WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 9: Guyeo (2)
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The Classic of Mountains and Seas was one of the Three Great Forbidden Books, which had existed since the era of King Yu of Xia.
It was the oldest geographical text, yet it contained countless records of strange phenomena.
Guyeo was one of the spirits and goblins recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, a being dangerous enough to be described as a ferocious beast.
Scritch! Scritch! Scritch! Scritch! Hissssssss!
The number of insects that had swarmed in was impossible to count.
Mok GyeongUn rubbed his chin uneasily and spoke to Blue Spirit.
“Are these insects Guyeo?”
“No. There is a spirit or goblin with an affinity for insects. Rather than being friendly with them, it is more accurate to say it keeps them under its control.”
“There are a lot of them.”
There truly were.
Before he knew it, the floor had turned black beneath the mass of insects.
They filled every inch of it, leaving no place to step. He did not even want to climb down from the bed.
Anyone with a weak stomach might have found it unbearable just to look at them.
Mok GyeongUn glanced at the Demonic Monk, who was still sitting against the wall.
Squirm...
The Demonic Monk's wounds were slowly closing.
Seeing this, Mok GyeongUn spoke to Blue Spirit.
“These insects must be connected to what happened to the Demonic Monk, right?”
“Most likely.”
“So even you aren't certain.”
“What do you mean, not certain? I saved you when Reversal of Malign Force came at you, and this is how you respond? Be grateful. If this Venerable One hadn't been here, you would certainly have died.”
“Reversal of Malign Force?”
He remembered reading about it in the Fundamental Text of the Yin-Yang School.
Being harmed by an aberration, namely a vengeful spirit, was called malign force.
Sending that malign force back to the vengeful spirit or its host with the aid of a higher being was, he thought, called Reversal of Malign Force.
It was a form of revenge.
‘An ordinary person couldn't possibly know how to do that.’
Mok GyeongUn's thoughts raced.
Most people would have frozen up or fallen into utter confusion at the sight of the swarming insects, but Mok GyeongUn calmly assessed the situation.
‘A Taoist occultist... Then Lady Seok.’
He immediately identified the culprit.
The only person who would summon another Taoist occultist and commission Reversal of Malign Force in this situation was Lady Seok, the First Madam.
As expected, she did not seem to be the sort to give up easily.
Mok GyeongUn shook his head.
“What will you do? Stay there, and you'll become food for the insects.”
Blue Spirit gestured with her head.
The wooden legs of the bed, where the insects had gathered, were scritching as the bed sank lower.
Scritch! Scritch!
It was sinking remarkably fast.
The only places without insects were the top of the bed and the long table holding medicinal ingredients.
No, there was one more.
‘The lamp.’
That spot was somewhat different.
Ordinary insects tended to gather around bright places.
These insects would approach without thinking, only to be driven back by the heat or burned. That left a clear circle around the lamp.
“Blue Spirit, can you help me?”
“Well, why should I?”
“...”
Mok GyeongUn raised one eyebrow as he looked at her.
Blue Spirit snorted, drew deeply on her pipe, and exhaled.
“I helped you out of compassion earlier because you were circulating your ki. Now that you're awake, aren't you confident you can handle even this much?”
Mok GyeongUn clicked his tongue.
She always chose the worst moments to be difficult.
Since she had answered his questions so readily, he had thought she might finally be more cooperative. Apparently not.
“Aren't we practically in a symbiotic relationship?”
“I will at least keep you alive.”
“Ah.”
She was a truly difficult spirit familiar to handle.
Then Blue Spirit mockingly said to Mok GyeongUn,
“Hey, mortal. I have a proposal.”
“A proposal?”
“Yes. Overcome this crisis with your own strength. If you resolve this situation alone, I will seriously consider whether to help you in the future.”
Mok GyeongUn clicked his tongue again.
Since she was his spirit familiar, she would have no choice but to help if his life was in danger.
So this proposal was ridiculous.
Perhaps it was because her rank was higher than the Demonic Monk's, but she was incredibly stubborn and possessed a strong sense of self.
“Well, there is no helping it. The one with more to lose must make concessions. I'll try the easy method first.”
“The easy method?”
At Blue Spirit's question, Mok GyeongUn raised his voice.
“Is anyone out there?”
There were Outer Hall warriors outside the Medicine house.
Getting their help would be easier than resolving this himself.
“Warriors?”
However, no reply came.
Their silhouettes had clearly been visible through the papered door...
‘Hm.’
But their heads were tilted slightly to one side.
They appeared to have lost consciousness.
It seemed someone had done something to them.
“What were you expecting?”
“...You're right.”
Mok GyeongUn shrugged.
Step. Step.
At that moment, a shadow approached the papered door of the Medicine house.
Judging by its shape, it appeared to be a woman. A bird perch rested upon her right shoulder, and atop it was an oddly shaped shadow.
It had a bird's beak and a snake's tail.
“She came herself. She is quite confident.”
“Is that it?”
“Phew. Yes. That is Guyeo.”
That strange shadow on her shoulder appeared to be Guyeo.
Blue Spirit, who had been smoking her pipe, snorted and muttered in displeasure.
“To think there is someone who keeps that damned bird bastard as a spirit familiar.”
“You seem to dislike it.”
“I can't stand insects.”
Blue Spirit shuddered as though she truly despised them.
It was surprising to see her hate insects so much.
Surely that was not why she had refused to help him.
He chose to believe it was not.
Scritch! Scritch!
The bed had already sunk nearly halfway because of the insects.
The same was true of the bed where Go Chan lay.
Mok GyeongUn bit near his wrist, just below the back of his hand.
Crunch!
“What are you doing?”
“A temporary measure, I suppose.”
“A temporary measure?”
Trickle.
Blood flowed from his bitten wrist, and Mok GyeongUn scattered it in every direction.
Splatter! Splatter! Splatter!
A strange sight unfolded.
When Mok GyeongUn's blood touched the insects, they convulsed with bizarre cries. Then, they frantically fled from every spot where the blood had landed.
Blue Spirit watched in puzzlement.
“Why are they reacting like that?”
“I ate a great deal of poisonous herbs as a child, so my blood is poisonous.”
“Your blood is poisonous?”
Blue Spirit stared at him as though she could not believe it.
Having poison in one's blood made him little different from a poisonous person.
The more she learned about him, the stranger he seemed.
Splatter! Splatter! Splatter!
Mok GyeongUn continued scattering blood around the bed.
Seeing the insects flee in terror from his blood, its toxicity had to be considerable.
Before long, no insects could approach Mok GyeongUn.
The bed where Go Chan lay, however, was in danger.
Scritch! Scritch!
Mok GyeongUn had scattered blood to keep them away as much as possible, but Go Chan's bed was outside the area covered by the blood, so the insects were pouring in through a blind spot.
Mok GyeongUn threw the wooden headrest from his bed at Guard Go Chan.
Thunk!
“Gah!”
Go Chan awoke with a start after being struck in the head.
As soon as Go Chan looked around, the guard recoiled in horror.
“W-What is this?”
An enormous number of insects.
They covered the surrounding floor and were even crawling onto the bed.
Startled, Go Chan grabbed the blanket and frantically shook the insects off.
Mok GyeongUn said to Go Chan,
“It is dangerous, so keep killing the insects.”
“Y-Young master? What in the world...”
“I don't know either. But I recommend that you don't climb down from the bed.”
‘I am losing my mind.’
Go Chan was utterly flustered by the situation.
Still, the guard had no choice but to follow Mok GyeongUn's words, shaking off the insects and keeping them at bay.
While they were fighting desperately against the insects...
Boom!
The door to the Medicine house opened, and someone walked in.
Seeing this, Go Chan cried out in alarm.
“Miss! It's dangerous, you mustn't come inside!”
The person who entered was a woman with one white eye.
She was the Taoist occultist Sak.
“Dangerous... Huh?”
Go Chan's eyes widened.
When Sak took a step inside, the insects parted to either side, opening a path for her.
Naturally, this was because her spirit familiar was controlling them.
Squirm...
As she entered, a strange light flickered in her differently colored eyes.
She had intended to pressure them gradually and instill fear, but for some reason, the insects could not get close.
What had they done?
As she wondered about this, Mok GyeongUn spoke to her.
“Are you a Taoist occultist?”
Sak frowned at the question.
No matter how she looked at the handsome seventeen-year-old standing on the bed, he did not appear possessed by an aberration.
If he had been possessed by a Green Spirit-class vengeful spirit, he would not look like that.
‘Is that it?’
Sak's gaze turned to the massive Demonic Monk sitting against the wall behind Mok GyeongUn.
Her black eye could see nothing.
But her other eye, the white eye, could see it.
The vengeful spirit.
‘...A Yellow Spirit?’
Her white eye narrowed.
Through the white eye, she could roughly gauge the rank of an aberration or vengeful spirit.
Yet that injured vengeful spirit was undeniably Yellow Spirit-class.
‘That can't be.’
A Yellow Spirit-class being could not ward off Reversal of Malign Force.
Which meant it had not been the Yellow Spirit, but Mok GyeongUn, who appeared to be its host.
Yet he did not seem skilled in occult arts at all.
Then who had deflected the Reversal of Malign Force...
“You look young, but you seem fairly capable.”
A voice rang in her ear.
Sak turned her head.
Throb!
At the sight of something blood-red within the hazy boundary, veins burst throughout Sak's white eye.
“Gasp!”
Startled by the sharp pain, she squeezed her white eye shut.
What was that just now?
Her white eye, which could see the world beyond, could not contain that presence.
No, it was not precisely her white eye. It was Sak herself who could not accept the presence she perceived through it.
At that very moment...
Woooooeeeeeeeee!
Guyeo, who had been sitting quietly on her shoulder, suddenly let out a monstrous cry.
“Guyeo! Calm...”
Woooooeeeeeeeee!
The piercing cry forced Sak to cover her ears.
She looked at Guyeo with bewilderment.
Guyeo was staring at something with eyes full of wariness. It was so terrified that it could not control itself.
‘Guyeo is this frightened? What could possibly...’
Woooooeeeeeeeee!
Flutterrrrr!
With Guyeo's cry, the insects on the floor surged upward.
Their orderly formation vanished.
The winged insects rose into the air and crazily rushed toward Mok GyeongUn and Go Chan.
“Y-Young master!”
Go Chan panicked, not knowing what to do.
Mok GyeongUn reached toward the closest lamp.
Then, reciting a verse formula in his mind, he used the movement of Adhesion.
‘It is barely within range.’
If he concentrated on something within one jang, he could draw a distant object to himself with the movement of Adhesion.
The lamp was right at the edge of that range.
Tremble!
The base of the lamp shook.
Then it flew into Mok GyeongUn's hand.
Smack!
Go Chan's eyes widened at the sight.
Mok GyeongUn had not even formed his dantian yet, yet he could perform such a miraculous feat.
But Go Chan had little time to marvel.
Whoosh!
Mok GyeongUn leaped over to Go Chan's bed in a single bound.
Then he fearlessly swung the lamp at the incoming insects.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
The rampaging insects scattered in every direction, apparently unable to endure the heat of the lamp.
Yet perhaps affected by Guyeo's continuous cries, they kept frantically trying to find openings and fly in.
“Guard Go Chan, your Short Sword!”
“What?”
“Your Short Sword!”
At Mok GyeongUn's shout, Go Chan searched their waist.
But because Go Chan was receiving treatment, the Short Sword the guard always carried had been placed atop a folded upper garment beneath the bed.
Go Chan bent down and hurriedly reached for it.
Scritch! Scritch!
“Eek!”
The insects surging across the floor had clung to the clothing and the Short Sword.
Go Chan hesitated for a moment, then endured it and grabbed the Short Sword.
The insects clinging to it viciously bit Go Chan’s hand.
A single insect bite might not hurt much, but dozens biting at once were another matter.
“Argh!”
Go Chan raised the hand holding the Short Sword, shaking it frantically.
Mok GyeongUn swung the lamp toward that hand.
Fwoosh!
The insects still clinging to Go Chan fell away in blind terror.
“H-Here it is!”
Go Chan handed over the Short Sword.
Mok GyeongUn took it, gave Go Chan the lamp, and said,
“Keep swinging it.”
“Y-Yes!”
Go Chan swung the lamp at the incoming insects.
In that opening, Mok GyeongUn drew the Short Sword.
Slash!
‘!?’
He cut toward his own forehead.
The wound was not deep, but it sliced the skin enough to draw blood.
‘W-What is he doing?’
Go Chan could not hide their confusion.
Why had Mok GyeongUn suddenly wounded himself?
But it did not stop there.
Mok GyeongUn cut himself in several places with the Short Sword, creating more wounds.
Slash! Slash!
“Young master, what are you doing?”
Despite Go Chan's cry, Mok GyeongUn did not stop cutting himself.
‘...Has he gone mad?’
Even Sak, who had been trying to control Guyeo somehow, found her attention drawn to Mok GyeongUn's actions.
What was he doing, suddenly harming himself?
Just as she was staring in disbelief, Mok GyeongUn, drenched in blood from wounds across his body, looked at her and curled his lips into a grin.
A chill ran down her spine.
Sak frowned at the unsettling sight.
As a Taoist occultist, she had seen countless things far more frightening than this.
But this felt entirely different.
At that very moment...
Thud!
Mok GyeongUn kicked off and charged toward her.
‘What is he doing?’
This was truly suicidal.
The insects were in a frenzy, yet he had sliced himself up and rushed straight toward them.
Was he so desperate to die?
That was what she thought.
But then...
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
An unbelievable sight unfolded.
The insects that touched Mok GyeongUn convulsed and fell to the floor.
Most of the insects near him also desperately avoided touching him.
As a result, a path naturally opened before him.
‘Why are the insects...?’
She could not understand it at all.
If he wounded himself like that, the scent of blood should have drawn them in even more.
But she had no time to be surprised.
Mok GyeongUn was already right before her.
“Guyeo! Stop him!”
Sak shouted this as she leaped backward and reached into her robes for a talisman.
Mok GyeongUn threw the Short Sword at her.
‘Damn it!’
Startled, she twisted her body to dodge.
At that moment, Guyeo, still too terrified to control itself, apparently sensing Sak's danger, leaped from the bird perch and struck aside the Short Sword with its claws.
Smack! Clang!
Then, toward the enemy threatening its master, it unleashed a cry fierce enough to rupture eardrums.
Woooooeeeeeeeee!
With that cry, the insects writhed and spiraled upward from the floor.
Something disastrous seemed about to happen.
Then...
Whoooooosh!
Woooooeeeeee?
Guyeo's body was suddenly pulled forward, and it flew into Mok GyeongUn's hand.
It was the movement of Adhesion.
Ueek! Cough! Cough!
Guyeo choked in pain as Mok GyeongUn gripped its neck.
“Whew. It's quiet now.”
Mok GyeongUn looked at the captured Guyeo with a satisfied expression.
Sak's eyes widened at the sight.
‘...That is impossible.’
How could he grab a spirit or goblin that was not even his spirit familiar with his bare hand?
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