Though he’d been together at Cheon Yijae’s side for not a short time, he’d never had an experience of being protected like today.
In fact, his ability had been cut off without discovering the Hyungok’s location, and since interrupted power took quite some time to warm up again, he’d worried about being scolded. But Cheon Yijae didn’t give any hint of displeasure, so Jin Gwangmin tilted his head in bewilderment and stood up with Seowoo’s support for now.
For whatever reason, since Cheon Yijae was going all out, the shamans in the rear could discuss much more comfortably. Though it wasn’t a leisurely situation, there was time to devise countermeasures.
“Tobacco smoke is the weakness? How do we get tobacco here?”
“Is there anyone who smokes?!”
“Or maybe just smoke itself would work? If we make torches…”
All members of Heun had to keep their energy pure, so they stayed away from alcohol and tobacco. While they noisily conversed, Seowoo fiddled with the back of his neck for a moment, then headed somewhere.
Step by step—
His steps approaching the missing people laid neatly in the barrier were calm. When Do Seonhwa belatedly noticed his approach and asked, “Guiin? For what reason…,” he raised his hand.
The object he’d discovered by rummaging through the landlord grandfather’s chest was held in his hand.
“There’s only one pack of cigarettes, will this be okay?”
He’d heard that the landlord grandfather was originally a heavy chain smoker. But after Seowoo moved in, he’d declared he was quitting smoking, saying as the reason that he didn’t want to smell of cigarettes when meeting tenants. It was such an amazing change that the granddaughter asked if he’d been replaced by a different person.
Though it was difficult to quit cigarettes he’d smoked for decades all at once, Grandfather still tried. However, saying he’d feel less anxious carrying at least one pack around, he always brought exactly one pack with him.
Remembering that story, he’d searched through Grandfather’s fishing vest and found exactly one pack. Opening it, not a single cigarette had been smoked.
Do Seonhwa clasped both hands tightly together in emotion.
“As expected of the Guiin…!”
“Mm, but the centipede yokai’s size is so huge, I’m not sure if this will solve it.”
“It’s fine! Making a plan with that from now on is my role!”
She happily received the cigarette pack. Then after quickly conferring with Team 1’s shamans, she broke apart the cigarettes and gathered them in powder form. Other shamans found dry leaves from the ground and brought them additionally.
They divided the considerably increased powder into four large portions and wrapped them tightly with yellow paper, and Do Seonhwa moved her brush over them. Pale pink spiritual power emerged and drew illusions (幻) while seeping into the yellow paper.
Next, she hung the paper bundles on long pieces of wood. It looked like making torches, and other shamans also helped from the side. Moving in unison, they soon split into the four directions, exchanged glances with each other, and simultaneously lit fires.
Hwaaaaaak—
The smoke spread very widely. White smoke billowing up thickly enough to blur the surroundings made Seowoo blink in a daze. It was like a huge wildfire had broken out.
“…How on earth does so much smoke spread so thickly?”
“Ah, they’re deploying illusion arts. The actual smoke isn’t that much.”
“Illusion arts?”
“Yep. Ghosts aren’t the only ones who know how to use hallucinations.”
Jin Gwangmin explained in a proud tone. Just like the flames the evil spirit had created at the movie theater before, this time Do Seonhwa used illusion arts to make it appear as if smoke was spreading widely.
[Kyaaaak!]
As if the acrid spreading tobacco smell was truly effective, the baby centipedes struggled in agony. While charging at the members, they suddenly lost their sense of direction, wandered around, and even collided with each other.
The mother centipede also burst out in fury.
[These damned things…!]
The yokai lowered its head painfully. Though the effect seemed less than on the baby centipedes, combat shamans quickly attacked while targeting the gap when it shrank back.
Chwaak! Chwak!
First, they dealt with the baby centipedes. Since hunting the yokai that wandered unable to find an escape direction was easy, after dealing with about a hundred in an instant, they surrounded the mother centipede.
However, an important task took priority before immediately cutting off its neck.
“Where on earth is the Hyungok…!”
“Even if the body gets cut, it won’t die, so cut off the tail first.”
Cheon Yijae commanded decisively. Just holding down the writhing centipede trying to escape the illusion arts took tremendous energy. Not only was its build so gigantic, but it kept swinging its sharp legs around, so the combat shamans were getting exhausted avoiding them.
So while the yokai was trapped in tobacco smoke and lost its sense of direction, they had to weaken the centipede as much as possible—he said to cut off the tail first.
“But if by any chance the Hyungok is in the tail, it’ll be difficult to recover the orb intact. If we forcibly cut and the Hyungok even cracks…”
“Evil spirits regard Hyungok like their own lives, so they wouldn’t have put it in a tail they swing around so recklessly like that. So hurry and cut it.”
Cheon Yijae, who lightly trampled Im Gyuyong’s opinion, gestured with his chin. At the momentum of him commanding as Sojunim, Im Gyuyong seemed somewhat dissatisfied, but eventually led ten members toward the tail.
Teong!
They all struck down on the tail, but the shell was so hard that their weapons bounced off. The combat shamans drew up spiritual power again and attacked simultaneously in sync with the section leader’s signal.
Jjeojeojeojeojeojeojeok—!
“It, it cracked!”
“We cut it off!”
With a sound almost like the earth splitting, the combat shamans cheered. But before their joy could continue long, the yokai’s shriek burst out shrilly.
[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!]
The sound ringing like ultrasonic waves was not a simple scream but a shout containing Ghost Energy. As if the yokai had gathered the Hyungok’s power to its limit and poured it out, the atmosphere trembled stingingly, and the combat shamans hesitantly stepped back at the dark energy spreading around the yokai afterward.
It was an act following the instinct to avoid Ghost Energy, but targeting that brief gap, the yokai fled. Jaegui quickly chased after the centipede, whose movements had slowed relatively due to its severed tail.
However, the yokai’s purpose wasn’t to escape far in the first place.
Tseupapapat—!
The centipede yokai rolled around the dirt floor recklessly, scattering dirt in all directions. Because its build was gigantic, earth poured down like rain, and the direction it headed was precisely the torches held by the shamans surrounding the four directions.
“The fire, the fire went out…”
Do Seonhwa sighed dejectedly. The yokai had covered the torches with sand and extinguished them.
Since the flames had to exist for illusion arts to be deployed, the moment they were hit by the sand rain, all the hazy smoke spread around also pathetically collapsed.
[I… won’t forgive you all…]
The yokai, finally freed from the smoke, raised its head high and ground out ominously. Blood tears flowed from the eyes of the yokai that confirmed the scene where all its babies had died.
The members who encountered the blazing fury flinched and trembled. As the centipede yokai raised its body high, they were suffocated by the intimidating pressure as if a giant disaster from the sky was looking down on them.
Cheon Yijae bit his lips and removed all the bracelets on both wrists. At the end of red energy explosively swirling around him—
Suaaaaaa—
A huge Jaegui rose from his shadow. The things that had been split into dozens flying around until now all merged into one mass to create a ‘mouth.’
Seowoo held his breath for a moment. The single giant mouth densely packed with sharp teeth was still shocking to see again. Moreover, if at the movie theater he’d only broken the bracelet on one wrist, this time he’d removed the restraints on both hands, so Jaegui’s bulk had grown several times larger.
At the scene of it rising while swelling its bulk to almost match the centipede yokai, Do Seonhwa’s voice faintly calling out for Sojunim as if wailing could be heard from over there.
Cheon Yijae didn’t even give that side a glance, and as if he’d set a goal only to quickly eliminate the yokai, he immediately pointed at it with his index finger.
“Swallow it.”
Though it seemed he’d quietly recited a curse just before commanding, Cheon Yijae was about to commit shocking outrageous acts like before again.
However, the yokai didn’t back down even seeing the Jaegui charging toward it. No, rather, it giggled.
[Foolish dog. I’ve been waiting for you to bring that out…]
The yokai rushed at Jaegui. Though Jaegui fiercely moved its mouth to bite the yokai’s body, it didn’t yield to that and rather tangled with it, finally driving its sharp fangs into the spirit body.
From the tip of the yokai’s fangs firmly embedded in the red Jaegui, pitch-black poison spread out.
