An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 69

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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 69
Part 6. Evil Karma Accumulated as Much as Good Deeds (3)
I stood in the water.
The waters of Anmok Reservoir rose to my knees, and something sinister circled around me like a shadow.
I had to move forward.
I had to find the jar submerged in the water and retrieve it.
My mind understood this, but there was far too much blocking my path.
Glub.
Ripples spread across the surface, and a pale face emerged.
The bloated visage hung loose and tattered, as though its flesh would slough away with each current.
It was a spirit dwelling in Anmok Reservoir—the soul a righteous Shaman had buried here—a Malevolent Spirit driven to madness.
Glub, glub.
Thick liquid churned as countless viscous bubbles surged upward in chaotic profusion.
And those bubbles became hundreds of faces.
My expression hardened, and when the stench of rotting flesh and decay threatened to make me retch, they all opened their eyes at once.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
They poured crimson blood from their eyes and opened their mouths wide.
“Eeeeeeeeeee!”
“Aaaaaa!”
“Iheeeee, eheeeee!”
“Kiirik! Kirik! Kiirirrik!”
Unbearable noise assaulted my eardrums relentlessly.
Clenching my teeth, I tried to push through them, but the faces blocked my way.
And from the black water, hands rose up.
Thud! Thwack! Smack!
Was this what it meant to fall into hell as a Malevolent Spirit?
Countless hands seized my thighs, my clothes, my body in an instant and dragged me down.
The hands multiplied, crawling up my chest.
Just as rotted fingers reached my face and tried to enter my mouth,
Rip!
The white cloth wound around my waist was yanked hard.
Staggering violently, I planted my feet to keep from falling.
At the same moment, the countless hands and faces vanished without a trace.
Only the ripples I had created rushed silently toward the shore.
‘Hong Kyung-soo….’
I turned to look behind me.
Hong Kyung-soo, who had pulled the cloth, stood at the water’s edge.
Dressed in black Shaman’s robes.
Motionless as a stone monument.
Simply standing there.
Whoooosh.
I exhaled sharply through my teeth, squeezing my eyes shut.
I had to keep my wits about me.
This was no ordinary place—anything could emerge from anywhere at any moment without warning.
I had no idea what Hong Kyung-soo might do.
Even if flesh were to come flying at me, Lee Geum-kyung would shield me, but right now Hong Kyung-soo was watching over me from behind.
Swish.
I drew the Shaman’s Bell and the divine blade from my robes, taking a deep breath. With steely resolve burning in my eyes, I moved forward.
Wa-ra-rang! Wa-ra-ra-rang!
What I was about to perform resembled a soul-retrieval ritual.
Some souls linger in water.
When retrieving such a soul, one fills a bottle with rice, wraps it in muslin cloth, and casts it into the water.
If hair is found in the bottle when it’s drawn back up, the soul has been retrieved.
In the same way, I had to enter this water.
A Shaman is a vessel that holds divinity.
This vessel must retrieve the sunken urn from these depths.
Splash! Splash!
The water began to rise past my navel.
The cold bite of the water.
Even colder—the aura of the Victim Spirit.
Wa-ra-rang! Wa-ra-ra-ra-rang!
My lips turned blue as I shook the Shaman’s Bell. The night deepened, and time rushed toward the hour of the rat.
I had to find that urn before then.
‘Where is it? Where could it be?’
Splash, splash, splash!
As I advanced through the slimy, treacherous bottom that threatened to topple me at any moment, it happened.
Wa-ra-ra-ra-rang!
The Shaman’s Bell rang as if pointing the way.
I turned the bell toward that direction and raised the divine blade high.
Simultaneously, I felt the muslin cloth being pulled, but nothing more.
Wa-ra-ra-rang! Wa-ra-ra-rang!
I walked quickly in that direction.
It seemed the Guardian Spirit was speaking to me through the bell.
Telling me to be at ease.
That I need not worry about anything else.
‘I walk with the divine.’
Then there was nothing to fear.
I waded deeper into the water, shaking the Shaman’s Bell.
Wa-ra-rang! Wa-ra-ra-rang!
Like a torch driving back darkness, the sacred power of the Shaman’s Bell banished all malevolent energy.
With each step forward, each shake of the Shaman’s Bell, his eyes blazed with divine radiance as he achieved unity with the sacred.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
Kang Hyung-seok suddenly turned his head.
“Hong Kyung-soo, Shaman!”
All I could see was darkness.
Yet I felt intensely that the jar I sought lay directly ahead in that void.
“There! I found it!”
Clang!
Hong Kyung-soo answered by shaking his ritual knife, producing a metallic ring.
And Kang Hyung-seok began striding toward the jar with determined steps.
The jar lay deeper than where I now stood.
Clang! Clang!
The ornamental chimes of Hong Kyung-soo’s ritual knife pursued me from behind as I led with the Shaman’s Bell.
The jar was the source.
I had to retrieve it.
But it would not be easy.
Ugh!
The increasingly putrid stench assaulted my nostrils without mercy.
Countless Victim Spirits and Malevolent Spirits clustered around the jar.
Instinctive revulsion pushed against me like a barrier.
Splash! Splash!
Yet I did not stop.
I could not stop—the jar lay just a little further ahead.
Whirrrr! Whirrrrrr!
I drove back the Malevolent Spirits and evil entities crowding the Anmok Reservoir with the Shaman’s Bell, wielding the ritual knife as well.
Traditional shamanic vestments resemble those of a general.
Even the ritual robes alone bear striking similarity to the iron-reinforced tunic, designed to facilitate combat with malevolent forces and harmonious union with the divine.
My Guardian Spirit is a general deity.
Swoosh!
Thus, with the ritual knife in hand, I could draw even closer to my Guardian Spirit than before.
“By the Supreme Utterance: Yellow Heaven, Yellow Earth, Sun and Moon as witnesses, Stars and Spirits as guides, Immortals and Ancestors as protectors, Great Taiyi as guardian, Jade Deities as path, Three Officials as shields.”
Protected by the Supreme Taiyi Scripture, I wielded the Shaman’s Bell and ritual knife.
Then it happened.
Clunk!
The ritual knife stopped.
As if something had seized its blade.
When Kang Hyung-seok’s gaze shifted, I saw the blade of the ritual knife turning pitch black.
“Damn it, what now!”
Cursing, Kang Hyung-seok withdrew the ritual knife as if wrenching his seized wrist free.
The blackened blade tip shattered, and the sensation of drawing near to the divine grew hazy.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
As I shook the Shaman’s Bell in desperation, what filled my vision were countless Victim Spirits.
Words failed me.
Just how many Victim Spirits had been sealed away in this place?
Or rather, how many had gathered here?
Regardless of the truth, the fact remained that I was surrounded by far too many Victim Spirits.
Splash, splash, splash, splash!
I relied on the Shaman’s Bell as I rushed toward the jar.
The deepening water reached my neck.
Without hesitation, I plunged into the water and swam toward the location of the jar.
The murky water obscured my vision, yet I could sense the jar’s aura with perfect clarity.
Glub, glub, glub, glub.
As I swam, exhaling white bubbles, my fingertips finally brushed against something slick.
It was a round jar, covered entirely in algae.
Grab!
Seizing the jar’s opening, I pulled it toward myself.
At the same moment, water and insects that had accumulated inside spilled outward.
All that remained was to retrieve the jar and return.
That was the thought that crossed my mind.
Ssshhhhh.
A long, pale hand stretched forth from the jar’s opening.
Thin as a white serpent, the hand seized my shoulder in an instant, and though I frantically shook the Shaman’s Bell, no sound emerged underwater.
Ssshhhhk.
A ghostly white face slowly rose from the jar.
It was a grotesque visage.
It possessed facial features, yet had no eyes, three mouths, and no bridge to its nose.
Glurk!
I expelled bubbles as I thrashed, trying to tear the creature’s arm away.
‘This one is dangerous.’
I had witnessed many Victim Spirits here at Anmok Reservoir.
Yet never had I encountered one with such a distinct presence and such a palpable sense of danger.
Evil draws evil unto itself.
And evil consumes the weak, swelling its own power in the process.
This Malevolent Spirit was precisely that.
Squelch.
The creature’s mouths began to open.
The three mouths merged into one, resembling the gaping maw of a serpent about to swallow an egg.
Indeed, the creature stretched its jaws toward me as if to devour me headfirst.
‘Damn it….’
Perhaps even this was part of Hong Kyung-soo’s plan.
Kang Hyung-seok gazed at the Shaman’s Bell that would not ring, then shifted his attention to the ritual blade.
I still had means to resist.
Shhhhh!
I slashed the ritual blade through the water.
I could not wound the creature, but the act of swinging itself was the purpose.
A Shaman draws closer to the divine through wielding the ritual blade.
Whoosh! Shhhh!
I gradually achieved unity with the divine.
And that unity was more intense and vivid than ever before.
So much so that I could see my Guardian Spirit standing directly behind the creature, clad in a black general’s robe.
Whoosh.
My Guardian Spirit pointed his great general’s blade at the creature’s neck, and I unhesitatingly swung my ritual blade toward that spot with all my strength.
Thwack!
There was no sensation of contact in my hands.
Yet the feeling of severing something was unmistakable.
I had struck its neck.
Fzzzzzzzt!
The creature’s existence unraveled and vanished.
Crack!
The ritual blade, unable to withstand the Guardian Spirit’s power, shattered in half, and the broken blade fell into the depths of the water.
My Guardian Spirit had protected me.
Fzzzt.
With little air remaining in my lungs, I felt my arms and legs growing heavy.
A strange sensation washed over me.
It was not the feeling of dying.
‘What is this…’
Perhaps it was because I had achieved unity with the divine more powerfully than ever before.
My senses had become so acute that I could perceive far more than usual.
The deep bottom of Anmok Reservoir.
The number of Malevolent Spirits and fish in this place.
My senses even revealed information from the water’s surface.
Even Hong Kyung-soo standing at the water’s edge.
“…Tsk.”
I could see Hong Kyung-soo’s face as he clicked his tongue softly.
Even without a trace of light, I could see and feel his expression vividly.
He was disappointed.
Grab!
Hong Kyung-soo began pulling the muslin cloth.
The cloth being pulled soon dragged my body upward.
“Gasp!”
Breaking the surface, I clutched the jar, the ritual knife, and the Shaman’s Bell firmly in my grip, my eyes fixed on Hong Kyung-soo as he pulled the muslin cloth through the darkness.
The Guardian Spirit had completely abandoned my body now—I could no longer see his face.
Splash! Splash!
“Donggwan!”
Hong Kyung-soo cried out urgently, continuing to haul the cloth.
“Hold tight! This is your lifeline! You cannot die today!”
I watched Hong Kyung-soo with bewildered eyes as he pulled me toward him.
His voice was desperate.
So much so that I began to doubt what I had witnessed.
And so I could not fathom his true intention.
Clang-clang-clang!
Hong Kyung-soo shook the Shaman’s Bell to drive back the Malevolent Spirit approaching me.
It was no ordinary Shaman’s Bell.
It was designed to slip between the fingers, its weathered exterior giving it the appearance of an ancient relic.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
I felt my feet touch solid ground.
Clutching the jar to my chest, I walked toward Hong Kyung-soo.

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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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