Exorcism Specialist Company: Ghost Soul Trading - Chapter 41

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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 41
Whiiiiiiing—
A cool breeze swept through the silent mountain where no insect chirps or bird calls could be heard, just as before.
I, Ye-rim, and Moon So-ryeong continued climbing across the mountain path, constantly vigilant of our surroundings.
Then Ye-rim’s flashlight illuminated a sign.
[Mines / Booby Traps]
It appeared to be a training ground for installing mines and booby traps.
As we crested the hill where the sign stood, a sprawling open field came into view below, overgrown with thick weeds.
And scattered throughout were what appeared to be scarecrows standing motionless.
I furrowed my brow and checked the radar.
This place too was filled with blue dots—it seemed ghosts were positioned all throughout.
“What are these scarecrows doing here…?”
Ye-rim aimed her rifle slightly forward and examined the scarecrows more carefully.
“Oh.”
They weren’t simple scarecrows at all.
Each and every one was a Soldier Ghost.
Their joints were all broken, limbs twisted and bent at unnatural angles, and their waists, shoulders, and necks were grotesquely contorted in a deeply unsettling manner.
In this grotesque state, there were easily dozens of scarecrow ghosts scattered across the field.
Though each assumed a different posture, every bone and joint was twisted in ways that made it impossible to predict how they might move.
“Wow. What is this place?”
Moon So-ryeong observed the surrounding trees and sky, then continued.
“Based on the location alone, it should be flooded with sunlight and positive energy—so why is the yin energy so overwhelming here? Does a place like this even exist?”
She muttered the last words in disbelief.
Then Ye-rim crouched down and grabbed a handful of soil.
She nodded and spoke.
“You’re right. It’s saturated with yin energy.”
At her words, I asked in confusion.
“How can you tell? Is that intuition too?”
“You can sense strong yin energy through intuition, but if the ground is slightly damp without rain, shadows, or dew—that’s also a sign of strong yin energy.”
“What?!”
I crouched down and touched the soil myself.
It was indeed slightly damp, as if holding moisture.
The smell was also faintly sour—not a pleasant odor at all.
“Remember how buildings where many ghosts appear are always damp and moldy? It’s the same principle.”
Ye-rim provided the additional explanation.
I nodded and adjusted my grip on my sword.
The twisted scarecrow ghosts spread out before us looked ready to attack at any moment.
Moon So-ryeong also nocked an arrow and narrowed her eyes, scanning the ghosts.
But not a single one made any move to attack first.
Tae-woo and Ye-rim glanced sideways at Moon So-ryeong.
She studied these scarecrows quietly for a moment, then fired an arrow at the nearest one.
Thwack—
As the arrow struck the scarecrow, it vanished like a phantom, dissolving into black smoke.
It seemed as though a spirit was dissipating—but the volume of black smoke that erupted was far too meager for that.
Ye-rim also fired her gun at a nearby scarecrow.
Bang bang bang—
Thwack— thwack— thwack—
The scarecrows struck by bullets transformed into black smoke and vanished.
It felt more like a balloon bursting than a spirit dissipating.
“They’re illusions.”
Moon So-ryeong spoke quietly.
Ye-rim nodded in agreement.
“I-illusions?”
Tae-woo, experiencing such a phenomenon for the first time, asked with a startled expression.
“What’s the ability of a Grade 2 Doppelgänger Ghost?”
Moon So-ryeong asked while keeping her eyes forward.
“It shows auditory or visual hallucinations and induces impulses toward suicide or self-harm… isn’t that right?”
Tae-woo answered.
“All spirits Grade 2 and above possess that ability. It’s one of the Doppelgänger Ghost’s capabilities.”
Moon So-ryeong explained kindly.
But Tae-woo still couldn’t grasp how the spirit intended to attack or what it was trying to do.
“The true body must be among these scarecrows. Destroy them all until it appears.”
After she spoke those final words, she immediately fired an arrow.
Thwack—
The scarecrow struck by the arrow burst apart again.
From that moment on, Ye-rim also rushed forward rapidly, beginning to burst the nearby scarecrows.
Bang bang bang— bang—
Thwack— thwack thwack— thwack—
She maintained her stance with her shoulder hunched, pulling the trigger with each step forward, rapidly bursting the scarecrows.
Tae-woo no longer needed to simply stand and watch.
Though he still didn’t understand the attack patterns of the spirits here, seeing his superiors move like this gave him confidence that things would work out somehow.
Whoosh— thwack— whoooosh— thwack—
Tae-woo also charged forward, slashing through the scarecrows one by one.
His movements were extraordinary.
Like a ninja moving swiftly through dense brush, he cut through the spaces between the uniformed scarecrows.
Each time his blade flashed, black smoke swirled violently, bursting the scarecrows apart.
His speed was so fast it surpassed even Ye-rim’s and Moon So-ryeong’s firing rate.
‘T-that’s impossible.’
Ye-rim, who had been pulling the trigger, slowly lowered her gun barrel and muttered.
No matter how much I was empowered by Guihon’s will, no matter how much slower BB pellets were compared to real bullets, it defied all logic that the scarecrows were bursting faster than my own firing rate.
Moon So-ryeong was equally astonished.
The fact that Kim Tae-woo wielded his blade at tremendous speed was already well known.
But the moment I saw his sword moving faster than my arrows—capable of firing three to four shots per second—I couldn’t help but gasp.
This seemed to be more than just the will of Guihon.
Perhaps Kim Tae-woo was not only a vessel capable of accepting Guihon’s will, but also possessed considerable latent potential within himself.
Moon So-ryeong and Ye-rim were momentarily entranced by Tae-woo’s swift and brilliant movements before snapping back to attention.
He had ventured far too deep on his own.
Along the path he’d charged through, all the scarecrows had vanished, creating a corridor, but dozens more still remained surrounding the area.
“Kim!”
“Tae-woo!”
Moon So-ryeong and Ye-rim called out to him.
Tae-woo, who had been rushing forward and swinging his blade furiously, came to a halt.
Screeeech—
As I braked, dust billowed up around my shoes.
In that instant, the face of a scarecrow directly ahead suddenly appeared right before me.
I had stopped directly in front of a scarecrow.
“Ah!”
Startled, I immediately swung my blade at the scarecrow looming before me.
Thunk—
This time, something different happened.
Unlike the scarecrows that had burst like balloons with a single slash, this one now had my blade lodged in its neck as if I’d struck a tree.
I stared at the scarecrow in shock.
That was when it happened.
Creak creak creak creak—
The scarecrow’s joints twisted and contorted wildly before its head suddenly snapped toward me.
Then, as if vibrating, it shook its head rapidly and opened its eyes wide.
Black eyes with crimson pupils.
The red pupils gleamed as if they were glowing.
When it opened its mouth, a thick, unidentifiable liquid dripped down in long strands.
This was the “main body” Moon So-ryeong had mentioned.
“Kim!”
Moon So-ryeong called out to me and fired an arrow.
Thwack—
The arrow flew and embedded itself in the scarecrow’s head.
But like an arrow piercing wood, it merely lodged itself with a dull thunk, neither bursting like a balloon nor vanishing.
Let me go.
Let me go.
Let me go.
Let me go.
An arrow protruded from the scarecrow’s head, and Kim Tae-woo’s blade jutted from its neck as its mouth began moving rapidly, emitting a grotesque sound.
It was an eerie voice, as if dozens of voices were tangled together in a discordant chorus.
The moment Kim Tae-woo heard that voice, he realized this specter, too, had absorbed multiple souls—it was a Grade 5 Murky Ghost.
Which meant one thing: he needed an even more powerful strike.
Kim Tae-woo pivoted sharply, driving the flat of his blade against the scarecrow’s neck with a powerful kick.
Crack—
With the blade lodged in place, the force of the kick channeled through the flat of the sword, severing the scarecrow’s neck cleanly.
In an instant, the scarecrow exploded, and black smoke coiled through the air.
But it wasn’t over.
Through his radar, Kim Tae-woo sensed the blue dots surrounding him growing darker and more concentrated.
“Damn it.”
And he felt something else—an inexplicable presence.
It was an ominous aura, a sense that something had gone terribly wrong.
In all his years working the field, he’d never felt anything like this before.
Powerful spectral energies were converging from all around, yet he couldn’t discern where they came from or how they were coalescing.
That was when it happened.
Boom—
A massive arm with gray skin erupted from the ground beneath Kim Tae-woo’s feet.
He was hurled backward by the force of the impact.
Thud—
Landing hard, Kim Tae-woo rolled with the fall and rose to his feet, his eyes fixed ahead.
Ye-rim and Moon So-ryeong’s eyes widened as they witnessed the impossible phenomenon unfolding before them.
A colossal gray arm, fifteen meters in length.
Dark crimson veins bulged across its surface.
The circumference of the forearm alone exceeded ten meters—
It was as though a giant’s arm had thrust up from beneath the earth.
The fingernails were completely inverted, blood dripping steadily from them.
“Manager! What is this!”
Kim Tae-woo shouted the question.
But even Moon So-ryeong couldn’t immediately comprehend what she was witnessing.
There was only one conclusion.
It had to be some form of Grade 5 Murky Ghost.
A Grade 5 Murky Ghost typically grew massive by absorbing multiple souls, or it became extraordinarily powerful by densely packing spirits into a small frame.
It was almost always one or the other.
But if that arm before them belonged to a Murky Ghost—
There was a possibility it had achieved both: massive size while simultaneously packing spirits densely within, making it devastatingly powerful.
Moon So-ryeong had never encountered a specter like this before.
Yet if countless soldiers who had fallen during the Korean War were buried on Jangdok Mountain, if countless spirits trapped here could not depart, and if those spirits had coalesced into a single form, then this was far from impossible.
Screeeech—
That was the moment.
Thousands of cuts appeared across the gray skin of the enormous arm, and the wounds split open with a sickening tear.
Then eyes began to form within those gashes.
White sclera with small, dark pupils.
Thousands of eyes had opened within that colossal arm.
“Manager Moon. Could this possibly be a ‘Grade 6 Twisted Spirit’? The highest-ranked ghost in the Ghost Record?”
Ye-rim asked, her expression trembling with fear.
Moon So-ryeong shook her head.
“Haven’t you read the Ghost Record? No one who’s encountered a Grade 6 Twisted Spirit has survived. We’re walking out of here alive and returning to the company—so this isn’t Grade 6.”
At her words, Ye-rim looked bewildered.
“I… I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Neither have I.”
Moon So-ryeong replied to Ye-rim’s comment and nocked an arrow to her bowstring.
Ye-rim also replaced her magazine, but her hands trembled slightly.
The grotesque and massive form had filled her with dread.
Then it happened.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap—
Something moved rapidly beneath the enormous arm.
It was Kim Tae-woo.
He charged toward the ‘enormous arm’ with his blade gleaming in the moonlight.
“Kim Tae-woo!”
Ye-rim cried out.
But Kim Tae-woo didn’t hear her.
He was already too focused on charging toward the spirit.
More than anything—lacking experience, he had no sense of how terrifying this ‘enormous arm’ truly was, nor how frequently such entities appeared.
He simply charged forward with nothing but the belief that the Ghost Record would not let him die.

Guihon Trading Company – Episode 41

Author
Cha Woo-rens
Publisher
Daon Creative
Planning / Editing / Production
Yoon Tae-ri
Cover
Lee Chi

UCI
G720:N+A036-20260318158.0041

ⓒ2026, Chau Lens

※ This e-book is protected under the copyright law of the Republic of Korea.
No part or whole of this work may be reproduced or modified in any form without permission from the author and publisher.

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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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