An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 245

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

Chapter 244
Part 6. Fox Drive (2)
Kang Hyung-seok felt his mind freeze solid.
The voice emanating from the Jangsan Tiger’s mouth was unmistakably Hong Kyung-soo’s.
“Donggwa! Donggwa!”
Why was it mimicking Hong Kyung-soo’s voice?
Could Hong Kyung-soo be dead?
Or did Hong Kyung-soo and this Jangsan Tiger share some connection?
“You damned bastard!”
Thud, thud.
The Jangsan Tiger passed by Kang Hyung-seok and spewed curses in Hong Kyung-soo’s voice.
“You bastard, I’ll tear you to shreds. Even if I ripped off your limbs and tore out your guts and chewed them a hundred times, it wouldn’t be enough.”
Kang Hyung-seok watched the receding Jangsan Tiger, forgetting even to breathe.
He couldn’t be certain whether those words had come from Hong Kyung-soo himself or were merely the Jangsan Tiger muttering in his voice.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!”
The Jangsan Tiger, unable to contain its rage, let out a scream and vanished from sight.
Only then did Kang Hyung-seok slowly exhale the breath he’d unconsciously held.
Slowly, silently—like the soundless air of a forest where even the wind dared not blow—lest he summon the Jangsan Tiger back.
***
“Brother?”
The Dharma Master’s question followed Hong Kyung-soo, who was suddenly staring at a distant mountain.
Yet Hong Kyung-soo’s gaze remained fixed only on that far-off peak.
“…That damned thing.”
“Why suddenly, sir?”
“Damn it, that fox bastard.”
Something was wrong.
The Dharma Master, sensing this, stiffened his face and sealed his lips.
Hong Kyung-soo was genuinely furious.
Shing!
Hong Kyung-soo irritably drew his ritual knife and approached the Dharma Master with angry strides, and in the moment the Dharma Master’s eyes widened,
Crack!
Hong Kyung-soo brought his blade down on the pig’s head beside the Dharma Master.
A pig carved to resemble a human.
The wrapped bandages split open, revealing raw crimson flesh and pale skin beneath, yet Hong Kyung-soo’s blade did not cease.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crunch!
Hong Kyung-soo’s form as he hacked the pig to pieces seemed consumed by madness.
Even the Dharma Master, who had watched him for so long, froze, and Hong Kyung-soo finally ceased after swinging his blade for some time, breathing heavily.
Then he turned his head and met the Dharma Master’s gaze.
“Prepare the ritual.”
“Yes…?”
“Prepare the ritual! I need to purify this place!”
Hong Kyung-soo’s eyes gleamed with such ferocity that one might think he could kill a man with a glance.
The Dharma Master swallowed hard, his trembling hand reaching for his phone.
In the meantime, Hong Kyung-soo irritably hurled his kidney knife aside and lit a cigarette.
“I was going to let you go peacefully, but you’ve severed your own lifeline.”
Hong Kyung-soo muttered under his breath, his lips quivering as he spat out saliva tinged with blood.
It was blood from biting the inside of his cheek, unable to contain his fury.
***
Whoosh!
The moment the Jangsan Tiger vanished completely from sight, I sprinted down the dark mountain road.
I had to regroup.
Setting aside the fact that Hong Kyung-soo’s voice had come from the Jangsan Tiger’s mouth, my instinct told me that reuniting with Hong Kyung-soo was the right move.
Crack!
A protruding tree root caught my ankle, causing me to stumble badly, but I quickly regained my footing and continued racing down the mountain.
‘I misinterpreted the revelation.’
The revelation delivered through dreams.
I had seen the sun and moon merging into a total solar eclipse.
From the beginning, two people needed to be in the same place.
Whoosh! Crack!
Even as I rushed down the mountain, chills ran through me.
What if I encountered the Jangsan Tiger?
If I came face to face with a Fox Spirit that had slumbered for centuries in the middle of the night on this mountain, could I possibly survive?
‘Guardian Spirit.’
Please, I beg you earnestly.
There must be a reason you granted me the revelation in the form of an image rather than words.
That I misinterpreted it is only because this disciple is lacking.
But please, do not let that misinterpretation lead to destruction.
Snap!
Breaking through dry branches as I raced down the mountain, I slowed my pace, breathing heavily.
I had been running downward recklessly, paying no attention to the path.
But something seized my attention with overwhelming force.
‘A car…?’
A single vehicle approaching, its two headlights cutting through the darkness.
Those lights seemed to speak to me.
Over there.
Hong Kyung-soo is over there—I needed to regroup with him immediately.
I tore my gaze from the car’s headlights, changed direction, and began sprinting toward it.
***
Screech!
The car came to a halt.
Hong Kyung-soo strode toward the vehicle as the engine cut off, and before the Musicians or Dharma Masters could even step out, he yanked the door open.
“I don’t need people! Just bring out the Jae-woong!”
“Pardon?”
“You lot aren’t needed—just pull out the ritual implements!”
Fundamentally, we maintained a relationship built on mutual courtesy.
Yet the intensity blazing in Hong Kyung-soo’s eyes and the oppressive, urgent atmosphere left those in the car with no proper protest—they simply extracted the ritual implements.
Thud!
Hong Kyung-soo hauled the large bag containing the ritual implements out of the car, unzipped it to verify the contents, then jerked his head toward the edge of the Village.
He’d given them what they needed—now they could leave.
Vroom!
The Dharma Master, his jaw clenched so hard his chin jutted forward, started the engine.
He wrenched the steering wheel sharply, pivoting the vehicle around, and without so much as a farewell, they began driving out of the Village.
“Brother.”
“Get ready.”
Drag, drag, drag.
Hong Kyung-soo pulled the bag of ritual implements over and received the black ritual robes from the Dharma Master.
Then he began donning the black robes, and the Dharma Master withdrew a doll from the bag.
It was the Jae-woong.
In other words, the Jae-yong or Cheo-yong.
A ritual implement connected to curses.
“Damn it!”
“What?”
“It’s shaped like a person, brother!”
“You bastard! I told you to bring it in the shape of an animal!”
“How should I—?”
“Fix it!”
Rustle, rustle, rustle!
The Dharma Master unraveled the straw, bent the frame inside into the shape of a beast, and Hong Kyung-soo, now fully dressed in his ritual robes, withdrew a plastic bottle from the bag.
He sniffed it—this was definitely animal blood.
Gulp, gulp!
Hong Kyung-soo held the bottle to his lips, filling his mouth with blood, then picked up a ritual knife and sprinkled the blood across its blade.
Spray!
Then he scattered the blood across the straw doll, now reshaped into a four-legged beast.
“Are you performing the ritual right now?”
“No!”
Hong Kyung-soo glared at the Dharma Master, then climbed atop the straw doll.
The Dharma Master then placed a stake in his hand, gathered the scattered straw from all around, and poured liquor over it.
Whoooosh!
Hong Kyung-soo exhaled deeply and placed the wooden stake atop the straw doll’s head.
The taste of blood vibrated across my tongue.
Along with it came the flavor of the liquid anticoagulant marked with a fan symbol, mixed in to prevent clotting.
“Damn it, nothing’s ever simple.”
Muttering through a mouth pooled with blood between my teeth, I moved only my eyes to gaze up at the moon.
Prepared in such haste, opportunities were scarce.
‘Just once.’
This single moment would determine everything, and to finally tear apart the ancient fox spirit this time, I could not afford to squander this chance.
“Huuuuh—!”
Hong Kyung-soo expelled a breath drawn from deep within my chest.
“With reverent discipline and proper ritual, we seek the fulfillment of all vows and desires, and through the divine law of the heavens and earth, and the sacred teachings of the sages and great ones and immortal masters, we humbly beseech—”
Hong Kyung-soo traced a circle upon the straw doll’s head with the wooden stake while reciting the sacred invocation.
“After the initial offering comes the incense, and after the incense comes the secondary offering, and with such offerings comes boundless merit and divine protection, by the spirits of moonlight and starlight and sunlight and temporal light and merit and virtue and the great way and all celestial deities and the Bodhisattva of Universal Virtue and the assembled celestial lords and sage rulers—”
It was then.
Crack-crack-crack!
At the sound emanating from the Mountain, Hong Kyung-soo’s divine blade and gaze snapped upward.
My eyes gleamed with menace, but upon confirming the source of the sound, I withdrew the venom from my gaze.
“Hong Kyung-soo the Shaman!”
It was Kang Hyung-seok.
Crack-crack-crack!
Kang Hyung-seok descended the Mountain in a tumble and gasped for breath, while Hong Kyung-soo lowered the wooden stake from my hand.
“What brings you here? Why have you come to this place!”
“We misjudged the situation. The White Fox isn’t separate!”
“What?”
Hong Kyung-soo’s brow twitched, and Kang Hyung-seok swallowed hard through a throat that seemed ready to tear.
“The White Fox is inside that creature’s mouth.”
“…I see.”
Kang Hyung-seok drew breath through my nose with heaving chest and met Hong Kyung-soo’s eyes.
“Did you know?”
“How could I have known?”
“It mimicked your voice.”
At that moment, the Dharma Master’s gaze fixed upon Hong Kyung-soo.
Hong Kyung-soo, signaling the Dharma Master to leave while stroking my face so Kang Hyung-seok wouldn’t notice, exhaled a long breath.
“Ah, how irritating.”
“Did you perhaps know?”
“I didn’t know. More importantly, Donggwan—what matters is that the Jangsan Tiger is near us.”
Kang Hyung-seok stared at Hong Kyung-soo with lips pressed firmly shut.
I was conscious of the Dharma Master, who had been shadowing Hong Kyung-soo, silently withdrawing, and I had already confirmed that my flesh was ready to be flayed.
The reason I hadn’t spoken plainly was that the straw doll bore the form of a beast, not a human.
“Actually, this works out well. Now that it’s come to this, let me assist you—let’s capture that fox whelp together.”
“You’re offering to assist?”
Hong Kyung-soo had more experience than I did.
It made no sense that someone with his credentials would relinquish control without reason—it bred suspicion.
“I intended to coordinate from the start and synchronize our efforts. Things simply went awry initially.”
Hong Kyung-soo muttered these words while retrieving the stake from the ground and settling himself completely atop the straw effigy.
Then, gazing up at me, he withdrew a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
“But let me be clear about this—if the two of us don’t join hands, we won’t catch that bastard.”
My head grew hot.
My thoughts multiplied.
How much did this man truly know, and what manner of being was he?
And what were his intentions?
A soft rustling.
Hong Kyung-soo extended his right hand.
“There’s nothing to deliberate. Simply focus on capturing the Jangsan Tiger.”
It was then.
Hong Kyung-soo’s gaze lifted—not toward me, but upward.
Simultaneously, I turned my body and looked behind us.
The moonlight shone brilliantly.
And so we could see.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
A calf so small it should still be in its mother’s womb.
The Jangsan Tiger, its mouth dripping with blood, chewed and swallowed it whole as it stared down at us from atop the tree.

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