Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 21

The connected red thread.

It signified that They were connected.

A servant ghost.

The Green ghost being, who had become a monster employed by a master, was screaming and throwing a fit, unable to contain how unfair and absurd this situation was.

It even threatened Mok Gyeong-un, unable to overcome its anger.

However,

-Ack!

-Ugh! shit!

The Green ghost being had been strangling Mok Gyeong-un’s neck, but suddenly let go in a panic.

Wondering why it did that, he noticed red handprints appearing on the Green ghost being’s pale neck.

‘Could it be?’

Upon seeing this, Mok Gyeong-un realized one thing.

Although he didn’t know the exact reason, it seemed that a servant ghost shared the harm inflicted on its master.

‘So that’s why.’

It made sense why the Demonic Monk had black spots appearing all over its body.

It was because the damage the Green ghost being had taken from the blood droplet attacks had also affected the Demonic Monk.

‘I see.’

He now understood why servant ghost followed their masters.

Since their were connected and they shared harm, they had no choice but to eliminate anything that threatened their master.

Seeing this, he could understand why the Green ghost being was reacting like that.

How infuriated must that arrogant being be to have become a servant ghost no different from a slave?

Even if it was a ghost, it would be enraged.

But that was the end of it.

Mok Gyeong-un didn’t care whether the Green ghost being felt wronged or infuriated.

Rather, he was satisfied that he had achieved his goal.

‘Green ghost level.’

In terms of level, it was the fifth out of seven levels, a high-level wandering spirit close to Imaemangnyang.

Unlike the Demonic Monk, which was at the Yellow ghost level, a ghost Spirit level wandering spirit that had existed with its resentment for over a hundred years could influence things other than living beings.

Mok Gyeong-un wanted to confirm this.

‘But before that…’

Mok Gyeong-un spoke to the Green ghost being, who was still exploding with anger.

“Now that you’ve become a servant ghost, what should I call you?”

-…

“Continuing like this is just a waste of time, isn’t it?”

-…

‘Hmm.’

Mok Gyeong-un sighed.

Seeing her panting and refusing to even make eye contact, he shook his head from side to side.

“Then I guess it doesn’t matter what I call you.”

-…

“Is it okay to call you an idiot or something?”

-How dare you!

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, the Green ghost being, who had been avoiding eye contact, swiftly turned its head.

Mok Gyeong-un chuckled and said,

“I guess you don’t like that either.”

At that, one of the Green ghost being’s eyebrows rose frighteningly.

-You damn mortal, are you toying with me?

“If you don’t want me to toy with you, tell me a proper way to address you.”

-There’s no way of address I would tell a lowly mortal like you.

After saying that, the Green ghost being swiftly turned its head away again.

Seeing this, Mok Gyeong-un clicked his tongue inwardly.

Fortunately, it wouldn’t be a threat to him, but he thought it might be quite difficult to control.

“I have no choice. Since you don’t want to tell me, I’ll call you whatever I want.”

-…

“I can’t think of anything specific, so I’ll call you Cheong-ryeong.”

Mok Gyeong-un decided to directly use the level indicating the wandering ghost’s rank, Cheong-ryeong, as its form of address.

At this, the Green ghost being slightly frowned.

It seemed to bother it somehow.

However, it didn’t seem to want to reveal its true name or title due to its pride.

‘I’ll have to coax it slowly.’

If he couldn’t make use of the Green ghost level he had obtained, it would be meaningless.

Without revealing this, Mok Gyeong-un approached somewhere.

It was the book that had its outer cover, which was human skin, torn off and fallen on the floor of the cavity.

Picking up the book, Mok Gyeong-un asked,

“You must know well what’s written inside, Cheong-ryeong.”

-Who are you calling Cheong-ryeong… Phew.

She was about to get angry but waved her hand as if she didn’t want to engage in conversation.

Then, she reached out, picked up the pipe that had fallen on the floor, and smoked it.

She seemed to be quite a heavy smoker.

Mok Gyeong-un smacked his lips and flipped through the book.

‘Huh?’

Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes flickered with interest.

The writing inside the book seemed to be written in blood.

‘Interesting.’

The outer cover was human skin, and the writing was in blood.

Most people would be too repulsed by this book to even think of flipping through it.

Of course, Mok Gyeong-un didn’t care about such things at all.

However, that wasn’t the problem.

‘What is this?’

The characters inside the book were jumbled and mixed without any order.

They were listed so haphazardly that it was difficult to even interpret them.

Mok Gyeong-un frowned as he looked at those characters.

‘Why are they listed so incoherently?’

The characters were also very abstract words rather than ordinary ones.

He had recently seen writing like this.

It was none other than the Ignited Wood Heart Transformation Technique.

Although it described breathing and qi circulation methods, the parts related to the mind secrets were composed of quite abstract words, like reading a poem.

‘It’s similar. But more complicated.’

A total of thirty characters were listed in a random order.

It seemed to be a combination of them, but no matter how he connected them, meaningless sentences were formed.

–Snicker!

At that moment, he heard a snickering sound.

Looking in that direction, he saw Cheong-ryeong smoking the pipe and shaking her head.

Judging from her reaction, it seemed like even if he died and came back to life, he would never know what this was.

Mok Gyeong-un ignored this and stared intently at the characters.

“Hmm…”

Mok Gyeong-un, who had been staring for a while.

Soon, Mok Gyeong-un opened his mouth.

“Without cutting off deluded thoughts… Using form as the heart’s sheep…”

-!?

As the two sentences came out, Cheong-ryeong, who had been sneering, stiffened her expression.

Through this reaction, Mok Gyeong-un could infer that the two sentences he had combined were correct.

However, he deliberately didn’t show it, as he wouldn’t be able to confirm it through Cheong-ryeong’s expression, and he inferred the following sentences.

“No awakening before … No form’s shape turning…”

As he said this, Cheong-ryeong’s expression stiffened and she even frowned.

It seemed that the following sentences were also correct.

He was connecting them based on what felt most fitting, and they were falling into place.

With the remaining six words,

As if excellently measuring the sea’s distance… Also understanding the endless cave.”

-Ugh!

Right as he finished saying that,

The moment he completed the sentence, he felt a sensation of his navel being pinched, and the book he was holding became strangely crumpled.

‘What ?’

Mok Gyeong-un couldn’t understand.

Looking at the crumpled shape of the book, the paper was scrunched up in the direction of the hand holding it.

It was as if it was trying to stick to his palm.

At that moment, Cheong-ryeong’s voice reached his ears.

-How did you achieve the Ritual of Binding[1]?

“Pardon?”

As Mok Gyeong-un asked and looked at her, Cheong-ryeong had a surprised expression but swiftly turned her head away.

Her determination not to engage in conversation seemed firm.

Looking at her, Mok Gyeong-un asked in puzzlement,

“What is the Ritual of Binding? Is it related to the book becoming like this?”

-…

“When the book crumpled, I felt a slight tightness below my navel. Is that also related?”

-Ha…

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Cheong-ryeong was dumbfounded.

Cheong-ryeong had long known that Mok Gyeong-un had not learned any martial arts at all.

Therefore, she was certain that he would never understand this.

No, it had to be that way because it was difficult to even accept this without reaching a certain level or having an epiphany.

However, surprisingly, Mok Gyeong-un had combined these thirty characters and created the first verse.

-…

Cheong-ryeong glanced at Mok Gyeong-un.

Although she didn’t want to engage in conversation because he had made her his servant ghost, her curiosity grew.

She wondered if he had truly understood it properly.

Soon, Cheong-ryeong, who had been contemplating, opened her mouth.

-Hey, mortal.

“Jeong… No, it’s Mok Gyeong-un.”

-What?

“Call me Mok Gyeong-un.”

At those words, Cheong-ryeong scoffed and said,

-Mortal.

It seemed that even if he told her his name, she had no intention of calling him that.

Since he didn’t particularly care about that, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged his shoulders.

It didn’t matter what she called him as long as they could communicate.

Cheong-ryeong puffed on the pipe and exhaled smoke, saying,

-Mortal. Do you remember the sensation you felt earlier?

“Sensation?”

-Yes.

“Your words are vague.”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Cheong-ryeong stared at him and shook her head.

-To think a lowly mortal could easily master the Ritual of Binding doesn’t make sense…

-Ugh!

Before she could even finish her sentence,

The book Mok Gyeong-un was holding crumpled even more and stuck to his palm.

Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes flickered with interest as he saw this.

‘Ah?’

As Cheong-ryeong had said, he recalled that sensation and this time, he focused on reciting the verse in his mind.

Then, once again, the paper crumpled and stuck to his palm.

It was truly a strange occurrence.

However, doing this made his navel area slightly tighten again.

Not only that, but he also felt a sensation of the blood vessels in his arm tightening, starting from his palm.

Mok Gyeong-un looked at Cheong-ryeong and asked,

“What is this?”

Cheong-ryeong looked at Mok Gyeong-un and muttered in astonishment, clicking her tongue.

-… I’ve never seen this even when I was alive.

“Pardon?”

-… Never mind.

“What do you mean by never mind?”

-Ignore it. Mortal.

“Since we’ve already become a community of fate, how about emptying your mind a little?”

-Empty my mind? Ha! For me to empty my mind after becoming the servant ghost of a lowly mortal like you…

“Ugh!”

Before she could finish her sentence, Mok Gyeong-un clenched his fist.

The blood vessels on the back of his hand and wrist were already bulging as if they would burst.

-Tremble tremble!

-Tsk!

The back of Cheong-ryeong’s hand trembled.

It was because Mok Gyeong-un’s pain was connected .

At this, Cheong-ryeong shouted,

-Hey! Mortal. Stop your breathing and empty your mind.

“Huff huff!”

-I told you to stop breathing!

At her shout, Mok Gyeong-un forcibly held his breath.

And he tried to erase the verses he had been unconsciously reciting in his mind by thinking of other things.

Cheong-ryeong’s eyes narrowed at Mok Gyeong-un’s appearance.

It was tremendous concentration.

What had just happened was a phenomenon that occurred due to the inability to control the Ritual of Binding.

Normally, once one was caught up in the verse, it would be difficult to escape that state without someone’s help.

However, Mok Gyeong-un was escaping it with his own strength after just a single piece of advice.

It would be a lie to say she wasn’t surprised.

“Haa.”

Soon, a stable breathing sound was heard from Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth.

Seeing this, Cheong-ryeong clicked her tongue.

Mok Gyeong-un asked her,

“Why did that happen just now?”

-… It’s because you couldn’t properly control the Ritual of Binding.

This time, contrary to expectations, Cheong-ryeong answered nicely.

At this, Mok Gyeong-un chuckled and said,

“Are you going to teach me properly now?”

-Hmph! It’s only to prevent you from doing something useless again and causing harm to me.

At Cheong-ryeong’s blunt tone, Mok Gyeong-un narrowed his eyes and stared at her.

Then, he soon shrugged his shoulders.

It didn’t matter what the reason was.

As long as he could satisfy his curiosity.

“What is the Ritual of Binding?”

-It’s exactly as it sounds. It’s to attract and make something stick.

“If you make something stick, do you mean like earlier?”

-Yes.

“But why did my stomach hurt, and not only that, my blood vessels also became swollen?”

-Because you’re just attracting something where there’s nothing.

“What does that mean?”

Puzzled, Mok Gyeong-un looked at Cheong-ryeong, who pointed somewhere with her pipe.

It was Jo Il-sang, who was hanging dead.

Hanging him upside down and slitting his throat had drained all the blood from his body, making him extremely pale.

“Try it there.”

“On this?”

Mok Gyeong-un approached the dead Jo Il-sang and poked him.

Cheong-ryeong nodded at this.

“…”

He didn’t know why she told him to try the Ritual of Binding on the dead Jo Il-sang, but Mok Gyeong-un put his palm on him without question.

Then, Cheong-ryeong urged,

-No, not there.

“Pardon?”

-Do it on his danjeon area. Although his energy has dispersed since he’s dead, do it there.

“By danjeon, do you mean the area below the navel in the abdomen?”

-Do I have to explain everything one by one?

“… Well, I don’t know much.”

At those words, Cheong-ryeong snorted and puffed on her pipe, exhaling smoke.

Mok Gyeong-un lightly inhaled and placed his palm on Jo Il-sang’s danjeon.

Then, he recited the verse of the Ritual of Binding in his mind.

‘“Without cutting off deluded thoughts… Using form as the heart’s sheep… No awakening … No form’s shape turning…As if excellently measuring the sea’s distance… Also understanding the endless cave.”.’

Along with that, he recalled the sensation, and,

-Slap!

Then, the skin on Jo Il-sang’s danjeon area stuck to Mok Gyeong-un’s palm.

Although the texture was different from when the book crumpled, there wasn’t much else.

He was about to think that way.

At that moment, something penetrated his palm.

It was a warm energy.

‘What is this?’

He could clearly feel the energy entering through his palm and flowing through his blood vessels.

Soon, the warm sensation flowing through his blood vessels made even his swollen abdomen feel warm.

He was feeling elated by the warm energy.