Still, just when feelings of being a bit wronged and rebelliousness that he should at least say thank you were rising, Seowoo staggered with a “urk—” sound. Dizziness came from pouring out purification power all at once.
Stagger, Cheon Yijae firmly caught Seowoo’s arm as he was about to collapse.
“Why do you use an ability you can’t even handle?”
“I didn’t use it like that on purpose…”
Cheon Yijae responded with cold eyes. However, though his gaze was endlessly cold, his touch pulling Seowoo to sit on a nearby flat rock was quite careful.
Soon Cheon Yijae let out a short sigh and strode toward the centipede yokai. Members of Team 1 were gathered around the fallen yokai over there. They also glanced at Seowoo as if the purification from earlier was very surprising.
“Move. I’m going to kill it.”
Cheon Yijae headed toward the yokai, breaking through them. The members slowly stepped back at his appearance approaching while exuding fierce murderous intent, but Im Gyuyong shouted, worried about one thing.
“Sojunim, we have to recover the Hyungok first…!”
“Again, trying to teach.”
Cheon Yijae sharply cut off his words. His eyes were fierce as if he didn’t like the action of repeating obvious talk continuously from when they entered the Guiyeok until now.
Now, even though Ghost Energy wasn’t rippling around him since he’d calmed the rampaging Jaegui, it felt rather more eerie than before. Just when Im Gyuyong, who’d momentarily hunched his shoulders, pretended otherwise and quietly joined the ranks stepping back, the centipede yokai raised its head.
The thing that had barely regained consciousness hissed and raised its legs.
[I, I won’t die like this…!]
“Yeah.”
Cheon Yijae swung Jaegui extracted from his hand like a sword. The yokai’s thick leg was cleanly cut off with a single gesture. Jaegui summoned in a long, thin form had gnawed and severed the part connecting the yokai’s leg and body.
The leg that had almost touched Seowoo was cut off first, and the next dozen or so legs also fell in a row in an instant. It was before the yokai could take any reaction.
[Ah, aaaak!]
“I should have torn off the legs first from the start…”
Because the yokai was exhausted from continuous battle and also exposed to strong purification power so its defense had dropped, the legs could be cut off easily. Nevertheless, Cheon Yijae muttered that from the beginning, no matter how hard it was, he should have removed the legs first.
The yokai trembled and moved its body backward. Pitch-black energy began to rise like flames around the yokai. As it drew up the Hyungok’s energy once again, the atmosphere also surged unstably, and members stepped back a couple steps and took defensive positions.
It was terrifying Ghost Energy that seemed like skin would rot with just a touch.
[I have power bestowed by that person. I absolutely won’t die like this…!]
“So it was embedded there.”
However, Cheon Yijae approached as if he’d been waiting. As if he’d deliberately induced the yokai to use the Hyungok again, the moment he grasped the location where evil energy poured out thickly from its body, he reached out his hand. Since the yokai’s entire body had become tattered from being torn by Jaegui multiple times, the pattern of energy flowing was clearly exposed.
Nevertheless, though one would hesitate to bury a bare hand in the pitch-black Ghost Energy emanating, Cheon Yijae moved without hesitation.
Puwook!
His hand pierced through the yokai’s neck. Though his fingertips that contacted Ghost Energy rotted darkly, he didn’t hesitate at all and pushed his arm deeper, finally gripping and pulling out a pitch-black orb.
“They keep changing the location each time…”
Thick irritation was mixed in the quiet murmur. The sight of the yokai’s dark purple blood dripping with a “hudeudeuk” between his fingers was eerie.
[Keo, keohek, eok, kkeuuk, hek.]
The yokai with its throat pierced trembled. Only the sound of blood boiling through its teeth came out, and the yokai that had lost the Hyungok instantly lost energy and its build also began to shrink away.
The members silently gaped in shock at Sojunim’s brutal act of piercing through the disgusting yokai’s body directly with his hand.
And Seowoo, who was watching that scene from a slightly distant place, also quietly sighed.
“I went to the trouble of purifying…”
Though he said it wasn’t intentional, anyway, he’d used purification arts to turn Cheon Yijae’s pitch-black hand white, but it was soon dyed with blemishes again. Since he had to get close to Ghost Energy to deal with the yokai, it couldn’t be helped, but he felt regretful for no reason.
Suddenly, Seowoo realized he’d never once intentionally purified until now.
The first time, he purified while wiping Cheon Yijae’s blood, the next time he purified while stopping him from holding a cursed box with bare hands, and this time he purified space entirely and consequently washed away his blemishes too. He’d forcibly washed them every time.
So that’s why he made such an absurd expression at his protest earlier.
Seowoo awkwardly recalled that moment. What principle caused purification was still puzzling. Perhaps purification power reflexively poured out when faced with a serious situation?
While lost in thought, Cheon Yijae called Jin Gwangmin with a gesture, handed over the Hyungok, and loosened his shoulders. His ashen eyes looking down while firmly trampling the back of the yokai convulsing while spouting blood from its neck were endlessly cold.
His gaze revealed the intention that now that the Hyungok was recovered, he would freely tear apart and kill it. So that its breath wouldn’t be cut off immediately, so it would struggle in pain for as long as possible.
However, just when Cheon Yijae was about to reach out his hand, Im Gyuyong urgently shouted.
“N-no! The Vice-Leader ordered us to bring the Hyeong Akgui alive to Heun!”
“…What?”
“He said we must investigate since the Hyeong Akgui’s movements have been unusual recently. So we must seal it in a box and bring it.”
Since the Hyeong Akgui’s offensive had become fiercer and trickier this year, rumors were circulating that Hyungsin might move soon. So at the words that they would collect Hyeong Akgui to gather information about Hyungsin, one of Cheon Yijae’s eyebrows shot up.
“Will these bastards betray Hyungsin and spill information? Why do something useless.”
“That’s for the Vice-Leader to judge!”
When Cheon Yijae spoke indifferently, Im Gyuyong glared. At a gaze seeming to criticize the complete lack of respect felt from his attitude, he sneered with a “pisik.”
“I’m just saying it because it’s regrettable to waste time on something with an obvious result. Isn’t this a mindset of respecting the Vice-Leader?”
“Sojunim!”
“Ch-Cheon Yijae! Sojunim! I just heard that story today too! Since it’s a matter the Council of Elders all agreed on, it would be better to follow!”
Do Seonhwa ran over hurriedly and shouted. Sensing the atmosphere seemed about to explode into conflict, she urgently stepped in to stop it. She quickly explained that the summons from superiors she’d received before going to Seowoo’s house together today was about this.
She informed him it was a plan to prepare carefully to properly face Hyungsin, who’d revived after hundreds of years, and moreover, since this Hyungsin’s movements were different from the past, Heun wanted to conduct all possible investigations.
Cheon Yijae let out a “hoo” sigh. Since he’d been sharply honing his energy to kill the yokai at full swing and it was cut off, he seemed quite annoyed. Also seeming to view Heun’s decision as very frustrating, he closed his eyes tightly for a moment but eventually stepped back a couple steps.
Though it was an action full of reluctance, Do Seonhwa’s face brightened. Then, perhaps worried his mind might change, she quickly urged the shamans.
“Seal it quickly!”
“Ahem, understood. You’ve worked hard in many ways.”
Im Gyuyong bowed his head slightly in greeting, and other shamans also sent thanks to Do Seonhwa. If Cheon Yijae had insisted that he could only be satisfied by killing the yokai that made him suffer, it would have been troublesome.
Soon Team 1’s members gathered around the yokai. The yokai that had lost the Hyungok had shrunk greatly in size and was now only about the size of an adult male. Nevertheless, it was still huge to put in a box, so they had to seek ways to reduce its volume.
“Where should we start…”
“First, the head as top priority…”
During the careful meeting, the yokai moved with a “kkumteul!” After collapsing from fatal injuries, it barely grabbed onto consciousness upon hearing the shamans’ conversation.
[Rather than being, keuk, harmful to our god… I’d rather, keohek, die here…!]
A hissing sound like air leaking rang from its pierced neck. The yokai, using its head instead of its already severed tail, struck down on the ground hard. As if it wouldn’t care even if its head burst, it slammed down with a “kwang!”
Kugugugugugugung!
Then a vibration different from the previous landslide rang through the entire space. If before the yokai had pushed the mountain with its huge build to pour out earth, this time a crack seemed to occur from below the ground.
Jin Gwangmin, who clearly recognized that difference, screamed.
“U-uaaaak! The Guiyeok is collapsingaaak!”
This was the final move the Guiyeok’s master could use, a kind of self-destruction act. The act of collapsing the domain one had deployed to damage the humans who entered the space.
However, in fact, such Guiyeok collapse was fine as long as one stayed inside the protective formation. Strong combat shamans weren’t swept up in the collapse, and one could safely exit the Guiyeok if properly equipped with protective gear.
As long as the Guiju didn’t make one more final struggle.
[As a companion for my journey to the afterlife, I’ll take you…!]
The yokai charged at Seowoo. Because its build had shrunk, it could slip out between the shamans by surprise. Of course, the fact that it had shrunk approached the yokai shamefully, so its fury grew even more.
If that human hadn’t shot purification power, it wouldn’t have collapsed so futilely!
Even the subsequent humiliations were all considered his fault. It should have killed him from the start when he resisted by shooting light with a strange tool. The yokai charged with its eyes dyed bright red, and Seowoo faced it approaching before him in bewilderment.
‘Journey to the afterlife. Shouldn’t it be called journey home?’
Thinking that yokai was on the same side as the world of the dead, so shouldn’t the expression be changed no matter if it was an idiom, he stepped backward.
But having become utterly exhausted from the previous purification, he absolutely couldn’t flee quickly. Even the space was collapsing, making it even more difficult to move.
Just retreating according to instinct, vaguely watching the yokai approaching right before his nose, the sharp teeth it revealed by opening its mouth—
“Hyung!”
Warak! He was caught and held by someone.
An existence that had urgently run here pulled Seowoo forcefully and imprisoned him in their arms. A desolate and lonely scent that might waft from a forest that seemed completely burned. At the scent transmitted thickly to the tip of his nose, Seowoo raised his head in confusion.
First surprised at the situation of being suddenly embraced by another person, bewildered that the other party was Cheon Yijae, and somewhat shocked by the unfamiliar title he used—
“Th-the shoulder…!”
He finally discovered the yokai’s teeth embedded in Cheon Yijae’s shoulder and was shocked. The sharp teeth eerily pierced through flesh. Though he urgently sent Jaegui flying, since the terrain was collapsing and he couldn’t catch the yokai, he seemed to have blocked it with his body instead. Bright red blood burst out and soaked the dopo.
Nevertheless, Cheon Yijae was only looking at him.
The emotion dwelling in his vastly enlarged eyes was pure. It seemed he’d faced it several times even earlier. When he stepped before the yokai, he’d thought the emotion Yijae burst out was merely anger pointing out a reckless act…
It was fear.
Suffocatingly massive dread seemed to overwhelm him. However, Seowoo had no time to have any doubts about it as he felt the ground beneath his feet collapse with a “kugugung—!”
As the earth shattered into pieces, his body plummeted into darkness.
