Chapter 21: The Dwelling Of Evil (4)

No one had thought to peel off and consume the human skin covering the book's surface. Who in their right mind would put such a ghastly thing in their mouth? It was truly a mad idea.

"Munch, munch!"

'It's tough,' Mok Gyeong-un thought as he chewed on the human skin. Strangely, no matter how much he bit it, the skin was so tough that it didn't tear or damage his teeth.

However, this bizarre action seemed to have some effect. The Blue Spirit grimaced, clutching her chest as if in pain. Seeing this, Mok Gyeong-un chewed even more vigorously.

"Damn mortal!" the spirit cried out.

"Aaargh!" her eyes turned blood-red. She swung her long pipe, causing the blood from Jo Il-sang's corpse to rise into the air and spin.

'What's this?' Mok Gyeong-un wondered. It was no illusion. The sight of blood droplets floating and spinning in the air was truly intimidating. His eyes trembled as he focused on the blood drops. Despite their rapid rotation making them difficult to track with the naked eye, he managed to follow their movement.

"This fellow..." Even the spirit noticed Mok Gyeong-un's ability to accurately track the blood droplets. It was astonishing for a human who had never learned any martial arts or magic. His physical abilities and reflexes far surpassed those of an ordinary person.

"Even so, you're still just a mortal," the spirit sneered. It pointed its pipe at Mok Gyeong-un, and suddenly, all the spinning blood droplets rushed towards him.

In that instant, Mok Gyeong-un, who had been watching the droplets intently, slid across the floor and lunged at the spirit just as it swung its pipe.

"Foolish..." the spirit muttered.

Mok Gyeong-un was a hair's breadth away from reaching the spirit when a rain of blood descended on his upper body, piercing into his flesh.

Mok Gyeong-un winced. He was usually unfazed by ordinary pain, but these blood droplets were tearing into his skin like sharp daggers.

The spirit's mouth curled into a smile, seemingly enjoying Mok Gyeong-un's suffering. "Is it painful? Then spit it out," it taunted.

The spirit made a grasping motion towards Mok Gyeong-un. The blood that had penetrated his skin burrowed deeper, stimulating his nerves.

"Ugh," Mok Gyeong-un groaned for the first time.

The spirit clicked its tongue, impressed. Normally, such pain would have someone writhing and begging for mercy. But this was all Mok Gyeong-un showed.

"Are you accustomed to pain? Or are you just stubbornly persistent?" the spirit wondered aloud. It took a drag from its pipe, exhaled a cloud of smoke, and then extended the pipe as if to finish things.

"Die, foolish mortal," it declared.

At that moment, the pain-stricken Mok Gyeong-un mumbled something.

"What are you muttering?" the spirit asked.

"Demonic Monk!" Mok Gyeong-un managed to shout, his pronunciation garbled by the human skin in his mouth.

Suddenly, the monk appeared, passing through the ceiling. However, its condition seemed peculiar. Though always slightly blurry due to being a vengeful spirit, black spots had now appeared all over its body.

Seeing this, the Blue spirit chuckled and said, "So it was you?"

The monk knelt on one knee and bowed its head to the spirit, showing respect.

'Why?' Mok Gyeong-un couldn't understand this behavior. Was it because the spirit was a higher-ranking supernatural being? But that was just a rule created from the perspective of exorcists, not entirely accurate.

"You seem to have a talent for spiritual matters, connecting with a vengeful spirit," the Blue spirit remarked. "But unfortunately, this monk is practically my subordinate."

'Subordinate?' Mok Gyeong-un thought. Could it be someone the spirit knew in life, regardless of rank? If so, this was troublesome. Demonic Monk was supposed to be Mok Gyeong-un's familiar, but if he couldn't control it, it was useless. He would have to find a way out of this situation alone.

Mok Gyeong-un began chewing on the human skin in his mouth again.

"You!" the spirit exclaimed, clutching its chest once more. Her eyes filled with killing intent as she swung her pipe.

The blood droplets that had burrowed into Mok Gyeong-un's body suddenly burst out. They coalesced into a sharp thorn and shot towards his heart.

'Oh no!' Mok Gyeong-un thought as he rolled to the side, barely avoiding the attack.

The spirit sneered and swung her pipe again, causing the blood thorn to change direction and pursue Mok Gyeong-un. The speed was too fast to dodge.

But suddenly—

'Huh?'

Something pushed Mok Gyeong-un out of the way just before the thorn could pierce his heart. It was the demonic monk.

"You dare, monk!" the spirit shouted.

The monk waved its hands frantically, seemingly at a loss. Mok Gyeong-un was also puzzled by this turn of events. The monk, who had just been kneeling before the spirit, had suddenly helped him avoid the attack.

'Why?' he wondered.

The spirit clicked its tongue and said, "Ho? Are you trying to fulfill your duty as a familiar?"

Monk looked visibly uncomfortable.

Mok Gyeong-un couldn't help but inwardly laugh at the sight of the monk helping him yet still looking sheepish about it. For whatever reason, the demonic monk was assisting him against its will. This was crucial in their current situation.

"Monk!" Mok Gyeong-un called out.

The monk instinctively moved to block the blue spirit . It was clear that Monk couldn't refuse Mok Gyeong-un's orders. Perhaps it might even be possible to make it fight the higher-ranking spirit...

But before that thought could fully form, the Blue spirit closed the distance in an instant and grabbed the monk by the throat.

"Then I'll kill you both," she declared.

The monk, despite its larger size, couldn't move an inch in the spirit's grasp. The difference in their power was apparent – not all vengeful spirits were equal.

Mok Gyeong-un frantically chewed on the human skin, trying to help him break free.

"You're so eager to die?" the spirit snarled, her face contorting with anger as she swung her pipe again.

Once more, scattered blood droplets rose into the air, transforming into sharp thorns that began to rotate rapidly around Mok Gyeong-un. This time, it seemed the spirit truly intended to finish him off.

In that crucial moment, Mok Gyeong-un's thoughts took an unexpected turn that even the spirit couldn't have anticipated.

He swallowed the human skin he had been chewing.

The spirit's blood-red eyes wavered at the sight. It was unprecedented – not only had this mortal dared to chew on the skin, but he had actually swallowed it.

"You insane mortal!" the spirit cried out, swinging her pipe towards Mok Gyeong-un.

All the blood thorns surrounding him rushed in at once.

'Ugh!' Mok Gyeong-un's body twisted as the sharp droplets burrowed into him, causing his nerves and muscles to seize up.

"I'll tear your body to shreds and—" the spirit began, but couldn't finish her sentence. Her hand holding the pipe began to tremble, and her face contorted in pain.

"W-what..." she gasped, glaring at Mok Gyeong-un in confusion. The pain it felt now was incomparable to what it had experienced when Mok Gyeong-un was merely chewing the skin.

Her entire spectral body felt as though it was cracking.

'It's in pain,' Mok Gyeong-un realized. He couldn't fully understand why, but he knew that after forcibly swallowing the skin, his stomach had become unusually hot.

'My insides...' The heat made him feel as though his internal organs were burning. It was a pain he hadn't experienced since he first tasted poison long ago. A wry smile crept onto Mok Gyeong-un's face – pain from within was something he was accustomed to.

Suddenly, the suffering Blue spirit appeared before him and grabbed his throat.

"Mere mortal!" she snarled.

Mok Gyeong-un's eyes widened. Tears of blood were streaming from the enraged spirit's eyes. The sight was chilling, truly befitting a vengeful spirit with deep-seated resentment.

"How dare you!" the spirit choked him with both hands.

As his breath was cut off, Mok Gyeong-un instinctively grabbed the spirit's wrists to break free.

In that moment, a strange vision flashed through Mok Gyeong-un's mind. He saw a grand hall drenched in blood, with countless corpses strewn about. In the center stood a figure, soaked in blood, gasping for breath with a sword planted in the ground.

That figure was the Blue spirit .

[Haa... haa...]

The spirit was in tatters, on the verge of death. She turned her head to look at the throne in the hall. Someone sat there arrogantly, their face obscured by shadows. The spirit glared at this figure with pure hatred.

The spirit, coughing up blood, seemed to be shouting at the figure on the throne, but strangely, no sound could be heard.

Gripping her sword tightly, she tore a strip of cloth from her clothes and wrapped it around her wrist. She then lunged towards the figure on the throne.

But in the blink of an eye, the figure from the throne had its hand plunged into the spirit's chest.

The figure pulled something out of the spirit's chest. It was a heart, still beating.

How often does one get to see their own living heart? And beyond that, to witness it being crushed by another?

An ear-splitting scream tore through the air as the heart was crushed.

The vision faded, and Mok Gyeong-un found himself back in the present, facing the Blue spirit . Her crown had fallen off, hair disheveled, and face filled with shock.

'It was... a woman?' Mok Gyeong-un realized. When wearing the crown and exuding a sharp, imposing aura, the spirit's gender had been indistinguishable. But now, its feminine features were clear.

Mok Gyeong-un noticed a red thread-like substance emanating from his body, connecting him to both the spirit and Monk

'Could this be...?'

Before he could fully process what was happening, the Blue spirit began tearing at its hair, screaming in anguish.

"Aaaaargh! How can I, the great one, be a familiar?!"