Just as the surroundings grow quiet after a storm has swept through, the flames that had filled the corridor began to disappear quickly. The evil spirit that had created the illusion was dead, so naturally the Guiyeok had been lifted as well.
Around that time, Sim Seowoo felt his headache begin to ease, and he blinked slowly, sluggishly. It was difficult to regain a sense of reality after such a shocking series of events. From the very first moment he had come face to face with the evil spirit in the bathroom until now, he had seen nothing but surreal sights — but the last thing he had witnessed was the most shocking of all.
He stared at Cheon Yijae’s back as he stood upright, with an unfamiliar feeling. There was a cool, unsettling aura swirling around him that made it difficult to simply approach. His dark grey Dopo, fluttering in the dying embers, looked almost as though ash were drifting through the air.
“Urk……urk.”
But then, suddenly, Cheon Yijae lurched and staggered, dry-heaving. He swayed, bracing himself against the wall to barely keep from collapsing, and retched as though he had swallowed something truly revolting.
And then, he bent his torso sharply forward and spat something out.
Tuk, degurureu……
The thing that rolled across the floor and came to a stop was the pitch-black bead — the very one that the evil spirit had swallowed just moments before. It looked as though he had forcibly wrenched it out from the mess it had made of his insides; there was even a bit of blood mixed in.
Do Seonhwa rushed over in a panic, first handing Sim Seowoo off to Jin Gwangmin before sprinting toward Cheon Yijae.
“What on earth possessed you to swallow all of it?! You’ve never dealt with things this way before……!”
“Huu, what a stupid thing to say. So what, I should have just let that thing keep running wild? The civilians were about to all get swept up and killed by the yin energy.”
After the evil spirit had swallowed the bead, the yin energy it was radiating had become so vicious that the barrier Do Seonhwa had set up beforehand to protect Sim Seowoo’s friends was on the verge of shattering. Civilians were vulnerable enough that simply coming into contact with yin energy could seriously injure them.
Cheon Yijae snapped back sharply, but his face was deathly pale, and the aggression in his demeanor had lessened noticeably compared to before. Do Seonhwa stamped her foot anxiously.
“But even so, how are you going to deal with the fact that you took off the bracelets too?! The rings are one thing, but if it comes out that you undid the restraints without reporting to upper management, it’s going to cause a massive—”
“I cleanly took the Hyungok, didn’t I? Isn’t it enough as long as the results are good?”
“No!”
“Make it look good, then. That’s your role, isn’t it?”
At the shameless order, Do Seonhwa wore a miserable expression. Already, the future of being scolded by the Elders was playing out vividly before her eyes. They would berate her for failing to keep him in check, and every time she endured those lectures, she wanted to fire back.
Could those Elders control this existence themselves?
It was unfair that they put the responsibility on her alone when they themselves couldn’t do it either, but in the end, she could only sadly lower her head. Regrettably, there was one enormous problem tied to her family.
‘Grandmother, why on earth did you make that choice……’
Do Seonhwa sighed inwardly and approached Cheon Yijae.
“At least for now, the Dongti is way too severe. Your wrists have rotted through — this calls for bringing in a Purifier——”
“Don’t talk nonsense. Just hand over the rings. Haa, I’ll take care of the Dongti myself……”
“You’re already receiving punishment and on top of that the Dongti — how do you plan to sort this out?!”
His voice, loosened and languid, alone was proof enough that his condition was not good. Red Hanja began to flicker and shimmer across the pitch-black backs of his hands, and Do Seonhwa shouted in frustration.
Jin Gwangmin kept flinching his shoulders as he muttered under his breath.
“Ugh, looking at his hands, it seems like he can’t even control his abilities right now……”
Red entities flickered in and out of view between Cheon Yijae’s fingers, appearing and disappearing repeatedly. It looked as though blood were seeping out, and Sim Seowoo found himself fixing his gaze on that spot as well.
He had, just a little while ago, been given a warm cup of Peach Tea by Jin Gwangmin, who had said, “This isn’t a sleeping pill — it genuinely helps calm the mind and body.” Having drunk it, he was feeling considerably more settled. The hazy state left over from the evil spirit rummaging through his head had improved with a surprising speed. Because of that, he was able to observe Cheon Yijae more calmly than before and ask his question.
“Is Sojunim’s ability to house evil spirits inside his body? Those red evil spirits with the ‘mouths’?”
“Huh? Uh, how did you know that? Can you see them now?”
Jin Gwangmin was startled for a moment before nodding with an Aah.
“Well, I suppose so — you were grabbed far too closely by the evil spirit. Exposure to strong yin energy can temporarily open one’s Spiritual sight. Even so, if there’s no other issue, it should stop being visible again within a few days, so don’t worry too much……”
He explained it gently, as though trying to soothe Sim Seowoo, given that the evil spirit in question had been so grotesquely ugly that he might end up with a lingering trauma from it. After all, he might fear having to keep seeing horrific things like that from now on.
But Sim Seowoo remained silent with a peculiar expression.
‘But for me, it feels like it’s becoming clearer the more time passes……’
Rather than his vision having temporarily opened, it felt more like a veil that had been covering him for a very long time was cracking. On the contrary, it was as though only now had he come to the realization that he had been viewing the world through a window caked with dust all along — refreshing, even.
Still, the expert’s words were probably right, he thought, when Jin Gwangmin cautiously raised a hand to the side of his mouth and spoke. He lowered his voice as though worried it might be overheard by those on the other side.
“As you suspected, Sojunim is able to house evil spirits inside his body. He hunts by having the evil spirits he has brought under his control devour other evil spirits. The evil spirits that Sojunim commands are categorized as ‘Jaegui’ within Heun. They also say he possesses the ability of Aguidō……”
Aguidō (餓鬼道) was one of the three evil realms of Buddhism, referring to a hellish realm filled with hungry ghosts that were eternally tormented by hunger, no matter how much they ate.
“From what I heard, when Sojunim first came to Heun, he was in a state almost like half-human, half-ghost. His body was swarming with evil spirits targeting it, so the organization cleared them out once and then carefully selected and put strong evil spirits back in.”
“……Heun directly put evil spirits into a person’s body?”
“That’s right. A body that has been possessed by a ghost opens a ghost gate, but Sojunim’s had opened far too wide to ever be closed — so they decided to make use of that state in reverse, instead. And they attached a whole bunch of restraints so that, just in case, the evil spirits wouldn’t run rampant on their own.”
Sim Seowoo let out a quiet sigh. Ah, so all the accessories covering Cheon Yijae’s body were restraints. According to Jin Gwangmin’s explanation, those restraints served the purpose of suppressing the evil spirits so they couldn’t harm Cheon Yijae……
Suddenly, Sim Seowoo felt as though all of them were leashes.
‘Bluntly put, you’re saying you’d like more leashes to tie me down with?’
He turned Cheon Yijae’s words from a few days ago over in his mind as he examined his hand. Every time the red Hanja surfaced on the pitch-black, rotted backs of his hands, his fingertips twitched and jerked. The involuntary spasms of someone reacting to pain reflexively.
Was that what Do Seonhwa had meant by ‘punishment’? The knowledge that removing the restraints without authorization would result in that kind of punishment made the feeling of leashes only all the more vivid.
“In truth, because of that, Sojunim is rather accustomed to yin energy, and the Dongti tends to be less severe for him. But in exchange, once it does set in, it hits incredibly hard……. He should be receiving at least four or five rounds of Purification, but he refuses all of it, insisting he’s fine, and just endures until it passes on its own……”
He explained that over time, the Dongti does fade, albeit very slowly. No matter how Jin Gwangmin and Do Seonhwa found and brought in Purifiers, in reality, once Sojunim set his mind against it, who could even approach him? That lament followed.
Sim Seowoo gazed at Cheon Yijae with an indescribable feeling.
“Huu……”
Leaning against the wall, exhaling languidly — he looked utterly exhausted. It was obvious that he was in pain too, yet he refused the Purification that could ease that pain.
Honestly, the insistence on not accepting anything short of a Purification that could wash away the Dongti in a single go sounded like nothing more than a picky excuse. Something like that would be impossible from the start, wouldn’t it? Perhaps it was simply a convenient pretext for pushing it away because the purifying power was fundamentally at odds with his abilities and felt unpleasant.
Jin Gwangmin sighed heavily.
“Sigh, I wish he would accept Purification today. With the punishment and the Dongti piled on top of each other, he’s in a state where even controlling the yin energy is difficult……. In that condition, he won’t even be able to return to Heun.”
He was about to put on a worried expression over the fact that the Elders would surely berate them for letting Sojunim get into this state without stopping him, when Do Seonhwa called out from the other side. By now, her palm was filled with rings.
“Gwangmin-ah! I’m going to start preparing now, so come over and help out a bit!”
“Ugh, it’s scary to get close……”
Jin Gwangmin shrank into himself and whimpered, and Sim Seowoo asked,
“What do you need help with?”
“Ah, the Director is making the restraints, you see. It requires the spiritual power of the Do family, so while the Director does the work, I need to wipe down Sojunim’s hands. The blood needs to be cleaned and made at least a little more pure before the restraints can be applied. Haa, why of all things was I born into a family connected to the Do clan……”
It seemed like Jin Gwangmin had gotten tangled up with Do Seonhwa’s family and ended up serving Cheon Yijae alongside her as a result. Sim Seowoo watched as he pulled a white handkerchief out of his bag, and then extended his own hand.
“Would it be alright if I did it instead?”
