An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 52

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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 51
Part 1. Release the Vengeful Spirit Bound to This Mountain (1)
It bobbed gently.
A pale face surfaced above the liquid.
‘A cat…?’
That was my first impression of the face. But as Shin Jung-ah peered closer, she trembled like an aspen leaf and opened her mouth wide.
She wanted to scream, but no sound emerged.
Though covered in fur, it was not a cat.
A human face.
A newborn infant, at that.
The thick fur and the split upper lip made it resemble a cat, nothing more.
“Ugh…! Ah, ah…!”
Shin Jung-ah knew what this was.
A malformed child.
Congenital hypertrichosis and cleft lip and palate.
The reason the Old Man had killed his newborn son.
***
Wheeze, wheeze.
Chung-geum, who had draped a blanket over the man exhaling shallow breaths, turned her head toward Lee Geum-kyung.
The ritual had ended.
After driving out the calamity, the man’s mouth—which had twisted like a cat’s—had returned to normal, and he lay in deep sleep as if unconscious.
“You’ve worked hard, Master.
“You’re the one who’s worked hard.”
Chung-geum, who had assisted the Dharma Masters throughout the ritual, smiled bitterly.
“You’ve worked so hard, Master.”
Lee Geum-kyung had conducted this ritual for the afflicted patient immediately upon returning from the grand ceremony.
How much exhaustion must have accumulated in the elderly Lee Geum-kyung.
Indeed, even standing upright, deep fatigue was etched across her face.
“The night grows late. Simply contact the shamans who gave their consent, and you should rest as well.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Chung-geum, who had bowed, suddenly remembered something and lifted her head.
Lee Geum-kyung, who had been watching her, furrowed her brows, and Chung-geum hesitated before speaking.
“Master, I wonder… is the Young Master all right?”
Kang Hyung-seok had asked for a shaman to be sent to the Hospital.
The people afflicted by the alcohol.
When she received word from them, they said the man lying beneath the blanket had his mouth twisted like a cat’s.
“If the Young Master were caught up in this incident…”
“It’s not something to concern yourself with.”
“Yes?”
Lee Geum-kyung regarded Chung-geum without any change in expression.
“Why worry when a great spirit walks beside that child?”
Chung-geum let out a soft sound of understanding, then composed her expression.
“Yes, I understand.”
“And whose birth chart is that in your pocket?”
“Pardon?”
Chung-geum blinked in surprise and thrust her hand into her pocket.
Inside lay a slip of paper bearing Shin Jung-ah’s birth date, which Kang Hyung-seok had once asked her to interpret.
“Ah, this is what the young master asked me to interpret while you were away, teacher.”
“Let me see.”
Lee Geum-kyung’s brows furrowed the moment she took the paper.
“Tsk, tsk. Not a smooth fate at all.”
“…There is a Demon Gate affliction in her chart. Should I write a protective talisman?”
“That’s not it. She’s close to our world. Very close.”
“…Pardon?”
The birth chart of a shaman.
Yet not one destined to receive a spirit.
Had she not been born into a family prosperous enough to cover such a fate, she would have walked the path of a malevolent spirit or a Dharma Master.
“Whose chart is this?”
“The young master’s superior at the company, he said.”
Lee Geum-kyung chuckled through her nose and returned the paper to Chung-geum.
“If she comes looking for me when I’m away, say something kind to her.”
“Will she be alright?”
“Her fate isn’t one that dies soon. She’ll live a long life.”
Lee Geum-kyung drew a deep breath and pushed open the door.
A cloud-veiled moon hung precisely at the center of the sky, pouring down bright moonlight like a cascade.
“There is nothing to worry about.”
Shin Jung-ah’s birth chart was that of one who assists and supports a shaman.
If Kang Hyung-seok was performing the work of a shaman, and Shin Jung-ah was doing the same work alongside him, there was nothing to fear.
The relationship between a shaman and a Dharma Master.
That was what Lee Geum-kyung saw in Shin Jung-ah’s chart.
“The moon is cold. It seems all misfortune will end tonight, so send word to the guardian as soon as the sun rises.”
Chung-geum found Lee Geum-kyung’s words difficult to comprehend.
“Yes, teacher.”
Yet watching Lee Geum-kyung bow with clasped hands toward the moon, she bowed her head without further question.
***
Thud! Thud!
Despite the relentless barrage of punches, Seok-woo seemed incapable of feeling pain.
“Hngh! Hnnnngh!”
Roaring like a beast, he clawed upward, desperate to gouge out my eyes, and seized every opportunity to hurl rocks and dirt at me with terrifying ferocity.
Snap!
Possessed by the Shaman Spirit, Seok-woo finally succeeded in sinking his teeth into my forearm.
“Tch!”
Crunch, crunch!
Like a beast grinding through flesh, his teeth burrowed deeper into my forearm.
Crimson blood seeped from the wound, soaking through my outer garment, and what couldn’t be absorbed dripped down to my fingertips.
Thud!
I threw my full weight behind a strike to his temple.
Yet Seok-woo merely curved his eyes into crescents, refusing to release my forearm.
It was his obsession with Mugho that drove him.
Mugho becomes as fearsome a tool as salt used in exorcism.
Even having lost his physical form, the Shaman Spirit clinging to this obsession held on with vicious tenacity.
Crunch!
I gritted my teeth and covered his face with my palm.
Then, enduring the pain, I opened my mouth and began to chant.
“When the white horse’s great general’s banner flutters, bind and expel the malevolent spirits that leap from the carriage, and report them to the divine general’s court for judgment.”
The incantation took hold.
Seok-woo’s jaw, which seemed locked shut forever, suddenly gaped wide open.
“Aaaaah!”
The Shaman Spirit possessing Seok-woo shrieked violently, as if rejecting the words of the chant.
That reaction only strengthened my resolve.
Now I knew how to confront the Shaman Spirit.
Click, clang-clang-clang!
Gripping the Shaman’s Bell, I shed my outer garment and recited the next verse.
“Malevolent spirits have nowhere to go. East, west, south, north, and center—look in all eight directions. Where will you flee?”
The Shaman Spirit possessing Seok-woo covered its ears, glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.
Yet it no longer dared to charge, maintaining only a fixed distance.
Flutter!
I swung my outer garment wide and advanced toward Seok-woo, ignoring the pain radiating from my forearm.
“Go south!”
Time was running out.
I couldn’t reach Shin Jung-ah, but I knew something was already happening.
‘The curse is breaking free.’
The cause had been revealed, and the entity exposed.
As proof, the oppressive force weighing down the Mountain was beginning to fade.
Only by exorcising the Shaman Spirit—the root of all calamity—could I ensure the proper ascension to continue.
“The Southern General Diqiyu of the Red Armor has adapted to Qichihua and established his formation at the Southern Gate of Hands—none shall pass to the South!”
Flap!
The outer robe covered Seok-woo.
Seok-woo thrashed like a beast caught in a net, but Kang Hyung-seok threw him down and pinned him beneath his weight.
Blood flowed beneath the wounds, and the muscles of his forearms swelled with power.
Thus Kang Hyung-seok pressed Seok-woo down beneath the robe while shaking the Shaman’s Bell.
“If you would go West, know that the Western Guardian Spirit White Tiger of the Jade Armor has adapted to Sigujin and established his formation—none shall pass to the West!”
“Uuuuu! Grrrrrrgh!”
As Kang Hyung-seok subdued the wildly thrashing Seok-woo, he felt the Guardian Spirit descend upon him.
‘A great deity walks with me.’
His eyes, bright and clear, held not a shred of fear.
“If you would go North, know that General Gapsin with his thirty thousand soldiers has adapted and established his formation in the North—none shall pass to the North.”
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
He continued the incantation while shaking the Shaman’s Bell.
“If you would go East, know that General Gapin and the Five Directional Generals have adapted to bind all spirits that come, to slash the belly with the Eternal Sword and sever the flesh, to pierce the neck with the Triple-Pronged Spear and burn it in the Fire Virtue Fortress with fifty-pound iron mallets to grind the bones, and knead them with the Crystal Pearl Elixir.”
“Kraaaaaaah!”
The strength drained gradually from Seok-woo’s body, which had been thrashing as if to hurl Kang Hyung-seok away.
It was nearly done.
Truly, it was nearly done.
Now the end was approaching.
“Wrap it round and round with the Elm Wood Staff, bind it with five-colored iron mesh, and cast it into the deep waters of the Great Heavenly Sea—should it stir even once in ten thousand eons, the spirit shall never speak its name again!”
Clang-clang-clang!
Kang Hyung-seok brought down the robe with the hand holding the Shaman’s Bell.
Then Seok-woo’s fist went slack,
Clang! Clang!
and striking again with the Shaman’s Bell, the writhing weakened further.
At that same moment, visions began to appear before Kang Hyung-seok’s eyes, now unified with the divine presence.
-He came because of nightmares.
-Yes, yes?
The Old Man in his youth.
And the Shaman in life.
-Your son is clinging to your back.
-Wh-what are you saying! What son—I have no son….
-You dare lie before a deity!
The young Old Man’s face hardened in despair.
He turned around urgently, covered his face, and collapsed as if crumbling.
-It’s not my fault. It’s not my fault.
-Tsk tsk tsk, the child was born a beast. A fetal spirit cannot be reasoned with. There is no way to guide it to heaven.
The Old Man curled up, unaware.
Unaware of the Shaman’s serpentine eyes.
Eyes gleaming with malice and sinister intent.
-I will teach you a curse. Will you do exactly as I say?
-P-please, spare me. I will do anything, anything at all.
The Shaman taught the young old man the Mugho.
Thud, thud.
When the old man returned home, drained of all strength, he was greeted by anguished cries echoing from within the house and his Elderly Mother.
-What did they say at the Shamanic Temple?
-Ah, Mother.
The young old man confessed everything that had happened at the Shamanic Temple.
-This is actually good. That woman was always a problem anyway. If we just get rid of her now, won’t you feel at peace?
-Mother!
The gaze of the aged Elderly Mother turned toward the house from which pitiful wailing sounds poured forth.
-Her soul is gone and she babbles nonsense day and night. I’ve told the neighbors not to pay attention to her mad ramblings, but should we really leave her like this?
-…Yes, Mother.
-Push her into the fire when you light the furnace.
-…What?
-I’ll oil her clothes, and you push her in and snuff out her life.
-Yes, Mother.
-She’s nothing but a useless wretch anyway. Kill her and find yourself a new wife. The line must continue.
And what followed was the image of a woman burning in flames.
-Aaaahhh! Kyaaaaahhh!
The agony of being burned alive was unbearable.
Kang Hyung-seok’s face contorted, and cold sweat poured from the hand gripping the Shaman’s Bell.
-Clink, clink.
The final scene that unfolded was the hunched silhouette of the young old man.
With an expressionless face, he was burying a jar.
Inside the jar lay the bones of the first child he had killed with his own hands, and soon after, he filled it with potent liquor.
The birth of Mugho.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!
With the violent ringing of the Shaman’s Bell, Kang Hyung-seok’s consciousness returned to reality.
The cool night air and the chirping of insects in the forest.
He looked down at Seok-woo, wrapped in an outer garment and lying beneath him, his eyes swirling with conflicting emotions.
“Your father’s sin, and the karma created by the Shaman’s tongue.”
That karma accumulated and became Mugho, so the Shaman Spirit must bear all responsibility.
Kang Hyung-seok raised the Shaman’s Bell high and shook it as he watched Seok-woo groan.
Crash-crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
The Shaman’s Bell rang out, purifying the energy around them.
The Shaman Spirit dwelling in Seok-woo shrieked silently, and the night breeze stilled, bringing quiet to the surroundings.
Kang Hyung-seok chanted a scripture in a low voice.
“Cheong-sa-won-sa-jin-gun, yuk-jeong-yuk-gap-je-dae-sin-jang, o-bang-yeong-sin-sa-ja.”
Through his outer robe, I saw Seok-woo’s mouth gape wide open.
No convulsions, no wind.
Yet his outer robe roiled like boiling water, churning and seething.
“The Eastern Azure Emperor’s messenger, the Southern Red Emperor’s messenger, the Western White Emperor’s messenger, the Northern Black Emperor’s messenger, the Central Yellow Emperor’s messenger—let them all descend as divine soldiers.”
A violent heave!
Blood surged from Seok-woo’s mouth, staining his outer robe crimson.
Blood poured from his eyes and nose as well, creating stains on the robe that resembled a human face.
A resounding crash!
Kang Hyung-seok shook the Shaman’s Bell with great force, pouring out the remaining verses as if expelling them.
“Into the Excruciating Hell, the Iron Bed Hell, the Pitch-Black Hell, the Water and Wind Hell, the Yellow Spring Hell, the Avici Hell—cast this spirit down into the deepest abyss, and let it perish eternally this very moment.”
Let the Shaman Spirit that created the Mugho be annihilated!
The moment the sacred incantation, laden with fervent prayer, ended.
A violent heave!
Pitch-black blood surged forth, staining the outer robe black.
Kang Hyung-seok, breathing heavily, removed the outer robe.
His entire face was drenched in blood, his features twisted in agony as if he had fallen into hell itself, and he lay unconscious.
‘Thank you. Thank you.’
For standing with me.
For granting me the strength to vanquish the Shaman Spirit.
For protecting my heart so it would not waver.
Kang Hyung-seok pressed his palms together in gratitude and knelt beside Seok-woo.
‘Now I must guide the Vengeful Spirit’s soul to salvation. Please protect me until the very end.’
Evil had been annihilated, and now I had to aid in the salvation of the soul bound in the nine heavens.
Blood dripped steadily from the bite marks on my forearm, yet I tore the inner lining of the outer robe with my teeth without hesitation.
A sharp ripping sound!
Having torn the lining as long as possible, I quickly tied knots.
There were seven knots in total.
“Let this serve as the Seven-Star Cord, and may the Central Pure Heavenly King, the Ultimate Paradise King, the Azure Emperor King, the Lightning King, the Red Emperor King, the White Emperor King, the Black Emperor King, the Yellow Emperor King, and the Water Extreme King aid in this soul’s salvation.”
A resonant crash!
With the Shaman’s Bell held high, I let its sound spread far and wide, then continued in a low voice.
“For the spirit bound to Cheongdeok Mountain, for this soul—grant it solace and receive it with compassion.”
May there be no suffering spirit.
May there be none writhing in torment.
May all ancient grudges be shed like dust, and all defilement cast away.
A resounding crash!
The bell’s cry, as vast as my heart, echoed across Cheongdeok Mountain.

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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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