Rather, Seowoo was flustered by that reaction. He’d thought Yijae would immediately shake off his hand.
Though puzzled, he wanted to try purifying right away while Cheon Yijae had become docile. However, just when he was about to wrap his hand more firmly, Cheon Yijae also seemed to have come to his senses and stepped back while sharply shaking off his arm.
He hardened his expression rigidly and warned growling as he moved away.
“Right now, don’t, touch me.”
“But even erasing the blemishes a little…”
“Don’t even think about coming close!”
Cheon Yijae shouted irritably. But in the gap when his attention turned elsewhere, Jaegui suddenly popped out behind him. The ones he’d barely controlled when fighting the yokai earlier were trying to run wild noisily again.
Cheon Yijae, biting his lips, stepped back one more step.
“Huk! Y-you have to be careful!”
“Guiin! Right now just watch the situation for a moment…!”
Jin Gwangmin and Do Seonhwa were also startled and stopped Seowoo. Though Cheon Yijae’s condition was truly serious, they worried that if they approached him while he couldn’t control Jaegui, even Seowoo would get hurt.
Kugugugugung—!
Just then, the sound of the centipede yokai moving again was heard from over there. As its build was gigantic, the roar it made while climbing over trees and rocks was also tremendous.
The yokai hissed in an angry voice.
[These annoying things…! You keep, interfering with me…!]
“Now! Attack!”
However, fortunately, Team 1’s combat shamans attacked the yokai as if they’d been waiting. Since everyone had been on standby until now because Do Seonhwa requested it, they targeted this moment when Cheon Yijae and the yokai had separated and shot spiritual power. Since it had become clear it was a tricky opponent, they wanted to deal with it before the sun set further. Because the darker the darkness settled, the stronger the Ghost Energy became.
Seowoo felt relieved at that sight and moved his steps. Jin Gwangmin, who confirmed that his direction was toward Cheon Yijae, flinched in surprise.
“Hiik, S-Seowoo-nim! Right now…!”
“I have to do it now. I can only purify while the yokai is far away.”
While other combat shamans held onto the yokai, Cheon Yijae also had to rest. And the minimum prerequisite for him to rest properly would be purification.
Right now, Cheon Yijae had been hit by the centipede’s poison, was receiving lightning marks from removing restraints beyond the level permitted in advance again, and in that situation had severe blemishes from excessively summoning Jaegui. Enduring these pains wouldn’t be easy.
Nevertheless, Cheon Yijae sharpened his blade fiercely.
“I’m telling you not to touch me and get lost right now!”
“I’m grateful you’re worried, but I think it’d be better to take care of yourself first.”
However, Seowoo was just calm and rather awkwardly added only an honorific ending at the last moment. Strangely, when speaking to Cheon Yijae, informal speech sometimes tried to slip out.
Right now to Seowoo, Cheon Yijae’s action of sharpening his blade telling him not to come close only seemed like he was being cautious because his own condition was unstable in the first place. To be careful because he might get hurt by the evil spirits he harbored.
“What kind of, nonsense is that…”
Cheon Yijae’s voice trembled. Perhaps he was dumbfounded by Seowoo’s answer, or perhaps flustered by his action of approaching him anyway, he began to focus only on controlling Jaegui. The red Jaegui that had been rippling around him began to settle as if suppressed.
In fact, Seowoo thought this whole situation was very strange.
‘Sh-shouldn’t we avoid him?’
‘If Sojunim eventually turns into an evil spirit like this…!’
The wariness the combat shamans showed toward Cheon Yijae.
‘Perhaps he can’t control his own Ghost Energy, as he has much more blemishes than before…’
‘It’s eerie whenever we see his hands stained with blemishes. It’s not like he deliberately shows them…’
And the hostility disguised as worry that the barrier masters spat out, all of it.
Even trying to understand that they had to be exclusive as shamans belonging to an organization that hunted evil spirits, he couldn’t kill his doubts at all. Right until they became wary, Cheon Yijae had been fighting the yokai, and even in that moment of being antagonized, he endured before the yokai while bleeding from his mouth.
Weren’t all the appearances they found ominous the results of Cheon Yijae’s efforts? What was so great about hands dyed merely pitch-black that everyone avoided them like that?
“I’m not confident I can purify, but let me at least try…”
Seowoo, who had finally reached before Cheon Yijae, reached out his hand. By now all the red Jaegui had completely quieted down, so he could approach much more easily, and Cheon Yijae only looked at him with trembling eyes.
But just before their fingers were about to intertwine, a problem occurred.
Kugugung!
Another landslide occurred. The centipede yokai, which had been cornered and attacked by combat shamans over there, twisted its entire body and completely collapsed the mountain. At an earthquake several times larger than before, Seowoo staggered and ended up separating from Cheon Yijae.
The yokai had avoided big commotions until now to recover its prey intact, but now seemed to have judged survival as top priority. As the yokai thrashed its giant body wildly, the mountain collapsed, and members screamed “Kyaa” from various places.
The centipede yokai that escaped through that gap quickly approached this way.
[You, need to run wild…!]
The yokai opened its mouth wide. It was a scheme to poison Cheon Yijae again and use him like a shield.
Seowoo, who discovered the pitch-black deadly poison flowing from the yokai’s sharp teeth, moved urgently. He ran to the front of Cheon Yijae, who was staggering with a pale face, and raised his hand high.
He hoped the phone flash would work like before, but whoosh! The phone flew away pathetically, kicked by the yokai’s leg. The vicious kick contained fury that it wouldn’t be hit by the same trick as before.
‘Ah, as expected, it doesn’t work twice.’
Just when Seowoo felt resignation mixed with regret, paaa—! Light burst from ahead. For a moment, an extremely intense radiance spread as if exploding, bright enough to dye his vision pure white.
That light, though fleeting, spread widely enough to cover the area.
‘The phone already flew away though…?’
At the quite astonishing sight, Seowoo checked the phone that had flown far away and broken in bewilderment, and only then examined his palm. Because it seemed the source of the light had been his hand.
Moreover, an even more bewildering point was—
[Keu, keuaaaaaak! Aaaaak…]
When the vision that had flickered for barely a second returned to normal, the yokai was collapsed backward. It had even flown quite far, perhaps bouncing back from the reaction of its charging action, and rolled on the ground.
Just when it became confusing what on earth had happened in the brief moment, Do Seonhwa’s voice soaked in shock was heard.
“You purified… the space…?”
A moment ago, when the centipede yokai tried to approach the two, Do Seonhwa had also hurriedly tried to create a barrier. However, before her spell could even be completed, pure white light burst from Seowoo. What sparkled brilliantly was precisely purification power.
Purification was the ability to wash away blemishes. Expressed differently, it could also be a power that opposed Ghost Energy.
In fact, records existed of Purifiers subduing ghosts with purification arts. However, that was a case that could be counted on one hand in Heun’s several hundred years of history. It was rare to the point of being nearly impossible!
Moreover, Seowoo had only just seen space purification for the first time a moment ago. All he’d done was watch the process of other Purifiers erasing Ghost Energy to save ordinary people trapped in the pavilion, yet he followed that and even used it in a form several stages beyond that.
“Wow. So the saying that a true healer deals with enemies before allies get hurt was real…”
Jin Gwangmin was also genuinely shocked. The word genius felt insufficient, and he became puzzled how such an existence could have lived normally until now with even his spiritual sight closed. With such talent, his eyes should have opened long ago.
While the two were surprised, Seowoo also examined his own hand in bewilderment.
He purified the space? It was hard to even properly understand the explanation that he’d blocked the yokai’s approach with purification power, yet to say he’d accomplished that made him even more bewildered.
What on earth was the operating code? He’d thought contact with Cheon Yijae was one method, but it wasn’t that either. He’d only thought he had to block the yokai charging at Cheon Yijae…
“…Ah.”
Just then, Cheon Yijae’s sigh was heard, so Seowoo flinched and looked back at him. He was leaning against a tree with his mouth covered.
Surprisingly, Cheon Yijae’s hand had returned to pure white.
Not only the blemishes that had dyed his skin pitch-black, but even the lightning marks that had risen redly like a brand above them had disappeared. Perhaps even the yokai’s poison had been washed away.
However, though all his problems had been resolved while purifying the space, his complexion was extremely bad to feel simply relieved. His pallid face looked as if bleached, and the Jaegui that had been rippling around him also disappeared as if erased completely, so Seowoo felt unsettled with a thud.
…Don’t tell me, he purified even Cheon Yijae’s subordinates?
“Um, are you oka—”
“…I feel like I’m going crazy because you only commit insane acts.”
Cheon Yijae muttered quietly. Seowoo closed his mouth at the tone like someone barely suppressing fury about to burst at any moment, or barely holding onto consciousness due to surging dizziness.
Was he pointing out the action of jumping before the yokai, or was he nitpicking about purifying everything? There were many reasons to feel guilty, so it was a bit regrettable.
“Isn’t this too much? Even if a person is stupid, there’s a limit.”
“S-Sojunim! Still, the Guiin helped…”
“That’s why, shit, I’m saying that’s the problem. Jumping in front of a yokai like you’re crazy? If you step forward and receive protection like that, should I bow in gratitude? This time we got through by luck, but what if not? Then…”
The voice that had been pouring out grew fainter toward the end.
Unlike when he’d shouted fiercely earlier, his voice had lowered considerably, but rather that appearance made it harder to object.
Finally, Cheon Yijae warned coldly.
“Never, act like this again.”
At the warning like a threat, Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin exchanged glances. Though they wanted to argue that everything had been resolved well with the Guiin’s purification power anyway, it really had been a dangerous situation. No matter how fully equipped with protective gear, stepping before a yokai was extremely reckless.
