WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 7: The Principle of Attachment (1)

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The connected red threads.

They signified that their souls had been joined.

A spirit familiar.

Blue Spirit had become an aberration bound to serve a master. She tore at her hair and screamed in outrage, unable to accept such an absurd and unjust situation.

She even became so enraged that she threatened Mok GyeongUn.

Then,

Sizzle!

“Ghk! Damn it!”

Blue Spirit had been choking Mok GyeongUn, but suddenly let go in alarm.

Mok GyeongUn wondered why she had suddenly released him, then noticed red handprints around her pale neck.

‘Could it be?’

Mok GyeongUn realized something as he watched.

He did not know the exact reason, but it seemed a spirit familiar shared any harm suffered by its master.

‘So that was why.’

He thought he understood why black spots had appeared across Demonic Monk's body.

The injuries Mok GyeongUn had suffered from Blue Spirit's attacks with blood droplets had also been inflicted upon Demonic Monk.

‘I see.’

He thought he understood why spirit familiars followed their masters.

Since their souls were connected and they shared harm, they had no choice but to eliminate anything that threatened their master.

Considering that, he could understand Blue Spirit's reaction.

Such an arrogant being had become little more than a slave. How could she not be furious?

Even if she was only a soul now, she would still be enraged.

But that was all.

Mok GyeongUn did not care whether Blue Spirit felt wronged or furious.

If anything, he was satisfied that he had achieved his goal.

‘A Blue Spirit rank.’

By rank, she was a high vengeful spirit, fifth among seven levels and close to the realm of spirits and goblins.

Unlike Demonic Monk, a Yellow Spirit, a Blue Spirit rank vengeful spirit that had endured its resentment for over a hundred years could affect things other than living beings.

Mok GyeongUn wanted to confirm that.

‘Before that...’

Mok GyeongUn spoke to Blue Spirit, who was still fuming.

“Now that you have become my spirit familiar, what should I call you?”

“...”

“Isn't it a waste of time to keep acting like that?”

“...”

‘Hmm.’

Mok GyeongUn sighed.

She was huffing and refusing even to meet his eyes. He shook his head.

“Then I suppose it does not matter what I call you.”

“...”

“Would calling you a fool be all right too?”

“How dare you!”

Blue Spirit, who had refused even to look at him, abruptly turned her head.

Mok GyeongUn snickered.

“So you dislike that.”

One of Blue Spirit's eyebrows shot up fiercely.

“Damn mortal. How dare you toy with me?”

“If you do not want to be toyed with, give me a suitable title to use.”

“There is no title I would give a lowly mortal.”

With that, Blue Spirit sharply turned her head away again.

Mok GyeongUn clicked his tongue inwardly.

Fortunately, she could no longer threaten him, but controlling her might prove rather difficult.

“I have no choice, then. Since you do not wish to tell me, I will call you whatever I please.”

“...”

“Nothing comes to mind, so I will call you Blue Spirit.”

Mok GyeongUn had simply chosen the Blue Spirit rank as her name.

Blue Spirit furrowed her brow slightly.

It seemed to bother her.

But she did not seem willing to reveal her true name or title out of pride.

‘I will have to coax it out of her slowly.’

There was no point in obtaining a Blue Spirit rank if he could not use it.

Without showing his thoughts, Mok GyeongUn approached something.

It was the book whose human-skin cover had been torn away, lying on the cave floor.

Picking it up, Mok GyeongUn asked,

“You must know what is written inside, Blue Spirit.”

“Who are you calling Blue Spirit... Hoo.”

Blue Spirit suppressed her anger and waved a hand as if she did not wish to speak with him.

Then she picked up the pipe lying on the ground and began smoking from it.

She seemed to be quite a heavy smoker.

Mok GyeongUn smacked his lips and turned the pages.

‘Hm?’

A spark appeared in his eyes.

The writing in the book appeared to have been written in blood.

‘Interesting.’

A cover of human skin and writing in blood.

Most people would have found the book so repulsive that they would not even consider opening it.

Of course, Mok GyeongUn did not care about such things.

But that was not the problem.

‘What is this?’

The letters inside the book were jumbled together with no order.

They had been arranged so haphazardly that interpreting them was difficult.

Mok GyeongUn furrowed his brow as he examined them.

‘Why were they arranged so incoherently?’

Moreover, they were words used in highly abstract ways rather than ordinary expressions.

He had seen writing like this recently.

It was the Yeonmok Heart-Transforming Method.

Though it described breathing and ki circulation methods, the portions concerning its mental formula were composed of abstract words, almost like poetry.

‘It is similar, but more complicated.’

Thirty letters had been arranged at random.

It seemed they needed to be combined, but no matter how he connected them, they formed meaningless sentences.

Blue Spirit snickered.

When Mok GyeongUn looked over, she was smoking her pipe and shaking her head.

Her reaction seemed to say that he would never understand it even if he died and came back to life.

Mok GyeongUn ignored her and stared intently at the letters.

“Hmm...”

He studied them for quite some time.

Then Mok GyeongUn spoke.

“Mu Jeolmang Ryeoseo... I Hyeong Wi Sim Yang...”

Blue Spirit's mocking expression froze at the two sentences.

From her reaction, Mok GyeongUn inferred that he had combined them correctly.

But he did not show it, knowing he would be unable to judge by her expression otherwise, and deliberately continued to deduce the remaining sentences.

“Mu O Jeon Geo Sang... Mu Sang Hyeong Wi Jeon...”

Blue Spirit's face stiffened further, and she even frowned.

It seemed the next sentences were also correct.

He was simply connecting them in the order that felt most fitting, yet they were coming together.

With the six remaining words, he said,

“Ma Ga Ryang Hae Geo... Yeok Hae Mu Geuk Hyeol.”

Crunch!

The instant he finished speaking, the book in his hand twisted grotesquely as his lower abdomen tightened.

‘What is this?’

Mok GyeongUn could not understand.

Judging from its distorted shape, the pages had crumpled toward the hand holding it.

It looked as though they were trying to adhere to his palm.

Then Blue Spirit's voice sounded beside his ear.

“How did you use Adhesion?”

“Pardon?”

When Mok GyeongUn looked at her, Blue Spirit's face was full of surprise. She immediately turned her head away.

Her resolve not to speak with him seemed unwavering.

Watching her, Mok GyeongUn asked in confusion,

“What is Adhesion? Is it related to what happened to the book?”

“...”

“When the book crumpled, I felt a slight tightness below my navel. Is that related as well?”

“Ha...”

Blue Spirit was dumbfounded by his words.

She had long known that Mok GyeongUn had never learned Martial Arts.

That was why she had been certain he would never understand this.

He could not possibly understand it. Unless one had reached a certain realm or gained enlightenment, it was difficult even to grasp.

Yet Mok GyeongUn had astonishingly combined the thirty letters and formed the first verse formula.

“...”

Blue Spirit glanced at Mok GyeongUn.

She did not wish to speak with him after he had made her a spirit familiar, but her curiosity had grown.

She wondered whether he truly understood it properly.

After considering it for a while, Blue Spirit spoke.

“Hey, mortal.”

“Jeong... No, Mok GyeongUn.”

“What?”

“Call me Mok GyeongUn.”

Blue Spirit scoffed.

“Mortal.”

It seemed she had no intention of using his name even after he had told her.

Mok GyeongUn shrugged. He did not particularly care about such things.

It did not matter what she called him as long as they could communicate.

Blue Spirit drew on her pipe, then exhaled smoke.

“Mortal. Do you remember the sensation from before?”

“The sensation?”

“Yes.”

“That is rather vague.”

Blue Spirit stared at him, then shook her head.

“Of course. It makes no sense for a lowly mortal to learn the movement of Adhesion so easily...”

Crunch!

Before she could finish, the book in Mok GyeongUn's hand distorted further and adhered to his palm.

A spark appeared in his eyes.

‘Ah?’

As Blue Spirit had said, he recalled that sensation. This time, he concentrated as he recited the verse formula in his mind.

The pages crumpled again and adhered to his palm.

It was quite strange.

And once more, the area below his navel tightened slightly.

That was not all. Centered around his palm, even the veins in his arm felt taut, just like his abdomen.

Mok GyeongUn looked at Blue Spirit and asked,

“What is this?”

Blue Spirit stared at him in disbelief and muttered,

“To see something I never saw while alive, after dying...”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing?”

“Do not concern yourself with it, mortal.”

“Now that we are bound together by fate, why not let go of your resentment, even a little?”

“Let go of my resentment? Ha! I have become the spirit familiar of a lowly mortal like you. How could I possibly let go...”

“Hngh!”

Before she could finish, Mok GyeongUn clenched his hand.

The veins across the back of his hand and wrist had become so taut that they looked ready to burst.

Twitch!

“Tch!”

Blue Spirit's hand trembled.

Since their souls were linked, Mok GyeongUn's pain had been transmitted to her.

She shouted,

“Hey! Mortal, stop breathing and clear your mind.”

“Hngh, hngh!”

“I said stop breathing!”

At her shout, Mok GyeongUn forcibly held his breath.

Then he thought of other things to erase the verse formula that he had been unconsciously reciting in his mind.

Blue Spirit's eyes narrowed as she watched him.

His concentration was extraordinary.

What had just occurred was because he could not control the movement of Adhesion.

Ordinarily, someone immersed in a verse formula would find it difficult to escape that state without another person's help.

Yet Mok GyeongUn was pulling himself out with nothing more than a single piece of advice.

It would have been a lie to say she was not surprised.

“Haah.”

At last, Mok GyeongUn's steady breathing could be heard.

Blue Spirit clicked her tongue.

Mok GyeongUn asked,

“Why did that happen just now?”

“That was because you could not properly control the movement of Adhesion.”

He had expected her not to answer, but Blue Spirit unexpectedly replied without resistance.

Mok GyeongUn snickered.

“Will you explain it properly now?”

“Hmph! I am only preventing you from doing something pointless again and harming me.”

Mok GyeongUn narrowed his eyes at her blunt tone.

Then he shrugged.

It did not matter why.

As long as his curiosity could be satisfied.

“What is the movement of Adhesion?”

“It is exactly what it sounds like. It draws things in and makes them adhere.”

“Like what just happened?”

“Yes.”

“Then why did my abdomen hurt, and why did my veins swell?”

“Because you were simply drawing things in when there was nothing there.”

“What does that mean?”

Blue Spirit looked at the puzzled Mok GyeongUn and pointed somewhere with her pipe.

It was Jo Il-sang's dead body, still hanging upside down.

After being hung upside down and having their throat cut, Jo Il-sang was pale beyond measure, as though all their blood had drained out.

“Try it on that.”

“On this?”

Mok GyeongUn approached Jo Il-sang's corpse and poked it lightly.

Blue Spirit nodded.

“...”

He did not know why she wanted him to use the movement of Adhesion on the dead Jo Il-sang, but Mok GyeongUn placed his palm on the body without complaint.

Blue Spirit pressed him.

“Not there.”

“Pardon?”

“Do it near the dantian. Jo Il-sang's energy may have dispersed after death, but still.”

“By dantian, do you mean the area below the navel?”

“Must I explain even that?”

“...I do not know much.”

Blue Spirit snorted, drew on her pipe, and exhaled smoke.

Mok GyeongUn lightly inhaled, then placed his palm over Jo Il-sang's dantian.

He recited the movement of Adhesion's verse formula in his mind.

‘Mu Jeolmang Ryeoseo, I Hyeong Wi Sim Yang, Mu O Jeon Geo Sang, Mu Sang Hyeong Wi Jeon, Ma Ga Ryang Hae Geo, Yeok Hae Mu Geuk Hyeol.’

As he recalled that sensation,

Smack!

The skin over the dead Jo Il-sang's dantian adhered to Mok GyeongUn's palm.

It felt different from when the book had crumpled, but he was just about to conclude that there was nothing else to it.

Then something burrowed into his palm.

It was a warm energy.

‘This is?’

He distinctly felt the energy entering through his palm and flowing through his veins.

Soon, the warm something flowing through his veins also warmed his distended abdomen.

The warm energy made him feel exhilarated.

Then Blue Spirit spoke in a self-satisfied voice.

“Do you feel it? That is the secret of the movement of Adhesion. It can draw in anything and make it adhere. Even ki is no exception.”

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