An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 329

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

Chapter 328
Part 5. The Grand Shaman (2)
The moment the shadow descended, my vision plunged into darkness.
Hearing and smell vanished as well, and the sensation grew so numb that I forgot I was even gripping the Shaman’s Bell and the ritual blade in my hands.
Wrapped in absolute darkness, Kang Hyung-seok kept his eyes open, trying to perceive his surroundings.
Yet hallucinations, not reality, twisted his vision into chaos.
The Black Forest.
A Buddha Statue drenched in blood.
A Swamp with bubbles rising from its depths.
A village guardian tree withering to death.
A Sea ravaged by typhoons.
A Tiger Spirit carrying away a baby.
A man with nails driven through both eyes.
A woman hanging by the neck.
Middle-aged people dancing in a lightless forest, their bodies inscribed with grotesque symbols.
A child drinking poison.
A house covered entirely in talismans.
Images flowing rapidly like film through a projector, each one hammered deep into the brain like nails.
‘…Murder.’
Curse.
This space itself curses those who would resolve the Victim Spirit’s resentment.
To hide their sins from the world.
To protect their deeds from being undone.
Squelch!
A sudden foreign sensation on the back of my hand seized Kang Hyung-seok’s attention.
Something had entered him.
Things nestled beneath the swollen back of his hand began writhing like snakes, crawling up his arm.
***
“Gag, gag! Retch!”
Running so fast I nearly retched, I cast a resentful glance at the leaf dancing ahead of me.
It swayed in the wind as if urging me forward, and I forced my heavy legs to move, my face twisted in agony.
The Temple had receded so far behind me that it was no longer visible.
‘How much farther does this go? Damn it.’
My lips contorted as fear took a backseat to the excruciating pain that threatened to consume me.
Whoosh!
The leaf’s graceful dance in the wind suddenly ceased.
I stopped in my tracks, breathing heavily, but the wind did not return.
“…What is this? Was I deceived? Did you deceive me?”
As my breathing steadied, fear surged back to life, and I was about to stumble backward with a pallid face.
Creak.
The sound of a door opening echoed from beyond the darkness.
Startled, I looked in that direction and spotted a small building among the trees.
It was north of where the Temple stood.
Gulp.
Swallowing hard with tension, I began moving toward it.
***
Crawl, crawl.
As something wriggled beneath my skin like an insect, I became acutely aware of the hand gripping the ritual blade.
Despite wearing multiple layers of gloves, I felt nothing.
Yet hoping the ritual blade remained in my grasp, I shook the hand holding the Shaman’s Bell.
“Heavenly King, Paradise King, Sovereign King, Thunder King.”
Crawl, crawl.
As it climbed past my elbow toward my bicep, I closed my eyes and focused on the incantation.
“White King, Black King, Yellow King, Water King.”
Ding.
The faint sound of the Shaman’s Bell reached me.
And I felt the tactile sensation of the Shaman’s Bell in my hand.
I immediately placed the Shaman’s Bell between my teeth and raised the ritual blade.
Thrust!
As I pierced the bulging mass, a sharp pain and an overwhelming stench erupted.
A reek like rotting corpses.
Drip, drip.
Blood trickled down my forearm, soaking my fingers before falling to the floor.
It was not the normal crimson hue.
It was so dark it seemed impossible for a human body to produce such blood.
The stench emanated from this black blood.
Ding.
I tucked the Shaman’s Bell into my pocket and continued the incantation.
“Jade Emperor, the Celestial King of the First Heaven, the Great King of Eternal Wind. Among the common folk, the Great King of Foreknowledge, the Great King of the Five Winds and Kunlun.”
As I spoke, I furrowed my brow deeply and tightened my grip on the ritual blade in my hand.
Szzzzzt!
With the sensation of tearing flesh, the stench grew even more pungent.
And I felt something thick and warm flowing down my forearm along with blood.
Thud.
With a heavy sound, a pitch-black Blood Entity fell.
I exhaled through my nose and looked down at it.
The surroundings were dark, yet strangely I could see it clearly.
“…Who are you?”
The Blood Entity, smaller than the palm of a hand, bore the face of a person.
With its eyes closed, its lips and cheekbones quivering, the Blood Entity slowly lifted its eyelids.
And with eyes completely black—devoid of any white—it looked up at me and opened its mouth.
How regrettable.
There was no sound, yet it clearly said just that.
***
Creak!
Yoon Sang yanked open the door to what appeared to be a Warehouse.
A musty smell, empty metal shelves.
It was nothing more than an abandoned Warehouse, yet Yoon Sang covered his nose and mouth with his sleeve and slowly stepped inside.
Whoooosh!
The wind blew again.
A single leaf passed by Yoon Sang and headed toward the depths of the Warehouse, soon being sucked in beneath the innermost shelf.
“You’re saying… look?”
Creak.
The Warehouse door, swaying in the wind, made a sound as if affirming, and Yoon Sang, tensed, approached the shelf while recording the surroundings on video.
He hoped that if anything happened to him, this would at least serve as evidence.
“Huh, huh-huh-huh.”
It was right after Yoon Sang, groaning in fear, bent down and peered beneath the shelf.
Skitter-skitter-skitter!
“Ahhhhh!”
Startled by something rushing at him, Yoon Sang screamed.
But it was merely a rat, not something supernatural, and Yoon Sang looked beneath the shelf again, tears streaming down his face.
It was too dark to see anything.
“Ugh! Hyung-seok, I’m so scared.”
With that, Yoon Sang raised his lantern and illuminated beneath the shelf.
And the moment he saw something wedged behind the shelf amid the swirling dust, fear vanished from Yoon Sang’s face.
“…Oh.”
Yoon Sang moved his eyes to look at the leaf resting beneath the shelf.
He wanted to ask if that was what it wanted, but the leaf moved back and forth as if brushed by the wind.
As if answering his question affirmatively.
Whoosh.
Yoon Sang slowly extended his hand deeper into the shelf.
Then he pulled the talisman wedged behind the shelf toward himself.
***
The Blood Entity’s lips moved.
Slowly at first, now rapidly.
Though no sound emerged from those lips, Kang Hyung-seok could discern what it was reciting.
‘A mantra.’
It must not be completed.
Driven by instinct, Kang Hyung-seok lifted his foot.
He stomped down on the Blood Entity, and when he lifted his foot, a sticky texture and foul stench wafted through the air.
Om Banamam Miraya Svaha.
Om Baara Miraya Svaha.
Om Giri Giri Baara Bufanda Hum Batak.
Om Sammeya Ginihari Hum Batak.
Yet the Blood Entity’s mantra did not cease.
Kang Hyung-seok gazed down at the Blood Entity, its form crumbling as it continued its incantation, and raised his ritual blade.
Crack!
As he pierced the Blood Entity, the blade’s tip touched the floor.
The ritual blade belonged to the General of War and was the sacred instrument of the Shaman.
Possessing power against evil, the Blood Entity struck by the ritual blade could no longer utter its mantra, yet it wept tears of blood.
Screech!
Twisting the ritual blade, Kang Hyung-seok glared at the Blood Entity and spoke.
“Aigeum-gang Samdeung Bangbyeon Shinseung Geumgang Banwol Poongyun Dangsang Gubang Namja Gwangmyung Soyeo Mumyung Sojeok Jisin.”
As the demon-subduing mantra began, the Blood Entity’s tears intensified, its features blurred, and soon the abnormal darkness enveloping the surroundings began to recede.
Only darkness sufficient to discern the surroundings remained.
It appeared as though I had returned inside the Temple, yet what stood before Kang Hyung-seok was a Buddha Statue.
The Buddha Statue, its face shattered to reveal the hollow interior, stood before him with hands arranged in the gesture of offering.
“Haaa.”
My exhaled breath froze.
“What on earth is this.”
Kang Hyung-seok questioned the Buddha Statue, his white breath pluming before him.
“You’re not merely a group that manipulates simple people. What exactly are you that you can do such things.”
The Buddha Statue, its face replaced by a black void, offered no answer.
“Speak.”
Yet Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes hardened, his lips twisting to bare his fangs, and he gripped the ritual blade with force.
“Tell me who your master is!”
Kang Hyung-seok’s voice echoed through the Temple interior.
Cold wind crept through the broken window, and outside, branches rustled in the breeze.
But the sound didn’t last long.
The flow of air, the wind, the sound—everything vanished, and a heavy silence consumed the surroundings.
Tap, tap.
A sound came from inside the Buddha Statue.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of something hard being tapped with fingers.
It was coming from a hole in the Buddha Statue.
The sound, growing louder, soon revealed its source.
Tap, tap.
It was the sound of blackened, rotting fingers crawling out through the Buddha Statue.
As arms stretched from the hole, Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell violently.
***
Rustle.
Yoon Sang shone his lantern on the talisman.
“What is this?”
Muttering to himself, Yoon Sang couldn’t identify what kind of talisman it was.
He couldn’t even be certain it was a talisman at all.
The form was far too unfamiliar.
It wasn’t a talisman used in Korean Shamanism that he knew of.
It was drawn on white paper with black ink in intricate patterns.
“Ugh!”
Yoon Sang suddenly gagged as his stomach lurched.
“Ugh! Ugh-ugh-ugh!”
Spitting clear saliva from his mouth, Yoon Sang stared at the talisman.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be the cause of this.
‘What is this? What on earth is this?’
Just holding the talisman had reduced him to this state.
As dread washed over him, Yoon Sang tried to drop the talisman, but it clung to his palm like a malevolent spirit, refusing to let go.
“Aah! Aaaaah! Ugh! Hack!”
Alternating between screams and retching, Yoon Sang bolted from the Warehouse.
The moment he stepped through the door, his legs gave out and he collapsed, his eyes bloodshot as he continued to retch violently.
When he finally lifted his head, he saw something that had been invisible before.
It was the form of the Victim Spirit that had guided him here.
With eyes and tongue severed, limbs broken and twisted, Yoon Sang froze, unable even to scream.
Scratch, scratch, scratch!
The Victim Spirit thrashed and writhed across the ground.
The sight was eerie and grotesque, yet its intent was unmistakable.
Tear the talisman. It must be torn.
“Uh, uh-uh-uh-uh.”
Yoon Sang trembled like an aspen leaf as he stared at the talisman stuck to his palm.
I don’t know what this is, but it’s clear that it’s an entity that harms Yoon Sang as well.
Thinking that this might be the key to everything, I grasped the talisman with both hands.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
This is the right thing to do.
That thought came to me unbidden.
As the talisman tore, I felt the inverted contents inside rapidly settling and sinking.

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