An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 224

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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 224
Part 7. A Plea to the Heavens and Earth (1)
Thunk!
The moment Yoon Sang climbed into the passenger seat, Kang Hyung-seok started the engine.
Grrrrr!
The engine roared to life with a heavy sound, and the dashboard illuminated.
At the same time, Yoon Sang’s gaze fixed upon me, though I didn’t need to ask why.
He wanted to know how things had spiraled to this point.
“Fasten your seatbelt first.”
“Y-yes!”
Yoon Sang buckled his seatbelt, and I selected a location from the navigation app’s recent destinations.
The Well.
“You hold onto it.”
I handed my phone to Yoon Sang, and the moment he took it, I shifted the gear from park into reverse.
Whirrrr.
I turned the steering wheel sharply and exhaled through the gap between my teeth.
“The situation is dire. We need to address the source of the problem first.”
“S-source?”
“The Well. Where the demon summoning ritual was performed.”
Startled by my grave expression and tone, Yoon Sang’s fists trembled where they rested on his knees.
Then, glancing at the phone, he spoke with an urgency in his voice.
“R-right turn ahead!”
Yoon Sang, guiding me like a navigation system, placed the phone on the dashboard.
Tap.
I grabbed his arm and pulled it down, telling him to just turn up the volume.
‘In a moment, turn right. Left turn 50 meters ahead.’
“Phew—!”
I carefully navigated out of the Alley, exhaling a long breath through my teeth.
Then, through the side mirror, I gazed toward the apartment building where Shin Yoseph would be.
‘Hold on tight. Please. Don’t let go.’
I pressed my lower lip against my upper teeth and shifted my gaze forward.
Why was darkness already beginning to fall?
The crimson twilight scattered by the fading sun is beautiful. But given the circumstances, I swallowed a sigh while watching the sun grow smaller with resentment.
***
Clatter, clatter! Whoooosh!
By the time we’d driven back to the Well after a long journey, the sun had completely set.
Thud!
Kang Hyung-seok stepped out of the car, and Yoon Sang followed behind him, his face pale with fear.
He glanced around the surroundings and swallowed hard.
“H-hyung, what exactly is this place…?”
Having visited many Haunted Houses, Yoon Sang could tell.
Something was wrong—from what he could see to the very atmosphere itself.
Even in the thick darkness, a blue tarp lay spread wide, its presence unmistakable, and at its center sat an old, abandoned well.
Step, step.
Just as Yoon Sang, startled by Kang Hyung-seok’s approach to the well, was about to speak.
“I’m going down. You shine the light from above.”
“Y-you’re going down? Into the well?”
Yoon Sang looked ready to stop him immediately, but Kang Hyung-seok said nothing and picked up the rope.
There was no time.
Even now, Shin Yoseph was facing off alone against whatever was possessing Park Jo-hyuk.
Whoosh.
After tucking the exorcism knife and Shaman’s Bell into his pocket, he checked that the rope was securely tied to the tree.
“Haah—!”
Finally, with all preparations complete, I gripped the rope and began descending into the well.
“H-hyung!”
“I’m counting on you.”
Yoon Sang froze mid-protest.
In that moment, Kang Hyung-seok disappeared into the well.
Scrape! Scrape!
My arms gripped the rope firmly while my feet and back pushed against the well walls.
I descended backward into the dark, deep well like a pendulum swinging downward.
“Ugh, this is maddening.”
This was what people called a broadcast moment.
Yet Yoon Sang pushed that thought far away and picked up his phone.
Click!
The light from Yoon Sang’s phone spread widely across the well walls.
Kang Hyung-seok stared at the light and continued descending deeper.
How far down had I gone?
Screech!
My shoe slipped on the moss, and I reflexively gripped the rope with all my strength.
My body swayed like a pendulum suspended from a single rope, and sweat trickling down my forehead fell into the fathomless darkness below.
“Haah—! Haah—!”
The presence of moss meant high humidity.
‘The bottom isn’t far now.’
Kang Hyung-seok descended slowly, gripping the rope tightly with his thighs and ankles.
As long as his form remained perfect, he could hang there all day without the rope snapping.
So the fear of falling didn’t trouble him.
What troubled him was something else.
Clang—!
The Shaman’s Bell rang as if reading Kang Hyung-seok’s mind.
At the same moment, a chill swept through him.
‘This is the corridor.’
Park Jo-hyuk had performed a Demon summoning ritual at the Well.
It was a form of sorcery, and sorcery begins in the mind and is completed through action.
The deeds of Park Jo-hyuk, consumed by desperation, envy, and jealousy, had led to a profane result.
That profanity had pooled in the deepest place.
Uuuuuung.
The rushing wind flowed down the well’s walls, creating a tremendous sound.
Kang Hyung-seok kept his gaze fixed downward as he descended deeper into the well.
“Tae Sang Wol Hwang Cheon Ji A, Hwang Ji Jae A, Il Wol Jo A, Seong Sin Yeong A, Je Seon Geo A, Sa Myeong Yeong A, Tae Eul Rim A, Og Sin Do A, Sam Gwan Bo A.”
Reciting a protective incantation to shield his body, Kang Hyung-seok was descending toward the depths of the well.
Snap.
The light Yoon Sang had been shining from above the well vanished.
In complete darkness, Kang Hyung-seok slowly lifted his head.
Nothing was visible, as if a lid had been sealed shut.
***
Thud.
Droplets of blood scattered across the floor like petals of a blooming flower, drawing Shin Yoseph’s gaze.
It was blood from his nose.
‘…Damn it.’
Shin Yoseph hastily wiped his nose, but the bleeding wouldn’t stop.
Instead, more blood smeared across his hand, drenching his mouth and jaw.
Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle.
Park Jo-hyuk sat motionless, yet the chair shook violently.
Click.
Shin Yoseph, gripping the cross tightly, pressed his hand against Park Jo-hyuk’s forehead while breathing heavily through his mouth.
“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice.”
Shin Yoseph’s lips stopped moving as he recited the prayer.
After his mouth trembled for a moment, he spat out a clot of blood as if expelling something foreign.
Splat.
The blood clot that fell with a heavy sound was moving on its own.
Hah, hah, hah.
Shin Yoseph exhaled breath that reeked of blood, then turned his gaze back to Park Jo-hyuk.
“Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.”
That was when it happened.
“Child.”
The voice he’d heard at the Well came from directly behind Shin Yoseph.
“The one you believe in and pray to is turning away from your voice.”
“…Lord, if you kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?”
“While he denies and forsakes you, who will weep for you?”
“But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.”
“He has forgiven no one. Has anyone ever saved you through his forgiveness?”
The Demon’s voice caressed Shin Yoseph’s heart with an eerie, chilling touch.
“Ugh!”
Sudden nausea seized Shin Yoseph, and he covered his mouth, then pulled his hand away and spat out another heavy clot of blood.
Excruciating pain surged through him as if he were losing a part of his body.
It was as if commanding him to kneel.
As if telling him to collapse before what he’d done to Park Jo-hyuk.
“…I wait for the Lord.”
Yet Shin Yoseph desperately straightened his collapsing posture and continued the prayer.
“My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, I say, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”
“Where is that hope?”
The voice came not from behind, but from ahead.
From the mouth of Park Jo-hyuk, still covered by the blanket.
The voice was not unpleasant to hear.
It was ordinary, like a human’s, and its pitch was not unstable.
“Park Jo-hyuk?”
Shin Yoseph called out to him cautiously.
Thud!
Park Jo-hyuk’s head struck the armrest of the chair like a hammer driving a nail.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
As Park Jo-hyuk’s head struck faster and faster, Shin Yoseph exhaled a silent sigh.
His breath crystallized white in the frigid air.
***
Screeeech!
Kang Hyung-seok descended deeper into the dark Well at an accelerating pace.
There was no sign of Yoon Sang, and no light.
Clang, clang, clang!
The Shaman’s Bell tucked in my pocket rang ceaselessly, and intense heat radiated from my palms as they scraped against the rope.
Then blood began seeping from the wounds.
Shhhhhhh!
Slipping from the rope as if plummeting due to the blood, Kang Hyung-seok hastily reduced his speed.
Blood seeped from between my clenched teeth.
Clang, clang, clang!
The Shaman’s Bell’s cry rang out even more powerfully, echoing through the Well’s interior.
“Hah, hah!”
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled ragged breaths and swallowed saliva tinged with the taste of iron.
Then I looked downward.
I had to reach the bottom of the Well below.
It would surely be there.
‘A curse.’
There would be a source.
I had to find it and destroy whatever dwelt in this Well and in Park Jo-hyuk.
I had to save a person.
I had to stop the malevolent thing from roaming this world.
Clang, clang, clang!
In the midst of the bell’s solitary cry, Kang Hyung-seok opened his mouth.
“I bow to the Eastern Spirit of Purification, I bow to the Southern Spirit of Purification.”
To eliminate all defilement, I humbly beseech the divine spirits to hear the plea of this humble disciple.
Screeeech! Screeeech!
Descending along the rope, Kang Hyung-seok continued the incantation.
“I bow to the Western Spirit of Purification, I bow to the Northern Spirit of Purification, I bow to the Central Spirit of Purification, I bow to the Eastern Guardian Spirit of Purification, I bow to the Southern Guardian Spirit of Purification.”
Green Emperor General, Red Emperor General.
White Emperor General, Black Emperor General.
Yellow Emperor General, Jiazi General.
Jiaxu General, Jiashen General.
‘I beseech all spirits and generals with this plea.’
Ziiiiing!
“By the wood of kinship and distant relations, ward away impurity. By the wood of strangers’ passage, ward away impurity. By the wood of wealth’s exchange, ward away impurity. By the wood of food’s exchange, ward away impurity.”
Guide me to the depths of this well.
Lead me to the harshest and most perilous place.
Seal the gates of the afterlife and bar all that is wicked.
Thud.
A bead of sweat rolled down Kang Hyung-seok’s chin and plummeted into the darkness below.
Then came a small sound.
Splash.
The sound of sweat striking the stagnant water pooled at the well’s bottom.
Kang Hyung-seok clenched his jaw and released one hand from the rope.
He shook his hand downward, and droplets of blood fell with a pattering sound.
‘The bottom is right below.’
Having gauged the distance by sound, Kang Hyung-seok let go without hesitation.
Splash!
Was the pooled water what remained of the well, never fully drained?
Or was it rainwater?
Splash! Splash!
It didn’t matter.
Splash! Thrash! Thrash!
I had to find it.
I had to retrieve it.
Thrash! Thrash!
The most profane thing in this well.
Scrape!
Kang Hyung-seok’s fingers, raking through the muddy bottom of the well, suddenly stopped.
Something hard had brushed against his fingertips for just an instant.

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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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