WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 18: Galjeo (2)
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Not far from the valley where the battle for iron beads had taken place and the mountain where the Flag Defense Battle was underway, there was another cave.
Creak! Creak!
A procession of five carts entered the cave.
Warriors wearing red belts pulled the carts into the torchlit cavern.
The carts came to a stop at a certain point inside.
Countless boys’ corpses lay there.
“Phew. Is this the last of them? Then let’s move them.”
The red-belted warriors began arranging the corpses beside the bodies already lying there.
The remaining carts that arrived afterward did the same.
Thud!
“Was it because they were pulled out too late? This body is all bloated.”
One red-belted warrior clicked their tongue as they looked at the water-swollen corpse.
Though the stream in the shallow valley was not deep, there must have been places deep enough to submerge an entire body.
Then a middle-aged man in a Taoist robe embroidered with Yin and Yang approached.
“Set that one aside.”
“Isn’t it good enough?”
“We cannot work with this.”
“Good grief.”
The red-belted warriors moved the body to a cart on the cave’s left.
As they carried the corpse over, one warrior could no longer endure it and vomited.
“Bleurgh!”
The other warriors clicked their tongues.
“Tsk, tsk.”
“Just what you’d expect from a newcomer.”
They spoke that way, but they understood.
The corpses laid out over there had relatively few wounds and at least retained human shapes.
The ones in the carts, however, were those rejected as unsuitable for the work.
None of them were intact.
Crushed heads were common. Many were missing a leg or had their organs torn out.
The sight was gruesome enough to make anyone vomit.
“Take it easy, rookie.”
“Y-yes.”
The warrior who had emptied their stomach barely rose and answered.
Once the sorting was mostly complete, the rejected corpses filled nearly three carts.
The middle-aged man in the Taoist robe approached the warriors again.
“Let’s go.”
The Taoist-robed man led the way, while the red-belted warriors pulled the corpse-filled carts.
The carts traveled along a narrow slope. Only after half a two-hour period did they stop before a cliff at the foot of the mountain.
The Taoist-robed man took a large bundle from his robes.
They were talismans.
Each bore the character:
[Lock]
As he attached a talisman to each corpse, the Taoist-robed man said,
“When you throw them down, do not look below the cliff.”
“Understood.”
The red-belted warriors answered calmly. As if accustomed to it, they threw the talisman-covered corpses off the cliff one after another.
The newcomer could not understand.
If the corpses could not be used, would it not be cleaner to burn them? If they threw them all here, the area below would surely be overflowing with bodies.
It would be horrifying enough that no one would dare descend, even in broad daylight.
The newcomer asked the senior warrior carrying corpses alongside them,
“Senior, why throw them off this cliff instead of simply burning them?”
“Why are you so curious? Just do as you’re told.”
“I-I apologize.”
The newcomer fell silent dejectedly. The senior warrior clicked their tongue and spoke in a low voice.
“Listen, then let it go in one ear and out the other. I heard that the stream flowing down from this cliff connects to a tributary beneath the cave.”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“I told you, I don’t know. Something about becoming nourishment, but lowly people like us only need to do as we’re told. Asking needless questions will only bring trouble. Understand?”
“...Yes.”
‘Nourishment?’
What could it possibly nourish?
The newcomer could not understand it at all.
Still, if they had done this whenever a gate of Corpse-Blood Valley was held, just how many corpses had been discarded below this cliff?
There were already more than a hundred this time alone.
A chill ran through the newcomer.
The newcomer had glanced down without thinking, and goosebumps rose across their body.
From the darkness that seemed ready to swallow them whole, something sinister and unpleasant seemed to be creeping upward.
Tap!
“Gasp!”
Someone gripped the newcomer’s shoulder.
It was the man in the Taoist robe who had been attaching the talismans.
The man spoke quietly to the startled newcomer.
“What did I say earlier?”
“Pardon?”
“What did I tell you earlier?”
“Not to look below the cliff...”
“Then you’d best never look.”
“Y-yes?”
The Taoist-robed man warned the newcomer in a meaningful tone.
“You may be bewitched.”
Bewitched? What did that mean?
* * *
About one two-hour period and half an hour had passed since the Flag Defense Battle began.
Nearly half the flags had been found, and fierce battles to defend and reclaim them were underway.
Yet an unforeseen variable arose in the Flag Defense Battle.
It was the appearance of Galjeo, one of the spirits and goblins.
Squeal! Squeal!
It was already far more vicious than any ordinary beast. To boys whose internal energy was sealed and who had no weapons, it was the worst possible variable.
In particular, boys searching alone for flags without teammates were being indiscriminately attacked and killed.
Crunch!
“Aaaaargh!”
Another boy fell victim to Galjeo in the middle of the mountain.
Galjeo liked human heads. Whenever it caught someone, it crushed their head with its vicious teeth and devoured it.
It did not eat any other part.
Headless corpses were discovered throughout the mountain, raising the boys’ vigilance to an extreme.
“Damn it. What is this? Did they really die fighting like this?”
One group that had yet to find a flag stared in shock after discovering a body.
No matter how they looked at it, these were not marks left by a fight.
“Even with their internal energy sealed, could they have been killed by a beast?”
“That’s right. Those are bite marks.”
“No. Could a beast eat an entire head? Even a great tiger would have picked the skull clean, wouldn’t it?”
A body with its entire head missing.
It made no sense.
Mok YuCheon, who was with them, had dark circles beneath his eyes.
‘Haa...’
This place truly was hell.
After losing three boys who had been his companions in the battle to seize a flag, the five survivors had begun searching for another.
Yet during that time, they had seen more than twenty corpses.
Only about three appeared to have died in fierce fighting over flags. The rest had met bizarre deaths.
Ten were headless, like this one.
They had also found seven bodies that had died cleanly.
‘...Most of their necks had been broken.’
Not all of them, but most seemed to have been killed in a similar manner.
It did not seem as though they had fought hand-to-hand or struggled fiercely. It seemed that someone had killed them before they could even properly resist.
‘What is this? Who could it be?’
Those killed this way appeared to have lost their lives regardless of any flag.
That was the problem.
Everyone was already struggling desperately in the Flag Defense Battle, yet unknown forces seemed to be slaughtering boys at random.
‘Who on earth is doing this?’
On a mountainside about two hundred jang east of Mok YuCheon’s location, one of the true culprits he wondered about was absorbing deathly aura from the chest of a headless corpse.
It was Mok GyeongUn.
After swiftly absorbing the deathly aura, Mok GyeongUn withdrew his hand.
Then he muttered with displeasure,
“There is not much.”
-You mean the deathly aura?
“Yes.”
-That is only natural. Corpses killed by spirits and goblins are invaded by demonic aura, which rapidly consumes most of the energy they possess.
Mok GyeongUn clicked his tongue at Blue Spirit’s words.
Even the energy released at death was being consumed so quickly.
It was quite troublesome.
“Hmm.”
He had intended to move diligently and kill more boys than Galjeo to obtain deathly aura, but he was falling behind instead.
“This is becoming irritating.”
Unlike Mok GyeongUn, who needed time to absorb deathly aura, this Galjeo among the spirits and goblins merely ate the heads and moved on to seek new prey.
It should have been full by now, yet it continued eating without pause.
“It feels as though I’m eating leftovers someone else left behind.”
-Hmm.
“What is it?”
-This creature... seems to be eating more than expected.
Mok GyeongUn shrugged.
“It must not be full.”
-No. Even so, it is too much. It should be full by now, yet it keeps eating an extraordinary amount.
“It may be in a period of rapid growth.”
-...I understand.
“What do you mean?”
-It may be a creature on the verge of adulthood.
“Adulthood?”
-Yes. Some spirits and goblins require great amounts of energy to reproduce or become adults.
“Is Galjeo one of those kinds?”
-Most likely.
Mok GyeongUn rubbed his chin as if troubled by Blue Spirit’s words.
If the creature kept eating like this, his share would be greatly reduced.
Mok GyeongUn decided to change his approach.
“This will not do. I should kill Galjeo first.”
He had thought leaving it alone would create confusion around them and benefit him.
But in the present situation, it was only getting in his way.
Thus, Mok GyeongUn resolved to kill Galjeo first.
-How?
“Can you help me?”
-You claimed you could manage alone, yet it seems even you have no choice in this situation.
Blue Spirit snorted.
-Then let me out of this cramped place.
Mok GyeongUn picked up the wooden doll containing her, formed a hand seal, and chanted a spell.
“Force of Fateful Origins, Ninefold Return to the Peach Garden, Release!”
Fwoosh!
A great shadow emerged from the wooden doll. Blue Spirit slowly appeared above it, holding a smoking pipe.
Once outside, she stretched and spoke with satisfaction.
-It is far better than being trapped inside. Hoo.
Blue Spirit took a draw from her pipe and slowly exhaled smoke.
Mok GyeongUn said to her,
“Can you find where it is? Or if you can dispose of it yourself, that is fine too.”
-There is no need to rush me. I was about to do so. Wait.
Whoosh!
Blue Spirit shot into the sky.
Unlike the Demonic Monk, she was of a higher rank. Even without possessing a body, the range in which she could move was extremely broad.
Blue Spirit rose higher than the treetops and surveyed the surroundings.
Her blood-red Ghost Eyes slowly swept over the entire mountain.
‘Hmm.’
Then Blue Spirit raised one eyebrow.
She had expected to find it quickly, considering how obsessed it was with eating humans. Yet contrary to her expectations, Galjeo was nowhere within her Ghost Eyes’ sight.
It was on the verge of becoming a monstrous beast, so its demonic aura should have been overflowing.
‘Where did it go?’
Was it no longer nearby?
Blue Spirit flew higher.
Galjeo might have traveled farther away.
As she scanned the surroundings,
She flinched.
Her gaze fixed somewhere.
‘Ha!’
An exclamation escaped Blue Spirit’s lips.
She had been unable to sense outside energy while within the wooden doll, so she had not known.
But now, she could not help but see it.
Indeed, it would have been strange if one’s eyes and ears were not drawn to something so immense.
From a distant cliff in the direction Blue Spirit was watching came countless cries of anguish.
She immediately descended.
Mok GyeongUn asked,
“Did you find it already?”
-No. I cannot see it. More importantly, follow me quickly.
Mok GyeongUn could not hide his confusion at her somewhat excited voice.
Blue Spirit flew off first, as though guiding him somewhere.
Mok GyeongUn followed her.
* * *
It was not very far.
About half an hour away, there was a cliff deep within the boundary of the mountain.
Mok GyeongUn looked at the ground.
‘Cart tracks?’
The slope was filled with wheel tracks, as if carts had frequently been pulled along it.
As he proceeded in confusion,
Mok GyeongUn flinched.
Mok GyeongUn’s steps faltered at the sinister energy flowing from ahead.
‘What is this...?’
Ever since Ghost Eyes opened and his sixth sense awakened, he had become sensitive to such things. Why had he failed to notice this until now?
Suspicious, he examined his surroundings.
Then he found something.
‘Ah...’
Talismans were attached between the cliff and trees, and incantations were inscribed there.
They were restraining the sinister aura, preventing it from escaping.
Yet despite all these talismans, an immense sinister aura still leaked out as he neared the place. What on earth could be inside?
When he reached the point where the wheel tracks ended, he saw Blue Spirit sitting at the edge of the cliff, smoking her pipe.
-Can you see it?
Mok GyeongUn’s skin trembled at her question.
“Aaaaaah!”
“Aaaaargh!”
“Save me!”
“Please! Please!”
Endless screams rose from below.
Together with those cries, sinister energy battered upward as though desperate to rise but unable, making his skin sting.
-Come closer and look.
Mok GyeongUn approached the edge and looked down.
“Ah...”
It was like a bottomless abyss.
Countless resentments had mingled together, radiating endless malice and sinister energy.
Talismans covered the cliff in every direction, but someone with fairly weak mental fortitude might lose their senses from a mere glance.
-Mortal. Do you know what a Poison Parasite is?
“...Of course I do.”
There was almost nothing he did not know about medical herbs and poisons.
He had never seen a Poison Parasite himself, but he remembered hearing about it from his grandfather.
It was a secret art originating from the southern barbarian regions. Dozens or hundreds of venomous creatures were placed inside a single jar, and the lid was not opened until only one remained alive.
The single worst survivor was called a Poison Parasite.
Why was she asking this?
The corner of Blue Spirit’s mouth twitched.
-There is a Poison Parasite below.
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