An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 147

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 146
Part 3. Tears of Blood (2)
Crunch!
Kang Hyung-seok stepped out of the car alongside Yoon Sang, the vehicle coming to a halt on the dirt road.
A Construction Site Factory.
During the day, workers occupied the space, making entry impossible.
Click, click.
Yoon Sang’s eyes gleamed with excitement at the prospect of capturing footage for the broadcast, assembling various pieces of equipment with practiced efficiency.
An infrared camera and a portable lantern.
Along with a peculiar device capable of detecting Victim Spirits.
“Don’t do anything reckless.”
“Hyung-nim, I’m a professional.”
Despite having traversed countless Haunted Houses, Yoon Sang carried not a single Malevolent Spirit attached to him—a fact he stated with confidence. Kang Hyung-seok nodded solemnly in response and proceeded forward.
A pale yellow moon hung overhead, casting its subtle luminescence across the landscape.
Crunch, crunch.
With each step, gravel crunched beneath their feet, and the wind carried the scent of earth and stone.
Whoosh.
Nothing remarkable appeared yet.
Yet Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell and regarded the structure before him with careful attention.
It appeared to be a renovation project—the old Factory being demolished and rebuilt.
The building rose two stories, though it lacked exterior walls.
Protruding steel reinforcements jutted upward where a roof should have been.
Rather than a building, it resembled a withered, enormous tree or the entrance to a Cave.
“…Let’s go.”
Kang Hyung-seok accepted a lantern from Yoon Sang and stepped inside.
Click.
He illuminated the floor with the lantern, revealing a gray surface covered in hazy dust and countless footprints.
Crash!
Yoon Sang, following behind, had apparently disturbed a stack of lumber, producing a loud noise.
Turning back, Kang Hyung-seok found Yoon Sang standing frozen, eyes wide as a startled rabbit.
“Be careful.”
He refrained from reproach—the materials were scattered so haphazardly that mistakes were understandable.
Yoon Sang swallowed hard and nodded, while Kang Hyung-seok slowly advanced deeper into the structure.
Save for the sound of Yoon Sang’s footsteps following close behind, an oppressive silence prevailed.
Naturally.
An abandoned Construction Site held no human presence.
It felt like wandering through a school in the dead of night.
Yet the difference was unmistakable.
Whoosh.
The Shaman’s Bell rang of its own accord—something was here.
I carefully scanned the narrow range illuminated by the lantern and thrust my hand into my pocket.
Then I withdrew the Shaman’s Blade.
A soft metallic whisper.
Yoon Sang’s lantern, following behind me, cast the blade’s edge in silver light.
Dust tormented my nostrils, and darkness blocked my vision in this confined space.
In a situation where anything could emerge, the Shaman’s Blade I held radiated a presence far greater than its physical size.
“Um, hyung?”
I shook my head, keeping my gaze fixed forward.
Now was the time to focus.
It was here.
Rokurokubi.
“By the Scripture of Malevolent Spirits, I invoke: Six-Path Divine Blade, Six-Stem Divine Blade, Qimen Divine Blade, Eight-Gate Divine Blade, Five-Direction Five-Spirit Divine Blade.”
A resonant chime.
I shook the Shaman’s Bell held alongside the lantern and advanced with the Shaman’s Blade leading.
“Six-Path Battle Formation, Desert Divine Blade, Manifest True Name, Establish Divine Blade Formation across all four directions.”
That was when it happened.
The tip of the Shaman’s Blade tilted to one side as if possessed by intention.
I shifted my gaze and the light toward that direction.
“To the east, Eight-Gate with Metal Serpent Formation.”
What lay there was a staircase.
Shrouded in darkness, blanketed by swirling dust, a gray staircase sat in silent repose.
“To the south, Straight-Line Corpse Formation. To the west, Six-Fire Formation.”
I moved slowly in that direction.
Yoon Sang, who had been following, hastily removed his headlamp and fitted it onto my head, then took the lantern from my hand.
A clear chime!
With my hands now free, I shook the Shaman’s Bell slowly and ascended the staircase at a measured pace.
The headlamp’s light flickered and wavered, and an ominous sensation welled up within me.
“To the north, Eight-Trigram Path. Eight-Gate Metal Serpent Formation, Straight-Line Corpse Formation, and beyond, establish the Life-Death Gate.”
I swallowed.
My throat tasted of dust as I opened my parched lips.
But my voice would not come.
As if something had clamped down on my throat.
As if I had been warned not to recite the incantation.
“Ten-Thousand Gold Divine Blades descend.”
So the voice I expelled came out hoarse and fractured.
A thunderous crash echoed from above the staircase!
“Kyaaaaaaagh!”
Yoon Sang, startled, nearly tumbled down the stairs, but I reached out and seized his sleeve.
Get your wits about you!
Get your head straight!
Yoon Sang couldn’t respond to the intent conveyed through those piercing eyes, managing only a strained nod.
Clang clang clang clang clang!
“Those spirits who commit transgressions against the innocent and blameless—the benevolent spirits shall be guided by the path of virtue, and the malevolent spirits shall be seized by the path of evil.”
Kang Hyung-seok was reciting the Scripture of Discernment.
A scripture that distinguishes between benevolent and malevolent spirits.
If something reacts intensely to this, it is not a benevolent spirit.
“By the scripture of compassion, those who have erred shall be pardoned by the path of rest, guided by the path of opening to salvation—but for malevolent spirits…”
Kang Hyung-seok rang the Shaman’s Bell and ascended the stairs without hesitation, following where the divine blade pointed.
Taking the stairs two or three at a time without a handrail, Yoon Sang struggled to keep pace behind him.
“Those who deserve death shall be seized by the path of mortality, and those startled by the scripture shall be absolved by the path of healing, sealed by the path of restraint, that they may not escape the cycle.”
Now we were nearly at the top of the stairs.
The direction the divine blade pointed had changed.
It was to the left from here.
“For those spirits bound by resentment, may they be liberated by the scripture of resolution, their path cleared like flowers blooming on the lotus platform, reborn into enlightenment.”
There was still more of the scripture to recite.
But where the divine blade pointed…
Stepping out onto the second floor landing and looking at the left wall, I felt my words catch in my throat.
And my feet as well.
“Huff… huff… huff…”
Yoon Sang, gripped by fear, breathed heavily through his nose and slowly moved the lantern.
And what he saw was a cat.
Sway, sway.
A faint night breeze drifting through the empty window frame.
The cat’s corpse swayed left and right in that breeze like a toy for an infant, its neck hanging from an electrical wire.
“Ugh… uhhh…”
This was a construction site.
During the day, it had been full of workers.
The fact that a cat’s corpse was hanging here as if deliberately strung up felt grotesquely wrong.
Yoon Sang’s legs gave out and he leaned his shoulder against the wall, while Kang Hyung-seok slowly lowered his gaze from the cat downward.
The light from the headlamp affixed to his head descended as well, illuminating what lay below.
‘…An altar.’
A small wooden table.
And a Japanese jar.
The jar was covered with paper, and the way its mouth was sealed seemed anything but ordinary.
Even the method of sealing the opening was distinctly Japanese.
Click.
Yoon Sang’s trembling hand captured the altar on camera, and Kang Hyung-seok moved toward it.
The stench of decomposing cat assaulted my nostrils.
Gulp.
I swallowed hard and glanced down at the floor.
The footprints were so densely packed they made me dizzy.
Yet around that Altar, there were no footprints at all.
As if no one had ever set foot there….
Crunch.
Leaving footprints on the ground like the dawn of the first snow, Kang Hyung-seok stood before the Altar and picked up the jar.
A chill ran through me in that instant.
Something had been done here.
Something deeply connected to Rokurokuби’s true nature lay in this place.
Whoosh.
Kang Hyung-seok, who had picked up the jar, took a deep breath.
Then he lifted it above his head and hurled it down to the ground in one motion.
Crash!
The jar exploded violently, spilling its contents like entrails—red rice and embedded chopsticks scattered everywhere.
“Uaaaagh!”
Yoon Sang stumbled backward in shock, his nose assaulted by a pungent stench of decay.
The rice, marinated in blood, had rotted terribly and reeked abominably.
But the rice wasn’t the important part.
Scrape.
Kang Hyung-seok, pushing the rice aside with his shoe, picked up a small metal fragment from the ground.
“A ring…?”
Not an ordinary one, either.
A finely crafted, exquisite ring.
Like a wedding band.
‘Surely not….’
Ice shards seemed to slide down my spine, and a chill seized me.
My hair stood on end, and my mouth went dry.
Evidence of sorcery had been discovered, and something that should never have been there emerged from within it.
Japan and Korea share similar threads in their traditions, so even if not precise, inference is possible.
‘It’s a sacrifice.’
An offering had been made.
I think I understand the intent.
Rokurokuби was not born naturally.
‘They really did transform a family member….’
Perhaps a wife, or a daughter-in-law.
Rokurokuби had been created from such a person and was being used as a Shikigami.
The reason was obvious.
For their own health, their wealth, their peace of mind.
I had once heard from Lee Geum-kyung that those who command yokai as Shikigami are dangerous.
‘A madman.’
No one with a sound mind could do something like this.
“…Let’s go. Hurry.”
The suffocation was overwhelming, and I desperately wanted to escape this place.
Kang Hyung-seok rubbed away every trace of his footprints from the floor, then turned toward Yoon Sang, who stood uncertainly.
Together, they descended the stairs.
As they passed the landing, I spat three times.
Shhhhh.
A human head slowly descended from the second-floor windowsill.
The expressionless head vanished into the same place from which it had appeared after staring at the broken jar.
And immediately after,
Crrrack!
The neck and body of the decomposing cat, suspended by the wire, began to separate.
Thud.
The putrid body fell to the floor.
The head and spine remained suspended in the air by the electrical wire.
Because of the long vertebrae attached to the head, the cat’s neck appeared unnaturally elongated.
Just like Rokurokuби.
***
At the same moment.
Shhh, shhhhh.
An old man lay in deep sleep, breathing faintly.
His hair was snow-white, and his face bore deep wrinkles.
Yet his full eyebrows and stern expression made him appear far younger than his actual age.
His name was Kim Ki-ok.
A native of Gangwon Province, he had been a businessman who frequently traveled to Japan in his youth.
His bedroom, accumulated through a lifetime of wealth, was luxurious and distinctly foreign.
Particularly in its Japanese aesthetic.
Fans and kimonos hung on clothing racks.
On one wall hung a suit of traditional Japanese armor called an ōyoroi.
The art collection felt heavily concentrated on Japan.
“Mmm.”
A sudden nightmare seized Kim Ki-ok, and he groaned, his brow furrowing.
Then he jolted awake with a scream.
“Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!”
Kim Ki-ok clutched his chest and reached for the water glass on the nightstand.
He retrieved medicine from the drawer and took it, though his eyes remained anxious.
Confused and fearful eyes.
Kim Ki-ok worked his dry lips, trying to understand the source of his dread.
It was then.
Plink.
The sound of a water droplet falling into the glass drew his attention.
The water in the glass gradually turned crimson, as if red ink were dripping into it.
Kim Ki-ok’s face hardened as he shifted his gaze upward toward the ceiling.
There, a massive face clung to the ceiling, weeping tears of blood.
Kim Ki-ok gazed up at the face with a hoarse voice, muttering softly.
“Mother.”
That was the true identity of the Rokurokuби he had created.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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