The Formless Shadow
The formless shadow, the wildcat yokai legend (7). The fourth year of King Gyeongjong's reign, 1724 (Gapjin). Gyeongjong's Revised Veritable Records, Volume 5, the twenty-seventh day of the intercalary fourth month, Gyeongjong 4 — Proceeding to the royal lecture hall — Bestowing posthumous titles — Daejung Suchon Im Bang reports to the throne regarding the wildcat yokai recorded in the Cheonyerok.
The scholar Daejung Suchon Im Bang, compiler of the Cheonyerok—a collection of yokai tales passed down among the common folk—reported: "Most of the yokai chronicled in the Cheonyerok have been eradicated by Force Arts practitioners and Taoist masters of the Dogahoe, yet one exceedingly vicious yokai still remains."
The king asked, "What is the name of this yokai?"
Im Bang replied, "It is the wildcat yokai. This creature devours the people of the capital indiscriminately and assumes the appearance of those it has consumed. Its voice, appearance, and even personality become so remarkably similar to the devoured that distinguishing it proves exceedingly difficult. This is truly a grave calamity for the realm. I earnestly beseech Your Majesty to summon the Taoist masters of the Dogahoe and the Force Arts practitioners to eliminate this yokai."
The king asked again, "If its appearance, voice, and personality cannot be distinguished, how can one possibly identify the yokai?"
Im Bang answered, "All suspected individuals must be punished as great criminals. That is the only way to eradicate the wildcat yokai."
The king refused permission, declaring that the innocent could not be condemned.
Male or female? Female or male? Does it have arms? Does it walk on two legs or four? Does it possess a form?
The yokai was a formless shadow. It was a nonexistent path in the back alleys of history.
Long, long ago, in the distant past, there existed a yokai capable of assuming the form of whatever it devoured. That yokai was the wildcat.
In the third month of spring, the formless shadow wandered aimlessly through the human world. Though it was something other than human, the villagers never noticed the shadow, for it had no form. When hunger struck, the formless shadow entered a tavern and asked the proprietress for food. It was a strange occurrence. There was no human shape to be seen—only the voice of a young woman floating in the empty air. Terrified, the proprietress hurled liquor into the void and shouted, "Away! Away with you, evil spirit!"
The formless shadow, having no form, was untouched by the liquor she sprayed. It soon realized it could neither pick up food to eat nor even lap up the liquor scattered across the floor.
In the fourth month of spring, the formless shadow left the human world and headed into a desolate forest. It remained hungry, yet could consume nothing. It could speak to people, but without a form, no conversation could follow. The formless shadow realized it needed a new "form." Looking around, it spotted a wildcat hunting mice. The shadow tried to take the wildcat's form, but without a form of its own, it could not.
In the sixth month of summer, one afternoon when the sun hung high, the formless shadow discovered an ancient book lying before it. The book's title was the Taejasingi. Though it wished to read, the formless shadow could not turn the pages, for it had no form. Thus it waited endlessly for the wind to turn the leaves. It took a full year to finish reading the book. That year was the fifteenth of King Jungjong's reign, in the sixth month.
In the seventh month of summer, having mastered the truths within the Taejasingi, the formless shadow finally gained the ability to assume the forms of other living creatures. This was the reward granted by the Taejasingi for its diligent study. First, it took the form of the wildcat it had marked a year earlier. It could no longer be called a formless shadow.
In the seventh month of summer, Kim Jong-muk, serving in a remote district, stayed up late reading as always. Knowledge was power, and studying Neo-Confucianism was the proper duty of any official. Under the blue moon at dawn, absorbed in his reading, he felt hungry and woke his sleeping wife to bring him food. She complied without complaint. Roughly ten minutes later, she brought more food. Having already sated his hunger with the first serving, Kim Jong-muk grew angry. "Wife, do you intend to burst your husband's stomach?"
His wife tilted her head. "Husband, what do you mean? I only brought food because you asked for it."
"Did you not bring food just ten minutes ago?"
"Husband, it is late. Perhaps you should set aside your reading and rest."
Though puzzled, Kim Jong-muk found her words reasonable. He closed his book and lay down beside her. Pulling the blanket over himself, he felt uneasy and lifted it to check. As expected, the blanket was soaked with sticky blood. "Has she had an accident? Not even wearing a menstrual pad… what a troublesome woman." He shook his head but, loving his wife sincerely, endured the discomfort and tried to sleep.
The next day, his wife was found in the kitchen with her head severed. Covered in his wife's blood, Kim Jong-muk was arrested by the constables on suspicion of murder. Protesting his innocence, he was hanged and became dew upon the execution ground.
In the eleventh month of winter, unlike other yokai, the wildcat yokai—living among humans in stolen forms—heard a rumor. A benevolent king had appeared, created a script unique to Joseon, and begun eradicating the vicious yokai lurking throughout the land. The people cheered and gave thanks to the king, but the wildcat yokai, whose precious book had vanished, was gripped by profound anxiety. Perhaps because it had grown too close to the human world, its mind was exceptionally sharp for a yokai. Through the truths it had found in the Taejasingi, it soon discovered how to erase its own demonic energy. It could now evade the pursuit of Force Arts practitioners and Taoist masters. Having survived the human yokai hunts, it began hiding like a dead mouse, changing forms between people and animals alike, awaiting the day of its eventual ascension.
"Cough… cough."
The Force Arts practitioner Geumseong collapsed to the floor, vomiting blood. A massive hole gaped in his abdomen—an injury with no hope of recovery. Had he been an ordinary person, he would have died long ago.
"Hah, hah, hah…" His vision began to blur. It was the sign that his life force was fading. But he could not die meaninglessly like this. He had to pass on what he knew about the yokai before the end.
Responding to the chief's radio call, he had rushed to the site of the yokai outbreak, only to find every member of the Jirisan Yokai Extermination Office already reduced to chunks of meat. Miraculously, the chief alone clung to life. Geumseong and another Force Arts practitioner had hurried to treat him. That was when it happened. The chief—no, whatever wore the chief's form—swung its hand, and Force Arts practitioner Park Na-rae's head flew from her shoulders. Then it tore out a chunk of Force Arts practitioner Lee Jung-hyuk's neck with its teeth. They had been unable to react; the one who killed their comrades was none other than the chief himself. Soon Geumseong too was impaled through the stomach by whatever wore the chief's form.
Mocking the sprawled Geumseong, the creature assumed Park Na-rae's form. After that, it was hell. The Dogahoe's Taoist master Myeongjeong, arriving late, was devoured alive without resistance by the yokai wearing Park Na-rae's appearance. The soldiers fared no better.
Damn it. It hadn't escaped the net because it was fast. It wasn't even an ordinary yokai. This unidentified yokai's true nature was a doppelganger-type creature capable of assuming the forms of whatever it devoured.
His vision began to fade into darkness. The doppelganger yokai had already vanished without a trace. A yokai that could take human form and erase its own demonic energy… This was no mere Busan disaster. It was a national-level catastrophe.
Geumseong had wanted to relay what he knew to the nation somehow, but the flame of his life was already on the verge of extinguishing. His eyes slowly closed.
"Can you save him?"
"I'll have to use demonic energy. If anything goes wrong, you're taking full responsibility—"
"…Why…"
Was it his imagination? Of all things, the last sight he saw before death was a woman with the form of a breathtakingly beautiful fox.