Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 46 - Attack (1)

Chapter 46 – Attack (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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A man in dark blue daoist robes with two Six Jia Master Talismans and one Thunder Duke Seal Talisman affixed to his forehead, chest, and abdomen wore a face full of tension as he continuously recited an incantation.

“Radiance of yang, divine threatening hidden blade, receive and seize yin demons, conceal the mark and hide the form, one path of numinous talismans, no enemies in the four dwellings, false horse with hidden station and force, heavenly soldiers go above, urgent, urgent, by decree!”

The spell he was reciting was the Western Talisman Spell, a kind of concealment technique.

The man in the dark blue daoist robe, his face wet with cold sweat, kept vigilantly watching his surroundings.

So long as he recited the spell, no one could discover him.

Its drawback was that he could not move and had to continue reciting the spell without pause.

‘Damn it.’

He was regretting this.

Because he handled Gudiao, a demon-spirit reaching the class of a monstrous beast, and had more experience than New Moon, he had thought that if he was only careful, he could certainly uncover the truth.

But that had been his miscalculation.

‘How could something like this happen……’

This was not Green Spirit class.

There was absolutely no way it could be.

If it had been a Green Spirit, then if his occult arts and his shikigami Gudiao combined forces, he would have been able to face it somehow.

Yet in an instant it broke the binding art he had cast and injured him.

The man’s back was soaked in blood.

‘Gudiao……..’

His shikigami Gudiao had lured that existence away.

That was in order to buy him time.

But then a problem arose.

Thanks to his admirable shikigami, he thought he had escaped this situation, but he could not understand what was happening now.

-Sasasasak!

Just who were these masked figures?

Thanks to the concealment technique, he had avoided their gaze, but they did not seem to be warriors of Yeon Mok Sword Manor.

If they were, then they would not have entered wearing masks in the middle of the night.

“Conceal the mark and hide the form, one path of numinous talismans, no enemies in the four dwellings, false horse with hidden station and force, heavenly soldiers go above…….”

It was a difficult situation.

Because of the blood loss from the wound on his back, his strength was gradually draining away.

He did not know what they were after, but these masked figures were searching every nook and cranny around the area for something.

He had to endure until they were gone, but it was too hard.

‘I have to endure. Somehow.’

It was then.

‘What?’

Someone quite different from the masked figures searching the area revealed himself.

He was someone wearing an eyepatch and leaning on a cane.

The instant he saw him, the man could know instinctively.

‘An occult practitioner?’

The extraordinary aura coming from him.

It was one of the traits that appeared in someone who had long trained in occult arts.

And even apart from that, just the hand seal formed in his left hand was itself a basic thing of occult arts.

‘The chase art?’

It was the spell art used when seeking a desired target.

The man frowned.

Judging by how naturally the masked figures continued their work while leaving that occult practitioner alone, they were clearly on the same side.

But occult practitioners had one important rule.

Because they cultivated the principles of the Dao and practiced occult arts, they did not directly collude with any worldly group or enter under one as a subordinate.

Until only ten years ago, this had been strictly observed.

Then that rule had been broken by a certain person and one organization of occult practitioners.

‘Don’t tell me?’

These masked figures were……

-Suk!

‘Hup.’

The man’s breathing roughened.

Because the eyepatched man was standing right in front of him.

He was using a concealment technique, so there was no way he should have been found, and yet he could not understand what this meant.

As he stood there in confusion, the eyepatched occult practitioner opened his mouth.

“If you wanted to use concealment, you should at least have erased your traces completely.”

‘Traces? Ah!’

Only then did the man realize.

That the blood flowing from his back was dripping onto the ground.

At that moment, the eyepatched man recited a spell and strongly struck the ground with his cane.

“Spirit eye receives the transmission, each awakens in brightness, urgent, urgent, by decree. Dispel!”

-Thud!

-Swaaaaar!

At that moment, the space twisted around the cane, and together with that, the figure of the man who had been completely invisible emerged into sight.

Startled, the man leaped backward and tried to employ another occult art.

However,

-Chak! Chak! Chak!

Lin. Bing. Jie. Zhen.

As the seals of the Nine-Character Reviving Method continued, the man’s feet adhered to the ground.

At the same time, his body sagged and his strength drained away.

The man’s eyes widened.

‘A spell of this degree with hand seals alone?’

Occult arts were completed through various combinations.

Incantation, talisman, word, seal, implement.

When those five harmonized exquisitely, they formed an art.

A low-level occult practitioner had to use all four methods to bring forth an art, but one of high level could reduce those requirements.

‘At minimum, he is a Square Moon or above.’

Occult practitioners received six levels of titles according to their skill.

From the top down, they were Divine, Sun, Moon, Skill, Mysterious, Conveyance.

The man became certain.

This eyepatched man was an occult practitioner with at least Square Moon rank and extremely formidable occult skill.

Tensing heavily, the man said,

“I am Mogo, a Skill rank of Ghost Shadow Pavilion. You are……”

-Clench!

“Mmph!”

Before he could finish speaking, the eyepatched man seized the mouth of the Ghost Shadow Pavilion occult practitioner who had identified himself as Mogo.

Then, curling one corner of his mouth with a chilling smile, he said,

“You dared interfere in the business of this Origin Kill Pavilion, so you had already prepared yourself for death, didn’t you?”

‘Ori…..Origin Kill Pavilion?’

Unfortunately, his ominous guess had been correct.

Though they were a member of the Sixty-Four Pavilions of the Square and Circle, one group of occult practitioners had entered beneath a giant martial organization.

That was Origin Kill Pavilion.

* * *

Meanwhile, at that same time,

-Chaechaechaeng!

The front of the main hall had grown noisy with the sound of clashing weapons.

-Thud!

“W-what is this?”

Led by Manor Lord Mok In-dan, the Mok brothers who had come out from the room could not hide their bewilderment.

What had been quiet only moments before had turned into a battlefield inside Yeon Mok Sword Manor.

Warriors of Yeon Mok Sword Manor and unidentified masked figures were all mixed together and fighting, and it was difficult to guess how such a thing had happened.

“Madam, what in the world has happened?”

The Manor Lord asked the First Madam, Madam Seok, who stood helpless in front of the main hall.

Because the retainers and the Inner Hall Lord Jang Myeong-in were already fighting the masked figures, the only people there who could be asked were her and the second madam, Madam Jang.

At that, Madam Seok said as though bewildered,

“I-I don’t know. It hadn’t even been long since the Outer Hall warriors shouted that it was an enemy attack, but masked figures rushed in all at once and it turned into this.”

“What Elder Sister says is true. It happened so suddenly that we too don’t know what it means.”

At the words of the wives, the Manor Lord’s expression darkened.

Even if it was a surprise attack in the middle of the night, if they had enough force to break through the outer defense line of Yeon Mok Sword Manor this quickly and push in, then they were not ordinary people.

-Sreung!

With his unfamiliar left hand, Manor Lord Mok In-dan drew his sword.

He did not know who they were, but the retainers and warriors alone were not enough to block them.

The Manor Lord burst out in a roar and raised sword aura.

“Who dares attack the great Yeon Mok Sword Manor? You had best prepare to cast your lives away!”

“Waaaaaaah!!!”

At the sight of the Manor Lord, the warriors confronting the masked figures cheered.

Since their lord, who had long lain bedridden, had appeared, their morale could not help but rise.

“Come! Let us protect Yeon Mok Sword Manor!”

-Pat!

When Manor Lord Mok In-dan flew forward and took the lead, the Mok brothers and even the two wives from martial families were stirred as well and followed him with cries.

“Protect Yeon Mok Sword Manor!”

Of course, not everyone was like that.

Mok Gyeong-un alone did not take part in this battlefield.

Acting naturally as if he were following behind, he slipped aside and moved to a place with fewer eyes on him.

‘Is it about time to leave?’

There was no reason for him to protect this place.

He did not care whether these people fought the masked figures and died or not.

Only one thing weighed on his mind.

‘That scar.’

That scar mark on the side of Manor Lord Mok In-dan.

It resembled that mark.

He wanted to ask how it had been made, but unfortunately this incident had broken out.

‘Would it be better to help?’

He hesitated.

Just then, Mok Gyeong-un felt something strangely filling up.

‘This is…..ah!’

It was none other than death aura.

Mok Gyeong-un closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and savored the rapidly increasing aura of death.

‘Good.’

It seemed quite a number of people had died in a short span of time.

Otherwise, there was no way death aura would be overflowing everywhere like this.

Because of that, he absolutely could not ignore it.

‘I want to absorb it.’

Opportunities like this were quite rare.

The only problem was that masked figures were springing out from place to place, so if he relaxed even slightly it could be dangerous.

-Pat!

At that moment, someone appeared beside him.

It was a beautiful woman with captivating looks.

It was Guard Gochan occupying Ha Chae-rin’s body.

“Young Master. Are you all right?”

Faced with the sudden assault, he had hurriedly come searching for Mok Gyeong-un.

Because their fates were linked, finding him had not been difficult at all.

At that, Mok Gyeong-un let out a small laugh and said,

“Good. Could you guard me for a moment?”

“Pardon?”

“Then I leave it to you.”

With those words, Mok Gyeong-un sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

Then, through the reverse breathing cultivation method, he began absorbing the death aura continuously flowing in from all around.

‘No. What is he doing right now?’

At this sight, Gochan was momentarily dumbfounded.

No matter how little attachment he had to Yeon Mok Sword Manor, his nerve was so swollen that he was truly bold beyond measure.

To think he intended to circulate qi in a place no different from a battlefield.

Still, Gochan felt he understood why Mok Gyeong-un was doing such a thing.

‘So it wasn’t qi he was absorbing, but this?’

Though he was possessing Ha Chae-rin, Gochan was still a resentful soul.

Because of that he had ghost eyes, and he could see the energy of the dead flowing from all sides being absorbed into Mok Gyeong-un at a rapid speed.

To ghost eyes, the yang qi and vitality of living humans looked clear and warm.

But Mok Gyeong-un, absorbing death aura, looked close to the exact opposite.

‘Is he really human?’

To think he was only learning this bastard’s true face after dying.

Somehow, he grew even more afraid.

It was just then.

-Srrr!

‘Huh?’

Then, from somewhere, a huge monk appeared wearing a necklace of skull beads around his neck.

It was the demon monk who had possessed the body of the Outer Hall Lord.

Yet why had the demon monk appeared once again in the state of a resentful soul?

‘What a scare.’

Startled by his sudden appearance, Gochan then recalled being told that Mok Gyeong-un had another shikigami besides Blue Spirit.

‘I definitely heard he had possessed the Outer Hall Lord’s body.’

Feeling puzzled, Gochan asked,

“C-could it be Senior Demon Monk?”

-………

Then the demon monk nodded and said something.

It sounded as if he were mumbling, which made it awkward, but Gochan understood what he meant.

“You lost your body to a stronger one?”

To lose one’s body meant that the possessed flesh had been destroyed or taken.

As far as Gochan knew, Outer Hall Lord Sang Ung-baek had been an expert at the threshold of the peak realm.

Then if he had lost that body, just how strong had the opponent been……?

-Kwaajik!

“Kuh!”

At that moment, with the sound of something being crushed, a dying scream rang out, and then a scar-covered man of great height carrying a thick-bladed tachi across his shoulder came over the pavilion wall.

He gave off an ominous atmosphere, and the demon monk frowned and pointed at him.

-………

“Pardon? That man?”

Was that the one who had killed the demon monk’s possessed body?

As that happened, the scar-covered man and Gochan’s eyes met.

At that instant,

-Flinch!

‘W-what is this?’

The qi-sense of Ha Chae-rin’s body, which had reached the peak realm, was issuing a strong warning.

It was telling him that the man before his eyes was an extraordinary expert.

If even Ha Chae-rin’s body instinctively grew this wary, just what level was he?

Gochan could not gauge it at all.

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