An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 128
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 127
Part 4. We Have Reached a Place Not Permitted (2)
“…Did you hear it?”
Shin Yoseph nodded at Kang Hyung-seok’s question.
He had heard it too.
The voice emanating from the Buddha statue.
Shin Jung-ah had received the Buddha statue’s spiritual energy.
Because of this, the Buddha statue’s voice could be heard in two places—where Shin Jung-ah stood and where Kang Hyung-seok stood.
The air grew lighter.
As the divine energy split into two locations, the thick miasma and malevolent aura began to dissipate, and the blood flowing from their eyes and noses started to cease.
Clang!
The sound of the bell returned as well.
Kang Hyung-seok’s face, now more at ease, wiped the blood from the corner of his eye and stared at the crimson cloth concealing the Buddha statue’s face.
“Your tricks no longer work.”
No matter how malevolent the entity, with its arms and legs severed, it could not inflict direct harm.
But time was running short.
The cultists who revered that Buddha statue could arrive at any moment, and all of this had to be resolved before Shin Jung-ah’s strength gave out.
“Reveal your true identity!”
The moment Kang Hyung-seok shouted this.
Clink.
The Buddha statue’s ornaments clattered against one another.
And then its voice began to emerge.
-I am the Savior, the Immortal Sage.
“That is not your name. Tell me your true name!”
-Wretched one, I stand before you—why do you doubt?
He clenched his teeth and turned his gaze toward Shin Yoseph.
Shin Yoseph nodded gravely and stepped forward.
“I command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is your name?”
He spoke in Latin, and seeing the Buddha statue remain silent, his lips twisted.
“Tell me your name. What is your true nature?”
He questioned it in Cantonese, then in Japanese, but the Buddha statue showed no response.
‘Is it not a demon?’
Yet the unholy aura emanating from it was far too thick to deny it was demonic.
As Shin Yoseph’s eyes wavered, a thin voice flowed from the Buddha statue.
-So you are stained with the teachings of the Heavenly Lord.
Immediately after, a sharp hissing sound came from beneath the Buddha statue.
And jet-black vipers writhed and crawled out from beneath the Ritual Platform.
The appearance of beasts is a phenomenon that occurs when demons manifest.
Shin Yoseph looked at the Buddha statue in alarm, but the hissing of the vipers kept trying to steal his attention.
Yet he clearly saw the form reflected in the mirror behind the Buddha statue.
A pitch-black face and a hazy form.
Wearing a black robe, grinning with yellowed teeth bared.
“Amon, Botis, Asmodeus!”
I invoked demons associated with serpents, but received no answer.
“Astaroth, Orias! Speak! What is your name!”
I cried out desperately, but instead of an answer, the viper threatened me with its snow-white fangs bared.
At the sight, Shin Yoseph contorted his face and exhaled a sigh.
‘It is connected to demons.’
This Buddha statue was certainly influenced by something demonic.
I do not yet know whether demons became entangled because it is a cult artifact, or if they were involved from the statue’s very beginning.
However, the ominous aura emanating from it could only be explained as demonic.
-I am the son of God and shall guide all people to the land of immortals.
Ssssshhhhh!
As the serpent coiled to strike, Kang Hyung-seok pulled Shin Yoseph backward and shook the Shaman’s Bell.
Clang-clang-clang!
Then, staring directly at the serpent, he spoke in a low voice.
“Pray. I will protect you.”
Shin Yoseph clenched his molars, then forced his lips open with difficulty.
“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, the Archangel Michael, and the Apostle Saint Peter….”
Ssssshhhhh!
Even as the serpent hissed threateningly, Shin Yoseph continued his prayer.
“…Saint Paul and all the saints, I stand against and fight the temptations and deceits of Satan.”
With one hand placed upon his chest, Shin Yoseph’s figure as he prayed appeared devout.
Kang Hyung-seok watched him silently, then turned his gaze to the serpent and opened his mouth.
“By the virtue of the Five Directions Kings and Five Directions Generals, by the virtue of the Dragon Kings of the Four Seas, I expel the unclean.”
“Let God arise, that his enemies may be scattered, and those who hate him may flee before him.”
Ssssshhhhh!
The serpents threatened as if to silence their voices, but the prayers and incantations continued without pause.
Then the serpents watched them with hatred and coiled beneath the Ritual Platform or vanished from sight.
“As smoke vanishes and wax melts before fire, so let the wicked perish before God.”
“By the virtue of the Azure Dragon and White Tiger, by the virtue of the Vermillion Bird and Black Tortoise, by the virtue of the Eight Gods of the House, by the virtue of the Dragon of Fortune and Ascending Earth, I expel the unclean.”
Gradually, ever so gradually.
The prayers and incantations overwhelmed the aura of the Buddha statue.
Suddenly, Shin Yoseph recalled the voice of one person.
‘Yoseph.’
It was my senior’s voice.
The warm voice of my senior who had lost his life fleeing during an exorcism ritual.
‘Why do you wish to become an exorcist priest?’
‘There must be a reason, Father.’
‘No one becomes an exorcist priest without reason. It is difficult, unrecognized, and agonizing. You are cursed and hunted by demons for a lifetime.’
At that moment, Shin Yoseph could not meet his senior’s gaze.
He feared his petty heart would be exposed.
Born into a respectable family.
A predetermined future awaited him as he lived.
Becoming a priest because he despised it.
Walking the path of an exorcist priest to become even slightly special.
In the end, he became an exorcist priest not for others, but for himself.
He was ashamed of the selfish emotions he could not confess even to God, and the cause that had never existed from the beginning.
‘Well, regardless of your reasons, there will be many people who need your help going forward.’
‘Yes….’
‘Live without shame before those people.’
Shin Yoseph squeezed his eyes shut.
‘I’m sorry, senior.’
I must bear shame until the moment I die.
My incompetence killed you and cast me into hell.
I fear I will never be able to live as you said.
Thud!
Shin Yoseph walked toward the snakes.
“Unclean spirit, whoever you are, we expel you and all the forces of the devil, all the attacks of the enemies of hell, all the legions of the devil and their allies and kindred!”
The remaining snakes looked up at Shin Yoseph, flicking their crimson tongues.
Then they turned their heads, twisted their bodies in undulating waves, and slithered beneath the ritual platform.
Now all the snakes had vanished.
“I’ll handle the rest.”
Shin Yoseph nodded and stepped back.
And Kang Hyung-seok grasped the exorcism sword and the Shaman’s Bell, closing his eyes.
With spiritual sight rather than mortal eyes, he gazed upon the Buddha statue and slowly parted his lips.
“You wear the form of Buddha, yet you are not Buddha.”
Kang Hyung-seok’s voice echoed, but the statue did not answer.
“Your shaman wears the form of a pastor, yet you could not answer prayer.”
This time too, the statue remained silent.
“You are a coward who hides your true form.”
Jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle.
The Buddha statue did not move, yet the metal ornaments hanging from it trembled.
“Speak. What is your true nature, and for what purpose have you appeared on this land!”
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell and pointed the exorcism sword at the statue’s face.
“If you do not speak, I will destroy you!”
It happened immediately after.
-Ha, hahaha. Hahahaha.
The Buddha statue began to laugh.
The ornaments trembled as though they would shatter at any moment, and the red cloth covering its face fluttered.
Shin Yoseph swallowed hard, watching it all unfold, while Kang Hyung-seok opened his eyes and glared at the Buddha statue.
“Speak!”
And then,
Crack-crack.
The joints of the Buddha statue emitted the sound of dry wood twisting, and the statue began to rise to its feet.
A Buddha statue fashioned from a corpse that had died decades ago.
It should not have been able to move.
Yet impossibly, the statue stood upon the Ritual Platform, looking down at Kang Hyung-seok and Shin Yoseph.
-I am the successor of the great Donghak, the one who shall fill the world with whiteness. I am light, truth, and salvation.
Shin Yoseph’s face contorted with confusion.
In that moment, Kang Hyung-seok cried out with even greater force.
“The Baekbaek Church is gone! Those who believed in you have vanished, and the world has forgotten the Baekbaek Church!”
Kang Hyung-seok paused to catch his breath, then spoke a name that surfaced in his mind.
“Jeon Yong-hae, the Cult Leader of the Baekbaek Church! Is this your name!”
The man who had been the Cult Leader of the Baekbaek Church.
And when countless crimes came to light, he took his own life, only to have his head severed by the Japanese.
The head was reportedly cremated on October 25th, 2011.
But who could say for certain.
Perhaps the current cult leader had recovered his head before it was cremated and fashioned this Buddha statue from it.
-Hahahaha, hahahahahaha!
The statue’s laughter rang out so loudly it seemed to tear the air itself.
Then a soft voice followed, stripped of all emotion.
-He called himself the Son of God.
Kang Hyung-seok’s face hardened.
‘Not Jeon Yong-hae?’
Then who was this statue?
Who was the one that the cult inheriting the Baekbaek Church served?
As Kang Hyung-seok stared at the statue with wide eyes filled with bewilderment,
-So I am God. Foolish one, look upon me. I shall grant you peace.
The statue’s voice entered his mind like that of a demon.
But he harbored no intention of surrendering.
Kang Hyung-seok clenched a ritual dagger between his teeth.
Then he slowly reached out his hand.
Toward the crimson cloth that covered the statue’s face.
Shin Yoseph watched him, barely daring to breathe, as Kang Hyung-seok’s fingertips reached the crimson cloth.
Whoosh!
As he tore away the crimson cloth in one motion, he felt his breath catch in his throat.
Skin blackened and desiccated like a mummy’s.
Two hollow voids where eyes should have been.
And stitches running across the neck.
‘The head and body belong to different masters.’
Kang Hyung-seok breathed heavily through his mouth, his gaze fixed upon the Buddha statue’s head.
Now I understand.
Who this entity truly is.
“It was never the Baekbaek Church.”
Shin Yoseph stared at him with bewilderment written across his face, while Kang Hyung-seok continued to gaze upon the Buddha statue’s head, his voice emerging as a pained murmur.
“Jeon Jung-un, father of Jeon Yong-hae and Cult Leader of the Baekdo Cult.”
The heretical religion that became the origin of the Baekbaek Church.
A religious leader who murdered people just as the Baekbaek Church did, and plundered the wealth of his followers.
Jeon Yong-hae’s head had been lost and vanished.
Then the head resting upon that body must belong to Jeon Jung-un.
The Cult Leader father had taken possession of his son’s body.
The wicked man, venerated as a god and transformed into an evil deity, had achieved completion in the form of a Buddha statue.
As Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes trembled upon grasping the full truth of it all.
Boom!
From a distant place.
The iron plate that had sealed the entrance to this chamber rang out loudly.
The Shaman was attempting to enter.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————