Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 19
>Chapter Title: Gu Poison (1)
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Dozens, hundreds of venomous creatures are thrown into a single jar, and the lid is not opened until only one survives.
That sole survivor, the worst of them all, is called gu poison.
Mok Kyung-un peered down at the cliff bottom, akin to the Avici Hell, and asked in a puzzled voice.
“Gu poison... you say?”
-Indeed. Can’t you hear it? These screams.
He could hear them.
Crystal clear, in fact.
-Kyaaaaaaa!
-Kwaaaaaak!
-Save meeeee!
-Please! Please!
The agonized wails of countless resentful spirits rose upward.
It was the first time he had seen so many resentful spirits raising such a clamor.
Individually, they were merely red spirit level—nothing special—but with hundreds, no, thousands gathered in one place, it was a true hellscape.
-Look closer. Your eyes will see it.
At Cheongryeong’s words, Mok Kyung-un stared piercingly downward.
The resentful spirits crying out there stretched their hands upward, yearning for freedom, but iron chains bound their ankles and wrists.
-Clank! Clank!
“That’s...”
-You learned barrier arts, so you know. Even you did it once to a soul, mortal.
Her words flashed Go Chan through Mok Kyung-un’s mind.
He had originally turned a soul naturally heading to the afterlife into a resentful spirit using barrier arts.
The method wasn’t overly complex.
Simply bind the departing soul to the living world in some way and dye it with the energy of death.
“Ha!”
The corner of Mok Kyung-un’s mouth twitched.
What a spectacle.
This massive horde of wandering souls trapped in such a narrow cliff base, twisted into resentful spirits.
This was no accident.
It had been forced.
Truly a horrific affair.
Yet rather than shock, Mok Kyung-un found himself intrigued by the sight.
‘How peculiar.’
Cheongryeong clicked her tongue at the view.
No matter how she looked at it, this boy’s mindset was worlds apart from ordinary humans.
But it didn’t matter.
All that counted was that he—be he evil ghost or whatever—helped resolve her deep-seated grudge.
Cheongryeong spoke.
-You know resentful spirits have ranks, right?
“...Yes.”
-It depends on how strong their grudge was before death. How long they harbored that resentment. Things like that influence it.
“...”
-But ranks aren’t determined solely that way.
“They can form in other ways too?”
-Yes. You’re seeing it now, aren’t you?
Cheongryeong pointed her pipe at one spot.
It was the blackest area at the base of the cliff-like Avici Hell.
That single point was especially hard to see.
But upon closer inspection, a startling scene unfolded.
“...They’re being drawn in?”
-Exactly.
The screaming resentful spirits.
They were being forcibly pulled into that one spot, as if absorbed.
The spirits resisted desperately, but bound by their chains, they were sucked in one by one.
Each time, the black space grew larger.
“I get what you mean.”
Mok Kyung-un finally understood her words.
The meaning of gu poison.
-If resentful spirits are just kept together, they might not clash. But if you bind them in one place, unable to escape...
“They devour each other. Or should I say, eat each other alive.”
-Yes.
Earthbound spirits mere fodder, consuming one another, degenerating into the worst form.
And that degenerating worst was likely that black point.
A darkness that sent chills just to behold.
“Gu poison...”
A fitting name.
How monstrous had that final surviving spirit become?
At minimum, yellow spirit—no, green spirit level or higher.
Mok Kyung-un glanced at Cheongryeong.
‘Perhaps.’
It might be the process of forming a spirit to match her.
The thought made his mouth water.
Then Cheongryeong spoke.
-Now’s the chance.
“The chance?”
-It hasn’t fully formed into gu poison yet. I don’t know how monstrous they aim to make it, but absorbing even a bit of that energy would yield more than killing one person at a time.
That was why she had brought Mok Kyung-un here.
Killing boys to absorb their death energy was a path to growth, of course, but the cliff below was a concentration of resentful spirits crafted for gu poison.
The energies formed in that process were far denser than ordinary death energy.
-It’s already overflowing, so deploying the ‘receiving’ stance here should let you take in plenty.
“I see.”
-Do it.
At her words, Mok Kyung-un shook his head.
-What? Scared now?
“No.”
-Then why not?
“It’s not that I won’t. It’s just that thing down there tempts me more than doing it up here.”
‘!?’
Mok Kyung-un pointed to the black spot itself.
Cheongryeong furrowed her brow.
Then she scoffed dismissively.
-Want to die that badly?
“Pardon?”
-That’s a maelstrom where resentful spirits devour and mutate each other. You, a living being, plan to go there?
“Can’t I?”
-Hey, mortal.
“Yes.”
-Even now, there are hundreds of uneaten individual spirits. Enter that vortex, and you might get devoured instead. Drop the pointless bravado.
A sincere warning.
Even chained, they were resentful spirits.
If they surged like a wave at once, who knew what would happen.
-Don’t trust your half-baked barrier arts and die pointlessly. Be content with the overflowing energy here, as this seat commands.
At Cheongryeong’s words, Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly.
Then he approached the cliff edge.
-Hey!
Cheongryeong scolded the approaching Mok Kyung-un.
To her, he gazed at the black spot and said.
“Even if it’s risky, absorbing that concentrated energy could make me far stronger than now, right?”
-...You mad mortal. You could die before getting stronger. If it were easy, would this seat stop you?
Imprisoned and devouring each other, the spirits were hypersensitive.
Dangerous enough already—yet he’d risk it?
This boy had lost all fear, excessively so.
He’d been like this since their first encounter—far too willing to stake his life when needed.
-You and this seat are one. I want no reckless double suicide.
“As if I’d want Cheongryeong to die.”
-Then step back.
“Didn’t you say it yourself?”
-What?
“With my current power, I can’t do anything inside the Heavenly Assembly.”
-...
“Even with great risk, if there’s a chance, shouldn’t I seize it however I can? Waiting patiently with ‘endure on brushwood and taste gall’ isn’t my style.”
-Pat!
As soon as he spoke, Mok Kyung-un leaped toward the gentler slope of the cliff face.
-You!
Cheongryeong swung her hand to pull him back.
But the rising energy of the resentful spirits blocked her.
Instead, one stray spirit was yanked up,
-Aaaaaaaaah!
-Fizzle...
And oxidized upon hitting the cliff-top barrier.
Cheongryeong erupted in rage.
-Damnable mortal!
He had gone down there after all.
Despite her warnings.
If not bound by the spirit contract, she’d let him die.
But she couldn’t.
-You pester this seat.
-Swoosh!
Cheongryeong dove after Mok Kyung-un.
Talismans enveloped her, repelling most anomalies, but she forced them open.
-Crackle!
* * *
-Flesh!
-Living flesh!
-It’s alive!
Sliding down the gentle slope was chaos.
Resentful spirits’ voices echoed in his ears.
‘Not even comparable.’
The cliff top had talismans suppressing the energies.
But down here, it was intense.
Like plunging into rapids.
The spirits detected his presence and swarmed, all coveting his flesh.
Mok Kyung-un, sliding down, clasped his hands and formed mudras.
-Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Lin! Bing! Dou! Zhe! Jie! Zhen! Lie! Zai! Qian!
The Nine Word Activation Method mudras.
Perform all nine in sequence, and the final mudra determines the spell.
With palms together in Prayer Seal,
-Boom!
Threads extended around Mok Kyung-un, forming a sphere.
A barrier repelling anomalies.
The Nine Word Activation’s Ninth Word required a talisman or incantation medium, and Mok Kyung-un wore a ring on his left index finger.
A gift from Sorcerer Myo-sin.
It held the incantation for the full method.
‘This is a barrier? Useful.’
A barrier binds a space for a purpose.
-Bang bang bang bang bang!
-Can’t approach.
-What is this?
-Blocked.
Nearby earthbound-level resentful spirits bounced off.
The mudras could handle and repel even red spirits.
Maintaining the Prayer Seal, Mok Kyung-un slid down until the slope steepened.
‘Need to grab hold.’
He’d have to cling to the cliff.
But below, he spotted pooled water.
Invisible from above, but deep enough to jump.
-Thud!
Mok Kyung-un kicked off.
And dove into the water.
-Splash!
‘As expected.’
Not very deep.
About twice his height.
He swam up, but
-Awoooo!
-Uwaaaaa!
Resentful spirits’ screams filled his ears.
From the water’s depths—and soon, pale white shapes appeared around him.
‘Hands?’
They were hands.
Bloated like drowned corpses, utterly bloodless white hands.
Chilling to behold.
The hands writhed upward, grasping for his ankle.
-Bang bang bang bang!
But the Prayer Seal barrier held.
‘Good I didn’t release it.’
Then something felt off.
Earthbound red spirits had bounced off easily.
Yet these palms persisted after rebounding.
Soon,
-Thud thud thud thud thud!
The palms suctioned onto the barrier like octopus suckers.
‘!?’
Enduring the barrier.
He recalled something from the Yin-Yang Family Canon.
[Water-dwelling anomalies are far more dangerous than ordinary ones.]
‘Is that why?’
This was vermilion spirit grade, not red.
Sensing danger, Mok Kyung-un kicked while holding the seal.
He had to surface.
-Bang bang bang bang bang bang!
But countless hands surged from the bottom.
They gripped the spherical barrier around him, pulling downward.
-Boom!
‘This... is trouble.’
He might not surface at this rate.
He could hold his breath longer than most, but not forever.
-Crack!
Cracks formed where hands clung.
About to shatter.
Mok Kyung-un frowned.
‘Then.’
-Thud!
He shifted from Prayer Seal to Diamond Finger, middle finger extended.
Instantly,
-Boom!
The sphere burst, repelling the hands with force.
Seizing the moment, Mok Kyung-un kicked powerfully and surfaced.
Swimming to shore, he felt the repelled hands surging back.
-Splashhhh!
Right then.
-Hum!
Something lifted Mok Kyung-un’s body buoyantly.
Then hurled him to shore.
-Thud!
Tumbling twice across the ground, he rose.
Beside him, someone descended gracefully.
Cheongryeong.
-Damnable mortal. Defying this seat to the end.
To her irritation, Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly.
“Whew. Right on time.”
-What? Right on time?
“I figured Cheongryeong would help me out.”
-You!
At his words, Cheongryeong nearly smacked his head with her pipe but held back.
This insolent mortal exploited her relentlessly.
Being tied to him must be her karma.
Then.
-Wriggle!
Pale white hands emerged from the water, approaching Mok Kyung-un.
Cheongryeong turned, glaring at them with bloodshot eyes.
In a low voice, she said.
-This seat’s property. Scram, little ones.
As soon as she spoke.
The hands targeting Mok Kyung-un trembled convulsively, then retreated into the water.