WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 93: I Was Once a Madman of Chu (15)
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“Wait. Just wait.”
Jin Geol, who had been examining his arrows, slowly reached for the liquor bottle. Yeon Sowol’s eyes widened.
‘Why is he suddenly drinking again...?’
Before he could finish the thought, Jin Geol tipped back the bottle and took a deep gulp.
“Jin Geol?”
Yeon Sowol whispered, but Jin Geol raised a finger as if telling him to wait. He stared intently at the talisman-covered sliding door, then abruptly held the bottle out to Won Huiseung.
“Huiseung. Try some.”
“Mm.”
Gulp. Gulp.
After setting the bottle down, Won Huiseung’s eyes lit up as well. Jin Geol asked meaningfully.
“You see it, right? It’s not just me?”
“I can definitely see it.”
The two turned to Yeon Sowol.
“You can’t see it, Sowol?”
“...See what?”
The sliding door looked no different to Yeon Sowol. It was simply an old wooden door covered in talismans, with paper pasted over it.
But Jin Geol and Won Huiseung saw something else.
“Blood.”
“Bloody handprints.”
“Like something was pounding on the door, trying to get inside.”
“...”
Yeon Sowol heightened his qi sense.
Nothing registered.
His qi sense had caught things no one else could see.
Yeon Sowol furrowed his brow.
‘If it were only Jin Geol, I’d think he’d gotten drunk...’
But Won Huiseung saw the same thing. This was no ordinary matter.
Then someone stirred outside the shrine.
“You there! Is anyone inside?”
The speaker’s tone was suddenly imperious.
Though confused, Yeon Sowol opened the sliding door leading to the entrance. It stood opposite the talisman-covered door.
The shrine was small, so when he opened it, he could see the courtyard clearly through the short corridor.
“...?”
A man stood there, dressed in a dark blue official uniform beneath armor. Thick black tassels hung from his military cap, casting half his face in shadow.
He shouted loudly.
“I am Cheong Bul, a seventh-rank Prefectural Inspector of Hengyang.”
After introducing himself, he waited a moment, then scowled and barked.
“How insolent! An official has arrived, yet you commoners dare receive him from inside your room instead of coming out to meet him!”
Yeon Sowol sighed.
Back in Guangdong, Governor-General Seo Myeongeum’s backing meant a seventh-rank official did not frighten him in the least. But this was Hunan. There was nothing to gain from offending an official.
“I’ll go out.”
Just as he was about to leave the room, Jin Geol grabbed his wrist.
“Sowol. Wait.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t go out.”
“Yeah?”
“This doesn’t look good. We’re on guard duty, after all. Guarding means protecting something, and protecting something means not leaving our post. I don’t think stepping outside this room right now is a good idea.”
Jin Geol’s face had turned cold and hard. None of the earlier lightness remained from when he had been giggling and looking for liquor.
“But making an enemy of an official...”
Yeon Sowol began cautiously, but Jin Geol suddenly raised his voice toward the courtyard.
“We apologize! Circumstances have forced us to remain at our post. We would appreciate it if you could please understand, sir!”
Naturally, the martial official called Cheong Bul flew into a rage.
“What? Are you mocking me?”
Yeon Sowol turned to Jin Geol in alarm, but Jin Geol only pressed further.
“We apologize. We have no choice. We must guard this place.”
“You dare rely on your paltry martial arts to disregard the authority of the government?”
“We apologize.”
“You are no different from bandits! Shall I bring a hundred soldiers and sweep this place clean?”
His voice carried internal energy as he roared. It felt as though the eaves and roof tiles were shaking.
Jin Geol answered, “Even if you do, we cannot leave this spot!”
He was practically adding fuel to the fire.
Yeon Sowol stared in disbelief, while Won Huiseung silently watched the situation with an unusually grim gaze.
“...Fine. I will return.”
In the end, the martial official named Cheong Bul ground his teeth and left. They never learned why he had come in the first place.
“Jin Geol. Why did you do that?”
When Yeon Sowol could no longer hold it in, Jin Geol answered, “His hands. There was blood on them.”
“What?”
Won Huiseung nodded and added, “He reeked of blood.”
“What are you talking...”
Sniff.
Yeon Sowol took a breath.
All he could smell was a clear, chilly scent like the winter wind.
‘There was blood on his hands? He smelled of blood?’
He could neither see nor smell any of it, yet Jin Geol and Won Huiseung were certain. The two turned to the talisman-covered door.
“It looked exactly like the bloody palm prints on that door.”
“I thought the same thing.”
Jin Geol looked at Yeon Sowol. He wiped the cold sweat glistening on his forehead, then spoke with a sigh.
“I never thought the things adults told me were true...”
He tapped the liquor bottle.
“Some strange beings and ghosts have no qi. They exist only as spirit. You can’t find such things with qi sense, and liquor is the only thing that helps. They say drunkenness awakens the spirit.”
Jin Geol had said something similar earlier.
‘I thought it was just an excuse to drink...’
Yeon Sowol frowned.
“So you two drank and saw something different?”
“More or less.”
“Then what was that martial official? Are you saying he wasn’t human?”
Jin Geol looked at Won Huiseung.
Won Huiseung nodded, and Jin Geol followed suit.
“Yeah. He didn’t look human at all. We’ll wait and see whether he really comes back with a hundred soldiers.”
Yeon Sowol still was not sure. He was the only one who had not seen it.
“Mm.”
Then there was only one way to find out.
Yeon Sowol reached for the bottle.
“Hey.”
Jin Geol swiftly snatched it away.
“No. Why not? If what you’re saying is true, shouldn’t I drink some too?”
“Huiseung and I drank. Sowol, you stay sober.”
“Why?”
Jin Geol’s expression darkened.
“If even half the stories I heard from adults as a child about strange beings and ghosts are true... then this won’t be easy. Spirit is the mind itself, the source of all creation. A strange being made from that won’t be easy to deal with. There may come a time when even liquor won’t be enough, so one of us should stay clear-headed.”
With that, he and Won Huiseung each took another sip.
“We’ll stay drunk.”
They kept sipping.
As first-rate masters, they had to drink often and heavily to maintain their intoxication.
“Ugh.”
Yeon Sowol had suddenly been left on his own, and the whole situation sat poorly with him.
Then a voice came from beyond the inner sliding door covered in talismans. It was low, clear, and pleasant to hear.
“Did something happen outside?”
Jin Geol replied, “Who knows. Something came by, whether it was a person, a strange being, or a ghost. It felt wrong, so we didn’t take a single step outside the room. But do Strange Ghosts really exist? I thought adults only said things like that to scare children...”
After a moment, an answer came from within.
“You did well. No matter what happens, you must not open that door. Do not leave that room empty either. The elixir refinement is going very well right now. The better it progresses, the more violently the Strange Ghost will act. It will not be easy. Please take good care of things.”
After that, everything beyond the door fell silent again.
* * *
A day passed.
The martial official who had claimed he would return with a hundred soldiers never came back.
“...He really wasn’t human?”
Yeon Sowol felt chilled.
It was a completely different kind of danger from matching martial skills with an opponent. It felt almost like falling prey to a heart demon.
He was not the only one.
“Is it real...?”
“Strange beings and ghosts are real...? Then dragons definitely exist too. Just as I thought.”
Jin Geol and Won Huiseung both looked shocked in their own ways.
Won Huiseung’s shock seemed a little different, though.
Fortunately, a voice swept away the heavy mood.
“Your meal is here!”
An inn attendant who looked about fifteen skillfully entered with a large wooden tray balanced on his head. The generously prepared dishes were still warm.
“Seeing food does make me feel a little better.”
“Mm. Good. My stomach was burning from drinking too much.”
Jin Geol and Won Huiseung brightened as they sat down. Yeon Sowol joined them, feeling much the same.
The Hengshan Sect had promised to provide their meals every day.
The alchemists would eat fasting pills throughout the process to ensure a successful refinement, but Yeon Sowol and the others had no need to do the same.
At first, he had simply accepted it. But now that their guard duty had become far more difficult than expected, the chance to eat a proper meal felt precious.
The three eagerly picked up their chopsticks and were just about to take their first bites.
“Your meal is here!”
Another clear voice rang out from the courtyard.
All three froze and looked outside.
A worker who looked about seventeen entered carrying a bundle.
“Oh? You’re already eating? That’s strange. I thought the Hengshan Sect had given the job only to our inn?”
The worker tilted their head, unpacked the bundle, set down the food, and left.
Yeon Sowol, Jin Geol, and Won Huiseung looked at one another.
“What is this...?”
Before they could sort out their thoughts, another voice called out.
“Ah, sorry I’m late! I’ve brought you a hot meal!”
A hairy middle-aged man took stacked food boxes from the pack on his back.
“Eat up. Hm? Why is there so much food here?”
A middle-aged woman said.
“Your meal!”
A young man said.
“Your meal is here!”
Again and again.
More and more food kept arriving.
“...”
“...”
“...”
The three sat side by side, speechless.
They looked at the food piled high in the room, then at one another, then back at the food.
Yeon Sowol felt a headache coming on as he asked, “They all said the Hengshan Sect sent them, right?”
They nodded.
“And they all thought the Hengshan Sect had assigned the work only to them?”
They nodded.
“They said they’d go back and find out what happened, so we’ll know tomorrow exactly what is going on.”
They nodded.
Silence followed. A sigh escaped every so often.
Unexplainable things had already been happening, and now another bizarre problem had appeared.
At last, Won Huiseung spoke.
“...Should we eat something, at least?”
He looked desperately hungry. Jin Geol immediately turned serious.
“Are you crazy? We don’t know what that is.”
“Food is food.”
“What if it’s poisoned?”
“...Mm.”
“No. If it’s poison, that might actually be better.”
Jin Geol spoke with a chilling expression.
“Are we even sure a person sent that?”
Yeon Sowol groaned.
“No way. A Strange Ghost sent food...?”
He had experienced strange things since coming here, but all of this still felt unfamiliar.
Strange beings. Ghosts.
Would things like that pull tricks like this too?
It was nothing like the vague image he had held in his mind. That made it all the more bizarre and unsettling.
Jin Geol let out a long sigh.
“Honestly, I don’t know either. Until yesterday, I didn’t believe in strange beings or ghosts myself.”
He quickly stacked the food together and moved it aside.
“Anyway, like Sowol said, we’ll find out tomorrow somehow. They all said they’d check what happened and tell us. Let’s go hungry for today. Going hungry is better than eating something when we don’t know what it is. One day won’t kill us.”
Yeon Sowol and Won Huiseung agreed.
Then the next day came.
“Your meal is here!”
“Food’s here!”
“Meal delivery!”
“Come and eat!”
Just like the day before, more than ten errand runners brought them meals.
“...”
“...”
“...”
Not one of them had come the previous day. Even when they described the earlier visitors, all they got in response was that no one like that worked at their establishments.
“...”
“...”
“...”
In the setting sun, the three sat side by side and looked at the rotting food. Then they knew instinctively.
“...This makes three days, right?”
“...Yeah.”
“They said the refinement would take at least ten days, maybe a month.”
“...Yeah.”
This truly was not going to be easy.
Footnotes:
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