Chapter 161
Chapter 161
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: Dragon King Festival (2)
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A palanquin crafted from cursed gold pushes through the fog.
“Shii-!”
“Shii-!”
“The Dragon King’s emissary has arrived!”
It was a truly grotesque procession.
Booming drumbeats. Grotesque breathing sounds like grrrruk, gruk. A raucous atmosphere as if a festival were underway, yet not a single “person” living in the village peeked out.
“Eek, heeek!”
Only the occasional moan from someone inside their home, succumbing to madness.
The houses where “people” lived had their doors sealed with mud and gold cords. Those who had locked themselves inside held their breath, praying only that the horrific procession would pass by.
“Shii-!”
“Shii-!”
“The Dragon King’s emissary has arrived! Those who wish to ride the sea well to greet the Dragon King, follow us!”
The gruesome procession of those who had abandoned their humanity for immortality passed by.
The procession soon left the village behind and reached the mountain path where Kim Shin-hwa had wandered.
Sticky fog thick with moisture and poison.
A place where even a human would feel agony after walking just a short distance, yet none in the procession showed any discomfort.
On the contrary, the wetter it got, the louder the grrrruk-gruk sounds grew.
The Bixi Immortal paused to draw in the damp, fishy air with a grrrruk, then spoke.
“Grrrukk... Last year there were at least some who resisted, but this year is dreadfully dull.”
The Bixi Immortal addressed the village head walking beside the palanquin.
“But when the hell is Yong-su coming?”
“We got word. He’ll arrive before the ritual ends.”
“Hmph, that half-wit fool.”
Yong-su was the liaison connecting Insu Village to the outside world.
A half-breed Deep One, the Bixi Immortal’s disciple, and a cultist who worshipped Dagon.
He had been tasked with transporting goods from Insu Village to Incheon and procuring “sacrifices,” but instead of Yong-su, some random outsider had shown up.
“Bixi—”
A sudden unfamiliar voice.
What? The Bixi Immortal turned toward the source.
Kim Shin-hwa, lying curled up in the corner of the golden palanquin, was mumbling to himself.
“One of the dragon’s nine sons. Resembles a tortoise and delights in bearing heavy loads.”
“Grrrukk—”
The Bixi Immortal scratched the scales under his chin with talon-like nails as he eyed Kim Shin-hwa.
“There’s a legend in Gyeonggi or Chungcheong of a dragon with malevolent power. The dragon began digging a lair beneath a mountain to unleash calamity upon the world—”
“Gruk, what’s he saying?”
“—and when that lair finally connected to the distant western sea, a great flood would come.”
“Grrrrukk, grrrurrr...”
The Bixi Immortal convulsed in a bizarre manner. A movement enough to terrify any onlooker, but it was merely laughter.
He’d thought it was something profound, but it was just the ravings of a madman.
“They said you boldly walked in on your own two feet and tried something sneaky, but look at you now, reduced to this.”
Kim Shin-hwa continued mumbling blankly.
It happened often enough. Outsiders who came pretending to be like Yong-su had lost their minds or fainted before the Bixi Immortal’s hideous form and the eerie atmosphere of the Dragon King Festival.
When Kim Shin-hwa had stepped into the courtyard, he’d convulsed and collapsed at the sight of the Bixi Immortal.
“Of course, you land beasts are born with feeble minds to begin with.”
The Bixi Immortal seized Kim Shin-hwa’s wrist with his massive, scale-covered hand. Scratches from nails on the slender wrist. Yeah, that’s right.
There had been impudent ones pretending to be tough, but they always ended up like this. No one could resist the madness that pierced the mind.
“Better to become one with the sacred sea well than to cling to such a wretched life.”
As if reacting to those words, Kim Shin-hwa mumbled again.
“...The villagers discovered a well with salty water rising and believed it reached the Dragon King of the West Sea, so they held rituals there. They called it the Dragon Well or the Sea Well.”
“Grrrukk.”
Something felt off, strangely unpleasant. Kim Shin-hwa’s voice was growing clearer.
The procession finally reached the massive wooden structure atop the mountain. Sensing something, Kim Shin-hwa shuddered briefly.
The ritual hall.
“Grrrrr. Can you feel the great power of the sea? Look, human.”
The Bixi Immortal grabbed Kim Shin-hwa’s head with his huge hand and turned it.
“See that prison over there? Seven of your fellow humans, the ones you offered to us, are locked inside. Gruk, grrruk.”
Kim Shin-hwa showed no reaction. But the Bixi Immortal, revealing his sadism, kept talking.
“Gruk, I don’t know what plan you cooked up or what you prepared, but it’s over now. Gruk. You sold out your own kind to infiltrate this far, but you failed and ended up like this. Now we’ll toss you and your kin into the sea well. Got it?”
Kim Shin-hwa spoke.
“They offered seven sacrifices counted by the stars, and one more makes eight. This is the number that pleases the Dragon King.”
“Grruk, shut up now, human.”
He was mad anyway. No more fun. If limbs didn’t need to be intact for the offering, that’d be another story...
The Bixi Immortal licked his lips, released Kim Shin-hwa’s head, and stood.
Had he been a bit more cautious, he might have noticed something odd about Kim Shin-hwa.
Beneath the mask modeled after a Deep One’s face, Kim Shin-hwa’s pupils were shifting slightly. As if reading some text.
The Bixi Immortal bellowed toward the ritual hall.
“Grrrukk! Children of the sea! Open the doors of the ritual hall! Let us complete the sacrifice to the Dragon King!”
With a heavy creak of gi-gi-gik, the massive doors of the ritual hall swung open.
Gruk sounds came from beyond, along with splashing footsteps.
Emerging from the ritual hall were fully transformed Deep Ones like the Bixi Immortal.
Fish-like, frog-like, turtle-like, shark-like, crocodile-like, whale-like.
Monsters with pale scales and round, enormous eyes filed out in a line.
Over thirty already.
Including the half-breeds who would one day become Deep Ones, nearly a hundred sea monsters had gathered.
The Bixi Immortal thought of words to excite them.
“Once today’s ritual ends, we won’t need the village humans anymore! You’ve done well following along! Tonight, let’s feast on land beast meat!”
“Waaaaah!”
“Uwaaaah!”
“Grrrukk, grrrukk!”
“Gruk, grrruk, grrrukk!”
The Bixi Immortal spread his arms wide, as if savoring the Deep Ones’ cheers with his whole body. Yes, yes. Cheer more, scream louder.
“Pu Lao! Come out and drag the sacrifices!”
Thud—boom! Heavy footsteps.
A side door of the ritual hall opened, and the Deep One called Pu Lao emerged.
“Guoooooh!”
A bizarre roar, from a Deep One with a wildly different appearance. A giant twice the size of others. Dull, thick, jet-black scales. A protruding massive forehead and a hugely gaping maw. Somehow whale-like.
But Pu Lao’s unusual look wasn’t the point.
The seven humans tied to a rope in Pu Lao’s hand, being dragged out.
The Deep Ones’ cheers reached a fever pitch.
The village head, cheering beside the palanquin, suddenly felt a strange dissonance.
‘Why are those humans so... intact?’
Freakouts, screams, wetting themselves, fainting. Common reactions. In past Dragon King Festivals, capturing humans who lost it and rampaged had become a form of entertainment.
But these just huddled, trembling, not even screaming.
Only the village head had noticed the oddity so far.
The others were responding to the Bixi Immortal’s speech and agitation, shuddering in religious ecstasy.
Pu Lao, dragging out the live sacrifices, suddenly felt a strange dissonance.
‘This... what... sound is...’
Pu Lao wasn’t a half-breed between human and Deep One.
He was a monster born between a whale and a Deep One. Thus, dumber than others. But with his wildly different appearance came special abilities.
One was hearing.
Pu Lao possessed hearing sharp near superhuman.
Kiri-rik—crunch. Kiri-rik—
Pu Lao turned to look at the humans following him. Strange sounds from their bodies. Like glass, metal, stone, wood rubbing.
Precisely, sounds from inside the humans’ bodies.
The Bixi Immortal, savoring the Deep Ones’ cheers, suddenly felt a bizarre dissonance.
‘What’s that?’
Thick fog blanketed everything. Visibility was terribly limited.
On the ritual hall’s roof above, something like a strange shadow.
What is that? Bird? Bat?
No, he wouldn’t care about such vermin. From that bird-or-bat land beast...
He sensed the magic of the deep sea?
The rider holding the flag embroidered with Dagon’s sigil suddenly felt a strange dissonance.
‘Why’s that human moving like that?’
One sacrifice being dragged by Pu Lao started shaking its head side to side violently. A child of the sea, sure, but originally human. He could tell that movement wasn’t human.
The human sacrifice shaking its head opened its mouth toward Pu Lao and let out “Ah—aaaah—”
Ah, right. Common enough. Terror-stricken human freaking out, screaming. One of the key entertainments of the Dragon King Festival.
And another Deep One half-breed suddenly felt a strange dissonance.
‘The mouth’s opening too wide?’
What is that? What’s happening?
The mouth of the human right behind Pu Lao gaped unnaturally wide. Wider than possible... rip—tear—the skin of the mouth, no, the face tore, revealing a grotesque metal contraption.
Huge frame? Torture device? Bear trap? Metallic jaw studded horrifically with nails, saw blades, spikes, knives, glass shards.
Kwajik!
Chaaaaak!
Blood sprayed massively. The human meant to be a sacrifice bit into Pu Lao’s nape.
“Grrrukk!? W-what is that!?”
A Deep One’s scream.
“Guoooooooh!!”
Pu Lao’s scream.
Crunch, chomp—fierce enough to tear off scales and flesh in one bite, but the nape was too thick. Not to the bone.
“Guoooooooh!!”
Pu Lao roared, trying to shake off the human—no, thing—biting his nape. Was this even human? A person’s body with a massive metal structure attached. A monster.
From that commotion, the live sacrifices tied to the rope began moving in grotesque ways all at once.
Wood-crack—crunch—
Joints moving in ways neither human nor Deep One could mimic. Necks twisting, waists bending backward.
Excessively alien, grotesque movements.
Finally, some Deep One screamed.
“Gruk! Monsters! They’re mooonsters!”
Crack—snap—
The sacrifices’ skin tore, saw blades, spikes, hideous junk sprouting out.
And they lunged at the Deep Ones. Monsters of horrific form. Even a graze would end a life!
Shouts and screams erupted from all directions among the Deep Ones.
“Gruk! W-what are those monsters!?”
“How can humans turn into that!? Gruk, how!?”
“Gruk, grrruk! They were pretending to be human all this time!”
The Deep Ones, steeped in religious delusion and euphoria, couldn’t accept the sudden change and fell into uncontrollable chaos.
Total pandemonium. In the thick fog, nearly a hundred Deep Ones screamed and scattered every which way.
“You half-wits! Get a grip! What are you doing!”
The Bixi Immortal bellowed, trying to control the panicked Deep Ones, but to no avail. Stop! This is the final ritual! Stop! What’s happening!? Why is this happening!?
Then, a human voice came from behind him.
“Hey, some idiot’s shocked that humans turned into monsters. You gonna say that?”
A mocking voice. Kim Shin-hwa’s.