Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 32 - Gudiao (3)
Chapter 32 – Gudiao (3)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Unlike vengeful spirits, which from the start have no corporeal soul and therefore cannot be touched or even perceived, among demons and monsters there are ferocious beasts with physical substance.
To have physical substance means, literally, that they can be touched.
Even so, the corporeal soul of demons and monsters, being a mass of yin demonic aura, is itself demonic poison harmful to living humans, so even trained occult practitioners found it difficult to touch carelessly with bare hands.
Yet astonishingly, Mok Gyeong-un seized Gudiao with his bare hand.
‘Is he completely unaffected?’
As New Moon, the occult practitioner who controlled Gudiao as her shikigami, she could not help but be flustered.
Why?
Touching demonic poison was itself agony.
Yet Mok Gyeong-un showed none of that.
-Kak, kak!
‘Damn it!’
Flustered, New Moon came to her senses for an instant at the sound of Gudiao suffering.
She hurriedly pulled a talisman from within her clothes.
It was a talisman of the Imperial Ink Incantation.
-Clap clap clap!
Rapidly forming hand seals with her left hand, she chanted a spell.
“By decree of the Jade Emperor, divine ink descends, taking shape like clouds and mist, the nine stars align, divine ink sweeps lightly, thunder strikes the chaotic world, hurry and obey like the law!”
(By the command of the Jade Emperor, I send forth divine ink, like clouds and mist, and the nine stars array themselves. When the divine ink is lightly ground, it brings thunder upon the disorderly world. Execute it swiftly in accordance with the heavenly law.)
It was the instant the spell ended.
-Pachichichichi!
“Ugh!”
Blue sparks burst around the hand gripping Gudiao, and a violent convulsion ran through Mok Gyeong-un’s body.
A small amount of thunder power flows within every human body.
The talisman art of the Imperial Ink Incantation temporarily heightens that thunder power, paralyzing the target’s nerves and causing muscular convulsions.
“Gudiao!”
Thinking Mok Gyeong-un would be unable to move from the shock, New Moon tried to snatch away Gudiao, her shikigami.
But then,
-Clench!
-Kakakakakak!
Gudiao suffered even more.
What was happening?
‘The Imperial Ink Incantation did not work. Could it be because he has learned martial arts?’
For ordinary people, unless they had a peculiar constitution, occult arts generally worked to some degree.
But martial artists knew how to handle qi, so there were cases where talisman arts and occult arts themselves simply did not work on them.
New Moon assumed that Mok Gyeong-un, being from a martial clan, naturally had learned inner power, and that was why.
Of course, contrary to that guess, Mok Gyeong-un had not endured it through the power of inner energy.
‘Lucky.’
It had not been intentional.
For a very brief instant, Mok Gyeong-un had indeed been unable to move from the shock.
Yet even in that instant of being electrocuted, he had been unfolding the Form of Attachment, and the thunder energy temporarily amplified inside his body gathered into his right hand.
Without missing that instant, Mok Gyeong-un instead discharged that converged thunder qi into Gudiao.
-Kakakakakak!
That was why Gudiao had suffered.
‘Gudiao!’
As her shikigami suffered even more, her heart grew urgent, and she tried to cast another art.
New Moon rolled up both sleeves at the wrists.
Attached at both of her wrists were the Heavenly Bull Talisman and the Earthly Bull Talisman.
-Swish!
She drew out a talisman from her waist.
It was a talisman inscribed with Dipper Bull Talisman.
She bit the end of that talisman in her mouth and formed the seal of the Clear Heaven Bridge Decree.
-Snap!
‘Divine Bull Borrowed Power Method.’
This was a technique that temporarily doubled her own strength by reciting the Divine Bull Borrowed Power Spell.
This method had been devised by outstanding occult practitioners to contend against strange phenomena and demons and monsters.
Once it was used, one could exhibit tremendous strength for about a quarter of an hour.
“By decree I summon the Northern Dipper, mighty mountain strength, the heavenly bull, earth bull, and dipper bull troops, the six ding and six jia spirit gods, lend me great strength to shake heaven and earth, ten thousand powers gather, mountain-splitting, sea-moving, without end, enter the fifth form…”
“Demon Monk!”
“Huh?”
-Papak!
In the middle of reciting her incantation, she hastily bent her body backward.
At some point, the demon monk had appeared and swung his skull rosary over her head like a weapon.
After dodging it, she bit her lip hard.
‘A Yellow Spirit… since when?’
Because she had been focused on Mok Gyeong-un, she had forgotten for the moment.
No, rather, because its condition looked poor, she had not thought it would interfere much.
-Srrrk!
But now that she looked, its state had improved greatly.
The wounds on its body had almost disappeared.
‘That is strange.’
No matter that it was a vengeful spirit without a body, it should not recover this quickly.
She found it puzzling, but at present, priority was taking her shikigami back from Mok Gyeong-un’s hand…
It was right then.
-Kakakakakak!
It was Gudiao’s scream.
Startled, she whipped her head around to look at the captured Gudiao.
Yet the Gudiao that had seemed fine only moments ago had become remarkably gaunt.
Seeing that, New Moon realized that something had gone terribly wrong.
‘Gudiao? W-What in the world is this?’
He was merely gripping its throat with his hand, so why was Gudiao, a demon and monster, like that?
And yet it was growing more and more emaciated.
Panicked, she pulled out the wooden dagger from her waist that had a talisman attached to it and tried to throw it at Mok Gyeong-un.
However,
-Srrrk!
The demon monk blocked her way.
At that, New Moon ran sideways and formed a seal with one hand while chanting,
“Sun and moon flow, let ghost and man walk together, wherever the five branches seek, let nothing fail…”
But before she could finish reciting it,
“Huhk!”
Seized by terrible pain, New Moon clutched her chest.
Realizing instantly where that pain had come from, she looked at Mok Gyeong-un and Gudiao.
“G-Gudiao!”
New Moon’s eyes shook madly.
Gudiao, the demon and monster, had gone past gaunt and was nearly dried out.
It was only letting out groans of suffering, like something one step away from having its breath cut off.
-Kak… kak…
She truly could not understand the situation.
It was already bizarre enough that an ordinary human could seize a demon and monster with his bare hand, but he was not even unfolding occult arts or spells, so why was something like this happening?
“S-Stop!”
She cried out urgently.
At that, Mok Gyeong-un, who was gripping Gudiao’s neck as it withered into skin and bones, paid her no heed.
Rather, he wore a face as though immersed in something.
The only one who could guess why Mok Gyeong-un was acting like this was the Blue Spirit.
-Ha!
Her two eyes saw it exactly.
Gudiao’s energy as a demon and monster was being absorbed through the Form of Attachment.
The demonic aura that made up Gudiao was a yin force opposite to life-nurturing energy, so it contained death aura within it.
‘There is far more of it.’
At first, this had merely been a means to grab hold of Gudiao.
But once he started absorbing energy through the Form of Attachment, Mok Gyeong-un realized it at once.
Compared to when he killed a human, a far greater quantity of death aura was contained inside this demon and monster.
At this level, he might be able to secure enough in one stroke to form his dantian.
So he continued to draw in Gudiao’s energy.
Gudiao could control bugs, but beyond that, it had no particularly special physical abilities for one of the demons and monsters, so there was no way for it to escape the Form of Attachment.
-Uyeoo…
Thus, after all of its energy had been absorbed, Gudiao was one step from having its breath cut off.
It was exactly then.
-Thud!
New Moon fell to her knees on the floor and shouted desperately to Mok Gyeong-un,
“Please let that child go.”
Gudiao was a precious shikigami to her.
She could not lose the shikigami that had been like family to her for four years.
New Moon cried out,
“If you let it go, I will give up the commission!”
At that, Mok Gyeong-un briefly stopped the Form of Attachment and turned his head toward her.
Then he looked at New Moon with eyes that seemed interested.
‘You are giving up over something like this?’
It was unexpected.
It was not even a human, but a demon and monster.
He had not thought she would even kneel like this just to save a mere shikigami.
‘Hmm.’
Was this bird-mouthed thing that precious?
With a faint laugh, Mok Gyeong-un looked at her and opened his mouth.
“Did you say a commission?”
“That is right.”
“Whose commission was it?”
‘Ah!’
For an instant, she realized her mistake.
In her haste, she had said she would give up the commission.
The most important rule in this line of work was to keep silent about the client to the very end.
Yet she had made a mistake.
“I will ask again. Whose commission was it?”
“That…”
Trust was important in this line of work too.
To break that meant…
“It seems you do not really want to save this thing after all. Then…”
As Mok Gyeong-un moved to unfold the Form of Attachment again, the hesitating New Moon finally answered,
“Madam Seok… the First Madam of this Yeon Mok Sword Manor commissioned it.”
At her words, Mok Gyeong-un gave a small laugh.
He had expected it anyway and had guessed who the client was.
He had only asked to confirm it.
“Just as expected.”
“……….”
Perhaps feeling self-loathing from having revealed the client, New Moon’s face had darkened.
To her, Mok Gyeong-un asked again,
“Do you know an occult practitioner named Myo-shin?”
“………”
-Kak!
At that, Gudiao, which had only barely been clinging to life, suffered yet again.
At the sight, New Moon answered in alarm,
“Y-Yes, I do!”
“Your answers are slower than I expected. From now on, if there is no answer, I will simply dispose of this.”
-Gnash!
At those words, New Moon ground her teeth.
Though young, she was an occult practitioner with a fair amount of experience, and this was the first time in her life she had gone through something like this.
To be threatened through her shikigami like this.
If the Pavilion Master or the other occult practitioners found out, they would laugh at her, but for her, who had no family, Gudiao and money were her whole life.
“I-I will answer. I will answer properly, so please do not do that.”
“I will watch. Then I will keep asking questions, so answer them. If you accepted the commission, then you received money, right?”
“Yes.”
“How much did you receive?”
“One thousand silver taels.”
“You were paid quite a lot.”
“……..”
“What exactly was the content of the commission?”
“That Third Young Master Mok Gyeong-un had been possessed by a strange phenomenon and had killed someone, so I was told to forcibly exorcise it.”
“That does not sound like the whole of it.”
“I was told it did not matter even if he lost his life during the exorcism. And… I was told to recover the secret manual from you.”
“Aha.”
Mok Gyeong-un let out a small laugh.
As expected.
Because she had judged it to be some unknown force in the handling of shikigami, she had likely not wanted to take risks and had instead hired another occult practitioner.
Mok Gyeong-un stared intently at her.
Then he asked,
“Do you have other companions?”
At that question, New Moon thought for a brief instant, then answered,
“…Yes.”
She had almost said no, but answered because she thought that if Mok Gyeong-un knew there were other occult practitioners besides her, he would not dare do something rash.
As though that guess had proven right,
“Hmm. So there are companions… then do those companions also know that you are doing this right now?”
“They all know.”
She answered at once, feeling this was well.
If he knew it was a group, she thought Mok Gyeong-un would grow more cautious.
And that prediction seemed to be correct to some degree.
“That makes this rather troublesome.”
From the fact that she had companions and all of them knew what she was doing, Mok Gyeong-un found the situation quite troublesome.
He had killed Myo-shin, and now another occult practitioner, her, had come.
Then even if she died, there was a high chance another occult practitioner would come again.
“Do they also know that I am the target of the commission?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
Seeing him like this, New Moon thought things might perhaps work out well.
Though she had promised to give up the commission, this man was very dangerous.
Though her white eye was injured and she could not judge precisely, it seemed that rather than being possessed by a vengeful spirit, this man truly handled one.
‘…Does he really control them as shikigami?’
To control a vengeful spirit as a shikigami was truly impossible.
Whatever would have to be done later would need discussion with the Pavilion Master, but for now, she could only hope that this man, fearing future troubles, would let both her and Gudiao go.
At that moment, while stroking his chin, Mok Gyeong-un opened his mouth.
“This really leaves me no choice.”
‘Haah.’
At those words, she let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
What a relief…
-Crush!
-Kakakak!
At that moment, Gudiao screamed in pain again.
New Moon shouted in alarm,
“I-I answered, so why are you doing that?”
“Ah… no matter how I think about it, whether I let you go or not, it feels as though other occult practitioners will come again one way or another. Is that not so?”
“……….”
At that question, New Moon could not bring herself to answer.
Even if she wanted to deceive him, this man was too shrewd to fool easily.
“The fact that you are not answering means I am right.”
With a bright smile, Mok Gyeong-un said,
“Then say goodbye to this bird-beak.”
And with those words, Mok Gyeong-un unfolded the Form of Attachment and tried to absorb the rest of Gudiao’s remaining energy.
In that instant, New Moon, her eyes reddening, shouted,
“Stop! Stop! I will do anything, so please do not kill that child!”
At her plea, Mok Gyeong-un curled the corner of his lips in a sinister smile.
* * *
The front yard of Hyehwa Hall.
Madam Seok stood there with her hands behind her back, waiting endlessly.
This time, the matter absolutely had to be dealt with for certain.
If that insolent wretch Mok Gyeong-un truly attached himself to the Second Young Master Mok Eun-pyeong and handed over the secret manual, the situation could be reversed.
That was why she hoped the occult practitioner called New Moon would resolve it well.
“Madam, the wind outside is cold. Would it not be better to go inside and wait?”
One of the maidservants, So-hwa, said to her.
At that, Madam Seok shook her head.
“How can I do that when we do not know how this will turn out?”
If anything unexpected happened, she intended to handle the aftermath at once.
If it could not be had, then no one should be allowed to have it.
It was while she was waiting like that.
“Madam, the occult practitioner is coming over there.”
The guard Ho Aeng pointed with her hand toward the entrance of the building leading into Hyehwa Hall.
There, the occult practitioner New Moon could be seen.
“Ah.”
Madam Seok’s face brightened at the sight of her unharmed.
That meant the commission seemed to have succeeded.
“Congratulations, Madam.”
“Do not celebrate too soon.”
She thought that once New Moon reached the front yard of Hyehwa Hall, she would bring her inside and quickly ask how she had accomplished it, and whether she had also obtained the secret manual.
But after crossing the entrance of the building, New Moon stopped midway.
Madam Seok found that strange.
She watched to see what it was, and saw New Moon taking something like a talisman from within her clothes.
‘What is she doing?’
Unable to bear the frustration, she finally gestured for her to come and said,
“What are you doing there? Come here and tell me…”
Before she could finish speaking, the occult practitioner New Moon shouted loudly,
“First Madam! Our Ghost Shadow Pavilion cannot kill Young Master Mok Gyeong-un as you requested!”
‘!!!!!!’
It was shouted so loudly that Madam Seok, Guard Ho Aeng, and even the maidservants could not hide their bewilderment.
What in the world was this supposed to mean?
‘This bitch has gone mad.’
But it did not end there.
“Young Master Mok Gyeong-un is not possessed by a strange phenomenon! Therefore, please do not make this kind of request to our Pavilion again! If you do make such a request, then…”
With those words, the occult practitioner New Moon formed a hand seal and began reciting some spell.
“Five spirits like thunder, move like lightning, breathe across ten thousand li, appear and vanish through the four seas, toward the place intended…”
Realizing that something had gone wrong, Guard Ho Aeng hurriedly tried to launch herself toward New Moon to seize her.
It was right then.
“Huhk!”
“Aah!”
The two maidservants Madam Seok had brought from her maiden home clutched at their chests in agony.
Their faces turned dark red, and the veins in their foreheads swelled as though they would burst.
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