WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 6: Evil-Infused (4)
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The human skin that formed the book's cover.
No one would have thought to tear it off and put it in their mouth.
Who would put something made from human skin, steeped in ghostly aura at a glance, into their mouth?
It was sheer madness.
Munch, munch!
‘Tough.’
Mok GyeongUn stuffed the human skin into his mouth and chewed furiously.
Strangely, no matter how much he bit down, the skin was too tough for his teeth to damage or tear apart.
Still, it seemed to be having some effect.
Gasp!
Blue Spirit's face twisted as it clutched its chest.
It seemed to be in pain.
Mok GyeongUn chewed the human skin even harder.
“Damn mortal!”
Fwoooosh!
At that moment, Blue Spirit's eyes turned blood-red.
As it swung its long pipe, the blood spilled across the ground from the dead Jo Il-sang rose into the air and began to spin.
‘What is this?’
It was definitely not an illusion.
The sight of blood droplets floating and spinning through the air was imposing indeed.
Mok GyeongUn's eyes trembled as he watched the blood droplets.
They spun too quickly to follow with the naked eye, yet he somehow kept track of them.
“This one...”
Even Blue Spirit realized that Mok GyeongUn was watching the blood droplets precisely.
It was astonishing. He was merely a human who had learned neither occult arts nor Martial Arts.
It would not have been an exaggeration to say that his body and reflexes far surpassed those of an ordinary person.
“Even so, you are only a mortal.”
Blue Spirit pointed its pipe at Mok GyeongUn.
At that moment, the rapidly spinning droplets within the cave shot toward him all at once.
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!
Whoosh!
At that very instant, Mok GyeongUn, who had been watching the droplets, slid across the ground the moment Blue Spirit swung its pipe and threw himself toward it.
“Foolish.”
He was just about to reach Blue Spirit.
A rain of blood fell over Mok GyeongUn's upper body, piercing into his flesh.
Papapapapapapapap!
Mok GyeongUn frowned.
Ordinary pain did not move him much.
But the blood that had entered his flesh tore through his skin like sharp concealed weapons.
Blue Spirit curled its lips as if it relished Mok GyeongUn's pain.
“Does it hurt? If so, spit it out.”
Clench!
Blue Spirit made a grasping motion toward Mok GyeongUn.
The blood droplets embedded in his skin burrowed deeper into his body, stimulating his nerves.
“Ghk.”
For the first time, a groan escaped him.
Blue Spirit clicked its tongue at the sight.
Normally, anyone suffering this much pain would have been thrashing around and begging to be spared.
Yet that was all he gave.
“Are you accustomed to pain? Or is your patience strong enough to be called foolish? Inhale.”
Blue Spirit drew on its pipe.
Then, after exhaling a hazy cloud of smoke, it extended the pipe as if intending to finish this.
“Foolish mortal. Just die.”
Then Mok GyeongUn muttered through his pain.
“Monk.”
“What are you babbling about?”
“Moooonk!”
His speech was slurred because of the human skin in his mouth, but what Mok GyeongUn had shouted was none other than:
Demonic Monk.
Shhhhk.
Demonic Monk appeared, passing through the ceiling.
Yet its condition was strangely poor.
It had always been faint as a vengeful spirit, but now black spots had appeared all over its body.
Blue Spirit gave a faint laugh at the sight.
“So it was you?”
At those words, Demonic Monk dropped to one knee and bowed respectfully to Blue Spirit.
‘Why?’
Mok GyeongUn could not understand what he was seeing.
Was it acting this way because Blue Spirit was a higher-ranked aberration? Yet, as the author of An Abridged Account of the Hundred Schools: The Yin-Yang School's Fundamental Text had said, those rules had been created from the perspective of Taoist occultists.
They were not entirely accurate.
“You seem to possess spiritual talent, seeing as you are connected to a vengeful spirit. But unfortunately, this bald monk is no different from my limbs.”
‘Its limbs?’
Had Blue Spirit known Demonic Monk in life, regardless of rank?
If so, this was a problem.
Demonic Monk was Mok GyeongUn's spirit familiar. If he could not control it, it was useless.
Then he would have to get through this situation on his own.
Crunch!
Mok GyeongUn began chewing the human skin in his mouth once more.
“Ghk! You!”
Blue Spirit clutched its chest again. Seemingly enraged, it glared at him with murderous eyes and swung its pipe.
Papapapapapapapap!
The blood droplets that had burrowed into Mok GyeongUn's body immediately emerged.
It looked as though Blue Spirit were sparing him, but that was not the case.
Whoooosh!
The droplets that left his body gathered together, forming a single sharp spike.
When Blue Spirit made a motion as though flicking its pipe downward,
‘Damn it!’
Fwoooosh!
The sharp spike shot toward Mok GyeongUn's heart.
He rolled aside to evade it.
“Hmph!”
Blue Spirit snorted and swung its pipe again, as though escape were impossible.
The blood spike embedded in the ground changed direction toward Mok GyeongUn.
Fwoooosh!
It was too fast to avoid.
But then,
Thud!
‘What?’
Just as the spike was about to pierce his heart, something appeared and shoved Mok GyeongUn aside.
It was Demonic Monk.
“You bald monk, how dare you!”
Demonic Monk waved its hands helplessly.
Mok GyeongUn was just as puzzled by this situation.
A moment ago, Demonic Monk had been kneeling with its head bowed. Yet it had suddenly helped him evade Blue Spirit's attack.
‘Why?’
Blue Spirit clicked its tongue.
“Oh? Are you saying you will fulfill your duty as a spirit familiar?”
Demonic Monk could not hide its troubled expression.
Mok GyeongUn could not help but laugh inwardly at how it still watched Blue Spirit's reaction despite helping him.
He did not know why, but Demonic Monk was helping him against its will.
That was extremely important right now.
“Block!”
Shhhhk.
At Mok GyeongUn's shout, Demonic Monk naturally stepped in front of Blue Spirit.
Demonic Monk certainly could not refuse his command.
If that was the case, then perhaps it was possible to make it fight Blue Spirit, despite Blue Spirit's higher rank...
Grab!
Before he could determine that, Blue Spirit closed the distance in an instant and seized Demonic Monk by the throat.
“Then I will kill you both.”
Demonic Monk could not move at all with its neck held.
Though Demonic Monk was somewhat taller, it could not resist at all. The difference in rank seemed to be the reason.
Not all vengeful spirits were the same.
Crunch, crunch!
Mok GyeongUn chewed the human skin violently to help Demonic Monk escape.
Then,
“Ghk! You are truly desperate to die.”
Blue Spirit's face twisted as though it were enraged, and it swung its pipe.
The scattered blood droplets rose into the air again.
Whirl, whirl, whirl!
The droplets transformed into sharp spikes and spun rapidly around Mok GyeongUn.
This time, Blue Spirit truly seemed intent on ending him.
Yet in that brief instant, Mok GyeongUn's thoughts took a direction Blue Spirit could not have anticipated.
Gulp!
Mok GyeongUn swallowed the human skin he had been chewing.
“!”
Blue Spirit's blood-red eyes shook.
No one had ever put that thing in their mouth and chewed it in the first place, much less swallowed it.
“You insane mortal!”
Blue Spirit swung its pipe at Mok GyeongUn.
The countless blood droplets rapidly circling around him surged toward him all at once.
Papapapapapapapapap!
‘Ghk!’
As the sharpened droplets pierced into him, Mok GyeongUn's body twisted.
The droplets seemed to be invading not only his nerves but also his muscles, stiffening them and making his body move against his will.
“I will tear your body apart and pull it out...”
Blue Spirit could not finish speaking.
Its hand holding the pipe trembled, and its face twisted in pain.
“W-what in the world...?”
Blue Spirit glared at Mok GyeongUn as though it could not understand.
It had hurt when he chewed the human skin, but this could not be compared to that.
Its entire body, formed from soul, hurt as though it were cracking apart.
‘It is in pain.’
Mok GyeongUn did not know the exact reason either.
But he did know one thing. Ever since he had forcibly swallowed the human skin, his stomach had grown strangely hot.
‘My insides...’
The heat was enough to make it feel as if his Five Viscera and Six Bowels were burning away.
For the first time in a long while, since he had first tasted poison, Mok GyeongUn felt pain like this. A grim smile rose to his lips.
Pain felt from within had always been familiar to him.
Then, at that very moment,
Grab!
Blue Spirit, still in pain, appeared before him and seized him by the throat.
“You lowly mortal!”
Drip.
A strange light appeared in Mok GyeongUn's eyes.
Blood tears were streaming from Blue Spirit's furious eyes.
The sight was chilling, but its resentment ran deep enough to make the term vengeful spirit seem fitting.
“How dare someone like you!”
Blue Spirit used both hands to strangle him.
As he began to suffocate, Mok GyeongUn instinctively grabbed Blue Spirit's wrists to pull them away.
Clench!
At that very moment, a strange scene appeared in his mind.
An entire magnificent hall was stained with blood, and countless people had been brutally killed.
At its center stood someone drenched in blood, panting with a sword planted in the floor.
It was Blue Spirit.
[Haa... Haa...]
Blue Spirit was covered in wounds.
It would not have been strange for it to die at any moment.
Blue Spirit turned to look at the jade throne in the hall.
Someone sat there arrogantly.
Blue Spirit glared with hatred at the figure, whose face was hidden in shadow.
[...]
Blue Spirit vomited blood and screamed at the figure sitting on the throne.
Strangely, its voice could not be heard.
After raging until it seemed ready to cough up blood, Blue Spirit tightly gripped the sword hilt.
It tore its clothes, wrapped the fabric around its wrist several times to secure it, then tried to launch itself at the one seated on the throne.
Thud!
[!!!!!!]
But in the blink of an eye, the one on the throne had thrust a hand into Blue Spirit's chest.
Then the figure pulled something out from Blue Spirit's chest.
It was...
‘A heart?’
A heart, still beating.
How often could someone see their own heart while they were still alive?
And beyond that, how would it feel to watch someone else crush that heart?
Crunch!
At the same time,
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
A scream sharp enough to tear the ears apart stabbed through Mok GyeongUn's eardrums.
Then the vision vanished. Before him stood Blue Spirit, its ceremonial crown fallen away, its hair hanging loose and its face frozen in shock.
‘It was a woman?’
When Blue Spirit wore the ceremonial crown and carried such a sharp, imposing air, he could not tell. But seeing her like this, she clearly appeared to be a woman.
But why was Blue Spirit reacting this way?
As Mok GyeongUn wondered, he noticed red threads emerging from his body and connecting to her.
‘This is...?’
That was not all.
The threads also extended to Demonic Monk.
‘Could it be?’
He had a vague idea of what it was, when Blue Spirit tore at her hair and screamed.
“Aaaaaah! I am a spirit familiar!”
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