Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 68 - Gu Poison (3)
Chapter 68 – Gu Poison (3)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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It was on the verge of the end of its corruption, and so it was gradually regaining its reason.
Of course, even if its reason had returned, it was still eroded by madness, so there was no helping its endless hunger.
That was why it devoured everything in sight without stop.
The only things it could devour were vengeful spirits in the same condition as itself.
For more than ten years it had eaten and eaten these vengeful spirits, who were trapped beneath this cliff, screaming and suffering.
It had not been like this from the beginning.
When the vengeful spirits devoured one another, it had only fled and hidden in the desire to survive.
But that desire to live eventually led to an explosion of resentment and madness.
It had already been more than ten years since, seized by madness, it began devouring whatever it could, and within that cycle of repetition, something else intruded.
As if finding it strange, it looked at the being bound in chains.
‘A human?’
Could it possibly be a living being?
For a long time this place had been filled only with vengeful spirits.
New vengeful spirits were added periodically, but not once had any living being appeared.
And yet a living being had appeared in a hellish place like this?
-Parrrrrr!
It could not contain its excitement.
Dead vengeful spirits alone could not dispel this mad, ravenous hunger.
But this living being that had appeared was more than enough to stir its curiosity.
‘Be afraid.’
Thus it intended to bestow fear and terror upon it.
The fear and terror that came from living beings were tremendous nourishment to a vengeful spirit.
But,
“We are of one mind there.”
What in the world was this human?
He was smiling in a situation like this.
And that smile was so full of malice that it was unpleasant to behold.
With just a little force, the limbs bound by chains could be torn apart, yet the way he acted at ease was intolerable.
Very well, then. I will tear off your limbs one by one, devour them, and enjoy watching you suffer.
-Chaaaaaang!
With a single gesture of its hand, Mok Gyeong-un, who was bound by chains, was forcibly dragged over.
Knowing that he could do nothing against it with strength anyway, Mok Gyeong-un offered no resistance at all.
Even in the process, the smile still remained at the corners of his mouth.
Because he was so calm and composed, it grew even angrier.
So it drew the chains all the way in front of itself and said,
-I will strip off all your skin, flay your flesh piece by piece, and devour even your bones.
At that threat, Mok Gyeong-un sneered and said,
“What a refined hobby you have.”
-Refined?
Insolent human.
To act at ease right before its nose.
Fine. Then let it see whether he could still act that way after suffering pain.
-Stab! Chwareureureu!
In an instant, one of the chains pierced into Mok Gyeong-un’s left shoulder.
Whether he was brazen or simply dull to fear did not matter.
Once he experienced pain, it would be different in the end.
And yet,
“Is this all?”
His expression did not change in the slightest, and he still sneered.
If this was not enough, fine.
At its glance, the chains covering the ground like writhing snakes moved as though alive.
-Chaaaaang! Chwareureureu!
-Pupupuk!
One chain pierced Mok Gyeong-un’s right shoulder,
and two others pierced his thighs.
As if that were not enough, another dug into his abdomen.
-Stab!
This was not pain that could be endured by mental strength alone.
The chains felt so extremely cold and hot that the moment they touched flesh and organs, they brought pain as though they would burn and freeze them at once.
Everything began from the mind.
This human must be tasting the worst pain possible…
‘!?’
What was this fellow?
His expression still had not changed in the slightest.
Rather, he merely snorted and stared straight at it.
How could a living being bound by the fetters of the flesh endure this pain without care?
While it was marveling at this, Mok Gyeong-un opened his mouth.
“Do you think doing something like this will make me afraid or make me suffer?”
-……….
“You are wasting your effort.”
-Kururururur!
The moment Mok Gyeong-un finished those mocking words, the entire space shook violently as if struck by an earthquake.
It had grown deeply enraged.
A mere insignificant thing dared mock it?
Very well. Then just as he wished, it would devour him alive.
-Chwareureureureu!
As the chains pulled, Mok Gyeong-un’s body, with all four limbs held, was dragged right before its nose.
Then it opened its mouth wide.
The mouth spread open between the chains was far removed from anything human.
Perhaps because it had been corrupted from tearing apart and eating countless vengeful spirits, hundreds of sharp spikes had sprouted from it, and purple smoke flowed out from within its mouth.
-Geueoooooooo!
Its mouth had grown large enough to swallow Mok Gyeong-un in a single bite.
-Chwareureureureu!
The chains embedded in his body were released one by one.
With a clatter, Mok Gyeong-un’s body drew closer to the inside of its opened mouth.
-Chwareureureureu!
It was when almost from his head to around his shoulders had reached the mouth it held open.
At that moment, something alien dropped from Mok Gyeong-un.
-Tok!
It thought it was merely blood or a piece of flesh falling away and did not consider it important.
But the moment that thing went down through its throat,
-Chiiiiiiii!
it felt pain as though its throat were burning away.
-Ggeueueuk! You! What in the world!?
“You should not let your guard down just because you think you have caught someone.”
The ring that had been on Mok Gyeong-un’s hand was no longer visible.
That was right.
What had gone down its throat was the ring filled with an incantation made by Occult Practitioner Jo Ui-gong.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un made a hand seal with one hand and shouted loudly.
-Papapapapak!
“By imperial decree, divine ink and heroic spirit, form like cloud and mist, split the old citadel, divine ink reveres demon and lightning parts it, urgent, urgent, by decree!”
It was the Imperial Ink Divine Incantation.
The moment that shout rang out, bright light burst forth from inside its mouth.
-Uuuuuuuung!
It was a spell that summoned a god into a ring containing an incantation, causing a powerful force to explode and exorcise the vengeful spirit.
Since it was a ring containing an incantation and had exploded from inside, its might was
-Kraaaaaaaaaaah!
enough to make even it, which had ceaselessly corrupted, suffer under the exploding spell power.
However, this was still not enough to exorcise it, whose rank was high.
Though its body, which had been writhing in pain, caved inward for a moment, it still retained its form.
-Chwareureureureu!
But thanks to the fact that it had weakened, if only temporarily, the chains binding Mok Gyeong-un’s body vanished as though scattering away.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un hurled himself toward its mouth, which was opened wide in pain.
-!?
What was he doing?
To throw himself into its mouth of his own accord?
It did not miss the chance and tried to chew up Mok Gyeong-un whole as he leaped in.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un thrust his hand toward its throat.
-Pak!
And then,
‘Mujeolmangnyeoseo ihyeongwisimyang muojeongeosang musanghyeongwijeon magaryanghaegeo yeokhaemugeukhyeol.’
he recited the formula of the Form of Attachment.
It was the decisive move.
The most direct method by which he could absorb the death aura of that giant mass of resentment.
He was aiming for inside its body.
Outside, he would be bound by the chains, so this was his only method.
But then,
-Suuuuuk!
‘Hm?’
Rather than his body, as he unfolded the Form of Attachment, drawing in its energy, Mok Gyeong-un was instead sucked deep into its mouth as though he had been overpowered by sheer weight.
As though there were a hidden space inside its mouth, Mok Gyeong-un’s body fell deep inside.
-Shuuuuuuuuuk!
Within darkness like a bottomless pit.
Mok Gyeong-un’s body was being sucked toward its source.
In that process, pieces of its memories flowed into him like a magic lantern.
[Brother! Brother! I will always remain with you.]
[I will support our clan as your right arm. So do not worry.]
A younger brother who followed with a bright smile.
And a stern father.
[It is for this Society’s long-standing wish. The descendants of the other Five Kings have all agreed to do it as well, so you too are to join and set the example.]
[I will bear it in mind.]
Soon a familiar place appeared within the memory.
As though repeated several times before, the place visible in the darkness was the valley where the iron-ball struggle had taken place.
[Huff, huff… Brother…]
[Take this.]
[But isn’t this the one you found, Brother?]
[You go on ahead. I can find one quickly.]
[Brother…]
And once again another memory came writhing into view.
Someone struck the back of its head with a sharp stone.
As it turned its head, gasping for breath, the younger brother who had once followed it with such a bright face was looking down at it with cold eyes.
[Y-you… how…]
[You damned bastard. If you just die, everything will be resolved.]
[You… you…]
[Every time, acting superior and pitying me just because you had everything…]
[I… I never…]
[You were only born before me, that’s all.]
With those words, the younger brother brought the stone down on its face.
As if dissatisfied with just one blow, he struck it several more times and then disappeared.
Along with that, a swelling emotion surged up with its rage.
Soon the vision that followed was utterly different.
It seemed not to be a memory from when it was alive, but the memories that continued after death.
-Let me eat. Let me eat you.
-Die! Die!
-I’m telling you to die!
Vengeful spirits charged in madly.
It felt overwhelming fear and despair.
Those feelings gradually mounted.
-Why… why am I being devoured like this even after death?
-Did I live only to suffer like this?
-Am I meant to be devoured?
-I…
-I… cannot… be devoured…
-I will… devour… all of you!
As it was being bitten and devoured by those vengeful spirits, its madness finally exploded.
-Uaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
Its mad resentment was so powerful that he felt as though he might be devoured in an instant.
At the same time, a ridiculous amount of death aura flooded in through his palm, and the screams of countless resentments rang through his head.
-I will devour you too!
Its madness was transmitted.
Mok Gyeong-un felt as though his head would split from the desperate howling, but he did not stop the Form of Attachment.
‘Mujeolmangnyeoseo ihyeongwisimyang muojeongeosang musanghyeongwijeon magaryanghaegeo yeokhaemugeukhyeol.’
* * *
-Kwajijik! Shwaaaaaa!
The head of a vengeful spirit was crushed, and then it scattered into the air like ash.
The owner of the hand holding that head was none other than Blue Spirit.
Blue Spirit let blood-red eye-glow stream out and shouted toward the whirlwinds that were closing in as if surrounding her.
-If you are so desperate to be extinguished, come as much as you like, little ones.
At her shout, the whirlwinds halted as though hesitating.
She had thought that, after she annihilated about seven entities close to Yellow Spirit class, they had only now finally become afraid, but then,
-Paaaaaaaaaah!
At that moment, tremendous death aura spread in all directions.
At that, Blue Spirit looked over with a frown.
‘Could it be?’
The source of this was none other than the giant whirlwind.
Cracks had formed within that whirlwind, which was nearing the end of its corruption, and all the power it had been condensing burst forth.
These whirlwinds had stopped moving because they had reacted to it.
And these things, one after another, cracked and split as they moved toward the being that was trying to reveal its form.
-Damn it!
She had only barely turned their gaze away, and now this was beyond troublesome.
Then had there been no point in deliberately unfolding even the Blood Boundary, her Domain of Ghost Intent?
It was just as she thought that.
At that moment,
-Chwareureureureureureu!
-Chwaaaaaaaaaa!
countless chains emerged from within the split cracks and indiscriminately bound the approaching whirlwinds and the many surrounding vengeful spirits.
Their force was so great that even the corrupted vengeful spirits could not move a muscle.
Even several entities that had reached Green Spirit class were no different.
-Aaaaaaah!
-Ggeoeok!
Even those could not endure the chains, and soon
-Shuuuuuuuk!
while still bound, they were sucked just like that into the place where the crack had opened.
She instinctively understood why this phenomenon was happening.
‘Is it about to be completed?’
At last, gu poison was about to be born.
Now it meant to fill what it still lacked by taking whatever it could and transform into the most ideal, no, the worst form.
At that moment, one thick chain flew toward her.
It was not enough that it had devoured the whirlwinds. It was even aiming at Blue Spirit.
-Has it failed in the end?
She muttered while looking at the chain flying toward her.
She could see the red cord tying them together shaking violently.
This phenomenon signaled that the master’s life was in imminent danger.
If the red cord shook like this and scattered away, then she too would be extinguished the same way.
-Chwareureureu!
The chain tried to wrap around her body.
Then she swung her pipe.
At that instant, the very end of the chain, just before touching her, shattered and then burned upward.
-Pat!
Blue Spirit’s body also shot forward along the breaking chain toward the whirlwind where the crack was opening.
-Chwareureureureureu!
-Chwaaaaaaaaaa!
Countless chains poured out to seize her,
but
-Pak! Pak!
every one of them was knocked away by the pipe she swung.
Soon she passed through the opening crack and entered inside.
At the center of that place, where the resentment and death aura rotated like a raging torrent, she saw a being wrapped in chains.
At her ears, the screams of the resentments dragged in earlier echoed like reverberations.
-Run away. Run away. Run away.
-The resentment has reached its end.
-A being of deep despair and blue malice is being born.
Blue malice.
That meant its rank had reached that of Blue Spirit.
Originally, it was the worst kind of vengeful spirit, one that could only be born after a hundred years or more of deep resentment, but it had been made to devour others artificially so that it could be completed as gu poison.
-Shuuuuuuuuu!
Even the screaming vengeful spirits were sucked in, and the chains covering the being deepened in color.
At that, she snorted and muttered,
-Little thing, how arrogant you are. Do you think no one has experienced such a thing before?
At the same time, when Blue Spirit placed her foot on the ground, droplets of blood rose upward from the point where she stood.
One step, then another, and each time they spread in all directions.
Then they collided with the domain of the chained being, and here and there the space rippled as blue flames burst up like tree roots.
-Pachichichichichik!
Blue Spirit’s blood-red eyes gradually darkened.
-If you do not hand over that sentient being, you will be extinguished here the moment you are born, little one.
-Gooooooo!
Its energy rose greatly.
It was exactly at that moment. Just as Blue Spirit was about to take one step farther, the chained being suddenly began twisting its body this way and that.
The condensed energy of resentment was gushing strongly out through the gaps.
-Chakang! Chakang!
Was it acting this way because gu poison was about to be completed?
She had thought that, but then the chains wrapped around it tightened around itself.
As if it were strangling itself.
‘What is this?’
The process of change was grotesque beyond words.
As she stared in puzzlement, cracks suddenly formed in the chains that were constricting it.
-Jjeojeok!
One crack.
That became two and then rapidly increased.
Soon the chains did not merely crack but shattered and came crashing down onto the ground.
Was the fully completed gu poison finally about to reveal itself?
-Sseuk!
Blue Spirit lifted her pipe and prepared to receive it.
At that moment, all the chains fell away and a human figure revealed itself.
That person was none other than,
-Sentient being!?
Mok Gyeong-un.
Her eyes narrowed.
-Gooooooo!
The tremendous death aura wafting from his body was so condensed it seemed ready to explode at any moment.
Could it be that the completed gu poison had stolen his body?
In a somewhat angry voice, Blue Spirit leveled her pipe and said,
-You fool. In the end, were you devoured after all?
At that question, Mok Gyeong-un’s lips twitched, and then he looked at Blue Spirit and spoke.
“I was not devoured. I devoured it.”
‘!!!!!!’