WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 3: Strange Phenomenon (2)
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Mok GyeongUn's pupils did not move, like those of the dead.
It was the first time Taoist occultist Myo Shin had seen a living person with such eyes, and for a moment, he could not look away.
'How could a human have such...'
Then someone's voice brought him to his senses.
“Huh? What is all this?”
It was Guard Go Chan.
Guard Go Chan, who had led Mok GyeongUn there, stared in confusion at the Manor Lord's room, which was filled with red threads strung with silver coins.
He had already found it strange that no one was around the main building.
But who was this person, and why were they doing something so bizarre?
“Excuse me. Who are you, and why are you...?”
“You definitely don't look like a physician.”
Mok GyeongUn looked around the room as he spoke.
In his urgency, Taoist occultist Myo Shin waved both hands.
“I don't know who you are, but it seems you haven't received the First Madam's message. This is a critical moment, so leave at once.”
“The First Madam?”
“I said this is not a time to interfere.”
It truly was a critical moment.
While Myo Shin was trying to control the aberration burrowing into the Manor Lord's heart, a reversal had occurred because of the baleful energy.
That only made the baleful energy strengthen the aberration further.
“Leave, now!”
There was no time for this.
At Myo Shin's urging, Guard Go Chan frowned and muttered,
“Don't tell me you're a Taoist occultist?”
“Hoo. That's right, I'm a Taoist occultist, so hurry and...”
“Why is that person like that?”
Mok GyeongUn pointed toward the bed.
Myo Shin turned his head.
Cough! Cough!
Someone was there, their waist bent like a bow as they coughed violently.
“M-Manor Lord?”
'The Manor Lord?'
Mok GyeongUn wore a puzzled expression.
The Manor Lord's condition, now that he saw them for the first time, was utterly bizarre.
Their back was bent so far that their chest faced upward, while their throat bulged and writhed in obvious agony.
“Why is the Manor Lord like that?”
“Leave! I said leave!”
Myo Shin shouted and tried to push Mok GyeongUn and Go Chan out the door.
At that very moment.
Gulp!
A swallow loud enough for everyone to hear came from the Manor Lord.
When they looked over, the Manor Lord's waist was still bent like a bow, but the bulge writhing in their throat had vanished.
Their tortured expression seemed to ease.
Then the Manor Lord, whose eyes had been closed, suddenly snapped them open.
“Huh? Manor Lord?”
Had the Manor Lord regained consciousness?
Myo Shin let out a low, rough curse.
“Damn it!”
He swiftly took out a talisman bearing the red character for Suppress from the pouch at his waist and tried to rush toward the Manor Lord, who appeared to have awakened.
Then the Manor Lord's head suddenly twisted sideways at an unnatural angle.
Crack!
'!?'
Go Chan's eyes widened.
The Manor Lord's eyes were so bloodshot that everything but the pupils had turned red.
With their waist still bent, their head twisted in that manner was horrifying.
Myo Shin formed a one-handed seal with his left hand and chanted a spell.
“One seal reaches the Heavenly Court, one writ alarms gods and ghosts. Grand Supreme becomes the Three Pure Ones. Hurry, Hurry, Act According to the Law, by edict!”
Snap!
The yellow talisman held between Myo Shin's right fingers stiffened.
Myo Shin tried to press the straightened talisman onto the forehead of the Manor Lord, whose head was turned sideways.
Then,
Kraaaah!
The Manor Lord let out a grotesque roar.
“Ack!”
The booming roar echoed through the room, driving Myo Shin staggering backward.
He was not the only one affected by it.
Go Chan clutched his ears as the sudden shout sent pain through his eardrums.
'It carries internal energy.'
The Manor Lord was an internal energy master whose internal energy ran deep.
Their shout naturally carried internal energy, and its reverberation caused pain to everyone who heard it.
Guard Go Chan looked at Mok GyeongUn as he covered his ears.
Then,
'He hasn't even cultivated internal energy, so why is he unaffected?'
Mok GyeongUn merely furrowed his brow slightly.
Was he simply enduring the pain?
While Go Chan was wondering about that, the Manor Lord turned their head and straightened their waist, attempting to rise from the bed.
However,
Tw-aang!
The red threads wrapped around both wrists and ankles pulled taut, leaving the Manor Lord trapped in an awkward posture.
Sizzle!
A faint haze and a pungent odor rose from where the red threads were tied.
Kraaaah!
The bloodshot Manor Lord howled like a beast rather than a human.
Then they pulled their right hand with all their strength.
Bang!
The open door was torn from its hinges, and the red thread snapped.
“Damn it!”
Taoist occultist Myo Shin, still unsteady from the shout, could not hide his dismay.
He had secured the red threads firmly, but these people had opened the door and ruined everything.
Black veins bulged across the Manor Lord's bloodshot forehead and face.
'They've been seized by the aberration.'
That was what people called being possessed.
At this point, learning the location of the Manor Lord's seal and martial arts book, as Madam Seok had requested, was no longer possible.
Jingle! Creak!
As Myo Shin stood there in shock, the Manor Lord tried to tear through every red thread strung with silver coins.
“Urgh!”
This was no time to worry about the request.
Myo Shin rushed at the Manor Lord again, trying to stick the talisman to their forehead.
However,
Smack!
“Ack!”
With a careless swing of the Manor Lord's hand, Myo Shin was thrown across the floor.
'W-What strength...'
Myo Shin was utterly flustered.
Those seized by aberrations were usually stronger than ordinary people, but this was beyond comparison.
He had no hope of restraining the Manor Lord.
The red thread binding the Manor Lord's left wrist was about to snap.
Myo Shin shouted at Mok GyeongUn and Go Chan.
“Y-You two, help me! Hold the Manor Lord so they can't break the thread!”
“You want us to restrain them?”
Go Chan did not understand what was happening, but he knew the situation was serious.
There was no time to weigh matters in his head.
Go Chan hurried toward the Manor Lord.
Mok GyeongUn did the same.
“Do we only need to hold them?”
“Even while holding them, never meet their eyes. And if their hand turns cold and your spine starts to chill, let go immediately!”
It was rather vague advice, depending on how one took it.
Still, it felt as though something terrible would happen if they did not restrain the Manor Lord. Go Chan asked no more questions and swiftly grabbed the Manor Lord's freed right arm.
Grip!
He wanted to grab the left hand, which was still secured, but he could not bring himself to ask Mok GyeongUn to do that.
But then a problem arose.
Though weakened, the Manor Lord was an internal energy master whom even Guard Gam, Go Chan's senior martial brother, could not handle.
Even Go Chan found the Manor Lord's strength difficult to withstand.
Thwack!
The Manor Lord effortlessly shook off Go Chan's grip, then seized his wrist instead.
“Huh?”
Crunch!
Their grip was so strong that Go Chan felt as if his wrist would snap at any moment.
Panicked, Go Chan instinctively tried to twist the Manor Lord's wrist with a grappling hold.
Tap!
At that moment, the strength in the Manor Lord's hand gripping his wrist weakened.
“Huh?”
Go Chan wondered why, only to see that Myo Shin had already pressed the talisman to the Manor Lord's forehead.
Myo Shin formed a hand seal and chanted a spell.
“The Northern Emperor granted me talisman paper, so I may write a charm to strike evil spirits. Spread the divine writ far and wide, and those who dare disobey shall be confined in Fengdu City. Hurry, Hurry, Act According to the Law!”
(The Northern Emperor granted me talisman paper, so I may write a charm to strike evil spirits. As the divine writ is spread far and wide, those who dare disobey shall be confined in Fengdu City. Hurry, Hurry, Act According to the Law!)
Tremble!
As soon as the talisman was attached, the Manor Lord's body convulsed.
Go Chan tried to pull free the hand gripping his wrist.
But just as he tried to pull away, the grip strengthened again.
Crack!
Go Chan's wrist snapped.
Bone burst through his flesh.
“Aaargh!”
Go Chan screamed.
It was remarkable that he could endure it at all when the bone had not merely broken, but pierced through his flesh.
But when blood from the wound touched the Manor Lord's hand,
Crack! Crack!
The black aberration protruding around the Manor Lord's heart began to creep toward their right arm with the force of a raging tide.
“Eek!”
It rushed toward the Manor Lord's wrist at tremendous speed, terrifying Go Chan.
Myo Shin chanted the spell more forcefully.
“The Northern Emperor granted me talisman paper, so I may write a charm to strike evil spirits. Spread the divine writ far and wide, and those who dare disobey shall be confined in Fengdu City. Hurry, Hurry, Act According to the Law!”
The aberration writhed violently, moving back and forth between the wrist and elbow.
Guard Go Chan desperately tried to pull away the Manor Lord's hand.
“P-Please, do something!”
“The baleful energy has made the impurity too strong. Endure it a little longer. If the aberration transfers to you, you'll be in danger as well.”
“You should've told me that earlier...”
Creep... Creep...
The aberration that had been moving back and forth started gathering toward the wrist again.
“Gasp!”
Startled, Go Chan tried to escape by twisting the Manor Lord's hand with a grappling hold, despite the Manor Lord refusing to release him.
Shing! Slash!
Then something unforeseen occurred.
The wrist of the Manor Lord's hand holding Go Chan's wrist was severed.
'!?'
It was Mok GyeongUn who had cut the wrist.
The sharp sword in Mok GyeongUn's hand was one of the things that had been hanging on the wall.
Go Chan was utterly stunned.
He had been in danger because of the bizarre phenomenon, but he had never expected Mok GyeongUn to cut off the Manor Lord's wrist.
Taoist occultist Myo Shin was equally shocked.
'He cut off the Manor Lord's wrist? Who is this bastard?'
The Manor Lord was the head of Yeonmok Sword Manor, yet Mok GyeongUn had not hesitated in the slightest.
Creep... Creep...
When the wrist was cut off, the aberration that had reached that far tried to return to the Manor Lord's body.
'Good!'
Another opportunity had come.
If the aberration aimed for the heart again, Myo Shin intended to use talisman arts to control it and somehow suppress the raging energy alongside the baleful energy.
But then,
Slash!
Just as the aberration passed the elbow and tried to move toward the shoulder, Mok GyeongUn suddenly brought down his sword before it could climb any farther, severing the arm below the shoulder.
Myo Shin was so shocked and flustered that he shouted,
“You! You!”
He wanted to say something, but he was so dumbfounded that the words would not come.
Mok GyeongUn spoke to him as though nothing had happened.
“Isn't this better than letting it return to the body?”
Flop! Flop!
Black veins burst from the Manor Lord's severed arm on the floor, writhing like a fish pulled onto land.
Meanwhile, color gradually returned to the Manor Lord's pale face.
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