Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 30
>Chapter Title: Master of the Sea of Corpses (1)
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“Human. Open the wooden box. Then this seat, who rules the Sea of Corpses, shall grant the wish you desire.”
‘!?’
Mok Kyung-un chuckled at the voice emanating from the wooden box and muttered.
“You’re selling this way too hard.”
-......
This was a temptation.
It was no different from blatantly asking him to open the wooden box.
Cheongryeong spoke in a tone as if she were utterly exasperated.
“My body can’t even sustain itself, so what kind of wish are you granting?”
“I agree with that. But what is this thing?”
“It seems like a demon has been sealed inside. However, for its voice to be heard while sealed... This is a first even for this seat.”
She had lived for a hundred years as a lingering spirit.
And she too had been sealed in something like this eerie thing inside the wooden box.
Yet this was the first time she had encountered such a case.
Normally, once sealed, all energy is blocked, cutting off inside from outside.
For this one’s voice to be heard...
“Ahh. There’s a crack in it.”
“A crack?”
There was a slight fissure on the top part of the wooden box that Mok Kyung-un pointed to.
“I see. But this wooden box...”
“There’s no talisman or anything like that, which is strange.”
“You noticed it too.”
It was peculiar.
As Cheongryeong said, there was no talisman or anything sealing demonic energy on the wooden box.
So how exactly was this ominous being trapped inside?
It didn’t make sense.
As he puzzled over it, the voice spoke again.
“Damn it. I thought it fortunate that you could hear this seat’s voice, but talking of talismans means you must be a Daoist who practices sorcery.”
“Daoist? What are you talking about?”
“Don’t pretend otherwise. Do you think you can fool this seat?”
“I don’t know what you’re on about, but you can think of me as a sorcerer who’s learning barrier arts.”
“Sorcerer? Ahh. Like that human in Daoist robes who came last time.”
‘Same kind?’
From the way it spoke, someone must have visited before.
Of course, a sorcerer versed in barrier arts wouldn’t fail to detect such ominous demonic energy.
The red line was a technique only a sorcerer could perform in the first place.
Mok Kyung-un asked about it.
“Who came?”
“One did come. A sinister one with three eyes. It was my first time seeing someone with those eyes, said to have vanished after the ancient era.”
“Three eyes? What’s that? Do you know, Cheongryeong?”
“Do you think this seat knows all the principles of the world?”
Mok Kyung-un tilted his head at Cheongryeong’s words.
Three eyes literally meant having three eyes.
Such a freakish being had come here?
As he wondered, the voice came from the wooden box again.
“How would lowly spirits and insignificant humans like you know of ancient era matters?”
-......You’ve been calling me a lowly spirit since earlier, you demon.
“Wait a moment.”
“What?”
Mok Kyung-un stopped her anger and said.
“So what exactly is this three-eyed thing?”
“It’s exactly as it sounds. Three-Eyed Fiend. It’s a monstrous entity born from a human’s womb. They say calamity befalls when it’s born.”
“Calamity?”
“But it’s amusing. In the ancient era, even if one was born, it wouldn’t survive a day before being killed.”
It was hard to understand what it was saying.
Mok Kyung-un summarized.
“I don’t quite get it, but are you saying that three-eyed sorcerer in Daoist robes left you here?”
“That’s right. I don’t know what trick that bastard pulled, but after he left, no one could perceive this seat.”
“Couldn’t perceive you...”
“They accept it as if it doesn’t exist from the start.”
“As if it doesn’t exist?”
Cheongryeong strongly denied the words spilling from the wooden box.
“That can’t be. No matter how much time passes and human sorcery strengthens, erasing perception goes against the principles of the world.”
“Hoh. A lowly spirit who knows quite a bit.”
“Lowly spirit? This damned demon from earlier!”
-Crunch!
A crack appeared in the wooden puppet sealing Cheongryeong.
She seemed ready to break free and smash the wooden box right then.
Mok Kyung-un soothed her.
“Cheongryeong. Hold back.”
“If it were you, mortal...”
“Wouldn’t everything be solved if we just make it ours first instead of dragging this out?”
“Ours? Hoh.”
Cheongryeong murmured as if intrigued by Mok Kyung-un’s whisper.
Making it his meant turning it into a Shikigami.
Mok Kyung-un possessed the ability to turn even high-rank lingering spirits into Shikigami.
If this Immae Mangryang trapped in the box had weakened, it might be possible to make it a Shikigami.
Its potential had already been proven by absorbing the Lonely Ghost.
“Still, be careful. It’s best to weaken the demonic energy without touching the seal as much as possible.”
“That’s my plan.”
Mok Kyung-un thought the same.
Demonic energy was like condensed death energy, so absorbing it would be helpful.
Then the voice came from the wooden box.
“Hey. Human.”
“Yes.”
“Trapped here, you might see this seat as weak. But this seat is the master of the Sea of Corpses.”
“So?”
“If you just free this seat from here, I’ll grant any wish you desire. Didn’t you mention Grandfather earlier?”
“......”
“Don’t you want to see that grandfather?”
At that voice, Mok Kyung-un’s eyes sharpened unlike before.
He didn’t like other pranks much, but touching on Grandfather was truly unwelcome.
Mok Kyung-un approached the wooden box without answering.
He picked it up and set it down on the floor.
“Good. Smash the wooden box.”
“I plan to. Ah. Of course, before that...”
-Swish!
Mok Kyung-un placed his palm on the cracked part of the wooden box.
He then silently recited the Shikigami formula of attachment.
The ominous demonic energy leaking from the crack began flowing into Mok Kyung-un’s palm.
-Sssshhhhh!
-!?
Sensing it, the voice couldn’t hide its bewilderment.
“Human...... What are you doing......”
“You’ve been trapped a long time, yet your energy is impressive. Share some.”
“Stop!”
“Too late.”
With those words, Mok Kyung-un absorbed the leaking demonic energy.
A vast amount made light gleam in Mok Kyung-un’s eyes.
‘It’s a lot.’
Far more energy than expected.
He hadn’t anticipated this much leaking from the crack.
Just a little absorption already equaled the death energy of twenty spirits.
What level was this Immae Mangryang to have such strong demonic energy even while trapped?
“Sto...... Stop, you insignificant human worm daring to take this seat’s energy......”
“It’s almost done, so wait a bit.”
The energy leaking from the crack was nearly all absorbed.
It approached the death energy of fifty spirits.
He had expended some death energy creating the Fresh Corpse Ghost with the Sixfold Spirit Summoning Technique, so this was fortunate.
-Sssshhh!
Soon, no more demonic energy leaked.
It seemed he had absorbed most of the trapped one’s energy.
“You wooorm......”
Its voice sounded greatly weakened.
It didn’t even have the energy to rage.
“It’s weakened. Now make it a Shikigami.”
“Yes.”
Mok Kyung-un brought his sword formula hand toward the cracked part of the wooden box.
-Ssssh!
The air rippled around his sword formula hand.
He was generating sword energy.
Since it wasn’t an ordinary wooden box, he aimed to slice it with sword energy.
Mok Kyung-un pressed the sword energy-infused sword formula against the wooden box.
At that instant.
-Boom!
“Gah!”
A strong repulsive force pushed Mok Kyung-un’s body back nearly five paces.
‘What is this?’
“What happened?”
Cheongryeong asked, surprised as well.
Mok Kyung-un looked at his sword formula fingers.
Fortunately, they were unharmed, but an unknown force had repelled him the moment he tried to pierce the wooden box with sword energy.
‘What?’
He had clearly absorbed all the demonic energy leaking from the crack.
So what was this?
As he puzzled, the voice spoke.
“Do you think a box made of Holy Spirit Wood breaks that easily?”
“Holy Spirit Wood?”
“Seeing you don’t know that, it seems the sages no longer remain in this world.”
“Sages? What are you talking about?”
“No need to know. More importantly, about breaking Holy Spirit Wood...”
-Crack!
At that moment.
Before the voice could finish, the area around the crack on the wooden box split open.
“No?”
-Shatter!
Then, starting from the split, the wooden box rotted away and soon scattered like ash.
It had been intact just moments ago. A bizarre occurrence.
Mok Kyung-un looked at his sword formula.
‘Because of the death energy?’
His sword energy wasn’t ordinary internal energy but formed from death energy itself.
Death energy opposed vitality, so it caused it to disintegrate.
Whether due to that or the added force to the existing crack making it break was hard to pinpoint exactly.
Either way, the wooden box was destroyed.
“Isn’t that a scroll?”
“Seems like it.”
Something buried in the ashes of the shattered wooden box came into view.
It was a rolled-up scroll.
Mok Kyung-un approached and picked it up.
A quite worn scroll, and judging by its length, it likely contained poetry or a painting inside.
“Unroll...... Unroll the scroll.”
Then the voice spoke.
Mok Kyung-un smirked and recited the attachment formula with the hand holding the scroll, trying to put it in his mouth.
“......What are you trying to do right now?”
“Eat it.”
“What?”
He had no intention of playing along with the demon’s tune.
If this scroll was the true body related to the Immae Mangryang, he planned to eat it and make it a Shikigami.
The moment he tried to put the scroll’s end into his mouth.
“You insolent fool!”
-Crackle!
At that instant, blue flames like lightning shot up from the scroll.
With that, the scroll bounced from Mok Kyung-un’s hand, rolled across the floor, and began unrolling on its own.
“Grab it!”
-Pop!
Mok Kyung-un reached out with his singed hand toward the scroll and deployed the attachment formula.
He thought it would be pulled in, but it resisted in midair.
Then the fully unrolled scroll floated into the air.
‘Ah!’
Light gleamed in Mok Kyung-un’s eyes as he watched.
And rightly so—the scroll depicted a landscape painting so beautiful it resembled a Peach Blossom Paradise.
Majestic peaks shrouded in mist, adorned with flowering trees.
‘Beautiful.’
But there was one jarring element.
In the center of the landscape painting, atop the peak, sat a white-haired middle-aged man in meditation with eyes closed.
‘Why put a person there of all places......’
That moment.
-Pop!
The white-haired middle-aged man in the painting opened his closed eyes.
And then,
-Swish!
Stepping on the mist within the painting, he emerged from it.
‘!?’
-Chill!
The moment it stepped out, Mok Kyung-un felt a spine-chilling shiver for the first time in his life.
-Roooaaar!
As the white-haired middle-aged man passed through the painting, immense demonic energy poured out, seeming like countless death energies converged into one.
“Impossible.”
Cheongryeong muttered in bewilderment.
Until now, no Immae Mangryang or lingering spirit had ever made her flinch or show fear.
Why this reaction? As he wondered, she arduously opened her mouth.
“......How is there an Immae Mangryang of Spirit Beast grade?”
‘Spirit Beast?’
It is written thus in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
The world holds countless Immae Mangryang invisible to humans.
Among them, some occupy a higher realm that not only humans but even they themselves cannot approach.
Those are Spirit Beasts that have lived for eons.
[Chapter 30: Master of the Sea of Corpses (1)] End