WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 65: The Terrifying Old Teaching Hall (2)
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The Terrifying Old Teaching Hall (2)
Screech! Screech!
The bloodshot eyes bulged wide enough to split as the strange being ran across the ceiling.
Chasing after it, even more terrifying, was Mumu.
Watching this, Hae Ryang of the Hao clan, who moments ago had been shaking with fear over being surrounded by ghosts, stared blankly.
'Something's changed here.'
Why was Mumu chasing that eerie thing?
Just as he wondered that, the strange being being chased by Mumu reached the ceiling above Hae Ryang.
"Ugh!"
Hae Ryang flinched and ducked down in a panic.
At that instant, the strange being on the ceiling scattered like smoke.
Whooosh!
'Wh, what?'
The strange being vanished, and Mumu, who'd been chasing it, stopped with a disappointed look on his face. Then he pulled his hands and feet off the ceiling and came down into the hallway.
Thud!
"It disappeared again."
Hae Ryang asked at Mumu's attitude as he scratched his head, muttering.
"Mu... Young Master Mumu, what was that just now?"
"I don't know. It kept sneaking around watching us, so I tried to talk to it, but after it lunged at me a few times, I slammed it into the floor, and it ran off all of a sudden."
"What? You slammed it into the floor?"
How could you slam a ghost into the floor?
Even a thrown dagger had passed straight through it. Wasn't that why they'd assumed it was a ghost in the first place, because physical force didn't work on it?
But then,
'Ah!'
Hae Ryang, recalling that half-melted face that had chased him, turned around.
But there was nothing behind him.
No, wait, something had shimmered faintly near the stairs before vanishing. As if it were hiding.
'What was that?'
He felt relieved, but he still had no idea what was going on.
His legs must have given out, because Hae Ryang leaned against the hallway wall and asked.
"Haah... what were those things just now?"
"Aren't they people?"
"What? You're saying that was a person? Its arms and legs were bent backward and it was walking on the ceiling."
"That was pretty amazing to watch. I was going to ask it where Master Dan Baek-yeon's research lab was, and figured I'd ask how it did that too while I was at it."
"...You chased it all the way to the ceiling just to ask that?"
Whether it was a ghost or not, he still couldn't say for sure. But Hae Ryang was left speechless by Mumu's boldness, not even the slightest bit afraid, chasing right after it instead. In a way, it was almost impressive.
Just then Mumu asked.
"Was there a flower seedling on the fourth floor?"
"Ah, no. I couldn't check everywhere. I looked into a few rooms, but then something with a half-melted face came after me and..."
"Did you run away?"
"Ahem. Sorry. I got pretty scared."
Hae Ryang doubted anyone could see that and not be scared. No matter how he thought about it, that thing wasn't human.
'This isn't the time to be teasing Miss Mo.'
If Mumu hadn't been there, he might have wet himself. Hae Ryang couldn't work up the nerve to go back and search alone.
"Young Master Mumu... sorry, but would it be all right if I tagged along with you? Honestly, I don't think I can handle whatever that thing was."
With physical force useless against it, there was nothing else to be done. In the end, Hae Ryang joined up with Mumu.
At the same time, second floor above ground, Old Teaching Hall.
Tang So-so, searching through one of the lecture rooms, clicked her tongue with a look of regret.
Thinking about it now, if she'd pretended to be scared out of her mind like Mo Il-hwa had, she might have gotten the chance to be alone with Mumu.
'Ugh. Idiot.'
She'd wasted a perfectly good excuse. Too busy trying to help, and it made her look foolish.
'Huh?'
The more she regretted it, the more she wondered, maybe Mo Il-hwa had been scheming too.
Even if she really was scared of ghosts, linking arms like that, chest pressed right up against him, that had to be some kind of flirting no matter how she looked at it.
'Isn't that it? But the look on her face really did seem terrified.'
It was hard to tell.
Tang So-so shook her head. Either way, the one she was interested in wasn't Yu Jin-hyeok, it was Mumu. Every time she thought of Mumu, she got so excited her nose nearly started bleeding.
'How can a face that pretty come with a body like a beast, heh heh heh heh.'
Drool was practically about to slip out when,
Flinch!
Tang So-so snapped her head around and stared at the wall in a panic.
A scroll hung on the wall, painted with a general in resplendent armor. Looking at it, something felt off.
'I could've sworn someone was watching me.'
There was no way that general in the painting had actually been staring at her. Figuring it was just her imagination, she started to turn her head back.
At that instant, the eyes of the general in the painting moved.
'!?'
Tang So-so backed away at the sight. It wasn't her imagination. The painted eyes were shifting back and forth.
She should have been startled, but instead Tang So-so pinched her nose shut at this bizarre phenomenon and frowned.
'Could it be?'
She stared intently at the moving eyes, then walked up to the scroll. She jabbed two fingers straight into the painted eyes. At that, the eyes that had been rustling and moving scattered like smoke and returned to normal.
"Sniff, sniff."
She brought the fingers that had poked the eyes up to her nose and smelled them. Her eyes narrowed at the scent.
'To think I only just now caught this.'
That faint fragrance coming off her fingers. She'd smelled it before. As someone with the Body of Ten Thousand Poisons, she had resistance to most poisons even without an antidote pearl. So she hadn't been particularly worried about poison, but this was a different matter entirely. The antidote pearl might not even work against it.
'I need to go find the others.'
She rushed out of the lecture room. After Tang So-so left, a black shadow oozed slowly out of the scroll.
At the same time, fourth floor above ground, Old Teaching Hall.
Jin-hyeok picked up the dagger that had fallen to the floor and said to Mo Il-hwa.
"This looks like Hae Ryang's dagger."
"Really? Then why hasn't that guy shown his face at all?"
The two of them had rushed up to this floor after hearing screams and crashing sounds from above. But the fourth floor, which Hae Ryang had been assigned to search, was dead quiet.
'For the dagger to be buried this deep, he must have thrown it meaning to hit something dead on. Why would he do that?'
He must have faced off against something. But the person himself was nowhere on this floor. It made no sense.
"Seriously, what is this place? Is there really a ghost here?"
"There's no way something like that could..."
At Mo Il-hwa's words, Jin-hyeok couldn't bring himself to deny it easily. The memory of locking eyes with that blood-soaked woman who'd flitted past the door crack was burned into his mind. He couldn't shake that look in her eyes no matter what. A chill ran down his spine so deep his whole body nearly seized up.
'A ghost...'
He didn't know how to make sense of it. Then Jin-hyeok shook his head hard and denied the fact once more. If something like that really existed, he would have seen one at some point in his life even outside this place.
'No, it's not that. It must have been my imagination.'
Just as he was denying it, Mo Il-hwa's face went pale and she pointed a finger somewhere. Wondering what was wrong, he looked where she pointed, and saw a strange being standing in the middle of the dark hallway. A horrifying figure with a half-melted face.
'!?'
Jin-hyeok froze, speechless. For a moment he doubted his own eyes.
'It's really a ghost?'
Thud!
While he stood there stunned, the strange being, which had been at the far end of the hallway, had somehow closed to within twenty paces. His eyes were wide open, watching, and yet it was an unbelievable sight. It hadn't used any movement skill, it had simply been transported there while standing perfectly still.
"He... hey! We, we need to run!"
Mo Il-hwa grabbed at Jin-hyeok's sleeve as she said it. That thing was a ghost, no matter how you looked at it. Jin-hyeok, apparently no longer able to deny it either, nodded with a stiff face. All he could think was that they needed to get out of there immediately.
That very instant,
Thud!
Before they could even try to run, the strange being appeared right in front of their faces.
"Eek!"
Mo Il-hwa flinched hard and reflexively drew the Soft Sword, the Butterfly Sword, from her waist, unleashing a technique at the presumed ghost.
Shhk shhk shhk shhk shhk!
A sword technique that fluttered like a butterfly rushed at the strange being.
But,
Swish swish swish swish swish swish swish!
The technique swept through the being's body like it had swung through empty air.
"Wh-what?"
She couldn't help but be bewildered.
Just then the being, its skin half-melted, opened its mouth wide and mumbled something. Its jaw looked ready to drop off, its melted skin ready to tear, so hideous it was hard to keep looking at.
'A-A ghost!'
She was so terrified her body locked up and she couldn't move.
"Kuk!"
Jin-hyeok was startled too, but gripped by the thought that staying still would get him hurt, he spun his body and launched a kick at the strange being.
'Eight-Form Leg Technique, Star-Returning Kick!'
Jin-hyeok's lightning-fast leg technique aimed straight for the being's neck. It looked ready to snap the neck in a single blow.
But the kick passed straight through the being's body.
Shwip!
'Huh?'
Undeterred, Jin-hyeok chained his techniques one after another, but two more kicks passed straight through the being's body, same as before. As if there was nothing there at all.
A question rose in Jin-hyeok's mind.
'Why?'
Something was wrong. The thing stood plainly right in front of his eyes, and yet he couldn't land a single hit on it. Jin-hyeok forced himself to think coldly. Maybe they were seeing some kind of illusion.
Whoosh!
Jin-hyeok stepped back half a pace and said,
"Miss Mo, maybe it's an illusion..."
Snap!
At that instant something grabbed his shoulder. Startled, he looked up, and a black something with bloodshot red eyes, its arm bent at a grotesque angle, was gripping him.
'How?'
He'd thought it might be an illusion, but he could feel the touch. The sensation sent a chill crawling down his spine.
"L-let go of Jin-hyeok!"
Mo Il-hwa shrieked and swung the Butterfly Sword wildly at the black shadow pinning Jin-hyeok down.
Just then,
Thud!
"Ah!"
Something yanked at Mo Il-hwa's ankle and she pitched forward, falling flat. Startled, she looked down at her ankle,
'.......'
She thought her mind might snap right there. Stretching all the way from the stairs, a blood-soaked woman with a grotesquely elongated waist and a face hidden behind long hair had her hand wrapped around Mo Il-hwa's ankle. Her heart pounded so hard it felt ready to burst.
Snap!
The ghost yanked at her ankle, as if trying to drag her off somewhere.
"M-Miss Mo!"
Jin-hyeok tried everything he could to pry the hand off his shoulder. But his hand, loaded with Force of ki, passed straight through. He couldn't even touch it. These presumed ghosts could touch them, but they couldn't touch these things back.
'Damn it. What do I do about this...'
At that very instant, the long-haired ghost gripping Mo Il-hwa's ankle suddenly slammed its chin into the floor. Through the gaps in its hair, its black eyes went wide.
'What now?'
While he wondered, the long-haired ghost flailed both arms like someone in a panic, digging its nails into the floor, straining with everything it had. As if something were pulling it back and it was fighting to resist.
But in the end it couldn't hold on, and it began sliding backward, dragged away.
Uuugghh
Both arms flapping as it was dragged, it looked almost pitiful, like it was begging to be saved. But soon the ghost vanished, sucked into the dark stairwell.
Mo Il-hwa muttered, dumbfounded.
"Wh-what? Did that thing just get dragged off?"
"...Looks that way."
It looked that way to Jin-hyeok too. And somehow, the hand pressing down on his shoulder had vanished. He looked up and the black shadow with the bloodshot eyes that had been pinning him down was gone. Even the strange being with the half-melted face was nowhere to be seen.
"What in the world is..."
Neither of them had any idea what had just happened. Just then, someone's delighted voice rang out from the stairwell.
"Got it!"
At the familiar voice, Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa looked at each other. Cautiously, they made their way toward the stairs. The long-haired ghost had just been dragged off in that exact direction, so they couldn't help being careful.
But the moment they rounded the corner of the hallway, they witnessed an unbelievable sight.
"...That's the thing from before, right?"
Where Mo Il-hwa pointed, Mumu stood with his massive forearm, bulging and flexing, pressing down on the neck of the long-haired ghost, its arms still flapping helplessly. Beside him, Hae Ryang wore an expression of pure disbelief.
Footnotes:
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