Chapter 50
Chapter 50
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 14
>Chapter Title: Heaven and Earth Society (1)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
What is the talent of a sorcerer?
There are many requirements.
Among them, naturally, is a sensitivity to spiritual energy.
For a simple example, everyone has experienced goosebumps rising out of nowhere or a sudden chill at least once.
It could be a natural bodily reaction, but that is the foundation of spiritual sensitivity.
When coming into contact with something spiritual, the soul within the body reacts, influencing the five senses.
However, ordinary people find it hard to notice.
That’s because the boundary between the living and the dead is clear.
One could only be born with this spiritual gift or cultivate it through training.
Yet, among these talent requirements, there exists the supreme gift that only a tiny fraction are born with.
‘You have the eyes.’
That is vision.
Unlike other senses, eyes that can precisely peer across the boundary.
Sorcerers regarded those who could distinguish this as the highest.
Jo the Sorcerer, the middle-aged man with the eyepatch, had seen Mok Kyung-un staring precisely at the anomaly even before he caught the staff infused with the imperial edict and incantation.
‘It’s certain.’
The boy possessed the greatest qualification as a sorcerer.
To think that a child from a martial clan had a talent that even he, trained under the finest master, could barely perceive with the naked eye.
“You…… can see grudge spirits.”
-The crowd buzzed!
His words caused an uproar around them.
See grudge spirits? What did that mean?
‘Grudge spirits—aren’t those ghosts or anomalies?’
Clan Head Mok In-dan and the Mok family brothers furrowed their brows as they looked at Mok Kyung-un.
In truth, most reactions were similar.
‘This is troublesome.’
Mok Kyung-un clicked his tongue inwardly.
He had acted on impulse to keep the Demon Monk, but it seemed things had gotten complicated.
Should he have just let it go, despite the regret?
But it was already too late.
‘A sorcerer?’
That seemed to be the case.
Part of the incantation he had memorized earlier came from a book on sorcery left by Sorceress Sak.
It was a typical spell for exorcising anomalies or evil spirits.
However, the incantation was different.
Which meant,
‘That woman Sak belongs to a different group.’
Likely affiliated with this Heaven and Earth Society.
At that moment, Jo the Sorcerer, the middle-aged man with the eyepatch, spoke.
“Since when have you been able to see grudge spirits?”
“Pardon?”
“You can see grudge spirits, can’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jo the Sorcerer raised one eyebrow in puzzlement at Mok Kyung-un’s feigned ignorance.
Was the boy trying to hide his own eyes?
But if so, he shouldn’t have stepped forward from the beginning.
Jo the Sorcerer snorted and changed his question.
“Interesting. Fine, I’ll rephrase. Why did you stop us from exorcising the grudge spirit?”
“Hmm. I have no idea what you’ve been talking about.”
Mok Kyung-un shrugged off the question nonchalantly.
Jo the Sorcerer chuckled softly, then formed hand seals as he spoke.
“You don’t know? Then I suppose it’s fine to exorcise that vile thing again.”
-Pak! Pak! Pak!
Soldier! Fight! Rend! Array!
These were the hand seals of the Nine-Character Liberation Method.
‘Different.’
Mok Kyung-un’s eyes narrowed.
He had memorized every book owned by Sorcerer Myo-sin, Sorceress Sak, and others.
Yet these hand seals were new to him.
And without any incantation, just forming the seals caused the surrounding spiritual energy to surge unnaturally.
-Prrr!
But to others, it was invisible.
They only saw him clasping his hands, bending and extending fingers, overlapping them.
Then Jo the Sorcerer formed a square with the index and middle fingers of both hands, aiming it.
And then,
-Paaah!
Four invisible pillars rose from around them.
The pillars precisely encircled Mok Kyung-un and the Demon Monk, gradually thickening.
Jo the Sorcerer, the middle-aged man with the eyepatch, murmured softly.
“Four Peaks Chain Lock Spell.”
No sooner had he spoken than the thickened pillars formed faces.
The walls left no escape. The Demon Monk glanced around in undisguised bewilderment.
“Contract!”
Jo the Sorcerer extended his open palm toward the Demon Monk and clenched his fist.
-Paaah!
At that instant, the four surfaces of the pillars confining the Demon Monk compressed, slowly shrinking.
If it fully contracted, the Demon Monk might be crushed.
Mok Kyung-un’s eyes sharpened.
This man was on a clearly different level from the sorcerers he had seen so far.
He had never encountered this sorcery before.
‘No choice.’
Unable to discern the spell, there was only one way to break it.
Attack the caster—the sorcerer himself.
-Tak!
“Take it back.”
Mok Kyung-un gripped the staff like a javelin and hurled it at Jo the Sorcerer, who was performing the ritual.
-Whoosh!
Most sorceries unravel if the caster is interrupted or killed midway.
But the other masked figures wouldn’t just stand by.
-Clang!
One masked figure near Jo the Sorcerer shot forward with swift movement and struck down the flying staff with his sword flat.
“Insolent whelp, where do you think you’re going!”
The masked figure moved to charge straight at Mok Kyung-un, who had targeted Jo the Sorcerer.
However, Jo the Sorcerer stopped him.
“Stand down!”
“Yes?”
“No need to intervene.”
“Understood.”
The masked figure halted his attack without question.
A group with strict hierarchy.
Jo the Sorcerer addressed Mok Kyung-un.
“You don’t seem possessed or bewitched, so why protect the grudge spirit? Speak now, and I’ll pause the spell.”
‘He’ll have no choice but to yield eventually.’
The situation was in his favor anyway.
Having the eyes meant nothing without training.
From what he could tell, the boy hadn’t received any sorcerer training.
He could see that at a glance.
Moreover, the Four Peaks Chain Lock Spell was an advanced ritual only someone of Moon-rank or higher could perform, hard to break with ordinary spells.
But then,
‘!?’
Jo the Sorcerer’s expression hardened as he watched Mok Kyung-un.
It was,
-Pak! Pak! Pak!
Mok Kyung-un forming hand seals.
They matched exactly what Jo the Sorcerer had just performed, without the slightest deviation.
Soldier! Fight! Rend! Array!
‘No?’
The Nine-Character Liberation Method seals.
Jo the Sorcerer was dumbfounded by Mok Kyung-un’s seals.
No matter how he looked, the boy was an ordinary person clueless about sorcery.
Yet he replicated the seals so precisely?
‘An absurd child.’
Did he think mimicking it would stop him?
If it were that easy, everyone would do it.
‘Spells that rely solely on seals without incantations or talismans require Moon-rank or higher…’
-Shwaaa!
In that moment, Jo the Sorcerer doubted his own eyes.
Four small pillars invisible to ordinary eyes had formed.
Crude and clumsy in shape, but unmistakable.
“Ha……”
A small exclamation escaped Jo the Sorcerer’s lips.
This was a realm of sorcery reached after long years of cultivation.
Yet the boy succeeded after seeing it once?
‘……Did this brat actually learn sorcery?’
Then Mok Kyung-un murmured.
“Four Peaks Chain Lock Spell.”
Faces connected across the four pillars.
It was a sight hard to believe even seeing it.
But what was even more astonishing was where Mok Kyung-un had cast the Four Peaks Chain Lock Spell.
-Papapapapak!
He cast it inside the contracting Four Peaks Chain Lock Spell.
The original spell’s contraction halted as it collided with the new inner Four Peaks Chain Lock Spell.
‘This brat……’
Not only mimicking the spell but countering it this way.
Remarkable adaptability.
At this point, suspicion was inevitable.
“Who taught you sorcery?”
“Why would I…… need to learn something like this?”
It wasn’t a lie.
He hadn’t learned from anyone; he had self-studied from sorcery texts.
-Prrr!
Mok Kyung-un’s hands trembled while holding the Nine-Character Liberation Method seals in the Array position.
He was blocking Jo the Sorcerer’s shrinking Four Peaks Chain Lock Spell through improvisation.
He had managed it on the fly, but the difference in proficiency couldn’t be ignored.
Jo the Sorcerer’s gaze grew peculiar as he watched.
‘He really hasn’t learned it?’
The adaptability, the ability to replicate and manifest seals on sight.
All of this was nearly impossible without an exceptional master.
Staring intently at Mok Kyung-un, Jo the Sorcerer soon,
-Tak!
Released his seals and said.
“Release.”
With those words, the contracting Four Peaks Chain Lock Spell vanished.
Mok Kyung-un looked at him quizzically.
Jo the Sorcerer burst into laughter.
“Hahahahahaha!”
Why the sudden change?
As Mok Kyung-un puzzled, Jo the Sorcerer turned to Myeongdo King Son Yun and said.
“Myeongdo King. Kill everyone else as you please, but hand this boy over to me.”
‘!?’
Everyone’s eyes widened.
He seemed to be a sorcerer of the Heaven and Earth Society, yet now he wanted Mok Kyung-un handed over? What was this?
Then Son Yun clicked his tongue.
“Up to your old pointless tricks again.”
“I have that much authority, don’t I?”
Myeongdo King Son Yun shrugged in affirmation.
He then raised his massive cleaver-like sword toward the Timber Sword Manor members, his voice laced with murderous intent.
“I was going to leave peacefully if you handed it over nicely, but that’s over now. You brought this on yourselves—regret it in the afterlife.”
That’s what Son Yun thought.
No need to pick out who took the manual one by one.
Beat them all, and someone would talk.
The manual was somewhere in the manor anyway.
Son Yun shouted.
“Kill them a—”
Someone interrupted.
“The manual wrapped in prayer beads inside the wooden box—it’s with me.”
It was Mok Kyung-un.
“Haa……”
Clan Head Mok In-dan, who had tensed fearing they might break their promise, let out a sigh of relief.
If they just handed over the manual, they could survive this.
Then Myeongdo King Son Yun approached Mok Kyung-un with terrifying momentum.
“You have it?”
“Yes.”
“If this is another lie, sorcerer’s request or not, I’ll tear your limbs apart.”
“Why would I say I don’t have it when I do?”
Son Yun’s eyes gleamed at Mok Kyung-un’s utter lack of fear.
But only briefly.
“Then hand it over. Or tell me where it is.”
In case of more tricks, he asked for the location.
But then,
“I should apologize first.”
“Apologize? You little—”
“You seemed so desperate for it, so I burned the manual.”
“What?”
The masked figures erupted in fury instead.
It was a treasure of the Heaven and Earth Society.
Of course they’d be enraged at it being burned.
Yet Son Yun subtly raised a hand to restrain them and snorted.
“Ha!…… So-called prestigious martial clan, full of nothing but con artists. You think that could be burned by fire?”
What did he mean?
This time, both the masked figures and Timber Sword Manor members were puzzled.
He didn’t believe the manual had been burned?
Then Son Yun,
-Pak!
Leveled his cleaver at Mok Kyung-un’s throat and said.
“You know nothing. You’ve never even seen the manual. You’ve wasted my time with nonsense, so as promised…”
“Does it sound like a lie?”
Son Yun scowled fiercely and yanked the cleaver up.
“Insolent brat, talking back to your elders…”
“The human-skin cover doesn’t burn easily, but the inner pages with the contents burned just fine.”
‘!?’
Son Yun’s rage-filled expression changed at those words.
Only a select few executives in the Heaven and Earth Society knew the cover was made of human skin.
“You……”
“Oh, and by the way, the contents are right here.”
Mok Kyung-un tapped his temple with his index finger.
Son Yun’s face hardened.
‘!?’
Had Mok Kyung-un not only burned their treasure but memorized it too?
As he wondered, Son Yun said incredulously.
“You…… saw it?”
────────────────────────────────────
────────────────────────────────────