Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 67

Mok Gyeong-un, revealing himself from the chains.

Gooooooo!

His appearance was not ordinary.

Could it be that he was devoured by the completed gu poison?

Cheong-ryeong spoke with a voice tinged with anger, aiming her long pipe.

– Foolish thing. Were you finally devoured?

At that question, Mok Gyeong-un’s lips twitched, then he opened his mouth while looking at Cheong-ryeong.

“I wasn’t devoured, I devoured it.”

– !?

At those words, Cheong-ryeong’s expression momentarily went blank.

Just by hearing his distinct way of speaking, she could clearly tell that his body hadn’t been taken over and it was Mok Gyeong-un himself.

“Why are you like that?”

– … Did you really devour that thing?

At her question, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged and replied:

“As you can see.”

– Ha!

Truly astounding.

Even if he had multiple lives, the probability of failure was higher.

But this ignorant kid finally managed to do it.

“It’s just that I feel like my stomach will burst from overeating.”

– Your stomach will burst?

“Yes. I think I ate a bit too much.”

Somehow, after pushing and pulling with the creature, he succeeded in absorbing its qi.

But a problem arose here.

He clearly absorbed the qi, but the resentment and death qi the creature possessed was incomparable to the amount he had received until now.

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, she frowned.

‘Come to think of it, this guy is human.’

Cheong-ryeong realized her mistake.

Having been a vengeful spirit for over 100 years, her thinking from when she was human must have become rigid.

The human body could be considered a type of vessel.

Vessels have a limit to what they can handle.

‘More important than accepting internal energy is expanding the size of that vessel through enlightenment.’

However, Mok Gyeong-un lacked enlightenment.

He hadn’t grasped the method of utilizing qi as a top expert, and even though he had learned the secret of the Moon Sword Technique, which could be called the secret of the peerless swordless technique, his understanding of the sword was low.

If he had gained enlightenment step by step through the normal path, the limit of internal energy he could accept would have naturally increased as well.

But now, Mok Gyeong-un was not like that at all.

Cheong-ryeong spoke with a somewhat serious voice:

– Expel the qi you can’t handle right now.

“Pardon?”

– Too much is as bad as too little. If you accept qi to a level your body can’t handle, it will instead become poison to you, kid.

“Ah. Is that so?”

– Yes.

“Then it would be better to pass on the excess qi.”

– What?

As she was puzzled, Mok Gyeong-un bent his waist and searched for something on the ground.

She wondered what he was looking for, and Mok Gyeong-un exclaimed “oh” and lifted up what he found.

It was none other than a skull with the face and forehead area shattered and in a mess.

Strangely, an old talisman was attached to the skull’s head, and although it seemed quite old, it was curious how it was maintained without damage.

‘It must be because of the spell power.’

She guessed it was probably that.

Of course, that guess was correct.

Mok Gyeong-un removed the old talisman with the word “chain” written on it from the skull he was holding.

And.

Wooooo!

– What are you doing now?

No. Not only is he not expelling it, but why is he infusing qi into that thing?

In her ghostly eyes, she saw an entity crouching inside that skull.

It was a vengeful spirit hiding in fear.

– Why are you giving qi to that…

Before Cheong-ryeong could finish her words.

As death qi was already injected into the skull, the vengeful spirit inside reacted.

Gooooooo!

Like dried seafood regaining vitality when water is added, the crouching vengeful spirit absorbed the death qi and soon revealed itself.

It was none other than,

Clank clank!

A girl with a cold impression, wearing thin chains like clothes all over her body, revealed herself.

Judging from her youthful face, she looked to be at most around 15 years old.

A peculiar thing was that half of her hair had turned white, making it truly half-white.

Seeing her appearance, Cheong-ryeong frowned and said:

– What? It was a wench?

Hearing those words, the girl bit her lips tightly, then suddenly shouted:

– Who are you calling a wench? This young master is a man.

– … What?

At the girl’s words, Cheong-ryeong raised an eyebrow.

Then she muttered in a tone of disbelief:

– You’re joking, right?

No matter how she looked at it, it was a wench.

However,

– This young master is a man!

The girl, who was getting heated claiming to be a man, was stared at intently by Cheong-ryeong, who then reached out her hand.

Then the girl’s body was forcibly sucked into Cheong-ryeong’s hand.

Swish!

– Uh?

Puck!

Cheong-ryeong, grasping the girl’s neck, spoke in a somewhat chilly voice:

– How dare a young thing raise her voice to an adult. Do you want to die so badly?

– !!!!!!!

The girl was momentarily speechless at Cheong-ryeong’s tremendous overwhelming presence.

It seemed that vengeful spirits could sense each other’s rough grade, and the girl could also guess it from the qi emanating from Cheong-ryeong.

However, she didn’t seem to be the type to yield easily as expected,

– E-even if I look like this, it’s been about fifteen years since I died, so in age, I’m thirty-three… Kuk.

Cheong-ryeong’s hand tightened.

She pulled the girl close and said,

– If you don’t want to hear “young thing” from me, come back after living a hundred more years.

At Cheong-ryeong’s words, the girl’s expression stiffened.

Just from what she said, the girl could guess how many years she had lived and what her grade was.

Cheong-ryeong turned her head towards Mok Gyeong-un and said:

– Why did you revive this one by giving her qi? You should have just killed her.

“She seemed useful.”

– Useful?

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, the girl frowned.

Then she said to Mok Gyeong-un:

– Who are you calling useful right now? A mere human…

Grip!

Kuk!

– Who told you to open your mouth.

The girl, who couldn’t speak while being suppressed by Cheong-ryeong’s grip, wasn’t actually suffocating, but it felt like it.

At this, Mok Gyeong-un held the skull he was holding with both hands.

Then, showing it to the girl, he said:

“This is your head, right?”

The girl glanced at Cheong-ryeong.

At this, Cheong-ryeong nodded with a displeased expression.

Then the girl answered:

– … Yes. It is, so just leave it alone.

“Why?”

– What’s there to gain by messing with a dead person’s bones.

“Something to gain? There is.”

– What?

Crack!

At that moment, cracks appeared on the girl’s skull.

Seeing this, the girl panicked and reached out her hand, shouting:

– S-stop!

“Why?”

– No. Why are you trying to break that?

Unlike the girl who was desperately trying to stop him, Cheong-ryeong was enjoying it with twitching lips.

She had wondered why this kid revived this wench, but it seemed he did it to torment her again in this way.

That skull could be considered the origin of that wench.

If it was shattered, she would suffer tremendous pain.

‘Anyway, he’s a vicious one.’

While that was happening, the girl shook off Cheong-ryeong’s hand and tried to rush at Mok Gyeong-un.

However, she couldn’t shake it off because she was outmatched in grade.

Rather, by Mok Gyeong-un’s hand, the skull,

Crack!

– Aaaaaargh!

The girl let out a heart-wrenching scream.

The pain of having one’s living body shattered was hard to describe in words.

But here, she witnessed a sight that was not only painful but also shocking.

Sizzle sizzle!

Mok Gyeong-un finely crushed her skull with his hand and put the powder into his mouth, not just holding it.

Even Cheong-ryeong didn’t expect this, and her eyes widened.

Who would have thought he would put bone powder into his mouth?

– Y-youuuu!

The girl screamed.

Mok Gyeong-un didn’t care and rubbed the shattered skull fragments with both palms, crushing them even finer and putting all the remaining powder into his mouth.

– You bast… Aaaaaargh!

At that moment, something strange happened.

The girl’s spirit body shook violently as if she was having a seizure.

Then, a red thread-like thing appeared from the girl’s body and connected to Mok Gyeong-un.

– !?

Seeing this, Cheong-ryeong was dumbfounded.

‘This guy…’

He ate the origin of the vengeful spirit and forcibly made it his supreme-ruler of gluttony.

It was just a simple act, but the result was not simple at all.

How could something like this happen?

It was unbelievable even after seeing it.

On the other hand, Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth curled up bitterly as he saw that the attempt he had made on a whim really worked.

‘It worked.’

If given the chance, he wanted to test it out.

To see if his guess was correct.

But it really worked.

– This… This is…

The girl couldn’t hide her bewilderment as she looked at the red thread.

Having been a vengeful spirit for a long time, she naturally came to know everything without anyone teaching her.

So she could immediately tell that this was the thread of a supreme-ruler of gluttony, establishing a master-servant relationship.

– How can this…

The girl tried to grab the red thread with a flushed face.

But there was no way it could be grasped.

Swish swish!

– This young master! How can this young master become a lowly human’s supreme-ruler of gluttony!

Mok Gyeong-un asked the girl who was frantically waving her hands:

“What’s your name?”

– Shut up! You bastard, what are you to this young ma…

“What’s your name?”

The girl, who was about to get fiercely angry, suddenly softened her expression at Mok Gyeong-un’s repeated question.

Then, her lips twitched, and she soon spoke to Mok Gyeong-un with a much gentler face:

– It’s Gyu Soha. Master.

‘This one?’

Cheong-ryeong was inwardly surprised.

Even if they become a supreme-ruler of gluttony, vengeful spirits don’t readily reveal their own names.

The reason was because of the power that names hold.

When one becomes a spirit body, they approach the realm of supreme-rulers, and then they become bound by their true name.

So vengeful spirits don’t reveal their names.

But as if completely submitting, even her expression changed and she revealed her true name.

Mok Gyeong-un looked at the girl and said:

“It’s a good name.”

– Thank you. Master.

“Soha. Can you become my loyal dog?”

– Ah! That is my utmost desire.

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, the girl showed an intense expression as if moved, and Cheong-ryeong clicked her tongue as if it was unbelievable.

This was even more than a demonic beast.

In the end, even though she didn’t reach it, a green spirit who almost became a blue spirit grade was submitting to this extent.

It was a sight of submission almost down to the roots of her mind.

‘… Is it the influence of the strengthened death qi?’

Gooooooo!

It was clearly visible to her ghostly eyes.

Mok Gyeong-un’s death qi had become incomparably stronger than before.

But even after infusing enough qi to restore this Gyu Soha to this extent, it was still overflowing like this?

Moreover, she had been feeling strange from earlier, and the qi seemed to be subtly overlapping.

So she asked:

– You… Your qi is a bit strange. Why does it seem to be overlapping?

“Ah. Can Cheong-ryeong see it?”

– See what?

“A new mnemonic came to my mind anyway.”

– A new mnemonic?

“The Eight Forms of Thought Destruction.”

– What?

She couldn’t hide her surprise.

In the midst of that, he came up with a new mnemonic for the Eight Forms of Thought Destruction?

So Cheong-ryeong asked:

– What mnemonic did you come up with?

At her question, Mok Gyeong-un gestured to Soha and said:

“The myriad phenomena are like an illusion, the acupoints have no extremes, the two forms are like a dream, the five aggregates are all empty, the myriad phenomena are an illusion, the five aggregates are all empty.”

‘!?’

Hearing this, Cheong-ryeong’s pupils shook.

‘This guy… He realized a mnemonic I didn’t know.’

The reason Cheong-ryeong was surprised was exactly that.

What Mok Gyeong-un said was a mnemonic she had never known before.

Even she, who possessed a natural talent, had only grasped four forms in the Eight Forms of Thought Destruction.

But this mnemonic was something she didn’t know.

She asked, hiding her inwardly excited heart:

– Ahem… This is a form I haven’t mastered. What profound principle does it hold?

“I became able to disperse the danjeon into two places.”

– What?

“I could disperse the qi near the Baihui acupoint in the head and near the center close to the heart.”

‘!!!!!!’

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, she showed an expression of disbelief.

Right now, Mok Gyeong-un wouldn’t know what he was talking about.

‘Ha.’

Until they surpass the wall, all martial artists cannot escape the shackles of the lower danjeon.

But the moment they gain enlightenment and surpass the wall, they open the middle danjeon.

Those who have opened the middle danjeon like this could be said to be extremely few even in the martial world.

But this kid, without enlightenment, says that his middle danjeon has opened due to the profound principle of the Eight Forms of Thought Destruction.