An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 311

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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 310
Part 7. A Continuing Bond (1)
Night fell swiftly.
The sun I had hoped would linger melted away into the western horizon, and a sorrowful full moon rose high into the sky in its place.
Relentless night winds and stars trembling with unease.
A clear night without a single cloud.
Whiiiiish!
No matter how tightly the door was sealed, cold wind whistled through and rushed into the room.
Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk!
Shin Jung-ah, dressed in white robes like a shaman, hammered against the door.
Unfamiliar with the work, the nail heads bent and the spacing was uneven, but she continued hammering relentlessly.
She was nailing plywood to the door to block any external intrusion.
“That should be enough.”
Shin Jung-ah turned to Lee Geum-kyung while still holding the hammer raised.
Dressed in colorful shaman robes, she sat on the floor holding a ritual knife and Shaman’s Bell.
“Rest now. All the preparations are complete.”
“…Teacher.”
Lee Geum-kyung nodded, and Shin Jung-ah wiped the sweat from her forehead with a stiffened expression.
“Do we really have to go this far?”
“…Yes, we do.”
Doubt was spreading across Shin Jung-ah’s face.
Lee Geum-kyung exhaled a long sigh through her nose and looked up at the ceiling.
“I have no children of my own, but my friend was different from me.”
“It’s hard to understand.”
“For me too.”
The Hereditary Shaman would have known.
Even without knowing the details, she might have anticipated that her son Ko Jun-yeol was attempting something.
Perhaps she never imagined that her granddaughter’s disappearance was connected to Ko Jun-yeol, but she would have believed.
That her son would make the right choice.
Surely he would.
That was the heart of a mother.
“The dead left unfinished business. So the living must finish it for them.”
…
“Thank you for helping. It must have been a difficult decision.”
“No! I just…!”
Shin Jung-ah rubbed her face vigorously with the hand that had held the hammer.
A pungent metallic smell clung to her palm, but there was no room in her mind for such things.
“…I’m just accepting that this is my fate.”
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
“Manager Kang is probably struggling somewhere right now too.”
Lee Geum-kyung bowed her head, her lips drawn into a thin line as she gazed downward.
Then, as if exhaling, she murmured softly.
Yes. It must be so.
That is the child’s fate, after all.
I picked up my phone with troubled eyes to check the time.
It wasn’t far from midnight.
Soon the Heavenly Gate would open.
***
Creak!
Kang Hyung-seok stumbled off the boat.
It was an Island not far from the Village.
Yet with no electricity flowing here, the absence of any light source made the surroundings as dark and cavernous as a deep Cave.
Squelch, squelch!
With each step, seawater spilled from his shoes as Kang Hyung-seok trudged toward the interior of the Island.
This was his third visit to the Island.
His arms from rowing felt ready to burst, his muscles screaming in agony, yet he could not stop walking.
Click, whoosh.
Using his phone’s flashlight to navigate, Kang Hyung-seok’s face went pale as he froze in his tracks.
There was a Building ahead.
It was made from Container Housing, its purpose utterly inscrutable.
So a desperate hope stirred within him.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
Kang Hyung-seok muttered “please, please” as he sprinted toward the Building.
His toes had lost all sensation, his fingertips trembled uncontrollably, yet his urgency drove him forward until he reached the structure’s entrance.
Clang! Creak!
As the tightly sealed door swung open, hope drained from Kang Hyung-seok’s face.
Instead, a different emotion surfaced.
Whoooosh!
The rushing wind sent bundles of papers stacked across the Container Housing’s Ceiling crashing against one another with a deafening roar.
A fishy stench seeped into his nostrils, and a chill unrelated to the cold penetrated his bones.
“…What…”
His breath froze white.
Kang Hyung-seok raised his phone with its LED illuminated, casting light into the interior, and discovered two pitch-black Buddha statues beyond the densely packed bundles of papers covered in Chinese characters.
As if salvaged from the Sea long ago, the statues were encrusted entirely with seaweed and barnacles, their hands forming sacred mudras.
The two palms pressed together in prayer formed the Lotus Mudra.
The first joints of all ten fingers crossed formed the Diamond Mudra.
Both were mudras of offering.
Kang Hyung-seok also discovered a crimson cord connecting the two statues.
The two Buddha statues, bound by the red cord as if they were one, gazed in the same direction.
Rustle, rustle.
As Kang Hyung-seok parted the bundles of paper and approached the Buddha statue, he caught a reek of putrid energy and stench.
Though it bore the form of a Buddha statue, it was no Buddha.
Not an embodiment of the dignity of the Buddha who had attained supreme enlightenment, but something far more sinister.
This was the starting point of human sacrifice.
It was right after Kang Hyung-seok brushed aside the paper blocking his path and stood before the statue.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang.
The Shaman’s Bell in my bag rang out frantically, the air inside the Container Housing vibrated, and despite the absence of wind, the bundles of paper rustled with a whispering sound.
That was when it happened.
Drip.
Two statues, four eyes.
From them, a dark liquid like blood began to flow.
Tears reeking of something foul and viscous streamed down the cheeks and wetted the floor.
Slam!
A gust of wind kicked the Container Housing’s door shut, and the bundles of paper trembled even more violently, rustling with increasing intensity.
This space itself was functioning as a trap.
To defile, corrupt, and seal everything until the human sacrifice reached completion.
Clang-clang-clang!
The Shaman’s Bell continued to ring.
Kang Hyung-seok kept his gaze fixed on the statues as he turned his bag forward and unzipped it to retrieve the Shaman’s Bell.
“Tae-sang speaks.”
It was right after he chanted the opening syllables of the Taeul Bosin Gyeong.
As if by illusion, the paper stilled and the noise ceased.
Simultaneously, the stench that had been assaulting my nostrils began to fade from existence.
It was the effect of the Taeul Bosin Gyeong.
“Hwang-cheon-ji-ah, hwang-ji-jae-ah, il-wol-jo-ah, seong-sin-yeong-ah, je-seon-geo-ah, sa-myeong-yeong-ah.”
A gut ritual begins with the Taeul Bosin Gyeong.
To purify the surroundings and protect the body from malevolent forces.
Clang-clang-clang!
“Tae-eul-rim-ah, ok-sin-do-ah, sam-gwan-bo-ah, o-je-u-ah.”
The Taeul Bosin Gyeong is based on the words of the Heavenly Worthy of the Primordial Beginning.
A prayer that I, born of heaven, exist upon this earth, and thus the sun and moon also aid me.
Clang-clang-clang.
“Yuk-gap-jik-ah, yuk-jeong-jin-ah, cheon-mun-gae-ah, ji-ho-tong-sa, san-taek-yong-ah, pal-gwa-jun-ah, gu-gung-dun-ah, eum-yang-jong-ah, o-haeng-bu-ah, sa-si-seong-ah, a-myeong-chak-ah.”
The eight directional deities—Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Xun, Zhen, Gen, and Dui—also follow me.
The nine celestial officials—1 Heavenly Salary, 2 Safe Hands, 3 Food God, 4 Increased Prosperity, 5 Five Ghosts, 6 Combined Eating, 7 True Ghosts, 8 Official Seal, 9 Retreating Food—depart from me and grant peace.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Shaking the Shaman’s Bell with both hands, Kang Hyung-seok gazed at the two statues with a serene expression.
From the two statues connected by a red cord, I felt a gaze.
And soon, the eyes of the statue weeping blood actually fixed their stare upon Kang Hyung-seok.
Those eyes seemed to be speaking.
Don’t resist.
A Buddha statue in the form of a deity spoke with demonic eyes.
Rustle.
Kang Hyung-seok drew his ritual knife.
***
The hour was drawing close to midnight.
Men gathered in small groups throughout the Village, lighting cigarettes as if performing a solemn ritual.
Cigarettes dangled from their fingers, casting a blood-red glow, while bluish smoke billowed into the air before scattering on the wind.
Whoooosh.
A cold wind blew in from the Sea, fierce and biting.
It stoked the Village men’s anxiety while sharpening their minds to icy clarity.
“Let’s go.”
A man in his late forties, the eldest among them, spoke with measured respect, and the men stubbed out their cigarettes against the ground before moving in unison.
Uphill in the Village, to the house where the Hereditary Shaman once lived.
Click, creak.
They gathered harpoons and pickaxes from the outer wall of a nearby building, their eyes reflecting both fear and cold determination as they climbed the slope.
The human sacrifice had to succeed.
Only then would the enraged Sea find peace, and everything would return to how it was.
Only then could they venture onto the Sea with peace of mind.
They truly believed this.
And so these ordinary men, who had spent their lives fishing, steeled themselves to commit murder.
Shudder.
As they climbed the hill, exhaling trembling breaths and shaking down to their shoulders, it was then—
Clang.
Inside the Hereditary Shaman’s House, Lee Geum-kyung shook the Shaman’s Bell.
Shin Jung-ah, sitting near the door, immediately turned her gaze toward her, and soon the Taeul Bosin Gyeong flowed from Lee Geum-kyung’s lips.
“Tae-sang-wol hwang-cheon-ji-ah hwang-ji-jae-ah il-wol-jo-ah seong-shin-yeong-ah je-seon-geo-ah.”
Slower than Kang Hyung-seok’s chanting, and the power in her voice was weaker.
Yet the spiritual force flowing through her body was so intense that there was no sense of insufficiency.
“Sa-myeong-yeong-ah tae-eul-rim-ah ok-sin-do-ah sam-gwan-bo-ah.”
As the slow-paced Taeul Bosin Gyeong continued, Shin Jung-ah swallowed hard.
She had already learned from Lee Geum-kyung what she needed to do.
Whoosh.
Shin Jung-ah moved to the center of the Sealed Room, clasped her hands in prayer, and squeezed her eyes shut.
That was when—
Knock, knock, knock.
The plywood-covered door was struck.
Knock, knock, knock.
The knocking continued, and their intent transmitted so vividly through the air that the Sealed Room filled with suffocating atmosphere.
“Sa-myeong-yeong-ah tae-eul-rim-ah ok-sin-do-ah sam-gwan-bo-ah o-je-u-ah buk-shin-sang-ah.”
Yet despite the assault, Lee Geum-kyung’s incantation continued without wavering, and Shin Jung-ah squeezed her eyes shut even more fiercely, trying to calm her trembling heart.
Thud!
Those outside attempted to force the door open, only to be blocked by the plywood barrier.
Boom!
But before relief could settle in, a heavy sound reverberated through the door as it shook violently.
Crack! Crack!
Iron bars scraped through the gap in the doorframe, and the plywood trembled precariously as if it might fall away at any moment.
Startled, Shin Jung-ah loosened her prayer hands and tried to open her eyes.
“Namgeuk Ua Geum Dongsia Oknyeo Baea Yukgap Jika Yukjeong Jina.”
Yet as Lee Geum-kyung’s incantation continued unbroken, she steadied her resolve and maintained her posture.
“Cheonmun Gaea Jiho Tongsa Santak Yonga Kangha Doa Poongun Songa.”
Boom! Crack! Boom!
The Village People continued their assault, trying to break through the door.
Yet strangely, the more she concentrated her mind and listened intently to the incantation, the more her heart grew serene.
It was precisely as fear began to lift from Shin Jung-ah’s face.
Whoosh.
Lee Geum-kyung brandished the sacred knife.

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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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