The Blood Scripture Opens
Pssssss⋯⋯
The moment Cho Geun-shik's breath was severed.
The body that had been brimming with vile desire scattered into the air like dust — the only evidence that the hunter here had not been human.
Thud!
Just as expected.
A rather fine soul stone had dropped this time. The size of a child's fist, glowing crimson, and thick with malice he could feel from where he stood.
'A good harvest.'
Magazine F, the outlet Lee Seo-hyun belonged to, had once investigated the violent offender Cho Geun-shik — specifically, the length of his sentence and the circumstances of his release. She would no doubt keep sourcing prey like this for him going forward.
'Thanks to her, the plan just got much easier.'
The gap between grades of soul stones was enormous. Even hunting dozens of petty criminals and gathering dozens of their stones could not match a single mid-grade one like this. In that sense, Lee Seo-hyun's joining had produced a tremendous synergy.
"Mmph! Mmmph⋯⋯!"
Having collected the soul stone with practiced ease, Tae-jun approached the trunk of the beat-up sedan. Judging by the conversation he'd overheard, the woman locked inside was to have been Cho Geun-shik's next victim.
Rriiip!
He tore the tape from her mouth first. Small mercy that she'd been laid flat inside the trunk — she had seen nothing. Of course, she had heard Cho Geun-shik's screams, so the fear hadn't entirely left her.
"S-s-save me⋯⋯"
"Rest easy. I've saved you."
So murmuring, Tae-jun untied the ropes binding her hands and feet, then withdrew a good distance away and pointed toward the city.
"That way."
"⋯⋯."
Only now did the woman cautiously peer out of the trunk.
"Thank you⋯⋯ thank you."
She bowed to him, then fled in a panic. Bowing even in the middle of all this — she was made of stronger stuff than most.
He found it a little surprising.
'If So-hee had lived, would she be about that age now?'
Suddenly, thoughts of his daughter surfaced. Memories that, when recalled, brought nothing but torment. Memories that, for all that, could never be forgotten.
'⋯⋯This is no time for that.'
Ki Tae-jun brushed the musings aside and turned his gaze to the succulent mid-grade soul stone.
Crack!
The moment he clenched his fist, the stone shattered, and the power sealed within it seeped into Tae-jun's flesh.
"⋯⋯!"
It was pain on an entirely different order from absorbing a low-grade soul stone. But when this agony passed, his rank would rise one step higher.
"⋯⋯Hoo."
Having gathered in all the changes, Tae-jun spread his palm and intoned the words of demonic speech.
[Name: Ki Tae-jun]
[Rank: Lower Demon]
[Owned Authority: Shadow Cloak]
[Lower-grade Authorities Available to Unlock: 1]
[Special Note: Descended into the mortal realm]
[Time Remaining: 43 hours 44 minutes 17 seconds]
The instant he absorbed the mid-grade soul stone, his rank had climbed a full step. Now not only his physical capabilities but the very pool of authorities he could unlock would change.
Shadow Step
Tae-jun's choice had long since been decided. An authority for moving swiftly through darkness — Shadow Step. Acquiring it would vastly amplify his mobility for the night hunts to come.
'Things should get easier now.'
A Lowest-grade Demon's mobility had been, frankly, the worst. At last he could begin to shake off that suffocating sluggishness.
Sssssss⋯⋯
A short while later, a black shadow swallowed Tae-jun whole. He had no intention of ending this night with a single worm like Cho Geun-shik.
A storm had just swept through the Magazine F office. Kim Chul-young, the youngest reporter on staff, pointed at the TV screen with a face gone stiff — and the other employees looked much the same.
"Chief, how many months of overtime did we pull because of that bastard?"
"We did."
Lee Seo-hyun answered flatly.
"We should've blown the whistle on him before he pulled something like this!"
"Isn't now the perfect opportunity, though? Why did we investigate him in the first place? The people — or rather, the system — that unleashed trash like that back onto our streets. We did it to expose them, didn't we?"
Her colleagues stared at her, puzzled by a reaction far calmer than usual. They'd expected her to rage harder than anyone, so this came as a surprise.
But they didn't know. They had no idea that Lee Seo-hyun, more than anyone in the room, was aflame with excitement.
'It was real. Not a dream, not some delusion.'
She thought back to yesterday. The reappearance of a brother-in-law she'd believed dead. The cold, pitiless figure that had returned as a demon. And then —
'⋯⋯Vengeance.'
The purpose for which Tae-jun had returned. That single word had pierced straight through Lee Seo-hyun's soul.
'Spectacular and cruel enough that the whole world would have no choice but to see it⋯⋯'
At that very moment, another breaking news alert came through.
The instant the bulletin aired, Lee Seo-hyun felt that thrill surge through her again — an exhilaration so fierce she could hardly contain it.
'My brother-in-law killed Cho Geun-shik. To obtain that strange orb.'
Barely a day had passed since she'd handed over the files. And in that time, her brother-in-law had tracked down Cho Geun-shik in one leap and slaughtered him without mercy — leaving behind so little as a shred of evidence that the police were floundering.
"Um⋯ Chief?"
Kim Chul-young spoke up carefully.
"Are you all right? You look a little pale."
"⋯⋯Ah, I'm fine. I didn't sleep much last night."
Lee Seo-hyun forced herself to answer calmly. But her inner turmoil raged all the same — and no wonder. This was an emotion she had never once tasted in her life.
'This is it. What I wanted was never social exposés or justice served by the book.'
Not justice laid out beneath the law, but something more fundamental — more primal. Retribution, pure and raw.
'Until now, I simply lacked the power for it.'
Only now did she understand. That vengeance alone could fill the hollow inside her. And that the executioner of that vengeance had, at this very moment, descended upon this earth.
[The Cho Geun-shik Disappearance — Crime Scene Sources Revealed for the First Time!]
[Hello, everyone! It's your boy Kim Wrecker!]
[Today we're diving into the scandal of the century that's turned South Korea upside down — the disappearance of Cho Geun-shik!]
[Police are focusing their search on the possibility that Mr. Cho is hiding out in the hills. BUT! Drawing on sources straight from the scene, I'm here to raise a few questions.]
[One: Why did Mr. Cho vanish from the crime scene without a trace?]
[Two: Who is the unidentified man who rescued the victim?]
[Three: The massive amounts of blood detected at the scene — whose blood is it?]
[I'll say it flat out: this is absolutely not an ordinary case. There's something more hidden here, mark my words. Especially that blood evidence I mentioned — that's the key to the whole thing!]
[Oh, and before we get started — Subscribe! Like! Turn on notifications! Don't forget, got it?]
"Brother-in-law, you're about to become famous."
A few days later, in a quiet park near the in-laws' home, Tae-jun stared blankly at the phone screen Lee Seo-hyun held out to him. YouTube videos, forum posts, news segments, articles, comments — every last one of them was about the Cho Geun-shik case.
"⋯⋯."
He gave no reply to her words. Fame meant nothing to him. It had never meant anything at all.
But Lee Seo-hyun saw it differently.
"You said it yesterday, didn't you? That your vengeance would be loud. Unmistakably loud."
"⋯⋯."
"So why not use this moment to build that fame?"
"⋯⋯Fame?"
"It's a little crude, but think of it as becoming a kind of dark hero — punishing evil with evil."
"⋯⋯."
"People love that sort of thing these days."
"You're telling me to play the clown."
"And what's so hard about that?"
Tae-jun turned his head and looked at her. Her eyes were more serious than he had ever seen them.
"It serves your purpose, brother-in-law."
She wasn't wrong. If, just as she said, he could become some kind of symbol — then when the vengeance truly began, the whole world's attention would come flooding in.
"⋯⋯I suppose so."
Ki Tae-jun was sufficiently convinced.
"Do as you like."
"You mean it?"
The moment he gave his permission, her eyes lit up. She pulled a thick bundle of documents from the bag she'd brought along.
"Well then, while we're at it, let's set a recurring theme."
"A theme?"
At his challenge, Lee Seo-hyun continued her explanation.
"For now, you hunt only men like Cho Geun-shik. A character only takes shape when the direction is clear."
"⋯⋯."
"Once that public image takes hold, you move on to the next prey — criminals of one kind or another, but always the kind that will set people's hearts ablaze."
She had already drawn up the plan. A method for inflating his notoriety at speed. And of course, it was also a method for Tae-jun to grow stronger at speed.
"Here — this is the list of prey I've selected. Hunt from these files for the time being. As for me, I'll be doing the one thing only I can do."