Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 8 - Strange Phenomenon (1)

Chapter 8 – Strange Phenomenon (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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In front of the Manor Lord’s chamber.

Madam Seok, the First Madam of Yeon Mok Sword Manor, who had been waiting there with straight posture, turned at the sound of footsteps climbing the veranda.

There came a bearded middle-aged man in shabby robes marked with yin and yang designs, carrying on his back a box frame loaded with old books and ritual tools.

He was the occult practitioner Madam Seok had summoned.

This practitioner, called Myo-shin, was someone said to be fairly capable in Meng City.

Madam Seok slowly looked him up and down from head to toe, then clicked her tongue softly with an unconvinced expression.

The practitioner showed not the slightest concern over whether she found his appearance unpleasant.

Even in the face of her attitude, he instead simply matched her mood without complaint.

“May I see the Manor Lord now?”

“Yes.”

“That is fortunate. The longer a strange phenomenon lingers, the worse the situation grows. In that case, please withdraw everyone within thirty zhang of the main hall where the Manor Lord stays. If they remain close, they may take on the ritual impurity clinging to the Manor Lord.”

“I already did.”

Why would she leave witnesses around when summoning an occult practitioner was hardly something to be pleased about?

Under a suitable pretext, she had already cleared the surroundings.

“If Madam would step back as well…”

-Ssk.

At that moment Madam Seok lightly raised her hand and said,

“You remember what I asked?”

At those words, the practitioner smiled broadly and replied,

“Of course.”

“Good. They say Practitioner Myo is very skilled, so I shall trust you.”

Then she lowered her voice and whispered,

“If you can find out only where the Manor Lord’s seal and secret manual are, I will immediately give you three hundred taels of silver as promised.”

“Ah, thank you very much.”

Occult practitioner Myo-shin bowed repeatedly in gratitude.

At the sight, Madam Seok let out a faint breath.

“Hoo.”

In truth, she too had not greatly believed in things like occult arts.

She had only changed because of one incident.

At most, she had summoned the occult practitioner with the faintest shred of hope.

‘… If only you had not thrown your support behind that child, none of this would have happened.’

To think he had considered the child of a mere courtesan, and not even a true wife, as a possible heir.

Resentment gathered in Madam Seok’s eyes as she looked toward the chamber where the Manor Lord lay.

* * *

The road leading to the main hall of Yeon Mok Sword Manor where the Manor Lord was staying.

Walking beside Mok Gyeong-un as his guide, Gochan kept glancing sideways at him.

‘What is he thinking?’

It was certainly true that the Manor Lord’s life was directly linked to that boy’s.

But what did he intend to do by seeing the Manor Lord?

‘Could it be that he means to try and save him?’

If that were the case, it was even more impossible.

He knew the boy’s knowledge of herbs was unusual,

but the Manor Lord had already been given up on by the manor’s own physician and every famous doctor nearby.

They said it was a strange phenomenon whose symptoms and illness could not even be properly named.

The moment they called it a strange phenomenon, it meant there was no way to deal with it.

‘What in the world is his angle?’

He truly could not read the bastard’s thoughts.

‘More than that, is he not worried at all?’

In truth, Gochan worried about something else.

If the boy got noticed and exchanged even a few words with someone, and it was discovered he was fake, a disaster might break out before Guard Gam could even switch lines.

Then Mok Gyeong-un looked somewhere and asked,

“What is that place over there?”

“That is the training ground where martial arts are practiced.”

The place Mok Gyeong-un indicated with a tilt of his chin was the First Training Ground.

Yeon Mok Sword Manor had four training grounds in all, including the Manor Lord’s private one.

The Third Training Ground was for ordinary martial men of the estate, the Second Training Ground for retainers,

and the First Training Ground was reserved for the young masters.

“A place where martial arts are trained…”

Interest flickered in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

At that, Gochan inwardly clicked his tongue.

At a time when his life and death could not even be determined, desire for martial arts was no different from a vain delusion.

‘Even if he starts learning now, does he think he can catch up to Guard Gam?’

He would struggle even to take his first steps, and yet the thought of learning martial arts and killing a first-rate expert was, honestly, absurd.

Then Mok Gyeong-un suddenly called him.

“Bodyguard Gochan.”

“Yes.”

“Every time I see you, I think you have very covetous eyes that dart about nicely.”

‘!?’

Startled, Gochan suddenly stopped walking.

His body stiffened as he turned his head,

and Mok Gyeong-un draped an arm over his shoulder and said,

“It seems you are not quite my man yet.”

“T-that cannot be.”

“Keep your eyes forward, Bodyguard Gochan. Is someone going to eat you if you do?”

‘… You fucking bastard.’

He felt truly uneasy.

Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes were staring precisely at his left eye.

The way he even smacked his lips made it look as if he badly wanted to pluck his eyeball out.

Gochan’s shoulders trembled as he forced his steps forward.

“Pity, isn’t it?”

‘W-what is?’

Cold sweat seemed to run down his back.

The more he learned about this one, the more it felt as though he had laid hands on something he should never have touched.

Trying to suppress his unease as much as possible, Gochan kept walking ahead.

‘Ah…’

Then someone in the training ground caught Gochan’s eye.

There stood a strong-looking youth with his upper body bare.

His bronze-tinted upper-body muscles were well developed, and he was pouring sweat as he held a horse stance.

‘Mok Yu-cheon.’

It was the youngest young master, Mok Yu-cheon.

Though blessed with natural martial talent, he devoted every moment other than meals and sleep to training, such was his zeal.

The Manor Lord did not favor him without reason.

‘He really does live there.’

It would not be an exaggeration to say the First Training Ground was practically Mok Yu-cheon’s exclusive ground.

“Someone is training there.”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Gochan replied in a lowered voice,

“That is the youngest young master.”

“The youngest? So that is Mok Yu-cheon?”

“That is right.”

“Is that how martial arts are practiced?”

“That is horse stance. It builds lower-body strength. You could say the foundation of all martial arts comes from the lower body.”

“I see.”

“Young Master, it would be best not to stare at the youngest too much. You might get entangled with him.”

“Just from looking?”

Gochan frowned and looked at him.

He had certainly seen the information sheet Guard Gam gave him.

The real Mok Gyeong-un’s martial skill was only at the level of a third-rate practitioner.

But because he was a fake, if he got involved carelessly and ran into trouble, the fact that he was an impostor could be exposed.

And beyond that, there was an even bigger problem.

Gochan whispered,

“The youngest young master hates the real Young Master very much.”

“Ah.”

Mok Gyeong-un nodded.

The information sheet the real Mok Gyeong-un had written contained this line.

[I cannot stand the sight of that lowborn bastard swaggering around because he has talent in martial arts. It should not happen, but if by any chance we meet, avoid speaking with him.]

He had written it with enough hostility that it was clear something had happened.

“Why does he hate him?”

At the question, Gochan hesitated briefly, then leaned close and whispered,

“… The real Young Master once belittled the youngest young master’s mother as a vulgar courtesan bitch and got beaten half to death for it.”

That had already been two years ago.

He still remembered it.

The sight of the real Mok Gyeong-un crawling on the ground with his leg bones and ribs shattered.

He had screamed for his life quite terribly.

Because of that incident, the youngest young master Mok Yu-cheon truly hated Mok Gyeong-un.

“He seems gentle-hearted.”

“What?”

“If nothing else, he left his limbs intact.”

‘…’

Gochan frowned.

As expected, this bastard’s way of thinking was different.

Even if this was about the real one, it was effectively about himself too.

In any case, this was not the time to stand here.

“Anyway, let us hurry. Right now it is best not to run into the other young masters. It could really become dangerous.”

At Gochan’s warning, Mok Gyeong-un merely gave a faint smile without speaking.

It truly was an entertaining place.

Just looking at the way the brothers fought among themselves.

With that, they passed the training ground and went to the main hall where the Manor Lord lay.

Seeing the pavilion at the entrance to the main hall, Gochan’s face tightened.

‘What?’

Normally, the manor’s guard warriors stood watch in front of the entrance pavilion to the main hall.

Yet there was no one there.

Come to think of it, the surroundings were far too quiet.

There was not even a shadow in sight.

‘This is troublesome…’

Because the Manor Lord’s condition had worsened severely, by Madam Seok’s order even the young masters had not been permitted near the main hall.

So Gochan had guided Mok Gyeong-un here without argument, assuming they would certainly be stopped and sent back anyway.

But now it looked like they might really get to see the Manor Lord.

* * *

Inside the Manor Lord’s chamber.

-More than a dozen red threads had been strung in a ring around the sickbed,

and silver coins with holes through the center were hanging between the threads.

Clink, clink.

The silver coins rang as they struck one another.

“Hmmm.”

Occult practitioner Myo-shin, who had bared the Manor Lord’s upper body and was looking at his chest, clicked his tongue.

Usually when he was called for a strange phenomenon, it had little to do with the real thing.

-In such cases, all he had to do was say he was performing occult arts and kill time appropriately.

But this time was not like that.

Bulge. Bulge.

Blackened veins centered at the middle of the Manor Lord’s chest jutted out in a grotesquely swollen way.

At a glance it almost looked like a symptom of poisoning.

But what was eerie was that the area kept moving.

‘It is heading toward the heart.’

The black veins and the pale, afflicted part were pushing toward the heart.

Yet it still had not reached it, as though something were blocking it.

Occult practitioner Myo-shin grinned.

‘A martial man is still a martial man. His vital essence is strong, so the impurity cannot pierce the heart. If it were not this strong, the killer aura should have already devoured him.’

The Manor Lord was enduring well.

But even so, the situation had clearly reached the brink.

Judging by the Manor Lord’s physical state, he had long since been tainted by impurity and had grown feeble.

‘Fifty-fifty.’

At this point, even if the impurity were purified, the chance of survival was fifty-fifty.

There were few things harder than rebounding both impurity and killer aura at the same time.

But for now, there was no need to go that far.

‘I only have to do what I was hired for.’

The commission was not to save the Manor Lord from the strange phenomenon.

It was only to make him spit out where the Manor Lord’s seal and secret manual were before he died.

-Occult practitioner Myo-shin took out a talisman from his case.

Then he dripped red ink into an inkstone he had prepared beforehand.

Tap, tap.

Dipping the brush into the red ink, Myo-shin began to inscribe characters onto the talisman.

As he drew the strokes,

they gradually took the shape of the character for ghost.

-Myo-shin recited something in a small voice.

“Heavenly Emperor Shakra Incantation… Celestial Steel Worn Upon the Body… malevolent ghosts of the five directions… why do you not perish… one breath of the flying immortal… ten thousand ghosts bow and hide… Great Vajra, Great Sage, enter the ghost’s heart and seize its qi.”

Tremble.

It was strange.

-The tip of the talisman quivered on its own.

Holding the trembling talisman, Myo-shin affixed it to the center of the Manor Lord’s chest, where the strange phenomenon was continuously advancing toward the heart.

-Tap.

It was right then.

Bulge. Bulge. Bulge.

-Centered around the place where the talisman had been affixed, the black veins began to recede.

At that, Myo-shin formed a hand seal.

Clack.

[Im]

With the two index fingers together and the others interlaced, Im signified the Immovable Root Seal.

[Byeong]

Supporting with the index fingers, he unfolded and brought together the middle fingers that had been intertwined.

Together with that, he began chanting the guardian-killer spell.

“So-cheong hyeon-dan hyeon-ho great general, august spirit manifest in golden body, yellow armor and iron chains upon the five gods, slash the four ghosts and cut the goblins…”

As he recited the guardian-killer spell, spasms shook the Manor Lord’s body.

Faint steam began to rise from the spot where the talisman had been placed.

[Gae]

He interlaced all his fingers.

This signified the Outer Binding Seal.

At once, the Manor Lord’s throat bulged outward.

His face reddened, as though his airway were blocked.

At that, Myo-shin’s expression hardened.

‘The killer aura is too strong.’

Myo-shin rose from his seat, formed a Sword Formula Finger Seal with his right hand, and raised it toward the Manor Lord’s throat.

Then he continued the guardian-killer incantation.

-“The red tiger marshal under the heavenly altar comes to descend, slash goblins and exterminate the four spirits, by swift decree…”

The spell was not yet finished.

Creeeak.

-At that moment, the closed chamber door slowly opened.

Because of that, three of the red threads tied to the door came loose, and the silver coins attached to them fell rattling to the ground.

Clatter.

-‘Damn it!’

It was in that instant.

Boom.

“Hngh!”

-With a powerful rebound, occult practitioner Myo-shin’s body was flung backward.

The force was so great that he did not know how far he would fly,

when someone caught him by the back.

Thud.

Startled, Myo-shin turned his head.

The one holding him was a beautiful boy with remarkably refined features.

-The boy was none other than Mok Gyeong-un.

For an instant Myo-shin was momentarily speechless because of the boy’s striking looks,

but then anger rose at being interrupted.

“I said no one was to enter, so how…”

Flinch.

Yet occult practitioner Myo-shin could not finish his anger.

That was because he had discovered Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes, unmoving like those of a corpse.

‘How can a living person have eyes like these?’