by Kirara
Mok Gyeong-un’s pupils, unmoving like those of a dead person.
As it was the first time seeing a living person with such eyes, diviner Myo-sin couldn’t take his gaze off those eyes for a moment.
‘How can a human have such gho…’
However, he soon came to his senses at someone’s voice.
“What? What is this?”
It was Guard Go Chan.
Guard Go Chan, who had guided Mok Gyeong-un, was baffled by the sight of the Manor Master’s room, filled with red threads strung with silver coins.
He had found it strange that there was no one around the main building.
But who was this person, and what bizarre act was he performing here?
“Excuse me. Who are you, and here…”
“He doesn’t seem to be a physician.”
Mok Gyeong-un said, looking around the room.
At this, diviner Myo-sin waved his hands in a hurry and said,
“I don’t know who you are, but didn’t you receive a message from Madam? This is an important moment, so please leave immediately.”
“Madam?”
“It’s a moment that shouldn’t be disturbed.”
It was indeed a truly important moment.
In the midst of controlling the strange phenomenon invading the Manor Master’s heart, the killing intent had interfered due to the interruption.
In this situation, the killing intent would rather make the strange phenomenon even stronger.
“Please leave at once!”
There was no time to waste.
At Myo-sin’s urging, Guard Go Chan frowned and muttered,
“Could he be a diviner?”
“Whew. That’s right. I’m a diviner, so quickly…”
“What’s wrong with him?”
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un pointed to the bed with his chin and asked.
Diviner Myo-sin turned his head.
“Cough, cough!”
There, someone was coughing with their back arched like a bow.
“M- Manor Master?”
‘Manor Master?’
Mok Gyeong-un made a puzzled expression.
The condition of the Manor Master he saw for the first time was bizarrely strange.
His back was arched, his chest facing upward, and his throat was moving up and down, looking quite painful.
“No. Why is the Manor Master like that?”
“Leave! Hurry up and leave!”
Myo-sin shouted and tried to push Mok Gyeong-un and Go Chan out the door.
Right at that moment,
Gulp!
A loud swallowing sound came from the Manor Master, audible to everyone.
Looking at the Manor Master, his back was still arched like a bow, but the bulging of his throat that had been moving up and down disappeared.
The Manor Master’s expression, which had been painful, seemed to ease.
But suddenly, the Manor Master, who had his eyes closed, opened them wide.
“Oh? Manor Master?”
Could it be that the Manor Master had regained consciousness?
Then, Myo-sin let out a small, rough sound.
“Damn it!”
He hurriedly took out a talisman with the character “壓” (Suppress) written in red from the pouch at his waist and tried to rush towards the Manor Master, who seemed to have awakened.
Then, the Manor Master’s head suddenly turned to the side in a strange manner.
Creak!
‘!?’
Go Chan’s eyes widened.
The Manor Master’s horrifying eyeballs were not just bloodshot but dyed red except for the pupils.
Amidst that, with his back arched and his head turned in such a way, it was even spine-chilling.
At that moment, diviner Myo-sin formed a single-handed seal with his left hand and chanted an incantation.
“One Phoenix Heads to the Celestial Court, One Snake Fears the Gods, The Supreme Yin Calls the Three Qing, Urgent and Effective, Obey the Order!”
Swish!
The yellow talisman wrapped around Myo-sin’s right fingers straightened out stiffly.
With the talisman stretched out like this, Myo-sin tried to attach it to the forehead of the Manor Master, whose head had turned.
However,
“Kaaah!”
The Manor Master let out a strange sound and shouted.
“Ugh!”
As the resounding shout echoed like a roar, Myo-sin staggered and was pushed back.
The shout affected not only him.
Go Chan also momentarily covered his ears due to the pain in his eardrums from the sudden scream.
‘I- Internal energy was infused.’
The Manor Master was a master of internal martial arts, so his internal energy was profound.
Naturally, his scream had to be infused with internal energy, and the vibrations caused pain to those who heard it.
Go Chan, who had been covering his ears, looked at Mok Gyeong-un.
But,
‘This fellow hasn’t even cultivated internal energy, yet he’s unaffected?’
Mok Gyeong-un was just slightly frowning.
Did he simply endure the pain?
In the moment of bewilderment, the Manor Master, who had shouted, turned his head and straightened his back, trying to get up from the bed.
However,
Bang!
The red threads tied to the Manor Master’s wrists and ankles tightened, making him unable to stand properly and leaving him in an awkward posture.
Sizzle!
A faint haze and a pungent smell flowed from where the red threads were tied.
“Kaaaaaah!”
The Manor Master, with his bloodshot eyes, howled like a beast, not a human.
Then, he pulled his right hand with all his might.
At that,
Thud!
The open door was torn off, and the red thread snapped.
“Damn it!”
diviner Myo-sin, who had been staggering due to the shout, couldn’t hide his dismay.
He had firmly secured the red threads, but because they had opened the door and entered, his work was ruined.
Bulge! Bulge!
Black blood vessels bulged on the Manor Master’s bloodshot forehead and face.
‘To be possessed by a strange phenomenon.’
This is what they call being possessed.
Now that it had come to this, finding out the location of the Manor Master’s seal and secret manuals, as requested by Lady Seok, was out of the question.
Clang clang! Snap!
Amidst the dismay, the Manor Master tried to break all the red threads strung with silver coins.
“Ugh!”
It was not a situation to question the request or anything else.
diviner Myo-sin rushed towards the Manor Master once again, trying to attach the talisman to his forehead.
However,
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
With a casual swing of his hand, the Manor Master sent Myo-sin rolling on the floor.
‘Wh- What strength…’
Myo-sin was utterly perplexed.
Those possessed by strange phenomena do become stronger than ordinary people, but this was incomparably different.
He had no strength left to hold down the Manor Master.
Snap!
The red thread tying the Manor Master’s left wrist was about to break.
diviner Myo-sin shouted at Mok Gyeong-un and Go Chan,
“Y- You two, help me. Hold down the Manor Master so he can’t break the threads!”
“Hold him down, you say?”
Although he couldn’t understand the situation, Go Chan could tell that it was serious.
There was no time to think it over in his head.
Go Chan hurriedly rushed towards the Manor Master.
Mok Gyeong-un did the same.
“Is it enough to just hold him?”
“Even if you hold him, never make eye contact, and if you feel your hands getting cold and a chill down your spine while holding him, let go no matter what!”
It was quite an ambiguous piece of advice to hear.
Anyway, if they didn’t hold down the Manor Master now, something terrible would happen, so Go Chan didn’t ask any more questions and quickly grabbed the Manor Master’s freed right arm.
Grab!
He wanted to grab the fixed left hand, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask Mok Gyeong-un to do it.
But here, a problem arose.
The Manor Master was said to be weakened, but he was a master of internal martial arts who could not be matched even by Captain Gam.
The strength of such a Manor Master was too much for even Go Chan to handle.
Smack!
He easily shook off Go Chan’s hand and instead grabbed his wrist.
“Huh?”
Snap!
The grip of that hand was so strong that it felt like his wrist would break at any moment.
In a panic, Go Chan instinctively tried to twist the Manor Master’s wrist using the Grappling Hand technique.
Tap!
At that moment, the strength of the Manor Master’s hand gripping his wrist weakened.
“Huh?”
He wondered why, but Myo-sin had already attached the talisman to the Manor Master’s forehead.
And forming a hand seal, he chanted an incantation.
“The Northern Emperor Grants Me the Talisman to Subdue Evil Spirits, Widely Spreading the Divine Writing, Those Who Dare Not Obey Will Be Imprisoned in Fengducheng[1], Urgently Act According to the Order!”
Tremble tremble tremble!
As the talisman was attached, the Manor Master’s body convulsed.
Taking this opportunity, Go Chan tried to remove the Manor Master’s hand gripping his wrist.
But the moment he tried to remove it, the grip strengthened again.
Crack!
Go Chan’s wrist was twisted and broken.
The bone pierced through the flesh and protruded out.
“Aaaaargh!”
A scream burst out from Go Chan’s mouth.
It was remarkable that he endured it despite the bone not only being broken but also protruding out.
But when the blood oozing from the pierced flesh touched the Manor Master’s hand,
Squirm squirm!
The strange phenomenon that had bulged out in black, centered on the heart, began to move to the Manor Master’s right arm with a surging momentum.
“Eek!”
As it rushed to the wrist at a tremendous speed, Go Chan was terrified.
Then, Myo-sin chanted the incantation once more with greater force.
“The Northern Emperor Grants Me the Talisman to Subdue Evil Spirits, Widely Spreading the Divine Writing, Those Who Dare Not Obey Will Be Imprisoned in Fengducheng, Urgently Act According to the Order!”
At that, the strange phenomenon squirmed and strongly convulsed between the wrist and the elbow, going back and forth.
Guard Go Chan urged, trying to somehow remove the Manor Master’s hand.
“P- Please, do something!”
“With the killing intent mixed in, the impurities have become too strong. Just endure a little. If the strange phenomenon spreads, you’ll be in danger too.”
“No, if you had said that earlier…”
Squirm squirm!
At that moment, the strange phenomenon that had been going back and forth tried to rush to the wrist again.
“Gasp!”
The startled Go Chan tried to twist the Manor Master’s hand that wouldn’t let go of his wrist using the Seizing Hand technique to escape.
Swish! Slice!
At that instant, something unexpected happened.
The Manor Master’s wrist, which had been holding Go Chan’s wrist, was cut off.
‘!?’
The one who had cut off the wrist was none other than Mok Gyeong-un.
In Mok Gyeong-un’s hand was a sharp sword, one of the items hanging on the wall.
Go Chan was utterly perplexed.
Although it had been perilous due to the strange phenomenon, he had never expected the Manor Master’s wrist to be cut off.
diviner Myo-sin felt the same way.
‘Cutting off the Manor Master’s wrist? Just who is this guy?’
The Manor Master was the head of Yeon Mok Sword Manor, yet there was not a moment of hesitation.
Squirm squirm!
As the wrist was cut off, the strange phenomenon that had climbed up to that point tried to move back to the Manor Master’s body.
‘That’s it!’
Another opportunity had arisen.
If the strange phenomenon targeted the heart again, he could control it with talismanic techniques and somehow suppress the rampaging energy along with the killing intent.
However,
Slice!
Just as the strange phenomenon was about to pass the elbow and move towards the shoulder, Mok Gyeong-un suddenly swung the sword and cut off the arm below the shoulder before the strange phenomenon could climb up.
diviner Myo-sin was so surprised that he shouted in shock,
“You! You!”
He wanted to say something, but he was so dumbfounded that he was at a loss for words.
To him, Mok Gyeong-un said nonchalantly,
“Isn’t it better than trying to send it back through the body?”
Thud! Thud!
The black blood vessels in the severed arm of the Manor Master on the floor wriggled and thrashed about like a fish out of water.
On the other hand, the color was gradually returning to the Manor Master’s pale face.
A county-level city in Jiangxi province.[↩]
by Kirara
Mok Gyeong-un’s pupils, unmoving like those of a dead person.
As it was the first time seeing a living person with such eyes, diviner Myo-sin couldn’t take his gaze off those eyes for a moment.
‘How can a human have such gho…’
However, he soon came to his senses at someone’s voice.
“What? What is this?”
It was Guard Go Chan.
Guard Go Chan, who had guided Mok Gyeong-un, was baffled by the sight of the Manor Master’s room, filled with red threads strung with silver coins.
He had found it strange that there was no one around the main building.
But who was this person, and what bizarre act was he performing here?
“Excuse me. Who are you, and here…”
“He doesn’t seem to be a physician.”
Mok Gyeong-un said, looking around the room.
At this, diviner Myo-sin waved his hands in a hurry and said,
“I don’t know who you are, but didn’t you receive a message from Madam? This is an important moment, so please leave immediately.”
“Madam?”
“It’s a moment that shouldn’t be disturbed.”
It was indeed a truly important moment.
In the midst of controlling the strange phenomenon invading the Manor Master’s heart, the killing intent had interfered due to the interruption.
In this situation, the killing intent would rather make the strange phenomenon even stronger.
“Please leave at once!”
There was no time to waste.
At Myo-sin’s urging, Guard Go Chan frowned and muttered,
“Could he be a diviner?”
“Whew. That’s right. I’m a diviner, so quickly…”
“What’s wrong with him?”
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un pointed to the bed with his chin and asked.
Diviner Myo-sin turned his head.
“Cough, cough!”
There, someone was coughing with their back arched like a bow.
“M- Manor Master?”
‘Manor Master?’
Mok Gyeong-un made a puzzled expression.
The condition of the Manor Master he saw for the first time was bizarrely strange.
His back was arched, his chest facing upward, and his throat was moving up and down, looking quite painful.
“No. Why is the Manor Master like that?”
“Leave! Hurry up and leave!”
Myo-sin shouted and tried to push Mok Gyeong-un and Go Chan out the door.
Right at that moment,
Gulp!
A loud swallowing sound came from the Manor Master, audible to everyone.
Looking at the Manor Master, his back was still arched like a bow, but the bulging of his throat that had been moving up and down disappeared.
The Manor Master’s expression, which had been painful, seemed to ease.
But suddenly, the Manor Master, who had his eyes closed, opened them wide.
“Oh? Manor Master?”
Could it be that the Manor Master had regained consciousness?
Then, Myo-sin let out a small, rough sound.
“Damn it!”
He hurriedly took out a talisman with the character “壓” (Suppress) written in red from the pouch at his waist and tried to rush towards the Manor Master, who seemed to have awakened.
Then, the Manor Master’s head suddenly turned to the side in a strange manner.
Creak!
‘!?’
Go Chan’s eyes widened.
The Manor Master’s horrifying eyeballs were not just bloodshot but dyed red except for the pupils.
Amidst that, with his back arched and his head turned in such a way, it was even spine-chilling.
At that moment, diviner Myo-sin formed a single-handed seal with his left hand and chanted an incantation.
“One Phoenix Heads to the Celestial Court, One Snake Fears the Gods, The Supreme Yin Calls the Three Qing, Urgent and Effective, Obey the Order!”
Swish!
The yellow talisman wrapped around Myo-sin’s right fingers straightened out stiffly.
With the talisman stretched out like this, Myo-sin tried to attach it to the forehead of the Manor Master, whose head had turned.
However,
“Kaaah!”
The Manor Master let out a strange sound and shouted.
“Ugh!”
As the resounding shout echoed like a roar, Myo-sin staggered and was pushed back.
The shout affected not only him.
Go Chan also momentarily covered his ears due to the pain in his eardrums from the sudden scream.
‘I- Internal energy was infused.’
The Manor Master was a master of internal martial arts, so his internal energy was profound.
Naturally, his scream had to be infused with internal energy, and the vibrations caused pain to those who heard it.
Go Chan, who had been covering his ears, looked at Mok Gyeong-un.
But,
‘This fellow hasn’t even cultivated internal energy, yet he’s unaffected?’
Mok Gyeong-un was just slightly frowning.
Did he simply endure the pain?
In the moment of bewilderment, the Manor Master, who had shouted, turned his head and straightened his back, trying to get up from the bed.
However,
Bang!
The red threads tied to the Manor Master’s wrists and ankles tightened, making him unable to stand properly and leaving him in an awkward posture.
Sizzle!
A faint haze and a pungent smell flowed from where the red threads were tied.
“Kaaaaaah!”
The Manor Master, with his bloodshot eyes, howled like a beast, not a human.
Then, he pulled his right hand with all his might.
At that,
Thud!
The open door was torn off, and the red thread snapped.
“Damn it!”
diviner Myo-sin, who had been staggering due to the shout, couldn’t hide his dismay.
He had firmly secured the red threads, but because they had opened the door and entered, his work was ruined.
Bulge! Bulge!
Black blood vessels bulged on the Manor Master’s bloodshot forehead and face.
‘To be possessed by a strange phenomenon.’
This is what they call being possessed.
Now that it had come to this, finding out the location of the Manor Master’s seal and secret manuals, as requested by Lady Seok, was out of the question.
Clang clang! Snap!
Amidst the dismay, the Manor Master tried to break all the red threads strung with silver coins.
“Ugh!”
It was not a situation to question the request or anything else.
diviner Myo-sin rushed towards the Manor Master once again, trying to attach the talisman to his forehead.
However,
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
With a casual swing of his hand, the Manor Master sent Myo-sin rolling on the floor.
‘Wh- What strength…’
Myo-sin was utterly perplexed.
Those possessed by strange phenomena do become stronger than ordinary people, but this was incomparably different.
He had no strength left to hold down the Manor Master.
Snap!
The red thread tying the Manor Master’s left wrist was about to break.
diviner Myo-sin shouted at Mok Gyeong-un and Go Chan,
“Y- You two, help me. Hold down the Manor Master so he can’t break the threads!”
“Hold him down, you say?”
Although he couldn’t understand the situation, Go Chan could tell that it was serious.
There was no time to think it over in his head.
Go Chan hurriedly rushed towards the Manor Master.
Mok Gyeong-un did the same.
“Is it enough to just hold him?”
“Even if you hold him, never make eye contact, and if you feel your hands getting cold and a chill down your spine while holding him, let go no matter what!”
It was quite an ambiguous piece of advice to hear.
Anyway, if they didn’t hold down the Manor Master now, something terrible would happen, so Go Chan didn’t ask any more questions and quickly grabbed the Manor Master’s freed right arm.
Grab!
He wanted to grab the fixed left hand, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask Mok Gyeong-un to do it.
But here, a problem arose.
The Manor Master was said to be weakened, but he was a master of internal martial arts who could not be matched even by Captain Gam.
The strength of such a Manor Master was too much for even Go Chan to handle.
Smack!
He easily shook off Go Chan’s hand and instead grabbed his wrist.
“Huh?”
Snap!
The grip of that hand was so strong that it felt like his wrist would break at any moment.
In a panic, Go Chan instinctively tried to twist the Manor Master’s wrist using the Grappling Hand technique.
Tap!
At that moment, the strength of the Manor Master’s hand gripping his wrist weakened.
“Huh?”
He wondered why, but Myo-sin had already attached the talisman to the Manor Master’s forehead.
And forming a hand seal, he chanted an incantation.
“The Northern Emperor Grants Me the Talisman to Subdue Evil Spirits, Widely Spreading the Divine Writing, Those Who Dare Not Obey Will Be Imprisoned in Fengducheng[1], Urgently Act According to the Order!”
Tremble tremble tremble!
As the talisman was attached, the Manor Master’s body convulsed.
Taking this opportunity, Go Chan tried to remove the Manor Master’s hand gripping his wrist.
But the moment he tried to remove it, the grip strengthened again.
Crack!
Go Chan’s wrist was twisted and broken.
The bone pierced through the flesh and protruded out.
“Aaaaargh!”
A scream burst out from Go Chan’s mouth.
It was remarkable that he endured it despite the bone not only being broken but also protruding out.
But when the blood oozing from the pierced flesh touched the Manor Master’s hand,
Squirm squirm!
The strange phenomenon that had bulged out in black, centered on the heart, began to move to the Manor Master’s right arm with a surging momentum.
“Eek!”
As it rushed to the wrist at a tremendous speed, Go Chan was terrified.
Then, Myo-sin chanted the incantation once more with greater force.
“The Northern Emperor Grants Me the Talisman to Subdue Evil Spirits, Widely Spreading the Divine Writing, Those Who Dare Not Obey Will Be Imprisoned in Fengducheng, Urgently Act According to the Order!”
At that, the strange phenomenon squirmed and strongly convulsed between the wrist and the elbow, going back and forth.
Guard Go Chan urged, trying to somehow remove the Manor Master’s hand.
“P- Please, do something!”
“With the killing intent mixed in, the impurities have become too strong. Just endure a little. If the strange phenomenon spreads, you’ll be in danger too.”
“No, if you had said that earlier…”
Squirm squirm!
At that moment, the strange phenomenon that had been going back and forth tried to rush to the wrist again.
“Gasp!”
The startled Go Chan tried to twist the Manor Master’s hand that wouldn’t let go of his wrist using the Seizing Hand technique to escape.
Swish! Slice!
At that instant, something unexpected happened.
The Manor Master’s wrist, which had been holding Go Chan’s wrist, was cut off.
‘!?’
The one who had cut off the wrist was none other than Mok Gyeong-un.
In Mok Gyeong-un’s hand was a sharp sword, one of the items hanging on the wall.
Go Chan was utterly perplexed.
Although it had been perilous due to the strange phenomenon, he had never expected the Manor Master’s wrist to be cut off.
diviner Myo-sin felt the same way.
‘Cutting off the Manor Master’s wrist? Just who is this guy?’
The Manor Master was the head of Yeon Mok Sword Manor, yet there was not a moment of hesitation.
Squirm squirm!
As the wrist was cut off, the strange phenomenon that had climbed up to that point tried to move back to the Manor Master’s body.
‘That’s it!’
Another opportunity had arisen.
If the strange phenomenon targeted the heart again, he could control it with talismanic techniques and somehow suppress the rampaging energy along with the killing intent.
However,
Slice!
Just as the strange phenomenon was about to pass the elbow and move towards the shoulder, Mok Gyeong-un suddenly swung the sword and cut off the arm below the shoulder before the strange phenomenon could climb up.
diviner Myo-sin was so surprised that he shouted in shock,
“You! You!”
He wanted to say something, but he was so dumbfounded that he was at a loss for words.
To him, Mok Gyeong-un said nonchalantly,
“Isn’t it better than trying to send it back through the body?”
Thud! Thud!
The black blood vessels in the severed arm of the Manor Master on the floor wriggled and thrashed about like a fish out of water.
On the other hand, the color was gradually returning to the Manor Master’s pale face.
A county-level city in Jiangxi province.[↩]