snake.
-To come in person. She is overflowing with confidence.
“Is that it?”
-Hoo. Yes. That is Gudiao.
It seemed that the strange shadow on the woman’s shoulder was Gudiao.
The Blue Spirit, puffing smoke from her pipe, gave a snort and muttered in a tone that showed she disliked it,
-Now we have gotten to the point where even some wretch is dragging around that damn bird bastard as a shikigami.
“It seems you dislike it.”
-I cannot stand bugs.
The Blue Spirit really seemed to hate bugs, for she shuddered for no reason.
The sight of her hating bugs was unexpected.
Surely she was not refusing to help just because of something like that, while pretending otherwise?
He chose to believe that was not the case.
-Scritch-scritch!
At some point, the bed had already sunk nearly halfway because of the bugs.
And that was not only his bed. It was the same with the bed where Gochan lay.
At that, Mok Gyeong-un bit the area beneath the back of his hand, near the wrist.
-Crunch!
-What are you doing?
“A temporary measure, you could say.”
-A temporary measure?
-Drip!
As blood flowed from the bitten wrist, Mok Gyeong-un scattered it in all directions.
-Drip, drip, drip, drip!
Then a strange sight unfolded.
As soon as Mok Gyeong-un’s blood touched them, the bugs gave off grotesque sounds and convulsed, then frantically avoided the areas where the blood had scattered.
Seeing that, the Blue Spirit asked in puzzlement,
-Why are they acting like that?
“I ate a lot of poisonous herbs from childhood, so my blood is poisonous.”
-Your blood is poisonous?
At that, the Blue Spirit stared at him in disbelief.
To have poison in one’s blood was almost no different from being a poison-afflicted person.
This fellow truly was a bizarre human the more one learned about him.
-Drip, drip, drip, drip!
Mok Gyeong-un kept scattering his blood outward from beneath the bed and around the area.
Seeing the bugs recoil in terror and avoid the blood let one imagine just how strong the poison was.
Before long, the bugs could no longer approach the area around Mok Gyeong-un.
In contrast, the bed where Gochan lay was in danger.
-Scritch-scritch!
Mok Gyeong-un tried to scatter blood to keep them from coming as much as possible, but since it was not right around there, the bugs were pouring in through the blind spots.
At that, Mok Gyeong-un threw the wooden pillow from his bed at Guard Gochan.
-Thunk!
“Huhk!”
Gochan woke with a start when the wooden pillow struck him in the head.
Upon waking, Gochan instinctively looked around, then was horrified.
“W-What is this?”
An enormous mass of bugs.
Those bugs were covering the surrounding floor, and they were even crawling up onto the bed.
Startled, Gochan snatched up the blanket and frantically brushed the bugs away.
To him, Mok Gyeong-un said,
“It is dangerous, so keep knocking the bugs away.”
“Y-Young Master? What in the world is this…”
“I do not know either. But I would advise you not to get down below the bed.”
‘This is driving me mad.’
Gochan found the situation truly bewildering.
Still, for now, he had no choice but to do as Mok Gyeong-un said and keep shaking the bugs off and holding them back.
It was while they were fighting desperately against the bugs like that.
-Bang!
The door of the medicine hall opened, and someone came inside.
Seeing that, Gochan shouted in alarm,
“Miss there! It is dangerous, so you must not come in!”
The one who had come inside was a woman with one eye white.
She was the occult practitioner New Moon.
“Dangerous… huh?”
Gochan’s eyes widened.
As New Moon took one step inside, the bugs split left and right, making a path.
Of course, that was because her shikigami was controlling those bugs.
-Sssslither!
As she stepped in, an unusual light appeared in her two differently colored eyes.
She had intended to press them slowly and frighten them, but for some reason the bugs could not approach.
What had he done?
While she was wondering that, Mok Gyeong-un said to her,
“Are you an occult practitioner?”
At that question, New Moon frowned.
Looking at that seventeen-year-old handsome boy standing on top of the bed, no matter how she looked at him, he did not seem possessed by a strange phenomenon.
If he had been possessed by a Green Spirit-class vengeful soul, he would never look like that.
‘Is it that?’
New Moon’s eyes turned toward the giant demon monk leaning against the wall behind Mok Gyeong-un.
Nothing could be seen in her black eye.
But it could be seen in her other eye, the white eye.
A vengeful spirit.
‘…A Yellow Spirit?’
Her white eye narrowed.
When seen through the white eye, one could roughly estimate the rank of a strange phenomenon or a vengeful spirit.
Yet no matter how she looked at that wounded spirit, it was a Yellow Spirit class.
‘That makes no sense.’
A Yellow Spirit-class being could not repel reverse kill.
That meant it was not the Yellow Spirit that had done it, but Mok Gyeong-un, who was presumed to be the host, and no matter how she looked at him, he was not someone skilled in occult arts.
Then who exactly had repelled the reverse kill…
-Though you look young, you seem fairly capable.
A voice ringing right by her ear.
At that, New Moon turned her head to the side.
-Throb!
At the sight of something blood-red in the blurred boundary, blood vessels burst all across her white eye.
“Huhk!”
Startled by the intense pain, she shut her white eye tight.
What had that just been?
Her white eye, which could see the hidden world, had failed to contain that existence.
No, not the white eye. More precisely, she herself could not accept the existence gazing through her white eye.
It was right then.
-Uyeo-uyeoaaaaah!!!!
Suddenly Gudiao, which had been resting quietly on her shoulder, let out a shriek.
“Gudiao! Calm…”
-Uyeoooooaaaaaaa!!!!
Unable to endure that scream, which sounded enough to tear the ears apart, New Moon eventually clapped her hands over her ears.
She looked at Gudiao with bewildered eyes.
Gudiao was staring at something with eyes overflowing with wariness, and it was so frightened it could not control itself.
‘For Gudiao to be this terrified? What in the world could it be…’
-Uyeoooooaaaaaaa!!!!!
-Pssshhh!
With Gudiao’s shriek, the bugs on the floor all leaped upward.
Their orderly appearance vanished.
The winged bugs flew up and madly rushed toward Mok Gyeong-un and Gochan.
“Y-Young Master!”
Flustered, Gochan did not know what to do.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un stretched out his hand toward the nearest place where there was a lamp.
Then, reciting the incantation in his head, he unfolded the Form of Attachment.
‘A very narrow distance.’
If he concentrated within the range of one zhang, he could draw in an object at a distance with the Form of Attachment.
The position of the lamp was exactly at that precarious boundary.
-Tremble!
The stand of the lamp shook.
Then it was pulled into Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.
-Pak!
Seeing that, Gochan’s eyes widened.
It was astonishing that Mok Gyeong-un, who had not even yet formed his dantian, was showing such a wondrous skill.
But that astonishment lasted only a moment.
-Pat!
Mok Gyeong-un leaped in one bound to the bed where Gochan was.
Then he ruthlessly swung the lamp at the bugs flying in.
-Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Even the bugs rampaging in frenzy seemed to feel the heat, and scattered in every direction.
Yet perhaps influenced by Gudiao’s continuing shriek, they madly tried to find openings and fly in.
“Guard Gochan, your dagger!”
“Yes?”
“The dagger!”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s shout, Gochan groped at his waist.
But because he had been receiving treatment, the dagger he always carried was lying on top of the folded upper garment below the bed.
At that, Gochan bent his body and quickly stretched his hand down.
-Scritch-scritch!
“Hihk!”
Bugs surging from the floor were already clinging to the hem of the clothes and to the dagger.
Gochan hesitated for an instant, then endured it and grabbed the dagger.
As a result, the bugs clinging there bit savagely into Gochan’s hand.
One might think it would not hurt much for bugs to bite, but if dozens of them latched on and bit, that changed things.
“Aaaah!”
Gochan wildly shook the hand holding the dagger and lifted it.
Mok Gyeong-un swung the lamp toward that hand.
-Fwoooosh!
The bugs that had remained clinging there lost their wits and fell away.
“H-Here it is!”
In that opening, Gochan passed over the dagger.
After taking the dagger and handing him the lamp, Mok Gyeong-un said,
“Keep swinging it.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Gochan swung the lamp at the oncoming bugs.
In that gap, Mok Gyeong-un drew the dagger and then,
-Slash!
‘!?’
He drew the dagger across his own forehead.
It was not deep, but it was enough to cut the skin and make blood flow.
‘W-What is this?’
Gochan could not hide his bewilderment.
Why in the world was he suddenly wounding his own body?
But that was not all.
Mok Gyeong-un kept cutting himself here and there with the dagger, making wounds.
-Slash! Slash!
“Young Master, what are you doing!”
Despite that shout, Mok Gyeong-un did not stop injuring himself.
‘…Has he gone mad?’
Even New Moon, who had been trying somehow to control Gudiao, had her gaze stolen for an instant by Mok Gyeong-un’s actions.
To suddenly start harming himself, what in the world was this?
She was dumbfounded, and it was right then.
Mok Gyeong-un, now bloodied all over from cutting wounds across his body, looked at her and slowly curled the corner of his mouth upward.
-Shiver!
The sight was so eerie that New Moon furrowed her brow.
How many more frightening things had she seen while working as an occult practitioner?
Yet this was a completely different feeling.
It was at that very moment.
-Bang!
Mok Gyeong-un kicked off the ground and ran straight toward where she was.
‘What is he doing?’
This was truly a suicidal act.
The bugs were going wild and charging, yet he was rushing into them after hacking himself open like that.
Had he gone mad and wanted to die?
She had just thought that, and then,
-Papapapapak!
-At that instant, an unbelievable sight occurred.
The bugs that touched Mok Gyeong-un convulsed and dropped to the ground.
Most of the bugs nearby also did everything they could to avoid touching him.
As a result, a path naturally opened.
‘Why are the bugs…?’
She could not understand it at all.
If he had injured himself like that, the smell of blood should have drawn them even more, but it was strange.
But there was no time to be surprised now.
Mok Gyeong-un had come right up in front of her.
“Gudiao! Stop him!”
Shouting that, New Moon flung her body backward and reached into her bosom to draw a talisman.
Then Mok Gyeong-un threw the dagger he was holding at her.
‘Damn it!’
Startled, she twisted her body to avoid it.
At that moment, Gudiao, which had been beyond control from fear, seemed to sense its master’s danger and leaped from the claw perch, knocking the dagger away with its claws.
-Pak! Clang!
-Then it let out a shriek sharp enough to rupture the eardrums at the enemy threatening its master.
-Uyeoooooaaaaaaa!
-Along with that shriek, the bugs trembled violently and swirled upward from the floor.
It looked like something disastrous was about to happen.
It was right then.
-Swaaaaaa!
-Uyeoooooaaah?
-Gudiao, which had been shrieking, pitched forward, and before long was sucked into Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.
It was the Form of Attachment.
-Euh…aaah…kak!
-Gudiao, seized by the throat, gagged and struggled in pain.
“Hoo. It is quiet now.”
With a satisfied face, Mok Gyeong-un looked at Gudiao caught in his grasp.
Seeing that sight, New Moon’s eyes widened.
‘…Impossible.’
How could he seize a demon and monster with his bare hand when it was not even his own shikigami?
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