Chapter 248
Chapter 248
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 69
>Chapter Title: Consort Ho (1)
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“Won’t you let me join in too, kids?”
‘!?’
The sudden appearance of a peerless beauty clad in resplendent reddish-gold robes caused Mok Kyung-un and the Blue Spirit possessing King Kyung-chin’s body to freeze in place for a moment.
And for good reason—the woman held the severed head of Eunuch Ho Gonggong, the chamberlain from the Western Depot who had gone out to call for help.
‘What is this?’
Mok Kyung-un’s stiffened pupils trembled.
He had enveloped the room in deathly aura to completely block out sound, so he couldn’t precisely detect anyone approaching from outside.
Yet he sensed nothing from this woman who had opened the door and entered.
Not with his energy sense, nor with his naked eyes, which could perceive no color of aura.
‘......What in the world is she?’
He recalled one similar encounter.
It had been with that old man carrying the bamboo fishing rod.
The overwhelming presence had made it hard to even sense his energy, and even after unleashing the power of his third eye, the pressure of the aura had been too much for his eyes to bear.
It was then that the Blue Spirit possessing King Kyung-chin spoke up.
“Consort Ho?”
When possessing a body, the degree of assimilation determined whether memories could be read.
Even without full assimilation, she could instantly recognize anyone familiar to King Kyung-chin.
‘Consort Ho?’
Mok Kyung-un couldn’t hide his bewilderment at her words.
Wasn’t Consort Ho one of the two women favored by the Emperor?
So how had she shown up holding the head of Eunuch Ho Gonggong, who had stepped out to seek aid?
As he puzzled over it, the Blue Spirit spoke in a flustered tone.
“Consort Ho, what in the world is the meaning of this? Isn’t that Eunuch Ho’s head in your hand?”
Her speech mimicked King Kyung-chin perfectly.
With that, Mok Kyung-un instantly grasped her intent.
Uncertain of the opponent’s true nature, she was opting to play the part of King Kyung-chin for now.
Matching her cue, Mok Kyung-un clasped his hands and bowed his head.
But then,
“Pfft.”
The woman called Consort Ho let out a scoff.
She promptly hurled Eunuch Ho’s head aside.
-Thud! Roll roll roll!
As Consort Ho strode into the chamber, she spoke.
“Cut the act, resentful spirit.”
‘!?’
At her words, the Blue Spirit’s pupils quivered faintly in King Kyung-chin’s body.
What on earth was this woman?
Having reached the Blue Spirit rank among wandering souls, even most sorcerers would struggle to detect her possession.
Yet she had seen through it immediately.
Her tone carried utter certainty, leaving no room for feigned ignorance or denial.
The Blue Spirit’s gaze sharpened as she replied.
“What are you?”
“You?”
“Yeah. What the hell are...”
-Pak!
It happened in that instant.
Consort Ho appeared before the Blue Spirit in a flash and reached to seize her throat.
But in that split second,
-Pak!
The Blue Spirit, who had been about to be grabbed, was shoved aside as someone clamped onto Consort Ho’s wrist.
It was Mok Kyung-un.
Looking at her captured wrist, Consort Ho curled her lips.
“Not bad speed for someone wearing an old man’s face.”
“......”
Mok Kyung-un made no reply to her words.
More accurately, he couldn’t.
-Tremble tremble tremble!
Though he gripped her wrist, her slender arm wielded absurd strength, making it a struggle just to hold on.
Just as he decided he had to let go,
-Thunk! Boom!
In that moment, Mok Kyung-un’s body, still clutching her wrist, smashed through the chamber wall.
Having effortlessly shaken him off, Consort Ho turned her gaze to the Blue Spirit.
“I get that you’ve got some rank, but you don’t know your place, resentful spirit.”
“What the hell are...”
-Bam!
Before she could finish, the Blue Spirit’s body was slammed to the floor.
Consort Ho pinned her down by the head, and though a spirit possessing a human body shouldn’t feel pain,
“Guhhh.”
A groan escaped from excruciating agony that felt like it pierced her skull.
In shock, the Blue Spirit’s widened eyes stared up at Consort Ho.
The woman grinned with a look of utter delight, as if savoring the moment.
From that, the Blue Spirit instinctively knew.
‘This woman...... isn’t human.’
It wasn’t mere intuition about her temperament.
She truly wasn’t human.
Unable to detect it earlier because no energy was revealed, the force crushing her head was unmistakable yokai power.
Immense, pure yokai power of unfathomable depth.
If mere fragments inflicted this much, what was this being’s true nature?
‘Demonic beast?’
No.
It might be something greater.
No matter how exalted the rank among demonic beasts, her own spirit power as a Blue Spirit-rank resentful soul was no less.
She couldn’t be overwhelmed like this.
Which meant, perhaps,
‘Spirit beast?’
This woman, in her beautiful human guise, was a spirit beast?
Spirit beasts were hailed as the pinnacle rank among all yokai.
How could such a being exist in the imperial palace, no less as a woman favored by the Emperor?
As bewilderment gripped her, Consort Ho spoke.
“You’re an interesting one. Most resentful spirits or yokai wouldn’t dare enter my domain, but here you are, barging in without a shred of fear.”
-Crush!
“Aaack!”
Consort Ho pressed harder on her head, wrenching a scream from the Blue Spirit.
Her very spirit body felt on the verge of shattering.
It was right then.
-Rooooooar!
Vast cursed energy flooded the entire chamber.
With it, four pillars erupted around Consort Ho.
Her eyes gleamed at the sight of the surging pillars.
“Now what’s this?”
Consort Ho glanced at the pillars before shifting her gaze.
There, Mok Kyung-un emerged from beyond the shattered wall, one hand forming a mudra, the other gripping his sword formula.
“So you wield cursed energy and know barrier arts too.”
No sooner had she spoken than Mok Kyung-un thrust his sword formula toward her.
“Four Peaks Linked Chain Art.”
-Shwaaaaa!
Cursed energy walls rose from the pillars, linking together.
They began to enclose Consort Ho.
“Contract!”
Mok Kyung-un clenched his fist.
The walls of the Four Peaks Linked Chain Art shrank accordingly.
The intent was to cunningly constrict the barrier, severing only up to Consort Ho’s wrist as it pinned the Blue Spirit’s head.
But right then,
“Full of tricks, but oh well.”
Consort Ho smirked and flicked a finger at the encroaching cursed wall.
-Twaaaaaang!
-Slash!
The backlash tore open Mok Kyung-un’s palm, forcing it unfurled.
Not only that—the cursed walls meant to trap her shattered into fragments, scattering cursed energy everywhere.
“Petty tricks won’t...”
-Swish!
In that moment, Mok Kyung-un’s form appeared before her.
His sword formula, laced with sharp sword intent, thrust straight at her eyes.
Realizing barrier arts wouldn’t work, he switched to martial arts, opting for direct assault.
But,
-Pak!
Consort Ho swung her hand without dodging his sword formula.
Mok Kyung-un’s thrusting form dissolved into afterimages.
And simultaneously,
-Thud! Crash!
His true form materialized right behind her, struck by something and slammed into the floor.
The impact was so fierce it cratered the chamber floor around them.
“Mok!”
The Blue Spirit cried out in alarm.
Then she spotted something undulating above where he had fallen.
A golden-furred tail.
‘A tail?’
It extended from beneath Consort Ho’s skirt.
Covering her mouth, Consort Ho laughed.
“Hohohohoho! Cheap clone arts like that don’t work on me. No, you’d need at least ten clones to even dream of exploiting a gap.”
-Wriggle wriggle!
Golden tails rose from beneath her skirt.
There were many.
The Blue Spirit’s pupils shook violently at the sight.
‘Golden tails?’
It was then.
From the cratered floor, a sinister, dark energy surged.
It was demonic qi.
Consort Ho’s eyes lit with intrigue as she beheld it.
She had never sensed such energy before.
‘Not human, not resentful spirit, not even something from yokai......’
Right then.
-Shwaaaaa!
The surging demonic qi exploded several times over in an instant.
It converged to a single point in the crater, brushing past Consort Ho in a flash.
-Slash!
A black line streaked through the air.
Mok Kyung-un stood right behind her, breathing raggedly.
“Haa.... haa....”
This was the pinnacle technique he could unleash now—focusing all his capacity into a single sword strike.
-Crack! Crack!
His muscles tensed and screamed.
It wasn’t enough to fell him as before, but still beyond enlightenment-level, he couldn’t chain it again right now.
Mok Kyung-un slowly turned his head.
‘!?’
He frowned.
Despite his all-out ultimate strike, Consort Ho seemed unfazed.
Or not quite.
-Drip.
A single scratch marred her flawless cheek, a drop of blood trickling from it.
Consort Ho wiped it with her sleeve and arched one brow.
“Blood.......”
Just one drop, but how long had it been?
Truthfully, never.
For a mere human to wound her—it was unprecedented since her birth.
Her gaze turned icy, and the color of her eyes and hair began to change.
-Shimmer shimmer!
They took on a noble, radiant gold hue.
Mok Kyung-un swallowed dryly at her transformation.
Even without unleashing his third eye, the aura emanating from the changed Consort Ho was so distant it sent chills down his spine.
-Wriggle!
Behind her, now with golden hair and eyes, nine tails rose like mountain peaks.
‘Nine tails?’
Something flashed through Mok Kyung-un’s mind.
[Among the Six Demons, there exists a being said to be even more vile than the Great Power King, the longest-reigning. That entity is malice incarnate, leading all to ruin.]
[......Leading to ruin?]
[The ancient era, Yin, Zhou—nations fell because of it.]
[Yin, Zhou? You don’t mean that spirit beast you’re talking about...]
[Yes. Known as the Hundred-Faced One for its myriad visages, it wields ominous yokai power and bears nine golden tails—the great fox yokai, Golden Fur Nine-Tails.]
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