An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 244

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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 244
Part 6. Fox Drive (1)
Thunk.
“Be careful not to spill any of it!”
As a few drops of soju splashed from the wooden barrel being lowered from the truck, the veins in Hong Kyung-soo’s neck bulged with anger.
“My apologies.”
“Damn it. Do you know how much that costs? Go easy! Easy!”
Kang Hyung-seok, watching from the side, wore a contemplative expression.
The sun sank toward the west, and the glow of dusk was fading.
Two mountains, two Shamans.
They had decided to move separately for now.
It wasn’t that whoever encountered the Jangsan Tiger first would handle it.
Hong Kyung-soo would lure the Jangsan Tiger with alcohol.
And in the meantime, Kang Hyung-seok would find and destroy the White Fox’s talisman.
It was the plan they had devised.
“You know about the Iron Net Formation and the Eight Gates Formation, right?”
Kang Hyung-seok answered Hong Kyung-soo’s question with a nod.
Click, click. Whoosh.
“Phew—!”
Hong Kyung-soo exhaled a long stream of cigarette smoke while gazing at the distant mountain, and Kang Hyung-seok fixed his gaze toward another mountain.
He had agreed to coordinate with Hong Kyung-soo, but he couldn’t shake the uncertainty about whether this was the right course of action.
Still, there was no sense of unease or foreboding.
Perhaps it was because, whatever his true nature might be, Hong Kyung-soo was undoubtedly a skilled Shaman.
“Excuse me, what should we do with this?”
“How many times do I have to say it? Move it to the base of that mountain over there.”
The villagers began moving the barrels of alcohol with hesitant movements.
They had gathered everyone who could move immediately, and with one barrel in each person’s hands, a total of twenty barrels of alcohol were being transported.
“That should be enough, shouldn’t it?”
Hong Kyung-soo asked while smoking his cigarette, and Kang Hyung-seok shook his head in response.
“I’m not certain. I can only hope it will be effective.”
“I couldn’t obtain the Celestial Eight Immortals Wine, so I mixed strong soju with some Chinese liquor instead.”
Kang Hyung-seok’s gaze shifted toward him.
“The Celestial Eight Immortals Wine has a strong fragrance. Since I’m trying to mimic that, it should have some effect.”
The White Fox had become intoxicated from the Celestial Eight Immortals Wine and was captured by Jeon Woo-chi.
Though crude, Hong Kyung-soo was attempting to replicate that liquor.
“Understood.”
“Then I’ll head out first, so call me if anything comes up.”
They had already exchanged contact information.
Hong Kyung-soo mimicked answering a phone by raising his index and pinky fingers, then moved forward, and Kang Hyung-seok called out to his retreating back.
“Let’s finish this before the hour of the Dog arrives.”
“If possible.”
Hong Kyung-soo pulled a large bag from his car and slung it over his shoulder.
Without looking back, he walked forward, while Kang Hyung-seok turned his body toward a different Mountain.
He too had a bag strapped to his back.
A bag containing a sacred blade and Shaman’s Bell.
“Phew!”
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled, his cheeks puffing out.
The sweat beading on his hands gripping the bag straps was a testament to his mounting tension.
‘The game has changed.’
From a mere urban legend to a creature of myth and legend.
From Jangsan Tiger to White Fox.
‘I must find the White Fox’s orb.’
Like a fox spirit’s mystical bead, it would not be easy to locate.
Yet to find and destroy the White Fox’s orb, Kang Hyung-seok pressed forward into the darkness-shrouded Mountain.
Tonight, an unusually bright moon seemed to bless his journey, casting its luminous rays upon him.
***
“Everyone fall back!”
Further up the Mountain, past the initial trail.
Once Hong Kyung-soo confirmed that all the alcohol had been transferred, he ordered the villagers to retreat, and they descended the Mountain without complaint, though their displeasure was evident.
They understood, after all.
Tonight, the Mountain was dangerous.
Grrrm.
As the villagers receded, a vehicle climbing the Mountain caught Hong Kyung-soo’s attention.
Screech.
“Brother! I’ve brought what you asked for!”
“Get out.”
“This—could you help me? It’s incredibly heavy.”
“Damn fool.”
The Dharma Master behind the wheel emerged from the car, and Hong Kyung-soo exhaled sharply as he approached him.
He opened the rear door and pulled out a large bundle wrapped tightly in plastic.
It was the size and shape of a human body.
Zzzzzip!
As the zipper opened, what emerged looked like a person wrapped in white bandages and dressed in clothes.
“Brother, do we really need to go this far?”
“This time, it’s necessary.”
Hong Kyung-soo shot a look that brooked no further objection and hoisted the corpse-like thing onto his shoulder.
He then sat it down on a nearby Rock, where it looked unmistakably like a corpse.
“The stitching is secure?”
“I made sure it was done carefully. It won’t come loose.”
“Damn pig stench. Hell.”
Hong Kyung-soo muttered with a voice full of displeasure, but the Dharma Master’s face contorted.
He had carved up a pig carcass and stitched it together into the shape of a human.
Of course it reeked of pork—there was no avoiding it—yet Hong Kyung-soo was complaining about it.
“Give me a knife if you have one.”
The Dharma Master withdrew a kitchen knife from his robes, its blade wrapped in newspaper, and handed it over.
Hong Kyung-soo stripped away the newspaper and without hesitation slashed open his left palm with the blade.
Szzzt.
Without so much as a blink, Hong Kyung-soo tore through living flesh, and the Dharma Master’s eyes narrowed at the sight. Hong Kyung-soo then began smearing his blood across the bandages wrapped around the pig.
It was to impart the scent of a human.
***
Crunch, crunch.
One lantern.
One moon.
Two sources of light, yet far too dim to illuminate the Mountain swallowed by night.
As Kang Hyung-seok walked the Mountain, I drew my collar tighter against the deepening chill of the night air.
‘Focus on one thing.’
Fox hunting.
I had to capture the White Fox.
“Heh.”
A sudden laugh escaped me—I had remembered that Hunter I saw at Lee Geum-kyung’s Shrine.
The man possessed by the Fox Spirit, who had hunted the fox with such cruelty.
What I was about to do now was not so different from what he had done.
Yet my intentions were unmistakably different, so Kang Hyung-seok soon smiled bitterly.
“With utmost sincerity I offer this prayer of blessing, and should any impurity escape the scrutiny of mortal eyes, let it be purged from this place.”
It was a purification chant used to ward off all defilement.
“Impurity takes many forms.”
Kang Hyung-seok continued the purification chant, hoping that even the impurity of the killing I was about to commit would be washed away.
Impurity of corpses, impurity of livestock and beasts, impurity of slaughter
Impurity of scales and fins, impurity of slaughter, impurity of all creatures with heads
Impurity of all creatures with tails, impurity of scaled aquatic beings
Impurity of blue, impurity of red, impurity of white, impurity of black
“Impurity of slaughter within dwellings, impurity of corpses within dwellings.”
The purification chant was long, endlessly long.
“In this year, this month, this day, this hour, purge all impurity; in this year, this month, this day, this hour, purge all impurity.”
Walking this dark Mountain Road while reciting that endless purification chant was ultimately for the sake of saving lives.
It was to annihilate the sinister and supernatural forces at work.
Chirrrr.
The sound of insects singing in the grass reached my ears.
Kang Hyung-seok fell silent mid-chant and gazed down at the grass insect perched on the weeds.
The moonlight was bright enough to cast shadows, and the lantern in my hand burned even brighter, illuminating the green insect with perfect clarity.
Chirr, chirr, chirr.
The grass cricket’s eyes, caught in the lantern’s glow, gleamed with an almost human luminescence.
Kang Hyung-seok stared at the insect, then closed his mouth.
‘That’s not the sound a grass cricket makes.’
The cricket merely gazed back at me.
It didn’t rub its legs, didn’t flutter its wings, didn’t puff its abdomen—it simply sat motionless.
Chirr, chirr, chirr.
Then who was producing this cricket sound?
The moment that thought crystallized, my hair stood on end.
In the same instant, the cricket sound ceased abruptly, and Kang Hyung-seok quickly extinguished the lantern’s flame.
Crunch.
The sound of footsteps crushing undergrowth echoed from behind.
The noise drew steadily closer.
Kang Hyung-seok breathed silently, concentrating on the direction from which the sound approached.
“Dharma Master!”
A human voice carried from the distance.
“Where are you? Another Shaman is looking for you urgently!”
Kang Hyung-seok exhaled slowly through barely parted lips.
Though the night air was cool, it wasn’t yet cold enough to freeze breath.
Yet my breath crystallized white before me.
“Please answer! Something terrible has happened!”
Damn it all—Hong Kyung-soo.
He was the one who’d agreed to contain the Jangsan Tiger.
Whether something had gone wrong or whether I’d simply missed the Jangsan Tiger, that abomination was on this Mountain.
And it was searching for me.
“Dharma Master! Can’t you hear me?”
“Shouldn’t we call someone about this?”
“What would you know about it!”
“Never mind that—let’s just call the Police Officer or whoever and start a search. If something happens because of this delay, who’s going to take responsibility?”
Multiple voices overlapped in conversation.
Yet that didn’t prove it wasn’t the Jangsan Tiger.
The dialogue was fragmented, voices shifting with each sentence’s end, as if one person were modulating their tone.
“This is maddening! Damn it!”
“Since we’ve come this far, let’s split up. Elders, please head back down. The rest of us will climb a bit higher!”
“Yes, yes!”
Crunch, crunch!
Footsteps receding and fading into distance.
Crunch, crunch, crunch!
And multiple sets of footsteps thundering up the Mountain, growing louder.
Kang Hyung-seok turned his head toward the sound with the deliberate slowness of someone defusing a mine.
At the same moment, I caught the thick scent of a Fox Spirit.
“Dharma Master!”
The Jangsan Tiger was right beside his face.
Its eyes covered by talismans, its mouth bristling with needle-like fangs, the Jangsan Tiger stood mere inches away with its massive jaws agape, producing human speech.
“Dharma Master! Please answer me!”
Can’t you hear me?
This is driving me insane.
I need to go down there right now!
Do you hear what I’m saying?
The Jangsan Tiger cycled through different voices as it searched for Kang Hyung-seok.
Kang Hyung-seok stared at the Jangsan Tiger’s face, barely breathing.
Up close, the truth became undeniable.
The Jangsan Tiger was no mere Fox Spirit.
It was something far more dangerous, cruel, and grotesque—a malformed abomination that surpassed even the Tiger Spirit in its horror.
Shhhhk.
The Jangsan Tiger’s face drew closer, now directly beside him.
“Dharma Masterrrr!”
The Jangsan Tiger let out an ear-splitting shriek, its throat rattling.
A warm, acrid stench and the reek of decay.
Along with the body heat radiating from it, Kang Hyung-seok’s jaw trembled slightly as he stared into the creature’s maw.
His heart felt as though it were collapsing.
‘Everything is wrong. It was all wrong from the beginning.’
Hong Kyung-soo was supposed to restrain the Jangsan Tiger while Kang Hyung-seok burned the White Fox Scripture.
That plan could never have succeeded from the start.
“Dharma Masterrrrrr!”
Deep within the Jangsan Tiger’s mouth, mimicking a distant call for Kang Hyung-seok.
There was something in that fang-filled maw that should never have been there.
The White Fox Scripture.
Like a fox’s inner pearl of power.
The most precious thing, the very source itself.
It was lodged within the Jangsan Tiger’s mouth.
Screeeeech!
The Jangsan Tiger’s lips twisted as it produced a sound like a nail scraping across metal.
Then it changed its voice.
“Donggwaaaaaaa!”
It was Hong Kyung-soo’s voice.

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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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