WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Episode 14: Rapid Changes in the Continental Situation (7)

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Ise bound the unconscious Kang Gyuyoung with spiritual energy and left him suspended in the air.

Seolryeong approached him and tapped Kang Gyuyoung's crown with her Spell Bell Staff.

Kang Gyuyoung trembled and regained consciousness.

“...Gasp.”

“You. What did you do with the bodies?”

Kang Gyuyoung rolled his eyes around without coming fully to his senses, and Seolryeong immediately glared at him.

“Want another hit? If I hit the same spot again, it'll hurt several times worse.”

“...Bongsan Mountain.”

Kang Gyuyoung finally opened his mouth. Drool ran from between his lips, making him look thoroughly undignified.

“I buried them... near Bongsan Mountain...”

Bongsan Mountain was a small mountain about ten ri east of Jinju Castle.

It was a common name for mountains, originally famous from legends of immortals living there.

Ise moved a finger, sending Kang Gyuyoung ahead of them.

“Lead the way.”

They reached a valley near Bongsan Mountain as the sun began to set.

A massive boulder, easily more than a fathom tall, rested in one corner.

It was not a natural stone that had originally been there.

Anyone could see that someone had deliberately dragged it there.

Frowning, Ise examined the rock before lifting it aside. Two corpses lay beneath it.

“What? You call this buried?”

Seolryeong struck the back of Kang Gyuyoung's head with her Spell Bell Staff.

“I can't exactly bury this bastard for real...”

The corpses were in horrific condition.

The woman's mutilated body lay below, while a man who had been pierced through the back lay above her, clutching her scattered remains.

Among the bodies torn apart as if by a twisted fate, the man still gripped his lover's severed hand tightly.

“The man died here. His resentment is rising...”

A faint but coherent trace of resentment rose from where the man had lain.

It held more sorrow and pain than rage.

That was why his soul had not become an evil spirit. It had only remained trapped above his lover's corpse.

Seolryeong held a talisman between her palms and poured spiritual energy into it.

The talisman shone with a bright yellow light. A pale spirit form flowed out from the man's body and slowly rose toward that light.

Jingle, jingle.

The Spell Bell die shook violently in the windless mountains.

Only then did the spirit form slowly float upward before scattering into the sky as a faint beam of light.

* * *

The annex of Hwaru Ward.

Ise threw Kang Gyuyoung into the middle of the wooden floor.

The demonic qi inside the annex had already grown thicker in that brief time.

Its spread was far too fast.

Had they been even a little later, something truly terrible might have happened.

Dark red blood flowed along the grain of the beams, while the pool of blood on the floor continued to spread.

Seolryeong had just taken out her shamanic implements and prepared to perform the Rain-Calling Rite.

Whooooo!

Her face turned pale.

The moment Kang Gyuyoung touched the floor, the demonic qi began to rage.

Dark red blood poured down from the beams all at once.

Blood fell like a torrential downpour.

“This is impossible... It's neither raining nor dark yet!”

Every being had a fate ordained by Heaven.

Evil spirits were no exception.

Night and rain.

Those were the natural laws a Fallen Courtesan Wraith was meant to follow.

Yet the evil spirit had rejected even its Heaven-ordained fate as it unleashed its fury.

Screeeech!

The scream shook the entire annex. The evil spirit's limbs bent at unnatural angles and rushed toward Kang Gyuyoung.

“I'm sorry... I'm sorry!”

Kang Gyuyoung screamed at the Fallen Courtesan Wraith.

“I was wrong! I'm begging you, please forgive me!”

He bowed so deeply that his forehead nearly touched the floor, spilling out his apology. Yet the evil spirit's resentment only released increasingly deeper demonic qi.

The Fallen Courtesan Wraith's limbs, still unable to join into one body, rushed forward at once to crush Kang Gyuyoung.

“Ise! You have to stop it!”

Ise reacted at once to Seolryeong's shout.

His body slid in front of Kang Gyuyoung.

He drove the evil spirit back once with the Vajra, then drew the Clear Shadow Sword and swung it.

The Fallen Courtesan Wraith screamed and retreated.

Seolryeong immediately spread out talismans and attempted a Spirit-Guiding Rite.

The Fallen Courtesan Wraith let out one pitiful, horrific scream after another. Then it dissolved into black smoke again and vanished into the beams.

Even now, its resentment continued to grow stronger.

Ise dragged Kang Gyuyoung outside and asked Seolryeong, “Why did you stop me?”

“...We can't let the murderer get devoured by an evil spirit. That'll only make its resentment stronger.”

Seolryeong silently looked up at the place in the beams where the Fallen Courtesan Wraith had disappeared.

“We need to summon her soul with a proper rite. There is no other way now.”

“Right. There isn't.”

Ise came to a brief conclusion and looked at Kang Gyuyoung.

From the moment he had seen the pair of bodies, his mind had already been mostly made up.

This bastard deserved to die.

No, he had to die and disappear.

“W-what, surely not... No! Don't!”

Kang Gyuyoung flinched and tried to crawl backward across the dirt. His legs, bound by spiritual energy, would not move.

“This is absurd. My father will not stand by and let this happen...”

Ise did not answer.

Instead, he swung the Clear Shadow Sword.

Blood sprayed out, and Kang Gyuyoung's head rolled across the dirt.

The mouth that had tried to call for his father until the end froze in place.

Seolryeong lifted Kang Gyuyoung's head with spiritual energy and seated it upright in the center of the annex.

She placed an overturned bowl on top, making it resemble an altar.

The Grievance-Resolving Rite began.

Seolryeong's voice quietly filled the annex.

The chant had different syllables from yesterday's Soul-Guiding Rite. Its melody carried a deeper desire to soothe the dead person's bitterness.

The demonic qi raging in the beams slowly began to settle.

After a while, the bloodstains inside the annex gradually faded.

Seolryeong let out a breath.

“Ise. Could you find anything connected to the two of them?”

Ise said he understood and entered the inner rooms of the courtesan house.

This was where the courtesans lived.

He looked over the name plaques hanging above the doors. Their stage names were written on them.

Song Jin-hee.

That was the victim's name given to him by the outer branch outpost manager. Ise opened the door and entered.

The room was neatly arranged.

Its furnishings were simple, with a small dressing table in one corner.

Most of the items were things needed for life in a courtesan house.

Perfume bottles, powder cases, hairpins. One object stood out among them.

A small box in the innermost drawer of the dressing table.

Ise carefully took it out.

Inside the ordinary rosewood box, softened from frequent handling, was a neatly folded sheet of mulberry paper.

Ise unfolded it.

It was a love letter.

A poem had been written in clean, orderly calligraphy.

He brought it to Seolryeong and handed it over. She nodded as if to say it was enough.

She placed the letter beside Kang Gyuyoung's head and lit a stick of incense.

The spirit requiem began.

The blood gradually disappeared, and the black stains within the beams slowly faded as well.

The clinging resentment drifted upward with the incense smoke.

Ise quietly watched the scene.

After Seolryeong completed the final step, she let out a long breath.

Her body soon tilted to one side.

Ise immediately reached out and supported her shoulder.

“...Sorry. It was a little too much for my realm.”

“Rest.”

Ise answered briefly.

Seolryeong shook her head and got back up.

Even as she staggered, she began tidying the incense and Kang Gyuyoung's head in the center of the annex.

Ise helped her.

At last, Seolryeong picked up the sheet of mulberry paper from one side.

She quietly unfolded it and read it once more.

A poem written in graceful calligraphy, filled with someone's heart.

Hard it is to meet, and hard it is to part.

The east wind is weak, and all the flowers wither.

The silkworm spins until death takes it.

The candle's tears dry only when it turns to ash.

At dawn, before the mirror, I fret over my disheveled side hair.

At night, I recite these lines beneath the cold moonlight.

Bongsan Mountain is not far from here.

Bluebird, please go and see for me.

The poem seemed to stir something in her heart. Seolryeong pursed her lips.

“It's a beautiful poem. The man must have been preparing for the civil service examination.”

“It's a poem by Li Shangyin. The title is Untitled.”

It was a poem deliberately given no title.

The lack of a title itself conveyed a love too painful to put into words. It was often sent to an unreachable lover, carrying a yearning heart.

“It was such a carefully hidden relationship that even the outer branch outpost did not know. The man was probably a nobleman. In the mortal world, it is hard for a courtesan and a nobleman to be together.”

A line Ise had read in some book suddenly came to mind, one that defined people and love.

A person formed a bond, creating a fated connection. Then that connection drew a person close, making them lovers.

What kind of feeling could make resentment so powerful that it tore through Heaven itself, surpassing even ordained karmic causality and all bounds?

It was difficult for Ise to understand.

Still, as with most spirit-sending rites, he could only hope they would sever the chain of evil deeds and enter the Gate of Rebirth.

He hoped that in their next lives, they would become an ordinary married couple.

When Ise turned his head, Seolryeong was staring at him.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No reason. You look rather learned today. It doesn't suit you.”

“What nonsense.”

The two of them watched the burning incense for a long time.

* * *

It would have been nice if that had been the end of it.

While Ise focused on cultivation after returning to headquarters, a Message Talisman flew in.

It ordered him to report to the Law Enforcement Pavilion and explain the unauthorized killing of a blood relative of the Pearl River Gang Clan.

‘It has finally come.’

Ise sighed and rose to his feet.

Nothing had happened immediately after he completed the mission, but Seolryeong had told him that the atmosphere at headquarters was becoming unusual.

When he headed straight to the Law Enforcement Pavilion, he found it packed with members of Black Tortoise Hall.

‘I should have reported to Hall Master too.’

He had not expected them to arrive in such numbers, as if they had gathered specifically to gang up on him.

When Ise entered the Law Enforcement Pavilion's inner courtroom, a Black Tortoise Hall cultivator led him to the defendant's seat.

The Law Enforcement Pavilion cultivator, who was supposed to make an impartial judgment, was practically glued to Hall Master Seolbaek's side.

They clearly intended to press him hard.

“I am Mountain-Guarding Disciple Ise. I came in response to your summons.”

Seolbaek, the Black Tortoise Hall Master, stood with his hands behind his back. Kang Ihyeon stepped forward and spoke to Ise.

“I have read the mission report. It says you killed Gyuyoung.”

“Yes. There was no other way.”

“I clearly sent you a Message Talisman forbidding it.”

Before answering, Ise took a moment to steady his breathing. Then he gave the reply he had prepared.

“If I had kept him alive, the evil spirit would have annihilated every member of the Pearl River Gang Clan you are trying to protect. Would that have been acceptable?”

“That was not for you to decide.”

“It was my mission. Therefore, it was for me to decide.”

Footnotes:

In Korean, the terms rendered as “fated connection” and “lovers” reverse the same two syllables, meaning person and bond.

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