Chapter 195
Chapter 195
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: From East to West
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“Cock-a-doodle-doo!!”
“Coo-coo-coo-!!”
A premature rooster crow echoes from the eastern edge of Paju Samneung.
“What the hell!?”
“Why are there roosters!?”
“What’s that? What can chickens even do?”
Confusion spreads among the cultists of the Epicurean Expedition.
Yeah, it’s not tigers or bears—just chickens.
What can chickens do?
For starters, they can make a sound that dokkaebi and Duoksini hate.
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!!”
“Coo-coo-coo-coo! Coo-roo, coo-coo!!”
Is it a bit ridiculous?
But the sight of over two hundred furious roosters flapping their wings and charging from east to west is spectacular in itself—and for the Duoksini, it’s pure terror.
“Gyaahhh!”
“Chickens! Chickens! The minions of Captain Migira!”
“The sun is rising! Dawn is breaking!”
The sun is still hours away.
But the Duoksini scream like madmen with a phobia of chickens, fleeing from east to west.
“What are you idiots doing? They’re just chickens!”
A shout erupts from somewhere. The Epicurean Expedition’s cultists try to calm the panicked Duoksini.
To say it again, they’re just chickens.
Brave chickens can’t smash the Duoksini flat.
Right now, creating a brief commotion is enough.
The moment the confused Duoksini and cultists tangle together—
The Incarnation of Greed, who had been lying in wait farther east, moves west.
“Now! Let’s take that fucking outpost!”
“Charge! Heavenly Gold Hall is on our side!”
Yeom Geumja and her gangsters rush from east to west.
There lies Sunreung, the easternmost tomb in Paju Samneung.
“Fuck! Look at these snakes!”
“Argh! How is this possible!”
Rough curses erupt at the sight of snakes blanketing Sunreung.
They’re criminals, gangsters at rock bottom, but they’re still citizens of a Confucian nation.
Not to mention, everyone in Bongilcheon knows Paju Samneung.
They might have dismissed it as a worthless park that drives down property values, but seeing cultists defile a place they’ve known since childhood fills them with rage.
Spotting their fury, their leader Yeom Geumja spurs them on.
“What are you waiting for, you morons? Throw ’em—now!”
Or maybe she’s just venting her usual temper.
“Y-yeah! Just throw ’em! Hurry!”
They hurl fist-sized, glittering objects toward Sunreung to the west.
The objects streak west, scattering light—easy to carry, simple to use for anyone.
Universal exorcism tools.
KABOOOM!
“Explosion!”
“What!?”
A way to replenish deficient yang energy all at once?
Our people have used cannons and gunpowder since ancient times.
What the Bongilcheon gangsters threw were the mana stone bombs I’d distributed beforehand.
With one blast, Yeom Geumja and her crew clear the snakes from Sunreung, dig in, and start holding the fort.
Behind them: tombs.
In front: two hundred chickens.
The gangsters occupying this bizarre stronghold unleash rocket launchers and submachine guns westward.
Amid it all, occasional blasts from mana stone bombs.
Under the Bongilcheon gang’s noisy assault, the Duoksini—who were already retreating west—get pushed back further.
“Damn it, fuck. Is this really gonna work?”
Yeom Geumja mutters with an uneasy look.
They’ve pulled off a satisfying scene for a moment, but the shock shaking the Duoksini and cultists will fade soon.
Once the counterattack starts, they won’t hold out.
The wall protecting Yeom Geumja and her men is just chickens, after all.
‘But chickens just need to play a symbolic role.’
I don’t know how this turned into such an Eastern-themed event—
“Might as well lean into the Eastern theme myself.”
I swing the Four-Eyed True Spirit Sword, channeling mana.
“The minions of Captain Migira wield the power of metal, so—hasten like the law commands! Form the cycle of metal begetting water, and transmit vital energy to my owl, bearer of water’s power!”
This isn’t magic or a incantation—just a command.
Normally, it’d have no effect or meaning, but within this barrier the Duoksini labored to create—closer to dreams and delusions than reality or common sense—in this Paju Samneung turned something like the Gap of Gyeonggi—it can trigger special phenomena.
Ziiiiing!!
My will, channeled through the Four-Eyed True Spirit Sword, reaches the chickens.
It guides the rampant yang energy—and metal energy—from the two hundred-plus roosters in one direction.
“Go, Reddy! Push them back! To the west!”
A massive white owl with four wings and three tails takes flight. From the eastern edge of Paju Samneung, heading west.
“Kieee!!”
A few fearless cultists leap toward Reddy.
“How dare a mere beast obstruct our great cause!”
“Grab it! Pull it down!”
But that area is the outermost edge of Paju Samneung.
The small guard force can’t stop Reddy now.
BWOOOM! Shwaaaa!
Its four mighty wings whip up a storm, while spells infused with water power shoot from its beak and three talons.
RUMBLE!
The Duoksini and Epicurean Expedition cultists, already pushed west, are driven endlessly further.
“S-stop! Not this way! Not here!”
A Duoksini’s scream pierces the air.
Those shoved to central Paju Samneung face a truly horrific monster.
“Bwahaha—come hither! Come hither! Burst into endless laughter! Laugh till you drop dead without regrets!”
The golden dokkaebi devastating the ritual site—Captain Heavenly Gold.
“Well done, Reddy! Leave those guys to Captain Heavenly Gold and wipe out the snakes at Yeongneung!”
“Kieee!!”
Reddy flies toward Yeongneung.
Seeing this, Captain Heavenly Gold charges at foes in range, bellowing.
“Yes! Lively now! Sound the drums!”
Thump-thump-thump-thump—
No drummer in sight, yet drumbeats echo from somewhere.
“There, there, there—over there, is that Mount Geumgang? Let’s stretch a leg!”
CRUNCH!
Each stomp from Captain Heavenly Gold folds a Duoksini in half—
“Woo-hoo-ya—neh-heh—hoo—!”
RUMBLE!
Each flip sends two Duoksini crashing into the ground—
“Hey now—piles of gold and silver! Shall I smash with thousands or ten thousands?”
KABOOOM!
Each swing of the vajra crushes three Duoksini skyward.
Power enough to shatter heavens and cleave earth.
But the foes are Duoksini.
Destroy the body, and the head flies in; split the head, and the body crawls forth.
“No escape, no hiding!”
“Fight!” “Attack!”
“Grab!” “Kill!”
They swarm like asuras, as if they’ve found their death ground.
“Bwahaha—come leap at me then!”
KABOOOM!
Captain Heavenly Gold smashes the ground with the vajra and soars skyward.
“Duoksini who abandoned Heavenly Gold Hall! Foolish Kim bastards subjugated by the Blood Demon King! No matter your flips and spins, you’re beneath Captain Heavenly Gold’s feet!”
An illusion-laced proclamation from Captain Heavenly Gold.
The Duoksini and cultists make the mistake of looking up.
Eyes gleaming brighter than a full moon.
And Captain Heavenly Gold, grown vast enough to blot out the night sky.
“Bwahaha! You tiny things! I’ll stomp you all flat!”
A foot larger than clouds hurtles toward the cultists.
“Eyes open! Don’t look at the sky!”
“It’s Captain Heavenly Gold’s illusion!”
“Bwahaha—too late!”
As if summoning lightning from the heavens—blinding radiance erupts from Captain Heavenly Gold.
KABOOOOOM!!
Not lightning. Just the vajra swung west with immense force.
“Kraaaagh!”
A Duoksini struck by Captain Heavenly Gold’s vajra flies west.
KABAM!
It crashes into Gongneung on Paju Samneung’s western edge.
“Guhhh—”
Neck twisted 180 degrees, forehead to ground; left chest and shoulder crushed, lower body gone.
Yet the Duoksini rises.
“Wh-what?”
Regaining its wits, the Duoksini stares in shock at the bizarre beast before it.
Clack-clack-clack—
An alarm clock, game console, rabbit-head doll, glass, spring, old phone, coiled wires, dented soda can, glass bottle, metal badge, bottle cap, rocket toy, car steering wheel— a single word spills from the Duoksini’s mouth for all of it.
“Junk?”
Hm, pretty close to the mark.
Clack-clack—
“I-it’s moving? A j-junk monster!?”
Well now, it knows all the words.
“Achilles!”
Clack-clack-clack—
Achilles turns its head toward me—westward.
Tigers belong to wood and hold yang energy.
Same method as empowering Reddy.
‘No live tigers here, but something similar.’
Following the cycle of wood begetting fire, Achilles gains immense fire energy.
“Yeah, Achilles! Burn all those snakes around you!”
WHOOSH!!
Flames from Achilles engulf the snakes around Gongneung.
The watching Duoksini shrieks grotesquely toward Paju Samneung’s western edge—my direction.
“K-Kim bastard! This is our Duoksini sorcery! Stealing our spells, you cowardly villainous thief!”
“What? Who’s calling who a thief?”
Seocheonseul would rage at that.
This is originally dokkaebi sorcery, Heavenly Gold Hall’s sorcery.
No need to reply.
WHOOSH—
Achilles’ flames incinerate that Duoksini too.
“Now Seonneung and Gongneung are cleared.”
And far off.
Paju Samneung’s south.
Reddy reaches Yeongneung, stirring water and wind to sweep away the surrounding snakes.
“All snakes covering the tombs are gone.”
That’s enough.
Replenished yang energy to restore yin-yang balance.
Filled attributes to harmonize the five elements.
Rescued the ley line masters held by the snakes—the Duoksini sorcery is on the brink of collapse.
“Good. Next—”
I raise the Four-Eyed True Spirit Sword again, targeting a point in Paju Samneung.
The four crimson torii gates at key points.
Gruesome, grotesque symbols adorned with corpses of ox, snake, sheep, pig.
“Destroy those, and we’re mostly done.”
Those are the cores of the Duoksini barrier.
Zing—
Mana from the sword surges skyward, forming a pure white magic circle.
Can’t just smash them recklessly. Destroy out of order or improperly, and unintended side effects could occur.
“Start with the sheep.”
Rumble—
[White Thunder]
KABOOOM!
Mana condensed, transformed, amplified atop the clouds erupts as white lightning with devastating power.
The torii of sheep head and guts shatters instantly.
Rumble—crackle—
Mana dances across the sky like a dragon riding clouds.
Yeah, go further—
I wait until it gathers at the right spot, then cast again.
“Second, the ox—”
[White Thunder]
KABOOOM!
Lightning pours toward the torii tangled with ox corpses.
[System: The Feast Offering trait activates.]
At that moment, a hulking cultist leaps atop the torii. Damn it! That guy again!?
Absurd bulk, unnaturally tough flesh, grotesque face mutated like an elephant’s.
“Ooo-neul! Tooook-seon! Yooo-riiiiingaaaa!!?”
The Epicurean Expedition’s judge, Seonbu, performs the feat of drawing in and devouring my lightning.
I wasn’t careless or sloppy.
Carefully focused mana, meticulously calculated and unleashed.
Yet he swallows it all.
“Kraaaah! Spicy! Hot! Ughhh! I’m dying!”
The elephant-headed judge Seonbu thrashes comically.
Screaming he’s dying as he’s fried, but anyone can see he won’t drop dead yet.
“Damn, ate fire by day, now lightning?”
My voice wouldn’t carry, but he bellows straight toward me.
“We meet again, Ho Sanghyeon!”
Ho…… what?
“Is that elephant bastard doing it on purpose?”