An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 248

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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 248
Part 7. A Fate Decided from the Beginning (2)
Whoooosh!
The Jangsan Tiger’s fur, drenched in alcohol, burned with a sickening stench.
Pitch-black smoke billowed upward, threatening to swallow the night sky.
“Aaahhhhh! Eeeeeaaaaahhhhh!”
Watching the Jangsan Tiger thrash and writhe across the ground, Kang Hyung-seok opened his mouth.
“Wicked spirits and malevolent entities that brazenly invaded Park Su-il, a virtuous human, and slaughtered him for amusement, changing forms repeatedly—malevolent spirits numbered three-nine-seven and three-nine-eight—I shall capture you without a moment’s mercy, as swiftly as divine fire.”
Let this end.
Let that long life conclude here.
“With iron mesh as a mask, binding front and back, I shall bind your body with yellow iron, pluck the eyes of malevolent spirits with eastern direction, and wrap the soul with white horse blood.”
Release Park Su-il, whom you have bewitched.
Embrace your ancient karma and perish in flames.
“With the scripture’s power I shall pierce you, with water and fire I shall sear you, shatter the malevolent spirit’s head, scatter it into fragments, rain ten thousand Buddhas upon it, strike it with lightning, and incinerate it wherever it goes.”
Whoooosh!
“Eeeeeaaaaahhhhh!”
Withdrawing his gaze from the Jangsan Tiger as it burned and thrashed, he looked up at the night sky.
He recalled the revelation he had seen in his dream.
Black smoke consumed the moon, just as it had been veiled by the annular eclipse in that vision.
The Jangsan Tiger burned, and in this place, Kang Hyung-seok and Hong Kyung-soo witnessed its final moments.
Everything unfolded exactly as the revelation had foretold.
“Those who harbor external spirits shall be consumed by impurity, and murderers shall be destroyed by the law. By the command of the generals of the dharma, even the unlettered shall know the mountains and rivers. Are you an upper-tier spirit, middle-tier spirit, lower-tier spirit, a spirit of karmic debt, an ancestral spirit, a spirit of blood relations, or a spirit of desire?”
As Kang Hyung-seok looked down at the Jangsan Tiger again, it lay motionless on the ground, writhing feebly.
It could no longer even scream.
It was dissolving.
Both the Jangsan Tiger and the White Fox within its jaws.
Engulfed in flames, they vanished from the world.
“Those who surrender quickly shall not be slain—surrender now, and if you are spirits of blood relations or malevolent entities, listen once more to the Dharma Master’s scripture. There is nowhere for you to go. Pitiful spirits.”
Kang Hyung-seok raised the Shaman’s Bell and the divine blade, reciting the remaining scripture.
“By examining the naming path, I know your names; by opening the eight gates, I know where you shall go; by casting divination, I know your faces.”
This scripture was not for the Jangsan Tiger alone.
It was a scripture for the annihilation of evil and the exorcism of demons.
“Donggwa.”
Hong Kyung-soo’s voice came from behind.
Kang Hyung-seok neither responded nor spared him a glance, keeping his eyes fixed on the Jangsan Tiger’s final moments.
“Aren’t you regretful?”
Hong Kyung-soo’s words drew a bitter smile from me.
Had I obtained the White Fox Scripture, I might have gained so much.
Jeon Woo-chi, who had learned only the basics, became a Taoist; perhaps one who understood everything would have become an immortal.
But I harbored no regrets.
Whoooosh!
Kang Hyung-seok, gripping the divine Shaman’s Bell and the sacred blade in both hands, recited the final verses of the incantation as the fireballs dwindled.
“Inin sungsung gwaegwasa sunhwang-gyeonryeok dongdu cheoltwae jwasu cheoltwae wosu byeokryeok geom-euro ilgeoe sal-eok mangwi hago cheondal jidal hariira.”
Whoooosh!
“Om gup gup yeoryul ryeong.”
Kang Hyung-seok gazed down into the Jangsan Tiger’s eyes.
Those eyes, which had seemed to contain all the malice in the world, now held only emptiness.
And so the fox known as the Tiger vanished.
***
At that same moment.
Park Su-il, who had been possessed, regained consciousness.
“Gasp!”
An unfamiliar ceiling, an unfamiliar space, an unfamiliar smell.
My last memory was clearly of home, yet now I found myself in what looked like a Shamanic Temple.
Park Su-il raised only his upper body and looked around in confusion, and soon the door opened as a Shamanic Practitioner entered.
“Gasp!”
I hadn’t even begun to understand my surroundings.
With a stranger suddenly appearing before me, Park Su-il felt his mind go rigid, and the Shamanic Practitioner also looked down at him in surprise.
“Have you regained consciousness?”
“What?”
Park Su-il glanced around once more before rising awkwardly to his feet.
“W-what’s happened? Where am I?”
In that instant, an awkward smile crossed the Shamanic Practitioner’s lips.
Park Su-il had been a possession victim, and it was clear in the Shamanic Practitioner’s eyes.
The sinister spirit and malevolent energy that had burrowed deep into his mind.
“You’re fine now.”
“But what—”
“Get ready. I’ll take you home.”
“…Yes?”
Park Su-il’s face showed he wanted an explanation, but the Shamanic Practitioner merely smiled with raised corners of her mouth and shook her head.
“You should go home.”
If he couldn’t remember, that was fine too.
Possession was like a terrible traffic accident.
There was nothing good about remembering it.
Click, tap.
As the door closed, Park Su-il sat in a daze.
The surroundings were quiet.
Thanks to that, as time passed, memories gradually fell into place.
“Ah…”
Park Su-il’s pupils trembled as the memory of seeing the Jangsan Tiger at home returned to him.
And faintly, Kang Hyung-seok’s words came back to him.
Memories from when he was possessed.
“Ah, ah.”
So Kang Hyung-seok had sent him here.
And it was all resolved.
Park Su-il touched his face and confirmed it wasn’t a dream.
“Huh…!”
Park Su-il contorted his face and exhaled a sigh, bowing his head deeply.
The Shamanic Practitioner waiting just outside the door breathed silently through her nose and turned her head away.
“…Thank you. Thank you. I’m grateful for everything.”
She nodded gently at the sound of Park Su-il’s voice coming from inside the room.
She had hoped he would remain ignorant of it all, but it seemed Park Su-il had remembered everything.
‘Perhaps that’s for the best.’
At least he hadn’t suffered too severe a shock….
The Shamanic Practitioner thought this wasn’t so bad either, and simply waited for Park Su-il to gather himself and rise.
Without rushing, with patience, in silence.
She simply waited.
***
Morning broke.
In the meantime, Kang Hyung-seok had used the liquor in the barrels to burn the Jangsan Tiger’s corpse.
There were many barrels, so liquor was not in short supply.
“Are you satisfied with this?”
Hong Kyung-soo, who had quietly helped Kang Hyung-seok, spoke with the morning glow at his back.
“Satisfied with what?”
“Just, everything.”
Kang Hyung-seok wore a thoughtful expression and hesitated for a moment before shaking his head.
“I’m not sure.”
He had eliminated the Jangsan Tiger and reduced its corpse to a grimy heap of ash, yet his heart felt unsettled.
Strangely, his mouth tasted bitter.
Perhaps he had inhaled too much smoke, or perhaps it was because Hong Kyung-soo stood before him.
“Is there something you want to say to me?”
“Hmm?”
Hong Kyung-soo’s eyes narrowed, and Kang Hyung-seok met his gaze.
“That’s how it seems.”
Hong Kyung-soo was as untrustworthy as the Jangsan Tiger’s tongue.
Reflecting on it, he had committed far too many suspicious acts.
Even that scar crossing his forehead—perhaps it wasn’t the Jangsan Tiger who inflicted it, but he himself.
Scratch, scratch.
Hong Kyung-soo scratched near the wound with his thumb, lit a cigarette, and settled his buttocks on an empty barrel.
“It seems Donggwa is the one who wants to talk.”
“I’ll take care of the Jangsan Tiger’s corpse.”
Perhaps Hong Kyung-soo’s true objective had never been the Jangsan Tiger at all.
His insistence on finishing it with the divine blade might have been part of that hidden agenda.
If so, I had to prevent the corpse from falling into his hands.
No matter how charred it had become, the potent malevolence saturating it could be weaponized in sorcery meant to harm people.
“Very well.”
“…Doesn’t that bother you?”
“Donggwa made the same choice.”
Hong Kyung-soo lowered his head and lit a cigarette, exhaling smoke toward the sky.
“If you’re handling the cleanup, I’m grateful. At least my car won’t reek.”
“….”
“Don’t suspect me. I’m not the Jangsan Tiger.”
“The suspicion… I think it’s just exhaustion.”
“You’ve been through a lot.”
I pressed my lips firmly shut.
Then I nodded slightly before speaking.
“Thank you for your efforts.”
Hong Kyung-soo raised one eyebrow, and I continued in a measured tone.
“Without your help using the Palmun Scripture, this would have been much harder.”
I still don’t understand Hong Kyung-soo’s true intentions.
Perhaps I never will.
But there’s no denying that Hong Kyung-soo’s assistance was crucial in capturing the Jangsan Tiger, so I expressed my gratitude.
It was a gesture of thanks to the man who stood against the Jangsan Tiger with me—setting aside the unknowns and suspicions.
“Clean up.”
Hong Kyung-soo replied with a peculiar curtness, exhaling a long stream of smoke.
Then he flicked his half-smoked cigarette to the ground.
Crunch.
He stamped out the flame, rubbed the back of his neck, and stood.
“You’re leaving?”
“There’s nothing sweet here to keep me. People go when it’s time to go.”
Hong Kyung-soo climbed into his car and glanced back at me.
“Just handle the cleanup properly.”
I watched him in silence.
“Why are you staring like that?”
“No reason. Nothing in particular.”
I wanted to ask if it was really okay for him to leave like this.
Hong Kyung-soo had gained nothing from this ordeal.
Not the Jangsan Tiger’s corpse, not the White Fox Scripture.
Nothing at all.
Vroom!
Yet Hong Kyung-soo remained composed, starting the engine and redirecting the vehicle without hesitation.
“Donggwa, I need to go inside.”
“So you’ve decided not to take payment this time?”
“Damn it, I spent it all on drinks anyway. There’s nothing left for wages.”
Hong Kyung-soo grumbled with his brow furrowed all the way to the bridge of his nose, driving toward the edge of the Village.
Left alone, Kang Hyung-seok stood motionless until Hong Kyung-soo’s vehicle vanished from sight.
That car would likely pick up the Dharma Master somewhere near the Village entrance.
And then it would disappear beyond the reach of Kang Hyung-seok’s vision.
A long exhale escaped his lips.
Kang Hyung-seok turned to face the corpse of the Jangsan Tiger.
He placed a hand against his ribs and clicked his tongue.
Those who needed to leave had gone, and what needed to be resolved had been resolved.
All that remained was the Jangsan Tiger’s charred body.
‘What am I going to tell the professor.’
Kang Hyung-seok sighed heavily, his expression clouded, remembering Kim Jae-sik’s request to preserve at least the cover of the White Fox Scripture.
He then turned his steps toward the pile of ash scattered across the ground to begin the cleanup.

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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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