Chapter 98
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Fruits of Good Deeds
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Someone's desperate call pulled Lee Hae-ri from her slumber.
Before she knew it, the golden chains binding her body had come undone, and the seal was released.
She had thought she would wither away alone in the sealing chamber until her dying breath.
"Why..."
She wanted to ask the elders who had awakened her the moment she opened her eyes.
Why had the seal been broken? Had the Black Calamity truly been vanquished?
But she couldn't bring herself to ask.
Oh Mun-hak, who had exhausted every last drop of his energy to release her seal, had collapsed unconscious on the spot. Elder Bang Du-young was also gasping for breath, teetering on the brink of death.
Only Choi Hyo-wol, the youngest of them, managed to quickly relay the situation to Lee Hae-ri. Even she was utterly drained, barely able to speak, so she transmitted fragments of her memories instead.
The enemy had invaded.
Lee Ha-il's fate was unknown.
Everyone had evacuated to the 17th floor.
You're the only one left who can fight.
With that, Choi Hyo-wol fainted. Lee Hae-ri bolted out of the sealing chamber.
"Ugh..."
The stairs reeked of thick blood.
Lee Hae-ri, emerging from the 16th-floor sealing chamber, raced up to the 15th-floor landing where Lee Ha-il was supposed to be.
They said he was fighting.
Why was it so quiet?
Had the battle already ended?
Lee Hae-ri clung to a sliver of hope.
Perhaps Lee Ha-il had already dealt with the intruders and was resting.
The Lee Ha-il she knew was an invincible swordsman who bowed to no one.
Lee Hae-ri didn't doubt it. He was surely still alive.
Until her seal was released, he would hold out with that signature cynical smile of his.
As always, acting like it was nothing. Fulfilling his duty and waiting for his junior.
Please.
It had to be that way.
"..."
Of course, reality was far less forgiving.
As Lee Hae-ri reached the 15th-floor landing, a massive beast lay there, hacked to pieces by countless weapons.
The walls, floor, and ceiling of the landing were drenched in crimson blood, turned a vivid red.
Whose blood was it?
Lee Hae-ri could tell by the scent that the blood was mixed.
The intruders' blood mingled with a familiar yet rougher scent.
As a half-blood demon, Lee Hae-ri realized who it belonged to.
"Grandfather..."
Lee Hae-ri had always called Lee Ha-il "Grandfather."
He wasn't her blood grandfather, but to her, he was just as reliable and dependable as one.
He was the one who taught her boxing, instilled the mindset and resolve needed to live as an outcast.
To Lee Hae-ri, the onmyoji, Lee Ha-il was a vital spiritual pillar and mainstay.
"Y-You damned half-breed bastards! Attack in waves!"
"His wounds are still..."
"You lot focus on recovering! I'll handle this mongrel!"
Lee Ha-il had taken down Woo Hye-sang of the Bloodless Victory Squad and Han Gi-mun of the Radical Faction among the five intruders who had reached this point. Having completed his final mission, he met a heroic end.
Choi Seo-ryong of the Radical Faction, unaware of the other outcast's presence, yanked his axe from the dead beast's corpse and leaped toward Lee Hae-ri.
He intended to cleave the seemingly frail Lee Hae-ri from crown to crotch.
Clang!
But the axe never split her skull.
Lee Hae-ri reached out, seized Choi Seo-ryong's wrist, and rotted it away, tearing it clean off.
This was the pinnacle of fungal arts she could achieve after the Black Calamity briefly coursed through her body.
Tomb Fungus Metamorphosis.
A spell that bloomed netherworld fungi on the body of any living thing she grasped.
Choi Seo-ryong had grown cocky relying on the blessing bestowed directly by the Grand Assembly Leader, but Lee Hae-ri's tomb fungi proved more vicious than the blessing within him.
Soon, the fungi devoured the flesh of his wrist, sprouting black spots across his entire arm.
Having lost his right arm, Choi Seo-ryong recoiled in horror.
If the enemy had transcendent regeneration, rot them before they could heal. With that simple logic, Lee Hae-ri neutralized one of the Radical Faction members.
It meant something.
Lee Ha-il's death wasn't in vain.
"T-That woman! She's dangerous! If she grabs you with that hand, you'll rot away!"
Choi Seo-ryong staggered, inspecting his severed wrist.
The flesh was completely decayed, blackened and dead.
Then he felt something crawling up from beneath his skin.
A disgustingly foul sensation.
Mushrooms soon sprouted from the stump of his wrist.
"Crazy..."
"He's infected! Tainted by the half-breed's sorcery!"
The two Oath Brotherhood members recoiled in terror upon seeing mushrooms erupt where Choi Seo-ryong's hand had been in an instant.
How could mushrooms grow so fast from a human body?
"Brother Choi Seo-ryong! I must purify you!"
"N-No! I'm pure! I'm not tainted!"
Was he, though?
Lee Hae-ri's implanted tomb fungi clashed with the blessing embedded in Choi Seo-ryong's body, driving them apart. His temperature rose, and soon flames erupted, consuming him.
A normal person would have rotted from the inside and died swiftly, but thanks to the Grand Assembly Leader's blessing, Choi Seo-ryong burned slowly and agonizingly for a long time.
Ignoring the pale-faced intruders, Lee Hae-ri approached the dead beast, hoping against hope that it still drew breath.
"Ugh..."
No breath. Lee Ha-il was definitively dead.
Yet he had dragged one of the Bloodless Victory Squad's three great lions, Woo Hye-sang, and one Radical Faction zealot as companions to hell.
Alone, he slew two of five intruders and left the remaining three battered. The scene showed he fought with every ounce of strength to the very end, never giving up.
Lee Hae-ri stroked the back of her fallen senior.
He had dreamed of a peaceful retirement. Yet he died on the battlefield.
A tragic fate. But he bought time for his junior to awaken.
"...Why..."
Confirming Lee Ha-il's death shattered Lee Hae-ri's sanity.
She couldn't hold on with a clear mind.
Rage boiled over.
Fury at those blindly hating and slaughtering half-breeds.
Seeing the man she admired dead and villains dancing over his corpse filled her with revulsion she could no longer contain.
"What... What did we ever do wrong...? No, asking is pointless. It won't end until one side is wiped out."
Lee Hae-ri didn't wait for their answer.
This was a question without one. A struggle that wouldn't cease until one side vanished completely.
She pressed her hand to the wall, erecting a fungal barrier between the 15th and 16th floors.
Mold bloomed everywhere.
The mold clumped into mushrooms, blanketing the entire landing in fungi.
Even breathing was lethal now.
Everyone except Lee Hae-ri would feel the spores invading their lungs.
Having turned the stairs into a fungal hellscape in an instant, Lee Hae-ri eyed the intruders.
"None of you. No one is passing through here. And none of you will ascend alive."
The surviving Repentance Crusade members were forced to continue their hopeless battle against the Moss House outcast.
The Jang Mountain beasts, having cleared the reed fields, sat obediently at the entrance of the wooden house, waiting for their master.
Nearly 50 invaders had become playthings in the reed fields and lost their lives to the beasts.
Had they hunted anomalies instead of half-breeds, how many lives could they have saved?
But the pureblood supremacists targeted half-breeds over anomalies, and paid with their lives.
"You all did well. Sadly, you're too large to enter with me, so stay outside and gather the corpses in one place, won't you? Too many bodies left festering too long breed grudges that birth anomalies. Best to handle them quickly."
At the priestess's command, the Jang Mountain beasts bounded excitedly through the reed fields.
They began piling the corpses of the Repentance Crusade members they had slain neatly in one corner.
"Priestess, no survivors left in the reed fields."
"I see. Then let's head in. A few of you remain outside to identify the bodies, then burn them once done."
"Understood, Priestess."
The priestess soon entered the wide-open wooden house.
At her side stood Jo Yun-gyeol, the Black of the Four Guardians, and Lee Hwa-jin, the Crimson.
Two elders and dozens of spirit mediums followed behind.
This was the maximum force the Lunar Blossom Sect could spare externally, all gathered at the Moss House.
"Hah... Help..."
In the wooden house, where every light was shattered and not a single source of illumination remained, numerous humans writhed in agony, not yet dead.
All Repentance Crusade members.
The priestess passed the crawling zealots and pressed deeper inside.
"Seon-woo."
"Yes, Priestess."
"There are still living humans here. Sever their wrist and ankle tendons, seal their mouths, and drag them to the reed fields. I'll interrogate them in Mujin City later."
"Understood. Anything else?"
"Remove the corpses too. No good letting them fester in a place like this."
"Yes, as you command."
Taoist Master Mun Seon-woo directed the Youth Association spirit mediums to clear the bodies from inside the Moss House and haul out the survivors, stripping them of mobility.
The bare minimum measures.
The survivors would face punishment for this absurd atrocity.
"Priestess, here he is. The anomaly the Fixer mentioned."
"Is that so? Let me see. You're the guardian of the first floor."
The priestess found the smiling man dying after being butchered by the Repentance Crusade purebloods.
The smiling man had defended the first floor alone and perished heroically. He had expended all his power; not even the strength to move remained.
And that wasn't all.
Man Sang-gyeong, guarding the elevator, was also smashed and dying.
"You..."
"The one your master called."
"...A bit... faster..."
"That was the best speed possible. Sorry for arriving after the incident ended."
"...Will you... kill me..."
"Who knows. Anomalies that kill humans must die, but you didn't slaughter without purpose. Who were you protecting?"
"...The humans here..."
"Why protect them?"
"...Because I was told to..."
"You could have fled?"
"..."
"You know it too. You've developed a benevolent will. It's His influence. You there, Mi-dam."
"Yes, Mother."
"Save this one too. Too fine a soul to die here."
"As you wish."
At the priestess's order, Jeong Mi-dam—the newly appointed Grand Elder and healing spirit medium—began reviving the near-dead catastrophe-grade anomalies.
Her healing arts were originally limited to humans, but after the priestess regained her power and pacified Mujin Mountain's anomalies, Jeong Mi-dam developed the bizarre "Anomaly Healing Arts."
A technique honed treating the often-injured Jang Mountain beasts, now applied to anomalies teetering on death's door defending the Moss House.
"Shall we head down further?"
"Yes."
The priestess descended the stairs.
The slime-secreting guardian of the stairs was half-dead at the hands of the Repentance Crusade priests.
The handful of twitching mass—a catastrophe-grade anomaly—Jeong Mi-dam would handle herself.
Passing the anomaly, the priestess reached the 6th floor.
"You... Could it be... The real priestess has come...?"
Upon arriving at the 6th floor, the lone surviving Radical Faction pastor, Joseph, crawled on the floor, bereft of limbs.
The 6th floor's guardian anomalies had all been exorcised.
And every other Repentance Crusade member save Joseph had perished alongside the catastrophe-grade anomaly.
"Are you truly the Lunar Blossom Sect's priestess...?"
"Indeed. And who are you?"
"I am... Pastor... Joseph..."
"I see. Joseph. Why are you dying here in such a state?"
"For... the greater cause..."
"The greater cause. You don't look like someone nobly sacrificing for it to me. More like a fool who threw himself into peril gripped by misguided beliefs."
"Urk... You... The Lunar Blossom Sect... doesn't hate half-breeds either...! How dare you spout such nonsense...!"
"Sorry, but while I've hated onmyoji before, I've never blindly despised half-breeds. It was just the previous Grand Elder who loathed them intensely."
"...What...?"
The one who hated half-breeds was the previous Grand Elder, Ok Won.
As a direct victim of that day 30 years ago, he had ample reason to despise them.
"Keep this one alive for now. He might prove useful."
"Understood."
The spirit mediums approached Joseph.
The priestess passed them and descended further.
The deeper they went, the thicker the stench of blood grew.
"Ugh..."
"What in the..."
Reaching the 15th basement floor, they confronted an indescribable scene.
A mangled, butchered monk lay dead. Beside him, a Protestant with his head missing.
One charred corpse and two priests dead with mushrooms sprouting from their bodies.
"..."
"Oh dear."
"S-Stay back... If you come closer... I-I'll kill you all..."
Lee Hae-ri, half-lost to reason, blocked the 15th-floor landing.
Her resolve: let no one pass below.
And never let them take Lee Ha-il's body.
Half-buried in fungi, she bristled with spines.
"It's over. Calm down."
"Stay back!"
Lee Hae-ri flung tomb fungi at Jo Yun-gyeol, the Black Guardian.
A horrific art that rotted flesh on contact and damaged the soul—but Jo Yun-gyeol, at the pinnacle of defensive arts, swiftly blocked it.
"Priestess, dangerous. She's lost her mind. Seems gripped by half-breed frenzy. Can't approach safely..."
Jo Yun-gyeol started to argue for executing frenzied half-breeds but swallowed his words.
In Grand Elder Ok Won's era, frenzied half-breeds were slain without mercy, but the priestess had abolished those policies.
True to his bureaucratic loyalty, Jo Yun-gyeol aligned strictly with the priestess's will and held his tongue on killing half-breeds.
"It's fine. I'll handle it."
"No, Priestess!"
Lee Hwa-jin, the Crimson Guardian, tried to stop her, but the priestess swiftly approached the trembling Lee Hae-ri.
"Don't come... You'll get hurt..."
Half-breed frenzy mostly stemmed from self-defense instincts.
Knowing this, the priestess calmly endured the tomb fungi.
As the peninsula's greatest spirit medium, not even Lee Hae-ri's fungi dared invade her body.
The priestess embraced the weeping young half-breed, stroking her back for a long while.
"..."
"You did well. I'm sorry I was too late. Forgive me for not coming sooner."
"If you come near..."
"I know. I see what you were protecting. Put it down now. I'll protect you all from here on."
"I... I have to protect..."
"It's alright. These people won't harm you. I'll make sure they don't take what's precious to you."
"..."
Lee Hae-ri fainted on the spot.
Perhaps from handling tomb fungi too long.
Black spots began rising on her skin.
"Priestess."
"Don't worry. You all hurry and save those below."
"...Understood."
The priestess brushed aside Lee Hae-ri's hair.
The tomb fungi devouring its master's body gradually subsided and vanished completely.
"Such a dangerous power. Sorry, but I'll have to seal it for now."
The power left by the Black Calamity.
Naturally lethal and perilous.
The priestess bit her thumb, drawing blood, and pressed it to Lee Hae-ri's forehead like an imprint, sealing the tomb fungi.
Too violent a force for the still-young Lee Hae-ri to wield.
Her demon blood rampaging into frenzy was likely the fungi's influence.
"That should do it."
A blade too sharp cuts its wielder.
Having sealed Lee Hae-ri's tomb fungi, the priestess laid her in a corner of the landing.
"Mi-dam, have you come down?"
"Yes, Mother. Who designs stairs like this... Hah..."
"Mi-dam. Catch your breath and come here quickly."
"Yess~ Coming..."
Jeong Mi-dam approached the priestess, panting.
Before the priestess lay a pitch-black beast.
"Can you save it?"
"Huh? Is it even alive? It's not breathing..."
"Practically dead, yes. But not entirely. Quite the tenacious life force."
Lee Ha-il was dead. His personality gone.
But the anomaly he became in his final moments remained.
Perhaps it could be saved.
"I'll give it a try."
Jeong Mi-dam agreed to revive what was once Lee Ha-il.
Satisfied with her Grand Elder's response, the priestess smiled and entered the 16th-floor sealing chamber.
The exhausted elders lay sprawled on the floor.
"Everyone alright?"
"...Could it be... No way... Argh... No way..."
"Stop with the 'no way' and speak, you old coot."
"It's the Priestess..."
Choi Hyo-wol, the most composed, bowed first on behalf of the speechless Oh Mun-hak and the half-blind Bang Du-young.
Few knew the priestess's face, but the elders recognized her instantly as the Lunar Blossom Sect's priestess.
They knew instinctively, no questions needed.
"You've all suffered greatly these years."
"Oh no, we're nothing compared to you, Priestess."
"No need for excessive courtesy."
"But..."
The priestess helped the elders up and seated them.
Their prone state was too pitiful.
"Before we talk further, you must have some idea why I've come this far."
"Did the Fixer summon you?"
"Yes. He led me here. Though later than planned..."
"No, your presence alone is a blessing."
The priestess regretted not arriving sooner.
She had hastily sent the Jang Mountain beasts via mist, but traveling with the others took too long.
Even at top speed, she was a bit late.
"That said, now that I'm here, I have a proposal for you."
"Pardon...? A proposal?"
"Yes. I don't think it's a bad one."
The priestess asked the elders.
"What do you think of joining the Lunar Blossom Sect? Mujin City has spare land. I'd like to relocate the Moss House there. Your thoughts?"
An astonishing offer.
Onmyoji and spirit mediums had always opposed each other.
Especially post-colonial era, the rift deepened, seeming impossible to bridge.
Yet the priestess extended her hand first.
Let's unite. I want to coexist with you.
Words the former priestess would never have uttered.
"R-Really...?"
"Yes. It's all fate, isn't it? In Mujin City, half-breeds could live safer. And should that Black Calamity appear, we'd suppress it faster. What say you?"
No need to deliberate.
Most of Mujin City's citizens were spirit mediums.
The city with the most shamans on the peninsula.
Black Calamity there? It'd be its funeral.
"Wonderful. If you'll have us... we'll tremble in fear no longer..."
"Thank you, Priestess... Such an opportunity..."
"No tears. And no need to thank me. I could come here today, make this offer—it's all thanks to the Fixer."
Had the Fixer not rectified Mujin Mountain?
Had he not used his sole item to save her?
The Moss House would have vanished today.
The priestess's haste sent the Jang Mountain beasts first, blocking 50 Repentance Crusade forces in the reeds.
Without that, the 17th floor would have fallen, half-breeds slaughtered.
[Quest Completed!]
- You have become an ally of the Moss House.
- Rewards will be distributed.
No one saw it coming—this new way the Fixer's quest resolved.
Thanks to the Fixer, the half-breeds gained a new ally. The Moss House wouldn't vanish.
Yes. All events were connected.
Not a single stroke of luck.
All fruits of good deeds.
The seeds sown by the Fixer took root.
And began changing the world, bit by bit.